Mass Effect 2 - The Engineer Class

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Mass Effect 2 - The Engineer Class

Post by Shir'le E. Illios »

Last week BioWare revealed details on the Engineer class for Mass Effect 2. With the Adept and the Vanguard already revealed, that leaves the Soldier, the Sentinel and the Infiltrator.

IGN [url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/dor/objects/142350 ... 9:24189jqb]has a movie[/url:24189jqb] showing the Engineer class, some of its abilities and what kind of gameplay to expect with the class:

[center:24189jqb][html] <object id='ignplayer' width='480' height='270' data='http://media.ign.com/ev/embed.swf' type='application/x-shockwave-flash'><param name='movie' value='http://media.ign.com/ev/embed.swf' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='allowscriptaccess' value='always' /><param name='bgcolor' value='#000000' /><param name='flashvars' value='vgroup=masseffect2_trl_engineer_120309&object=14235019'/></object>[/html][/center:24189jqb]
To accompany the video (or perhaps the other way around) IGN also has [url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/105/10522 ... l:24189jqb]an interview with lead combat designer Christina Norman[/url:24189jqb]. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:24189jqb][b:24189jqb]IGN: What sort of play style is the Engineer built for?[/b:24189jqb]

[b:24189jqb]Christina Norman[/b:24189jqb]: When we started working on the Mass Effect 2 Engineer we asked the community what they enjoyed about playing the Engineer in Mass Effect 1. It was amazing how many different responses we received explaining why each person loved their Engineer.

With that said, I think Engineers will really appeal to players who like thinking their way through combat. More than any other class, the Engineer has the ability to shape the flow of battle by summoning, hacking, and debuffing enemies. For a master engineer, shooting an enemies is seen as an overly simplistic brute force approach to battle.[/quote:24189jqb]
Next to the Engineer class there are a few other articles as well. The first couple are all about the conference call that BioWare held. The first of these is [url=http://kotaku.com/5419323/mass-effect-2 ... r:24189jqb]from Kotaku[/url:24189jqb]; here’s an excerpt:

[quote:24189jqb]During a recent conference call about Mass Effect 2, BioWare CEO Dr. Ray Muzyka stressed the importance of emotional engagement in the game by mentioning the phrase "emotionally engaging" over and over again.

The conference call was an odd one. Instead of asking questions directly, we either submitted them ahead of time or delivered them to a moderator while on the call, who then imparted them to Dr. Ray, so I've no real idea who asked what questions during the call. For all I know, I was the only one there. Hell, I might not have been there. It's all fuzzy.

The call mainly covered ground that we've already covered in one form or another, so rather than rehash points we're already aware of, I thought I'd simply harp on how much Dr. Ray enjoys using the phrase "emotionally engaging."[/quote:24189jqb]
Gaming Target takes a bit more informative approach as they [url=http://www.gamingtarget.com/article.php ... 1:24189jqb]list a couple of the questions[/url:24189jqb]; with excerpt following:

[quote:24189jqb][b:24189jqb][color=red:24189jqb]Patrick Mulhern:[/color:24189jqb][/b:24189jqb] Mass Effect had pretty basic squad commands, go here, kill this, regroup, etc. Is Mass Effect going to offer any additional micro management?

[b:24189jqb][color=blue:24189jqb]Ray Muzyka:[/color:24189jqb][/b:24189jqb] Yea. Some of the differences might seem small, but they add up to a huge impact in aggregate. For example, you can deploy your troops at different points on a battlefield, and that actually leads to a lot of tactical depth. You can outflank enemies, try to create a positional advantage, try to create an ambush. It’s just cool to play different scenarios to see if you can lure enemies in or trap them, take them out one at a time or focus your attacks on one enemy.

The abilities are easy to access for each of your characters, so you can chose different tactics in battles; biotic abilities, tech abilities, changing ammo is loaded on to the power wheel as well. It’s really easy to access that. It makes a material differences in battle depending which ammo you select. We tried to refine the interface to make it really easy to have complete control of the battlefield, and yet make that really easy to access at the same time.[/quote:24189jqb]
But perhaps more useful is the article at Gaming Nexus, which seems to simply have posted [url=http://www.gamingnexus.com/Article/Mass ... x:24189jqb]the entire interview[/url:24189jqb]. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:24189jqb][b:24189jqb]The inventory system of Mass Effect was fairly streamlined and some players thought it inhibited character customization. How is the inventory system changed with Mass Effect 2?[/b:24189jqb]
There are two different ways to answer this. One of them is that we built all the interfaces from the ground up. From the feedback received, we wanted to try to deliver a really deep customizable experience. One of the ways we're providing that is enabling even more tactical depth than [b:24189jqb]Mass 1[/b:24189jqb], but we're trying to make it even easier to use and more accessible. It’s got that richness and depth and it’s incredibly accessible. Part of the way that works is that we really want to focus on the intensity of the combat experience when you're in the heat of action, and then when you're preparing for the missions we want to provide all the different choices and different tactics and allow you to select your squad and really customize the equipment and every detail that you want to customize – should you want to do so. The choices you make are going to have tremendous impact on the way that the game unfolds, and as you explore or as you progress through the game you engage in different types of combat.

The way we approached it is taking all the feedback from the first game. Our first principle was to rebuild the interfaces in Mass Effect 2 to make sure that in every case possible we're improving them and improving the depth and the richness of the experience at the same time. When you play it you'll understand how it works in terms of equipping your party: it’s really straightforward and really easy, but it’s really deep as well. It's got a lot of different choices, a lot of progression, and abilities as well. It ties into the exploration aspect, too, so it’s such that as you explore the galaxy you find new kinds of research and modifications for your weapons and armor and so on. You can have new equipment and it’s really up to you to discover those things. If you do so, you're going to be even more badass at combat.[/quote:24189jqb]
Moving away from the conference call GameSpy has a [url=http://uk.xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/ ... l:24189jqb]rumored leaked DLC plans[/url:24189jqb] for the game:

[quote:24189jqb]Some loose-lipped tipster has potentially blown the lid off BioWare's downloadable content plans for its upcoming RPG [url=http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/mas ... l:24189jqb]Mass Effect 2[/url:24189jqb]. According to [url=http://www.destructoid.com/retailer-tra ... l:24189jqb]D'toid[/url:24189jqb], pictures were posted which detail planned episodic content, weapons and armor packs and new downloadable characters.

[quote:24189jqb]It lists, specifically in the Xbox LIVE Features section, "planned episodic combat via DLC," weapon and armor packs, new downloadable characters for the "campaign experience," new downloadable worlds, as well as "full campaign expansions for download."

It also mentions that the game will carry "periodic updates," which features DLC, via Mass Effect 2's unannounced in-game "Cerberus Network."[/quote:24189jqb]
While it's unlikely that either [url=http://www.gamespy.com/company/026/026717.html:24189jqb]BioWare[/url:24189jqb] or Microsoft will come clean on this rumor until next year, it's definitely worth noting that this information seemed to be targeting the Xbox 360 release of the game, and not the PC version.[/quote:24189jqb]
Kotaku, on the other hand, [url=http://kotaku.com/5419999/completely-ne ... r:24189jqb]comments[/url:24189jqb] on how the elevator rides from the first game are now apparently replaced with standard loading screens. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:24189jqb]BioWare's taken a lot of crap for the Mass Effect elevators - it's sort of their horse armor - and really, it's unreasonable to expect a game of this depth to not have loading screens. It'll be on two discs, after all. Maybe they have sped up the wait times. Provided loading times are not ridiculously long, loading screens are a minor and expected inconvenience of gaming, and really not worth outsmarting ourselves over it.[/quote:24189jqb]
I’m not sure I agree with him. Sure, the elevator rides could be long and that could’ve definitely been cleaned up. And I can imagine some other improvements could be made as well (such as allowing the player to actually [i:24189jqb]do[/i:24189jqb] something), but they definitely helped with immersion by not breaking you out to a loading screen. If the choice is between a long elevator ride and a long loading screen, or between a short elevator ride and a short loading screen, then in either case my vote would go to the former.

Anyway, the last article for now is an [url=http://videogamesdaily.com/interviews/2 ... /:24189jqb]interview with producer Adrien Cho[/url:24189jqb] over at Video Games Daily. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:24189jqb][b:24189jqb]VGD[/b:24189jqb]: And you were an artist originally, so presumably you’ve had a personal investment in this aspect of the product.

[b:24189jqb]Cho[/b:24189jqb]: I was lead tech on Mass 1, and I continued to do that role a bit into Mass 2, but I evolved into more of a production role, and I gave up the tech/art role too a good friend of mine. But early on when we started Mass 2, one of the things we felt we could improve upon was the blurred textures. That’s part of the nature of the technology we’re using, but I was like “we’re going to solve that problem.” So I bet my friend – the lead cinematic animator – a case of beer that we will fix that problem. I’ve got a lot riding on that! [laughs] Aside from the pride, I’ve got some beer to make sure that the game looks a high def and as polished as possible.[/quote:24189jqb]
And that’s all for now; will keep you updated if I come across more.


[[url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/dor/objects/142350 ... 9:24189jqb]link[/url:24189jqb]] to Engineer video at IGN.
[[url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/105/10522 ... l:24189jqb]link[/url:24189jqb]] to interview with Christina Norman at IGN.
[[url=http://kotaku.com/5419323/mass-effect-2 ... r:24189jqb]link[/url:24189jqb]] to conference call comment at Kotaku.
[[url=http://www.gamingtarget.com/article.php ... 1:24189jqb]link[/url:24189jqb]] to conference call article at Gaming Target.
[[url=http://www.gamingnexus.com/Article/Mass ... x:24189jqb]link[/url:24189jqb]] to conference call interview at Gaming Nexus.
[[url=http://uk.xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/ ... l:24189jqb]link[/url:24189jqb]] to DLC rumor at GameSpy.
[[url=http://kotaku.com/5419999/completely-ne ... r:24189jqb]link[/url:24189jqb]] to loading screen comments at Kotaku.
[[url=http://videogamesdaily.com/interviews/2 ... /:24189jqb]link[/url:24189jqb]] to interview with Adrien Cho at Video Games Daily.


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Shir'le
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-= Shir'le E. Illios =-
Chosen of Eilistraee
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