The Next Mass Effect...

 

 

 

The Mass Effect Trilogy is rightly hailed as one of gaming’s greatest accomplishments that represents pretty much everything that’s phenomenal about Videogames as a medium—fully interactive storytelling that shapes itself based on the choices the player makes, a sprawling and interconnected narrative full of characters you genuinely care about and tops it all off with an all-around satisfying set of rich action-RPG gameplay experience. All of these elements have cemented the trilogy as one of the most memorable and emotionally engaging experience to ever come out of gaming.

And while Mass Effect Andromeda didn’t quite reach the astronomical (literally) standards that was the hallmark of the original trilogy, it did improve or should I say, evolved some of the core gameplay elements from the original trilogy like a revamped movement system and increased maneuverability that made combat feel far more fluid and dynamic than anything we'd seen before. While Mass Effect 3 had already perfected the cover-n-shoot gameplay, Andromeda took things forward with more emphasis on the freedom and fluidity of movements.

And as we all know in the inevitable next Mass Effect, Bioware’s going to pull out all the stops to make the storytelling shine as much as it did back in the trilogy, so there’s not really a whole lot to write about. After all, it’s Bioware, possibly the undisputed champion when it comes to telling memorable and captivating stories in videogames that stay with you long after the credits have rolled. So that’s not what this article will be about, instead, it’ll mostly focus on the gameplay side of things.

And so here’s a (short) list of ideas that as a jaded Mass Effect player, I feel needs to be in the new title, whenever it comes out.

Bring Back Adrenaline Rush: Seriously, the only thing that felt truly lacking (strictly from a gameplay perspective) in Andromeda was a Time Dilation ability that made playing the Soldier class feel like the sheer fun it was back in the trilogy. And while it’s understandable that Bioware removed this fan favorite ability cause they wanted the single player experience to feel similar to the multiplayer, but from my viewpoint, doing so also makes the single player gameplay feel far less diverse, which is clearly NOT what you’d want in an RPG.

One of the reasons the original trilogy felt so great to play was that each class had it’s own distinct ability that made them feel unique and empowering in their own ways, and Adrenaline Rush was what made the Soldier class really tick. Removing this staple ability really cripples the class and makes the resulting gameplay a lot less interesting and lacking in depth, so yeah Bioware, the next Mass Effect desperately needs to bring back Adrenaline Rush, to make playing as Soldier fun again.

It’d be even better if the next game brings back the full 70% time dilation from ME2, which made playing as a Soldier a real delight, especially for gamers who like that sort of gameplay (me included). The 45% dilation in ME3, while still serviceable, did feel sort of lackluster, especially after coming from it’s predecessor. So if the Adrenaline Rush makes a triumphant return in the next Mass Effect, it’s basically an auto-win for me.

More Dialogue Options: One of things that felt like a step down in both Mass Effect 3 and Andromeda was the reduced number of dialogues in conversations. Where Mass Effect 2 had 3 different forms of response on most situations, the last 2 games only had 2, leaving aside the ‘neutral’ option in most cases. This really made those games a bit less re-playble cause of the limited number of replies as opposed to ME1 and 2 where there were far more options to go for in any conversation. This limitation can be attributed to the considerably less development times that were prevalent in both Mass Effect 3 and Andromeda, but if Bioware can manage to bring back the far more expansive set of conversation options in the next title, it’d definitely be a return to form for the series.

Full control of Squadmates during Combat: One of the great elements that went missing in Andromeda was that you can’t order or control your teammates like you could back in the original trilogy, and while this new, hands-off approach does make the gameplay more seamless, it also completely removes the array of creative and strategic gameplay expressions that were possible back in the trilogy. A real highlight of the ME titles is how much tactical and rewarding they can get on the harder difficulties where you really need to have complete control over your squadmates (both positioning and power usage) to be able to adapt to any situation. So yeah it’d be great if this feature makes a comeback in the next Mass Effect.

Less Fetchquests: Ever since Mass Effect 3 came out, there’s been a surge of fetchquests in the Bioware titles that feel more like chores than something you’d actually want to do. Now compare this to older games from the same studio like Mass Effect 2 where even the shortest of sidequests had something meaningful to add to the story, the character arcs or even the worldbuilding. And though all RPG’s are bound to have at least some degree of fetchquests in them, it’d be great if the upcoming Mass Effect can strike a balance between the number of story-based sidequests and the go-here-do-that type of filler fetchquests.

These are some of the gameplay choices that I feel really need to be present in the next Mass Effect experience to help elevate the gameplay as it did on the trilogy. Now of course Bioware will be pushing things forward as they always do, but still these core elements should remain as the foundation for the gameplay.