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June 9, 2009 | 3:34 AM PST
What the Game's About
Planned from the outset as a trilogy, Mass Effect 2 is the second act of Bioware's home-brewed space opera, not to mention the follow-up to the best selling RPG on the Xbox 360. In order to keep the storyline consistent, Mass Effect 2 will scan save files from the first game for information about the major decisions you made, and then alter the new adventure accordingly. So hopefully you didn't kill anyone important or do anything that could significantly alter the fate of humanity in any way. Commander Shepard's new mission has significantly higher stakes and greater risks than his first run as a Specter agent, one that will force him to forge alliances with an all new and decidedly nastier cast of characters and put his moral compass to the test. Luckily, he's been practicing in the off-season and learned a few tricks since the last go round.
What's Hot
The dialogue system in Mass Effect raised the bar for cinematic storytelling by forcing players to choose a general emotion instead of a word-for-word response and presenting the resulting conversations through dynamic camera angles. Bioware is enhancing the system by reintroducing the interruption mechanic that was left on the cutting room floor last time around and by adding even more cinematic flair to the character interactions. I witnessed two dialogue sequences during the Mass Effect 2 demo, although at this point they feel more like interactive cut-scenes…and I mean that in the best way possible. In the first scene, Commander Shepard and an alien companion were conversing while speeding across a gleaming metropolis in a small vehicle. Dialogue options appeared as they did in the first game, but the camera angles were much more dynamic, switching from an interior camera angle of the two characters to an external one that showcased the speeder racing through traffic at high speeds. You see this kind of thing in movies all the time, but never in the midst of a videogame, let alone when the player is actually involved.
When Commander Shepard and his colleague arrived at their destination, I got a chance to see the new and improved interruption mechanic in action. Shepard took a security officer by surprise and demanded information from him. Unsatisfied with the answers he was receiving, Shepard interrupted his would-be informant mid-sentence by tossing him through a freaking window! Suffice to say, awesome. The interruption was triggered in response to a button-prompt, but the traditional dialog options were still available on-screen as well, so it seems as though players will have the option to bypass these physical outbursts. Obviously, the fact that the system relies on button-prompts brings up questions as to just how often this mechanic is available to the player. Will we see this option come up in almost every conversation, or will it be reserved for particularly important or dramatic scenes?
The combat has also received an upgrade in order to reduce reliance on the power wheel and give players more direct control over the actions of their squad-mates. Bioware wants the real-time combat to be more streamlined and effective so that players aren't constantly forced to rip themselves out of the experience by pausing to give their teammates orders. The bumpers and directional pad can now be used to issue move and attack commands to individual squad mates, allowing you to actually manufacture those badass 'lift and shoot' combos on the fly instead of waiting for the AI. The enhancements certainly seemed to do their job, as the combat flowed incredibly smoothly during a battle in a space station. Without the intermittent pauses to bring up the menu, the game looked more like a shooter in action than an RPG. The most exciting new feature though, is location-specific damage. Getting nailed in the legs or arms will not only statistically affect accuracy and speed, it will be reflected with chunks of armor and flesh ripping off that section of the character's body. Headshots are appropriately violent and satisfying to watch.
Anyone that played the original Mass Effect knows that the game suffered from some technical flaws like shuddering frame-rates, delayed texture pop-in and a variety of minor glitches that really pulled you out of the otherwise immersive universe. As someone that was privy to pre-release demos of the game, let me assure you the final retail build had undergone massive improvements before hitting retail shelves. This unfinished build didn't seem to suffer from any of the problems that the final build of Mass Effect did, and Bioware has clearly tuned the Unreal Engine 3 because Mass Effect 2 looks markedly better than its already-impressive predecessor. Textures feature even more minute detail and lighting cascades believably through the beautifully rendered environments. Everything has a slightly darker and grittier tone, but the distinctive art direction from the first game shines through. Mass Effect 2 will drop jaws.
What's Not
Not so much a 'What's Not' as a 'What's Not There', but the Mass Effect 2 demo was noticeably devoid of the exploration aspect of the game. Bioware promised a huge number of optional, explorable planets with narrative sub-threads to be uncovered for the first Mass Effect, but ultimately under-delivered and left players exploring barren moons for ore or analyzing gas giants from space for codex updates. The presenters admitted up front that the exploration component from the first game was weak and promised that the team was putting a great deal of effort into ensuring that optional side-quests are more involving, linked more naturally to the core narrative, and that the supplementary environments are more exciting. I'd love to take their word for it, but for now I'm leaving that box on the improvements list unchecked. Hopefully Bioware will show that element of the game off for the next demo.
In order to bring additional weight to every decision the player makes, many decisions have the potential to directly or indirectly lead to Shepard's death, at which point the game might continue with a new lead character. It's an incredibly ambitious design choice, but a risky one. In the original Mass Effect, choices could lead to the players death, but we always had the chance to fight for our lives, however impossible the odds may be. Up to the last breath, our destiny was in our hands. Introducing choices that essentially doom the player to die at the end of a real-time cinematic opens up the possibility for a lot of frustration, as many – including yours truly – might find the idea of continuing the adventure without Commander Shepard rather unattractive. I admire the ambition, I'm just not sold on whether the additional emotional investment is worth the potential trade-off in fun factor.
Outlook
Mass Effect 2 is on track to be a fantastic sequel, as Bioware seems focused on enhancing the strengths and addressing the weaknesses of the original. The upgrades to the dialog system should widen the gap between Mass Effect and the competition in the area of cinematic story-telling, and the refinements to the combat system should help ease some of the disconnect that RPG and FPS purists had with the shooter/RPG hybrid mechanics in the original. While at first glance there don't appear to be any revolutionary additions to the gameplay, the fact that many decisions may lead to the death of the main character could lead to a greater level of emotional investment and careful decision making than we've ever seen or felt in an RPG before.
Planned from the outset as a trilogy, Mass Effect 2 is the second act of Bioware's home-brewed space opera, not to mention the follow-up to the best selling RPG on the Xbox 360. In order to keep the storyline consistent, Mass Effect 2 will scan save files from the first game for information about the major decisions you made, and then alter the new adventure accordingly. So hopefully you didn't kill anyone important or do anything that could significantly alter the fate of humanity in any way. Commander Shepard's new mission has significantly higher stakes and greater risks than his first run as a Specter agent, one that will force him to forge alliances with an all new and decidedly nastier cast of characters and put his moral compass to the test. Luckily, he's been practicing in the off-season and learned a few tricks since the last go round.
What's Hot
The dialogue system in Mass Effect raised the bar for cinematic storytelling by forcing players to choose a general emotion instead of a word-for-word response and presenting the resulting conversations through dynamic camera angles. Bioware is enhancing the system by reintroducing the interruption mechanic that was left on the cutting room floor last time around and by adding even more cinematic flair to the character interactions. I witnessed two dialogue sequences during the Mass Effect 2 demo, although at this point they feel more like interactive cut-scenes…and I mean that in the best way possible. In the first scene, Commander Shepard and an alien companion were conversing while speeding across a gleaming metropolis in a small vehicle. Dialogue options appeared as they did in the first game, but the camera angles were much more dynamic, switching from an interior camera angle of the two characters to an external one that showcased the speeder racing through traffic at high speeds. You see this kind of thing in movies all the time, but never in the midst of a videogame, let alone when the player is actually involved.
When Commander Shepard and his colleague arrived at their destination, I got a chance to see the new and improved interruption mechanic in action. Shepard took a security officer by surprise and demanded information from him. Unsatisfied with the answers he was receiving, Shepard interrupted his would-be informant mid-sentence by tossing him through a freaking window! Suffice to say, awesome. The interruption was triggered in response to a button-prompt, but the traditional dialog options were still available on-screen as well, so it seems as though players will have the option to bypass these physical outbursts. Obviously, the fact that the system relies on button-prompts brings up questions as to just how often this mechanic is available to the player. Will we see this option come up in almost every conversation, or will it be reserved for particularly important or dramatic scenes?
The combat has also received an upgrade in order to reduce reliance on the power wheel and give players more direct control over the actions of their squad-mates. Bioware wants the real-time combat to be more streamlined and effective so that players aren't constantly forced to rip themselves out of the experience by pausing to give their teammates orders. The bumpers and directional pad can now be used to issue move and attack commands to individual squad mates, allowing you to actually manufacture those badass 'lift and shoot' combos on the fly instead of waiting for the AI. The enhancements certainly seemed to do their job, as the combat flowed incredibly smoothly during a battle in a space station. Without the intermittent pauses to bring up the menu, the game looked more like a shooter in action than an RPG. The most exciting new feature though, is location-specific damage. Getting nailed in the legs or arms will not only statistically affect accuracy and speed, it will be reflected with chunks of armor and flesh ripping off that section of the character's body. Headshots are appropriately violent and satisfying to watch.
Anyone that played the original Mass Effect knows that the game suffered from some technical flaws like shuddering frame-rates, delayed texture pop-in and a variety of minor glitches that really pulled you out of the otherwise immersive universe. As someone that was privy to pre-release demos of the game, let me assure you the final retail build had undergone massive improvements before hitting retail shelves. This unfinished build didn't seem to suffer from any of the problems that the final build of Mass Effect did, and Bioware has clearly tuned the Unreal Engine 3 because Mass Effect 2 looks markedly better than its already-impressive predecessor. Textures feature even more minute detail and lighting cascades believably through the beautifully rendered environments. Everything has a slightly darker and grittier tone, but the distinctive art direction from the first game shines through. Mass Effect 2 will drop jaws.
What's Not
Not so much a 'What's Not' as a 'What's Not There', but the Mass Effect 2 demo was noticeably devoid of the exploration aspect of the game. Bioware promised a huge number of optional, explorable planets with narrative sub-threads to be uncovered for the first Mass Effect, but ultimately under-delivered and left players exploring barren moons for ore or analyzing gas giants from space for codex updates. The presenters admitted up front that the exploration component from the first game was weak and promised that the team was putting a great deal of effort into ensuring that optional side-quests are more involving, linked more naturally to the core narrative, and that the supplementary environments are more exciting. I'd love to take their word for it, but for now I'm leaving that box on the improvements list unchecked. Hopefully Bioware will show that element of the game off for the next demo.
In order to bring additional weight to every decision the player makes, many decisions have the potential to directly or indirectly lead to Shepard's death, at which point the game might continue with a new lead character. It's an incredibly ambitious design choice, but a risky one. In the original Mass Effect, choices could lead to the players death, but we always had the chance to fight for our lives, however impossible the odds may be. Up to the last breath, our destiny was in our hands. Introducing choices that essentially doom the player to die at the end of a real-time cinematic opens up the possibility for a lot of frustration, as many – including yours truly – might find the idea of continuing the adventure without Commander Shepard rather unattractive. I admire the ambition, I'm just not sold on whether the additional emotional investment is worth the potential trade-off in fun factor.
Outlook
Mass Effect 2 is on track to be a fantastic sequel, as Bioware seems focused on enhancing the strengths and addressing the weaknesses of the original. The upgrades to the dialog system should widen the gap between Mass Effect and the competition in the area of cinematic story-telling, and the refinements to the combat system should help ease some of the disconnect that RPG and FPS purists had with the shooter/RPG hybrid mechanics in the original. While at first glance there don't appear to be any revolutionary additions to the gameplay, the fact that many decisions may lead to the death of the main character could lead to a greater level of emotional investment and careful decision making than we've ever seen or felt in an RPG before.
November 20, 2009
