Mass Effect 2’s New Difficulty – Unlocking Insanity
It appears that this is a great weekend for Mass Effect fans! A couple of posts made by the Lead System Designer, Christina Norman, have given new insight to the difficulty settings that will be found within Mass Effect 2. If you have played through Mass Effect you know that the insanity difficulty could not be played until it was unlocked after two playthroughs. However, this may not be the case with Mass Effect 2.
Christina made a response to a question, and complaint, over at that Mass Effect forums on the dissatisfaction of having to unlock the insanity mode and how this would play out in Mass Effect 2,
On to ME2, we’re aware that some players really want to use insanity at the get go. I’m developing our difficulty system, and I understand what players who play insanity get out of that experience. I’m very much a “hardest difficulty” person.
So with that said there are a few things we’re trying to do with difficulty in ME2.
First we’re trying to add additional dimensions to our difficulty system. I can’t go into the details right now, but there is more integration with our AI system for example. We want enemies on harder difficulties to feel smarter, deadlier, not just “tougher”. We want insanity to feel like a smart experience, where you don’t die because a rocket hits you and you’re one-shot killed. You die because you face an overwhelming, deadly, force. You play extremely well, but not well enough, and on a subsequent try you’re able to be victorious because you play better.
Once we have the difficulty levels nailed down, we’ll evaluate and see whether or not it’s reasonable to let insanity difficulty be unlocked at the start. I’m totally open to doing that unless it means we have to make it “easier”. Ultimately if I have to choose between those options, I will choose a harder insanity difficulty, because I believe that’s what’s important to our players.
Overall insanity in ME2 will be harder than ME1. That’s a heads up for everyone! Beating insanity on ME2 is going to be a real “achievement”, a badge of honor, get ready.
Christina also further discussed the comparison between the two games,
We’re definitely going to look at all the options when it comes to difficulty locking. Right now I don’t know if we’ll lock any difficulties so I can’t say under what conditions we’d unlock Insanity if it is locked in ME2.
Even if you were an expert at ME1 combat you may find ME2 combat challenging, a lot has changed. Certain things are much easier in ME2 (not dumbed down easy, better designed easy), but there are new challenges as well.
In general there just won’t be any dumbing down in ME2, that’s not the way we go. We’re going for easy to play because it’s better designed, not dumbed down.
Hopefully in the coming months we will learn more on how these “new dimensions” will pan out. I have experienced the hype of being told how certain games are meant to “feel smarter.” I await to see how these new difficulties play out!
