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Bioware wants you to love Mass Effect 3's

The developer recognizes fans' wariness, especially after EA's other headscratching multiplayer inclusion for Dead Space 2. Nick Clifford, product marketing for Bioware wants people to know this mode is more integrated and not tacked on."Dead Space felt like it was a separate mode from the single player experience," Clifford said in an interview held in San Francisco this week. "So what is it about single player that people love with Mass Effect? It's the story, the RPG elements, and it's the gameplay."

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Mass Effect 3's entirely optional multiplayer (which the developer has been trying to make since the first game ) ties in with the game's single player campaign, allowing gamers to unlock easter eggs and get some assistance from allies. The system works similarly to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood where players could deploy their "mini-army" that they built up in the multiplayer game. But unlike Assassin's Creed the leveling system is shorter, so players can boost soldiers, import them into single player, then level up additional characters."Let's say I get my Vanguard leveled up and I want to send him out to my single player game," Clifford said. "I just start another Vanguard and do the same thing again."The multiplayer is broken up into different zones: Terminus Systems, Outer Council Space, Inner Council Space, Earth Systems Alliance Space, and the Attican Traverse. According to Clifford, the locations and types of missions you play in multiplayer will "directly impact the missions that [imported characters] can play in."Whether or not Mass Effect 3's multiplayer lives up to Bioware's vision remains to be seen. IGN has been wary about the mode , though the developer has proven they can handle Kinect support, so let's see what happens.