Next March, the biggest science fiction undertaking in video games will finally reach its conclusion: Mass Effect 3 will be released, the final chapter in the epic and arresting trilogy that's changed the genre of RPG gaming. As a huge fan of the first two Mass Effect games, I can't wait to lead my Shepard through her story's finale. The series has been one of the most intensive, well-written, and thoroughly enjoyable set of games I've had the pleasure of playing.

In addition to being the third Mass Effect, which is a pretty solid draw in and of itself, ME3 will boast some new features that propel its playability beyond that of its prequels. Most notably, it'll be the first in the series to have a multiplayer option. Some buzz about the co-op had been flying around the gaming rumor mill, but we now have a video straight from BioWare Pulse that explains some of the mechanics of the new option. 

Executive Producer Casey Hudson explains that for certain missions in the game, you'll be able to play along with up to three buddies. It looks like the game will limit itself to offline co-op, and only certain sequences will allow for the multiplayer option. Given that the majority of the first two games comprised dialog-based strategy, it's not surprising that the whole of Mass Effect 3 isn't multiplayer. It looks as though the talky bits will still be controlled by a single player, with the epic combat scenes multiplayer-optional. And as we're finally taking on the Reapers in galactic warfare, there ought to be plenty of combat to deal with.

The end result of the game depends on how well you do in these combat missions. You get the supposedly "best" ending by playing well throughout the game. Four highly skilled human players will almost always outrank AI in a shooter, so I can see why the co-op option would be advantageous for those trying to play a perfect game. Hudson assures us that we don't need the co-op in order to do well, though; it's possibly to play perfectly even alongside robots, albeit potentially more difficult. 

I'm not sure exactly how the combat scene mechanics will work. In the first two Mass Effect games, you were never entirely sure when you'd be breaking away from normal play into a fight scene. I'd imagine you'd need some warning in order to make the co-op missions viable--if you're playing solo, you're not going to want to pause the game and call up three friends for some spontaneous multiplayer action. Maybe there's an easy scene replay option this time around--I'm not sure. Either way, it looks like the combat strategies will have opened up a good deal, allowing for more complex and entertaining battles in the new game. Looking forward to it.