Mac Walters, lead writer for Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, has revealed that there was originally more to do in the Citadel during the former title before it was eventually cut from the final product. Now, Walters also announced, some of that content will be getting a new life in the final chapter of the Mass Effect trilogy.
“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,” he said in an interview with Official Xbox Magazine. “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.”
Walters also discussed the difficulties of writing the third installment in a trilogy where the prior game had left the possibility of any and every main character biting the bullet.
“I don’t think I’d call it ‘trapped’,” he explained. “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?”
Now that Walters has finished up the Mass Effect trilogy, the writer told OXM that he’s ready to take a break from the series.
“I definitely have some writers who want to try something else, to move on,” he stated. “For me, personally, it’ll be over seven years of Mass Effect – I have a soft spot for the universe, but it’s easy to get a little weary.”
Despite the need for a breather, Walters added that this doesn’t mean he’ll never come back to write future stories for the Mass Effect universe.
“But I’d be much more sad if someone said ‘yeah, you can never do anything Mass Effect ever again,’ and no one’s ever said that to me specifically,” he continued. “I’d rather take a break, then come back to revel in it again and enjoy it.”
