Will it be on the PS3 or won’t it? Will Shepherd be in one piece by the finale or won’t he? Will you be able to jump twixt the sheets with the entire cast, or just its female members? Questions hang round Mass Effect 2 like bits of shrapnel in zero-G. Here are answers to a few of them, care of game producer Adrien Cho.
VideoGamesDaily: So, Mass Effect 2. The first one was obviously a highly acclaimed game, but it came out in the midst of a lot of exclusive content on Xbox 360. Do you think it got a fair share of the attention?
Adrien Cho: I thought actually Microsoft was a really good publishing partner, they really supported us, and they recognised what a unique IP Mass Effect became. And they helped foster that, and allowed us to do a lot of different things. And with a sequel now I think we’re able to branch out more with EA to an all-new audience. So I felt that we’re only going to be able to reach out to more people with the new game, hopefully people who didn’t get a chance to play Mass 1. One of the goals was to say “hey, give it a try – we’ve made everything a little more accessible, combat, the shooter aspects of it.” We want people who’ve never even played an RPG, who don’t consider themselves RPG players, but are maybe drawn towards the sci-fi aspects of it, the shooting aspects of it… This game will hold up with the best shooters out there, and you get some real cool role-playing elements as well.
We like a man who knows the value of beer.
VGD: With the greatest respect to the Old Republic guys, I feel like their title and many others in this genre has this sterile feel to it. Whereas with Mass Effect, the environment is much deeper, much richer.
Cho: I’m so proud of our art team. The end product is just amazing.
VGD: All these effects, all these lighting and filter tricks – you just don’t get that level of quality in many PC titles…
Cho: I think we really pushed the hardware a lot in Mass 1, and the great thing about Mass 2, with all aspects of Mass 2, is that we’re even more familiar with it. So from a gameplay side, from a design side, to the writing, we’re able to squeeze even more out. By the time we shipped Mass 1, we started to plan for Mass 2, and we immediately knew the areas where it was like “hey, I think we can do this better, we can get more detail in it.” And you can just see the environments, they’re absolutely amazing, like – you get this expanse of city out here, the flares, the buildings…
VGD: I like the grain effect in the distance.
Cho: Yeah, the fog – even the small stuff, seemingly the background stuff is just as detailed, if you look at the walls…
VGD: This is Unreal Engine 3 tech, right?
Cho: It’s Unreal. We’ve really pushed Unreal. I don’t recall a game using Unreal tech that looks quite like ours, and I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved with the art style.
Probably not one of the good guys.
VGD: And you were an artist originally, so presumably you’ve had a personal investment in this aspect of the product.
Cho: I was lead tech on Mass 1, and I continued to do that role a bit into Mass 2, but I evolved into more of a production role, and I gave up the tech/art role too a good friend of mine. But early on when we started Mass 2, one of the things we felt we could improve upon was the blurred textures. That’s part of the nature of the technology we’re using, but I was like “we’re going to solve that problem.” So I bet my friend – the lead cinematic animator – a case of beer that we will fix that problem. I’ve got a lot riding on that! [laughs] Aside from the pride, I’ve got some beer to make sure that the game looks a high def and as polished as possible.
VGD: It’s nice to know there are some people at BioWare who relax enough to drink! I met the Dragon Age team last year, and I can’t see those guys getting pissed and talking about what they’re going to do in the sequel.
Cho: Well, we’re people too! We like playing games, and we like going out for a drink. I think that keeps us relate-able to the audience, too – we have to listen to the people who play our games. And it’s no longer a “nerd” culture, we’re branching out to larger audiences, and we like watching movies, we like listening to the same music you guys do!
Either that’s alien gore or they’ve been reduced to throwing custard pies.
VGD: What would you say was your chief responsibility this time round, as a producer?
Cho: One of the fun things of my job for Mass 2 was ensuring that things get done on time and efficiently – lots of times an asset goes through several different hands, so the joy is making sure that whole process isn’t blocked. I’m still able to take a lot of my tech experience and fill in the gaps, so to speak, but I get a lot of joy in seeing a character developed on time, passed onto animation and then coming to life in a cinematic, all running smoothly. Because if those assets ever get delayed, ultimately that has an impact down the line – you might not have a great-looking character, or as great-looking a character. But if you can help in a production capacity to ensure that things are delivered to the best quality and also on time…
VGD: Do you think that’s where some projects in the industry that have bags of potential end up going wrong? Because the glue that holds development together is missing?
Cho: Yes, because you have to look at the project holistically, and if there’s an imbalance – maybe you’ll have the best audio ever, but if no-one ever paid attention to the gameplay, what’s the point because nobody’s going to play your game, nobody’s going to hear your audio! So you kind of have to make sure equal attention is paid to all areas of a project, and to then allow each to shine as well, to have the opportunity to do the best they can, but to also keep the focus on – to say “we are together as a team, working on this one objective”. We definitely want people to bring their best, but to make sure everybody works well together.
The Collective mean business.
VGD: Last year you showed me the PC version of Mass 1, which obviously made a bunch of improvements on the Xbox 360 game. Will there be a discrepancy between versions this time round? Or will you bring the same stuff to both?
Cho: Definitely, it’s a very tight integration. We learned a lot about usability from PC development on Mass 1, and the great thing is with Mass 2 is that it’s a parallel development. So they’re sharing things and if they don’t work out so well on one platform or the other, or work out really well, we can seamlessly integrate those changes onto both. So there’s not necessarily an advantage or disadvantage with one.
VGD: You guys are working with EA Montreal on this as well.
Cho: Yeah, this is the first game we’ve started developing using a small subsidiary studio out there – BioWare Montreal – and they were helping out on all aspects of the game from cinematics to mission development to level art and character.
VGD: But it’s mostly an internal BioWare project.
Cho: Yeah – it’s not so much EA Montreal out there as BioWare Montreal. And we shared a lot of resources with EA Montreal but it was a brand new team we brought into Montreal made up of a lot of people from BioWare.
The turians are as grumpy as ever.
VGD: You guys are among the foremost interactive storytellers out there, and characters are obviously key to a good story. Can you tell me how the characters and gameplay interact in Mass Effect 2?
Cho: That’s a really lovely question! [laughs]
VGD: I try.
Cho: Mass Effect 2 is kind of the dark second chapter of the trilogy. Like the good sequels – Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan…
VGD: Back to the Future? I’m a fan of number two.
Cho: Sure.
VGD: You going to give me another one?
Cho: Even Lethal Weapon 2! And we’re going to ignore all the bad ones, like Matrix 2. There’s tons of bad sequels. But yeah, it’s a lot darker in tone. The premise is that you as Shepherd have to fend off the threat from the Collective, this new enemy, and you’re basically going on a suicide mission. You kind of know you’re not going to make it out. But you’re going to recruit this badass team of commandos to increase the chances of success of the mission. Not necessarily survival, the objective is to complete the mission.
So in doing so you’re really getting this band of assorted characters throughout the galaxy who all have different strengths, unique abilities that will really pan out how the final game will play out. And I can’t spoil too much, but you really want to make sure you have the right person to so that all aspects of your mission are covered. It’s kind of like a Special Ops team, and if you can go in there without your sniper or your recon guy, the chance of the team succeeding will fall.
Mass Effect 2’s cover system is being billed as a real step forward from that of the first.
So a lot of the game is involved with tracking down these rogue characters, convincing them to join your mission. Sometimes they’re not interested, because they have their own drives so you have to somehow get them to join your cause. Sometimes you have to do something out of your way, because you need that person for the end goal. In Mass 1, there was a lot of grey area, it wasn’t always “good versus bad” – for the greater good, you had to do some bad stuff, you might have to kill some people.
VGD: Sounds like being a games critic sometimes.
Cho: I prefer to think of Jack Baeur. Making those difficult decisions…
VGD: Chuck an FBI agent in a ditch to save LA, right?
Cho: Right, so there’s a lot of really cool gameplay elements that come out, but I can’t – I’d love to tell you about some of the things that happen! But you will be pleasantly surprised. The player who wants to be the bare minimalist, just wants to plough through the core, they’re going to have a very different game to the person who took a lot of time and discovered how deep it is. And I’m just going to say one person’s going to come out with a different ending to the other person…
VGD: There’s a lot of speculation about the fate of Shepherd, about whether he’ll come out intact the other end…
Cho: I’m not going to ruin it for you, but Shepherd can die in this game. And I’m going to leave it at that. [laughs] There’s definitely some dire consequences for the player if they don’t do certain objectives. Sometimes I think we’re pampering gamers too much. Just recently, a game like Demon Souls is fantastic because when you die, and you fail, it’s not because the game was cheap it’s usually because you didn’t do something properly.
It goes back to that learning mechanism of “Well, I tried this – it didn’t work. I’m going to try something different.” And I think that’s going to be something in Mass Effect 2, we don’t want it to be a cakewalk, you want a challenge. I think gamers want a more sophisticated game, they don’t want a breezy game where you see all the cinematics and just put in your hours and play it through. So definitely there’s some serious consequences. Delicious consequences! You’ll have to play to find out.
Tech modules on both arms? Smart work.
VGD: The interview surely can’t get any better than “deliciously”.
Cho: Devilish?
VGD: That’ll do. You’ve expanded the universe a lot for number two. Can you tell me about that as an artistic process? The Old Republic guys are obviously going off the Star Wars universe, there’s a lot of material for them to pull from, but you guys have had to create it all yourselves…
Cho: The art direction is absolutely fabulous in this game. While its challenging to come up with new worlds to explore, it’s definitely a lot of fun too, and I think that out-balances the challenging aspects. And at the same time we’re also marrying that with understanding the technology better, now that we’re really familiar with Unreal technology, we’re able to say “hey, you know what, we can start to push those boundaries and give you those worlds we weren’t sure how to make in Mass 1”.
So making a sequel’s always fun because you look at what the end product was, and then you look at very focussed changes and in terms of art, we definitely realised that there were certain things we really wanted to do in Mass 1, and now we’ve got that experience we’re able to deliver it. We’ve only shown a small, small sliver of some of the incredible environments players get to visit. The art and environments sometimes take a second place to all the story-telling – we talked about digital acting, all the gameplay, shooter aspects – but it’s just as important a component, and sometimes I wish people would stop shooting, take a look at the amazing environments they can interact with. No other game can offer such a variety of believable, immersive environments. And we give you a ton of those!
Biotic skills are as lethal as ever.
VGD: I think what puts some people – I don’t want to say “gamers” – off investing time in something like this is the duration of the story. Do you think there’s a market for taking all the writing and cut scenes here and producing it as a digital movie?
Cho: Like a Kojima production? Where if you cut out all the gameplay what we’re really watching is a two hour movie? [laughs]
VGD: Or a thirty hour movie! It strikes me that some of the cinematics in games like this and Metal Gear Solid – maybe you’re a sci-fi fan who can’t be bothered to play the game because it’s not your genre, or whatever, but you’d still like to see that material. Do you think it would be worth catering to those consumers?
Cho: I think it’s an interesting idea, but it would be missing out on part of the experience. If Mass Effect was purely a movie, I’m sure it would be a very exciting two hour movie, but what’s awesome about playing a videogame is that you drive that, and while you have these terrific, often mind-blowing cinematic moments throughout the game, there are also moments that a movie doesn’t give you. Movies are very passive and this medium is a lot more participatory, and I wouldn’t want to be spoon-fed the story, I’d want to be the one who’s making those decisions, and if you remove that I think you lose a very important aspect of the game.
VGD: But what about from a recap perspective? Say somebody gets Mass Effect 2, and they don’t want to play Mass Effect 1 because they don’t have the time. Shenmue 2 did that – they stitched together all the cinematic stuff from number one so that people just coming in knew where they were at.
Cho: Well we knew a lot of fans would want to carry over their own save games and characters from Mass Effect 1, but we also knew that we wanted a large new audience, who might not be familiar with Mass Effect 1. So accessibility and understanding the universe was a huge consideration from the design and development of Mass 2, maybe not so much where we cut together all the clips, but it’s certainly a consideration we had that we wanted people to be jumped in right away, be familiar with the universe without having played 60-80 hours of Mass Effect 1.
VGD: Adrien, thanks for your time.
Mass Effect 2 is out for PC and Xbox 360 next year on 26th January in North America and 29th January in Europe.
