The next chapter in the Mass Effect series, colloquially known as Mass Effect 4, got a new trailer at The Game Awards that came with some huge reveals for fans of the franchise. The teaser appeared to show Liara T’Soni uncovering a piece of N7 armor while exploring a frozen region near the huge shell of a dead Reaper, apparently hinting that Shepard may return while seemingly establishing that the destroy ending of Mass Effect 3 is cannon.
There have been plenty of well-known franchises to come back from the dead this decade, from Star Wars to Fuller House. However, Mass Effect 4 will need to avoid sequel tropes that have reared their heads over the last few years, if the new games’ story is going to step out of the shadow of the original trilogy and not just try to emulate it.
The Big Bad is Back
The Reapers were the threat that loomed over the original Mass Effect trilogy, from Sovereign’s indoctrination in the first game to the eventual invasion of Earth itself. Discovering the purpose of the Reapers and their cycle of destruction was one of the things that made the overarching plot of the games interesting, even if the lead writer on Mass Effect 1 and 2 has since admitted that the storytellers weren’t quite sure what the Reapers’ true aims would be themselves.
It will be tempting to bring the Reapers back in some way, just as it appears BioWare may be teasing the return of Commander Shepard as Mass Effect 4’s player character. If they do, the series’ overarching story will risk plateauing – it has only been recently that another long-running series, Assassin’s Creed, has been able to break out of its Assassin vs Templar formula. The problem isn’t limited to video game soft reboots. The Force Awakens famously included Starkiller Base – an even larger take on the Death Star that still felt like it was trying to recapture the magic of the first movie without forging its own path.
The Reapers were defeated at the end of Mass Effect 3, and they need to stay dead. Fortunately, a huge Reaper hull appears in the trailer that implies Mass Effect 4 takes place in the Destroy ending timeline, after the total destruction of all synthetic life. It remains important, however, that the main threat in the next game not try to emulate them either.
Old Friendships Turn Ugly
Assuming Commander Shepard does return as Mass Effect 4’s protagonist, fans can likely expect other Mass Effect characters to return. Liara T’Soni’s return already appears to be confirmed by the trailer, but with returning companions comes returning responsibilities. If the Reapers are off the table and Mass Effect 4 wants to explore a more interpersonal conflict, it could be tempting to make one of those companions take a dark turn - or worse, the game could kill them off, sacrificing a part of the original trilogy in an attempt to launch the next game.
With the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition just around the corner, bringing back old friends just to destroy them or the relationship they had with Shepard risks undermining those relationships. Though some old companions are likely to come back, Mass Effect 4 would likely do well to limit itself to just a few returning faces, letting most of the original trilogy lie while avoiding trying to recreate the party dynamic of the original Mass Effect games.
The Unkillable Hero
Shepard appears to have survived the ending of Mass Effect 3, which was already implicitly possible if the player chose the Destroy ending and had high enough Effective Military Strength. However, BioWare will have to come up with a very good reason that Shepard was able to survive, and should show the toll the war with the Reapers took on the character.
When Shepard died and was brought back by the Lazarus Project in Mass Effect 2, it worked because Shepard’s death took place at the beginning of that game – it wasn’t the end of Mass Effect 1. As such it didn’t feel like Shepard’s resurrection was cheap, but instead introduced a new aspect of the story that helped propel it forward, even if all the possibilities surrounding Shepard’s reconstruction weren’t quite explored.
If Shepard turns out to be alive this time around, BioWare will have to show that the character didn’t get off scot-free. Not only that, but the studio will have to work hard to make players feel at risk as Commander Shepard, and not that the character is too valuable to the franchise to be truly harmed.
No Rest for the Wicked
There’s always the risk with sequels and soft reboots that the setting will inadvertently end up feeling bleaker than when it was first introduced. After 16 years of World of Warcraft, for example, the game’s many expansions have created a timeline where the entire world has been under the threat of total annihilation by one force or another for decades, making each victory feel fruitless in the story.
The final defeat of the Reapers may not have made the galaxy perfect, but Mass Effect 4 shouldn’t sweep it under the rug in favor of hyping up an even bigger, meaner galaxy-wide threat right away. Similarly, Shepard’s story shouldn’t feel like it’s going backward. As dire as things get over the original trilogy, the Mass Effect games have a sense of optimism about them. Whoever Mass Effect 4’s protagonist is, the game should build slowly to its new threat or it risks jumping the gun and not setting up its new stakes at the same pace as the original trilogy, instead of rushing to one-up it. There will need to be a threat, but peace should be made to feel possible in the end.
Much remains to be revealed about Mass Effect 4. The last game in the original trilogy released in 2012, and after nearly a full-decade of sequels and soft-reboots that have brought back fan-favorite characters for another spin, hopefully, BioWare will have enough points of reference to avoid some of the most egregious clichés and fan pet peeves. Whether or not it will be able to tell its own story with the long shadow of the original trilogy looming over it, however, remains to be seen.
A new Mass Effect game is currently in development.