Mass Effect 3: ‘You’re going to die’ on higher difficulties

Posted January 31, 2012 by Lewis Denby in News.

Playing Mass Effect 3 on one of its higher difficulty settings will mean you have to think carefully about each combat encounter to stay alive, say BioWare.

Play through BioWare’s upcoming action-RPG Mass Effect 3 on normal difficulty, and you’ll be able to blast your way through the game with just a bit of skill and muscle memory when it launches for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in March. But try out one of its higher difficulty levels, and it’s going to ask a lot more of you, according to the developers.

Hardcore and Insanity will require players to think carefully about each and every combat situation they come across. It won’t just be a matter of pointing and shooting your way to victory: you’ll have to come up with strategies, test them out, work out what you did wrong, and try again.

“I’m hoping that it’ll feel like you made a mistake, and the game called you on it, rather than ‘I thought I was playing well, and then I died’,” explained lead designer Preston Watamaniuk.

Speaking to OXM, he added that players will have to make use of squad members, powers and the correct weapons, instead of just making  careful use of cover.

“You’d better be doing everything well, or you’ll die,” he concluded, as if a torturous murderer playing games with his victims.

Mass Effect 3 will launch 6th March for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. A demo hits on Valentine’s Day, the 14th February.

Tagged as Bioware, Difficulty, Hardcore, Insanity, Mass Effect 3