BioWare's Casey Hudson has a new post up on the developer's blog at BioWare's Web site, and in it, he talks about the game's ending. You know, the thing that's been getting a lot of attention because of the whole Shepard dying at the end thing. He spends a bit of the post talking about what exactly that all means:
"When we say that Shepard can die in Mass Effect 2, it’s not something that happens at points in the middle of the game. Yes, you can “die” in game play as normal but that’s not what we’re talking about here. It’s not a “Game Over” screen. It’s not a gimmicky thing where you make a choice, “die”, and reload to continue to the “real” ending. When you get to the very end of the story in Mass Effect 2, you will get one of a wide variety of climactic and satisfying endings. Depending on how prepared you were, your ending may involve Shepard making the ultimate sacrifice to accomplish the mission."
Sounds awesome to me. An ending with real consequences based on how you played throughout the entire game? I can really get behind that. And as for the suicide mission Shepard's going on:
"In Mass Effect 2, you (as Commander Shepard) are faced with what appears to be a suicide mission: taking a team into the heart of enemy territory where you shouldn’t have any chance of coming back alive. Your survival therefore is based on how well you’ve built a team – who you recruited, how well-equipped they are, and whether they’re loyal to you. Loyalty (and the things you’ll do to earn it) is a central part of the game, and it is critical to Shepard surviving the final mission."
"Paragon / Renegade decisions affect a lot of things in the game – and will affect which how the game ends – but they are completely separate from your character’s readiness to survive the final mission."
Those loud squeals of joy you just heard? Yeah, they're from me. Drew Karpyshyn, Hudson, Dtoid's Kitae and the rest of the BioWare crew are determined to take the best game I ever got for free (thanks, Target!) and make it ten-thousand times better, it seems. The original Mass Effect had several issues, a lot of them being graphical (curse you, pop-in textures!) and some related to game play, but from all accounts, these have been fixed and a ton more content's been thrown on top. Next year needs to come sooner so I can put down Forza 3 and pick up Mass Effect 2.
Oh, and there might be some hawt alien secks:
"As for whether there will be alien love in an elevator, you’ll have to play to find out."
I just hope his death having an impact down the road in the next game isn't one of those awesome game points that is eventually left out of the final product.
Devs really seem to be going for this type of thing. Heavy Rain, now this - it's an interesting idea, to have the main character (or characters) die and let gameplay continue, so here's hoping the idea gets expanded upon.
@Dex: you import save games to start from there in ME3. And since you'll want to use the last save game, the decisions you have made so far will shape the world. Dunno what would happen if you use the save game just before the final sacrifice though :)
They'd been talking about showing "who you end up playing as", so I thought Shepard was to "die" at some point before the ending, if he did at all. Saving it for the end seems like a better route to take.
I'm going to be all about ME2 when it launches. I love the first and like what they seem to be teaking for the sequel.
mass effect (and i assume mass effect 2 will) creates a seperate save at the end of the game that is used for new game+ and will be used for transfers into mass effect 2 so you wont be able to load mid game saves only completed playthroughs into the next game. and from my understanding you wont be able to load your mass effect 2 save into mass effect 3 if shepard dies at the end of mass effect 2, shepard is the protagonist of the entire trilogy, so while him dying at the end might make a great ending that playthrough wont do you any good for mass effect 2, but i could be wrong
I like that. I've wanted to see more games that can end in "permanent" player death. Still, I'd rather that he hadn't told us about it. Ruins the surprise. :\
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(# 0) on 06/17/2009 21:55
(# 1) on 06/17/2009 21:58
I just hope his death having an impact down the road in the next game isn't one of those awesome game points that is eventually left out of the final product.
(# 2) on 06/17/2009 22:04
(# 3) on 06/17/2009 22:07
(# 4) on 06/17/2009 23:15
(# 5) on 06/18/2009 00:14
(# 6) on 06/18/2009 00:42
(# 7) on 06/18/2009 07:48
I'm going to be all about ME2 when it launches. I love the first and like what they seem to be teaking for the sequel.
(# 8) on 06/18/2009 12:09
(# 9) on 06/18/2009 12:51
(# 10) on 06/18/2009 14:55
(# 11) on 06/19/2009 18:28
Ahh whatever I'll play the shit out of it.