Did you play Mass Effect 3 over the weekend? Players who did could partake in the 'Operation Silencer' N7 Bounty weekend which required that the community as a whole, take down 3 million Banshees with an additional individual challenge of beating a map on gold difficulty to earn in-game rewards.
Attached to the Operation Silencer objectives was a very interesting note, name-dropping the Vorcha and hinting at upcoming DLC. Thanks to a Sony website, we now know that's exactly the case. Prepare for the Mass Effect 3: Rebellion DLC.
Here's what BioWare shared last week which seemed to indicate that they'd be soon adding Vorcha characters to the game's multiplayer. In Mass Effect 3's campaign, the Vorcha can be recruited as War Assets against the reapers so we knew if they were to join, they'd be playable characters and not a new enemy faction.
This task is an onerous one, and many of you are right to dread contact with these particular foes, but rest assured that we are prepared to reinforce your battalion with reserves. The vorcha want in, and as soon as they complete combined-arms training with our technically-skilled personnel, we will let them loose.
Just like the Resurgence DLC was leaked beforehand, we expect the same here and it's very likely that with the timing of BioWare's very-intentional note (above) and the Sony site detailing the DLC, that 'Rebellion' will be released next week in time for the next Mass Effect 3 multiplayer event. Also, like the Resurgence pack, we expect the DLC to be free since Electronic Arts can still earn money from in-game microtransactions.
The Rebellion Multiplayer Expansion opens two new fronts against the Reapers: Firebase Jade's jungle reservoir and Firebase Goddess on Thessia. In-game reinforcement packs now include three new weapons as well as equipment, consumables, and six new classes: Quarian Engineer and Infiltrator, Vorcha Soldier and Sentinel, Phoenix Adept and Vanguard. The battle continues — hold the line!
This matches up exactly with what FTG reported at the top of the month when they heard from someone inside EA what the next DLC would be. There are already Quarian Engineer/Infiltrator characters that come stock as unlockables so we expect the additions to add male variants of these classes.
We're loving the addition of more characters and maps, but I think soon we'll need something new entirely. The 11-wave, 3-objective repetition is becoming quite the grind and so far, all of the N7 Bounty Weekends have been almost the same. Perhaps an all-out expansion down the line that players could buy which adds new modes? Or will that be reserved for Mass Effect 4?
Mass Effect 3 is now available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
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Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.
Sources: FTG, Sony