What to Expect from Mass Effect 3 Reckoning Multiplayer DLC

Between description leaks and datamining the 1.05 patch, we have some idea of what to expect when BioWare eventually launches their upcoming Reckoning DLC for Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer. Unfortunately, BioWare has gotten better at not tipping their hand in their patches.

The first piece of information we have about Reckoning comes from a leaked Xbox Marketplace description for the DLC from Reddit user AlmalexiaLovesYou. The description is:

The day of reckoning is nigh! The Reckoning Multiplayer Expansion brings six new never before seen co-op story missions to the game and new co-op gameplay modes. It provides four new maps to conquer and hazard variations of the Earth maps.

It also enables reinforcement packs that offer new kits for the salarians, krogans, humans and volus. In-game reinforcement packs now include three new weapons (Chakram Launcher, Blood Pack Punisher and Adas Anti-Synthetic Rifle).

It’s worth noting that BioWare community manager Chris Priestly denied that the leaked description was accurate. However, he’s done that with every leak so far and has been proven wrong each time. Okay, there was the exception of that alleged DLC list on PasteBin which said Retaliation was the last multiplayer DLC but that seems to have been proven wrong.

One of the big complaints about the Retaliation DLC was the choice of character kits offered. Namely, it was the four volus kits that were only slightly effective at not being a total joke. The engineer and vanguard were interesting. The adept wasn’t too bad. The sentinel class was an utter joke, however. I don’t think people will react too kindly if one of the promised volus kits is a soldier class. That would just be ridiculous.

However, Reckoning does seem to be making up for some other gamer issues from the last DLC. There will be new salarian kits after character options for salarians were outnumbered 2-to-1 by volus kits. There weren’t any human kits in the previous DLC. Though humanity is not hurting for numbers, a little variety never hurt anyone. Similarly, I doubt anyone will complain about the additions of new maps and hazards in the Earth DLC maps. I’m hoping for fog in London, night/rain in Vancouver and a Carnival parade in Rio. I doubt we’ll get all three of those, though.

The big news out of that leaked is that the addition of co-op gameplay and co-op story missions. User TSA_383 over on the Clever Noob Forums did some datamining of the new patch to find out more.

Regarding the co-op story additions, TSA posted that the patch would seem to confirm the addition of a co-op story mode/missions and that it ”pulls your paragon/renagade values, reputation points and updates your plot progress from the single player campaign.” The question arising from that has to be how BioWare will reconcile pick-up groups (PUGs) where people have made different decisions and are at different stages of the campaign story.

However, over on the BioWare Social Network forums, Cyonan (whose datamining was our primary source for our preview of the Retaliation DLC) said that there was no conclusive evidence of the addition of co-op story missions in multiplayer. Cyonan says that he initially misinterpreted some lines of data as co-op story code but later determined it was code from the Leviathan single-player DLC.

So while the Reddit leak’s information is reasonable to expect (for the most part), it’s the co-op story mode that appears to be both the hardest believe that BioWare will add (having repeated told users on the BSN that no such mode would happen due to the time and expense of making it) and the hardest to prove that it has been added.

One thing that has frequently mentioned by dataminers and would-be dataminers is that the code in this patch is far less revealing of what’s coming than previous patches and DLCs. BioWare seems to have gone out of its way to prevent users from easily determining what they are planning.

While I can appreciate the need from some secrecy, it’s not like the leaks are going to lose them revenue from the free multiplayer DLCs. In fact, the BioWare forums and game blogs seem to come to life when there are Mass Effect leaks. Official releases, for whatever reason, just aren’t as exciting. Maybe BioWare would be better served to let leaks happen organically and let the semi-viral marketing that happens as a result drum up interest.

It’s probably worth noting in here that the 1.05 patch also eliminated the so-called Rocket Glitch which allowed exploiters to fire infinite rockets. This has been an issue since release so it’s nice that BioWare has finally found a permanent solution… Even if it did take them 11 months.

No official release date has been announced for Reckoning. Since it doesn’t look like it’s dropping tomorrow, speculation suggests it will drop on February 12th.

Sources:
Reddit – Mass Effect™ 3: Reckoning Multiplayer Expansion xbox marketplace summary/description leaked!
CleverNoob Forums – Datamining today’s patch – DLC info incoming.
BioWare Social Network – Today’s patch datamined. New Game Mode. Leaked DLC description is apparently true.