Mining won't be ditched for Mass Effect 3

By Tom Bramwell Published 21 May, 2010

"Functionally it serves a purpose."

BioWare's Casey Hudson has said that the controversial mining mini-game from Mass Effect 2 will not be thrown out for the third game in the series.

Asked whether it would be ditched by VideoGamer, Hudson replied: "No. Again, when you look at the feedback, there are things that people liked about it, and functionally it serves a purpose.

"I don't think there's a problem with any of those. I think it's the way people relied on it, and the way we relied on it maybe too much in parts of the story. And also just when you think about the speed of it."

Mining in Mass Effect 2 was necessary to collect the minerals used to pay for upgrades to the Normandy SR-2 and the crew's weapons and armour.

The process involved scanning planets by dragging a cursor across the surface before launching a probe over spots that the scanner indicated were rich in minerals.

According to Hudson, the feedback on mining prior to release was that it was "strangely addictive" and "therapeutic" - something that we agreed with in our 10/10 Mass Effect 2 review.

But reaction to mining on release was mixed. "There were a lot of people that when they know that they can go and get resources through something like that, they literally want to mine the entire galaxy that night," Hudson acknowledged.

"And then, yeah, when you spend eight hours in a mini-game, it does become... there's only so much too it. And we never expected that it'd be played that way. We thought people would noodle in it a bit, get a few resources to get an upgrade, and then go back and do the rest of the game."

All hail the mining mini-game. Almost as good as Viva Pinata.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (56) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Beano #1 2 years ago

    I don't mind if mining returns in ME3 in some form, but it MUST be expanded and made less repetitive. It got old very fast in ME2.

    P.S. : That Minority Report ad on EG must die!
    Edited by Beano at 21/05/10 @ 08:28

  • Darren #2 2 years ago

    The mining could be improved by x-raying the planets so the areas of mineral deposits show as light areas against the dark ones. Better still give us the option to send down an A.I. powered probe that scan for minerals itself. It's a bit hard to believe that in this 24th century universe people still have to scan planets manually!

    The scanning in the PC version wasn't too bad in ME2 because the mouse is a more natural way to sweep across the surface and could be done in mere minutes. In comparison though the 360 version felt clumsy and painfully slow, adding to the repetitive, tedious nature of the task. I've not tried it with the patch yet but I still can't imagine it's anywhere near as quick as using a mouse.

  • matrim83 #3 2 years ago

    Well fuck it. I am gonna do what I did with ME2. Use a save game editor and just give myself all the elements I want. I honestly cant sit through hours of that again just to level up my weapons.

  • LHH #4 2 years ago

    As a fan of the mako this bothers me but sod it, I'll still play the shit out of it.

  • asphaltcowboy #5 2 years ago

    As long as they speed up the planet rotation a bit, it will be fine.

    /Superman time-travel

  • 4thVariety #6 2 years ago

    The question Bioware has to ask themselves is, if the Mining Games was split off and sold separately, would we even get away with charging a single penny?

    Nobody objects against an aspect of the game requiring you to play a mini-game of a totally different genre. But it should be a fun minigame at least. Even having to play Pac-Man to mine resources would have been better than that.

  • yegon #7 2 years ago

    I didn't mind mining tbh. Put on a podcast, sit back for 20 minutes. Did that every 5 hrs of game time, l was able to upgrade everything.

  • The_Inquisitor #8 2 years ago

    I ended up mining too much, I got bored by the end but for some reason kept going until I had over a million extra minerals unused. Such a waste, next time I'll mine only when I need to.

  • tachometer #9 2 years ago

    They should have more options for how you want to mine, either the old scanning way which would give good karma or you could nuke the planet from orbit and get, say, 20% of the available resources and bad karma. Also you should be able to push planets into a star's gravity well to cause a system to collapse in to a black hole or something, just for kicks

  • andywilkie35 #10 2 years ago

    I didn't mind the mining to be honest.

  • Danno #11 2 years ago


    "And we never expected that it'd be played that way"

    What? Bioware, of all people, should know how obsessive RPG-ers can be.

    And yeah, the Minority Report ad is bloody annoying.

  • smartgun #12 2 years ago

    I also found the mining strangely addictive.

    Just one Element Zero deposit and then I'll get back to saving the galaxy. Maybe two. Three maximum...

  • Lotos8ter #13 2 years ago

    "No. Again, when you look at the feedback, there are things that people liked about it"

    I like the mining best when it ended. And it was less of a mini game to me (compared to the hacking in Bioshock) because the way the game was organised, you had to mine a fair amount each time, other wise you lost track of which Systems you'd mined. I thought it was a poor part of a great game. Not a deal breaker but come on, think of something better...!

  • dk71 #14 2 years ago

    I don't mind about mining. I want ME3 to be an RPG. (not like ME2)

  • SAMagic #15 2 years ago

    I didn't downright hate the mining, it was interesting at first (a simple mechanic leading to a 'buzz' whenever you find a huge node, particularly the rare element zero) and it was certainly quicker than driving the Mako around a planet for 5 minutes, but it got repetitive and boring.

    "Functionally it serves a purpose." - perhaps, but Bioware should ask themselves the golden question about it ... is it fun?
    The majority of fans appear to be saying 'no'.
    Edited by SAMagic at 21/05/10 @ 11:50

  • hiddenranbir #16 2 years ago

    Functionally it is a time waster.

    How does it fit into the "race against time to stop invaders" narrative? HOW? It breaks the suspense. It undermines their own well applauded story making.


    The scanning in the PC version wasn't too bad in ME2 because the mouse is a more natural way to sweep across the surface and could be done in mere minutes.

    How was it natural when the game treated your mouse like an analog stick? The fact you had to keep your mouse in motion even once you hit the edge of the planet to rotate it. That isn't natural, that is clumsy and ill-designed for the mouse. Perfect for the analog stick but not for the mouse.

    Nothing they did was made natural for PC, the very fact the hint/tutorial pop ups didn't re-adjust themselves to your custom key-binds just shows a lack of PC attention.
    Edited by hiddenranbir at 21/05/10 @ 09:59

  • Jonny5Alive7 #17 2 years ago

    I would hardly describe the mining as "controversial". I didn't mind it that much, although I suppose it did get a little monotonous.

  • Dylbot #18 2 years ago

    Oh fuck you Bioware. If I wanted to spend hours staring at a slowly rotating planet I could dick around with Google Earth for free.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #19 2 years ago

    Just put some fucking skill into it and I'll play it.

  • Geordiemp #20 2 years ago

    I figured out pretty quick its was only worth mining on a planet if it had element zero.

    So just a quick spin around usinh both sticks to the right is fastest, and if no element zzero, then skip it.

    The rest of the elements were more than abundant.

  • geeza2020 #21 2 years ago

    well the problem was that if you wanted to upgrade everything (which you needed to if you wanted to fully complete the game) you HAD to mine for hours and hours. Thats just not fun. Come on bioware, I dont mind if mining stays, it just needs to be fun. Or at least much much faster.

  • ybfelix #22 2 years ago

    And we never expected that it'd be played that way

    Then you shouldn't make every planet (even Uranus!) mineable or set "scan" as the default action. It's not a good gameplay design choice, misleading players into think mining is essential and requires more dedication than it actually needs.

  • megurushi Verified Consultant, 2e2 #23 2 years ago

    Picking up on a point made by hiddenranbir - "How does it fit into the "race against time to stop invaders" narrative" - This was also why I disliked the mining. Cerberus had all the money and tech to build a new ship and rebuild Shepard, but they couldn't give them a bit of cash to buy guns, or at least the raw minerals. They could even have a fleet of their own mining ships working on behalf of Shepard and her team, who are (you'd think) otherwise occupied in saving the galaxy!

  • BobsUncle #24 2 years ago

    The mining was shit. No if's or but's, it was shit.

  • DanForinton #25 2 years ago

    Oh yes, very "therapeutic" - a guaranteed cure for my insomnia!

    That said, the idea of mining is fine, it's just the implementation that sucked balls.

  • BobsUncle #26 2 years ago

    What they should have done is made the probes triangulate mineral positions, so when you launch one you get a series of circles showing where depisits might be, then you launch further probes to narrow down the search.

    That would at least require some thought.

  • kinky_mong #27 2 years ago

    I didn't mind it at all. I only bothered mining planets that were "Rich" or "Good" when I checked them and I always had plenty of most materials I needed to upgrade everything. Don't get all bent out of shape about it just because a few OCD nerds spent hours at a time mining everything.

  • SClaw #28 2 years ago

    I loved the mining but never saw it as part of the game really. A necessary distraction from events. But oddly soothing.

    I'd go run a mission in a sector then chill out with the TV on and scan every other planet and system in the area. When you get used to how it works you don't even need to look at the screen.

    Now I'm not an achievement whore but I scanned every single planet in the game. I deserved something for my efforts/OCD!

  • TeaFiend #29 2 years ago

    I hated looking for element zero.

  • Ashcroft #30 2 years ago

    Even just mining when you needed an upgrade took for-fucking-ever. In fact it was worse doing it that way, as you knew you couldn't stop until you had what you needed. Let me buy and sell elements as well.

  • girth #31 2 years ago

    So am I the only one who actually liked the rover from ME1 and the fact I could drive around on the planets?

  • StueyBoy16 #32 2 years ago

    "I deserved something for my efforts/OCD!"

    A bloody good talking to.
    Edited by StueyBoy16 at 21/05/10 @ 10:47

  • SClaw #33 2 years ago

    "A bloody good talking to."

    Sadly, I cannot disagree.

  • ParanoidZombie #34 2 years ago

    This mini-game reminded me of Fable 2's jobs, and I approached it with the same method: "work" a bit whenever I felt like it, or whenever a tangible reward was just at hand.
    Bottom line, I just played the game lke I wanted to, scanning from time to time, stopping as soon as I got bored.
    Endgame: all my teammates survived the final mission.

  • bloodflowers #35 2 years ago

    I much preferred getting in the lunar rover and finding stuff from the first one. Landing on a new planet to see the scenery was always fun.

  • SFG_Clan #36 2 years ago

    Please just don't make it like ME2's its so tedious!!!!

  • darleysam #37 2 years ago

    Addictive as hell, I love the sound and it was strangely therapeutic.

    However! Slowly trawling the surface for hours was frustrating when you feel you can be doing more fun things, and not knowing if the precise position of the cursor made a difference to the amount of minerals you got was a big pain. Do you need to scan around for the centre and highest reading, or will anywhere do?

    Maybe if you could fire off a sonar pulse that showed you how many hits there were around the cursor, but they faded quickly so you still had to track them down..

  • hiddenranbir #38 2 years ago

    Space Rangers 2 did it properly and appropriate to the level of technology.

    Leave a satellite orbiting the planet and you can carry off and continue taking part in the real time, dynamic intergalactic war. After a while, return and see what the satellite has discovered for you. ;)

  • loopholezero #39 2 years ago

    "feedback on mining prior to release was that it was "strangely addictive" and "therapeutic" - something that we agreed with in our 10/10 Mass Effect 2 review. "

    huh. i wonder if erm.. more independent sites, like RPS for example, rate down obvious shit like this only because they happen to have a different opinion, or because they're less likely to be swayed by publishers advertising on their site or by turning off the less intellectually gifted parts of their audience by giving a very hyped game a lower score, thus losing advertising revenue.

  • Turrican #40 2 years ago

    I found it incredibly boring but I did it too much. But the problem was, playing the game without a walkthrough, you didn't know how much of the elements you would need by the end of the game, so even though I got all the upgrades to the ship etc I thought I could need more.

    So fine, keep the mechanic in Mass Effect 3, but let us know quite clearly when we've mined enough!

  • steviepunk #41 2 years ago

    Mining did get boring fairly quickly in ME2 and has become a bit of a grind (and I've not even finished playing through once yet)

    I agree that it could be fine with a few tweaks though (I gather the 360 version has a update to make it quicker)
    - proximity feedback, similar to finding anomylies. It's a pain to have to scan every inch of the planet surface to find the resources, so some kind of proximity indicator would be helpful
    - scan map - a means of showing where you have already scanned so you don't have to scan the same space again just in case you had missed it first time
    - some RPG elements. How about side story missions that reveal locations of resource rich planets? Planets could be random on each game so you'll have to play the stories to find them but this would put a bit of the RPG into that part of the game and maybe cut down on the time spent having to check every planet you see.

  • Lukus #42 2 years ago

    "...there's only so much too it..."


    Tsssk.

  • Tuffty #43 2 years ago

    Playing through it now and the recent patch they released does make it faster than before. When you're holding down the LT to scan you can rotate the planet at a much faster speed than before. If they even had it like that in ME3 that would be fine. Truthfully, I don't mind mining either.

  • Wolverfrog #44 2 years ago

    I enjoyed it. I remember going to every single planet, mining and searching for anomalies.

  • bladdard #45 2 years ago

    Casey me old love ask yourself 3 questions:

    Is it fun?
    Is it challenging?
    Is it better than other implementations for upgrading items?

    I think you know the answer but just in case it's a big fat no to all 3 questions. Gamers don't want bland, boring, repetitive, relaxing, we want challenging, engaging, taxing and rewarding come on bioware get your shit together!!!

  • thepiedpiper #46 2 years ago

    i liked the mining.

  • Shrike #47 2 years ago

    It really is an amazing hole that BioWare managed to dig their way into with this one. The average BioWare fan has been trained since Baldur's Gate to mine each game for content and options, in a way that frequently breaks the flow. They then add a mining mini-game of such scope that the kind of completitionists who play BioWare games will never "finish" it, thus driving those people mad. Not only that, but they do that in a game which completitionist players will find less satisfying on the grounds that "gaming it" is a surefire way to get the most boring ending.

    This may be reading too much into their intentions, but it's almost as if they're trying to teach the player to let go a bit. That, or they've totally misjudged just how OCD their fanbase is. Probably both.
    Edited by Shrike at 21/05/10 @ 17:51

  • darc #48 2 years ago

    "What? Bioware, of all people, should know how obsessive RPG-ers can be."

    LOL I think the team that put ME2 together had completely lost track of what makes RPG-ers tick. Maybe they assumed the FPS crowd would ignore mining altogether!

    "feedback on mining prior to release was that it was "strangely addictive" and "therapeutic" - something that we agreed with"

    Yeah, but you guys also enjoyed pressing X for 60 hrs straight through FFXIII, so that doesn't prove a thing. ;)

  • Orange #49 2 years ago

    Mining was a fucking abomination. By all means offer it as an option, just not as effectively mandatory like in ME2.

  • Syrette #50 2 years ago

    It felt like a chore tbh.

    On the other hand, I felt I was getting decent rewards for my efforts in terms of upgrades.

  • Demiath #51 2 years ago

    "Functionally, it serves a purpose".

    Well, so does dry cleaning...and we don't want THAT in our games (no matter how streamlined and fast-paced a version of it).

    Granted, I listened to a lot of stimulating podcasts while playing the mining mini-game in ME2 (as well as grinding in Chapter 11 of FFXIII), but Bioware reaffirming their commitment to something as tedious in theory as well as practice doesn't bode well for the future of semi-optional side quests in ME3...
    Edited by Demiath at 22/05/10 @ 11:15

  • mr_pink #52 2 years ago

    Bring back the rover (not that new hovertank) and make the planets more interesting, e.g. volcanos spewing lava, ground breaking into huge holes you have to jump over, more creatures & geth to fight. The planet exploration was almost good fun in ME1, it just needed more going on to test your skills. Sorry, but the mineral scanning sucks because it required no skill, only patience.
    Edited by mr_pink at 22/05/10 @ 11:25

  • Schwabing #53 2 years ago

    I never really worked out if the distribution of minerals had anything to do with the chat you got on the overview page for the planet.
    It would be great if that fed through, so if you hear "there were colonies in the equatorial belt which were abandoned" then lots of stuff is found there and the rest is a wasteland. It all just seemed a bit random sometimes.
    Perhaps that was just me though, I did find it kind of addictive - who could resist a "rich" planet? I ended up with far too much stuff to finish the game, just assumed there was a big resource hog over the horizon
    Edited by Schwabing at 23/05/10 @ 01:25

  • JensonJet #54 2 years ago

    Unfortunately for me Mass Effect 2 proved that I have nothing in common with fans of the original game, assuming Bioware did make all the changes because that's what fans wanted. I still can't believe anyone would prefer a spinning globe to driving. Perhaps all the developers who create racing games have been wasting their time and should have just made spinning globe games. Taking out the micro-management of weapons and armour, effectively making the shops and purchasing a pointless task, replacing the driving exploration and vehicle battles with the planet scanning tells me all I need to know about where this series is going. I had never bought a game from Bioware before Mass Effect. After ME2, I won't waste any further money on their idea of a fun game. They might be good at creating interesting worlds and characters, but with such poor gameplay, I'm better off watching a movie which will always have better acting, music, characters, scripts, visuals, etc. Bioware are the first company in the gaming industry to turn me to films for a more fun time.

  • Quixz #55 2 years ago

    I found the mining to be very relaxing.

  • ShiroBen #56 2 years ago

    I didn't mind the Mako sections from Mass Effect 1, but I certainly didn't miss them in the second game. I suspect the same would be true of the mining 'minigame'. It was okay for a few minutes, and I liked when a planet actually had something interesting on it, the garbled transmissions slowly becoming clearer was nice, but aside from that I can't think of anything positive to say about it. Fortunately even on Insane you don't really need most of the upgrades, and they at least had the courtesy of putting in a new game+ gift of minerals.

    And yet I honestly did miss the elevators, the little conversations and the unbroken world. The new loading screens were rubbish. Even just putting up random codex entries would've been more interesting. Or do something similar to Okami and put the mining minigame IN the loading screens. Remotely controlled probes digging for ore or something, a Mr Driller clone would be fun. Because the loading screens are relatively short it'd be a tense, tight little bonus if they balanced it right. Everyone wins!