Mass Effect 3 To Import Upwards of 1k Variables from ME2

Insane, isn’t it? In an interview with Joystiq, Casey Hudson states that, when writing for the game, taking into consideration all the permutations possible within the ME franchise is “very hard” and that they’re”pulling in probably over a thousand variables from Mass Effect 2 into Mass Effect 3 if you’re importing your save game.” She explains that “It’s beyond three or four dimensions, because you have all the consequences from a certain playthrough and many different things that happen and different things that happen within those. But then all those things different for a different play through and then times your class and times your gender and all these things.”

Hopefully all these imported permutations aren’t just small nods to your ME2 savefile via the Email terminal–while a nice touch, the novelty wears off pretty quickly. Unlike 1, however, ME2 had many more ‘meaningful’ choices to be made in regards to actual plot and character development. In 1, the biggest choices had to deal with who you killed/let live, as well as who takes the helm for the council. The last few minutes of ME2 alone has more meaningful choices imbedded in it than most of the first game. Hopefully ME3 sees less email terminal and more Psycho Mantis sort of deal–wittily integrated nods to your choices, if not well written consequences to your choices. There are a million things in Mass Effect that need to be resolved, and I look forward to seeing how they tackle this behemoth of a project.

We may not have seen Mass Effect at E3 this year, but its good to know that Bioware is hard at work at making the new one! Hopefully we can see something more concrete in the months to come–I know I’m not the only one that’s dying for a tidbit of information.