Mass Effect 2: What Mass Effect 2 Means For Star Wars: The Old Republic (Video)

I have fallen in love with BioWare’s RPG’s. Many of you may have been experiencing the quality games they’ve been putting out for quite a while now, but I was a relative RPG newbie – until recently. I had not played Mass Effect 1, but had ME2 on pre-order, especially after having played Dragon Age: Origins. Nearly 3 weeks after I started the game, I have completely finished the game on Insanity difficulty twice. I did it first as a Sentinel and second as a Vanguard. I also played about half the game as an Adept, and a did a few recruiting missions as an Infiltrator. The moral of the story is that I played ME2 alot; I’ve played it daily since I purchased it and enjoyed it immensely.  I thought it was a bit too short, but I’ll not get into that too much as this isn’t a Mass Effect 2 review except to say that I loved the game.

I dove into ME2 so heavily because I wanted to gain some insight as to what the game play is like and to get a taste for next year’s Star Wars: The Old Republic. It has been stated that it will utilize the conversation wheel like ME2, and that seems to work just fine. However, there are more elements both games will have in common.  One of the first things I wondered upon seeing BioWare’s vision for the planet Coruscant was how Mass Effect 2 might give me an accurate feeling of what this “city world” might feel like. After playing it so much, I think Mass Effect 2 does a great job at clueing us in as to how these modern environments will feel in SWTOR. I also wondered if I might be able to get a feel for the Smuggler/Imperial Agent’s cover mechanic in ME2. It appears to me that ME2 shows pretty clearly what the urban Coruscant environment, cover mechanic and blaster fight style game play will feel like. First, look at the urban city world environment from Mass Effect 2 and then the Coruscant video from BioWare and compare:

Mass Effect 2′s “Thane recruitment” mission city scape:

Coruscant “city world” in Star Wars: The Old Republic:

I just have to believe that seeing ME2′s implementation of space age urban cities are exactly what we’ll experience in SWTOR. I realize that the performace issues will be different however. In ME2, I’m the only player connected to that world, but in SWTOR there will be thousands. But from a graphical rendering perspective, I got no graphical stuttering at all despite all the objects appearing on my screen and immediatly thought that my ME2 experience was probably a good preview of what my SWTOR experience might be like in Coruscant.

Next, check out the Smuggler’s cover mechanic:

Compare that to just about any mission in ME2:

You can jump straight to the combat part of the video above at 05:31 to see the cover mechanic in action during a firefight, or watch the whole thing to see some storyline and dialog wheel action as well. While the ME2 footage looks much better in my opinion, but it still illustrates the similarities. Playing a Smuggler/Imperial Agent in SWTOR will probably feel alot like playing Sheperd Mass Effect 2. You will find yourself pinned down with a hail of blaster fire whizzing around and you’ll likely only be able to get out with special moves and/or help from friends. Let’s just hope SWTOR feels more like ME2 at launch in that regard.

So there you have it. My recent (and very much enjoyed) stint with Mass Effect 2, and a few things that give us indicators of the great things to come in SWTOR.  These things indicated by my time in ME2 lead me to believe that we could be in for the next great MMO in 2011.

~br3ntbr0