Mass Effect 2 developer BioWare has explained how to carry over your game saves from Mass Effect 1 into 2 (and 3). Pull up a chair and get ready to jot down some notes.
BioWare community coordinator Chris Priestly has posted a lengthy update which begins, "We know many fans of Mass Effect have been asking how their saved games would transfer between Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2. We have put together details you need to know about transferring your saves between ME1 and ME2." Good lad.
Mass Effect 2
Official trailer
1:41'Blur' trailer
Mass Effect 2
Official trailer
1:41'Blur' trailer
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Upon starting a new game from the main menu, players can import a character save from Mass Effect 1
The Player chooses which character to bring in. Bringing in more than one character is possible, this will create a second or additional profile(s), just like in Mass Effect 1.
For Xbox 360 players need to be signed into your profile that you used to play through Mass Effect 1.
On PC players will select the .MassEffectSave files to import.
The profile and save data must be present on the hard drive and not an MU.
There is a limit of 11 end-of-game saves that can be imported into ME2. This means that if the player was to complete ME1 12 times, regardless of the number of unique playthroughs used, the 12th save will not be available for import, but saves 1 through 11 will be available.
"At this point we have revealed that the save game import system will carryover all your decisions and plot decisions from ME1 into ME2. Did you save the Council? Who survived Virmire? And how did you handle your most ardent fan? We don't want to list everything out and spoil the surprises we have in store for you, but rest assured you will be pleased when you see just how much carries over into Mass Effect 2."
i read dat you start a new game as usual, and at a certain point, you'll b asked Questions bout wat happened in the las game ... & ur answers will shape the story ... i.e -(possible)- "so, what did you do with the Rachni Species?". you could answer (possible) "I let them live" or "I killed the queen, there extimct now" so dat will happen round 5,6 times
That's interesting. Everything I have seen up until now suggested that saving the Council was 'canon' and the decision to sacrifice them (as I did) would be ignored. Hopefully that is NOT the case...
If it's like that then surely it shouldn't be optional - unless they're going to allow you to lie about it. Right enough, that would bring up even more morality issues and potential strife if you get found out later on. Interesting.
I've only got one character I'm interested in porting across, but I guess I should jump back in and complete the campaign with him before the sequel comes out
see that advert on the right of the page, for ME2 for £9.99 on Amazon.co.uk. nope. its b*ll*cks. its Mass Effect - 2 disk collectors edition. fail.... cause i got really excited for the time it took the webpage to load...
I have to start off by saying Mass Effect is an absolutely stunning game and one of my all time favourites.
But I'm incredibly disappointed with what comes across as a complete hack of a job with the whole importing of our character(s) to the sequel. I don't know why I expected anything less... perhaps because I thought I knew how it could have been handled when I first heard about it.
To me the problem seems to stem from Bioware's lack of vision and planning at the very beginning, assuming this was planned. If the idea of a sequel or being able to continue using a character was an afterthought, then I apologise, my argument is absolutely redundant. However, surely if you decide a character will be useable throughout a series you have to lay down some very solid ground rules. The first being that whatever classes, skills, character customisation abilities are consistent and continue throughout the series. (R2D2 actually having the ability to fly in the Star Wars prequels anyone? Ok, cheap shot, there are so many examples of breaking the ground rules there I could write a book)
I often read videogame makers suggest they're 'listening' to their customers and 'giving them what they want'. Perhaps there's an online questionnaire that I don't know about and the general consensus was that all Mass Effect fans wanted their characters to start off at the beginning again, with no skills, no equipment, and be able to changed absolutely everything about them... unfortunately I missed this. Maybe I'm that one in a million gamer that actually thought carefully about each of the Sheppards I created and assumed that I'd be using them for several games. In reality all I'm really bringing over to the sequel are a bunch of inconsequential minor storyline choices that are decided by a quick question and answer section at the beginning of Mass Effect 2 for newcomers. If nothing matters or nothing's actually that important why bother with character personalities, history, backgrounds or a story at all... after all it worked for Modern Warfare 2!
I expect that I will love Mass Effect 2 but my attitude has changed a little towards the sequel when I read about the poor decisions made in transferring our original characters to the sequel. I won't bother to weigh up the consequences of my actions in the sequel... it's already been highlighted that's is all just pointless background distractions. I won't care about the characters as it seems no one's sacred, and the third game will throw them all out and start afresh. I understand that ultimately we're all being led down the same path and the series will end with a big fight sequence perhaps with a couple of minor ending alternatives rendering all previous in-game decisions nothing more than minor distractions between the fighting. It's a real shame this opinion is born from someone's indecision or lack of thought at the very beginning of Mass Effect's design.
I could be completely wrong, but I assume part of the popularity of World of Warcraft and similiar games is down to people's love of personalising and customising their own characters. Developing and building a character has become a very popular feature in games if I'm not mistaken. Perhaps I am. If tomorrow everyone's customised videogame characters were reverted back to level 1, with all their equipment and skills removed, perhaps everyone would go "great, I can start again". At least that's the attitude Bioware seem to have.
I wrongly assumed as far as building up skills and awarding points and levels, you'd have to set a limit for each game. For example, only allowing a character to reach a character class level of 50 in the first game. Skills can only reach 100%. In the sequel the character class level can now reach 100. Skill levels effectively drop by half, so that what was at 100% is now at 50% and you can continue, if you choose, to build up that skill until it reach 100% again. Apply the same rule with each sequel.
As far as money and equipment are concerned, it needs the same planning in the development stage of the first game. The decision to take away all the equipment and money from players of the first game have been made to be 'fair' to newcomers. I understand this argument, although I don't entirely agree with it. I would rather have seen new players given access to enough funds that they're not completely disadvantaged. Surely the whole point of allowing players to customise and purchase and level up their character is to form a bond between player and character. To personalise the game. It becomes our own individual adventure with our own personal in-game hero. By taking away and deleting everything about the character something is definately lost for me. And to top it off, I understand character's physical appearance can be changed too!
I geniunely feel the statement about bringing over the character from original to sequel, although technically true, was highly misleading.
So all the decisions seem to be based on a lack of planning or concern for newcomers to the series. The newcomer issue is very easily solved. Bring out a version of Mass Effect 2 that includes the original game. Alternatively screw the old customers and work harder to keep new fans happy.
For someone who cares about the game a lot, you seemingly missed the interview where Bioware admitted they made a mistake in letting players level up to level 60 in the first game.
Yes it's a shame it happened, but they've acknowledged this and have designed the opening of the sequel explaining why Shepard's lost his abilities and stated that it won't happen for the 3rd game.
Not many games have attempted this kind of carry-over, the only similar one I can think of is Shenmue. At least the decisions we made in the first game and the Paragon/Renegade alignment of our Shepahrd will be taken into account.
I've only got one character I'm interested in porting across, but I guess I should jump back in and complete the campaign with him before the sequel comes out
Me too, actually. Also, from one of the trailers it seems like Captain Anderson becomes the council representative by default. But I still want to know how much in terms of level and skills you bring in from the previous game, since they have a very good reason to strip you mostly bare. I'm pretty sure you don't get to keep your gear, because apparently you blow up with your ship and they clone you back to life two years later. I lost my 360 saves for Mass Effect, when my Xbox started to break. I played it through three times and had a level 60 character, so that's a pity... I have the game on PC also and have pre-ordered Mass Effect 2 for PC, so I probably start replaying the original today; although, I don't know if I have it in me to get a another level 60 character!
I've only got one character I'm interested in porting across, but I guess I should jump back in and complete the campaign with him before the sequel comes out
Me too, actually. Also, from one of the trailers it seems like Captain Anderson becomes the council representative by default. But I still want to know how much in terms of level and skills you bring in from the previous game, since they have a very good reason to strip you mostly bare. I'm pretty sure you don't get to keep your gear, because apparently you blow up with your ship and they clone you back to life two years later. I lost my 360 saves for Mass Effect, when my Xbox started to break. I played it through three times and had a level 60 character, so that's a pity... I have the game on PC also and have pre-ordered Mass Effect 2 for PC, so I probably start replaying the original today; although, I don't know if I have it in me to get a another level 60 character!
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