We feel reasonably comfortable in stating that Mass Effect is this generation's definitive character-driven series - a miracle of narrative sophistication that also happens, against all odds, to be a miracle of choice and flexibility. With Mass Effect 3 just over a month from curtains-up, is it too early to think about what comes next? Executive producer Michael Gamble is happy to talk possibilities. Check out our chat from last week's EA Showcase below, and head over to the Mass Effect 3 hub for further BioWare insights.
You're on the final straight. Is the game finished?
Do you tend to make many last minute changes at BioWare?
It's all about getting the best quality we can get, so if something has to change, we'll change it. We'll pull out all stops to do it, so it won't prevent us shipping the game. Even in the last week we've made some changes, we've made some tweaks, we're constantly refining things. It's not done till it's literally out of our hands. At the same time you have to be considerate of wanting to hit the ship dates, so it's a bit of a balance.
Why did you delay the demo?
We just wanted to polish it, make it the best possible demo we could have done. We wanted to make it as robust as we could, and add as much stuff in there that was final final content. And that's basically what you'll see on the 14th - stuff that's just days away from final.
There's been a certain amount of fan fracas about the high action content of your trailers. What have you learned about promoting RPGs during your time with Mass Effect?
When you're promoting an RPG, you have to understand what your core strengths are. I think with Mass Effect 3 it's our ability to invoke really tight emotional responses from players. So what you do with demos and trailers is you capitalise as much as you can on that. So for the trailers, obviously we wanted to paint the picture of an impending galactic war.
The Mass Effect series straddles a shift in how RPGs are made - there aren't as many raw numbers floating around, and the choices you make are more intuitive. Can you talk a little about that?
It's definitely a learning process. In between Mass Effect 2 and 3 we took a lot of the fan feedback, a lot of the things that we've seen, and we've rolled some of those changes back in Mass Effect 3. Your story is customised around your Shepard and who you are - we stay faithful to that concept, but we did want to bring back some of the really stats-driven customisation options for those kind of players who like that stuff.
6 comments so far...
DP0000 on 3 Feb '12 said:
Re: next games. I would love to see a game (full sized or perhaps more suited to DLC) played from an Asari viewpoint. The timescale of the game would be hundreds of years, during which time key events prior to ME1 will play out. You might do missions with (or against) certain humans, then decades later meet them again or later work with their children or grandchildren.
Gouldfish on 6 Apr '12 said:
I'd love an MMO of the Cycle before, like what they did with SWTOR then you have a clean slate to do what you please
cyclekarl on 8 Jun '12 said:
If there is to be another Mass Effect game,make it and RPG with a shooting element like the first game and not a shooter with a few watered down RPG elements like the last two,get rid of multi-player and kinect bring back the mako or similar ground vehicle all be it tweaked to handle properly,make every-thing customisable such as the armour for the main player and crew,civilian clothing for non combat missions for every-one,customisable ship and mako upgrades,get rid of fuel depots,scan for minerals just like in the first game by visiting planet surfaces,although make planets more appealing this time with more to see and do and with plant an animal life,make the buildings more varied and home-like and not just another level to shoot in,bring back the vastness of the Citadel and include area's from all 3 games plus new ones for the new game,make NPC's move around go to bed and do different things other than stand there all day,have more side quests non combat ones would also be nice like representing someone in court or investigating crimes or even taking pictures ,have night time missions requiring night vision and torch light,have much more cites to visit and add mini games,get rid of auto dialogue except in cut scenes,bring back the third option in conversations and why not even have more and make the game at least twice as long as before without added DLC,and lastly out with crappy endings.
cyclekarl on 8 Jun '12 said:
Yes that sounds nice I like your idea.
Ryder219 on 11 Jun '12 said:
I would like to see in mass effect 4 a what if Shepard had a kid and that kid, whoever the mother was to be as great as Shepard and find another species that threatens to destroy everything, and they would make that kid whoevers kid it was by uploading from mass effect 3 who your lover was, and yep that's bout all they can fill in the rest however they want
cyclekarl on 9 Jul '12 said:
The Mass Effect series started off brilliantly then went down hill gradually until where it is now a tacky lazily made gears of war in the Mass effect universe so I suspect the developer will keep this up and streamline it even more,I suspect the next mass effect will be a full on first person shooter with auto dialogue throughout and sexual innuendoes,the only way it could return to it's former glory is if another company makes it that isn't affiliated to EA,I bought ME2 on the strength of the first game and ME3 on the strength of the second,so I certainly won't be buying the 4th version as 3 had so many faults and stupid plot holes and way too many suggestive sexual scenes in it,but I suspect whatever they make will sell by the bucket load as cheap tacky mainstream publications appeal to the masses.