Mass Effect 3 weapon mods to enable player choice

BioWare is hoping the return of weapon modifications in Mass Effect 3 will help address complaints about Mass Effect 2's limited character progression.

"We had the ability to mod weapons in Mass Effect 1 and somewhat in Mass Effect 2, but it never felt as real or as physical as it should be, and there weren't enough interesting decisions to make," producer Casey Hudson told RipTen.

"We had a tremendous response to Mass Effect 2, but one of the things people wanted to see was more intelligent decision making in terms of roleplaying progression, so [the new weapons mod system] one of the things we did to address that."

Hudson allowed that criticism of Mass Effect 2's linearity of gameplay was fair, and said games need not just character progression, but the ability to make choices suitable to the player's own style.

"There's so much stuff that we've added for Mass Effect 3, in terms of the number of different weapon types, the different mods, you character progression, the way Shepard is able to move around the environment, new weapons like the omniblade or hand grenades… When you add all that stuff up and you can start naturally choosing how you play," he said of the upcoming sequel.

"Then when you get to the point of progressing your character - levelling up, or modifying your weapons - you really know how you want to choose."

See the full interview below.

Mass Effect 3 releases for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in March.