Mass Effect 2 Interviews

Mass Effect 2 lead combat designer Christina Norman has been busy answering an assortment of questions about the game lately, with two more interviews showing up earlier this morning.

First up is IGN, where the primary topic is the soldier class:
IGN: What was the most significant improvement made to the Soldier class?

Christina Norman: In ME1 mastering weapons and armor required leveling up and spending points. It was impossible for a soldier to fully master all of his weapons and armor, because you never had enough points.

In Mass Effect 2 you start the game with full mastery of all your weapons. With our dramatically improved weapon and cover, you'll find playing a soldier feels like playing a shooter right from the start.

While everyone benefits from these improvements, they are really key to how the soldier plays, so I'd say this is the biggest improvement to the soldier class.

And then we have another Q&A at Rock, Paper, Shotgun that covers a lot more ground:
RPS: Do you think it's necessary to sacrifice a potential section of your RPG audience by taking a strong action focus? (Presumably in exchange for another action audience.) Clearly among RPG players are some very hardcore fanatics can they be won around?

CN: Our primary RPG audience is Mass Effect 1 players. I don't think improving our shooter gameplay is going to alienate those players any more than improving our art, sound design, and writing will. Improving one aspect of a game doesn't have to detract from another. Many RPG players also appreciate good shooter combat (I'm one of them). Those players will enjoy the improvements we've made to our shooter combat, and to our RPG systems. Will our improved combat attract new players? I certainly hope so!