Mass Effect 2 elevator change explained

By Tom Bramwell Published 7 December, 2009

"A lot of complaints." Load screens it is!

BioWare has said that loading screens providing "interesting visuals and information" are Mass Effect 2's alternative to the first game's divisive elevator sequences.

As those of you who played the game at the Eurogamer Expo already know, the elevators ("lifts" in old money) were replaced for that demo with stylised neon wireframe animations.

And judging by comments from BioWare's Thomas Roy, writing on the developer's forum (thanks Kotaku), that's your lot.

"The elevators were made in ME1 so we didn't have to show boring loading screens," Roy wrote. "However there were a lot of complaints, so we've gone back to loading screens and movies. We still have elevators in ME2, but you don't wait inside them. We'll cut to a loading screen instead.

"We've tried to make the loading screen more interesting this time by adding interesting visuals and information.

"The elevator conversations had some funny moments, but hopefully people will enjoy this new system better than the old one!"

Inevitably, Roy's comments prompted lots of people to moan about BioWare taking out the elevators and specifically the loss of the random conversation between the other two members of your in-game party. Can't win, see.

Check out our first Mass Effect 2 preview and more recent hands-on to see what the developer has in store for the game's 29th January release on PC and Xbox 360.

Last week the studio said the game would come on two discs due to the intensity of its awesomeness.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (49) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • chudders #1 2 years ago

    Hmmm, despite being pretty boring riding in a lift in ME1, it is a lot more immersive than a load screen. Would rather they kept them to be honest, but just jazzed them up with in game lift music or little TVs with 'news' on.

  • jellyhead #2 2 years ago

    Yeah, they annoyed me but not too much. I think it'd be great if they had little movies you could watch but hey-ho back to loading screens it is.

  • GamerG #3 2 years ago

    I dont know why such a fuss was made over the elevator loading, its no where near as bad as people say it is especially if you do the Harddrive install.

  • Lunatic4ever #4 2 years ago

    Well,I wasnt really annoyed by the elevator scenes. Quite often,I found myself waiting for a dialogue to start.
    And now we get outdated loading screens pimped up with neon lights...wow...who fucking wants that? I prefer seeing the characters with the detailled models instead.Especially if the loading screen is going to take as much time as the elevater-scenes did.

    But this only a small complaint. If the game is a INTENSITY OF AWESOMENESS! I will defnetely bear loading screens ;)

  • Caimbeul #5 2 years ago

    Oh great. I never had an issue with the elevators...now i have to have the immersion destryed by a static screen!

    What do people think happens when you get in a bloody elevator? Thats right you wait for a bit while it takes you where you want to go. Christ!

    Rant over...now generally pi$$ed that everyone moaned so much about such a trivial thing that did nothing to detract from the game...and i played it on 360 as well as PC

    EDIT: Also you could pan the camera roud and look at your party.
    Edited by 1 at 07/12/09 @ 08:50

  • matrim83 #6 2 years ago

    I didnt mind the elevators. I dont mind loading screens either.

    People bitch too much.

  • henro_ben #7 2 years ago

    I always thought the main problem was not the lifts in general, just that bloody lift on the Normandy which seemed to take AGES to get to the loading bay.

    I hated that stupid lift. Why didn't they just put stairs in!

  • bad09 #8 2 years ago

    So people complained that loading was hidden in an immersive lift ride? So now we get loading screens breaking the immersion?

    Probably gonna be those "tips" screens we see all the time now. Best way to remind you you're playing a game that one, worked wonders one SH: HC and Dead Space (that was DS's only flaw for me).
    Edited by 1 at 07/12/09 @ 09:03

  • thesombrerokid #9 2 years ago

    the only people who complained about the lifts are console owning lobotomy patients.

  • space_ace #10 2 years ago

    novel idea: make loading unnoticeably fast. don't say it can't be done

  • StooMonster #11 2 years ago

    Hrm... people are dumb. Bioware are not helping, they appear to be addressing the symptom (i.e. players have to wait) rather than the cause (i.e. the game is loading data).

    I'm willing to bet there will be more complaints about loading screens in ME2 than there were about elevators in ME1.

  • Doctor_What #12 2 years ago

    So, instead of looking at the pert bottoms in tight outfits, I now get a loading screen? Well... That loading screen had better feature a good replacement eye candy.

    (Don't tell me I'm the only one who did this?)

  • Dan_Dare #13 2 years ago

    Not sure this is a good idea. I liked the addition of dialog and news articles in the lifts. I was always particularly fond of that report on the alien rendition of Hamlet. That kind of thing is what made ME such a good game, I'd be disappointed if we loose all that texture for the sake of some internet bitching.

  • ZuluHero #14 2 years ago

    YOU HAVE NO-ONE BUT YOURSELVES TO BLAME!!

    Im sure people just don't understand the technical ramifications of the stuff they moan about. People just think "hell this is a long elevator ride.. i wish they could make it shorter" without actually thinking that "shorter" is impossible to do.

    Now we're just going to be sitting there staring at load screens for 2-3 minutes - and do you know what? It will seem longer. The devs tried to keep the immersion breaking down to a minimum and I had no problem with it. Anything that keeps you in game and makes the world more believeable is a GOOD thing.

    Way to go, guys!
    Edited by 1 at 07/12/09 @ 09:26

  • Murton #15 2 years ago

    The lift sequences weren't annoying as such, just boring. It wasn't too bad if you'd just done a story mission as then you'd have news or dialogue, but if you had been doing sidequests or were just shopping at citadel the guys just stood there silently waiting for the lift to stop.

    The lift sequences could have been saved by a couple hundred sound bytes containing irrelevant but amusing/interesting news pieces, adverts (for fake stuff obviously, like food or drink in the game world or perhaps one of the Citadel businesses) or even just some banter between the crew. Sure it would be a lot of extra effort, but if Bioware have shown us anything over their tenure it's that they aren't afraid to the put the hours in to make a truly immersive experience.

  • anomagnus #16 2 years ago

    the elevator rides weren't even that long to begin with, it was just one of those internet bandwagons that everyone jumped on.

    Well congratulations fuckers, now we have loading screens.

  • YourMessageHere #17 2 years ago

    Started playing Mass Effect on Saturday. Lifts are much better and more immersive than loading screens, except there needs to be more conversation. What conversation there is is entertaining and a beautiful detail, but it's really annoying having the talk icon but my squaddies not responding when I press use.

    Make lifts or loadscreens a gameplay option. Voila, everyone's happy.

  • Quint2020 #18 2 years ago

    I thought the elevators were a great idea, the conversations and little bits of the radio that you heard while you were in them were great and really helped flesh out the world, much better than immersion breaking load screens imo, shame they've gone back to them because of a whining minority.

  • Boomerang #19 2 years ago

    "The elevators were made in ME1 so we didn't have to show boring loading screens"

    So instead we get to stare at boring characters arses? (May be preferential if your character is a chick...)


    As mentioned, the issue is only symptomatic of poor programming. Plenty other games don't have loading screens...

  • bad09 #20 2 years ago

    Reminds me of the RE doors, people HATED them but I always loved the tension of waiting for that door to open and it never seemed like loading.

  • Ninja_Tino #21 2 years ago

    How about elevators with a huge TV with the load screen on?! Win Win!!!

  • TonyCocaCola #22 2 years ago

    The only elevator that annoyed me was the one goin to the lower level of the ship.

  • Bravestinsane #23 2 years ago

    @chudders,

    Totally agree, although i really need to have a proper playthough on it, while in the lifts if gave a feeling of scale, they must have been huge to last long, and felt like i never left the game. It was also pretty unique, to be honest the first few loading screens will be ok in the sequel but after that we would have probably seen all of the screens and so will end up just as boring.

  • kinky_mong #24 2 years ago

    This is why you should never listen to the public, they don't know what they want. Well unless you're Ubisoft.

  • menage #25 2 years ago

    The lifts were fine, they only took wayyyyyyyyy too long at times.

  • Sunyavadin #26 2 years ago

    In spite of the boredom, a loading screen's always worse than a lift ride....

  • ManicDrunkMonk #27 2 years ago

    Lack of elevator time makes this a lost sale bioware!!! I'm really, really pissed about this. It was a fundamental part of the original!

  • hiddenranbir #28 2 years ago

    Loading times surely aren't needed these days given the plethora of oomph available?

    Do some fancy stuff like how Oblivion does to seamlessly join lots of stuff together?


    Frankly I found the idea of an "immersive" lift ride to be stupid, because it still looked like a loading screen. It wasn't particularly special or interesting and just made the loading more painful because I had to watch three rigid robots stand doing nothing. Oh some had banter snooorreee.

  • metalangel #29 2 years ago

    I didn't mind them at all. Some were kinda cool (such as up to the docking bay in the Citadel, gave you a sense of how big the place was) and you could look through the glass floors or windows, and on others you could watch the lighting effects as lights in the shaft went past. Or indeed, take turns checking out Liara, Ashley and Shepherds' butts.

    If I had a complaint, it was that some of them were glitched. On Feros, for example, when you are returning (minor spoilers) to the colony, when you get back to the vehicle bay where you originally got the Mako, and saved 'too close' to the elevator, reloading that save would then put you INSIDE an elevator map that you couldn't get out of. I lost all my progress to that! Bioware knew about this bug, but never fixed it.

  • ZuluHero #30 2 years ago

    @hiddenranbir

    Different companies different tech. Some game engines just can't handle huge seemless worlds. But what they lack they usually make up for it in other areas.

  • darkphoenix #31 2 years ago

    Fact is the f*cking whiners are killing inovative concepts and games.
    They just keep bitching and stupidly demanding idiotic claims, refusing to imerse themselves in the experience...

    And now, thanks a lot!
    Loading screens for everybody, hope you're proud of yourselves.....
    Losers.

  • Skandalle #32 2 years ago

    i actually quite liked the elevators, they gave it a sense of realism in the universe when you heard your progress, or news feeds you were involved in being mentioned over the radios. Gave the characters a bit of time for some chit chat too!

    looks like they opted for the mandatory load screens with a screenshot of a gun toting alien...followed by a little text at the bottom reading... "Tip: Pushing A will allow you to open a door"

  • telboy007 #33 2 years ago

    I don't care, I just want to play the game. Thanks.

  • Xeopuppy #34 2 years ago

    I'd rather have the Lift than a loading screen at least you can hear another great muzak tune and anouncements about what is going on in the galaxy.

  • RESIDENT_nEVILe #35 2 years ago

    The lifts didn't bother me at all.

    But I think BioWare are the ones to blame here. Of course people will moan and bitch about every little flaw, dislike and niggle. Thats what they do.

    But for BioWare to think that a loading screen would be more immersive or acceptable by pulling you out of the game... well that takes a special kind of thinking.

    Unless these loading screens turn out to be girl-on-girl alien action; colour me dissapointed.

  • sneetch #36 2 years ago

    @darkphoenix

    What are you really angry at?

  • Moribundman #37 2 years ago

    @skansalle That's not what these load screens are about, to be honest. They're actually very in keeping with the game.

    Did anyone actually see these "terrible" loading screens at the Expo, or even in the vid that was released online? It zooms out from the lift to a wide view of the structure of the building you are in a la the style of the Mass Effect universe's computer screens, with the lift moving slickly through it from point to point, so you still get a feel of perspective (a better one if you ask me).

    I'd liken it more to the overhead map screens in a game like monkey island, where you see the character go from point a to point b and then he walks onto the next location screen in-engine.

    It's still an innovative and funky concept. If you want to look at pretend ladies' T&A, you can do that at any point in the game. Now you don't have to listen to the same three or four repetative news stories over and over again, or hear a witty line of banter followed by an embarrasing silence like someone in that lift just farted...

    Give me the new system over Oblivion or Dragon Age's texty "hints n tips" screens or even Fallout 3's amusing slides. It's immersive without being boring.
    Edited by 1 at 07/12/09 @ 12:56

  • Kikizosan #38 2 years ago

    The elevators were just loading screens. There's no difference other than they were more interesting than the majority of loading screens in games. It's a shame they're being removed if all we get instead is what most games offer up - some artwork, playing tips and an unhelpful "Loading..." animation.

    The elevators could have been improved with more variety in conversations and news, but it's no great loss if ME2 doesn't have them. There does seem a little too much focus on the content of the loading screens, though - as long as they're shorter, the rest doesn't really matter.

  • Vin #39 2 years ago

    See, they've gone and done it, now.

    Geeks, damnit.

  • JDFreeman #40 2 years ago

    I wish to complain about the amount of complaints that gamers are constantly complaining about. It's about time someone took a bolder action and made a serious complaint about all of this.

  • Wolverfrog #41 2 years ago

    I think a good idea would be to keep the elevators, but to have a voice that told you a random piece of Mass Effect canon as you were in them.

  • kongzi #42 2 years ago

    so, from what I gather it's gonna be like those loading screens in Dead Space then? That was pretty nice... still I thought one of the things that makes UE3 so great was the ability to stream in level data. No load screens would've been a lot better, but I guess Bioware already figured that (it just couldn't be done somehow).

  • kangarootoo #43 2 years ago

    "The elevators were made in ME1 so we didn't have to show boring loading screens"

    But that was the problem, they WERE boring loading screens.

    That said, I didn't mind them too much myself. I realised what they were straight away and just thought "fair enough".

  • hiddenranbir #44 2 years ago

    You can't blame the complainers. Since when did complainers ever get their way? Look at freakin' Modern Warfare 2!

    @zulu

    So they should do better engines. I think loading between maps and levels is one of those outdated mechanisms that should be shafted out.
    Edited by 1 at 07/12/09 @ 18:44

  • davisorle #45 2 years ago

    Like stated in the comments here, you were moaning about the lifts and now you rather have those back? Well next time dont moan for somethign thats better than what you would get in every other case. Simple facts :p now lets see wtf is immersive or interesting in a simple loading screen. Just release the damn game. Leak it purposly. Just lemme play already ^^ ( and to think, Dragon Age has been taking the steam off as much as possible for me )

  • Alkeno #46 2 years ago

    Mass Effect (on the 360 at least) was both masterpiece as technical pain in the ass. Take the Normandy. There is no way around it, something was wrong in Bioware's UE3 implementation if such a small ship couldn't be loaded at once, so they added elevators as damage control (a nice try, by the way).

    Nobody ever complained about the elevators themselves, frequent and huge loading times were the issue. Of course, most people only said "I hate elevators on Mass Effect!" but Bioware should be smart enough to understand that not everybody who complaints has the knowledge (o the time) to explain in detail what the problem is. Addressing the problem didn't involve changing elevators rather than optimizing the engine and how it loads assets (I hope they have done this as well ;-).

    I just hope that tomorrow's news isn't "Super Street Fighter IV final boss change explained: Capcom is excited to present Tesh, Seth's brother, a new fighter that resembles his brother in his split-second teleporting and lame specials taken from other fighters... people just hated Seth and Capcom has listened!"

    Edited for spelling.
    Edited by 1 at 07/12/09 @ 19:05

  • metalangel #47 2 years ago

    @hiddenranbir: Get to work then programming your miraculous 'loading screen free' engine, then.

  • ShiroBen #48 2 years ago

    Oh. I liked the lifts, with all the little conversations and soundbites--and even when they were 'just' lift rides, you could rotate the camera around and admire the excellent character models. Or, y'know, just wait for a couple of seconds? They weren't THAT long, shorter than a lot of games with 'loading screens', actually. Or maybe I'm just old enough to remember when games had REAL load times.

    It can't take that much more memory to load a little audio clip or two, wouldn't a more attractive solution be to include a couple of hundred random news clips or adverts or similar, in addition to the conversations? That'd add a lot of interest and texture to the game universe.

  • Eurogammon #49 2 years ago

    Why can't Bioware create a streaming system which continuously loads new level chunks as you run around? It's what alot of other games have done since N64. Loading screens in an roaming world RPG is a huge shame.