Mass Effect 2 Preview

The Mass Effect 2 love keeps on coming. Following on from our hands-on preview, and our massive interview with BioWare's own Dr. Ray Muzyka, allow us to draw your attention to this juicy chat with lead technical artist Adrien Cho. In it, he talks plot, returning characters, and Shepard going emo.

VideoGamer.com: Mass Effect 2 seems to be bringing over loads of plot from Mass Effect. How are you making Mass Effect 2 accessible for those who have never played Mass Effect?

Adrien Cho: Trying to solve how to incorporate the many different ways you could have played Mass Effect 1 and how we pay respects to that in Mass Effect 2, and then also have to bring in someone who hasn't played Mass Effect 1, it was the same ball of design issue. We spent as much care as to try and make sure it was rewarding for all the players who spent 60, 80, 100 hours on their playthroughs in Mass 1, and making sure all their choices had significant and meaningful impact in Mass 2. Anyone who's played through Mass 1 is in for a real treat to see how that pans out. I could ruin it, but there are some cool things that happen. And at the same time, we knew the fact that, you know what? We want to broaden the audience. We knew there were going to be people who maybe didn't finish Mass 1 or are new to the universe we've created. That's fine. We made it our goal to make it as accessible and as easy as possible for them to get up to speed and feel right at home.

VideoGamer.com: How have you done that? Will the game have a five minute cinematic prologue that begins: "Previously on Mass Effect…"

AC: I can't spoil too much, but definitely the prologue of the game sets things up very easy. It won't leave anyone behind. You'll be able to understand the objectives in the game pretty fast, and then veterans of Mass Effect 1 will also feel like they're right back at home, so to speak. As the game pans out, for people who have played Mass, they'll start seeing some of the deeper implications and it'll be more inside stuff. For the player who's new to it, it'll just be, oh okay, that's what happened. It's always, you're bringing in the new audience but definitely there are rewards for those familiar with the existing IP.

VideoGamer.com: Has Shepard gone emo? He looks like he's wearing eye-liner.

AC: [Laughs] Ah you know, he's metrosexual… nah! Not much has changed with Shepard. We've tweaked the eyes a bit. Just certain things. But he's the same bad-ass character from Mass 1.

VideoGamer.com: He seems like he might be nastier. A bit more willing to push someone out of a window or shoot them in cold blood.

AC: As the story progresses, you'll discover there's some tough stuff he's faced with. He's always been a character that's been on edge. That's the appealing factor. He's faced with tough choices. We wanted to put players in a position of, here is a large, holistic goal, and to solve it you're going to be faced with a lot of grey areas. It's not just black and white. So you might have to do some morally questionable things to save the galaxy. You might have to get blood on your hands. We've seen that. It's a common thread we've had in Mass 1 and continues on in Mass 2. That's the appeal of it. It's like, I have to kill someone. Ah you know, I'm saving the universe. People relish those choices, because in life we're always faced with these moral decisions. This is just on a much grander scale. Role-playing's about giving people these experiences they might not be able to experience in real life. What would you do if you were tasked with saving the universe and you had to kill hundreds of people, but in doing so maybe you can save billions of sentient beings in the galaxy? How would you go about it?