If you've been living in a cave on Pluto, you might not know that Shepard is making his return in trilogy finale Mass Effect 3 this winter, as the Reapers invade Earth and all hell breaks loose. Game Informer has the first proper details on the game in its latest issue complete with ME3 cover, so strap yourself in and beware... Here be spoilers. Stop reading now if you haven't finished Mass Effect 2 and/or the Arrival DLC, and if you don't want the prologue for ME3 spoilerified for you.
Mass Effect 3 will apparently begin with Shepard on trial following the events in Mass Effect 2: Arrival and the Reapers will invade right in the middle of the court proceedings. In the prologue, Shepard escapes to the Normandy and sets to work gathering a party of allies once again, tackling Reaper units - ie. different species of Husk - along the way.
If you haven't played Mass Effect 1&2, Mass Effect 3 will come with an interactive comic that will enable you to make your game-shaping decisions that will affect the plot as usual. Naturally, your ME 1&2 saves will decide who you encounter, so Shepard's party will end up consisting of Garrus, Liara, Ashley/Kaiden and a new guy called Sanders, among others.
Wrex, Mordin, Legion and Anderson are also confirmed to appear in Mass Effect 3 - based on the outcome of Mass Effect 2 during your playthrough - but they may not be squad members. Cerberus is also out to kill Shepard this time around and as such, the gravel-voiced Illusive Man will play a pivotal role in the game. Why Cerberus is after Shepard is currently unknown, however.
With regard to Mass Effect 3's gameplay, apparently BioWare is beefing up the game's RPG aspects, striking a happy medium somewhere between Mass Effect 1 and 2's RPG elements. There will be more freedom with character skills and skill trees will be bigger. Powers will also evolve several times instead of just once, so your characters will have plenty of room for growth.
Weapons will be like Mass Effect 2's, but you'll be able to swap out parts like scopes, barrels, clips and so forth, improving the weapon's performance while changing its aesthetics. Every class will be able to use weapons without limitations, but will have a predetermined number of slots to carry them in. Only the Soldier class can carry unlimited weapons, whereas the Adept, Engineer, Sentinel, Infiltrator and Vanguard will be limited to carrying two or three.
Mass Effect 3 will also have multiple endings - both bad and good - based upon who you have in your squad and the course you take through the game. And finally, Mass Effect 3 will not feature multiplayer, although BioWare is reportedly considering it for possible future spin-offs or separate games.
So, there you have it. That's pretty much all of the details worth knowing from the May issue of Game Informer. Check out the cover below and grab it from newsstands now-ish. Mass Effect 3 is scheduled for release this holiday 2011.