BioWare: Mass Effect 2 will be 'richer'

Sci-fi role-playing game Mass Effect has won numerous awards, been briefly banned in Singapore, and grabbed a pile of quality review scores. However, to date BioWare and its new parent Electronic Arts have been cagey about its sequel, either making vague references to a 'Mass Effect trilogy' or saying simply that they intended to do more with the Xbox 360--and now PC--franchise.

Now, BioWare's general manager Greg Zeschuk has begun speaking about Mass Effect 2 by name with MTV. Specifically, he addressed the game's side quest system, which was criticized for being repetitive. The 360 edition of the original game also took flak for not awarding the "Completionist" achievement to players who methodically completed every side quest.

Zeschuk told MTV that Mass Effect 2's side quests will be much improved. He said, "Side quests can sometimes be left on the side, so to speak. Pardon the pun. But a lot of times it's even just getting that whole game done, that whole first shot [that is important]. We look at Mass Effect 2 as incredibly exciting. Just the amount of effort and knowledge and know-how that went into building the technology for the first one is huge, and [we now have] the chance to actually make things a little bit richer."

Zeschuk also said that he believes Mass Effect 2 will "take it to a whole new level," and compares the first game to BioWare's classic Dungeons & Dragons-inspired RPG Baldur's Gate, and the second one to Baldur's Gate II. He added, "One of the things we're looking at for sequels and some of our other games is better technical ways, smarter ways to auto-generate content, to create stuff that seems richer to the player."