Ray Muzyka Talks BioWare With IncGamers Part 2

24 Dec 2009 at 16:44:45 by Tim McDonald

In this, the second part (here is part one) of our interview with Ray Muzyka co-founder of BioWare, we discuss the storyline of Mass Effect 2 and 3, Star Wars the Old Republic and the future of BioWare.  We start by asking about Mass Effect...

So Mass Effect 2, then. We've got the darker storyline, we've got a lot of fixes to the first game to the things that some people had problems with. Was the plotline of Mass Effect 2 - and, to an extent, Mass Effect 3 - have these been planned out long in advance, or did you just have vague ideas? How has that worked?

We know the shape of the story arc, of the trilogy, and we listened to fan feedback as you said, a lot, in the course of development of Mass Effect 2. We had a list of things that we wanted to improve and add to the content in Mass Effect 2, and pretty much across the board we implemented all of those things. So we're not losing anything in the translation of the cinematic scope or the emotional engagement, or the characterisation, or the choice, or the way dialogue works; things like that, that people really love from the first game. But what we are doing is amping the intensity shooter combat up, and improving a range of technical improvements across the board - locked and loaded frame rate at 30 frames a second, and really smooth texture loading, and fast loading times, things like that - and also integration of some of the uncharted worlds more closely in with the main story arc. But overall the experience, I think, is going to be just really, really positive. I think the fans are going to love Mass Effect 2. I just played through it, a completionist pass through the main story, and I just loved it.

What stage is Mass Effect 2 at, at the moment, then? Is it largely polishing and bug fixing right now?

Yeah, mostly. You can play through all the content in the game, and it's all there, and you can really get a sense that this is a really fun game and the foundation is really good. And there's a lot of polish and a lot of bug fixing going on, as we always do at the end of our games. We all want to make sure we iterate and tune and just get it perfect so that the fans have an amazing experience when they release it.

Are we likely to see Mass Effect 3 at some point shortly, or is there going to be a bit of a bigger gap between those two games than there were for the first two?

We haven't even technically announced Mass Effect 3 yet - but we've said it's part of a trilogy, so naturally you'd expect a follow-on product after Mass Effect 2. And there will be, but we haven't announced any details on what, or when, or any of that.

So what are some of the new things in Mass Effect 2 that you personally really like and really enjoy?

I alluded to some of them earlier. The shooter combat is one aspect, and as much as anything, Mass Effect 2 is a shooter as much as it is a role-playing game. We've amped up the intensity of a lot of the role-playing elements too - the exploration, and progression, and characterisation and story and so on - but the shooter combat is really awesome. It's intense, it's very precise, you get to target enemies, you get to place your squad on the battlefield, you can control moment to moment what they do; the Tech and Biotic abilities, there are some interesting emergent effects and combinations of powers, the weapons have been amped up so you get to mod them and improve them and research new abilities... so I think the combat is going to be very satisfying to players. It's going to pull a lot of fans in that might not otherwise have considered playing an RPG in the past because this is as much a shooter as it is a role-playing game. But we've also really amped up the intensity of the RPG experience. You get to take control, moment to moment, of some of the decision trees and dialogue, the characterisation, the emotional depth of the characters - they're just a lot more credible, they feel a lot more alive. The uncharted worlds, the fidelity's been amped up and so has the integration of those uncharted worlds with the main story arc, so they're gonna have more of an impact on how the story progresses - even changing the end of the game depending on what optional content you do. Just across the board, we're listening to the fan feedback and the press feedback and just trying to put it all in, so Mass Effect 2 is a pretty amazing package.

Some of the feedback, certainly, was focused on the vehicle sections with the Mako. How've you tried to improve upon these with the sequel, as I'm assuming you have with the vast improvements you're making across the board.

We haven't talked about it yet, but that feedback was definitely there and we listened to it.

So we can expect to hear more about that at some point soon then?

Yes. You can expect to hear about it at some point soon.

Alright, well let's move on to the Old Republic for a bit. Now this is the first real MMO that BioWare has attempted, to the best of my knowledge. How've you approached this? It must be something very very different and very demanding to make compared to other RPGs.

It is. It's an incredibly ambitious project. The content requirements - we joke that Star Wars: The Old Republic is like making Knights of the Old Republic 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and beyond, and it really is. It's a big game, it's very ambitious. There's a lot of content and it's fully voiced, so the players and non-player characters all have their voice, and there's choice with consequences. But we're not losing anything in the translation. It's got all the things that players love with great MMOs, like the combat, tactical depth, and the progression and customisation and exploration of rich and beautiful worlds, and it's in the Star Wars universe. I think it's a universe that a lot of people have reverence and fondness for and we're really passionate about it, so it's great to work with LucasArts again in the Star Wars universe.

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