Mass Effect Andromeda

I loved the Mass Effect games - a futuristic shooter game that was more about the characters and dialogue than the shooting. Mass Effect 3 is of course fairly infamous, as it could never live up to expectations, but also because the ending was fairly bizarre and baffling - the extended cut free DLC did explain things a bit, but any way you sliced it, you wound up with a totally transformed galaxy. I kind of deny the existence of the "refuse" ending, but of the other choices, Domination I suppose leaves things the most like they were, only know with (hopefully) benevolent Reaper overlords rather than flying apocalypse machines. Destruction leaves us with no more Geth (and given the revelations about their true nature, that's also a big downer. Also EDI.) Synthesis, being the more or less 100% completion bonus, seems to me the best option for the "canon" ending, but it also leaves literally all life in the Milky Way cyborgs. It's a kind of benevolent indoctrination - because literally all life is now upgraded with Reaper tech, and this time in a way that doesn't turn them into horrifying zombie abominations, the source of conflict is theoretically gone.

But there are two problems with that. The First is that there can't really be "canon" with Mass Effect, because the whole point of the game is that your version of Shepherd changes the world by his or her decisions. The other is that a game set after its events would need to either pick a canon ending or have extremely different starting situations for all players.

Also, Shepherd is only hinted to still be a living human being in the Destruction scenario (and could just be dead.) In Domination, he/she is essentially the Reaper overmind, and in Synthesis, he/she has been disintegrated in order to provide the Catalyst with an appropriate model for how to mix biological and synthetic components just right. Granted, Shepherd could live on in the Lifestream or whatever, but there's no indication that he/she does.

On one hand, I applaud Bioware's ballsiness in creating a massive AAA series that really can't do sequels, but it's also kind of a shame, as they came up with such a rich and fascinating world for a setting.

Well, we're getting our Mass Effect 4, specifically Mass Effect Andromeda. Andromeda will be set within the Andromeda galaxy, and... that's about all we know.

The trailer we see indicates a certain freedom of exploration as a suited-up figure scrolls through a series of planet destinations before picking one that looks like Monument Valley while "Ghost Riders in the Sky" (I want to say the Johnny Cash version, but I might be betraying my dearth of country/western music knowledge here) plays.

Anyway, there's really not a lot of real information in the teaser, but if I had to guess, I'd think we've got a more open-world format to the game. We know that the figure in the trailer is human, as he/she has an N7 insignia, but we don't really know how he/she got to Andromeda. After all, while FTL travel was possible with normal technology, true interstellar, cross-galactic travel always required the Mass Effect gates, and as far as we know, the Reapers only made those in the Milky Way.

Perhaps our hero traveled via some intergalactic ark? In that case, I hope that they came with a bunch of members of the existing Council species - one of Mass Effect's strengths was always the thoroughly imagined alien species (though let's maybe see female Turians? They had an excuse with the Salarians and the lack of male Asari, but Turians were supposed to be sexually egalitarian.)

I'm sure we'll also meet new species out there as well.

Anyway, it might actually be nice to have a Mass Effect game with somewhat lower stakes. The Reapers were so incredibly powerful and scary that it made the game a bit depressing by the end (Mass Effect 2 seemed poised to be more like Empire Strikes Back - the dark middle chapter before the triumph of the conclusion, but then 3 wound up being even more dark and depressing.)

The return of the Mako seems to suggest that we'll get more planet-hopping that was dropped after the first game. I'd love to see the more elegant combat of the second and third games combined with the greater freedom of the first. Though hopefully the planet-exploration will be more rewarding and interesting. Maybe fewer planets, but with more stuff on them?

Still, as a huge fan of the original series, warts and all, I'm eager to see what they do with Andromeda.