The next generation of Western RPGs is right around the corner. While Several RPGs like Cyberpunk 2077 are leading the way as some of the most hotly anticipated games of the upcoming consoles, BioWare’s decision to stick to familiar IPs with Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect 5 could cause it to fall behind as other studios forge fresh new paths through the genre.
After the disappointing release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, Mass Effect 5 will need to bring its A-game on release to remind fans what made the original trilogy work, and why they should return to BioWare’s flagship sci-fi franchise. Here are a few key ways that the developer can make that prospect a reality.
One of the best things about the original games was that Shepherd’s squadmates in Mass Effect were also windows into the unfamiliar world of Mass Effect itself. Garrus provided a great counterpoint to some of the other Turians the player could meet in the game and showed their more relatable side. The same applies to Tali the Quarian, Wrex the Krogan, and Liara the Asari, all of whom simultaneously had their own characters while helping the player get their bearings in the Mass Effect universe.
The human companions in Mass Effect 1 helped the player get a familiar perspective to help ground them in the strange setting. Ultimately, however, Ashley and Kaiden are some of the least beloved companions in Mass Effect precisely because they did not play this dual role, where they had their own character development but also gave the player insight into a whole new species. So much of the motivation for getting to know the original alien squadmates was to find out about their planets and cultures, subtly developing personal relationships along the way.
The effect of not introducing new species can be seen in last game’s reception, where Jaal the Angara, the only companion of a new species introduced in the game, was by far the best received companion in Mass Effect: Andromeda as the only personal window into a new galaxy. If Mass Effect is going to revitalize its world, then players should be exploring new corners of the galaxy or universe which have entirely new cultures to explore, and new companions to form personal relationships with while exploring those cultures.
The original Mass Effect races, the Turians, Quarians, Asari, Krogans, and the Salarians, are now familiar enough to Mass Effect fans that the player could easily play as one of those races without it being alienating. This was proved in Dragon Age: Inquisition with the introduction of the Qunari as a playable race, after Dragon Age: Origins‘ Sten and Dragon Age 2 established enough about the species’ culture that players could more easily immerse themselves in a Qunari character as they would a standard fantasy Dwarf of Elf.
This would be incredibly ambitious, especially as the original trilogy establishes unique accents and vocal patterns for the different races. Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s voice acting got around this by having a few voice actors provide several different character takes which could easily apply to different species in the game.
For example, the gruff American male voice in Inquisition fitted just as well with a Qunari player as a Dwarf one. Similarly, the English accented voice fitted as well with a Human noble character as it did an Elf. Mass Effect should hire 2 or 3 voice actors for each gender in character customization, and as in Inquisition, make sure the options could apply to multiple species. As in Dragon Age: Origins, the game could even provide several different backgrounds per race, as it did with Shepherd in Mass Effect 1.
While it was was not as well received as hoped, Andromeda did make one key correct choice. Mass Effect 5 needs to leave the space and time of the original trilogy far behind if it is going to have its own space to breathe and develop. The threat of the Reapers was so all-encompassing and the endings to Mass Effect 3 so radically different in their implications for the galaxy that Mass Effect 5 can only provide a fresh and original experience if it takes place in another Galaxy or another time period, just as Andromeda did.
Unlike Andromeda, however, Mass Effect 5 should embrace the suggestions above to provide a fresh new experience that is grounded in the understanding that even Mass Effect 2 came out over 10 years ago. The game should play into the assumption that players already know a decent amount about the world of Mass Effect, and only then can it subvert some expectations and introduce new elements to provide a compelling next-generation experience.
Mass Effect 5 is in development.
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