Measuring Up the Mass Effect
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GAMES
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Kicking massive space ass never felt so good.
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 It must have taken a long time to get all of the mechanics of freeplay down.
It was about three and half years in development. And we were thinking about it a little bit prior to that while finishing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
 Did you have any problems along the way?
Some of the hardest things to develop were bringing together all of theses human aspects of storytelling into a medium that, by definition, is highly technically complicated. There are moments in the game where you are talking to another character and they do something that’s very, very subtle–they might just look up at you in a certain way and give you an expression. It’s such a human moment. If we are able to give you that kind of anchor into a human experience, then we’re doing our job of telling an interactive story.
Some of the voiceover work was done by Seth Green and Keith David. What was it like working with them?
The actors that we worked with, were so professional. We were really thrilled to be able to work them. In terms of voice acting talent, Keith David as an example, for as long as we’ve had voice-over in our game, I’ve wanted to find a character that we could use for and be able to get Keith David for the voice. He has a way of delivering lines that makes it instantly classic–it’s got that gravity to it. To be able to pull in an actor like Seth Green, the fun there was that he’s got this amazing comedic talent. He very quickly was able to get a handle on what was happening in the scene and often improvised a lot of the lines. He made them snap a little bit more and sound live and real.
The soundtrack is also something of note.
Jack Wall, Sam Hulick, Richard Jacques, and David Kates did an amazing job packing all of the 37 tracks into the game. You can also buy the soundtrack separately. We wanted the game to feel like a fresh sci-fi experience, but also to be really anchored in the things that I think people remember from the late 70s and early 80s–Alien, Wrath of Khan, Blade Runner and some of the Star Wars movies. Because Mass Effect draws on a lot of it for its art style and cinematography, the music was also sort of inspired from that.
 The game has gotten extremely favorable reviews so far. What do you think people will enjoy most about playing the game?
Mass Effect stimulates on a different level than other games in that you start to really care about the characters and the things that you’re doing. There’s a point where you reprimand one of your squad members for something they did and the way that she looks back at you, with tears welling up in her eyes, it actually knocks you back, shocks you out of that familiarity of the way you normally play a game. It helps you realize that there’s some extra weight to the way you make decisions in the game that makes you care about them on a human level.
Anything else?
This is probably the one big game this holiday where you can be anything you want and do anything you want at anytime. The story is all about you.
You heard the man—go grab a copy of Mass Effect available in stores now!
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