‘Great stories come from great characters’ One of the significant aspects of Mass Effect 2 that helped define the game was how expanded and fleshed out the characters were coming out of ME1. As mechanically dated as ME1 is now from a gameplay standpoint, what still holds up is the connection players still felt with the characters it introduced and brought over to ME2 as well as those introduced as part of ME2. One of my highlights is on Omega, where it’s revealed the Archangel that’s causing chaos for all three mercenary groups there turns out to be Garrus. Garrus was one of my main go-to party members in Mass 1 and to have him join up with me again was easily a no brainer. The disappointment was palpable when I found Liara, only to realise she wouldn’t be coming with me as a party member this time as she became an information broker (and eventually the Shadowbroker). Garrus and Liara (and on one or two occasions, either one interchangeable with Ashley) were my main party in Mass Effect 1. As a result, I loved hearing their stories, histories and just generally being fun characters to know more of. But there was also new companions to join your party for you to love too in ME2: Mordin, Jack, Thane, Mirana, Jacob, the introduction of the Illusive Man and the best new character in the game, Yeoman Chambers (I’ll actually fight anyone who says otherwise). That has always been one of Mass Effect’s biggest creedos, even with 2017’s Andromda despite it not being in the Shepard trilogy and not as well received critically: making companions that players truly cared about. “I think BioWare has always been an industry leader in making companions that resonate with players,” says Karpyshyn. “It’s a skill we worked hard to develop and evolve, and it’s something we were always conscious of when making our games.” Adds Flynn: “I once heard the phrase – I can’t remember who said it – that great stories come from great characters. They were just really well realised characters. They were well written, well animated, well crafted. And because of that, they had story arcs, they had lots of elements to them, they were complex, they were well realised. And thanks to all those things working, you could tell great stories.” One aspect of why these characters are so good is actually down to the performances from the actors behind them, some of which came from Hollywood talent and came from a time when anytime Hollywood talent was voicing characters in a game, it was seen as merely a payjob. Now, that aspect is starting to shift. You’ll still get performances from Hollywood talent are phoned in, but a big example of recent work can be seen in Death Stranding with the excellent work from Mads Mikkelsen, Lea Seydoux and Margaret Qualley. It could be argued Mass Effect, specifically Mass Effect 2, started things in that regard. “I think Mass Effect 2 especially holds its place in the industry as something that was very much appreciated and very well respected for its storytelling and its characters,” says Flynn when asked the performances in the game, which featured the likes of The West Wing’s Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man, 24 and The Handmaid’s Tale actress Yvonne Strahovski, Carrie-Anne Moss of The Matrix and more, as well as the return from Mass Effect 1 of Keith David as Commander Anderson and Seth Green as Joker. “I’m sure people learned from it and they themselves then raised the bar and then other people have since raised the bar again.” Flynn continues: “I think everybody, through Mass Effect 1 especially, learned a lot about how the technology worked and what was possible and then there was just a lot of understanding and how to evolve and improve it in Mass Effect 2. People learned a ton. So Mass Effect 2 represented a great evolution in its own right between the impressive storytelling Mass Effect 1 pulled off. People like [BioWare’s creative performance director and producer] Caroline Livingston and [lead writer] Mac Walters, they just really learned a ton and made it all work. But for Karpyshyn, he doesn’t think it boils down to that merely being the case. “I think there were other games that had great voice acting with memorable people. But many companies and many games don’t value good writing or storytelling; they prioritize gameplay over narrative. The games that focus on narrative – like Mass Effect 2 – are less common, so when one is done well, it tends to stand out.”

One of those characters that stood out was the anchor of the entire trilogy: Shepard. Regardless of what gender you picked your Shepard to be, it was a worthwhile choice. Yet, despite that being the case, official stats released by BioWare a few months after the game’s release on Xbox 360 and PC (it wouldn’t arrive on PlayStation 3 until a year after its original release) revealed that 80 percent of players had picked to be the male version of Shepard. But it was also around that time a ground swell was also starting to pick up on bringing more attention to ‘FemShep’, thanks heavily in part to the brilliant performance of Jennifer Hale. In fact, in an interview I did several years ago for Eurogamer profiling her, Hale revealed that when she voiced Shepard, BioWare didn’t edit the scripts given to her and MaleShep actor Mark Meer to reflect their character’s gender. Said Hale: “I challenge all writers out there to have a look at your lead character and unless they’re specifically talking about their anatomy, that character could be a woman. Just change the name if you have to and try it. Because the time is here. “Look at Commander Shepard, you look at awesome characters like, looking at Game of Thrones – Brienne of Tarth, what a great character she is. Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, these characters breaking the gender barriers in the way they’re behaving in their worlds. And that can happen anywhere. I challenge you writers to do it because, frankly, the audience is starving for it.” Now in 2020, Karpyshyn admits there’s two reasons why Shepard – specifically Hale’s Shepard – is so beloved. The first being Hale’s performance that he says “she knocked it out of the park.” The second: “There is often a lack of representation of strong female protagonists and characters in video games, so having a character like that really strikes a chord.”

Adds Flynn: “Jennifer really breathed life into that character, as great performers do. I think that was a big part of it. I think that just began to [grow] more and more and players got exposed to that aspect of role-playing. Did they fall in love with it, did they want to do it themselves that way while playing as FemShep.” The legacy of Mass Effect 2 Mass Effect 2 refined a lot of things over its predecessor, such as gameplay (Flynn: “[The development] team has always been excellent in taking feedback and wanting to improve the experience it provides players. So that feedback was vital…”) and world-building (Karpyshyn: “There’s no magic formula [to believable world-building]. You just need talented people who are given the time to work and re-work ideas. Often, video games are on tight deadlines and they don’t allow the creators to spend the proper amount of time to take things from okay to amazing. Iteration is key to making anything great; the first try rarely works perfectly. Fortunately, we spent the time to do it right.”). It was because of those things, the story, the brilliant set of characters and so much more than when Mass Effect 2 did launch in January 2010 on Xbox 360 and PC (and nearly exactly a year later in January 2011 for PS3, five months after its initial announcement at gamescom 2010 and a month removed from the announcement of Mass Effect 3 at the event now known as The Game Awards). It was between it and Red Dead Redemption 1 for 2010 in terms of the Game of the Year awards (RDR1 won the majority of them with 111 compared to ME2’s 101, according to aggregator GOTYPicks).

There was definitely a feeling because of how strong the game was that this was Mass Effect 2’s ‘Empire Strikes Back’ moment. And it’s hard for me to argue with that comparison. While Karpyshyn admits it’s a “flattering” comparison, Flynn says he sees the resemblance in it. “Credit to the team for running a comparison like that with one of my favourite movies of all time. There’s a lot of parallels, right? Empire took established characters and grew them and improved them and introduced new characters who took lessons from understanding the previous film. And Mass 2 did the same thing.

“I think there are parallels and there are examples where the development techniques improved just as the same the filmmaking techniques improved between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. So there’s a lot of parallels.” So, what is the legacy of Mass Effect 2 after ten years? Is it the characters? Is it the world building? Is it the gameplay? The story? The feeling it’s setting up for something bigger? For me, as someone who has it in my top ten favourite games ever, its legacy is essentially all of the above. And when I put that to Flynn, he agrees. But I’ve missed out on something that has been fundamental to the series. In fact, it’s something I notice after I hop off the phone with Flynn I’d not mentioned until it was brought up: the agency of player choice and how they carried over. “I think maybe the other thing it did so new and so brilliantly was the choices you made in Mass Effect 1 were reflected in your experience in Mass Effect 2, right? I think that’s a huge innovation that was one of the underlying principles of the entire trilogy. And here it was. People were seeing it happen. That’s amazing. I think the fact right after you left off in terms of your choices – Ashley or Kaiden is there or not there, etc – these things were tremendously impactful to players when they realised those choices had meaning.” Rather fittingly, as part of a massive interview for a feature that’ll go live in the near-future, freelance narrative designer and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 lead writer Chris Avellone tells Play Diaries, when on the subject of player agency and choice in games, how he agonised on such a decision within Mass Effect 1. “So Mass Effect 1, there’s one mission, you go to an arctic research base. And you discover this crabbly vicious alien species that supposedly had been wiped out and apparently for good reason because they were about to consume the galaxy,” Avellone tells me. And in case it isn’t obvious here, he’s referring to the decision on whether to save the Rachni or commit genocide on them. “They’ve still got the queen mother stored there and she could still give birth to this alien race again. You’ve seen all the evidence of what this alien race did to the galaxy, they sound really awful.But when you’re talking to the queen, she actually seems quite reasonable and pragmatic. You have a choice of, ‘should I her let her propagate the species again or should I terminate her and commit genocide?’. And I paused because it feels like the lawful good option which is what I wanted to do was to give her a second chance. “But because the game communicated to me exactly how many lives by these species, I had to pause and go, ‘is she lying to me? Will she be in control of this situation?’. That was one big moment which was not long after undermined by a side quest encounter where the alien species seemed like it came back anyway. So I’m like, ‘oh come on’. So that was one thing that stood out to me.” When I bring up Avellone’s remarks to Flynn and how he agonised over the decision, he notes: “I think those are super cool things I’d love to see more role-playing games bring back and embrace. They are so fundamental to roleplaying. Adds consequence to your choices.” For his part, Karpyshyn is proud of the work he’s done with it and – correctly, in my opinion – notes how the game is still one of the greatest in its genre after a decade. “I think ME2 is still regarded as one of the best RPGs – and maybe one of the best video games – ever made. Fans love it, and the characters and writing are still considered a gold standard in the industry. I’m proud to have worked on the game, and it gives me something to shoot for on new projects.” A lot has happened in the ten years since Mass Effect 2’s release. BioWare has had a hell of a decade, for better or worse. Co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk left BioWare in the aftermath of the ending debacle of Mass Effect 3 (something to delve into in two years time for its tenth anniversary). Dragon Age: Origins became one of the most successful IP launches of all time for the company before ME2’s launch, but saw backlash and criticism from players for Dragon Age 2’s 2011 release, although it didn’t see a repeat of it for Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2014 as it became a consensus GOTY that year. And then, there’s Anthem. Its track record speaks for itself as we approach a year since its launch to the point a massive overhaul is apparently on the books, whether for the existing game or as an Anthem 2. Of course, in relation to this piece, there’s Mass Effect: Andromeda from 2017. Meant to be seen as a fresh start for the series following the end of the Shepard trilogy, the game wasn’t as critically received as the three games before it. But despite that, Flynn’s successor as BioWare Edmonton general manager, and the person who oversaw the Shepard trilogy as its lead, Casey Hudson has said Mass Effect will return at some point. When that’ll be is anyone’s guess, but with Dragon Age 4 and the aforementioned Anthem overhaul, don’t expect it anytime soon. But what could BioWare and EA do in the interim to tide the wait? When Flynn, now general manager of Improbable in North America, was general manager at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Montreal respectively when ME: Andromeda was still to be officially announced, one of the things he did was tease a remaster of the Shepard trilogy. At the time, back in 2014, requests included 1080p/60fps, high-res textures on all games – but especially ME1 – and more, including seamless transition from game to game and organic implementation of the DLC from all the games. So I have to ask him considering this was something he did tease in some fashion and is something fans are clamouring for after all this time: is it something we’ll eventually end up seeing down the line? “Hope springs eternal!” He adds: “I think those games held up the past decade and I think it’d be great to bring them to new consoles and refresh them.” Hope springs eternal indeed.