Mass Effect 2 Interview: Expect “Lots” of DLC and More Shooter

According to BioWare Associate Producer Jesse Houston, we should expect “lots” of downloadable content for Mass Effect 2. In conversation with The Review Crew on the CES floor, Houston also discussed the BioWare’s evolution in making a shooter that is also an RPG, the expansion of the ME universe, and how lessons learned from ME1 make ME2 (to be released Jan. 26) a much more refined experience.

For more detail on our hands-on experience with the finished game, check out this story.

Houston, who (along with his team) was responsible storytelling, builds, and interfaces, explained that BioWare had to be educated when it came to downloadable content. He admitted that the company “didn’t realize how much fans crave DLC” and that, therefore, DLC development was not integrated as part of the overall development of the original game. With positive response about DLC (for the most part) from the gamer community and the financial success of DLC for other games such as Grand Theft Auto 4 and Dragon Age: Origins, it makes sense for BioWare to do more in this area.

“We took a lot of learning from Mass 1 and fixed a lot of the problems so we could make DLC more smoothly,” said Houston. “Expect a lot more because the process is a lot nicer, from a development perspective, than it was in [ME1]”

“This time around, we know that people want lots of it so we have a much more aggressive and long-term plan [for DLC].”

BioWare also learned what to fix in ME2. Houston said the development of a sequel relied heavily on changes recommended by players and reviewers.

“After Mass 1, we took stock of the feedback we were getting,” said Houston. The team then made made a long list of gripes, and went through it complaint by complaint. For example: “everyone complained about elevators so we said ‘alright, let’s get rid of elevators’.”

Other changes to the game included a totally revamped inventory system, a new combat system with cover that pulls liberally from Gears of War, a more intuitive system of combat controls, improved frame rate throughout the game, and changes to the AI.

“The AI is vastly improved,” said Houston, explaining that for example, each enemy type will act in a way that is relevant to that character. “Krogan feel a lot more like Krogan,” he said as an example. “These guys you expect to be in your face and they will be in your face.”

For a company known for its deftness in creating story-driven role playing games, a shooter RPG was certainly seen a departure (however successful) for the developer. Houston said that while RPG may have been the history of the company, Bioware has worked hard, especially in the development of ME2, to make this a well-received shooter as well.

“This time we focused on both the RPG aspect and the shooter aspects,” said Houston. “This time around we had a combat team whose job is to make a better shooter game play experience while maintaining an RPG–that’s really unique for us.” Now that the combat team has completed ME2, they are well-entrenched into Bioware and will continue into Mass Effect 3.

“It’s an integral part of the Mass experience to have that team helping out with AI [and] the overall combat experience,” said Houston.

Fans of the ME universe will have already noticed the growth of the intellectual property since the first game was released in late 2007. Books, comics, and an iPhone/iPod Touch game are likely just the beginning since IP expansion is becoming a major strategy within the industry.

“We’re going to keep on doing this kind of thing,” said Houston. “You’ll find that they [IP extensions] will always play into the main game.”

As with the web-based Dragon Age: Journeys, Mass Effect Galaxy (the iPhone/iPod Touch game that gives insight into back stories for a couple of ME2 characters) will also unlock bonuses within ME2 via EA Online. Although Houston couldn’t give much detail on what exactly will be unlocked, he did say it is related to your interactions with a salarian informant name Ish who appears in both Galaxy and ME2.