Mass Effect 2 Interview
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How do you keep your Role Playing Game fans happy while attempting to reach this new shooter audience?
There is a fine line here. But if RPG fans liked the original Mass Effect then they shouldn't have a problem as we haven't removed any of role playing elements. There is still plenty of number crunching going on in the background, probably more than in the original. What we did do was take a look at what didn't work in the original game and make it more streamlined and efficient. For example we took a lot of flak about the inventory system in the first game. We've now streamlined that so that it is much easier to scroll through your items and customise your armour. The key thing is that focussing more on the shooter elements has not taken away from the role playing. The story is still amazing and there is plenty of freedom.
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Where are role playing games going as a genre?
I see the hybridisation going further. Not just RPG games using features from other genres but the other way round too. So many games now have RPG features such as personalisation, customisation and XP. You can see it in Mass Effect 2. Many of the team on the game were involved with Knights of the Old Republic. If you remember in that game the actions were very much queued up during combat. The original Mass Effect saw the evolution of that with players having more direct control. Mass Effect 2 is a further evolution of that idea, giving more control to the player but not losing any of the great story and character elements. Look at Modern Warfare 2 it looks great on the shooting side. Why not incorporate some of the mechanics of that with the RPG elements of our games?
