Mass Effect 4 needs to be a prequel
- Posted November 22nd, 2012 at 05:12 EDT by Mike Harradence
- 8 Comments
BioWare hasn’t been shy about the fact it’s in the early planning stages of a new Mass Effect game. In fact, it’s already confirmed a few juicy tidbits for us, such as the fact it’ll be powered by Frostbite 2 and won’t feature Commander Shepard (or Shepard MK. II in the company’s own words). However, something that hasn’t been decided yet is whether or not the next instalment in the epic sci-fi space saga will follow up on Shepard’s exploits or take the form of a prequel. As such, the developer took to Twitter to ask fans what they’d like to see from the next game.
No doubt every fan has their own ideas as to what Mass Effect 4 should be, but for us, we’d love to see a prequel. Despite the fact we’re curious to see how the galaxy recovers following the attempted Reaper invasion, there’s simply too much lore worth exploring to pass up the opportunity of a prequel. Mass Effect has a rich, intricate history that BioWare created when they launched the original game five years ago, and that backstory is just begging to get its own full-fledged game. Sure, we know a great deal about it already thanks to the Codex, but how compelling would it be to actually live the experience in-game?
BioWare has ample material for which to base a new game off of. As well as the First Contact War – a crucial point in the Mass Effect universe’s history – there’s a plethora of other events too that pre-date humanity’s involvement with the other races. How about the Krogan Rebellions? The Rachni Wars? Or how about the Protheans? The latter would surely open up a whole new possibility in terms of races. We love the idea of taking command of an iconic Krogan, Asari or Turian in one of the key events throughout these species’ lives, and it would certainly take the series in a new direction after playing as a human for the past three games.
In addition, given the time frame in which some of these events occur, it would also give us a chance to see various civilisations and iconic landmarks before they fell into ruin or indeed begun to prosper. We’d love to see the Citadel upon its discovery by the Asari, or explore the Quarian homeworld before they were driven off it during the Geth Uprising. Gameplay wise we could also see some interesting tweaks; after all, if we’re going back decades, maybe even hundreds of years, technology is invariably going to be far less advanced than it was in the ME trilogy. This gives the developers a chance to inject some new ideas into combat and exploration, for example. Lastly, playing as new races also opens up plenty of opportunity for new playing styles; Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer gave us a good hint of this, with the various species holding strengths and weaknesses in specific areas.
Failing that, we wouldn’t moan if BioWare opted to turn the spotlight on some of Shepard’s teammates that we’ve come to know and love over the past five years. How about a Garrus-centric mission and explore his origins, including his time with C-sec. Or maybe revisiting Thane’s days as a Drell assassin? You know you want to, BioWare.
What would you like to see from a Mass Effect prequel? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Comments
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Ryan Lee
- 7:40am EST - November 22nd, 2012
- 1
Prequel? = garbage Its these clueless journalists and game critics who really want prequels because they have no vested interests in the game's underlying lore/cannon and what it means for the eventual endings in a prequel scenario. Sequel is the only way.
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casamyr
- 2:40pm EST - November 22nd, 2012
- 2
The problem I foresee with playing as alien races is the lack of humanity. People will often struggle to relate to something they are unfamiliar with. If you give the alien races too many human traits, then really why not just have them as human. Look at Javik for instance, little to no humanity in him and was quite a cold character, and I think that most players would struggle to have him as their lead for an entire game/s. He is an average Prothean as well. Other races wouldn't fare that much different prior to Human First Contact either.
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Barry Murphy
- 3:06pm EST - November 22nd, 2012
- 3
If you want a prequel fine but the way I see it a lot of folk want to see the aftermath and move forward such as what happens to Cronos Station and who from the alliance could take over as the one in charge with the Illusive Man gone I vote to let EDI run the place especially if synthesis was the choice and now that the Citadel hangs in Earth orbit we need to find out where the Keepers are manufactured and we can open up the station some more and add places like the Alliance Memorial Plaza and what of Grissom Academy and how about letting us see Liara in her Matriarch Stage let us revisit Palaven instead of just it's Moon also Thessia let's see it without Reapers trying to destroy it. Let us embark on a new journey with a new crew and ship designed by Human Quarian Asari and Geth and let us free a keeper from Citadel control to help engineer the new ship along with a Volus and we could also use a Yahg crew member an exceptional one and how about locating the Prothean homeworld and of course a new threat bigger than the Reapers were lets do this but if you guys must do a prequel then throw some time travel in there and check out the early days from there
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Matthew Hannah
- 4:39pm EST - November 22nd, 2012
- 4
No pre-quel , naw no way we already know what happen's, I want to know about my squad and the aftermath of the choices i made in the third game
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sonnyjames93
- 5:05pm EST - November 22nd, 2012
- 5
I think Mass Effect 4 definetly needs to be a sequel. However, that doesn't mean it needs to be directly after the events of ME3 or even within a hundred years after. I believe if Bioware does make a sequel it will be set hundreds or, perhaps, thousands of years in the future where galaxies other than the Milky Way are finally being discovered and explored.
A prequel just wouldn't work because we already know too much about what has happened for it to work as a story, and especially as an RPG. Moreover, humanity would not have a place in the galaxy if the game was set too far in the past and without having humanity to relate to the story would not work very well.
So, set the game in the future. Bioware can decide where but please allow the gamers to play a game where we have no idea of what to expect, like in the original trilogy as that was one of the reasons they were so successful.
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Nikolai V. Lojek
- 8:19pm EST - November 22nd, 2012
- 6
@Barry Murphy, while I agree with your points, could you at least have used a comma or period somewhere in your post? Jesus H Christ bro!
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Alpha2
- 2:19am EST - November 23rd, 2012
- 7
I've had the very same conversation with a friend, he wants to see a prequel I think a sequel is a better idea. There's a lot of content that was built up to craft the current universe that the game resides in with the current trilogy, but the problem I see is that regardless of the choices you make in the course of a ME prequel those story elements will always have to cycle back to one singular ending. The Krogan will always be the heroes of the Rachni wars and be afflicted with the Genophage, the Humans will always join the other races on the Citadel regardless of the first contact war. No matter what choices you make there are no varying iterations that you can use for Bioware's usual branching story because every branch has to lead back to one conclusion. Maybe if you were to make more personal stories about individual characters but their influence will still never change the main historical elements of the ME universe. And yes anything prior to Human contact makes it difficult to do a RPG without forcing alien characters to be too human for fear of alienating players. I could see it being possible to play Krogan, Asari or even Prothean as an action game with a linear plot but not as an RPG. A sequel is much easier and gives you the opportunity to either touch on events directly following ME3 or hundreds of years later. On the other hand I did come up with a compromise where in you could play a character in flashbacks to a prequel era time frame that could have effects that create consequences in a sequel timeline. For instance the new hero is looking for something that an ancestor character in the earlier era left clues to, you play both characters both leaving clues and hunting for them. Just an idea of course, but a feasible one. Ultimately the biggest issue for a sequel is what becomes the next challenge your characters will face. Will it be related to the reaper threat or something brand new and how much influence does your ME3 ending have on it
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Luke Hudson
- 1:07pm EST - December 8th, 2012
- 8
Has anyone thought that it might be a good idea for mass effect 4 to be the adventures of a Prothean commander during their cycle's reaper war. I'd definately play that. Also the first contact war would be pretty fun to play. What about being able to choose your character to either be Human or Turian and the story is completely different depending on each race. How about that? Or something else, depending on which ending to mass effect 3, after the reaper war a thousand or so years in the future fighting against an evil intergalactic empire that is even more powerful than the reapers that are intent on annexing our galaxy. Either way the guys who make mass effect will come up with something good. They're not exactly going to make a crap sequel (or prequel) to squeeze some extra money out of their francise that could potentially ruin them.
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