Mass Effect 2 Lets You Start Over with Your Commander Shepard

Did you level your Commander Shepard all the way up in Mass Effect, spending north of 40 hours repeating the same tasks in the same tunnels, climbing up the same sharp cliff faces, and wiping out the same Merc/Geth bases? Well, your level 60 Commander Shepard simply won't exist in Mass Effect 2, for the most part.

In an interview with The Escapist's Andy Chalk, BioWare producer Casey Hudson explained, "There's something that's happening with the story that explains what happens with your abilities. It's something we can't go into detail about for obvious reasons, but it actually happens the other way around," he said. "Our goal with the story, in terms of getting the game started quickly and players into really compelling story situations... that dictated and allowed us to do certain things including changing the way that your abilities work and the way you develop your character."

Hudson continued, "That said, we're taking into account all of your accomplishments in terms of building a character from the first game. So things you'd expect to be acknowledged, like if you were a level 60 character, or you were highly Renegade and don't want to start out at the middle again," he continued. "If you import your save game from Mass Effect, these kinds of things will be acknowledged in ways that map across to the new system. You will feel, even in terms of the character that you build, that you are continuing as that character."

If you're like me, your gut reaction might be laced with cursing, followed by resolutions to make voodoo dolls of BioWare staff, but when you stop and think about it, it makes sense. Aside from entering cheat codes right off the bat, when do you ever start a game with maxed out abilities? Would that even be fun? Yes, and no. It would be fun to lift, pull, and throw enemies great distances right off the bat, but by the game's end it would be repetitious and boring at best.

Let's hope that all our hard work isn't completely moot in Mass Effect 2, and cling to the belief that there will be consequences, either positive or negative, to completing every. single. side mission.

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