What should the next Mass Effect game be like?

[Kerg3927]

1. Be it a prequel - this time, it seems like the most sensible option.

Agree. A prequel would allow them to get around the multiple trilogy endings, and it would allow them to completely ignore the fact that Andromeda happened.

I think something during the First Contact War with the Turians. Or during the Krogan or Rachni Wars would be be cool, but there would be no humans in those latter scenarios.

I think I'd rather someone besides the current Bioware do it, though. I've lost all faith in that company doing anything positive going forward. At this point I think the best case scenario is that EA shuts them down after Anthem and someone else picks up the IP. Maybe Obsidian Entertainment.

 

[Kerg3927]

Yep. To me, the quality of Bioware's games took a nosedive when they switched to the massive open world format. Instead of tight, compact games where you ride the roller coaster as the hero of an epic space/fantasy adventure, it became tedious exploration and fetch quests on stupidly huge maps, which greatly watered down the whole experience, IMO.

fetch quests. tedious exploration? Sounds like Witcher 3

Yep. Witcher 3 made up for a lot of its shortcomings with quality writing and just the fact that the Geralt character is cool as fuck, but overall it was a similarly watered down experience if you compare it to the original Mass Effect trilogy. In my opinion, of course.

 

[meiam]

Yep. To me, the quality of Bioware's games took a nosedive when they switched to the massive open world format. Instead of tight, compact games where you ride the roller coaster as the hero of an epic space/fantasy adventure, it became tedious exploration and fetch quests on stupidly huge maps, which greatly watered down the whole experience, IMO.

fetch quests. tedious exploration? Sounds like Witcher 3

Yep. Witcher 3 made up for a lot of its shortcomings with quality writing and just the fact that the Geralt character is cool as fuck, but overall it was a similarly watered down experience if you compare it to the original Mass Effect trilogy. In my opinion, of course.

ME1 had the advantage that it wasn't an open world, which imo TW3 really should have been. The open world aspect just meant it had to be populated with boring filler quest, would have been a much better game if it had been a tight 20 hours just focused on writing. Actually would have been much better as a TV show really.

 

[ebalosus]

Exactly like Mass Effect 1, the only good one.

 

[Trunkage]

Yep. To me, the quality of Bioware's games took a nosedive when they switched to the massive open world format. Instead of tight, compact games where you ride the roller coaster as the hero of an epic space/fantasy adventure, it became tedious exploration and fetch quests on stupidly huge maps, which greatly watered down the whole experience, IMO.

fetch quests. tedious exploration? Sounds like Witcher 3

Yep. Witcher 3 made up for a lot of its shortcomings with quality writing and just the fact that the Geralt character is cool as fuck, but overall it was a similarly watered down experience if you compare it to the original Mass Effect trilogy. In my opinion, of course.

ME1 had the advantage that it wasn't an open world, which imo TW3 really should have been. The open world aspect just meant it had to be populated with boring filler quest, would have been a much better game if it had been a tight 20 hours just focused on writing. Actually would have been much better as a TV show really.

Yeah... did you play a different ME1. Because it had so much filler that was pretty useless. Cerebus missions being the prime example of just absolutely stupid villainy.

And I really like ME1 still. There were so many planets with very little on them

 

[Squilookle]

How about just not called Mass-Effect. Try something new.

 

[ebalosus]

How about just not called Mass-Effect. Try something new.

That's honestly how I feel about Andromeda. If they had called it The Andromeda Initiative for example and said that it was a spiritual successor to Mass Effect, I can guarantee you that the game would've gone over much better.

 

[DeadProxy]

An interesting thing they could do on a possible revisit to the franchise would be exploring the dropped "Abnormal amount of Dark Matter" that the first game hinted at.

Things could start out at some research stations near a void in the galaxy that's spreading at a pace that ignores all known measures of dark matter at the time that's accompanied by a strange new signal that can only be properly traced with reaper tech, which depending on the timeline of this game, could be readily available post ME3, or nearly non-existent if set during the time Shepard is dead. Then you could build the story around hopping around the galaxy to build the reaper-based tech while fighting off *insert radical race/group* helping spread dark matter.

You could make back alley deals, help fund corporations for research, steal things outright or whatever on your path to stop the galaxy from being torn apart millennia before it's supposed. With everyone focusing on or recovering from the Reaper threat, it helps push the narrative that the governments/citadel people don't give it the attention it deserves and has gotten to the point that it could become an unstoppable force in decades if not addressed soon.

But I'd honestly be happy and satisfied enough with a remaster/remake of the original trilogy, with maybe a few tweaks to the para/ren requirements for the choices, cause I hated not having enough of one or the other on repeat playthroughs, when somehow I did on my first.

 

[meiam]

Yep. To me, the quality of Bioware's games took a nosedive when they switched to the massive open world format. Instead of tight, compact games where you ride the roller coaster as the hero of an epic space/fantasy adventure, it became tedious exploration and fetch quests on stupidly huge maps, which greatly watered down the whole experience, IMO.

fetch quests. tedious exploration? Sounds like Witcher 3

Yep. Witcher 3 made up for a lot of its shortcomings with quality writing and just the fact that the Geralt character is cool as fuck, but overall it was a similarly watered down experience if you compare it to the original Mass Effect trilogy. In my opinion, of course.

ME1 had the advantage that it wasn't an open world, which imo TW3 really should have been. The open world aspect just meant it had to be populated with boring filler quest, would have been a much better game if it had been a tight 20 hours just focused on writing. Actually would have been much better as a TV show really.

Yeah... did you play a different ME1. Because it had so much filler that was pretty useless. Cerebus missions being the prime example of just absolutely stupid villainy.

And I really like ME1 still. There were so many planets with very little on them

Right, but those weren't in the same world as the mission you were doing, when you went down on Noveria for story mission, every mission was about the main story. When you went to the city in witcher, you had 10 hours of filler quest that had nothing to do with the main quest. Still remember doing a mission to rescue someone so that they'd help us rescue someone to get to rescue someone which will help us rescue someone.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

There shouldn't be another Mass Effect game. Andromeda proved the IP was never about the Universe, it was about the characters. No one cared about random Asari using medigel and firing a Phalanx pistol at some Geth, they cared about Liara and Samara and Aria and other non-A named Asari.

Mass Effect was the story of Shepard and his/her crew of awesome, fleshed out characters and relationships trying to save the galaxy. Anything less than those characters in that setting isn't Mass Effect. Creating a Mass Effect without them would be like doing a Batman comic about...a Gotham U janitor working the night shift, who never sees Batman, never meets Batman, never gets attacked by Batman villains and overall is just a janitor. A fine story but a complete waste of the IP.

What they should do is remaster the 3 games, release as one disk like Bioshock 1-3 did, and call it done. Mass Effect is over, and pulling an pet cemetery like Andromeda did will just sour people's already stretched opinion of Mass Effect.

 

[Marik2]

What should the next Mass Effect game be like?

Good

 

[Hawki]

How about just not called Mass-Effect. Try something new.

Ah yes, because people reacted SO WELL to Anthem.

Besides, it's a moot point. It's already in planning. Having only played the first game and some of the second, I don't want to comment too much for somewhat obvious reasons, but ME5 is pretty likely right now regardless.

 

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

How about just not called Mass-Effect. Try something new.

Ah yes, because people reacted SO WELL to Anthem.

Besides, it's a moot point. It's already in planning. Having only played the first game and some of the second, I don't want to comment too much for somewhat obvious reasons, but ME5 is pretty likely right now regardless.

The reaction to Anthem had more to do with Andromeda shitting the bed than anything else. Andromeda being handed over to the B team so the A team can work on Anthem left people rightfully sour. If they can manage to announce a new IP without making their old ones worse in the process, it should be fine.

 

[Hawki]

The reaction to Anthem had more to do with Andromeda shitting the bed than anything else.

Debatable.

If I had to summize lack of interest/poor reception to Anthem, it would be down to:

-It's different from the games BioWare usually makes.

-It looks like a Destiny/Division clone.

-It doesn't look good for (whatever personal reason here)

-General distrust towards BioWare/EA

The whole A Team/B Team thing might come up, but if I asked John Doe why he didn't like the look of Anthem, the response would usually fall into at least one of these four categories.

Not that people are obliged to like Anthem mind you, but if the argument that BioWare should make something new, then in gameplay and setting they are, so...

Andromeda being handed over to the B team so the A team can work on Anthem left people rightfully sour. If they can manage to announce a new IP without making their old ones worse in the process, it should be fine.

While you're right in that Anthem got the "A Team" while Andromeda got the "B Team," I'm not sure if that reason in of itself should be reason for chastisement. That's not to say that Andromeda itself should be free from critique, but presumably in any given group there'll be some groups/individuals more experienced than others. Based on what we know of Andromeda's development history, BM was overly-ambitious, sure, but it didn't strike me as inevitable that Andromeda was released the way it was.

 

[Millky95]

Trust Mass Effect to get me posting back here again

I've had 2 ideas for Mass Effect. Annoyingly both names I had for them have already been used but that's OK. The first one was an RTS style game where each campaign was all of the historical wars from Rachni, Unification, some STG stuff, Asari Commando missions, Krogan Rebellions, First Contact and even some with the Reapers.

The other was what I called "Mass Effect Citadel" or in this case, Mass Effect Noire. Set ideally before ME1 but pbetween ME1 and 2 also works or whilst Shepard is dead, play as a C-Sec officer on the Citadel who starts to uncover a plot to assassinate a Councilor or other high ranking official. A simple and self contained premise that would allow Mass Effect's main selling points to shine. Focus on the characters and the story telling rather than the story. ME's stories have all been really simple when you break them out but HOW the story is told and with the characters you are with is what makes the franchise so special to so many. You can focus this type of game on 1 ward's branch of C-Sec, explore the Citadel more. Only go off-world to maybe Omega or Illium but not much if ever. You could have the cop be different races with different classes (asari's could use biotics to handcuff whilst Salarians are better at stealth, etc). You can keep the moral system the same as well in a good cop bad cop type of style.

But mostly just give us a good, character and world focused story in the Milky Way part of Mass Effect. Use these games to expand the universe and make it more rich.

 

[wings012]

Do we actually need a next Mass Effect?

I wouldn't mind seeing another game in a similar vein - mix of roleplaying, dialog, action, quests and such. It's a framework that does not necessarily need to be tied to the Mass Effect setting. Sure it's quite an expansive setting with a lot of things to work with.... like every other sci-fi or fantasy setting out there. Settings are nice and all but I'm more interested in the story being told and I don't think Mass Effect does something so bloody amazing with its setting that you absolutely have to use it to tell more stories with.

It is a genre that isn't looking too well off nowadays. Deus Ex, another game which I feel has a similar spine running through its gameplay has also kinda fallen by the wayside after the massive debacle that was Squeenix marketing.

I don't really care who makes it or whether its an existing franchise or not, but more immersive sim type games that focus on a single player experience rather than being some nonsense multiplayer live service platform for microtransactions gets at least a nod of respect from me.

 

[Trunkage]

There shouldn't be another Mass Effect game. Andromeda proved the IP was never about the Universe, it was about the characters. No one cared about random Asari using medigel and firing a Phalanx pistol at some Geth, they cared about Liara and Samara and Aria and other non-A named Asari.

Mass Effect was the story of Shepard and his/her crew of awesome, fleshed out characters and relationships trying to save the galaxy. Anything less than those characters in that setting isn't Mass Effect. Creating a Mass Effect without them would be like doing a Batman comic about...a Gotham U janitor working the night shift, who never sees Batman, never meets Batman, never gets attacked by Batman villains and overall is just a janitor. A fine story but a complete waste of the IP.

What they should do is remaster the 3 games, release as one disk like Bioshock 1-3 did, and call it done. Mass Effect is over, and pulling an pet cemetery like Andromeda did will just sour people's already stretched opinion of Mass Effect.

ME1 characters weren't fleshed out yet. Even my fav, Tali was still bare bones. Liana was a whiner, subject of happenstance until ME2. I didn't care about her til then. Same with Garrus. Just a loser Csec officer whose morals got in the way of success. And Wrex. Angry. Thats about it. In fact, the triumph of ME2 is mainly turning bland characters into something interesting. Well... except Wrex. They didn't know what to do with him once he was possible to kill off.

It doesn't excuse ME:A characters. But they weren't that much worse than ME1. And at least the wrote a complete story with epilogue for them in ME:A.