Mass Effect 2 Details About Saved Game Imports, 'New Game +', and Bonuses Revealed

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New Mass Effect 2 information recently surfaced on the BioWare Community Forums, shedding light on the process of importing saved game information from the first Mass Effect game, and confirming a "New Game +" mode for the highly anticipated sequel.

As previously reported, players of Mass Effect 2 will be given the option to import completed character data from the first Mass Effect when beginning a new game. Xbox 360 users will need to be signed into Xbox LIVE to import previous character data from the Xbox 360 hard drive. Importing from a portable memory card won't be possible. PC users will simply select the ".MassEffectSave" files they wish to import.

In addition carrying over numerous character decisions and plot points from the original Mass Effect, importing a completed character from the first game yields a few other bonuses. Imported characters will receive some extra money to spend at the beginning of the game, as well as "...additional research resources for use at the Normandy's Tech Lab."

If you finished the first game with the status of either Paragon or Renegade, your imported character's alignment will also carry over to Mass Effect 2, giving you access to additional conversation options. While they're helpful, none of these bonuses will put new characters at a significant disadvantage, and the other bonuses will scale based on the imported character's final level at the time Mass Effect was completed.

A slight caveat is that players will only be able to import a maximum of eleven (completed) in-game saves to Mass Effect 2. According to BioWare, 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."

Mass Effect 2 comes out on the PC and Xbox 360 on January 26. In the meantime, check out our hands-on impressions.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 28, 2009 2:54 PM

    I'd rather have an option to choose how we ended ME1 instead of importing saves.

    • reply
      December 29, 2009 12:41 AM

      KotOR 2 had something like this, it was pretty cool

    • reply
      December 29, 2009 2:56 AM

      They've said if you don't import, you'll get questions like that from characters in game instead. Very sensible.

      • reply
        December 29, 2009 9:55 AM

        Why not have a bunch of menus, radio buttons, or checkboxes which sounds more practical than questions.

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