Bioware Exclusive Interview

We continue our Mass Effect 2 coverage with an exclusive chat with Bioware founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk…

How does Bioware’s approach to narrative in Mass Effect differ to the one taking in Dragon Age Origins?

Ray Muzyka
They’re very different, which is really fun because they are both different approaches to narrative. One is a third person narrative the other is a first person, whether you’re a protagonist or observing a character or directing Commander Shepard, but they both succeed in making you feel something, which really our vision is to deliver emotionally engaging narrative and just make players feel like they’re part of it. Feel like they’re part of an emotionally charged story and they’ll get a great reward from that. Both games do it in different ways but both achieve that goal…

Greg Zeschuk
It’s very iterative, I think what happens in a story is that you’ll often end up with the initial ark and then you’ll start writing characters and you ultimately end up with this really complex web and that’s where the testing comes in. There tends to be certain events that happen throughout the course of a game and depending what happens within them they go on to spawn new directions so it’s always about this growing story. It’s a huge advantage from our perspective of having that extremely personalised experience. Two people can sit down and discuss their experiences and while they may be similar to a point, there will be an instance where they diverge massively. It’s incredible and for us it was when we were making Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic that’s when it really struck us. It seems to be such a powerful experience, because you’re crafting your choices and there is a decision path through the entire world, but the story is yours in the end.

R
We have dozens of writers working on Mass Effect 2, but there’re different kinds of narrative as well. We have different kinds of designers that focus on different aspects of things and even the level design of a certain area can help the story flow. You see games like Bioshock and other games like that where the narrative is as much driven through the experience of exploration as it is the game. But our storytellers, the writers we have on our team are a key part of what we do. Historically Bioware games have been driven by the writing and it’s the foundation that everything else is built around but we’re broadening that view now to incorporate other kinds of narrative and certainly the other kinds of designers on the teams are really important to the experience. But the writing is challenging, not all writers can make the leap from linear narrative like you see in films and books to videogames, which is a non-linear narrative with tons of permutations and combinations, which leads to that experience of “did you see this!” when you’re talking to your friends. A lot of the time they might say; “No, I didn’t see that at all, I did it this way”. That’s a moment of discovery and joy that players are able to share, which is one of the reasons we’re sharing the Heroic Journey on the Dragon Age social network. We want to share those stories, we want to show the diversity of choice that this great writing is enables when you have non-linear story.  I think our goal is to use the social network for a variety of things and we obviously want to deploy it as much as we can with Dragon Age, Mass Effect and other projects in the future.

G
That was one of the whole concepts was that ability to take virtual personal experience that you have and share it with your friends.

Are you happy with the progress Mass Effect 2 has made?

R
The quality of the experience just blows me away. The team is so passionate and they’re so engaged they’re using a foundation they built with a lot of blood sweat and tears with the first game and now they’re having the fun. They’re having a really fun experience building the sequel that’s part of this planned trilogy so it’s always been part of our goal to expand out the universe of Mass Effect and because we’re developing it with tools and a frame work and engine we’ve used for a while we’re able to build really high quality experience. The intensity of the shooter is really amazing, it feels as much like a shooter as it does an RPG. We certainly haven’t sat on our laurels for the characters, exploration of the world and just the graphics, the quality and their fidelity, the technical improvements, the frame rate is rock solid. So many things are improved that it’s hard to list them all, but it’s across the board. They made a list of everything they wanted to fix in the first game and improved based on fan feedback and press feedback, pretty much every single one of them is being addressed and we’re not losing anything.

G
I think with Mass Effect the RPG under lining was never specifically the traditional RPG system. It certainly took inspiration from it and I think the fact that in a shooter a headshot should be a headshot, that’s even stronger in Mass Effect 2. So, really a lot of the RPG elements are focused on the customisation and progression and some of things like the armour customisation, you can really do a lot more than before. The key thing being the shooter should still legitimately feel like a shooter. One of the things you have to be very careful to balance is when you have sniper rifle aimed at a guy you don’t want to be shooting bullets that fly off. I’ve got him in my sights, I pull the trigger and the bullet goes over there because my skill’s no good. These were things in the first ME that we started with, like having your skill dictate how much you can move and we’ve been refining that because we wanted to really strengthen that. Structurally, it’s now really streamlined a lot of the RPG systems are there in different ways for us we really wanted to keep the things that were strong in Mass Effect like the combat intensity and the overall cinematic quality and the emotional nature of the narrative and make sure the rest of it is at the same level. I think that’s one of the most exciting things and challenges for the team. The advantages of starting with all the technology is we can focus on just making the shooting fun, there’s always a delicate balance of the RPG elements…

R
It really feels like a new genre, a shooter/RPG. There’re not too many examples of games that would put in that kind of choice that would have the same depth of exploration, the progression system the story and the narrative and all the choices but also have a shooter combat experience that feels very precise. Mass Effect 2 is somewhat unique in that it has that depth and intensity all in one package, which I think millions of fans enjoy those kinds of games, it’s a fairly accessible experience.

G
People are fairly blown away by the shooting experience, we’ve been consistently giving press hands-on and they’re almost always blown away.

R
One of the things that people have called out that they really loved in the first game is the narrative flow, the characterisation and the emotional intensity, Mass Effect has amped that all up. The interrupt system will happen periodically and they’re kind of like a random element of surprise where you can just get impatient, “No I’ve had it!” It’s almost a mini-game in a way in how the dialogue system works. It’s the difference between having a first person narrative like in Dragon Age, which is very engaging and you really feel like you’re saying the lines. Whereas in Mass Effect you’re directing in the third person where Shepard’s narrative should go, choose a general direction for him. Is he going to be nice or angry or happy, is he going to intimidate or persuade and then something happens. With the interrupt system because you don’t know what he’s going to do. But it’s fun.

G
Yeah, it’s a voyeuristic guilty pleasure.

R
Our investment is more with the non-player characters and the way they react back to you and it isn’t visible when you play it but behind the scenes it’s almost like an iceberg depending on what origin story you choose. There are always these non-visible choices that you only see if you choose a different path. It’s really a customised experience, deeply and personally.

G
It’s funny, because you don’t fully appreciate the depth that’s there until you play it multiple times.
Are there more than one returning character in Mass Effect 2?

R
Some will. You’ll find out what happens to your favourite characters from Mass Effect one. We’re not disclosing which ones might become part of your party. Some will, some won’t, but there’s always reasons for whether they do or don’t but we’ll reveal more of that over time.

G
Also, if you’re importing a save game, the characters that were already dead will stay dead.

R
That’s going to be reflected in your personal experiences. Keep your save games, load them in and you will definitely see the benefits from doing that.

G
It also feels like the story continues, I think that’s something where we are the first game to do something like that on the 360. We did something similar in the Baulder’s Gate days but there wasn’t even the technical capacity to do it on console until we started the process.

R
For us it was a very important part of the trilogy, for the continuity because we’ve always said we wanted to deliver this trilogy so the fans could experience it and have the continuity of it and we’re delivering that.

G
In any trilogy the middle piece is always very challenging to build. Is it just a stepping-stone to the end? I think what you have to do is create some kind of internal conflict that occurs that will generate a real engagement with the viewer.

R
You definitely don’t have to have played the original to play Mass Effect 2. You’ll get rewarded if you have played it, you’ll have a different experience as you’ll have a different context to some of the experiences but it’s a seamless standalone adventure in its own right. That’s really the philosophy that we’ve approached it with, we recognise that not everybody’s going to play each of the games but if they do they’ll have different experience. The story has no requirement of prior knowledge.

The controls a bit different to reflect the enhanced shooter experience we are trying to create. It’s actually a lot better but naturally we’ll have tutorials.

Well, that’s a relief. So, expect tutorials in Mass Effect 2!