Mass Effect 3 features cancelled ME2 Citadel quest

Mass Effect 3 will feature a Citadel mission originally intended for Mass Effect 2, according to the game’s lead writer.

Speaking in an interview with OXM, Mac Walters explained that BioWare had planned to include more Citadel content in Mass Effect 2 but then changed direction, leaving a number of mission ideas on the cutting room floor.

However, at least one of those threads will be resurrected in the impending sequel.

“There was a Mass Effect 2 plot that was a kind of callback to the first Mass Effect that was going to be on the Citadel, and we cut it. But now it’s made a resurrection in Mass Effect 3, so I’m happy, but I can’t say what it is. That’s the nice thing about trilogies, sometimes you get a second chance.”

Elsewhere in the Q&A, Walters also discussed the narrative challenges presented by Mass Effect 2’s various different endings.

“I don’t think I’d call it ‘trapped’,” he said, when asked about accommodating the game’s alternate resolutions.

“They’re more hurdles. Sometimes they’re hurdles that we’ve given ourselves, so we kind of smack ourselves in the head and say ‘What the hell were we thinking? Why did we do that?’

“The classic example is ‘Hey, let’s make the ending of Mass Effect 2 a suicide mission where all your henchmen can possibly die, and Shepard can even die!’ Oh right… and then we’re gonna do another game after that. What the hell are we gonna do with all those guys?”