5 GAMES THAT NEED TO BE MADE - MASS EFFECT

(A while back I wrote an article about 10 Star Wars Games that need to be made and who should make them. This article and that one have gotten me thinking it would be great to start an every now and thenseries of “Games that need to be made” where I pitch 5 games that need to be made in a particular franchise, company, etc... If you enjoy and want more of these lists let me know in the comments on social media!)

With all the buzz surrounding the recent news dump on the upcoming Mass Effect Legendary Edition where we will finally get to revist the phenomenal Mass Effect universe via an updated modern version of the original trilogy. I couldn’t be more excited for this news, and the recently teased next Mass Effect installment shown to us at the 2020 Game Awards.

We know that some kind of “Mass Effect 4” is coming, and we are getting the trilogy remaster, but it’s not enough. I want even more Mass Effect. Mass Effect is an absolutely phenomenal universe, in fact it is my favorite game (original) universe. I think the fact that such an amazing universe is being used so sparingly is a huge disservice.

One thing I don’t understand is so paradoxical about EA is how much they like to sit on franchises that could be making them money, considering how greedy their reputation is. They’ve cancelled more Star Wars games than they’ve made, and they’ve only made one Mass Effect game in the past 5 years. EA loves money too much to sit on IP that could be excellent games. I would love to see spin off titles set in the Mass Effect universe, and here are 5 games that need to be made.

Mass Effect: Rachni Wars

I Imagine Mass Effect Rachni to be set during the Krogen Rachni war, years before the original games, and even years before the humans made first contact. I pocture this to be a smaller budget game, in the genre of 4 player “zombie co-op”. While not technically zombies, the rachni would be perfect for a darker horror focused coop shooter. I picture a 6-10 hour co-op campaign that shows four Krogan characters who operate in a squad during the Rachni wars. There could even be a Salarian general who is one of their overseers. It would be great to see the dynamics of the Salarians who had recently uplifted the Krogan in order to use them as soldiers. We could even see the early planning of the genophage in the story. The campaign would follow this squad of Krogan on a few planets as they fight Rachni. The opportunity for very inhospitable environments would be really cool as we could see planet types never had before. There could be opportunities for low or high gravity planets, toxic planets, and dark caves to really give a gritty, horror setting. I’m picturing a very gritty, dark, shooter that could be very interesting and different for the franchise.

Mass Effect: Space Simulator

This one is my most out there idea, something EA would never do, but I really really REALLY would love. Imagine Microsoft Flight Simulator but in space! So many games try to be a space sim AND something else. We’ve never seen a pure space sim. There are plenty of big budget or popular indie titles that could be called “space sims”. No Man’s Sky, Eve, Everspace, are all very much space sims, but they are also other things. Shooters, MMO’s, survival games. No Man’s Sky is the closest we’ve seen to an “open universe” but it has a more cartoon/bright art style.

I want Space Simulator. I want a photo realistic, zen experience where I fly on space ships and visit distant stars and planets. I picture a game that looks more like the pseudo-cutscene Travel animations of Mass Effect Andromeda. The travel animations were the best part of that game. You can populate this universe with planets from the Mass Effect universe and procedurally generate the rest. Imagine how cool it would be to be on a small exploration ship with a small crew to get to know, and you can use the Galaxy Map from Mass Effect with purely an exploration game. I want the hame to be 90% about exploring space. We know that early pitch for Andromeda for it to be essentially “mass effect no man’s sky” and I’d be ok with that. No combat. Few aliens. Just exploring space in a ship. I want to see massive beautiful 4K spacescapes. I want to take endless photos on alien landscapes and endless planets. Imagine no man’s sky but with a photo realism art style.

3. Mass Effect: The Prothean Empire

If you compare this list to Star Wars, that Mass Effect needs to embrace spinoffs and other eras and game genres, then this suggestion is essentially the Knights of the Old Republic but for Mass Effect. Star Wars fans absolutely loved visiting the distant past of the Star Wars universe, thousands of years prior to the main story. “Super Prequels” are a genre that can be absolutely amazing to see in your favorite stories.

Mass Effect is a game with a huge history. We know about the Prothean Empire that takes place 50,000 years before the main story. We also know about the Leviathans who were the origins of the Reapers Billions of years in the past.

This pitch is for a super prequel set in the Mass Effect universe. I have two ideas, one set in the Prothean era. What would be very interesting is We’d get a game set in an enterly new era we have seen so little about, with the possibility of seeing planets we know that look very different. We’d get to see so much about the Lore of the Prothean empire that we just don’t know about. We know that the Prothean war with the Reapers played out very differently than our main trilogy’s because their star systems were cut off from each other. They failed to stop the Reapers from capturing the Citadel. This could show the war from multiple vantage points on multiple planets. It would be absolutely fascinating to see the technology,

New species, and new ships. I think a Prothean era game could resonant with fans like KOTR did with Star Wars fans.

My other idea is more extreme, and goes even farther back in time to show the Levianthans. These massive aquatic creatures would prove to be difficult to be the protagonists of the story. How do you make a game where the characters are massive starship sized creatures? I honestly don’t know what it would look like, but getting to tell the story of Machines rising up against their creators that would have massive galactic reprocussions for billions of years is fascinating.

2. Mass Effect Armada

If you’ve never played an “Armada” game then you are trully missing out. I have played so much Star Trek Armada in my youth, Star Wars Empire at War, and recently tried one set in Warhammer 40k. An armada game is a game where you control fleets of ships in a top down strategy game. The game plays in real time, and you issue commands to ships, where to

Go, Fire, and apply special abilities. Honestly, The Mass Effect universe would be ripe for an Armada game; it has so many amazing ships. Some of the coolest moments in Mass Effect are the epic space battles that rivel nothing else in gaming. Seeing these battles from a far as an Admiral controlling the battlefield? Yes please. I picture a game set during the Reaper War of ME3, where you get to play as the Turians, Salarians, Asari, and Alliance all facing the Reapers im defending their homeworlds, cummulating in the events of the Battle for Earth. In multiplayer, or coop modes, you could even play as the Repears and fight the galactic forces.

It would be absolutely amazing, and could even be sold to EA on it being a (don’t hate me please, only if it is done well) a free to play live service with new ships and events added over time.

1. Mass Effect Online

I can’t believe I’m actually going to suggest EA make a free to play live service online shooter...but hear me out. I absolutely lived Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer and in fact is was one of the bery first online multiplayer games I ever played. I poured countless hours in that game, and I will say that I was absolutely heartbroken to hear that ME3 multiplayer wasn’t going be included in the Legendary Edition remaster. But then it go me thinking, what if EA made a stand a lone multiplayer experience that evolved ME3 and Andromeda’s multiplayer further. I will be clear that I don’t want nor trust Bioware to pull this off. I’d want no one other than Respawn or a division of Respawn to own this. They’ve proven they could take an amazing universe, “Titanfall” and make a stand a lone multiplayer experience “Apex Legends” and make it so awesome it become one of my absolute favorite games to play. I think they could do that twice.

I want a new co-op hoard mode shooter that returns to form of the amazing ME3 multiplayer. There were so many amazing character options to choose from, and they all fet different. Some characters were tanky, fast, technical. I know this could be done very well because it was already done very well nearly a decade ago. With a whole new game they could expand into multiple modes such as team death match, CTF, and more. As long as they keep the monetization reasonable, cosmetic focused, and not paid to win. I would lobe for it to be purely PVE like ME3 multiplayer, but I know that PVP is so popular for the mega-free to play games so I’d be open to PVP modes.