“Mass Effect 4” is one of the most anticipated releases in the gaming industry, not just in the portfolio of BioWare but in general. The franchise has a very important place in the hearts of gamers and many people are actively looking forward to the next game in the series, and considering the mixed responses to the ending of the last game, there is a lot of pressure on the studio right now to make things right with this release.
“Mass Effect 3” ended on a bit of a disappointing note, to the point that the company had to release a special update changing the official ending in order to satisfy their fans, but by that time the damage had already been done and the game had met a lot of negative reception from the crowds. People didn’t really like the way the story was handled, and many even saw it as a rushed release by BioWare, something that was never supposed to make it out of the drawing board in the first place.
But now, attention is fully focused on the next release in line, and people have a lot of good expectations for “Mass Effect 4”. The game can easily make up for the way the last title was handled, and it might even shoot the franchise higher into the popularity rankings, but there are some things that have to be handled correctly for that to happen.
Obviously, fans are going to be very critical of the plot this time, much more than they’ve ever been in this franchise. There might be some trust issues with regard to the story of the new game at first, and we wouldn’t be surprised if some fans were skeptical of the new story. But so far, we’ve seen some previews of the game that paint it in a good light and show that the story is being taken very seriously by the developers.
We will apparently see a new ancient race at some point during the game, as indicated by newly released concept art, but nothing concrete is known about them and their involvement with the story. The art does look interesting though, and it managed to quickly generate a lot of discussion among fans who were curious about what they were looking at.
It’s also been confirmed that Commander Shepard, the original protagonist of the series, will not be present in the new game. The new protagonist will be customizable to some extent, so the story could be a bit more flexible in this regard, but we don’t know if the studio is going to give players any true degree of freedom in defining their appearance, or if we’re only talking about minor cosmetic features thrown in here and there. In any case, customization is always good to have in a game like this, and giving players a better opportunity to immerse themselves is never a bad idea.
BioWare seem particularly skeptical of the idea of introducing any of the old characters in the new game at this point, and we have to admit that their stance does make sense. It would be strange to see many of those characters in the game, especially Shepard himself, but there could be some minor references thrown in here and there in order to create some link to the previous titles. Fans will definitely appreciate a sense of belonging in the game’s universe, and finding something familiar from the previous entries in the franchise.