No same-character replay for ME2

By Robert Purchese Published 29 June, 2009

And Insanity will be harder, say devs.

BioWare has explained that Mass Effect 2 will not allow same-character campaign replays like the original.

"The reason is progression," writes lead designer Preston Watamaniuk on the Mass Effect forum.

"We have been working very hard to make sure we design the abilities system to offer smooth progression into ME3 from ME2. Allowing double progression on characters makes that almost impossible.

"We have to have reasonable knowledge about where a character could end up finishing all content on a playthrough. We also want to offer choice of character build within specific classes," he adds.

Mass Effect 1 rewards campaign victors by unlocking harder difficulty levels. The toughest of these is Insanity, which is received after two runs through the story.

But without same-character campaign replays, a similar difficulty level will need to be rethought for Mass Effect 2, explains lead system designer Christina Norman on the ME2 forum.

"If we give access to insanity on the first playthrough, we need to show that it is possible to beat the game with all classes without any bonuses from achievements. We can't release a difficulty level where it's impossible to complete," she says. "Effectively this means Insanity would need to be easier."

BioWare is exploring "additional dimensions" to making encounters more difficult in Mass Effect 2, over and above simply making baddies tougher. She won't know whether Insanity will be playable from the get-go until further down the development line. She knows Insanity will be tough, though.

"Overall insanity in ME2 will be harder than ME1. That's a heads up for everyone! Beating insanity on ME2 is going to be a real achievement, a badge of honour, get ready," she adds.

Mass Effect 2 is due out for PC and Xbox 360 early next year.

Picture of Robert.

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 (20) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • AphoticCosmos #1 3 years ago

    Insanity doesn't need to be easier, it just needs to be less boring. Essentially they just tripled the health bars on everything in ME1.

  • ardamillo #2 3 years ago

    They say you can continue to play after the main campaign ends, instead. I'm happy with that tradeoff.

  • Raziel #3 3 years ago

    "Essentially they just tripled the health bars on everything in ME1."

    Agreed, in turn it was slightly countered by the fact that you had nearly the best armor, weapons and upgrades from the start, so it made insanity runs really boring.

    Encounter enemy, shoot for a few mins, move on, repeat.
    Wasn't really a challenge, more of a grind...
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/09 @ 09:11

  • kangarootoo #4 3 years ago

    Carrying on characters seems nice on paper, but I tend to find that it makes little difference in the end to the fun.

  • ChthonicEcho #5 3 years ago

    This is odd. There were same-character replays in ME1, and I don't see articles where it is said that it impeded the seamlessness of ME1->ME2 transition.

  • The-Bodybuilder #6 3 years ago

    Err, how can you see any articles that impeeded progression to ME2 when the game isn't even out yet?
    The only people that would know if it impeeded seemlesness would be bioware, and considering they are the ones making this decision, one can guess that it probably did.

  • penhalion #7 3 years ago

    Hang on a second. Presumably they are only porting your characters choices from ME1 to ME2?

    They can't possibly be porting your equipment or even your stats. To do either of those things, would make ME2 dead easy for anyone who did it on insanity and rediculously hard for everyone else. They would have had to have a level cap in ME1 so that consecutive playthroughs only made the game harder rather than character altering.

    For instance, how are they coping with people who ran through the game once as a good guy and once as a bad guy. Does the new game class your character based on the last run-through you did. If that's the case, then there will be a lot of people out there who need to play through ME1 again to re-align their characters back to good or evil!

  • paulf #8 3 years ago

    why dont they allow you to play same character progression but then when you load that up in me3 you start at a specific level cap - so you get the reply value from the me2 and continuity?

  • kangarootoo #9 3 years ago

    "why dont they allow you to play same character progression but then when you load that up in me3 you start at a specific level cap"

    They would then have to downgrade a character, and how would they know what abilities to cut and which to keep? I guess they could ask the player to unspend a number of levels worth of xp, but then isn't that starting to be very much like creating a new character?

  • ardamillo #10 3 years ago

    "For instance, how are they coping with people who ran through the game once as a good guy and once as a bad guy."

    Each time you finish the game it creates a separate save file, so you can choose which to use.

  • Alkeno #11 3 years ago

    But, is an Insanity mode needed in Mass Effect at all? I mean, it's a RPG. In a tight-controlled, skill based shooter (say Halo3, say Gears, say KillZone2) a ReallyReallyTough mode is always welcome, as many people love difficulty challenges.

    In ME I'm now on my second playthrough (new character, difficulty set to hard). Sometimes I enter a room and someone I can't see just kills me with 2 rockets. I reload, enter the room again and just anhiquilate everyone without taking damage. ME is a brilliant game I play for the story, the options I can take... but for me the combat part is just not polished enough to making me want to turn difficulty up to Insane.
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/09 @ 11:16

  • ChthonicEcho #12 3 years ago

    Err, how can you see any articles that impeeded progression to ME2 when the game isn't even out yet?

    I don't know, the same way I see articles about progression from ME2 to ME3 when the latter presumably isn't even in development yet?

    I simply don't understand why it is suddenly an issue between ME2 and ME3, but not an issue between ME1 and ME2. I'm not saying it's bad, I simply don't understand the reasoning behind this decision.

  • The-Bodybuilder #13 3 years ago

    >"I don't know, the same way I see articles about progression from ME2 to ME3 when the latter presumably isn't even in development yet? "

    This isn't an "article", and its coming from bioware, so if they are doing this to ensure seemlessness into ME3, then it's OBVIOUS that they are doing so because the decisions they made for ME1 are causing development issues for ME2.

  • sirtacos #14 3 years ago

    Seamless. Impeded. Thesaurus: buy one.

    Insanity in ME was unsatisfying. I agree with Alkeno about the combat - it was inconsistent to start with. Still, top game, can't wait for ME2 etc

  • ChthonicEcho #15 3 years ago

    This isn't an "article".

    Yes, it is. This is a news article. Are you trolling, or what?

  • Chufty #16 3 years ago

    but for me the combat part is just not polished enough to making me want to turn difficulty up to Insane.

    Well I guess that's why they're improving the combat in ME2.

  • JensonJet #17 3 years ago

    I don't see this to be a problem. There aren't many games that allow a user created character to be brought into a sequel (are there any?). It's fun creating and building a character.

  • paulf #18 3 years ago

    @kangarootoo

    I meant that your character continues from the point you finished me2 (first time around) any extra abilities etc are discarded with the load for me3 - so if you complete me2 at level 20 say but then continue to level to 30 you start me3 at your level 20 state - if that makes sense

  • MightyMouse #19 3 years ago

    Do we ever need really really tough modes? Even in things like halo or killzone 2 they didn't really force you to be cleverer or even more accurate, just slower. In Oblivion the hard mode was deadly boring since it took forever to kill things.

  • wonton #20 3 years ago

    " Insanity doesn't need to be easier, it just needs to be less boring. Essentially they just tripled the health bars on everything in ME1. "

    One alternative is adding more enemies but in the end thats still the same problem of essentially padding out battles for longer.

    Hmm, Bioware will have to sleep on this.