Mass Effect: A New Hope

Thanks to BioWare’s teaser of Mass Effect 4 at the E3 presentation, my interest has spiked all over again. Now we’ve only had a very limited glimpse of the next entry in the next game in the series and there wasn’t a lot of information, but here is a list of the key features that I think are important to the series and would make yet another great game.

A heads up that this post does contain some spoilers from the first three Mass Effect games. If you haven’t played them please go and reward yourself by getting involved in this fantastic world/universe.

Why were the reapers adamant that they were “saving” biological beings …

The Galaxy is Yours – This was touched on in the E3 conference, the ability to pick a planet and go explore. I loved just exploring the galaxy in all three games. Though the first game required more effort on this part, you found some really interesting things.

Due to the final events of the Mass Effect trilogy traversing the galaxy might have to be something alternative to using the Mass Effect relays. How this is going to work is yet to be seen, though we did get a glimpse of the trusty galaxy map so rest assured we will be zooming across space, maybe even gathering minerals?

Everyone needs a friend – What made the whole Mass Effect series so great for me was seeing these different races and characters thrown together and watching them build real-life complex relationships and watching them grow as people. I actually went back to the original game after completing the third; it really hits you how much all the characters have grown and matured. The relationship built with Garrus was one of the strongest for me. Shooting bottles in the citadel almost bought a tear to my eye.

This is something Bioware has turned into an art form. If we are going to have another Mass Effect Trilogy it would be great to have a strong cast and to see them grow, and be weathered by the events and turmoil around them.

The Anti-Shepard – The first Mass Effect still remains one of the most memorable games I’ve ever played. Thanks largely to one character in particular: Saren. He was a great antagonist. Throughout the entire game you felt like you knew who the enemy was, you were the one on the offensive, but this didn’t last. The second game didn’t have such a great villain. And don’t get me started on the final boss! Having a strong cast or just a single strong Antagonist / Anti-Shepard is just as important as a strong supporting cast around the main character.

Building a Legend – MASS SPOILER ALERT. So there are a lot of rumours around the setting of the fourth Mass Effect game. It does seem fairly apparent that the game is going to take place after the events of Mass Effect 3, at least whatever ending they decided to stick with at BioWare offices.

BioWare have indicated that we’ll be somewhere entirely new, but with some of the familiar races. A Krogan was present in the little E3 video. If the new game is going to take place after the events of the third then a lot of questions are going to need to be answered.

As mentioned above, traversing the galaxy may be something completely different but has this left pockets of survivors all over the galaxy? Unable to travel outside of the system they happened to be residing in, how have they all survived? And how many civilisations have been built up from the ashes out of these pockets of mixed race survivors?

What has happened to the Citadel? And the Catalyst? Have they been salvaged in any way and the same goes for the Mass Effect relays? What is the state of the Council? Is this something we’re going to have to start on the next game? Bringing the different races together again?

Why were the Reapers adamant that they were “saving” biological beings by completing the cycle time and time again? Were they serving some greater power? Has ending the cycle awoken some other evil in the dead of space the Reapers occupied mid-cycle?

Why not have a look at our Ben’s idea on the setting of Mass Effect 4 he posted back in 2012.

So there we go, my thoughts on what I hope / think about the next instalment in the memorable Mass Effect series. I’ve all the confidence in the world that BioWare will make a great game and a fantastic experience. Now we just need to get some more hard facts from the studio. Come on, guys!