Mass Effect 2 associate producer Jesse Houston has talked about some of the nuts and bolts of their upcoming sci-fi RPG epic.
Plot details are great and everything – and I defy anyone to read about a fishman assassin and not think it’s even a little bit cool – but hearing about the technical aspects of an game, and especially how they will impact on gameplay, carries its own unique thrill. So rejoice then, because Jesse Houston, associate producer for Mass Effect 2, sat down with VG247 at Gamescon and chatted about some of the technology that powers the game.
Every system in Mass Effect 2 seems to be getting an upgrade, with conversations more fluid and diverse and lighting used to better effect: “We’re doing new stuff that we’d never thought about doing before. You know, having conversations in cars, walking, having tons of people in (a conversation). We’d never thought we were going to be able to do conversations with eight guys in them, but we do … Obviously, there are visual improvements as well. We ripped out the lighting system and put in a new lighting system, and that affects the whole game.”
BioWare have also spent time trying to fix some of the issues from the first game. When asked about if the combat controls were more precise now, Houston replied: “Absolutely. It’s not just the control system. If you look at most good shooters, they lock down frame-rate at 30FPS: we’ve done the same thing… You’ll feel that the controls, the animation and the FPS combine to make for a faster gameplay experience, and a smoother experience.”
Mass Effect 2 is scheduled for release early next year.
