Mass Effect 4: BioWare discusses its place in series, choices may carry over

I just hope it tells a more personal story. Mass Effect just rose the stakes and rose the stakes until it was this really quite ludicrous ‘Do this or every living thing in the universe dies’-type deal. It was bloody silly.

I want a personal story, in that universe. A bounty hunter’s tale, perhaps. Something with huge locations and story locations, but also something far more intimate. That’s when Mass Effect truly shone; when Jack cried over her lost childhood or when Thane Krios lost his son.

Mass effect started off sooooooo goood…. Not saying I didn’t like the sequels, because I did. It just seems like the initial vision for Mass Effect was bigger.
Exploration was totally stripped down to nothing by the time you get to ME3. That was one of my favorite parts in the first M.E. was just exploring the planets… even though it was pretty simple… mine some ore here, kill a big worm there… but it was still fun to get lost in the illusion of it especially when you were looking at the sky…

I’m in complete agreement. I’d hope to see Bioware delve into character, events, circumstance and consequences.

@2: Who could have guessed that searching the ruins and wrecks, almost literally digging up history (locations telling their own stories, and discoveries informing players, rather than lengthy conversations/blocks of narrative) would devolve by 3, into pointing and clicking.

dont make it a fps please

@3… Ummm… anyone who’d played 2?

Anyway, why is Mass Effect still a thing? Were people not pissed off enough when Bioware spent 5 years saying that the endings would be multiple, unique and tied to your entire journey.

Why do you people swallow this garbage? You can get up now, your constant bending over is embarrassing.

@Tormenter: I sense much anger in you…

Personally, I hated the Mako sections of part one. Having to search the whole goddamn planet just to find the same identical “maze” (if you can call it a maze when it’s only four rooms big) that I seem to find on every other planet was not my idea of fun.

Of course, I started the series with 2, but when I finally got to one, I realized that, yes, it had more RPG elements, but they weren’t very well implemented and I’m kinda glad they decided to just focus on it being a third person shooter with a lot of story elements.

@1

If a game doesn’t have an epic story that involves the entire known universe, then it isn’t good! /s

They tried using a more personal story in Dragon Age 2, and I liked it. The story, not the game.

@8: I liked the DA2 story too, but there are a lot of people who absolutely hated it.

EDIT: Okay, hyperbole, but a lot of people found it lacking because you didn’t have to save the world

Wow! You people have some serious issues. Why do you play games if you don’t like them!? And after that you come here and spew nonsense. What do you gain by being assholes!?

Mass Effect 2 was like the world’s dumbest commercial break. “And now for something completely different”:

Don’t worry about the continuity or how little sense this makes, JUST LOOK, a giant terminator! How fucking awesome is this?!

I loved Mass Effect even though it was a technical mess, but 2 just completely killed it for me.

@1 Personally I saw that as a huge quality of the first game. Instead of worrying about personal drama, you were actually a part of something much bigger.

Mass Effect 2 was basically 90% “Getting the band back together” with 10% actual progress. So you spend most of your time assembling a team that you really have no purpose for, beyond some waifer thin plot that kinda (but doesn’t) tie into the original game in any believable way.

I’d love to see a darker not so nice character as the lead next time, think Zaeed, allow the possibilty of being an alien, and space combat!. bring back landing on planets but not the simplistic shuttle shooting as in ME1.

Think ME meets Privateer with more RPG elements and choice and free form exploration.

For me ME2 is one of the best games I’ve played in my life… I think it’s a huge improvement over 1. Sure the story of simply assembling a team was horrible. But there were so many good side missions.

3 was just meh… I don’t even finished it.

They can’t be serios. If someone have choosen the Green ending everybody in the Galaxy is shining Green. That would be really Strange.

@#7 Clupula

“Of course, I started the series with 2, but when I finally got to one, I realized that, yes, it had more RPG elements, but they weren’t very well implemented.”

“It just seems like the initial vision for Mass Effect was bigger.”
In terms of scope the vision for ME was huge in comparison to what we got. You could see it will all the “rpg elements” in the game. This is what i meant.

Makes you wonder if Mass Effect would have stayed a better game if E.A. hadn’t bought Bioware…

@ #13deathm00n “3 was just meh… I don’t even finished it.”

Wow… you missed alot… When Shepard says bye to his team, I actually got a bit emotional. It was a good game.

I got emotional when Mass Effect 2 said goodbye to a coherent story.

That series has gotten enough emotions out of me. It’s definitely one of those times where I’ve felt genuinely angry with disappointment.

Another case of BioWare starting the hype train way, way too early. Happened with DA2, happened with SWTOR, happened with ME3 – each failed to live up for their own individual reasons. They should take a leaf out of Rockstar’s book and only start talking/leaking when they have enough assets ready to show and the game is close enough to release that they can say things with certainty. All this nonsense with “We’re not ready to talk about x yet” is frustrating as a fan.

Personally I’d be very happy to see another game in the same universe with different writers (please oh please, different writers…). The aesthetic and personality of the era lends itself very well to the ‘interactive film’ type of experience. While I appreciate the fan service the multiple choice conversations offer it’s not going to redirect the stories in such a dramatic way as the first few BioWare titles; as we’ve seen in their recent games. I suspect this is down to very limited budgets now they’re partnered with their investors much more closely, and writing, directing, modelling and texturing so many additional assets for maybe 20% of the players isn’t very cost effective.

Big fat Meh, Mass Effect is pretty much dead to me.

I’m really not interested in a Mass Effect without my Fem Shep…. But I suppose as long as there’s an option to have a female main hero, I’d play it.