Mass Effect 5has a huge task ahead of it if it’s going to live up to the originalMass Effecttrilogy. BioWare has already announced that the game is in early production stages and will release some time afterDragon Age 4.
Mass Effect: Andromedatook place far after the end ofMass Effect 3and in a different galaxy to avoid committing to a single canonical ending to Shepherd’s story. However, after the disappointment ofAndromeda, here are a few key reasons thatMass Effect 5should be a prequel, taking place before the original trilogy begins.
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Keeping Mass Effect Feeling Fresh
One of the best things about the firstMass Effectgame is, naturally, that the entire universe ofMass Effectis being seen by the play for the very first time. This has a deceptively vital influence on the rest of the game’s success. The player is more likely to form relationships with alien characters likeTali, Garrus, Liara, and Wrexas they are some of the few personal windows they have through which to gain insight about the various alien races of the Systems Alliance.
One side effect of this is that the human characters likeAshley and Kaidenare some of the least liked of theMass Effectcompanions. This is likely in part because the player has less incentive to try and learn to understand their perspective on the world. This caused a problem forMass Effect: Andromedaas well, with familiar alien companions no longer inviting the same curiosity.
Jaal Ama Daravwas by far the best received companion inMass Effect: Andromeda, and was also the only squadmate of a new alien race introduced as well as the only Andromeda Galaxy native. Players were more likely to want to learn more about Jaal, allowing his character to shine through as well as making him feel central to the game world.
In order to recapture the magic of the originalMass Effectin a game set after the main events of the original trilogy, BioWare would likely have to throw characters into an almost completely new environment full of new species and planets to explore, where the squadmate relationships are built on the back of this initial curiosity. However, to do so would also risk sidelining some of the most iconicalien races inMass Effectso far.
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Mass Effect 5 and the Mass Effect Timeline
Mass Effect 5could avoid this problem by being a prequel to the original games. In theMass Effecttimeline, the Mass Relays and faster-than-light travel are discovered between 2148 and 2149 CE. Shepherd is born in 2154 and the events of the firstMass Effectbegin in 2183, just 35 years after the discovery ofthe Protheantechnology which marks the first major divergence from our own timeline.
The early years of human FTL travel and the species' introduction to the galactic community could be a very interesting setting forMass Effect 5. Not only would it be able to be set in theMass Effectuniverse without conflicting with theend ofMass Effect 3, but the period has been established to be a time of unprecedented development and discovery that could help recapture the curiosity that the original games inspired.
Of course to do soMass Effect 5will need to provide plenty of original experiences and take advantage of that spirit of exploration, introducing races that have not been seen inMass Effectbefore where it doesn’t conflict with the existing lore. BioWare has a huge task ahead of it if the studio is going to continue its flagship sci-fi series while keeping the games a compelling experience that feel fresh over a decade after the franchise began.
