The Cut Character Concepts from Mass Effect 2
Feb 4, 2021 5:01:44 GMT
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Post by linksocarina on Feb 4, 2021 5:01:44 GMT
So Walters did a vid for Gamespot that I quite liked, going over old design documents that discussed the cut character concepts and ideas for the squadmates in Mass Effect 2.
The video talks about three steps in the process; first which talks about the character concepts and where they came from. Second, the refinement of the characters and designing loyalty missions, and lastly, the 'greybox' version (or I guess beta version) of their character arc as a whole.
Some of the cut character concepts from the video include the following. Walters notes that they are just ideas that didn't really flesh out how they would interact with the player yet, but just quick concepts to see what would stick and what would work the best.
The Design-A-Krogan: Cerberus gives Shepard a Krogan breeding chamber where they can create their own clone to shape for themselves. An early version of what would become Grunt.
The Tank: a large, 75- year old robot with an illegal AI that can be purchased, which requires a lot of money and scavenging to find a power cell for it.
The Salarian Avenger: A Salarian being hunted by Kirrahe's squad (or Kirrahe if he's alive) for the murder of a Salarian politician. The politican had info the player needed, that the Avenger has. Also morphs into the The Salarian Assassin, whose motivations are Based on Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride. Possibly a descendant of the League of One, who is obsessed with avenging the deaths of his ancestors. Supposed to be a top sniper, and according to Walters was a top pick to be in the game for a while but just didn't make the cut.
The Quarian Rogue: A male Quarian who is in the middle of a gun battle between police and bounty hunters when you meet him, who was seeking information to prove that its safe to return to Rannoch, but is too impulsive and rash. Would later be named The Quarian Infiltrator and like the Salarian Avenger, was a top pick for Mass Effect 2 but was cut in the end. Based off of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The Cordial Smuggler: a 30-ish year old character of any race or gender who approaches Shepard claiming to have contact information. Supposed to be super charismatic and a mix between Han Solo's charm and Luke Skywalker's excitability in terms of personality.
The Crazy Quarian King: A Quarian you meet on the floatilla who seeks out to join you. Walters said they were based on the crazy Irishman in Braveheart. A lot of the characters, according to Walters, had some direct inspiration from other films.
The Spacejacker: A female human attempting to steal something that Shepard is also stealing. May have possibly let Shepard successfully steal the item, but also may have been after the Leviathan, as she only steals ships. Another character who was a top pick, later renamed The Young Thief, who would have been a lesbian only character who would leave the party if her loyalty is too low. Walters says they didn't figure out how loyalty would impact the game other than it being an important factor, and we can see early ideas regarding loyalty to be more of a sliding scale possibly, though the loyalty mission ideas were present already.
The Fallen Paragon: A 40ish year old character of any race or gender who is a medical expert. The paragon left their job at a genetics lab who is drinking themselves to death due to losing his ideals.
The Mad Bomber: A 20ish year old character of any race or gender who is a demolitions-savant that is a bit crazy and suicidal. They would task Shepard into breaking into a black ops base to steal technology they need for their demolitions. Walters mentions that some of the elements of the Mad Bomber blend into with Zaeed and Jack.
The Batarian Gearhead: A Batarian squadmate who is an infamous terrorist and tech expert, but it turns out is actually been framed as a terrorist and has no qualms with humanity. Supposed to be very a-typical of a Batarian, more socially awkward in a nerdy sort of way.
The Fugitive Rebel: A male Salarian, Quarian or Human who is part of a Rebel movement, known for infiltrating enemy territory quite easily. Living off the grid after his rebellion was crushed, hunted by bounty hunters and gangs, and is an adaptable guerilla fighter who can hack and rig technology with 'MacGyver-like ease.'
The Techno-Hippie: a male Salarian who is 45 years old, who is an anarchist hacker living in an isolationist community inhabited by the space age equivalent of flower children. Based on Tommy Chong but a tech genius
The Mercenary: A gruff, crude mercenary with lots of tattoos who Shepard must keep loyal or else they will sell them out to the Collectors. Likely the early ideas for what would eventually become Zaeed.
The Crusader: A new alien (before the Drell were designed). The player would have to negotiate with the new aliens to obtain some sort of siege weapon to break into a planet fortress (likely the code name for the Collector Base). The aliens agree so long as they send the Crusader as an observer. Described as an alien "Teutonic Knight" with an element of Shepard Book from Firefly, and also "darkly romantic and sexually charged." Elements of Thane are there.
Garrus and Tali are also in the document as well. Garrus was originally going to be a Bounty Hunter and it was changed later to make him Archangel, to try and add an element of surprise to his return. Garrus as a bounty hunter would be on Omega trying to take down a gang connected to Dr. Saleaon. Tal's character arc is mostly unchanged, she is trying to find redemption with her people, though the reason for redemption would be more about Shepard and the Reapers.
The other parts of the vid were just fleshing out the top choices for squadmates. Some were pretty close to their final version, like Miranda. Others are totally different like Jacob. At one point, Jacob was to be a survivor of Eden Prime and a former lover of Miranda's who cared for her, used Jacob as "a hunk of man meat". Part of his conflict was resolving this between the two, where Miranda begins to seduce Jacob again just to have fun, leading to Shepard intervening and trying to convince Miranda to care more about others. Jacob would commit suicide if Shepard doesn't intervene and Miranda leaves him again. You were also able to convince Jacob to leave Cerberus if his loyalty was high enough.
By the second document they show, they have a more fleshed out versions of their stories and a closer version of the loyalty missions present. The third and final document Walters mentions the 'greybox level for some of the missions, which is the whole story and mission planned out and a test of what it may look like in-game.
I find this all fascinating. Hope you do to.
The video talks about three steps in the process; first which talks about the character concepts and where they came from. Second, the refinement of the characters and designing loyalty missions, and lastly, the 'greybox' version (or I guess beta version) of their character arc as a whole.
Some of the cut character concepts from the video include the following. Walters notes that they are just ideas that didn't really flesh out how they would interact with the player yet, but just quick concepts to see what would stick and what would work the best.
The Design-A-Krogan: Cerberus gives Shepard a Krogan breeding chamber where they can create their own clone to shape for themselves. An early version of what would become Grunt.
The Tank: a large, 75- year old robot with an illegal AI that can be purchased, which requires a lot of money and scavenging to find a power cell for it.
The Salarian Avenger: A Salarian being hunted by Kirrahe's squad (or Kirrahe if he's alive) for the murder of a Salarian politician. The politican had info the player needed, that the Avenger has. Also morphs into the The Salarian Assassin, whose motivations are Based on Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride. Possibly a descendant of the League of One, who is obsessed with avenging the deaths of his ancestors. Supposed to be a top sniper, and according to Walters was a top pick to be in the game for a while but just didn't make the cut.
The Quarian Rogue: A male Quarian who is in the middle of a gun battle between police and bounty hunters when you meet him, who was seeking information to prove that its safe to return to Rannoch, but is too impulsive and rash. Would later be named The Quarian Infiltrator and like the Salarian Avenger, was a top pick for Mass Effect 2 but was cut in the end. Based off of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The Cordial Smuggler: a 30-ish year old character of any race or gender who approaches Shepard claiming to have contact information. Supposed to be super charismatic and a mix between Han Solo's charm and Luke Skywalker's excitability in terms of personality.
The Crazy Quarian King: A Quarian you meet on the floatilla who seeks out to join you. Walters said they were based on the crazy Irishman in Braveheart. A lot of the characters, according to Walters, had some direct inspiration from other films.
The Spacejacker: A female human attempting to steal something that Shepard is also stealing. May have possibly let Shepard successfully steal the item, but also may have been after the Leviathan, as she only steals ships. Another character who was a top pick, later renamed The Young Thief, who would have been a lesbian only character who would leave the party if her loyalty is too low. Walters says they didn't figure out how loyalty would impact the game other than it being an important factor, and we can see early ideas regarding loyalty to be more of a sliding scale possibly, though the loyalty mission ideas were present already.
The Fallen Paragon: A 40ish year old character of any race or gender who is a medical expert. The paragon left their job at a genetics lab who is drinking themselves to death due to losing his ideals.
The Mad Bomber: A 20ish year old character of any race or gender who is a demolitions-savant that is a bit crazy and suicidal. They would task Shepard into breaking into a black ops base to steal technology they need for their demolitions. Walters mentions that some of the elements of the Mad Bomber blend into with Zaeed and Jack.
The Batarian Gearhead: A Batarian squadmate who is an infamous terrorist and tech expert, but it turns out is actually been framed as a terrorist and has no qualms with humanity. Supposed to be very a-typical of a Batarian, more socially awkward in a nerdy sort of way.
The Fugitive Rebel: A male Salarian, Quarian or Human who is part of a Rebel movement, known for infiltrating enemy territory quite easily. Living off the grid after his rebellion was crushed, hunted by bounty hunters and gangs, and is an adaptable guerilla fighter who can hack and rig technology with 'MacGyver-like ease.'
The Techno-Hippie: a male Salarian who is 45 years old, who is an anarchist hacker living in an isolationist community inhabited by the space age equivalent of flower children. Based on Tommy Chong but a tech genius
The Mercenary: A gruff, crude mercenary with lots of tattoos who Shepard must keep loyal or else they will sell them out to the Collectors. Likely the early ideas for what would eventually become Zaeed.
The Crusader: A new alien (before the Drell were designed). The player would have to negotiate with the new aliens to obtain some sort of siege weapon to break into a planet fortress (likely the code name for the Collector Base). The aliens agree so long as they send the Crusader as an observer. Described as an alien "Teutonic Knight" with an element of Shepard Book from Firefly, and also "darkly romantic and sexually charged." Elements of Thane are there.
Garrus and Tali are also in the document as well. Garrus was originally going to be a Bounty Hunter and it was changed later to make him Archangel, to try and add an element of surprise to his return. Garrus as a bounty hunter would be on Omega trying to take down a gang connected to Dr. Saleaon. Tal's character arc is mostly unchanged, she is trying to find redemption with her people, though the reason for redemption would be more about Shepard and the Reapers.
The other parts of the vid were just fleshing out the top choices for squadmates. Some were pretty close to their final version, like Miranda. Others are totally different like Jacob. At one point, Jacob was to be a survivor of Eden Prime and a former lover of Miranda's who cared for her, used Jacob as "a hunk of man meat". Part of his conflict was resolving this between the two, where Miranda begins to seduce Jacob again just to have fun, leading to Shepard intervening and trying to convince Miranda to care more about others. Jacob would commit suicide if Shepard doesn't intervene and Miranda leaves him again. You were also able to convince Jacob to leave Cerberus if his loyalty was high enough.
By the second document they show, they have a more fleshed out versions of their stories and a closer version of the loyalty missions present. The third and final document Walters mentions the 'greybox level for some of the missions, which is the whole story and mission planned out and a test of what it may look like in-game.
I find this all fascinating. Hope you do to.
