Mass Effect 3 Interviews

It seems like BioWare’s associate producer Robyn Theberge has been on a promotional tour for the upcoming conclusion to Commander Shepard’s sci-fi action-RPG trilogy, which resulted in a series of interviews being published recently. We start with Games On Net:

So in terms of carry-over from previous games in the series, to what extent do your past decisions lock you into particular narrative arcs in ME3? Are players who made certain choices like not saving the Council, for example compelled to live with their consequences, or is there is a bit of scope to make up for past mistakes?

Robyn: I think there’s a lot of variation there, but obviously there are some choices that can’t be reversed. There are characters who might have died because of choices you made, and if they have, they’re not coming back although that’s not to say there won’t be someone else there to replace them. You’ll definitely see the consequences of your choices, but as far as being locked-in, I think there’s usually some wiggle room there.

Speaking of dead characters, has there been any attempt to compensate for their absence? After all, it’s possible to get to the end of ME2 and end up with a crew of corpses can they be replaced in some sense?

Robyn: You’ll encounter different characters, some new to the franchise, and you’ll be able to build relationships with them, but I don’t think (replaced) is the appropriate way to describe it. You know, with some of these characters, these relationships, you spend so much time on them, building them up, and I’m not sure they could ever really be replaced. At least not for me. Like, Ashley? If she died, I don’t think you could ever replace her, and I wouldn’t want to try.

Stevivor‘s piece is a bit more general in scope:

At the Mass Effect 3 preview, you couldn’t help but hear participants chatting to one another, and to you, about (their) Shepard. Is that high-level of customisation the real selling point of the Mass Effect franchise? If not, what does make it so special, in your opinion?

Robyn: I think that’s what it is. You’re immersed in this environment, and you get to make the decisions; you get to shape the character’s personality. You’re don’t get to be evil in everyday life you want to be a good person. I think it’s nice; it offers people an outlet where you get to be a different person compared to who you may be in the everyday world. I think the fans, being so attached to their individual Shepards, really speaks to that.

What about Mass Effect 3 makes it stand out from Mass Effect 2?

Robyn: Full scale galactic war. The stakes are way higher in ME3 than they were in the previous two games. We also have the Galaxy at War system with multiplayer. The scope is far beyond anything we’ve done before.

And finally we conclude with an article-style piece from Atomic:

(There are more powers, now, more detailed progressions with skills, and armour and weapon customisation is much more detailed.) The lack of detailed gear, and an inventory, in ME2 was possibly one of the most contentious changes between the first and second Mass Effects, and some loved it, others… not so much. (You can do all kinds of things with weapons now, like adding different clips, scopes and ammo,) Robyn told us, sounding quite pleased. (We’ve added a lot back.)

And it’s even better to know that the PC version is going to be just as well-looked after. (It will have full Eyefinity support, fully customisable keybindings, and what we hope is a solid keyboard and mouse setup, on top of a wholly different HUD.) Chances are folks who’ve already played the demo can back this up or not but, well… I’ve been avoiding spoilers, so I’m taking Robyn’s word for it. For now.