Mass Effect 5 has the chance to revive interest in the series after the disappointing reception of Mass Effect: Andromeda. However, the next game has some big challenges ahead, and some big decisions to make if it’s going to overcome them.
The original Mass Effect trilogy was set in the Milky Way galaxy, and after the ending of Mass Effect 3 and the huge implications that came with it, Andromeda was set in the Andromeda Galaxy to give its story space to breathe. There are good reasons, however, that Mass Effect 5 should leave both the Milky Way and Andromeda behind.
The Milky Way
The original Mass Effect trilogy took place in the Milky Way, and was named after the principle discovered that allowed faster-than-light travel through the Mass Relays. The first game takes place just a few decades after humans have entered the galactic community after discovering Prothean technology on Mars and eventually a Mass Relay within their own solar system.
The ending of Mass Effect 3 makes games set after the events of the original Mass Effect trilogy practically impossible without making a canonical decision on the ending of Mass Effect 3, which would undermine a lot of players’ experiences. The endings to Mass Effect 3 are radically different. One sees the Reapers and all synthetics across the galaxy destroyed, including player companions like Legion the Geth, while another sees all Synthetic and organic life merge. In short, there’s no easy path forward in the Milky Way.
Another option would be to set a Mass Effect game in the Milky Way before the events of Mass Effect 1. There are a few problems with this. First, the main threat in the Milky Way is the Reapers, and the fact that the game would take place before their return would likely undermine any threat used in those games. Second, players would likely already be able to infer the outcome of events like the Rachni Wars from the lore. Third, there’s a very slim window between the human discovery of Mass Relays and the events of the original trilogy, unless Mass Effect ditches human characters, which has its own risks.
The Andromeda Galaxy
There’s good reason for the Andromeda Galaxy to also be left behind. These are less narrative reasons but equally important. Mass Effect: Andromeda did a lot to hurt the reputation of the Mass Effect franchise after the already controversial ending to Mass Effect 3, which many players felt boiled down to three big choices that didn’t account for the many decisions made across the trilogy.
Andromeda has a few big problems as a setting. First, it only introduces one major new race, the Angara, with another long-lost species called the Jardaan hinted at as well. With only one new alien companion race introduced, the game struggled to incentivize players to get to know their companions to learn about the new setting. A game set in Andromeda would still likely be tied to the area set up in the last game in order to explain the full mystery of the Jardaan in Andromeda.
Without the Milky Way or the Andromeda galaxy as great options for a setting, the future of Mass Effect 5 is extremely unclear. It could be that the series deprioritizes the setting entirely, instead aiming to tell a smaller but more intimate and character-driven story with high personal stakes unrelated to the fate of the galaxy as a whole. For now, however, fans will have to wait for news from BioWare to determine the future of its famous sci-fi series.
Mass Effect 5 is in development.