No More Waiting in Elevators in Mass Effect 2

The notoriously lengthy elevator sequences in Mass Effect were a way for BioWare to circumvent loading screens. However, at a Comic-Con panel back in July, executive Mass Effect 2 producer Casey Hudson joked, "We have the fastest elevators in the industry." "The elevators were made in ME1 so we didn't have to show boring loading screens," wrote associate programmer Thomas Roy in recent ME2 official message board post.

[GUNS N SWORDS]

yeah i thought the elevator rides were pretty lengthy.

but in some of them you do get to see the chemistry between your own troops.

like wrex, he's always the one to start something with anyone.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[inSaneELF]

They should have elevator mini-games!

[7ero H3LL]

like rock paper scissors?

or the sucker punch to shoulder game?

[TenSteps]

but as seen in DA:O and Uncharted 2 you don't need elevators to have dialogue and chemistry between characters which makes this welcome news.

[RememberThe357]

But I agree that the rides were a bit too lengthy.

[Shotgun_Roamer]

Elevator Mini-game! so thats why it's two disks, and here i was thinking it was drawbacks from using 1990's technology in 2009.

[Perjoss]

elevators were fine, better than a loading screen and there was cool dialog between characters and sometimes news stories related to the quests you had completed.

[hobokiller]

Wow, Bioware really doesn't want eny complaints with Mass Effect 2. They've eliminated almost every complaint I've had with the first game.

[ThanatosDMC]

Well, they did talk during the elevator waiting. I thought it was good that they at least did that. It's good to always know more about the characters after all. But they'll probably do what they did on Dragon Age in which your companions talk about funny stuff when you're not fighting and just exploring the towns.

[gaffyh]

I didn't really mind the elevators that much in the first one, the only problem was it took you out of the game sort of, so it became less immersive. Cannot wait until the end of January, this will be the first AAA title of 2010, and I'll finally be playing on my 360 again!

[inSaneELF]

I was thinking Tetris. Might be hard to get a license for that though. =/

[kaveti6616]

Exactly how long were those rides that people had to complain about them. I played about an hour and a half of Mass Effect in that station place and the elevator rides were at most 40 seconds long. That is kind of long, but was it enough that people always mention them when talking about the game? I swear it just sounds like fanboy garbage.

[RememberThe357]

Sometimes it would go for 30 seconds other time it would seem like a minute. It's nothing that would kill an experience, but was just one of those little things that got old after riding in so many elevators.

[bigrudowsky]

I never had a problem with the elevator rides. I guess they were a bit long for some but i've dealt with loading since the ps1 was born so its not an issue as long as the game is good.

[Perjoss]

go to any forum for any game, there will many more posts about complaints or questions then there are posts with praise about how good the game is.

[Guitarded]

...to refute your claim Perjoss.

[blu_yu_away]

Well that's because Uncharted 2 has become N4Gs bible. To suggest that it is anything but flawless is blasphemy.

[bigrudowsky]

Yeah everyone is up uc2's butt and its a great game i liked it to me it's a solid 9

[GamerPS360]

I had problem with elevators. It might be just 40 sec but it felt over 15 mins sometimes when I had to use back and forth the same elevator multiple times.

Elevator rides were so frequent, just thinking about it, it would turn me down to play mass effect. And, I played over 40 hrs too. Both 360 and PC version.
Game was awesome other than few bugs. That's why I bought both PC and 360 version.

[Tony P]

I don't mind pointing out what appear to be legitimate flaws. I can and have done the same for games everyone else seems to think exude perfection: Silent Hill 2, Ico, SotC, Half-Life, UC2, Demon's Souls, Deus Ex, FFVII etc. But it doesn't change the fact that I enjoyed those games. It bugs me when people say ME "sucked" just because of the elevators. Some people talk about it like the game was 80% elevator or something.

What's great is BioWare basically listened and tried to address all those common complaints: texture pop, framerates, elevators, cookie-cutter sidequests, boring planets. If you look at the complaints on this page, you'll find BioWare responded to most of them already and the complainers I guess haven't heard the news yet.

[THE MAX SPEED 21]

Yay

[Polluted]

I never found the elevators all that bad. Not to say that the game didn't have some pretty significant technical flaws, but I guess I was expecting the elevators to be so bad (based on N4G comments) that I was surprised at how short they were.

Now the pop-in on the other hand...

[colossi16]

I only really didn't like having to ride the elevator in the spaceship. Two seamless levels so I can sell all the extra weapons, quick and easy.

[Guitarded]

Right, or put the weapons guy near the exit.

[Polluted]

Now that I'll agree with. The elevators didn't bother me, but load screens on your own ship suck.

[blu_yu_away]

I never found the elevators all that bad, not to say they weren't long but it was loading. As such, I didn't find the elevator loading in ME any worse than any other games loading screens. I do feel they should have included more banter between party members and more of the news stories though. There were too many silent rides compared to the rides that had conversation and new stories. Only elevator I hated was the one on the ship.

[sugatmahanti]

release the game already !!

[QuantumWake]

Patients... January 26 & 29 is only a month away! Anyways... It's Nice to see BioWare fixing up every single issue ME1 had. The elevator rides were a bit annoying at times, but not annoying enough to make me ram my controller into my head. I liked those little conversations that my squad-mates had... They were pretty funny. Thank you BioWare! Cheers! :D

[hikayu17]

I don't get how people said the elevator weren't annoying. Have they play the mission on noveria ? The mission require you to go back and forth between places that can only be reach through elevator . You virtually have to spend 30 sec on the elevator every few sec of running and then some more dialog . Granted , noveria and the citadel were the only 2 places where it really mater , the rest of the open world didn't have the loading screen problem . But the loading were really tiresome . Lots of loading .If you say the loading weren't that big of a problem , you're in denial . But it was an excelenc game nonetheless . I probably won't even care if me2 has the same problem if the game is as or better than the first one . Btw, I played the game on hdd . I can't imagine how long would it takes to load on DVD .

[00]

where I'm I to get my elevator music now? :'(

[Nihilism]

That sucks that they got rid of them, now instead of having everything in game adding to the immersion, it kills the immersion by fading to a screen

[FantasyStar]

Aww....the "elevator waiting" is a signature of the ME universe. Ah well...And before ya'll get at me. In the wise words of Matt Hazard.

"Hey, if you had anything better to do, you wouldn't be playing a video game"

[nightelfmohawk]

with disc swapping.

[TengkuAmir10]

TRUE

[BoBo-]

That's good

[akaFullMetal]

thats good, but lets hope for a better frame rate and less screen tear with this sequel.

[Militia]

..but I remember hearing about some study that involved active waiting times and its affects on people. Like when you're anticipating something for x amount of minutes it -feels- like much longer than the actual wait time because you're paying attention to the fact that you're waiting. That's kind of what the elevator bits were like. I didn't think they were horrible, but sometimes it got a bit annoying when you were really anxious and had to get from one place to another.

[devilhunterx]

Waiting Esclators confirmed!

[TwistedMetal]

yet they like something thats more annoying that happens alot more then 2 times. at least you can go take a quick bathroom brake or a quick stretch, or grab a quick snack. i dont want to hear anymore bs about mgs4 on these boards. The crazy thing is not many know about all the flaws of x360 games becuase the owners keep it under wraps or use the excuse that it doesnt bother them. mass effect2 will be awesome but dont act like the elevator rides werent annoying becuase the developers wouldnt have changed it if people didnt complain. complaining and speaking the truth is the only way things get fixed and i hope more x360 owners do this becuase you guys trying to hide the fact that gears 2 online is f*&ked is why its not getting fixed. the only reason halo reach is getting a new engine is becuase of the ps3 owners complaining for you guys about how all the halo games look like halo 2.5 with even the gameplay being identicle.

[chris m]

The length and frequency of the elevator rides completely killed the game for me, there's no excuse for long ass loading times look at the many other 360 games which don't need to do it.

They still don't say how frequent or how long the loads are for ME2 but if it's not much different than the first one then it's very poor coding from Bioware.

[TengkuAmir10]

Cool. I'm gonna play this on my PC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hey xbock fan-boys, is this game exclusive to you or what?

[pshizle]

elevators...

[CARRIERHASARRIVED]

I remember areas where there were 5 minute strolls of nothingness as well, did they hide loading with those too? I thought the elevators were a clever idea, but perhaps if they added something cool to the elevators, like little sci-fi tv shows playing, sort of like what they did in the Darkness, I think that would be great.

[wh0am1]

the tidbits of character interation between all your teammates were humorous and offer a lot of insight into the characters