Mass Effect E3 Previews

More previews of BioWare’s Mass Effect continue to surface, all of which are based on the demo shown at this year’s E3. The first is at TeamXbox:

BioWare is implementing a new system of interaction to make Mass Effect the most accessible RPG to date. The demo showed an example of this during a mission to find a key informant. Commander Shepard attempts to coerce the location of the individual from a reluctant barkeep. Not only is all of the character interaction presented with voice-overs, the new interaction system allows you to communicate instantly. In what appeared to be a radial interface of sorts, each selection from the right analog stick will inflict an instant emotional reaction. It’s what Casey Hudson, Project Director of Mass Effect, describes as (verbal combat). With the bartender looking for a bribe, Shepard takes an aggressive approach pulling his blaster from the holster and aiming it at the bartender’s head. The expression of the barkeep changes immediately, with no need for text or cheesy dialogue to demonstrate his mood. At this point, the concept of (digital actors) is becoming a realization thanks to the Unreal Engine 3 and BioWare’s staff of artists and animators.

The second is at The Man Room:

Interaction with the bartender revealed what Bioware is referring to as (verbal combat.) A circular icon with quadrants mapped to different emotional responses appears when conversation is initiated, offering the opportunity to know the type of action you want to take without necessarily bothering with reading the text. In this demo, an aggressive response was given to extract information from the bartender, including a gun to his head, and the bartender caved to cough it up. Since every character has recorded dialogue for multiple responses to varying situations, the diversity of these interactions and animations made the speech feel more cinematic and less hokey video games of old.

The third is at Killer Betties:

Taking a couple of cues from Knights of the Old Republic, the gameplay is squad based (you have two alien companions to help out when things get hairy) and has a sophisticated dialog system. There’s an interesting twist to the dialog setup this go-round. Going for more dynamic pacing and in the interest of more immediate and realistic exchanges, Bioware has streamlined the usual clunky dialog tree approach. When you engage in dialog exchanges with NPC’s, rather than having to read through and choose from long lines of complex dialog, you choose from a variety of short phrases that represent emotional gut reactions to whatever’s being said. You choose these without knowing exactly what the hero character then is going to say, knowing only the gist of the emotional tenor of the dialog. This approach adds to the fun by making the dialog more spontaneous and organic-feeling.

The fourth is at ActionTrip:

Combat is mostly ranged, and while you have to aim somewhat, this is not a switch shooter, this is a role playing game, and that’s why a lock-on ability is provided. This switches the focus of the game to the tactical decisions you make in combat, as opposed to how good of a shot you are or how many red bulls you’ve slammed. You can pause combat at any time to issue orders to your two party members, both of which are intelligent enough to survive on their own; they’re going to help you out regardless of what you tell them. However, you can tell them what positions you want them to take, and as soon as you unpause, they will fly into action.

And the fifth is at Gamers With Jobs:

Once you find something interesting, there’s plenty to do as well. Besides the already mentioned combat, the game features a very interesting conversation system. When talking to characters, their expressions, voice and body language will all change based on how they feel about your behavior in the conversation. You can converse to them using a wheel that lists your possible responses. Each response on the wheel represents a general emotion (i.e. hostile response, friendly response, ect.), and these eight locations on the wheel stay consistent. Meaning the hostile response will always be in the lower right, the friendly in the upper left. Furthermore, you can dynamically talk to people with no restriction on timing. You can choose a response and interrupt people, which may annoy them and possibly insult them. No more waiting for people to finish talking before responding. The demonstration of the dialogue system leaves the impression of a very fluid conversation.