Strategy Informer talks with Mac Walters, lead writer on Mass Effect 2

Strategy Informer: Mass Effect 2 is unique to consoles in that it carries over the save game from Mass Effect. One of the problems I had, which I spoke with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk at E3 about, is how many different story possibilities there are. Players could go through Mass Effect and with enough time, beat the game completely, playing through every possible storyline. But with all the decisions that now carry over to Mass Effect 2, it seems like the dialog and story tree just grows to an infinite amount. Has that been a problem in development?

Mac Walters: You can break it down to a conversation level. We have a lot of choices there are in a conversation, one of the things we try to do is limit the number of major choices you have until the end of the conversation. We look at the entire game in a similar way. So in Mass Effect, there are a lot of decisions you can make. A lot of people hearken back to what you can do with Wrex. Is Wrex alive or dead? That’s something we do actually account for in Mass Effect 2. But some of the really big decisions, like if the counsel is lives or dies, and who you put in charge of everything when you leave, those are at the end of the game. Now we still have to account for those in Mass Effect 2, so it was a challenge, and it’s something we think the fans will really appreciate when they see that what they did in Mass Effect 1 will actually carry over to Mass Effect 2.

Strategy Informer: Based on what we know about Mass Effect 1, there are four beginnings that players can have, with or without the counsel, and who’s leading the human race. What about smaller details, like the fan, Conrad Verner? How deep does that decision making go, so that players who want to go back to Mass Effect 1 can play through again to make their experience in Mass Effect 2 completely different and unique?

Mac Walters: Obviously there are a lot of plots, there are a lot of characters and outcomes. We couldn’t put them all in Mass Effect 2, or we’d just be retelling the Mass Effect 1 story again, and we wanted to bring in new characters as well. So what we looked at was who were some of the more popular characters, who were they, and then make the assessment ‘what does it mean to bring them back’, what is it going to cost to bring them back, and that’s how we decided which characters were coming back, what storylines are coming back, and what to revisit. Then we just had to figure out the details. Conrad Verner is a great example. If he comes back, we’d have to take into account how you treated him. If we bring Wrex back, what happens if he’s dead? How do we do that. So we’ve got a plan for all of that.

Strategy Informer:  Before this interview, I went back and played through Mass Effect a few times to get myself reacquainted, and looked at all the decisions available. I realized that for many decisions, it was like real life, where you don’t know what the outcome will be in the future, no matter how many times you play through it. For players who want to complete the game 100%, it was very difficult in Mass Effect 1, but possible. Is that close to impossible with Mass Effect 2 thanks to the data carried over?

Mac Walters: I think it’s up to the player. I know a lot of people who said ‘this time I’m doing it renegade’, or ‘this time I’m doing it paragon’, or ‘this time I’m going to let the counsel live and put Anderson in charge.’ I think the options are there, and you can say ‘I want to start my Mass Effect 2 experience with these choices behind me’, and you can play through it in many different ways and see what all the outcomes are. There will always be a limitation, technical, on things, but as for the experience players can have, that’s wide open.

Strategy Informer: Right, but it’s fairly easy to tell the difference between big and small decisions, like saving the counsel versus treating Conrad Verner kindly. Is there a middleground we should look out for, so that when playing through Mass Effect 1 again, we can have a good idea of what decisions really matter for Mass Effect 2?

Mac Walters: It’s hard, I don’t know that I’d play the game being too paranoid to see what would happen. I would just play it the way you want to play it, and see what happens in Mass Effect 2. We couldn’t carry over every decision, although we do track it. We had the ability to do it, we just couldn’t reference them all, because then it would take forever. We’d be building two games, one where we recap everything from Mass Effect 1 and one where we build our new story. What we said was if it makes sense in the Mass Effect 2 story, then bring them back, or do something with them, or reference them. So when you’re going through [Mass Effect 1], sure, because the decisions you make could impact not just Mass Effect 2, but future games as well.

Strategy Informer: The option to play as a male or female commander Shepherd had very little influence on Mass Effect 1’s story. When playing through again, I noticed only one time, with the C-Sec officer who had different dialog depending on your gender. Is there going to be more gender-specific dialog, or is it still very minimal like in Mass Effect 1?

Mac Walters: It depends. It always depends on the character. There’s Fist, in Mass Effect 1, where if you’re a girl he treats you like scum. But that’s his character, and that’s where it fits. It’s only where it’s appropriate. Not every character will treat you differently if you’re male or female Shepherd. In some cases they do. And of course, there’s always the romance options, so characters in your team will treat you differently depending on whether you’re male or female.

Strategy Informer: Besides the story, what will carry over to Mass Effect 2? We know character levels won’t, but what about weapons, armor, items, etc.?

Mac Walters: That’s something we haven’t released yet. We’ve planned it, but we haven’t actually released what will carry over, and what won’t. Other than story, decisions, plot states, that’s all we’ve committed to talking about now.

Strategy Informer: There are six different classes people can play as in Mass Effect 1. It had no influence on the story. Will it have any influence in Mass Effect 2?

Mac Walters: Currently there are no plans for that, for the actual class. We did have backgrounds and history, that would impact what certain people would know about you and how they would react to you, and even some plots that would open up if you had that background and plot selected.

Strategy Informer: Will that have an impact on the second game, or is that only for the first game?

Mac Walters: It is referenced in the second game. I can’t really comment on how much, but it’s there.

Strategy Informer: So because you can’t change your background, when you go into the second game, it’ll carry over with the savegame?

Mac Walters: Well, you’re Shepherd is your Shepherd. Because really, the background of your character are the first decisions that you made, the first consequences that came out of your character. Character creation is the first thing that has an impact, just like a conversation where I choose if they’ll live or die, that’s the kind of thing that will carry forward.

Interview conducted by James Pikover