Mass Effect Genesis

Information from Mass Effect Wiki


Mass Effect: Genesis is the "Interactive Backstory Comic" created for the PlayStation 3 release of Mass Effect 2, and later made available for Xbox 360 and PC. It was produced by Dark Horse Comics, who also published Mass Effect: Redemption and Mass Effect: Evolution. On Playstation 3 the comic is available as downloadable content free through the PlayStation Store, for the Xbox 360 it is available for 320 Microsoft Points through the Xbox Live Marketplace, and for the PC it is avaliable for 320 BioWare points from the BioWare Social Network. On May 17 2011, it was made available for the Xbox 360 and PC versions of Mass Effect 2.

As Mass Effect was never released on the PlayStation 3, and, due to its being published by Microsoft Game Studios, likely never will be, the interactive comic introduces new players to the story of the original game while allowing them to make six of the major plot decisions that Xbox 360 and PC players could make in the original game (see Save File Transfer). If downloaded, the comic appears between the opening scene and character customization.

There are two versions of the comic, one each for a male and female Commander Shepard.

Choices

The six choices that players can make in Mass Effect: Genesis are as follows:

• Who became Shepard's love interest?
  
• Should the Rachni Queen on Noveria be freed or destroyed?
  
• What is the fate of Urdnot Wrex on Virmire?
  
• Who is sacrificed on Virmire, Ashley Williams or Kaidan Alenko?
  
• What happens to the Citadel Council during the Battle of the Citadel?
  
• Who does Shepard endorse to represent humanity on the Council, David Anderson or Donnel Udina?

Notably, the mission on Feros is omitted entirely from the comic. The comic also does not mention the geth, despite them playing a significant role in the story of Mass Effect.

looks like they slipped up a bit there, as there are at least 2 decisions to be imported to ME2 from Feros, (too many colonists killed and how you resolved the Jeong situation) and who the councillor is is only established on the shuttle when Miranda asks. The export save from ME1 is made before the final scene where the councillor is nominated.

Edit: No need to make any reference to the Geth, as there are no decisions about the geth to be imported. The comic makes it clear that Saren and Sovereign are the major antagonists. The geth are tools (however you wish to interpret that description).

Edited by Zander, 19 May 2011 - 11:41 AM.

Bioware really knows how to promote piracy. Charging people for something like this? I fear that when ME3 will come out they will consider game patches to be DLC.

It is an optional DLC for PC and XBox, because they both have access to ME1, which provides the full range of choices made through 60-odd flags. The real question is what happens to the import file for ME3? A PC user who has played a character from ME1 to ME2 will have all these flags set in the export save from ME2, but a PS3 player will only have the 6 set, which could will have repercussions if, as they are currently saying, ALL decisions from ME1 and ME2 are taken into account.

Given all we have heard and the amount of contradictory statements from Mr Hudson on Twitter, and Mr Priestly stating on the forums that "Nothing is final till the product ships", I wonder if anyone at Bioware really knows what is going on with the game.

Regardless, in my infinite optimism, I'm currently getting a paragon DudeShep romancing Kaidan playthrough ready, just in case...

Edit: No need to make any reference to the Geth, as there are no decisions about the geth to be imported. The comic makes it clear that Saren and Sovereign are the major antagonists. The geth are tools (however you wish to interpret that description).

I think the geth need to be referenced because otherwise there's no weight to Legion's reveal.

In any case, Genesis appears to be utter tripe, so I certainly won't be spending money on it. Honestly I feel sorry for the PS3 players who'll have to put up with it rather than ME1.