Mass Effect 2 won't allow second playthrough by character for sake of continuity

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jun 28th 2009 4:00PM

Unlike the first Mass Effect, the sequel will not allow players to restart the campaign with all the skills Shepard gained throughout his (um, her!) second adventure. Mass Effect 2 Lead Designer Preston Watamaniuk notes on the BioWare forums that the team is working hard to "offer a smooth progression into ME3 from ME2." The reasoning is that they "have to have reasonable knowledge" of where a character could end up at the end of the game.

Of course, Mass Effect 2 players can feel free to create a new character and start over. So, it appears that if you're looking to start Mass Effect 3 with a jacked-up Shepard, make sure to explore every little nook and cranny of the galaxy before going into the sequel's final mission.

[Via Kotaku]

Source

Tags: bioware, mass-effect, mass-effect-2, Microsoft, preston-watamaniuk, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (68)

So...basically we want to jack Sheppard up in ME1 if we want to use him in ME3?

So, basically you want to get the PC version and some Trainers/Cheats.

I bet you were one of those kids that rammed the round block through the square hole with a fucking sledgehammer, right?

What's wrong with that? Sure beats the instinct to conform at all costs.

I bet you were one of those kids who ran around doing the opposite of what everyone else was doing because you thought non-conformity was cool.

I can somewhat agree with this....I think?

I can agree with this also.

Okay, this totally off topic, but that infomercial dude Billy Mays just died. The world is totally fucked! Clearly someone is offing random famous people in a haphazard attempt to gain power!

Please stay on topic

I REFUSE!! LEMON CUSTARD!!

Clearly your definition of famous is at fault.

I said it was haphazard.

It was the sham wow guy.

That killed him.

I see, so apparently its ok to make light of Billy Mays death but not MJ's?

Shmil, his name is Leroy Octopus. Do you really expect him to stay on topic?

Lighten up. Humor is how I deal with death.

It's been mentioned only about a gazillion times already in every article older then this one, so yeah... a bit redundant.

Well I didn't know it was posted elsewhere, but doesn't seem strange to complain about me being off topic when I clearly said it was off topic?

Just because you said it was going to be off topic doesn't make it ok. Frankly I don't really care that you went off topic, sometimes thats good. But with all the celebrity deaths happening in the past couple of days I don't need to hear about it more on joystiq. This is a gaming blog. If a famous game developer died or if it was a post about a boy committing suicide due to gaming or something game related it would be ok. But this isn't TMZ. Humor is your way of dealing with death? I used that same argument earlier this week when I made a joke about MJ's death, apparently it doesn't apply here. If you knew Billy Mays personally and he was a close friend perhaps you would use humor as a way of dealing with death, but to someone you don't know other than his infomercials, you are just trying to hurt his name.

Please Joystiqers, celebrity deaths don't belong here

Smihl, you clearly don't want to hear about celebrity deaths, because your to worried about whatever died after crawling up your ass. Seriously, lighten the fuck up!

Also if you could care less about me being on topic, why were you the first one to complain about it?

Leroy, I just want you to know that this entire thread, or possibly just your half of it, was incredible win.

I like Billy Mays and all, but he didn't accomplish squat in comparison to Ron Popeil.

I'm sorry to see Billy Mays go, he went before his time.

Yeah I found multiple run-throughs with the same character but different moral choices was odd in ME1.

As long as the leveling system is fair in ME2, it won't be an issue.

That's my biggest worry too.. If it takes your choices from 1 into 2, how does it figure out which choices to use if say you don't complete the game. For example I'm on my second playthru and if I don't complete the game before starting 2, will it just use all my descions from the 1st full playthru? Or if beat it for a 2nd time but make different decisions just to see the outcome, which choices will it use to shape the galaxy of 2??

But it also means if we really liked how one of our "Shepards" turned out, we can' keep playing as them, we'd have to wait for Mass Effect 3 until we can-

Oh I see their little plan...

I would like Bioware to release a patch at least for the PC version of Mass Effect. I just started playing this game this month and 9 hours into the game, my save game is in the toilet with me being stuck in the elevator on Feros. I was stupid not to create previous saves to fall back on but this glitch affects PC and 360 owners. I really don't want to start the game all over again but I may have to.

Google how to bring up your console. Then use the walk through walls noclip cheat. I think it is "fly" or something. Might not help since you cant move when in an elevator but who knows.

I tried it but the whole game is messed up. I tried fly and ghost mode with the console command. I exit the elevator but the enemies are not there, the NPCs are not scripted correctly.

I was stupid not to have made more than one save file, but still, I googled and several others have had the glitch where they saved in the elevator and the game messes up, 360 and PC version.

answer: 'I was stupid not to create previous saves'

fable 2, fallout 3, mass effect, and all open world games have freeze and glitch spots.
9 hours with not 1 save?

in mass effect, fallout 3, fable 2 we are lucky enough to have been given an extraordinary save system that allows us to save the game at pretty much any point we would like.

its good to get in the habit of saving every 15 or 30 or 60 minutes of gameplay and then freezing isn't such a bad thing..
what sucks is when a game doesnt allow us to save.

Your right, I went by just fine in Fallout 3 with just one save file in both 360/PC versions. : )

So am I restarting a skill-less level 1 for ME2? cause that would suck, Sheppard finishes the game useful.. can't they up the enemy health/abilities so I can carry on with my level 60 Vanguard.. I'm sure the enemies level up with you as you play anyway.. I wouldn't be suprised if some weopons got nerfed like in a lot of sequels..

Mazreal your Sheperd and his/her abilities/level carry over from your ME1 save. All they're saying is that you can't replay ME2 with the same Sheperd to level him/her up further.

Sorry I just realized I misread your post.

"can't they up the enemy health/abilities so I can carry on with my level 60 Vanguard."
This is true, like you suspect in the game. Stuff is more or less on the same level throughout the game (relative to you of course). That's why playing level 60 was a blast cause you did not feel like a God but did have the skills necessary (as a Scepter is supposed to have) to take down your enemies.

What the hell is a "Scepter"

The thing you got at the end of every Mario 3 boss fight only to find out that bitch Peach was in another castle.

i just want the game today. im on my 4th or 5th play thru still trying to get asari companion achievement and im still enjoying the game.. powered up shephard helped with higher difficulties but honestly this wont affect the game much..

PS: bioware really dropped the ball with Mass Effect dlc.. i woulda bought 20 episodes if they were anywhere near the quality of Bring Down the Sky.. Mass Effect dlc had Star Trek universe potential for me and the totally blew it..

I thought ME scaled to your skills, maybe I just thought that cause im so boss. D:

Yes I'm sure it was just your boss-ness.

Ok, so what exactly carries over from ME1 to ME2? Is it just your moral choices or your skillset too?

Like I want to use my renegade adept as my carry over but I *SPOILER ALERT* killed off a certain awesome character in that playthrough. I still need all the tech/electronics achievements so I was going to do my last playthrough as that and keep that character alive, but do I need to play another one as an adept with that character alive instead to make sure my skillset carries over?

I think you do, man. I have to play again, because I got the bad ending and didn't like it.

i think as long as you've saved close to the final boss fight, you should be good. Either way, i dont think your skills carry over, just your class, morality and appearance

@ dark Wayne

what about your choices. *SPOILERS* like if u exstinct the rachini or let the queen go.. And what If you played it multiple times but made that choice differently the second playthru, which choice does it use?

This sucks. Without multiple playthroughs this won't have any replay value. BioWare shouldn't do this.

You could always start a new character. My highest level character (60) in the first game was a Soldier and i do want to play the biotic side as well and will replay ME2 with my biotic character after finishing it with a Soldier.

You can still play the game once you're done with the final mission so I don't see the issue. Playing through with the same character but being able to make completely different choices never made sense to me.

Why is this so hard? It's not like your character who has already done it all is stuck in a time loop and completing the same mission all over again. You just get to start the game over with the same equipment / skills / level. All simple gameplay stuff. It may be a NewGame+ but it's still a fresh playthrough of all the choices and consequences. As for continuity, carry over all the same stuff that NewGame+ does and the choices and consequences from that character's most recent playthrough only. Very simple.

It's a simple matter of suspension of disbelief. I'm sure they could work around it.

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Mass Effect 2 won't allow second playthrough by character for sake of continuity

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