I would say, don't feel like you need to stick to those two choices. Livingston: In terms of your character, there's this idea of a 'paragon' - someone who does the right thing all the time, and the 'renegade' - who's kind of like a loose cannon, maybe mean or potentially evil. : If was new to the series, what would you recommend that I bear in mind? How should I be approaching this game as opposed to other types of RPGs?

It was like a collaboration between the writers - who gave you all these things to say - and then yourself, choosing what you want to say. I had a huge crush on my character because she was very well-written. I don't know if I felt reliant on them, but I was very interested in them. They had these backstories, problems and traumas. Livingston: Honestly, they were just very interesting people and the dialog was so good. Is that why you altered your behavior in 'Mass Effect'? They didn't have a choice because they were so isolated. : In real-life space missions and in space analogs, when people come back from those experiences, they usually tell us that they had to rely on their crewmates. All I want to do is get back to the ship and talk to my friends.' I'm shooting, shooting, shooting at enemies. When I went on missions, I was like, 'Whatever. I quickly just abandoned the whole, 'I'm a jerk' thing because I cared so much about these people. It's a rare thing, I think, where a game will change the way you play it. You have responses to what people are saying.įor me, when I play a role-playing game, I often play a self-interested character, like what's in it for me and why do I care about this? But in 'Mass Effect,' I very quickly realized this isn't going to work. It's a role-playing game, so you have input into these conversations. I struggle to think of games where the characters are so well-realized and the dialogue is so well-written. Livingston: It was absolutely the characters that you meet in the game and the relationships you formed with them. : What made 'Mass Effect' unique from other franchises, at the time that it was released? You want to compare your own experiences with other people's as they're experiencing them. You want to be playing it at the same time as your friends, your colleagues and the community because you don't want things spoiled. It was one of those games that comes along where there's so much discussion that you don't want to be playing three months later. I got quickly hooked into the story and characters, so as the second and third ones came out, I played them immediately. : What was your first encounter with the games?Ĭhristopher Livingston: The first one, I think I played as it was released. A screenshot from 'Mass Effect: Legendary Edition' (Image credit: Bioware)

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