How ME2 will work without ME1 save

By Robert Purchese Published 18 December, 2009

"What can you remember?" asks Muzyka.

BioWare's Ray Muzyka has explained that Mass Effect 2 allows players to choose their backstory through dialogue options should they not have a Mass Effect 1 saved game to hand. The sequel will also take educated guesses at what you would have done.

"In some cases you get asked a question - 'What do you remember about that? What happened at this point in time?' - and you get to decide on the fly," Muzyka told G4TV. "You actually do get a bit of a choice still.

"In other cases, we make assumptions based on what the majority of fans are going to find really compelling and what we think is the best artistic choice, the most emotionally engaging way to have the story unfold.

"Either way, it's a great experience," he added, "Whether it's a personalised, customised experience reflecting your choices from the first game or whether it's one one where you start fresh in a new game in Mass Effect 2 right off the bat."

Mass Effect 2 allows players to import their saved games from Mass Effect 1, altering the world according to the key decisions they made in the first game and skewing their character towards Paragon or Renegade depending on their virtues.

This is one of the reasons BioWare's space opera trilogy, of which ME2 will be the dark Empire Strikes Back instalment, is attracting so much attention. Another is that it's got potentially more naked aliens in. We attempted to sum up our thoughts on Mass Effect in a recent retrospective. We also took another look at the budding sequel.

Mass Effect 2 is just around the corner, due for release simultaneously on PC and Xbox 360 on 29th January 2010.

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About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (40) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kangarootoo #1 2 years ago

    I was wondering about this the other day. I want to use my save from ME1, but there are also some interesting new character types in ME2 that I would like to tinker with.

  • Doctor_What #2 2 years ago

    I doubt you'll be playing as the same character, so you'll probably get to tinker to your heart's delight.

  • Xeopuppy #3 2 years ago

    Because I bought Mass Effect from Direct 2 Drive and I will be buying Mass Effect 2 from Steam will it be able to recognise my save games or does it matter where you bought it from...

  • PearOfAnguish #4 2 years ago

    It shouldn't matter, unless D2D does something weird with the files saves should be stored on your hard drive as normal (My Documents\Bioware\Mass Effect\Save).

  • lockload #5 2 years ago

    Good stiff as anyone knows whos played the first one there are a number of crucial decisions that effect your party members and especially the end of the game

  • Machetazo #6 2 years ago

    I didn't get the ending I would have preferred, and felt was "right" (and had been playing in line with, really, throughout) which lead me to almost disown that save. Great pay-off for all that time playing. I could always try to recreate how I'd have wanted it to be, in ME2 - except, then, it won't completely reflect my game.
    Edited by 2 at 18/12/09 @ 09:59

  • dl0ad #7 2 years ago

    This is the same solution Obsidian Entertainment used with Knights of the Old Republic II.

  • HermitArcader #8 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • TravisTouchdown #9 2 years ago

    @lockload

    "Good stiff"? You're not doing the Xbox community's geeky pervert rep any favours with comments like that my friend. Not when it comes to this shocking alien porn about which you're so terribly excited...

  • superdelphinus #10 2 years ago

    i can't remember if I deleted my save file or not

  • TonyCocaCola #11 2 years ago

    Well at least i dont have to cram another playthrough in before january!

  • HermitArcader #12 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • miiiguel #13 2 years ago

    Funny the one who 1st mention alien love. And the way he did it. "Terribly excited" ?! Scary...
    Edited by 1 at 18/12/09 @ 10:35

  • Byblos1 #14 2 years ago

    Tempted to get this on PC (got ME1 on 360) so this is good to know.

  • cianchristopher #15 2 years ago

    If Mass Effect 2 is the Empire Strikes Back of the trilogy, does that mean that Mass Effect 3 will be a massive step down from the first two? A la Return of the Jedi?

    Christ, they really neutered Han Solo for third movie! :(

    He was such a cool bad-ass pirate in the first two, but became such a goody good guy in the third :(

  • HermitArcader #16 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • hiddenranbir #17 2 years ago

    My worry is the options that they have "guessed" will be the bigger more important aspects of the ME2 story.

    Return of the Spectre!


    STAND DOWN! HE'S A SPECTRE!

  • TheJuriel #18 2 years ago

    You can change your character class when you start a new ME2 game with the old save.

    Which is nice.

  • funkateer #19 2 years ago

    ""Good stiff"? You're not doing the Xbox community's geeky pervert rep any favours with comments like that my friend."

    that was a classic freudian slip, hehe. You know, saying one thing but meaning amother

  • ObiChrisKenobi #20 2 years ago

    Uh oh, running out of time to finish ME1... I've only had nearly two years! No idea why I haven't got around to actually finishing it, but I guess ME2 release is good enough encouragement to do so.

  • peteb #21 2 years ago

    Hopefully you can change your character's appearence in some kind of plastic surgeory hi tech vending machine, as per usual I thought my character in ME1 looked ok at the start and then I realised his eyelids made him look like a freak and i couldnt have been arsed at the time changing him and starting again. The same thing happened in both Oblivion and Phantasy Star Online on the DC when I made a badass looking character who turned out to be some kind of midget when compared to NPCs.

  • hiddenranbir #22 2 years ago

    Hopefully my character can GROW A BEARD!

    I don't want some peach fuzz.

  • kangarootoo #23 2 years ago

    "You can change your character class when you start a new ME2 game with the old save.

    Which is nice."

    Indeed.

  • actionfitz #24 2 years ago

    think they've said already that even if you import your save you can still sort of respec you class. which is cool.
    I went for vanguard last time, though i have to say some of the new stuff looks mighty appealing :)

  • Wolverfrog #25 2 years ago

    Did Eurogamer not get a look at the beginning of the game? I know a load of other sites posted articles about it yesterday.

    I was hoping for Eurogamer imput, I like this site the best.

  • JensonJet #26 2 years ago

    So with a previous save we can change the characters class and specialities, and the look of the character. Alll that remains is with a past save is whether your character is good or bad and the decisions and situations that took place in the first game.

    The question is... will Mass Effect 3 be a proper continuation/sequel, or will Bioware make enough changes to the core game play that means we'll be able to completely change our characters again.

    I actually have several characters completed. I partly did this because I thought there'd be some benefit and it would be interesting to have many character classes with variations on the storyline choices. But in truth, there's absolutely no benefit at all.

  • M4RV #27 2 years ago

    I'm still wondering how this will eventually work, concerning the PC version... Upon installation, will the game automatically detect that I have the original ME, as well as saved games or is it something else you do, in-game...?! Just wondering aloud really; Either way, still sounding awesome to me. :)

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #28 2 years ago

    Return of the Spectre!

    OOH!

  • Caimbeul #29 2 years ago

    A good solution

  • AphoticCosmos #30 2 years ago

    Sounds like Atton suspiciously asking you all those questions about your lightsaber in KotOR II ;)

  • bad09 #31 2 years ago

    @ Byblos1

    "Tempted to get this on PC (got ME1 on 360) so this is good to know"

    Do you use your controller on your PC? you might know already but you'll be stuck with K&M. Bioware sadly don't support controllers on PC at all, there are workarounds but not really ideal.

    Someone should tell 'em about HDTVs and MS wireless controllers...
    Edited by 2 at 18/12/09 @ 12:47

  • Turrican #32 2 years ago

    Currently working through the Steam version of ME1 so I have it completed on both machines ready for ME2. Can't resist the paragon route though. I wonder if they will make it more ambiguous in the sequel as they did in Dragon Age (where your actions had effects but weren't judged as Renegade or Paragon ones).

  • Wolverfrog #33 2 years ago

    Here's how it'll work. Big spoilers ahead.

    At the beginning of the game, you'll be on the Normandy, which has its stealth systems engaged. You then come across a ship the size of a small moon (no, not the Death Star :p) which, despite your stealth systems being active, fires a blast at the Normandy. The ship is ablaze, and everyone evacuates. Joker is disabled, thus stuck, so Shepard does the noble thing and goes to rescue to pilot, walking through flames and all that. It is here you'll take brief control of a Shepard with a helmet on.

    Anyway, you get to Joker, and manage to rescue him, sending him on his way. Then, the Normandy completely explodes, and Commander Shepard dies.

    Yes, you die at the beginning of the game.

    However, death is not the end. A pro-human group named Cerebus has come across you, and tries to revive you in something called "the Lazarus project." Basically, you become a Cyborg, genetically and mechanically enhanced. It is here that cleverly you can change your profiles appearance, even if your save has been imported. Two years pass until finally you awaken. Everyone in the Galaxy thinks you dead.

    The Illusive Man, head of Cerebus, offers for you to join Cerebus. Out of gratitude, Shepard reluctantly accepts. Cerebus then briefs you on the situation; apparently humans are being kidnapped all across the Galaxy by a mysterious race known as the Collectors, and only humans are being taken. The Alliance knows nothing other than that people are going missing. Cerebus, being an organisation with humanity's best interests at heart, want to stop this.

    So basically, you once again venture out into the Galaxy, recruiting the best, most badass team to take on a suicide mission. Along the way, you come across old squadmates, some who join you.

    I'm not sure if you're still classed as a Spectre in the game; naturally with your apparent death all your authorisation would have been revoked. And when the Council learns that you're with Cerebus, they probably won't be very friendly towards you. Not even Anderson.

    Anyway, that's basically the basis of the plot. What I revealed is a tiny portion of the game though, so don't be angry with yourself or me for reading this spoiler.

    @ Turrican

    No, there will still be Renegade and Paragon paths. I prefer the former.

    >:)
    Edited by 1 at 18/12/09 @ 14:27

  • VibratingDonkey #34 2 years ago

    That sounds awfully nice of them. I've got all my Mass Effect saves on an old borked account I chose to abandon. But maybe the ownership of them changed when I transferred them to the internal memory. Either way it now sounds like I won't be completely screwed.

    And I accidentally spoiled myself. Don't know what I was doing skipping Giant Bomb's preview because there'd be spoilers, and then reading the comments. Didn't really think that through.
    Edited by 1 at 18/12/09 @ 14:30

  • hiddenranbir #35 2 years ago

    Thank god Bioware produce good characterization otherwise that story would have me bored stiff!

  • YourMessageHere #36 2 years ago

    I just want to add a scar I forgot to add during character creation, and maybe change Shepard's hairdo. Why change character class? Doesn't that kind of break the idea of continuing the same character?

    Having just finished ME1 the other day, I'd really like to see some actual incentives for playing a Renegade. It's often obvious how Paragon decisions will benefit you, but I rarely if ever saw actual positive reasons for making Renegade choices - not to mention times when I was given Renegade or Paragon points, or indeed both, for reasons I hadn't predicted and couldn't quite follow. I usually play nice characters, but (thanks in part to the EG article) I decided to be a mercenary bastard when I started to play ME; however it just wasn't worth my while to be unpleasant most of the time.

  • ardamillo #37 2 years ago

    JensonJet: it sounds like you won't have acces to all the options without save files from the previous game.

    "In other cases, we make assumptions based on what the majority of fans are going to find really compelling..."

    So there is still some benefit in using your chars from ME1.

  • smelly #38 2 years ago

    I really wanted to like mass effect, but i couldnt get "into" it.. too much going on at the start and quite frankly i was confused into boredom.

    (I know that probably makes no sense.. but that's what happened!)

  • Pickster #39 2 years ago

    I was the same, I keep telling myself i'll give it another go but just have not been able to go through with it yet.

    The worst part is, I keep hearing that the game really picks up when you get control over the ship, and it was not long after that, that I gave up. Not only that, but to make matters worse I even quite enjoyed the first hour or so :S

  • Wolverfrog #40 2 years ago

    Soldier on people. The beginning of the first game with Eden Prime and the Citadel is incredibly boring, but once you get past it you realise just what an amazing game it is. The ending never fails to send shivers down my spine.