“Mass Effect” is a name that leaves a mixed taste in most gamers’ mouths. On one hand, it’s one of the most popular and well-known franchises in gaming, and it’s one of the best RPG series made ever – it’s arguable, but it’s the opinion that many fans and critics stick to. On the other hand, the way “Mass Effect 3” ended managed to nearly wipe out all the progress the franchise had made before that, and completely ruined people’s opinion of it.
It was a bit of a strange incident, and not many expected such a strong backlash – but it’s exactly what happened. Once gamers had had a chance to reach the end of “Mass Effect 3”, they were presented with a less than exciting ending, and in fact many were downright disappointed by the way this part of the franchise was concluded.
BioWare did end up trying to address the issue by releasing extra content for the game that introduced a new ending, but by that point, the damage was already done. Gamers were associating the third game in the series with disappointment and a waste of their time, and this was the kind of reputation that stuck with it for a long time.
Which is why it’s a bit surprising to see BioWare talking so openly about the next installment in the franchise. The studio should be very careful in the way they’re presenting the game to the world, because people will likely be putting pretty much everything they see under a lot of scrutiny, and we expect that many people might approach the new title with an already slightly negative opinion of it.
And that’s a dangerous territory to enter for a developer, as they are expected to deliver their absolute best in that case. However, there’s not much BioWare could do anyway if they wanted to continue the game, and being open about its state of development is probably the best policy they can adopt.
From what we’ve seen from “Mass Effect 4” so far, the game looks like it’s at least going to be a worthy successor to the last installment. We don’t know many specific plot details, but it’s been hinted that Commander Shepard might not be present in the new game, much to the disappointment of many fans. His overall storyline is still being questioned, and gamers don’t know how his part of the plot will be continued.
“Mass Effect 4” will feature multiplayer as well, and it sounds like it’s going to be quite well-polished, as BioWare have apparently been putting a lot of effort into this component. However, whether or not they should admit that so openly is a bit of a questionable story – there was a lot of displeasure among the game’s fans last time multiplayer was discussed.
Many felt like adding online play takes away precious development resources from the main title, and it leaves less room for actual gameplay improvements to the single player. However, it’s pretty much guaranteed that the people making multiplayer content won’t be the same ones that are working on the single player portion of the game, so it’s hard to say if there will be any work overlap, and subsequently, whether this is actually going to be a problem for the game’s development. It’s entirely possible that it would look the same way without any sign of multiplayer at all, but of course there’s no way to tell for sure without taking a peek behind the closed doors of BioWare.