GamesRadar: How many members can be in your party at a given time?
RM: You can have three characters total in your party... and six different classes. The game will play very differently depending upon who you bring with you. Each class has 12 different talents chosen from a mix of biotic powers, tech powers and weapons.
The Soldier uses armor and weapons. The Engineer is focused more on tech abilities while the Adept is focused more on biotic powers. The Infiltrator, Sentinel and Vanguard are different combinations, or fusions, of the first three classes' abilities. As subsequent powers are unlocked through a skill tree, your character becomes measurably more powerful.
GZ: We want to make these tech choices really meaningful in the battlefield so, for example, you can use electronics to mess up enemies' shields or use encryption codes to hack their armor. We've tried to create a lot of depth to this, so your characters are defined by their talents and the talents define what you do in the game.
GamesRadar: Can you switch classes?
GZ: Once you're there, you're there.
RM: You can bring different companions with you, though - you have a range of different classes on the Normandy.
GamesRadar: Can you influence party members like in previous BioWare titles?
RM: The character record page shows what kind of influence the choices you make will have on your reputation, on how the game unfolds, and on different endings. It's the most interesting reputation system we've ever built in a BioWare game. It's not black and white. It's not a simple system - it's more nuanced than that. There's no immediate, perfect answer. You know you're doing the right thing, saving billions of lives, but sometimes you might have to do literally the wrong thing to get there. These choices you make have payoffs but consequences as well. You're having an impact on the world through your actions.
