COMMENTARY - The Sentiment Around Mass Effect Is Positive Again. BioWare: The Ball Is In Your Court

Second chance Sunday.

By Jay Tee
14/04/21

It’s hard to quantify exactly what went wrong with Mass Effect: Andromeda, but it’s likely a coagulation of multiple issues. Uninteresting squad mates, lacklustre writing, repetitive objectives, and an over reliance on that god forsaken MAKO left me feeling as chilly as can be towards a series I have traditionally revered. Trading that game in was a dark day in my personal gaming history.

But here we are, and EA / Bioware have finally released the Legendary Edition trilogy, remastered in shiny 4K resolution, with HDR and high frame rates (depending on your platform of choice). The original trio of games is one of the finest ever assembled, and although this isn’t a widely held belief, I actually enjoyed the ending of ME: 3! It felt high stakes, even if the Extended Cut ultimately did a better job factoring in your decision making.

Revisiting these classics got me thinking about the road ahead, and how the next Mass Effect appears to be returning to the continuity and characters that made these sci-fi epics so incredibly memorable. It’s a smart play, that on the one hand raises the expectations somewhat, but also gives Bioware an opportunity to palette cleanse after Andromeda’s missteps.

Bioware are in an especially dicey spot, after the failure and subsequent cancellation of Anthem. Their return to Dragon Age and Mass Effect is a positive sign of them embracing heritage, but it’s also important for these franchises to evolve in the right direction. They don’t need to reinvent the wheel; the jump between games in the original ME trilogy was notable but not transformative. That’s a tricky tightrope act to walk, but it’s one I believe they’re fully capable of achieving.

In the meantime, it’s just nice to see Mass Effect appearing in the wider discourse once again, but in a largely positive light!