A few years back now, only a handful of months before the release of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition original trilogy remastered collection, Bioware’s Casey Hudson indicated that the studio was in the early stages of development for the next Mass Effect project but couldn’t officially reveal anything as of yet. Other than a short and vague teaser trailer released on their official YouTube channel, the news was sparse but speculation for the potential sequel was at an all-time high. It’s been nearly five years now.
With fears of the game turning out more like Mass Effect Andromeda and less like the original beloved trilogy, eager fans have been acutely tuned in to any leaks, teasers, and official reveals from Bioware to try and piece together what they can about what we can all expect from the upcoming release.
The original trilogy was a series built on agency and free will in a universe of possibilities. Players were given the freedom to not only design their character’s appearance, background, and playstyle, but also the freedom to make important decisions that impacted the story as well as the worlds and lives found within. The importance the game put on making correct choices and taking proper actions to see an outcome that best suited the player’s preferred character and world building was paramount.
Some decisions led the player down the path of the paragon, seeking to allow for generally positive and righteous outcomes that aided in developing a more heroic and revered Commander Shepard. Other decisions pushed the player down the route of the renegade, which usually meant making irrational or self-centered decisions that built a cruder and crueler version of Shepard.
These decisions not only shaped the opinions and relationships with the player’s crew, but also the appearance of the universe in which the games take place, as entire planets could be destroyed, species nearly wiped out, and companions alienated or killed, among hundreds of other outcomes throughout the story.
Each player’s version of Commander Shepard would adapt and evolve to the particular decisions and playstyle of the run and would carry over between each game. All of the good and bad decisions, the loss of lives and respect and/or the attainment of skills and insight, would all carry over from game to game.
This allowed the player to shape the trilogy in many different ways, providing a great deal of replay value to witness the variations in combat, plot, romances, quest solutions, and overall feel of the world they were inhabiting.
The player really felt like they were in control of the experience they were having, and this is one of the biggest reasons I feel that the original trilogy is still so widely regarded as one of the best sci-fi role-playing experiences in the last few decades.
The companions the player makes, complete with believable and engaging relationships and romances, provided the opportunity to devotedly maintain a crew of returning characters throughout the series who were each given their own moments to shine the brightest and standout as true friends.
If the player felt more like going solo or perhaps behaving in a manner unbecoming of a leader, these companions could abandon the crew, challenge the player, or even die due to mistakes or perhaps intentional choices made by the player.
This completely changed many major aspects of each sequential game, as the crew that accompanied the player on missions and during scenes of grand importance would not only change the dialogue, but also the following options presented to the player for how to handle each situation.
The most recent title in the series, Mass Effect Andromeda didn’t have the same feel as it didn’t provide the same agency. It also steered away from the Commander Shepard plot line and created a new story with far less interesting characters and very little connection to the original story. This left many returning players feeling not only disconnected but also disinterested in the events taking place.
All of that hard work put into building up the characters and relationships and shaping the world in a unique way over the course of three games and numerous expansions was gone, and it was all done away with as Bioware considered the original trilogy complete.
For better or worse, perhaps it was complete as the story did have a fair amount of resolution, and though fans were split on how the trilogy concluded, it still left a void that was certainly not filled by the fourth title in the series.
Due to this shift away from heavily choice-impacted gameplay and much broader player freedom, the series took a hit in popularity and Bioware has since been seemingly attempting to rebuild that loss of good will by spending much more time than usual working to make sure the next title in the series is something that everyone can enjoy, from returning fans to new players to the franchise.
The most prevalent anxiety among members of the fan base, when speaking about the potential for the upcoming game, seems to be surrounding Bioware’s potential handling of returning characters and themes from the original trilogy.
What I’m hoping for is a bit of a return to form, at least in the sense of player agency, but I am hoping for some changes and improvements. As with any great video game series, evolution is inevitable and adapting to the current gaming climate is nearly always the goal of major industry corporations to support a profitable launch. The issue with that philosophy when dealing with sequels for storied franchises from a different era in gaming, is always going to be that many returning long-time fans will be hyper-critical of any changes made to the formula. That’s where Bioware lost a lot of people with the most recent Mass Effect.
The most important thing is that the game will be fun to play. It’s just that simple, but for many studio and publishing executives, that idea is often made more complex by their desire for quick financial earnings in place of a dedicated fan base that will return for even more sequels and other projects going forward. The original trilogy provided players with personal stakes that made returning to the series with each new release feel organic and almost necessary for players who wanted a continued connection with the story they had created and furthered their engagement with the characters they had grown to love.
The only thing that needed changing and updating were the graphics and combat, because the addition of new and exciting scenarios and interactions were enough to keep fans coming back without any major changes to the formula.
My desires for the upcoming Mass Effect sequel are founded primarily in a practical return to what made the series so beloved, but with updated visuals, framerate, and improved combat mechanics and movement capabilities. I want to see a return to the Paragon/Renegade system so that I can feel as though the decisions I’m making are having recognizable effects on character development. I hope to get the chance to catch up with returning characters from the original trilogy and see how they have evolved as time has passed since the events of Mass Effect 3.
I am optimistic that Bioware will not entirely abandon Mass Effect Andromeda‘s story and characters but rather incorporate them in a way that provides more personal connection for the player this time around. I want to see these characters interacting with characters from the previous games, much like how each Borderlands sequel features returning characters as they have matured and gained experience, interacting with the new characters as integral parts of the story.
I am aware that the events of Andromeda take place centuries after the conclusion of the original trilogy, but with characters being cryogenically frozen and others having been brought back to life, I believe it’s possible that Shepard’s crew may have been preserved in case of a returning Reaper threat. These types of links to past games aid in the player’s investment into the plot, as it shows that their previous efforts had a lasting impact on the world they’re inhabiting.
In 2023 fans were treated to a juicy tidbit on N7 Day (November 7th) that gave many of us hope for the future of the series, in the form of a short teaser that was frankly pretty cool looking to say the least. Featuring an N7 jacket-wearing feminine figure exiting a building with a gun. The accompanying teaser art showed a bar of some sort filled with familiar races like the Angaran, Turian, Salarian, Krogan, Asari, Geth, Hanar, and of course Human, complete with new key art for the next game. Many have theorized that perhaps the bar was Afterlife, and some are speculating that it is a new location on a new world entirely. Whatever the case may be, it did get people talking and revitalized some of the dying hype around the game.
Bioware had prior been releasing somewhat cryptic and coded teasers that were originally pitched as a countdown for “Mass Effect Epsilon”, Epsilon being the number five in Greek, but the teasers evolved into titles like “Oculon-2819-Defiance” and “Post-Nebula”. This led many to believe the game would likely be taking place in and around 2819 which has been theorized as the year that the Andromeda galaxy was reached in the series.
There were a few notable lines of text that stood out to eagle-eyed fan theorists:
- /////ANDROMEDA DISTRESS SIGNAL DETECTED
- /////AUDIO TRANSCRIPT: ALTHOUGH THEY SHOULD KNOW BY NOW NOT TO UNDERESTIMATE HUMAN [REDACTED]
- /////CLASSIFIED: REVIEW BRIEFING MATERIALS ON OFFICIAL ALLIANCE COMMS CHANNELS
- /////SECURITY BREACH DETECTED /////CONTACT SYSTEMS ALLIANCE
- /////EPSILON-OCULON-NEBULA
With references to Andromeda and the Alliance, it seems that Bioware may maintain a focus around the new planetary system from the previous title but perhaps be shifting the narrative back to the Alliance serving as the central focus of the plot.
However much excitement may have been garnered from the 2023 N7 day teasers, it felt greatly reduced during 2024’s N7 day as Bioware was focusing on the recently released Dragon Age: The Veilguard, only providing the protagonist of that game an N7 inspired cosmetic armor to add a touch of Mass Effect to the game, similarly to the armor and weapons they added to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning back in 2012 to represent both Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
After the release of the critically panned Dragon Age: The Veilguard in the back half of 2024, it was announced that the next Mass Effect game was the only big project currently being developed at the studio. Unfortunately, this news came before the various layoffs at the studio due to a number of financial reasons tied mostly to the lack of expected success of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which much like Mass Effect Andromeda, abandoned the winning strategies from the original trilogy.
This has come as a bad omen for the “still in pre-production” Mass Effect sequel, because Bioware has proven twice now that they are willing to sacrifice the features, themes, and gameplay that made their games popular, in an effort to generate more revenue by pandering to specific audiences that they naively believed were the future of their fan-base.
Compared to the organically generated hype around the first teaser trailer revealed at The Game Awards 2020 that hinted at the return of the Reaper invasion, and the inclusion of returning fan-favorite Liara T’Soni, coupled with the 2023 N7 Day snippet, the excitement since 2024 seems to have diminished in such a way that Bioware will have to work particularly hard to make up for.
Though I may seem negative and pessimistic, I actually think this could be a very good thing. Yes, the studio size has been reduced, and perhaps their funding is quite a bit lower with previous financial failures under their belts, but this could be the fire lit underneath them that pushes their creative minds to produce something equal parts innovative and nostalgic; A return to form that somehow feels fresh and intriguing. This could be the best game in the franchise if Bioware plays their cards right.
With the new Mass Effect reportedly being crafted by a “veteran team” at Bioware, I am truly hopeful that it will be handled with the care the series deserves so that we don’t end up with another Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and perhaps see Bioware dissolve altogether. Bioware project director Michael Gamble noted some of the people returning to work on the next game include cinematic director Parrish Ley who worked on the original trilogy, original art director Derek Watts, longtime programmer and tech designer Brenon Holmes, and even principal narrative designer Dusty Everman who was previously one of the key contributors that created the S.S. Normandy and has been a longtime level designer at the company.
With no official release date in sight, fans can only speculate and continue to pick apart the teased art and clips we’ve been provided up to this point. General Manager Gary McKay did previously note that; “We have a team hard at work envisioning what the future holds for a new single-player Mass Effect game”, so at least fans can rest easy knowing that the intent is to create a single-player title and not rely so heavily on tactics from games outside of the series that utilized live-service models and online multiplayer functionality to try and drive up their profits, but instead drove away their customers.
If the company can just avoid live-service mechanics, unnecessary paid add-ons, boring characters, poorly written dialogue and plot, and ignorance of the original trilogy, then they may have a winner on their hands. Most fans including myself just seem to want freedom to develop their character, a return to a morality system that works, slightly more fluid combat, updated graphics, some cool new characters to meet, unique planets to explore, powerful missions with lasting consequences, and at least a nod to the fact that the old games ever existed in the first place.
Would you prefer a prequel, sequel, or something in between? Do you want to return to Commander Shepard’s story, continue with the plot from Andromeda, or something altogether new? Are you hopeful for the next Mass Effect game release? Let us know what you want from the next game on the Discord.
