Today is N7 Day, the annual BioWare holiday reserved for the celebration of all things Mass Effect. This year's N7 Day is particularly exciting, because not only did BioWare drop the Mass Effect Legendary Edition earlier in the year, but there's been confirmation of a new Mass Effect game in development. While still deep in the heart of development, BioWare's done something special for this year's celebration: the team shared a new teaser poster for the upcoming Mass Effect game on social media.
The Mass Effect sequel teaser is as exciting as it is mysterious. It's a poster-sized image, rich in detail, but without context. It's taken from the sky looking down on a crater. Toward the bottom of the poster is a spaceship, as well as four crewmates walking upward toward the crater. The crater itself is dark and looks as if it's holding a pool of dark, moving liquid. Filling out the details of the poster are ridges, shadows, and discoloration that feels like it's hiding something if the viewer could just look at it from the right angle.
To start with the main points of speculation already surrounding the teaser, the most immediately recognizable is that the crater and its shadow give the appearance of a Geth head staring straight ahead. The crater itself represents the Geth's oculus, and there are even ridges moving in lines to the sides as if there was a lens flare. Further, there appears to be the body of a Geth buried in the dirt halfway between the spaceship and the crew.
As for the crew and their ship, fans are quick to assume its Liara T'Soni and the crew shown in Mass Effect's cinematic announcement trailer. The ship, however, in that trailer had a lettering reading "XT8" or "XTB," whereas the ship in the new teaser clearly reads "SFX" (the original codename of the project that became Mass Effect). There is a Krogan in both crews, at least. The trailer also features a Salarian, as well as what could be a Drell or an Andromeda race called an Angaran. The new teaser makes it too hard to make out the characters' races, but it certainly could be the same crew.
Speculation beyond that starts to get more frantic. Some say they see Liara's profile along the right ridge of the crater, or the hook of a krogan's shell along the left ridge, among other potential hidden secrets. BioWare does love hiding Easter eggs in promotional material, but sometimes a crater is just a crater.
What's perhaps more interesting are the questions left to Mass Effect fans, as the importance of the crater, the crew, and the spaceship remain mysterious. It may be some time yet before BioWare is ready to share more information about the new Mass Effect, but fans will be anxiously awaiting everything BioWare's preparing.
Mass Effect is currently in development.