Tucked under its development belt is a wealth of fantasy and science-fiction titles that include Star Wars licenses and dice-rolling Dungeons & Dragons rule sets, so it’s hardly a school of conventional cool,.
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Casey told us, not without a glimmer of pride. “A lot of games will have consequences for choices. I think the thing that’s going to blow people away about Mass Effect 2 is when you come across something in the game that is a result of what you did in Mass Effect. Even if it’s a relatively minor thing, I think it really drives home the fact that your decisions matter and that it’s not necessarily going to be obvious that a small thing is going to have a small result, and vice-versa.
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This mechanic isn’t restricted to major plot items and characters, and Casey makes it clear that even actions you thought nothing of in Mass Effect have consequences. You might expect to reap the benefits of saving the Rachni Queen in Peak 15, for example, and the way you treated your number one fan also has repercussions beyond the first game, “A lot of them are at least as fun and more subtle. If you remember Conrad Verner – he was the super fan in the Citadel who follows you and wants your autograph, but he’s kinda irritating – you can be nice to him or you can be pretty harsh with him, but when you come across him in Mass Effect 2 you realise that this quirky little side character is now something that you have to deal with. He’s going to remember and he’s going to be affected by what you did. So anything’s possible with the actions you take – a small thing can become really important, or vice-versa.”
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“It’s more that this mission is the most dangerous thing that Shepard has done. Ultimately what you’re trying to do is to prove that Shepard can come out alive. You know what you have to do and you know it’s dangerous. If you do the minimum then you get the bloodbath ending, which is what you’d expect from a player who just wants to get to the end and finish. But if you play it well you’re going to get better and better versions of success, all the way up to the ultimate ending where you hit all your objectives and get everybody out alive. You’re gonna know how well equipped you are for the ending, put it that way. If you’re really under-equipped, you’ll know before you head in. You can go and do it and you might complete the mission, but the whole point is to get the best people and equipment. If you don’t do a lot of that and you head into this suicide mission then you’re going to get something that is along the lines of a bloodbath.”
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“The combat system is more fluid, more real-time, there’s better aiming and camera behaviour, better squad AI, better enemy AI, more physics-based gameplay, the powers are more at your fingertips, better use of cover... you could tell that when a lot of people were playing Mass Effect they also played Halo, for example. They would do a lot of strafing and then slide past objects. But in Mass Effect they would get stuck in the auto cover system. So looking at that, a few changes to the way cover works allows them to play that way but still make use of cover.”
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We were demonstrated a small section of combat where Shepard and his team encountered a hostile squad of Loki mechdogs and their bipedal masters. Shepard was able to direct one of his crew to cover while sprinting to the other side. In the meantime, the heavy weapons specialist was ordered to hold his ground while he unleashed Armageddon on the enemy with a very impressive new toy. Let’s just say Fallout 3 fans won’t be disappointed and leave it at that.​