Mass Effect: Nothing to see here

• BlimBlim
• Monday, November 19, 2007 | 6:15 PM
• 16 comments

Xbox 360

Microsoft somehow decided that they knew better than us and most of the gaming press what was good for Mass Effect, and wanted to limit us to 4*1 minute videos and 10 screenshots for the review of the game. Needless to say this is totally unacceptable and you guys will have to wait until the official release date here in France (Friday) to see our usual videos. We are sorry about that, but there is no way around it.
Yes we are aware that other sites didn't have such restrictions for their video reviews. Business as usual I guess...
Update: Well everything isn't lost, since we have this rather nice interview from XCN for you guys.

GamerSyde - Will you start working on Mass Effect 2 right after this, or will you develop other games between the trilogy parts?

We’re not quite ready to discuss our plans for the sequels, but we are working on Xbox Live content that will be available between each of the main games, allowing players to continue their Mass Effect experience even after they’ve completed the game. We will reveal more plans for the series at a later date.

The Mass Effect team designed the game to provide the player as much freedom as possible. There are a vast number of plots to follow, stories to uncover and planets or exotic locations to discover. Mass Effect allows players to make dialog choices and get different weapons, powers or abilities to master… It goes on and on. Basically the Mass Effect team has filled the game with as much player choice as possible and we feel that the more choices we offer, the more players will enjoy the game.

It was challenging to balance both elements but the hard work has paid off, and the result is what we believe is the best BioWare game we’ve made thus far. It was a fine balance of making the combat engaging and challenging without alienating hardcore RPGers. We also focused on keeping the story and dialog vibrant so as not to turn off the hardcore shooter fans. In the end, the team has taken the very best from both worlds and combined them to create BioWare’s best game to date.

Fortunately, we have a very talented and experienced Lead Writer named Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk as Lead Designer who both worked on KotOR. With Mass Effect, they’ve really created some of our most memorable characters to date. The team comes up with ideas for cool and interesting characters and then works out how they would fit into the overall story of the game. Some characters stay the same, some are changed, and some are discarded in favour of better concepts. The most important things to keep in mind are how will a specific character fit into the overall story of the game and how will they be memorable. The team has done an exceptional job in both regards.

There are many characters in Mass Effect that we think the fans are really going to enjoy. One of the team’s favourites is Urdnot Wrex, who is a Krogan bounty hunter. The krogan are an extremely tough reptilian race and are very aggressive beings who like to express their anger through hostility. Wrex has some great one liners throughout the game and he wields a mean shotgun.

Can you tell us a little about the character creation process, we know you can edit the face shape, eyes, skin tone and hair, but how in depth will it be?

It is the most in-depth character customization of any game that BioWare has made to date. There are potentially millions of different facial combinations that can be created, from obvious details like skin tone and hair style, down to the smallest of details like how far apart the eyes are set or how narrow the lips are. The team worked very hard to allow the player to truly make the Commander Shepard they wanted to play.

With the KOTOR games you had a huge recognizable licence to fall back on, do you think it's going to be hard selling Mass Effect, which is a new IP to the masses of casual gamers?

We had a great time making KotOR, but we think that we have done an excellent job creating the Mass Effect universe. While we have a tremendous respect for the Star Wars franchise, working on our own IP (Intellectual Property) has allowed us the freedom to create our own universe, with unique places to explore and creative characters. The team has come up with an excellent third party tactical combat system and wrapped it with what we feel is the best story that BioWare has made to date. The combination of the real time combat and the deep, rich story and characters has made Mass Effect the best game we’ve made so far. We’re confident the fans will agree.

Has it been challenging developing for the Xbox 360?

Mass Effect is the first game that BioWare has made for the Xbox 360, so there was a natural initial learning curve at the start of the project. The tools and programming teams at BioWare are some pretty smart people and the good folks at Microsoft have been very helpful and supportive, so things went along very smoothly for our first effort.

Mass Effect contains much of the same spirit that Knights of the Old Republic does. They are both full of richly created stories and characters, they both have emotional and powerful moments in the games and they are both incredibly fun to play. The one area of Mass Effect that is noticeably different is the strong cinematic presentation and the new tactical third party combat, which employs a new “Power Wheel” and “Combat Wheel” interface, allowing a greater degree of control over your fights.

Mass Effect does have an alignment system, but it’s much more sophisticated than the light side vs. dark side system of KotOR. In Mass Effect, you’ll be faced with a lot of morally challenging decisions with many “shades of grey.” For Mass Effect we created the Paragon/Renegade system. Unlike KotOR which was almost like a seesaw where one big dark side decision could balance out two minor light side choices, the paragon and renegade system keeps track of both positive and negative choices made. Based on the choices made, the player will have different dialog options or different plot-lines will become available. This system will eventually even affect the different endings to the game.

There are many different sets of armour and different types of weapons, each with subtle differences that can be found, looted or purchased as you play through Mass Effect.

There are 6 classes to choose from in Mass Effect. They are:

• The soldier who specializes in all forms of weapons and armour
• The engineer who uses technical abilities and the omni tool to disrupt opponent’s shields or reprogram enemy robots to work on your side
• The adept who wields biotic powers that can raise an opponent into the air and slam them down or create a singularity effect in midair that whirls enemies and objects around like a tornado of destruction
• The infiltrator who combines the omni tool’s technical powers and the sniper rifle skill to be a stealth specialist
• The vanguard who blends biotic powers and shotgun skills with devastating effect
• The sentinel who combines the omni tool and biotic powers to be a healer and killer all at once.

Which one is better? That would be up to the tastes of the individual player.

It really differs from planet to planet. There will be some that only have one or two; there will be some with a dozen or more. Some of the plots will be contained on one planet; some will require you to visit multiple planets or locations in order to complete them.

The team is already working on Xbox Live downloadable content that should be ready in the near future. We are very committed to the series but we haven’t yet announced the timing of any future releases in the series.

There really isn’t any “grinding” in Mass Effect. The difficulty scales up to the level of the player perfectly. We do have adjustable difficulties in the options screen for those players who want things to be harder or easier, but the game instinctively keeps things challenging and fun as you play.

Quite a lot. There are some races that play larger roles than others, such as humans, quarians, turians, asari and krogans, but you will see many others like the hanar, the volus, the elcor and more. And, of course, you will be frequently encountering the geth. They play a pretty important role in Mass Effect.

There are tons of planets within Mass Effect, and literally hundreds of locations to explore. Some planets you will visit will be lifeless husks, or inhospitable to the point of being deadly to set foot on. Others, you will scan with your ship to recover rare minerals or exotic gasses. And still others, will allow you to land and explore on foot or in the MAKO.

You get to explore the galaxy in the Normandy, which is a specialized stealth and reconnaissance craft that will get you into and out of some pretty tricky places. And while you are exploring on some planets you will be able to drive around in the MAKO, which is a cross between a futuristic all terrain vehicle and a tank.

You can return to any planet you have visited (unless there is a good story reason for not doing so), but usually once you have defeated the enemies on the planet, they will stay away in the future. You will not be able to return to planets just to fight easy enemies over and over to rack up experience points. BioWare prefers to keep things moving with cool stories and plots to engage the players.

We don’t want to ruin any surprises, but there are all sorts of cool things to encounter or unearth while you play through Mass effect. There are hidden plots or stories that can only be discovered by exploring the galaxy. There is also a sort of minigame where you have to scan planets or discover hidden asteroids in space or sites. As part of this minigame you need to scan planets for rare metals, gasses and lost objects to collect experience and cash rewards. Not to mention encountering hidden enemies or rare species, such as space monkeys.

The background you choose for your Commander Shepard will affect dialogue choices and how other characters react to you throughout the game. Characters you meet will actually make references to your specific origin and psychological profile. It’s fun to replay the game with a different background just to see how unique each play-through can be.

The planets you can explore in Mass Effect are much larger than in KotOR. How much more, well let’s just say that we thought they were so large that we gave you a vehicle to get around on them. That is part of the reason that the player has the all terrain combat vehicle, the MAKO (the other being that sometimes you will need a tank to combat enemies).

We don’t want to give away story-type spoilers, but I can say there is more than one way to finish the game.

If Commander Shepard dies in the game, or I should say WHEN Commander Shepard dies in the game, you have to load a saved game to continue. There are many auto-save points in the game to help players who forget to make saves on their own.

It was a combination of classic works of Science Fiction from movies, books and art as well as real world astronomy. You will see some examples of “real” astronomy in the game, such as the Horse-Head Nebula, but much of it comes from the creative imaginations of the art team.

Even though Mass Effect does feature a new system of real time, tactical third person party combat, it is still offers a deep and rich role playing experience at its core, probably the best we have ever made at BioWare. We know some people may be a little leery of the new combat, but it is a system that people can learn quickly and will soon realize that it is a lot of fun. When you combine a an engaging combat system with a quality story and the compelling dialog in Mass Effect, it’s hard not to be confident that those who purchase Mass Effect are going to really enjoy themselves.