Recently BioWare announced that the new Mass Effect title is “in the middle of development.” Players of the series rejoiced; maybe this game would finally fix the hole many fan’s heart’s had sustained after Mass Effect 3’s less than spectacular and resounding ending. Further still, maybe this game will borrow a lot of the lessons learned from its recently and immensely successful Dragon Age: Inquisition.
It makes perfect sense. While both DA:I and the ME series are RPGs, they’re overall very, very different games, and what worked for one might not exactly work for the other. And again, he’s right. While ME:3 maybe wasn’t the fan favourite, its predecessors were well loved, both in terms of reviews and the cash which was forked out on it. So it’s natural for the development team to look back at what they did right within their series. I mean the devs of Inquisition didn’t take a cheeky look at one of the Star Trek games (and thank God they didn’t) to try and find out how to make a better medieval-style experience, so why would the creators of ME:4 do the same? He also points out that all their titles from now on will feature DICE’s Frostbite engine, which has allowed them to “build larger areas that you can explore with less friction,” which is brilliant, but it’s here he says that the similarities end.
“Take the Mako, something we've already shown in prototype form. We had that in ME1, and bringing it back is more related to a feeling that we can do it much better than we did before and fulfil the original promise of that gameplay. That has nothing to do with DAI. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that dropping the older consoles has had more impact on the overall gameplay goals of the next Mass Effect game than what DAI successfully accomplished. We're very proud of what DAI has achieved, but that does not set a 'template' for what every other game we make needs to be. Each game franchise needs to innovate and improve their experience based on what's best for it, not just what another game had success with because 'well that was successful'."
I'm all for it, for one. I think they’re right; that they should look at what the series needs, not what other games say it should need. It’s probably why people disliked ME:3, too much focus on combat and clunky controls detracted a lot from the choices that the players made.
Incidentally, if you're American and still missing Mass Effect as much as we Brits are, you can download Mass Effect: Infiltrator for free right here, courtesy of IGN.
Is the future of Mass Effect safe?
What do you guys think?