With the recent announcement that a new Mass Effect game is in “Early Stages” stages of development, fans have already begun speculating about the direction the series will take. Will it continue the Mass Effect Andromeda story? Or does Bioware want another fresh start?
While no one will know for certain until Bioware tells us as much, there is plenty of room to speculate and hope. As such, we’ve put together a list of six ways we believe the next Mass Effect can bring the series back to the form fans know and love.
No More Platforming and Puzzles
Many modern single-player games tend to follow a similar archetype in that they all need to have an open world, platforming elements, and puzzles. While the Mass Effect series always had an open world to traverse, platforming and puzzles were never a staple.
Hell, in the original series, the only jumping you could do with Shepard was when you hopped over barriers or controlled a vehicle. That changed with Mass Effect Andromeda.
Mass Effect Andromeda added a jetpack that allows Ryder to jump around the environment, as well as a boatload of Remnant structures to explore, filled to the brim with puzzles. Neither added anything to the game, feeling tacked because most other games have those features in them as well.
Make Choices Matter
You can joke all you want about how the only thing differentiating the endings of Mass Effect 3 were three-color palette swaps, but there is no denying that the series as a whole valued the choices its players made. In Mass Effect Andromeda, choice is entirely absent.
Paragon and Renegade options vanished, eliminating scenes where you could take the superheroic dialogue option, interrupt a character, or toss them out a window if they pissed you off. The dialogue trees in Mass Effect Andromeda were still present, but only served as info dumps or slightly different dialogue options that lead you to the same place.
No matter what you do in the fourth Mass Effect game, Ryder’s personality is always the same and the story always ends up at the same conclusion. Bringing choice back into the fray in the next series is vital to getting fans back on board with the series.
More Emphasis on Relationships
Alongside the sheer lack of choice throughout the game, Mass Effect Andromeda also suffers in another staple throughout the franchise: relationships.
Whether it’s romantic relationships or one of the many bromances formed throughout the series, the original trilogy formed memorable bonds across each game. Mass Effect Andromeda tries to replicate this far too quickly, and it feels unearned as a result.
The next installment in the series needs to focus on building relationships and characters again. You can’t expect fans to become attached to crewmates –and even the Ryders– when neither they nor their relationships with other characters have had time to develop.
Interesting Alien Species
Mass Effect is known for having a diverse cast of different intelligent fictional species that make up its unique universe. From the intricacies of the Quarian biology to the flat, emotionless dialect of the Elcor, just about every alien you meet in the game has something cool and distinct about them.
Across the original trilogy, Shepard and the Normandy crew interacted with over 20 sentient species.
Only three intelligent species are introduced in Mass Effect Andromeda: Angara, Kett, and Remnant. Unfortunately, none of these are at all distinct or exciting.
The Angara are a more human-like version of the Hanar, while the Remnant are essentially just robots/machines. Then there’s the antagonist species, the Kett, who turns out to be the Angara with chitinous armor.
On top of all this, the game leaves vital species like the Quarians out of the game entirely. The next installment seriously needs to introduce more important life forms, if not just head back to the Milky Way in general.
Return to the Milky Way
There was a lot of potential in starting fresh in the Andromeda galaxy. Not only did it allow for a clean slate story-wise, but it also gave an entirely new world to build, filled with rules and races explicitly tailored to it.
Instead, all the Andromeda Galaxy proved to be was a bunch of empty planets made up of creatures that looked straight out of No Man’s Sky and boring Remnant structures. While there is some intrigue about discovering the rest of the unknown by the end of the game, it just felt like the series moved away from everything fans loved and made us miss the original world they created.
Sure, returning the Milky Way galaxy might require some interesting story navigating, considering how Mass Effect 3 ended. Still, it wouldn’t be all too complicated to pick one “True Ending” and go from there.
Main Character Race Choice
The first Mass Effect features one of the coolest character creations in gaming. Not only do players get to customize their Shepard’s look and sex, they even get to pick specific backstories that alter dialogue and missions throughout the series.
Ever since that incredible first character creation, fans have always wanted to take the next step; allow players to alter their character’s race as well. Getting to play as a species like the Drell or Turians opens up so many possibilities.
Like the first game in the series, backstory and interactions can differ depending on the race you choose, helping the story feel less linear. Alongside this, races can also have unique perks, as seen in the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer mode.
Considering how long fans have been begging for this feature, it seems like this is one of the easiest and most essential things BioWare can do to win back its fans’ loyalty.
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