Mass Effect 4 Will Not Feature Shepard or "Shepard 2"

[Soviet Heavy]

For everyone asking what implications regarding the Reapers will have on ME4, consider this: The Collector Base's impact on ME3.

 

[Mahorfeus]

Am I the only one who would want the star to be an alien? Unless they're dead set on making a hard canon exist for the story, I don't see why there couldn't be race selection like there was in Dragon Age: Origins (you know, the one good game in the series).

 

[digital warrior]

I'm curious now, what could they possibly do to write themselves out of the corner that was ME3's ending. Not only was the ending bad, but it changed everything. I think their just going to go "destruction" as canon ending and pretend the me3 ending didn't happen. (at least one can hope)

 

[StriderShinryu]

This pleases me greatly. As much as I loved the adventures of Alexander Shepherd, they came to an end with the conclusion of Mass Effect 3. I love the universe though and definitely anticipate going back to it at some point from a different perspective. Personally, I hope they don't do a prequel but instead jump forward into a slightly future time period.. the only question being which ME ending will they would take as canon given how drastically changed each version left the universe.

 

[WashAran]

I want to see how they get burned, so bad.
How are they going to make all three endings work for one new story?
Because as we saw with 2 and 3, your choices did not matter!

 

[Doom972]

But who would buy it at this point, after so much fail on 3?

So much fail? Up to retaking Earth, most people seemed to be having fun, and they fixed the endings, though many people still weren't pleased for not getting their perfect ending.

I'll probably be careful about buying it - I'll read reviews and wait for a significant price drop.

OT: It'll probably be a prequel or happen in the same time as the ME trilogy. Otherwise, they'll have to make one ending canon, or not choose one and try to be vague about which one Shepard chose.
I hope they'll allow the player to choose a race and maybe origin stories. But I won't hold my breath.

 

[AlotFirst]

But who would buy it at this point, after so much fail on 3?

So much fail? Up to retaking Earth, most people seemed to be having fun, and they fixed the endings, though many people still weren't pleased for not getting their perfect ending.

I'll probably be careful about buying it - I'll read reviews and wait for a significant price drop.

OT: It'll probably be a prequel or happen in the same time as the ME trilogy. Otherwise, they'll have to make one ending canon, or not choose one and try to be vague about which one Shepard chose.
I hope they'll allow the player to choose a race and maybe origin stories. But I won't hold my breath.

Being able to choose a race would be nice, but I would be happy enough with a story focussed on the life of a member of a race that isn't human. I think I've had my share of human protagonists in the last million games I played.

 

[JPArbiter]

for me, Mass Effect was more of a setting then a story, but then for Me, only Mass Effect 1's Story made sense, 2 was utter garbage and 3 was trying to pull up 2's dead weight.

it is why I have said a Mass Effect movie/tv show should leave the games behind. this is most certainly a step in the right direction.

 

[Mourne]

Honestly, I can't wait to see the story for ME4. I loved ME3, especially after they fixed the endings. I'm also interested with how they'll deal with creating a new character. So many possibilities can be done. They can still keep the same sort of atmosphere, even. If they do it right.

I think a galactic civil war might be cool as a sequel to the plots. As a prequel, I could imagine the discovery of the Reaper tech and their run-in with the turians, and the short war that followed, and any other major battles of that time period.

So much can happen! I can't wait. :3

 

[Aurora Firestorm]

But who would buy it at this point, after so much fail on 3?

All of us who liked 3's ending, like me, or those of us who didn't care about the 10 less-than-good minutes at the end of a 3-game series. You guys are all whinier than Star Wars fans. Good grief.

Anyway, I have no idea where they're going to go with this. I call it "Epic Creep" -- when the story has to keep ratcheting the epic levels up until they get absurd. We've just saved the galaxy from a generally undefeatable race of super-monsters...what *now*?

 

[N_of_the_dead]

OT: It'll probably be a prequel or happen in the same time as the ME trilogy. Otherwise, they'll have to make one ending canon, or not choose one and try to be vague about which one Shepard chose.
I hope they'll allow the player to choose a race and maybe origin stories. But I won't hold my breath.

I doubt they can be vague with the three endings, one had everyone becoming a synthetic organic hybrid, another has a giant army of space cthulhus running around and the last one has an entire race wiped off the map.

Honestly they can't really be vague, the second you see everyone does or doesn't have glowing eyes you can rule out at least one ending

OT: I am iffy on sequels since the endings will either be ignored or one will be chosen and then that shit storm will happen

a prequel would be great especially from another races point of view like the Morning War or something. No fear of a human main char unless Bioware wants to bend story canon over the table

 

[J Tyran]

The only difference I could see for that is if you see a Reaper flying around in the background, or if everything has a green glow in the game.

I disagree: Synthesis is the most transformative (especially if you take the Extended Cut into consideration - Tuchanka, for example, looks completely different), Destroy takes the geth out of the equation, and Control means the Reapers and their armies are still around. Not an easy thing to do.

Personally, if they're going for a prequel (Rachni Wars/Krogan Rebellions/First Contact War), I'd like to see an Origins-esque scenario where you can choose a specific character (ie: asari scientist, salarian STG operative, krogan warrior), play their unique origin story, and eventually form a team with the other characters you didn't choose.

To much choice and variation for them to begin to account for how people played through the first trilogy. Bioware will simply choose a "canon" series of events and go from there.

 

[Entitled]

How about making an RPG set in the Mass Effect universe?

 

[Sonic Doctor]

But who would buy it at this point, after so much fail on 3?

My thoughts as well - after the way 3 ended, how many people are going to be willing to trust Bioware on another series of Mass Effect games?

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice..."

Up until the last few minutes of the ME3, the game was amazingly awesome. No ten or so minutes of fail, is going to tarnish or change my mind on how I liked the 150 hours over three games of play that I experienced.

That would be like me saying that since I don't like what's been going on with Doctor Who since the end of series 5, all the Doctor Who I've watched that came before it is all ruined and bad now. Of course that is a bigger scale amount of content, but it still fits the picture.

Yes, BioWare messed up a little, but little mistakes aren't going to change my mind about them.

BioWare is still in the good developer section for me. I loved how they totally changed things up with Dragon Age 2, and I can't wait for DA3.

 

[Diana Kingston-Gabai]

To much choice and variation for them to begin to account for how people played through the first trilogy. Bioware will simply choose a "canon" series of events and go from there.

That, or jump back to an earlier period before Shepard's story began.

 

[AgentLampshade]

I've always wanted a game centring around an asari commando and her lovely biotic powers. You see all these awesome powers like levitation in the cutscenes but are never able to do them[footnote]Yeah, it broke my immersion a few times.[/footnote]

 

[Canadish]

How about making an RPG set in the Mass Effect universe?

Are you MAD sir!? An RPG!? In the MASS EFFECT universe!? It's so crazy it might just work!

I'm curious how close it will end up being to that potential leak about the series becoming "Mass Shift". I suspect alot of that was scrap after everyone hated the Catalyst.

 

[J Tyran]

To much choice and variation for them to begin to account for how people played through the first trilogy. Bioware will simply choose a "canon" series of events and go from there.

That, or jump back to an earlier period before Shepard's story began.

That carries its own set of problems though, the history of the universe is fairly well documented in the trilogy. That would mean a massive shift away from the epic ground breaking choices we saw throughout Mass Effect because big events are already fixed in history.

The choices in the new series would have to step around those or go for huge amounts of retcon. Could the new series survive the controversy that would bring?

 

[Doom972]

OT: It'll probably be a prequel or happen in the same time as the ME trilogy. Otherwise, they'll have to make one ending canon, or not choose one and try to be vague about which one Shepard chose.
I hope they'll allow the player to choose a race and maybe origin stories. But I won't hold my breath.

I doubt they can be vague with the three endings, one had everyone becoming a synthetic organic hybrid, another has a giant army of space cthulhus running around and the last one has an entire race wiped off the map.

Honestly they can't really be vague, the second you see everyone does or doesn't have glowing eyes you can rule out at least one ending

OT: I am iffy on sequels since the endings will either be ignored or one will be chosen and then that shit storm will happen

a prequel would be great especially from another races point of view like the Morning War or something. No fear of a human main char unless Bioware wants to bend story canon over the table

In Deus Ex: Invisible War, they combined the endings without revealing the order in which they happened (the first being the one chosen by the player). It's not a very good way of making a sequel, but it's an option. As I said, I prefer that it won't take place after ME3.

 

[mirage202]

A switch from conflict to exploration? In what alternate dimension would this ever happen?

Or are we ignoring the homogenisation of ME2 + 3 to "appeal to a broader audience" the same exact audience that wont touch it with a $60 pole if it isn't a generic cover based shooter.