Mass Effect: Infiltrator

Released on Google Play on May 22, 2012, about two months after the iPhone version, Mass Effect: Infiltrator was EA’s attempt to put the series’ cover shooting on a phone. IronMonkey Studios, the same Australian team behind the mobile Dead Space, took over most of the production from BioWare. It sold for $6.99 and launched in the same season as Mass Effect 3, which it was built to connect to.

What Is Mass Effect: Infiltrator

It is a third-person shooter with its own original story. You play Randall Ezno, a Cerberus operative sent to an ice planet to take down a turian target. Back at a Cerberus base called The Barn, a prisoner escape goes wrong and Randall discovers that his advisor, Inali, is being experimented on. From there he turns against Cerberus and fights through the base to free her and reach the Alliance for extraction. Commander Shepard does not appear, so the story works as a side chapter set during the Reaper war.

How Combat Works In Mass Effect: Infiltrator

The game copies the main series’ mix of cover and biotic powers, then simplifies it for touch. There are no squadmates to manage. You move between cover points, shoot from behind them and tap enemies to target biotic attacks, so powers become quick reactions rather than a menu. Credits earned in each area buy upgrades for weapons, armor and biotic abilities. Early reviews were rough, and Slide To Play originally criticized the controls and repetitive environments. After the 1.0.3 update added manual weapon aiming and a side mission played as an escaped turian test subject, the same site said the game had turned into a high-quality shooter.

Mass Effect 3 Links Made It More Than A Spin-Off

Infiltrator was part of a wider push to tie mobile and console play together. The game offered three ways to carry progress over:

• Intel collected in missions could be traded for credits to spend in Infiltrator
• The same intel could be sent to Mass Effect 3 to raise your Galactic Readiness score
• Finishing the campaign unlocked a War Asset in Mass Effect 3

Galactic Readiness affected the war effort in the console game. For players chasing the best ending in Mass Effect 3 at the time, the phone game was a real, if small, advantage.

Reviews And What Players Remember

Reception was mixed. Metacritic lists an average of 68 from 27 reviews, and PCMag called it decent, praising the visuals while pointing at repetitive combat and tricky controls. Players who came back after the patches tend to remember it more fondly, mostly for graphics that were impressive on 2012 hardware and for the Mass Effect 3 rewards. The environments stay inside one Cerberus facility for most of the campaign, which is the reason many found it repetitive.

Why You Cannot Buy Mass Effect: Infiltrator Anymore

EA removed Mass Effect: Infiltrator from both the App Store and Google Play in 2015, as part of a batch of 17 older mobile titles it stopped supporting. The Mass Effect 3 connection had already lost most of its value once the game’s online features wound down. Today it is no longer sold on Google Play, and there is no official mobile replacement. The main trilogy lives on in Mass Effect Legendary Edition on PC and consoles.

Notes For Old Android Devices

The game needed a large separate data download and was built for Android 4.x era hardware. Players trying old copies on newer phones commonly report that it will not start on Android 8 or later, which fits its 32-bit design and retired servers.