Wed, Jul 29, 2009 | 20:22 BST
Mass Effect 2: Shepard begins game with abilities wiped
BioWare’s Casey Hudson has told Computer World that players will notice Commander Shepard is not as powerful in Mass Effect 2 as he was towards the end of the first game.
Apparently, stats for the character have been reset to basic abilities so that an improved system could be implemented, but to compensate for the lack of prowess, his storyline will delve into the reasons why he is weaker than before.
“There’s something that’s happening with the story that explains what happens with your abilities,” said Hudson. “It’s something we can’t go into detail about for obvious reasons, but it actually happens the other way around. Our goal with the story, in terms of getting the game started quickly and players into really compelling story situations…that dictated and allowed us to do certain things including changing the way that your abilities work and the way you develop your character.
“Part of it, too, is the fact that we’ve gone in and improved literally every system in the game, your powers, the controls, aiming, the way that your character stats work and how you build a character, the inventory system, weapons, and so on. All of those things have been dramatically improved, so there’s no direct way to map the stuff you had in Mass Effect over to Mass Effect 2 anyway.
“That said, we’re taking into account all of your accomplishments in terms of building a character from the first game. So things you’d expect to be acknowledged, like if you were a level 60 character, or you were highly Renegade and don’t want to start out at the middle again. If you import your save game from Mass Effect, these kinds of things will be acknowledged in ways that map across to the new system.
“You will feel, even in terms of the character that you build, that you are continuing as that character.”
Hudson goes on to chat about the new vehicle and other ME2 details, and talks a bit about emotional attachment in games like ICO through the link.
Related posts
Mass Effect 3 will have Shepard, but will possibly be “different”
Commander Shepard could still be alive in Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 2 “will feel like your game” if you keep your ME1 save, loads more details
13 
Posted in: Action, EA, PC, RPG, Xbox 360
Tags: bioware, Casey Hudson, mass effect 2
13 comments
#1
joshua nash
29/07/09, 6:52 pm
so does this mean that my shepard will lose all his master Spectre gear and his colosus x heavy armor, cause if it does then i’ll be very fucking pissed
#2
Hunam
29/07/09, 6:55 pm
I’d imagine that the only things that cross over are the story details.
#3
Gekidami
29/07/09, 6:58 pm
Sort of goes against the idea of porting over saves really…
#4
Hunam
29/07/09, 7:05 pm
Not really, there are lots of choices to make in ME1, and if they do what they are intending to do with it, then it’ll be worth it to have the galaxy as you left it.
#5
MushroomStamp
29/07/09, 7:37 pm
My character was a chick. It’s been so long since I beat ME that I have no idea what decisions/choices/character build I made. SO I could really care less what gets brought into the second one.
#6
deftangel
29/07/09, 8:11 pm
So this is how they balanced people bringing level 60 charcters into the same game where people start out from scratch. Pretend it never happened, level the playing field and write a spurious story justification!
Game will still be awesome.
#7
deftangel
29/07/09, 8:15 pm
BoWare?
#8
Phoenixblight
29/07/09, 8:19 pm
@6 Casey stated that it will be acknowledged that could mean anything he also stated that there is something plot related why your abilities are reset.
Its mostly going to be the choices we made in ME 1 that will be brought over to the sequel. Also he stated if your character was full renegade, paragon, lvl 60 you won’t start from scratch that could mean anything tho….
#9
Stephany Nunneley
29/07/09, 8:25 pm
@deftangel
BoWare is second cousin to LukWare who is third cousin, uncle and brother to BillyBobWare who is his own father.
#10
fearmonkey
29/07/09, 10:20 pm
Yeah i saw this coming…
I knew they wouldnt bring the char back with all the original stats, but i don’t want to see my persoanlity wiped. I have a good char and a bad char, I want to see them start the same way. Otherwise whats the point?
#11
Phoenixblight
30/07/09, 3:53 am
@10 read the entire article Casey covers that too
#12
anasui
30/07/09, 4:08 am
I really don’t understand how this is going to work. It sounds like they want to do two completely opposite things at the same time
#13
Phoenixblight
30/07/09, 5:02 am
What are you talking about anasui?
I understand what they are doing