The lights are on
In September, BioWare revealed upcoming plans that included a brand new franchise as well as new Mass Effect title. Executive producer Casey Hudson wants to know what you'd like to see in it. "We're in early stages of designing a completely new Mass Effect game. What would you want to see in it,'" Hudson said on Twitter.
Now's your chance. Where should BioWare take the series next?
Mass Effect's next game could be great, but so long as Casey Hudson and Mac Walters are at the helm, I'm not touching it.
They have 3 possible ways the story can work:
1) A continuation of the current story. This is damn near impossible due to all of the player choices they would have to account for. Shephard can basically completely kill off the Krogan, Geth, Quarians and Rachni in 1 playthrough. It would be extremely difficult to code a game with those variations. Who wants to play a Mass Effect game without Krogan? No one.
2) A game that takes place at the same time as the original trilogy. This could work, but any story that took place during this time period would, in the end, have little to no actual effect on the outcome of the galactic war, and thus would never feel as epic as the originals.
3) A prequal. This is the only thing that could work.
Probably the biggest surprise feature of ME3 for me has been the multiplayer co-op. I can't seem to stop playing it and I'm loving all the new additional classes, races, weapons, abilities, maps, challenges, factions, tweaks... it's like a whole new experience at every update :D
Of course I've always been more of a fan of co-op multiplayer modes over competitive and with the lack of firefight in the new Halo 4, I'll definitely be playing ME3 for some time still to come.
For all those peeps that dismissed it as some sort of obligatory tacked on feature on release, you are sorely mistaken. Go ahead and download the free multiplayer dlc packs and give it another go, you'll be pleasantly surprised ... if you happen to like co-op modes that is.
Keep the focus on the party character interaction and story, also make more species available instead of just human, maybe even go back to before humans expanded into the universe and before the war with the turians. And keep it single player!
Just forget Shepard, tell a whole new history set waaaay before the first 3 games or maybe after them, with the same way of story-telling of them, with new additions such like more options in conversations. You can also extremely revamp the multiplayer (like putting a versus mode with the co-op) or remove it altogheter. Remember to not screw the ending too.
Take the Dragon Age route and add in an origin story for each race. As long as I'm able to play a Krogan, BioWare has my support.
I always assumed that they would take it in a MMO direction, but I'm certainly okay if they don't. As long as the universes remains awesome, and player choice remains important, I'm in.
I love the Mass Effect series, and take no issue with the ending we were given. That said, I'd like to visit a new IP. Something that feels like Mass Effect, with a sweeping narrative and tons of wonderful characters, exploration (space or otherwise), but set in a completely new universe. I know that it's easy to capitalize on an already established franchise, that it's hard to let something you've put so much energy into go, but I feel like I am done with Mass Effect. I have faith in you BioWare. Make the adventurous decision and create something completely new!
Protheans? Javik was an *** but I'd like to see more of them.
Make our choices matter.
1) Space combat. (would't it be fun to take a dreadnought on a killing spree). -on a side note maybe like docking your starship as a loading screen substitute.
2) A tiered class system. So say once you get to a certain level soldier, you can have your character choose between a like say a Juggernaut-esque character or a offesive powerhouse dude but with noticeable differences.
3.) More hub worlds to explore.
4.) Shepards story was universe changing, so leave that with shepard. Instead, focus more on the political dynamics between the different species.
5.) More liveliness out of the filler NPC's. It gets kind of predictable to have ppl just standing in lines and talking everytime you enter an area. Instead, have interactions between these NPC's that are specific to that area. (i.e. if you are in a docking area, have ppl actually boarding and unloading from starships/shuttles whereas if they are in a marketplace, have them actually walking around shopping).
6.) Based off of the ending of Mass Effect 3, I am going to guess that you guys are doing a prequel. If it is a prequel, then I would guess that it is going to focus on Humanity's first contact with the Turians. If this is the case, make sure that not all Turians are "The Bad Guys".
7.) Add a species with a bit of mystery to them. One of the things that made the reapers compelling is not knowing anything about them, so making a smaller scale species that is foreign to the known mass effect universe would be compelling.
8.) I would not be opposed to an origin system. Like in dragon age: origins.
9.) Make the bionic abilities more diverse/fluid. (I liked how the bionics were depicted in the Mass Effect 3 cutscenes were it was very fluid) whereas the gamesplay biotics slowed down combat.
10.) Obviously compelling characters. This was the strong suit of Mass Effect 2 and is probably the greatest reason that a majority of fans find it as their favorite.
11.) Have Hanar and Yahg party members.
12.) Maybe make the Relic finding sidequests more robust and meaningful.
13.) Make running around a terrain more traversable.
14.) Make the Codex interactive.
15.) Add a couple of horror/survival sections.
16.) Having a news feed about what was happening around the galaxy added to the universe I thought, So maybe add to that feature.
17.) Have some Zero/Low Gravity enviroments to have some fun with.
18.) Make the facial expressions more life-like (That one is probably already a guarentee).
19.) You can never go wrong with a prison-break or a heist mission ;)
20.) Maybe have like an interactive workout system. If you work out more that will give you slight bonuses to your physique and abilities.
21.) Bring over the villa mechanic from assassins creed to where instead, you are adding sections to your starship. (instead of just unlocking areas, you actually make your starship bigger)
22.) Games like Uncharted are really make you feel like a part of the narrative when it adds small features such as sublty touching a wall as you pass it, or setting up vista-views after tight corridors. Adding this to the game would add more atmosphere and make it seem more like your character is part of the world instead of a robot walking around in it.
23.) Have travel between clusters be what it normally was, but have inter-system travel be done by the player. Like Manually flying a ship around a solar system.
24.) Have like a Tech lab were you can research super sci-fi concepts and implement them to your crew (not just adding cooling-down factors to your spaceship..more like short-range teleportation sort of sci-fi).
25.) Have a crew system where you can appoint your squad members to say first-mate status and thus it gives them some stat bonuses and bonus abilities based off of the position you assign them.