Following last night’s The Game Awards 2020 livestream, BioWare released teasers for the next games in the “Mass Effect” and “Dragon Age” franchise – the fifth and fourth titles respectively in their series.
The “Mass Effect” teaser indicates the new title takes place directly after the controversial ending of “Mass Effect 3” and will ignore the fourth entry ‘Andromeda’ which was more of a spin-off title anyway.
The clip teases the after effects of Commander Shepard’s choice and death as he fundamentally changed all life in the universe. We see broken Mass Effect relays and what appears to be Liara on an icy planet going past a dead Reaper and picking up a piece of Shepard’s armor.
The game is said to still be in the early stages of pre-production so is years off – this is purely a cinematic for now. More immediate will be the ‘Legendary Edition’ of the original trilogy which will update the graphics and gameplay for PC and the new generation of consoles.
“Dragon Age” is a similar story, though that will come first in likely 2022. Again it’s simply another cinematic and no gameplay though does offer some suggestions of story and character.
As both are still at least 2-3 years off, it’s likely they’re being designed without having to be backwards compatible for either the PS4 or Xbox One and so could offer real next generation visuals.
That said, Bioware was once a game developer held up in the highest of esteem. Then the rushed ‘Andromeda’ and more notably “Anthem” were infamously bad and more recently the company lost two of the biggest talents behind their two big original franchises. As such the company needs to win back its fans who’ve been burned twice in a row now. Will these do it?