Welcome to part two of our roundtable interview with Mass Effect 2 Project Director Casey Hudson! With us and a few other journalists, Casey discussed a lot of what we can expect from Mass Effect 2, along with a few reflections on Mass Effect 1. Regarding the format, questions are in italics, and Casey’s answers are in plain text. With such a wealth of information, and in the interest of those with limited attention spans, the bold text represents, from our opinion, the more intriguing parts of what Casey had to say. However, it’s all great information, especially for fans of Mass Effect. Be sure and check out Part 1 and Part 3 as well.
Q) You’ve already said that you’ll be able to play as your old character from Mass Effect in Mass Effect 2. However, the first game allows for multiple play thru’s for one character, meaning you could have two different play thru’s of the same character with polar-opposite decisions made. Does Mass Effect 2 allow you to pick which play through you want as a reference point, or does it just default to the most recent playthru data?
A) Every time you finish Mass Effect 1…it makes a special save game that is the end-state for that play-thru. Then, when you have Mass Effect 2 and you run the import utility, it will look at all of your ending save games from Mass Effect 1. Then, it lists them out and it lists some of the relevant data, so you can remember which one was which, [like] when you made the save game and some of the key decisions, and when you import that save game, it gives you a full rundown of what happened in that, so that you can do a final double check (i.e.), paragon play-thru, Ashley survived, and Wrex died, and all these things. Then you can make that final confirmation that is the save game that you remember and that you want to continue from…and into Mass Effect 2.
Also, you can import that game and play Mass Effect 2, but you could also import that same game and then play Mass Effect 2 a different way. So, you could have multiple plays thru’s of Mass Effect 2 coming off of one import from an end-game of Mass Effect 1…
Q) We can guess the number of Mass Effect’s high points, a cohesive science fiction landscape, dialogue selection, and flat out intense characters will return streamlined and amplified, but what is the sequel going to bring to the Mass Effect universe? What are people going to remember long after they set the game down?
A) I’m really excited for people to experience the story. I think it’s interesting, as we kind of reveal where we’re going with the story and we start talking about it, how we really haven’t revealed much; it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. For a while there, people were worried we had spoiled it too much, and we hadn’t even announced who the main enemies were. It goes to show you how we’ve shown a lot, but we’ve really held back. There’s so much there that you won’t know until you play the game, and it is really…a continuation of the same story, and you’ll definitely feel that. And it is in the same universe…but we take you to so many new places, and they’re so many new characters and new ideas. It’s just packed with revelations and story twists, and then the story expands in really interesting ways. I think the story and specific experiences with characters are going to be the things that really impact people…even much more so than Mass Effect 1, on an emotional level, and the things you get to do as part of the story.
…what’s different about Mass Effect 2 is that, because the gameplay itself is so strong and fun on its own, and the story is much more repayable, I think people are going to want to play this over and over again to see all the different things you can do and just to experience the combat, the exploration, and the gameplay again.
Q) Regarding exploration, what sort of improvements have been made to the planets? Will there be more variation in the terrain and the layout this time?
A) [Regarding the vehicle] we’re doing some cool things with the vehicle, [but] we’re not ready to announce them just yet. In another month or so we’ll probably be talking about the vehicle…
In terms of the overall exploration, one of the things that we had feedback on, people really loved the idea of a larger galaxy and being able to go out and explore stuff. What they really wanted us to improve was the variety and the different things that you got to do when you were out on these missions. So we did two things. First of all, we improved the galaxy map experience. {it’s] very much the same kind of galaxy map, but this time there are a few differences. You’re actually…moving the position of the Normandy versus a target crosshair. And, when you arrive at a planet, you have an actual minigame for scanning the planet. It’s really cool, you actually see the planet spinning below you, you turn it around, and you can scan for resources and the controller will rumble, and hear different sounds. You can kind of close in on resources. This part basically replaces the less interesting aspects of resource gathering from Mass Effect 1 and places it into a minigame…it’s a lot more interactive. This is how you pull up a lot of the resources that then tie into the economy of the game for getting upgrades and stuff like that.
The other thing that happens is, when you’re scanning planets, in addition to finding resources than you can pull out of using space probes, you can also find signals and radio anomalies…that you can close in on and, through the minigames, actually find the location on the planet where something is going on.
We call these N7 Missions…you can send a probe down to come back and do basic stuff like getting resources, but sometimes you find something that only Commander Shepard can do in person, and that’s an N7 Mission. For those, you find these locations on a planet and then you drop down onto the surface. Those missions are kind of designed to be the opposite approach to the missions from Mass Effect 1, where you’re in the uncharted worlds…the only reason why they exist is because each one of them offers something unique and different than you’ve done before. Every level, either the gameplay or the story, or something about it is really unique and special. Each one that you do is different. [You’ll] want to go back out and find the next one and the next one, because you know that each one is going to offer you something wonderful, just like you’d expect out in space…it fits the game a lot better and it’s a lot more interesting…all of the rewards that you find out there tie back into the main story; either they’re a part of the key storyline, or the resources that you find out there tie back into the goal of equipping your team, building up your ship, and getting ready for a suicide mission.
Q) Is there anything more you want to add to the controls of the new vehicle?
A) We are doing something new with the vehicle; the controls will be much improved. [It’s] basically a reimagination of the Mako, but really designed for the kind of the terrain and environments for the gameplay that we have. We’ll be able to talk more about it in a little while.
Q) With Mass Effect, I was constantly impressed with the depth of the fiction. For example, while the Elcor received considerable exposition, the Keepers seemed to be left intentionally ambiguous. How or where do you all decide what’s going to be explained, and what’s left up to the mind of the player?
I think its fun for players [and for us], because, now that we have a universe established, we can think about which parts we want to develop. I don’t know if there’s any method to it, necessarily, but we work for the top down. We know the basic idea of where we want to go with the story, and what we want to make sure the players have the opportunity to do, as far as the story. We work down from there; if it’s a Dirty Dozen-style suicide mission, then you need missions where you’re going out the recruit characters, and you need to do things where you’re making them loyal to you [i.e.] what’s important to them…and what’s going to be meaningful enough that they’ll become loyal, and those become missions. Once we get into the missions themselves and the locations we want to go to, then we can start bringing in things like characters from the first game, or different creatures and storylines. If you’re talking to a character, maybe this character knows something about the Rachni decision that you made. Or, if somebody is causing trouble in a bar, maybe that character who’s causing trouble is that Commander Verner, your super fan from Mass Effect 1, and [he] will remember you when you interrupt him. It’s kind of a fun process. Once we get down to the details of the story, [we can] figure out how we want to develop things in a way that’s going to be interesting to the players.
Q) What contemporary games has the team looked to for inspiration?
A) I think, with the first game, we were looking at what some of the top shooters were doing, what some of the Xbox RPG’s were doing. Mass Effect ended up being unlike any game in particular, but it did combine elements of the better third person shooters and RPGs of the time. Our inspiration mostly came from games that came well before us, the main one being Star Wars: Knight of the old Republic. A lot of us worked on Knights of the old Republic, and a lot of the core team worked on that game as well. To some degree, that really became the basis for what we were going to do with Mass Effect. The main idea being that we knew that we wanted to work on our own science fiction property, [and] trying to build something new there.
We also wanted to…incorporate the player into more of the experience. A lot of people still have trouble with pause and play style gameplay like we had in Knights of the Old Republic, but wanted to have a…much more accessible gameplay interface, a third person shooter. The overall experience was meant to capture that same sense of a huge story and non-linear decision making where you can go where you want in the universe, but with a little bit more freedom for exploration. The same kind of really intimate character stories, but then a story on a really high level of scope. That was probably the game most responsible for what Mass Effect became.
The other one is from even further back, which is a game called Star Flight for the PC. It was an incredible game in the sense that it offered space combat, and you’re driving a vehicle on distant planets, and you’re getting resources. At the same time there’s an epic story brewing under the surface that evolves over time and, as you explore deeper into space, it kind of magically evolves on its own. That was really fascinating to me, and I’ve always wondered how far can you go with present day technology to try and achieve that kind of experience. That was kind of one of the more spiritual inspirations; what would that look like, that kind of very non linear and very open ended space experience.
Q) Are there any changes or improvements lined up for the inventory system as well as the character upgrade system?
A) We’ve made a bunch of improvements there, all in the spirit of preserving the original depth that we had, but just making it more intuitive in what you’re actually doing. The main thing, in the first game, the inventory system was all in one screen, so you were trying to equip your team with weapons and armor and whatever other gear you [had]. You’re also trying to then mod each of those types of equipment, and then you’re also kind of going through lists of inventory and trying to juggle your inventory. All of that was in one screen, so, even though it had a lot of depth, I think a lot of people weren’t able to access that full potential of what it was offering. What we’ve done is taken all of the functionality that was there, and we’ve moved it into separate activities. For example, we’ve got an armor locker, and in your armor locker, you can actually create a modular N7 armor out of pieces, so you go and buy these pieces in the store…there are a variety of ways that you can get them, and then you bring them back and, in your armor locker, you actually build them piece by piece and each piece kind of does a different behavior in terms of gameplay or combat. Whether it’s enhancing your shields, armor, health, and accuracy, all of that kind of stuff. You can adjust every aspect of it, like how shiny the material is to all the different colors, you helmets, visors, all that stuff way deeper than we had before. Because it’s in its own location, you actually have much greater control over what’s going on.
Similarly for upgrades and modding your weapons and armor, that’s done through research terminals. The research terminal, because it’s actually about going out and getting research projects, come back and either spending money or different kinds of resources on it, it becomes a whole activity chain, but it also means that potentially anything can be upgraded. There’s a whole variety, whether it’s different kinds of ammo mod or modifications to weapons for accuracy or things that you can do to improve your armor, or even the ship itself has research projects that you can enhance the ship so, when you see it performing in certain key moments in the story, different things will happen as an outcome. It’s a very open ended system.
Likewise, the character progression system is very similar. We’ve added some new powers. You spend points in a very similar way to develop your character, you still have levels, you still have the paragon and renegade system. But there’s been some more subtle changes in there than in the other systems…the changes we’ve made there are to draw out more impact on your gameplay. Most of these things that you have as powers or skills that you’re developing are active powers that you fire, either during combat or as part of interrupts in conversations, persuasion, things like that.
Q) Are there any densely populated locations besides the Citadel, or is every place you visit a neatly established colony or an outpost?
A) We have a whole bunch of different kind of locations. I think Mass Effect is still very much about this idealistic, futuristic universe where everything is beautiful and sleek and clean, except for this underbelly that exists. It’s a part of the universe; symbolic of that is this larger threat of the Reapers, and the fact that a really idealist civilization would not easily accept the idea of such a threat. That’s kind of the role of humanity and Commander Shepard, to be tough enough and pragmatic enough to be able to see these things and dig into them, and in Mass Effect 2 you end up digging into that darker underbelly of the Mass Effect universe.
Two examples of different populated locations would be the Citadel, which you all have seen before, but you get to new locations there. It’s kind of idealist and beautiful and populated.Then there’s the other side, which is Omega. It’s also densely populated with huge space stations, but it is the opposite. It is completely lawless, it’s run by gangs and there’s a lot of crime. What you find there is just all of that other darker side of the galaxy.
And you also have other places like Illium, which is an Asari home world. It’s just a beautiful location, very sleek and clean like the Citadel, but it’s got its own style. Lots of Asari characters, it’s a very worldly place, [it has] a stock market, space ports, and that kind of really cool stuff to be able to visit. There’s a bunch of different populated locations. Even places like Tuchanka, which is the Krogan home world you get to visit.
