The Mass Effect games may have formed one of the most successful RPG franchises of the last fifteen years, but in many ways the series has struggled to move past the original trilogy. Mass Effect: Andromeda tried to make a clean break, leaving the setting and decisions of the first three games far behind to tell a story set in the faraway Andromeda galaxy, 600 years after the defeat of the Reapers in Mass Effect 3. Mass Effect 4 appears to be taking a very different approach.
After the disappointing reception of Mass Effect: Andromeda, BioWare has turned back to the original trilogy to breathe new life into the series. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition remastered the first three games and released to great success earlier this year. Mass Effect 4’s trailer also revealed that the next game would seemingly pick up where the original trilogy left off instead of following on from Andromeda. The trailer focused on original trilogy companion Liara T’Soni, but that's not all. There’s even more evidence that Mass Effect 4 will be repeating the past.
The Mass Effect 4 Trailer
Although only one Mass Effect 4 trailer has been released so far, there’s a lot that can be inferred from the game’s presence at The Game Awards 2020. The trailer opened with a shot of both the Milky Way and Andromeda. BioWare project director Michael Gamble has since stated that this two galaxy shot was “intentional,” suggesting that Mass Effect 4 will pick up plotlines from both the original Mass Effect trilogy and Mass Effect: Andromeda.
This in turn makes it seem likely that Mass Effect 4 will take place centuries after Mass Effect 3's ending. The Andromeda Initiative didn’t arrive at its destination until 600 years after the original trilogy, and if the two galaxies are now connected by a Mass Relay it seems likely that Mass Effect 4 will be set after the events of Andromeda.
Liara T’Soni’s survival and presence in the trailer would still make sense. Asari can live to be 1000 years old, and Liara was only around 100 in Mass Effect 1, so she would potentially be around 700 by the time the Andromeda Initiative arrived in the Heleus Cluster.
The presence of a dead Reaper in the trailer heavily implies that Mass Effect 3’s Destroy Ending will be canon, and part of the main premise of Mass Effect 4. This is also suggested by other BioWare marketing material, like an image released on Twitter showing a Mass Relay being rebuilt by the Systems Alliance. The Mass Relays were only destroyed if Shepard chose to destroy the Reapers and all other synthetic life in the galaxy.
All of this could see the player exploring a very different version of the Milky Way by the time Mass Effect 4 takes place. If there is a major time jump, hopefully BioWare takes full advantage of it, changing enough to give players a totally new perspective on the setting even as the series returns to familiar locations. While the Milky Way has the potential to have undergone great change, however, Mass Effect 4 is repeating the past in more ways than one.
Mass Effect 4 And Mass Effect 2
Not only is Mass Effect 4 taking fans back to the Milky Way and bringing back Liara, but the moment in the trailer when she finds a piece of N7 armor in the snow seems to imply the return of Shepard as well.
Shepard’s survival centuries after the activation of the Crucible in Mass Effect 3 may seem outlandish, but there are some relatively simple ways BioWare could make it make sense in the game's universe. Shepard was already rebuilt by Cerberus and their body contained both organic and synthetic parts as a result. It’s possible that activating the Crucible preserved the commander in some way, or at least their enhanced biology allowed for their preservation under the ice, Captain America-style.
This wouldn’t necessarily be a bad way for the series to go forward, but it’s also extremely similar to a plot-point Mass Effect has relied on before. The Mass Effect 4 trailer seems to show Liara searching for Shepard in the hopes of reviving them after a situation that for any other character would spell certain death. At the start of Mass Effect 2, Shepard is killed by the Collectors. As outlined in Mass Effect: Redemption, it was Liara who then hunted down Shepard’s body, stole it from the Shadow Broker, and delivered it to Cerberus in order for Project Lazarus to begin.
Shepard's Return
Ultimately Shepard’s revival didn’t feel cheap in Mass Effect 2 because they died at the start of the game, rather than at the end of Mass Effect 1. Their death and revival became the set-up of the second game, not a way to bring Shepard back after the conclusion of the last story. If Liara hunts down and revives Shepard as part of the premise or plot of Mass Effect 4, however, it risks undermining the ending of the original trilogy and feeling like Shepard has so much plot armor that even death itself can't take them down after two admirable efforts.
It’s possible that Commander Shepard won’t actually be involved in Mass Effect 4’s plot, and that the piece of N7 armor from the trailer had another meaning. That seems unlikely, however. Hinting at Shepard’s return and then failing to deliver could be bad for BioWare’s good will at a time when Mass Effect’s future is up in the air.
Whatever path the new game ends up going down, BioWare will need to be careful. The studio may be able to rely on elements from the original Mass Effect trilogy to draw fans to the new game to a degree, but if Mass Effect 4 is unable to move on from Shepard’s original trilogy story to too great an extent the series risks feeling stuck in the past. Until the exact nature of Liara and Shepard’s involvement in Mass Effect 4 is revealed, however, just how similar the next game's premise will be to Mass Effect 2's remains to be seen.
Mass Effect 4 is in development.