Rumor: First Mass Effect 2 details

[velocity3k]

Some Mass Effect 2 details are floating around the web and they apparently originate from a now deleted Gamespot post. Here are just a few of the details: the game will have up to 5-player CO-OP, there will be a Multiplayer component called Survival and Battles will be on a much larger scale (reported scale is the same as in Gears of War 2). Just rumored details for now.

Rumored Mass Effect 2 details:

-Platforms: Xbox 360, PC

-Release date: Xbox 360 - November 2009 (Worldwide), PC - TBA 2010

-Developer: BioWare, with support from EA and Microsoft Games Studios

-Publisher: EA

-Engine: Unreal Engine 3 (Custom)

-Mass Effect 2 is a 6-month timed exclusive game for the Xbox 360

-The same team that worked on Mass Effect is working on Mass Effect 2

-Mass Effect 2 has been in development since July 2007,

total development time for Mass Effect 2 will be 28 Months

-The story in Mass Effect 2 will continue 2 months after Mass Effect

-The story will not continue depending on the last decision made by the player in Mass Effect, it will however continue after the PC version ending

-The character created in Mass Effect can be transported into Mass Effect 2 via save-files

-Level cap has been increased to Level 120

-Physics will be power by Havok

-Bioware has spent an enormous time on facial animations and charater movement animations, so expect animation quality to be at the very top.

-BioWare is using the Unreal Engnine 3 for graphics, with many custom changes made, graphics will be better than in Gears of War 2

-Water is confirmed to have fluid simulation, also, if a player or NPC dies on water, the players body will slowly sink, this also applies to weapons and certain objects

-The Game Over sequence has been reduced to 1.78 Seconds, due to complains from fans over the long Game Over sequence in Mass Effect

-Mass Effect 2 will have up to 5-player CO-OP, depending on the host players decision of how many players will be able to assist him/her

-There will be a Multiplayer component called Survival, where players will crash on a planet and battle to survive against endless hordes of enemies, the score will be determined on how many enemies will be killed and how much time players will be able to survive, there is no end to this mode, it's a very similar mode to Gears of War 2's Horde.

-Armor has to be repaired, armor will also react to different weapons,

bullets will damage it, fire will melt it, ice will freeze it,...

-The player can now lead a squad of 2-5 members, the player decides how many squad members will be on each mission

-The Citadel is now much larger, and whenever a player visits the Citadel all members of the players squad go with him/her, the squad will interact with other NPC's if you allow them to

-Battles wil be on a much larger scale, reported scale is the same as in Gears of War 2

-There will 2 more classes added to the aditional classes from the first game

-The Galaxy has been expanded, you can now explore 8 times more planets than in Mass Effect, also, every planet now has a bigger scale, players will be able to set up small bases on planets with a sustainable atmosphere

-The player will be able to create mines near resources and send resources to Earth or by the decision of the player mine illegaly and collect all resources for him/her self

-Weapons can be upgraded and customized, the weapon arsenal has been expanded, the player can now carry a bionic arm on each arm, the player can dual wield not just pistols, but also shotguns and semi-automatic weapons

-One new weapon is called "The Scilary", it's a missile based weapon, the player marks a targed on the ground and then shoots a missile into the air, the missile is then split into multiple pieces and hits the target and an area around it

-The player can now equip a knife, the knife can be customized and upgraded, the knife can also be used with different powers, i.e. the knife can be thrown and then brought back, the knife will also react to environment hazards, i.e. a knife over fire will cause it to catch fire and eventually melt

-There will be Boss Battles in the game

-Depending on the decision made by the player on Noveria to either spare or kill the Rachni, they will assist you during a crucial time or you will be left alone

-Preston Watamaniuk, the Lead Designer hints at more and larger environment hazards,

for example a volcano erruption than can destroy a base built by the player, another example is an ice storm of different colors, dependning on the planets atmosphere

-The primary planetary exploration vehicle can now be upgraded and customized,

it can also be expanded to carry up to 4 members of your squad

-The armor can now be upgraded and customized to the players liking, similar to the weapon customization, the player can now select a certain part of the armor, i.e. the left shoulder and put a small picture on it, i.e. the Earth's flag

-The second mission will be to save a squad member that was believed to be dead in Mass Effect, depending on the decision made on planet Virmire (the cloning facility mission), you will have to rescue the squad member left behind,

the story will explain how the squad member survived the detonation

-Planet Eden Prime can now be visited, explored and the player can now build his own house on the planet, same with many other planets

-The total number of interactive NPC's you can talk to is around 3000,

total number of NPC's in Mass Effect 2 is unknown

Source | http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=158

[what]

Sounds brilliant in every way.

[Minimoose]

If these are true then it's going to be awesome! I can't wait.

Dual wielding shotguns :laugh:

[Mathachew Veteran]

Man, that's a load of details

[IceBreakerG]

I dunno if I can believe all of these details yet, but if they are true, then it sounds badass. I started playing Mass Effect again a couple weeks ago to try and get my character to level 60. I'm about either level 54 or 55 now though. The first time I played it, i was good, and got all of the paragon points. This time I'm going for the renegade points, and unfortunately I killed the rachni this time around lol. Looks like I may have to play it one more time after this and keep a little bit of help.

[Massiveterra]

Although I am impressed with that list, I hope the game isn't too long and requires too much inventory management. One reason I loved the first game is because it didn't take 60+ hrs and made me OCD about leveling up and managing my inventory. The first game really opened my eyes to how a great action RPG should be. But then again, if it has 5 player co-op I highly doubt this would happen

[+Jester124 Subscriber²]

-Developer: BioWare, with support from EA and Microsoft Games Studios

-Mass Effect 2 is a 6-month timed exclusive game for the Xbox 360

I dont know if anyone else finds it wierd that they would have MGS as a dev but go multi-console. Good list... but untill official info's released I'm taking all of this with a grain of salt.

[Massiveterra]

-Mass Effect 2 is a 6-month timed exclusive game for the Xbox 360

I dont know if anyone else finds it wierd that they would have MGS as a dev but go multi-console. Good list... but untill official info's released I'm taking all of this with a grain of salt.

they may be talking about 360 vs PC

[+Jester124 Subscriber²]

they may be talking about 360 vs PC

Good point. completely forgot about that. But then again most 360/PC games are still labeled as 360 exclusives....

[qdave]

awesome, its on pc too!

"

-Developer: BioWare, with support from EA and Microsoft Games Studios"

thats cool too!

what would be even better is mass effect 1 on pc before me2 is released.

[Kronir]

awesome, its on pc too!

"

-Developer: BioWare, with support from EA and Microsoft Games Studios"

thats cool too!

what would be even better is mass effect 1 on pc before me2 is released.

...Mass Effect is on PC. :D

If these ME2 details prove true, this will be very, very impressive. I wouldn't expect a release for about two years, at least.

[Massiveterra]

Yup it was released on the PC a little while back.

ME1 is probably the best graphics I've seen on the 360. It's hard for me to imagine how much better the presentation will be.

[Sethos]

ME1 is probably the best graphics I've seen on the 360.

Too bad performance stunk.

[qdave]

Yup it was released on the PC a little while back.

ME1 is probably the best graphics I've seen on the 360. It's hard for me to imagine how much better the presentation will be.

wow how the hell did it miss it! :|

i always thought it was xbox360 only.

anyway mates thanks for good news..will have to pick up a copy in the immediate future :)

[Lighthalzen]

OMG, I can't wait to continue my journey in ME2!!! Such a great story line and it was very engaging. If that list is true, I would be more happy as it will bring the game to another level!

[Massiveterra]

Too bad performance stunk.

to be honest I only noticed 2 or 3 times where the frame rate dipped noticeably. other than that, the texture pop-ins didn't bother me much. I was too busy being enthralled by an amazing game.

[what]

Yup it was released on the PC a little while back.

ME1 is probably the best graphics I've seen on the 360. It's hard for me to imagine how much better the presentation will be.

yeah, the graphics were good, but the game sure did suffer when there was a lot going on. I'd rather see them optimise the graphics rather than improve them.

EDIT: i guess that's what you get when you wait too long to make the post :p

[Noveed]

one of the best games ever made is getting a sequel which will be even better cant wait, loved the graphics and story of the first, with the sound of this information its going to be improved upon :D

[MR.T]

How about they make the new game less boring than the old one. All the side quests and planets had nothing on them. All you got was money, which you used to buy arms and armor that wasn't that special to start with because you could find them in every level. I mean really, there was no reason what so ever to play any side quests other than for their stories.

My biggest issue with the game was that it was very unpolished and cheaply made. All the downed probes, bases, and stuff looked the same. Every level you entered had exactly the same layout. The interior might be filled with boxes but the shape of the whole level was exactly the same. The most ridicules thing was that in space stations you could see through the glass walls and see the color of the soil of the planet... it was always red, even if the planet was green or blue. The planets themselves were boring as hell, nearly empty with little or no life and no vegetation. I've seen better randomly generated planets by amateur programmers.

The most annoying thing I think though was that you could just exit out of chests you opened. If you didn't have room in your inventory you ether had to destroy one of you items or destroy the item in the box. You couldn't just grab everything in the box ether, you had to manually take each item even if your inventory had plenty of room. There is no excuse for this it was absolutely retarded. They should have spent more time on the PC port too, the interface should have been adjusted for PC users.

The first game had a fun story line, but RPGs need a fun world and side quests too. Which Mass Effect completely lacked. I think it could have been an incredible game though, it just seemed quickly and cheaply made by lazy developers.

[McSmiggins]

-The story in Mass Effect 2 will continue 2 months after Mass Effect

Eh? Did the PC version only have one ending?

[Covert Bear]

Sounds too good to be true, almost like any Mass Effect players dream sequel.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Eh? Did the PC version only have one ending?

No, it had the same number of endings in the Xbox 360 version (which is 2, IIRC). These juicy details seem great. I hope they're all true. I'm tempted to get it as soon as it's released but my Xbox 360 is currently broken. I'll probably wait for it to come out on the PC platform, just as I did with the first one.

Mass Effect 2 FTW! :D

[Xerxes]

Sounds awesome :woot: even if only half of those are true, it's gonna be great :happy: I definitely can't wait to get ME2 :)

[CrisCr0ss]

-Weapons can be upgraded and customized, the weapon arsenal has been expanded, the player can now carry a bionic arm on each arm, the player can dual wield not just pistols, but also shotguns and semi-automatic weapons

dual wield shotguns?

hope some are true, i hope they get rid of the long elevator rides

[George P Global Moderator]

I always thought ME had just 1 ending, I never did play through it all the way a 2nd time, so I guess I'm wrong?

What's the difference if you save or don't save the counsel or w/e?