14 DAY TRIAL // The development team working on the Mass Effect series had many ideas that have never been implemented in the games of the franchise and they talked about some of them to give fans an idea of what they missed.
Dusty Everman, level designer at BioWare, tells The Official Xbox Magazine that the studio was considering putting players in charge of other characters in order to give them a wider understanding of the Mass Effect universe.
He states, “we'd planned on having the player take on the role of a Quarian scientist before Tali's loyalty quest, and a colonist on Horizon during the Collector attack. It was a bit controversial to not be Shepard, and we thought it better to put the development energy into other places.”
The only such idea that made it into Mass Effect was the section where players control Joker when the Normandy is under assault.
Michael Gamble, a producer, adds, “we always start with some fairly radical ideas when we're putting together a level or gameplay sequence. For many of these, what you see in the end product is a result of constant iteration and transformation of these ideas.”
BioWare likes some of these initial ideas so much that it expands on them via downloadable content, as seen in the car chase that was part of the Lair of the Shadow Broker.
The studio says that the saga of Commander Shepard is done and that it has retired the character.
At the same time, BioWare has admitted that it is working on a new Mass Effect experience that will explore other elements of the game universe.
Apparently, an official reveal could take place this year.
The game will probably use the new Frostbite 3 engine from DICE and will be linked to the next generation of home consoles.