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What do you want to see in Mass Effect 4?

Umbasaborne

Banned
So i love mass effect (the trilogy). Andromeda sucked, and was an insult to the series legacy and its fans. But there are good idea’s even in that game that can be siphoned. So, when mass effect 4 launches in 4 (5?) years, what improvements and features would you like to see.

1.) writing that is better than andromeda, and on par with the original trilogy:

my favorite thing about the trilogy is the writing, world building, and character work. I felt so attatched to my squad in 1, 2, and 3 that i genuinely had an emotional reaction when something bad happened to them, or when i had my final moments with my romance choice before the finale.

Don't get me wrong, there are hints of decent writing to be found in andromeda, hidden amongst the awkward poor writing, but what we need is writing that is consistent the whole time, and that makes you feel emotionally attatched to the crew around you. That is the heart of mass effect

2.) strong characters both old and new:

as mentioned before. Your crew is the heart of mass effect. How well they are written and performed plays a major role in the quality of the experience. The next mass effect game needs some familiar faces from the trilogy (liara, wrex, ect...) asWell as brand new faces who are equally as well written and who will leave a lasting impact.

We need more new characters who are like miranda, mordin, or samara were in mass effect 2, and less who are as bland as liam kosta and cora from andromeda.

But even andromeda had a handful of decent characters. Peebee, drak, and vetra all had decent moments and a lot of potential. If it fits the story, why not give them another go around?

3: reduce the scope to something smaller, and more personal:

this desire served a dual purpose. The story doesn’t need to be about the fate of an entire galaxy, your character (shepard?) doesn't need to be the chosen one. A smaller more personal story would allow the character moments that make mass effect great to truly shine. Relationships would feel more personal. And the stakes would be less about the galaxy, and more about those around you. Like mass effect 2’s suicide mission.

the other side of a smaller scope is getting rid of open worlds. In my opinion, the open worlds of andromeda added nothing to the game except for tedious trips between boring fetch quests that ultimatley got in the way of the rewarding story moments. In mass effect 1 uncharted worlds were a decent idea but the execution was middling at best.

I think the sweet spot would be something between god of war and mass effect 2. Have explorable hubs that lead into missions whose enviroments are open linear, like god of war or new tomb raider. The slightly more open enviroments would facilitate the next change.

4.) bring back andromeda’s mobility and combat, but dont forget the ability wheel and squad control:

If there was one thing that you can say was universally great about andromeda, it was the combat. No longer were you confined to waist high cover, you could dash, jump, hover, and your abilities felt stronger and more impactful than ever.

Bring that back, but add the power and weapon wheel from the trilogy. I liked being able to control when and how my squad used their abilities in the trilogy and it was sorely missed in andromeda.

5.) expand romance:

romance options are a huge part of what makes the mass effect games
Great, and they greatly enhance your emotional attachment to your crew. I think they can be so much more though. It would be neat to be able to do things like go on dates, get married, hell even have the option to have a kid if the plot could facilitate that.

As of now, its slightly dissapointing to put the work into those romance paths only to be rewarded with a sex scene. They could be much more than they are, and i hope they are in the next game.

6.) the most controversial thing i want, bring back Commander Shepard as the Main playable character:

i know, i know, how would it make sense you might wonder? He died in my ending though. Yes, i get all that, but mass effect is full of weird space magic. An interesting thing might be if commander shepard some how comes back and a lot of time has passed like the teaser implies.

You can have a whole man or woman out of time angle going on as well. It would give weary players a familiar base to ground themselves with, while also providing a satisfying conclusion to Shepard's story. There is also the interesting aspect of how that would affect your relationships if you romanced liara in the trilogy, to come back to her 600 and some odd years later

I do think there is room for a new protagonist in mass effect, but for this game, the game that bioware needs to bring back fans. Bringing that character back for one last victory lap and giving him/her a satisfying finale would go a long way in achieving that goal.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Semi open world. Just make it a story on one planet if needed instead of zooming to 10 planets with two missions each.

Not too open world like a Skyrim as you need some structure which ME games intertwine with story and characters a lot. Games like Skyrim you cant really do that as you can be a lone wolf and clear out bandit caves and forts for 20 hours and never touch the main quest. Some people like that, but it kills the main plot focus.
 
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mansoor1980

Member
agree with all points , esp number 6 .
615a5fe729953db91397fcc0a695e03a.jpg


terrible pic but you should get the idea
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
6.) the most controversial thing i want, bring back Commander Shepard as the Main playable character

Why? The entire point of Shepard is that they're a faceless, emotionless husk for the player to experience the world through. Shepard inherently has zero defined personality, there's no need to bring them back, just have a new faceless entity.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
Semi open world. Just make it a story on one planet if needed instead of zooming to 10 planets with two missions each.

Not too open world like a Skyrim as you need some structure which ME games intertwine with story and characters a lot. Games like Skyrim you cant really do that as you can be a lone wolf and clear out bandit caves and forts for 20 hours and never touch the main quest.
Yeah that could be good! Even something like the outer worlds which was a hand full of small, dense open areas. Id prefer something like new god of war though, wide linear is what they call that i think.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
Why? The entire point of Shepard is that they're a faceless, emotionless husk for the player to experience the world through. Shepard inherently has zero defined personality, there's no need to bring them back, just have a new faceless entity.
I dissagree, shepard definitely had his/her own personality outside of your choices. There is a decent amount of well written, un player provoked dialogue to prove this, especially in the citadel dlc for mass effect 3
 
Honestly, the entire ME universe genuinely feels like baggage to me at this point.

They can make a new sci-fi IP and I'll probably be 10x more interested. It's hard to mess up space exploration enough that I'm not interested in it.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
agree with all points , esp number 6 .
615a5fe729953db91397fcc0a695e03a.jpg


terrible pic but you should get the idea
Lmao now i want it even more. I was thinking he’d be more like steve rodgers. Because dark energy or something he wont have aged or something. Lol i dont know, i just want my shep back
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
- Either a continuation of the original trilogy or something brand new, not Andromeda 2
- A worthy replacement of Shepard as the main protagonist
- Good script, good dialogues, good quests
- Less focus on planet exploration, bigger hubs and other quest locations
- Memorable team members - people you find interesting and you enjoy hanging out with
- Less romance options, let them be bigger and more interesting instead
- More focus on RPG, less on action
- The less woke stuff the better
- No multiplayer tied to the main story
 
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mansoor1980

Member
Lmao now i want it even more. I was thinking he’d be more like steve rodgers. Because dark energy or something he wont have aged or something. Lol i dont know, i just want my shep back
a clone of shepard on some isolated planet , the old team searches for him and liara tsoni guides him through the prologue/training and stuff .
 
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Krappadizzle

Gold Member
A plan for a trilogy. Just have the shit planned. 1+2 worked well because they gave you the impression that all these great tough choices you made will influence the 3rd game. Which amounted to jack shit really. They set themselves up with an impossible problem and probably realized way too late how much work that was gonna be. If they want to continue with that, they need to have a plan for how they will meaningfully show how your choices reflect in the world and ending.
 
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Umbasaborne

Banned
- Either a continuation of the original trilogy or something brand new, not Andromeda 2
- A worthy replacement of Shepard as the main protagonist
- Good script, good dialogues, good quests
- Less focus on planet exploration, bigger hubs and other quest locations
- Memorable team members - people you find interesting and you enjoy hanging out with
- Less romance options, let them be bigger and more interesting instead
- More focus on RPG, less on action
- The less woke stuff the better
- No multiplayer tied to the main story
These two especially! The open worlds in andromeda feel so uneasessary, i recently replayed mass effect 2 and its insane how much better the pacing is in that game due to its smaller scope.

and i agree, i want longer more involve romantic arcs. Hell you know what would be more interesting than having it culminate in a pg-13 sex scene? Having it culminate in child.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I fully played ME 1 and 2 and barely touched 3. I didnt play Andromeda at all. SO I don't know if 3 or Andromeda had this in some fashion.

But in ME 1 and 2 those Mako planetary exploration/mining games were 100% junk. It's like the devs needed some mini game to make the game longer.

Either axe these totally or make resource gathering more than hunt for the hot spot.
 
I fully played ME 1 and 2 and barely touched 3. I didnt play Andromeda at all. SO I don't know if 3 or Andromeda had this in some fashion.

But in ME 1 and 2 those Mako planetary exploration/mining games were 100% junk. It's like the devs needed some mini game to make the game longer.

Either axe these totally or make resource gathering more than hunt for the hot spot.
I think in the original, they were actually looking at what it's like to land on a moon and were basing it on space exploration. I was fine with that. The game feels more like magic and sorcery now instead of exploring space.
 

stn

Member
1. Let us control a different race as the main character (ex. Turian).
2. A smaller-scale for the story.
3. More dense and interesting worlds instead of an open world.
4. More combat options (ex. how about a sword-wielding melee build? Or a build focused on dual pistols?).

Basically, the only thing I want them to keep from Andromeda is the combat.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
I thought Andromeda had a cool idea just horrible execution.

Members of the Interstellar Republic set off to explore a new galaxy. Cool idea.

Then they arrive and.... run into a whole bunch of humanoid English-speaking alien races..... just like we had back in the Milky Way.

Would’ve been really cool to have them encounter something truly alien and incomprehensible and have to tackle it together.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
1. Let us control a different race as the main character (ex. Turian).
2. A smaller-scale for the story.
3. More dense and interesting worlds instead of an open world.
4. More combat options (ex. how about a sword-wielding melee build? Or a build focused on dual pistols?).

Basically, the only thing I want them to keep from Andromeda is the combat.
I think it would be awesome to be able to play as an asari, turian, or salarian. They could do something similar to dragon age origins
 

johntown

Banned
1. A good story
2. Choices that matter - let me be good or evil and have consequences for the choices I make
3. A squad that I can control their weapons and armor
4. If it going to be open world then give me reasons to explore and make it worth while
5. Have sidequests be interesting like The Witcher
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
1. A good story
2. Choices that matter - let me be good or evil and have consequences for the choices I make
3. A squad that I can control their weapons and armor
4. If it going to be open world then give me reasons to explore and make it worth while
5. Have sidequests be interesting like The Witcher
Yes, paragon and renegade should come back
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Attitude and edge. Every time I see alien shooters it’s about love, you know what I love? Taking over alien worlds, controlling great space ships, exploring huge worlds. Mass Effect has always had a lot of depth, go open world and be done.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
I thought Andromeda had a cool idea just horrible execution.

Members of the Interstellar Republic set off to explore a new galaxy. Cool idea.

Then they arrive and.... run into a whole bunch of humanoid English-speaking alien races..... just like we had back in the Milky Way.

Would’ve been really cool to have them encounter something truly alien and incomprehensible and have to tackle it together.
Agreed, the concept of andromeda is amazing, and it could have been really special if it was put together with any ounce of care and wasn’t rushed out the door, and forced onto an engine that didnt support it well
 

PooBone

Member
Exploring planets with the Mako, or some sort of equivalent. They really got away from a lot of what intrigued me about the promises of the first game, like exploring desolate planets to potentially find one ruin or one artifact tied to a quest thread.

I didn't play Andromeda following all the negative response, maybe there was more of this in that game.
 
It's really simple. Start by turning the shepherd is alive red ending into the canon ending. Then, just lean into the aspects that Mass Effect always excelled at. Strong characters, good writing, diverse locations. Beef up the conversation system, put more emphasis on exploration.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
Exploring planets with the Mako, or some sort of equivalent. They really got away from a lot of what intrigued me about the promises of the first game, like exploring desolate planets to potentially find one ruin or one artifact tied to a quest thread.

I didn't play Andromeda following all the negative response, maybe there was more of this in that game.
Eh, andromeda had open worlds to explore, ut they were honestly really boring and killed the pacing
 

Hugare

Member
I want a direct sequel from 3

But no Shepard. Let the man rest. And his whole crew.

This fanservice shit is why the new SW trilogy was so cringy, and the best new stuff was The Mandalorian.

It will feel forced. They have literally the whole universe as a canvas. Introduce new species, new characters just as memorable as those before.

Shepard being mentioned throughout the galaxy as a legend would be enough for me
 
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Fbh

Member
- A good story with good characters: pretty self explanatory
- An improved morality system: The one aspect I never liked of the OG trilogy was this very binary "good or evil" system. You are encouraged to either be good to everyone or an asshole to everyone because your dialog options are based on your overall morality instead of how you've treated specific characters or groups. Don't penalize me for making a morally grey character, maybe I want to be brutal to my enemies but friendly with allies, or I want to be an asshole to some crewmembers but nice with others.
- I'd rather have smaller hand crafted locations than big open sections. If they go for big open areas then make them fun to explore and put engaging content in there. None of these MMO style quests.
- No woke shit
- Let me create a non human character: Skyrim, Original Sin 2, Baldurs Gate 3, Dragon Age, etc. Seems like every big modern RPG with a character creator and set in a world with multiple races lets you make a non human character. I don't see why ME should be different
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
No shiny round butts please. Make them either flat or lumpy and obese. And better yet all the women should wear sweatshirts tied around their waists to protect the ass from the male gaze
 

NickFire

Member
I want a great game that is as fun as 1-3 (I loved them all). My preference is for Shep to come back. My stretch goal would be someway to import the choices I made back on 360, into a PS5 version (not mandatory of course).
 
Better writing & pacing
No copy and paste stuff like Andromeda’s Remnant Vaults
An atmosphere like the first game
An interesting villain or villains (a traitor in the ranks perhaps)
Combat like Andromeda with improvements
Sam Hullick to return for the score
 

kyussman

Member
More hand crafted dungeon like level design(fuck off open world).
Squad controls.
......basically a current gen version of the original trilogy.......although perhaps they haven't held up as I remember them......I'll find out very soon when I play the legendary edition I guess.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
More hand crafted dungeon like level design(fuck off open world).
Squad controls.
......basically a current gen version of the original trilogy.......although perhaps they haven't held up as I remember them......I'll find out very soon when I play the legendary edition I guess.
I replay the 360 games every year, maybe im
Biased, but i think they hold up pretty well, even janky ass me 1
 
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