Mass Effect 2 Will Not Have a New Game+
New Game Plus, or New Game +, is a mode that is common in over 154 games as seen over at giantbomb.com. Recently, it has been said that Mass Effect 2 will not feature this mode.
Preston Watamaniuk stated, after responding to a question on if Mass Effect 2 would not include a new game plus mode,
“The short answer is no.
The reason is progression. We have been working very hard to make sure we design the abilities system to offer smooth progression into ME3 from ME2. Allowing double progression on characters makes that almost impossible. We have to have reasonable knowledge about where a character could end up finishing all content on a play-through. We also want to offer choice of character build within specific classes.
We replaced that feature with playing after you were done because it preserves progression and allows for smoother downloading of PRC.”
So the question is, which is the better mode? New Game Plus? Or having the ability, much like in Fallout 2 and 3, The Elder Scrolls Series, and many others, to continue playing the game?
If the side missions are anything like the ones found in Mass Effect then I have doubts that the “continue playing” mode will be as grand as the new game plus mode. In Mass Effect, I had more of a blast playing the main missions more than all of the side missions put together. Whereas, with Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout I found some of the side quests more intriguing than the entirety of the main quest line.
On the other hand, the issue of how the downloadable content worked with Mass Effect might be another reason as to why they opted to take out the new game plus. I wouldn’t mind replacing new game plus with the ability to tackle the side missions I didn’t play along with the ability for DLC that doesn’t require the players to trudge through two hours of the beginning of the game.
And then there is Watamaniuk ’s comment on how they will be “preserving [our] progression” for the transition from Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3, which bothers me as to how exactly will this benefit our saves far better than the transition from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2. Will less of our choices not be applied in Mass Effect 2 than in 3?
Hopefully we will learn more in the coming months.
