Mass Effect 2 - Development

Development

Mass Effect 2 was developed by BioWare and directed by Casey Hudson, who previously led the production of the first Mass Effect game. Development of the game started in early 2008, shortly before the Microsoft Windows version of the original game was released. Before actual production for Mass Effect 2 began, BioWare created a list of goals to work towards based on feedback from fans, reviewers and internal people. The development team's main goal was to "create an experience that was less about being a game and more about being an experience." In contrast to the exclusive focus on the main story of the original Mass Effect, Hudson explained that BioWare was interested in a plot where side stories had as much intensity as the main story and decided that the idea of recruiting people and making them loyal to the player so that they could survive a suicide mission allowed to explore these possibilities. He noted, "the funny thing is that people will say 'other than gathering your crew and building your team and getting ready for this mission, there's not much story there.' But that is the story."

The game was originally planned as an Xbox 360 exclusive, but a Microsoft Windows version was confirmed when the game was formally unveiled in March 2009. BioWare stated that both versions were being developed simultaneously and with the same level of dedication. Around the same time, a new development team of 30 people was set to work at the EA Montreal studio to supplement the teams already working on the game. The new team was composed of a number of people who worked on the original game but the majority was new hires. Mass Effect 2 contains voices from 90 voice actors who play 546 characters and speak over 25,000 lines of dialogue. Voice recording for the game took twice as long as the original Mass Effect.

During the first stages of development, the designers' priority was purely on streamlining and polishing the shooting aspects; RPG elements did not start until this process was complete. According to lead designer Christina Norman, "we wanted more satisfying combat and a big part of that is making weapons more accurate and powerful at level one – basically saying 'let's take the RPG out of the shooter.'" Since BioWare had no experience with shooter games, the team spent roughly three months tuning how combat would work using the original Mass Effect as a basis. The inclusion of limited ammunition was not initially part of the main game design and was simply implemented for some playtesting. However, the developers eventually felt it improved the tension and pacing of combat. The powers were balanced with a unified recharge time since the earlier system where powers could be used sequentially was considered "ridiculous and endgame easy." The game's HUD was revised eight times during development.

Mass Effect's inventory screen was criticized by video game journalists and players, and designing a new inventory system for Mass Effect 2 was one of the main concerns during development. The idea was to be able to handle a large number of characters with simplicity. To this end, Norman spent time examining various RPG inventory systems, though none could be applied to support such a large number of characters. The team ultimately decided to implement a unified system where a character could use a weapon without taking it away from someone else. Norman explained that the inventory of Mass Effect 2 is "so simple some people say it's not an inventory system." Hudson also mentioned two significant challenges that interfered with the development: the 2008–2012 global recession limited the game's budget, and the team had to get through it without impacting their ambitious goals. Additionally, due to the spread of the 2009 H1N1, a significant part of the team was ill during the last months of development, resulting in a loss of a man-year of time. Despite these factors, Hudson described the development of the game as successful "on time, on budget, and exceeding quality goals."

The first teaser trailer for Mass Effect 2 was released in February 2009. In the trailer, Commander Shepard is declared "killed in action." In June 2009, Mass Effect 2 was presented at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. New features were shown off and, for the first time, fans were shown a guided demo. The demo also confirmed that Shepard would be alive and playable in Mass Effect 2, but the character could die at the end of the game. In the months leading to the game's release, BioWare launched six class walkthroughs narrated by Norman and released a final cinematic trailer. In August 2010, seven months after the release of the game, BioWare announced that a PlayStation 3 version of the game was in development. BioWare stated the game used a modified version of the Unreal Engine 3 called Mass Effect 3 engine; the same engine they were using for the then-upcoming Mass Effect 3. In this new version, character models were slightly improved and controls were updated to support the PlayStation 3 controller, although an option which allowed to switch back to the Xbox 360 layout was also added. Unlike the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows versions of the game, which span two DVDs, the PlayStation 3 version of Mass Effect 2 fits on one Blu-ray Disc.