Glory be! I can finally stop tutting as my colleagues casually refer to the next Mass Effect game as ‘Mass Effect 4‘, which BioWare have been quite clear it wouldn’t be. I’m a little insufferable as RPS news editor. But! Electronic Arts formally announced the game this evening with a trailer, a tiny handful of details, and a name: Mass Effect: Andromeda [official site].
BioWare have spoken openly about making another Mass Effect game for over a year now (not that it was ever in doubt). They’ve told us that Shepard’s story is over, that it’s time for someone new, and that it’s not called Mass Effect 4, but that’s about all. Surely, one might think, that by E3 2014 they’d be ready to say something solid about the game. Perhaps a cinematic teaser trailer. A few plot hints. A name, at the very least. They named it, didn’t they? Well, no. But BioWare have shown off a few seconds of “conceptual prototype” footage and some model renders.
They’ve also announced they’re working on something entirely new and no, they don’t have much to say about that either.
RPS Feature (Mass) Affecting Change
GDC was jam-packed with brilliant talks, and I missed far too many of them because infinity appointments beckoned. One of the absolute best I *did* see, however, was Mass Effect 4 designer Manveer Heir making an impassioned plea to developers for more diversity in games. He gave a talk equal parts well-reasoned and resolute, arguing not that all games should change their icky ways, but that our industry’s predominate pattern needs to shift away from generic leads and hurtful stereotypes. “I sincerely hope that you are ready for that challenge, because I sure as hell am!” he bellowed before being mobbed by fellow designers. I caught up with Heir afterward to discuss some of his talk’s finer points and how BioWare’s become more sensitive to these issues as time has progressed.
Just a snippet about something that was more or less a given, but I think it’s worth stating and knowing for the record that the next Mass Effect will entirely and definitely steer clear of Commander Shephard. The controversial outcomes of Mass Effect 3 do leave some room for ‘what happened next?’ investigations, but the three-game plot had tied itself in so many knots by that point that a totally clean break for the next set of Meffects is only sensible.
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See – because it rhymes with “war”, and that’s a reference to a thing a man said in a TV show 37 years ago. The ever-watchful eye-turrets of Eurogamer spotted that BioWare community manager Chris Priestly took to the studio’s forums to declare calling Mass Effect 4 “Mass Effect 4” is “doing it a disservice”. It’s a game that “does not have to come after. Or before. Or off to the side.” Meanwhile, BioWare Montreal’s head Yanick Roy has explained that Mass Effect 4 could take place after Mass Effect 3.
