Topic: The next Mass Effect

I don't know if there is enough interest to sustain this thread, but I know there are quite a few Mass Effect fans on here and I believe at least some of you are jonesing for a new fix of that Mass Effect goodness. I know I am.

Now, after the sale of EA, the future of BioWare and the next Mass Effect game proper has become a bit uncertain, and should the studio and game survive to release the next iteration, there is still a question of whether this has any chance of being any good or if the "EA rot" will infect this one too.

There are, luckily, other games on the way that are looking to scratch that ME itch, so I figured this could be a place to discuss not only ME, but also the contenders for the throne.

Most notably at this point in time are Exodus by Archetype Entertainment and The Expanse: Osiris Reborn by Owlcat Games.

Both of these seem to be pretty far along in development and what prompted me to create this thread is that both games are, as of today, available to wishlist in all the places you do your wishlisting (no confirmed release date for either of them yet, though).

So what do you think, fellow Mass Effect fans?
Can there be only one Mass Effect or have these other games piqued your interest?
Have you been following the development of these projects or are you only just now hearing about them (I will assume ME5 is well known)?
Any other games on the way (or already out) that can help fill the Mass Effect void worth mentioning?

@FuriousMachine There are some avid Mass Effect fans out there, I know. I’m a big fan, although probably not on the level of some of my Push Square comrades. I do worry whether the magic of ME can ever really be recreated. The IP suffered such a blow with Andromeda such that it seemed to have killed off any hope for the franchise. Still, enough time has passed now that the bitter taste of Andromeda is probably out of everyone’s mouths.

I’ve often felt, and have mentioned this a time or three on these forums, that a trilogy of games like ME1-3 is unlikely to occur like that again. Games take so long and carry too much financial risk to make a connected trilogy where the characters and story depends on what choices were made in the prior entry. Sequels have to be standalone nowadays, else run the risk of appealing to a smaller market which depends upon having played the prior entries.

Of course they did a good job with ME2 on PS3 for people like me who jumped in at the second entry, where they had a ‘The story so far…’ type of exposition at the beginning which including a fast track of letting the player make the major plot altering decisions from the first game. But it wasn’t quite the same and when I went back and finally played ME1 a couple years ago the decisions you make definitely had much better context than just making a binary choice from a stilled storyboard description of events. Nevertheless, that could be an option should a company want to try. But I still think 5 years between entries would be too much and so if you want to keep am audience engaged with your narrative and characters and feel the impact of the choices they make, you shouldn’t separate the entries by more than 2-3 years (which was the cadence the ME trilogy released).

Development times, financial risk, and potential loss of audience between games aside, I’d love to see a Mass Effect level of role playing and story telling in a Sci Fi setting with all the social aspects and choices and action combat mixed in. A standalone ME game could still be great, even without the sprawling story across multiple games. Playing Baldur’s Gate 3 now, it’s really set a high bar for role playing and choices with consequences. To do something on that level with a ME combat and setting would be phenomenal.

I’ll have to look into those games you listed, as I’m not sure I’m familiar with them. I also want to play the new Dragon Age game eventually, and see if it can scratch a little of the BioWare rpg itch. It’s a case in point of what I was talking about, in that I didn’t complete any of the prior games and even though there’s no save file carryover, I know I’m missing narrative context. I still plan to give it a try someday. It’s not the same though, as much of what people love about ME is the Sci Fi setting.

@Th3solution Agreed, I don't think we're going to see any possible upcoming ME sequels being so closely tied together, narratively, as the original trilogy. Even though the excitement of knowing that the story and choices one made would carry over to the next game was one of the things that truly set the trilogy apart from most other game sequels, I think there are compromises to be made that can bring some of that magic without alienating those who "missed" the first game. The narrative could be more standalone, yet decisions (both minor and major) could change aspects of the sequel(s), should one decide to import. They need to make sure people don't feel compelled to have played the previous ones or read/watch a recap before playing the next (well, most people - I'm sure there are people who wouldn't want to play Tetris 2 without having played the first one out there ). In other words, avoid the MCU "problem" of teaching the audience to think of previous output as homework (though that is actually more of a perceived thing; most MCU output can be enjoyed perfectly fine without having watched everything else). So, I think marketing and perception may be a key factor here, especially with the probably unavoidable long wait between entries.

Maybe one thing that could be considered is to approach it like a hybrid sequel/episodic thing, where you don't necessarily make sweeping changes to the game mechanics between a narrative trilogy, say, reusing the same assets, knocking out story beats beforehand, and just tweaking the experience to eliminate things that absolutely didn't work. To once again compare with Hollywood, approach it like they do with some trilogies: Make the first one with the next two in mind and if the first one works, make the next two back-to-back using the same sets, actors, etc.

Either way, I think (and hope) ME5 will be a fairly standalone affair, because I can't say I have particularly high hopes that the IP will survive the merger and current state of EA/BioWare. Well, the IP probably will, but I sadly doubt that we'll see many high quality ME games coming from EA/BioWare in the future.

Which brings me to the other two games. I don't know much about Owlcat's Expanse game, but I have been following Arcehtype's Exodus since Archetype was formed and I'm actually more excited about that one than the actual ME sequel, thanks in large part to the people involved. I'll come back with some thoughts on why I'm so excited and some more info later, but now I need to get some breakfast before heading to the salt mines. I also need to figure out how I can drum up the same excitement in others without looking like a shill, because I am actually that excited about it

As I mentioned above, I don't know all that much about Owlcat's "The Expanse: Osiris Reborn" other than it's a "Mass Effect-y" game set in the Expanse universe, set in the timeframe of the first three novels, but I'll be sure to post info here when something of note appears.

I am quite familiar with Exodus by Archetype Entertainment, however. Archetype consists of many BioWare/Mass Effect veterans, including James Ohlen (who was lead designer on the original "Baldur's Gate", "Baldur's Gate 2", "SW: Knights of the Old Republic" and "Dragon Age: Origins"), Drew Karpyshyn (who was senior writer on KOTOR and lead writer on the first two Mass Effects, in addition to having written ME tie-in novels, among others) and former BioWare Head of Technology Chad Robertson.

Another notable collaborator is renowned sci-fi author Peter F. Hamilton, who worked with Karpyshyn to flesh out the Exodus universe. He's published a novel set in the universe called Exodus: The Archimedes Engine, which I thought was nothing less than brilliant, and the second volume of that story, Exodus: The Helium Sea was just announced for a June 2026 release.

The game is a narrative driven third person action RPG where player choice once again will shape the game world and story. The main character is voiced and named (they are named "Jun"), but the player can customise appearance, gender and all that, just like Mass Effect. There will also be companions and, I think, romance options (though my memory is a bit hazy on that one) and one of the intriguing mechanics central to the game that will make player choice interesting is time dilation. When you go on a mission and choose which companions to bring, time dilation will lead to time passing a lot faster for the ones left behind than for you and your crew. Could be years or even decades have passed "back home" while you were rooting around for alien tech in an asteroid field.

There are also no true alien races in the game; pretty much everyone you encounter have their roots on Earth, but the exodus in the title refers to generation ships leaving Earth in batches looking for inhabitable places and, again due to time dilation, when you catch up, they have already evolved into something that could never in a million years pass for humans... both them and the animals they brought with them - animals they also genetically engineered for all kinds of purposes as well, by the way.

Looking at this trailer, I think many will agree that Exodus might as well be a Mass Effect game in all but name

Oh, yeah, Matthew McConaughey is in it too

@FuriousMachine @Th3solution

Mass Effect is a game i've installed at least 7 times and never started. I made most of a character once, but then a new game came out (perhaps Elden Ring) and I got swept up in that instead 😭

I know it is a game series i'm likely to like, I have always loved Sci-Fi cinema, and you know I love some RPG goodness and action in games. I think the fact it is 3 massively deep, old games is kind of a barrier to ever start now, as new games keep coming out instead (damn it, gaming) and the fact I usually commit to one game at a time, and even regular sized games last for months rather than weeks, for me.

But it looks like there is a good bunch of Sci-Fi around the corner - all of which will be inspired by ME, as it is the name in sci-fi rpgs. The fact you mentioned Owlcat (rpg legends) and those people involved in the Exodus game being of a similar rpg legend ilk too, it feels like there will be some good eating. And even Sony are having a crack at some epic Sci-Fi with Naughty Dog making Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet (and dare we mention Star Wars: Eclipse? probably not 😬 But I have a lot of time for that branching narrative game that Quantic Dream were known for. And I definitely won't mention the KotOR remake that either got "cancelled" or "didn't get cancelled")

Long story short, I won't mind if this thread becomes the place to keep up on all of these upcoming sci-fi games, and discuss what people would like to see from all of these properties, as it feels like there is an unstoppable wave coming to satisfy our space rpg needs.

@Ravix Absolutely, that was the primary reason I titled this "The next Mass Effect" and not "Mass Effect 5" or something like that - I'm not sure the next (good) Mass Effect game is necessarily the next official Mass Effect release

I do not dare hope for that KOTOR remake just yet, but Intergalactic is showing signs of being a good fit for those of us with Mass Effect fever. Quantic Dream's SW will most likely be a very different game, but I will most likely be there for it, as I have with every QD title since Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy.

So, yeah, like you say, we will probably eat good in the future, no matter what happens with the actual Mass Effect game and I hope this thread may bring forth other titles I'm as of yet unaware of that fit the mold

EDIT: Another caveat with getting into the original Mass Effect trilogy now is that the games are showing their age, even with the Legendary Edition remasters/remakes (remakesters?). The story and characters are still among the very best the medium has to offer, though, and the games still play very well if one accepts that they weren't made yesterday. Hope you'll find the time for them one day and that you'll grow as fond of them as I have if and when that day comes.

@FuriousMachine yeah. It is always tough as the games only get older and older mechanically and graphically, but I have played old games and loved them as much as any new games before. But, maybe not ones quite as long as ME would be, as it is much more of a time commitment. I noped out of Skyrim, for example, as new games came along, and Bethesda games can really drag on at the best of times.

Yeah, I definitely agree that the next Mass Effect doesn't necessarily have to be the actual Mass Effect series' next entry. More the spirit of, and the sci-fi base.

So far i'm most hyped for Intergalactic, even if it isn't much of an RPG, because I feel like the world (galaxy?) is going to be so well crafted from the ground up. I'm one of those who isn't put off by Adidas in space. I think it is genuis and grounds the game, and they get to make money off it as a bonus. Everyone knows Adidas, and it isn't too extreme to believe people who own shoes throughout their lives wouldn't want to keep their favourite trusty pair on their space voyage. And Porcshe is a stroke of genuis, too. I'm a sucker for stylised sci-fi, and this adds legit style on top of their own artists' designs.

I'm already mixing up the Expanse and Exodus titles tbh (hopefully that doesn't hinder either game on release) but i'm sure marketing will ramp up again nearer the time. I was thinking The Expanse one would be more isometric, but I think I read it is indeed a third person action based game, too. (Not 100% sure and will need to look at the details of all these games properly)

I'm desperate for a Quantic Dream space set game. The fact it was Star Wars added prestige, but the development hell reports over the years have cooled me off on expecting it to ever appear. I know the company may be influenced by a bit of a ***** too, but at the creative heart, they always made interesting games that I liked. And truly unique developers are few and far between in the more mainstream market.

Did you ever try Starfield? That was another Bethesda game I fell off, but I think it was slightly better than the general opinion people seem to have of it.

Not really got time for an elaborate post right now but will chime in here at some point soon. Absolutely love the ME trilogy and even thought Andromeda was 'decent' if not special game. Suffice to say I love a bit of Sci-fi and keeping an eye on all titles mentioned. Much like @Ravix, Intergalactic probably has me most enthused at this point.

Anyway, more thoughts to follow...

I absolutely love Mass Effect but I'm kinda of the opinion that we should just leave it be now. BioWare isn't the same studio. I just don't know how good a new Mass Effect can be, and I actually really liked Veilguard.

Personally, I'd really be up for remakes. I love the games and have played them to death, got the platinum in them all, etc. but I would pay any amount of money for all singing, all dancing beautiful remakes of the games. No shenanigans, no cutting this or changing that. Similar to Snake Eater. Just gimme what I love but with that PS5 power.

In terms of games that scratch the Mass Effect itch I do find that elsewhere but then it really depends on what you want from a game. For example, Baldur's Gate 3 scratches the Mass Effect itch for me because I don't care about Mass Effect's gameplay. The settings are worlds apart. But the sense of comradery, talking to my mates, going on the adventure with the gang, making decisions - that's what it is about Mass Effect I love so that does it for me. If Larian makes a sci-fi game next then that basically ticks all my boxes.

Here was the description of The Expanse: Osiris Reborn

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is a third-person sci-fi action RPG set in the universe of The Expanse, where the tenuous balance of power between Earth, Mars, and the Belt is on the brink of collapse, and trust is a scarce commodity. Now it is time to gather a crew and find your own path through the web of lies to leave your mark on the solar system.

By the 24th century, humanity has conquered the cosmos, but that hasn't made life any easier. What begins as a brief sojourn on the asteroid Eros reluctantly entangles you in a solar system-wide conspiracy. You will need to adapt to survive and keep your motley crew united in their mission as everything around you begins to fall apart. This is your story. The Expanse: Osiris Reborn offers a truly personal journey that evolves based on the choices you make and the pressures they place on everything you stand for.

You begin as a Pinkwater Security mercenary taking some routine shore leave on Eros Station, when your much-needed rest is abruptly cut short as chaos erupts and an escalating emergency forces the entire station under strict quarantine. Create and customize your own captain — Earther, Martian, or Belter — and take command of the solar system’s most advanced spaceship as you fight to uncover the truth and reclaim control of your own fate.

Sounds pretty cool, to me. And gathering your own crew and balancing their personalities seems a big part of it. I'll tag you in, @johncalmc as this sounds like the exact kind of thing you would want from a game.

It may be a long time coming, though.

Exodus is listed as 2026, however So we may get lucky with the first ME-like (from specialist rpg devs and ME vets) within a year.

I'd confidently say Archetype and Owlcat both could be seen as the Larian of sci-fi. A lot has to go right, of course, but the people involved gives them both a good chance of these being massive hits 🤞🤞

Apologies if my positivity has upped your anticipation levels to frothing at the mouth, @FuriousMachine 😁

@BearsEatBeets Yeah, I also enjoyed "Andromeda", even if it failed to live up to the OG trilogy. To be honest, I never really expected it to, and I held off playing until after they patched/fixed the worst bugs and graphical issues, so I felt I got a decently entertaining game set in the ME universe at the very least.

@Ravix @FuriousMachine ME1 definitely feels rough these days.

I played it for the first time a couple of years ago as part of the updated trilogy and it was great to finally experience it but the side content in particular was very repetitive; it was amazing how they decided to build every space station with the same layout 😁

The story arc through the series is phenomenal though and the Reapers have to be up there for one of the best enemies in gaming. There can’t be many gaming characters who are so recognisable from a single sound!

@FuriousMachine @Ravix Between Exodus and The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, I like the sounds of Exodus better, so far. And it helps my confidence knowing so many of the dev team are former BioWare people with ME, Dragon Age, KOTOR, and Baldur’s Gate on their resumés. And although I’ve yet to read any of his books (they’re such thick epic tomes that they intimidate me; I have the Night’s Dawn trilogy on the shelf collecting dust) I know Hamilton to be exceptional as far as Sci-Fi writers go.

But even beside that, the idea of time dilation is really fascinating and I don’t know if I’ve ever played a game that dealt with that heavily as part of the gameplay or storytelling. Movies and books have tackled it, but not so much in games. I didn’t like it as much as the critics, but The Forever War had some very interesting emotional and ethical implications of the way time passage for space travel affects people, their relationships and place in society. And not just narratively, but also from a gameplay perspective it opens up some really cool ideas of how technology and therefore weapons, suits and armor, special skills etc can evolve drastically during the gameplay cycle and therefore keep combat and exploration feeling really fresh, I would surmise. Also, the idea of the evolution of humankind as opposed to true alien species is a very thought-provoking wrinkle to it all. The Time Machine is still the pinnacle of that concept in fiction and every attempt to recreate H.G. Wells’s classic has never done it justice, imho. I often think about the small but compounding evolution of the human species over millennia and wonder why fiction almost always portrays humans from thousands of years ago or thousands of years hence to all look and behave like people from 2020 who just walked off the subway on their way to a Scarborough Renaissance festival or a Star Trek convention. And not just biologically, but socially there’s rapidly change in the way we live, the language we use, and the constructs of human society and behavior. People born 50 years apart can barely converse and relate to each other even now! Intelligent 70 year-olds can’t use their phone or understand social media or why society has function the way it does in 2025. Imagine fast forwarding hundreds of years.

I’ll keep an eye on The Expanse too. It sounds like a more traditional narrative approach, but also is intriguing. And of course Intergalactic is sure to be outstanding. I have a lot of faith in Naughty Dog. But it probably won’t have the choice and RPG elements.

@johncalmc Yeah, I agree with you re.: full remakes, but absent that I feel the Legendary Edition did the job well and will keep me going. As for whether or not we should leave ME alone at this point, I'm not sure. Depends on the project, I guess. As I have mentioned, I do not have much confidence in the next EA/BioWare release and I think I would prefer them selling off the IP instead of either shelving it or milking it through subpar releases, but I would love to be proven wrong when/if ME5 releases.

The thing that got me into BioWare with the very first Baldur's Gate in the first place was the companion interactions and the feeling that your adventuring party was made up of characters and not just names and stats (which was the case with your Bard's Tales and Might & Magics of yesteryear) and while BioWare didn't invent that (an argument can be made that the Ultima games did it first) they absolutely superpowered it. By the time Dragon Age: Origins and ME came around, they were at the top of their game, which made those games truly special for me.

I think the reason I am so incredibly excited for both "Exodus" and "Expanse: Osiris Reborn" is that they tick a sheer amount of the boxes that made ME special for me and look to be extremely similar experiences (which, to me, is a good thing) set in different sci-fi universes, both of which I am familiar with and already fond of through their respective novels.

I am also excited for "Intergalactic", but aside from the pedigree of the studio and the reveal trailer, it is more of an unknown commodity for me. Really looking forward to learning more about it, though.

@Ravix I have been frothing for Exodus for many months already and my neighbours have long since learned to steer their children and pets away from me when they see me coming, so no worries there

The reveal trailer for "Expanse: Osiris Reborn" (which was shown at Summer Game Fest) gives a solid indication of being third person action RPG and the main reason for me "lumping it in" with ME here. It is most likely quite a bit further out than "Exodus" in terms of release. First time I heard 2026 confirmed for "Exodus" now, but it was in line with my expectations. Would not be surprised if a release date announcement coincided with the Game Awards on December 11th.

Here's the "Expanse: Osiris Reborn" reveal trailer:

@Thrillho That reaper sound! Get chills just thinking about it

as a mass effect fan platinumed every game ps3 ps4 and 100% them all on xbox 360 and xbox series consoles. mass effect 5 returning to the milky way and following the original trilogy seems the sensible choice. however i dont have faith in Bioware being able to either be in existence or if they are to pull it off or even write good dialogue any more

you just cant in this day and age spend probably 200+ million on a AAA game that might not meet which i would suspect be lofty sales expectations. games like this need to go back to AA budgets and and focus on story and characters stop chasing the cutting edge graphics

@Th3solution "The Night's Dawn" trilogy... the first book beat me up and the second kicked me when I was down and that was that for me. Dense stuff! "Exodus - The Archimedes Engine" looks at first blush to be more of the same - massive amount of characters, dense lore, intertwining stories spanning a ridiculous amount of time - but I found it to be leaps and bounds more accessible and I truly loved it. Would absolutely recommend tackling that one before "Nights Dawn"
Looks like we're pretty much of the same mind with Haldeman's "Forever War" as well - I found the concept interesting and the themes compelling, but I couldn't get properly invested in the novel as a whole. Like you say, there's a good chance that "Exodus" will explore those same themes and I for one think they may do it more to my satisfaction than Haldeman did.

An example of how "Exodus" will tackle time dilation can be seen in the game's episode in the animated anthology series "Secret Level" on Prime Video, "Exodus - Odyssey" (s01e11) if you have access to that.

And it is a very interesting point you bring up re.: how many sci-fi properties fail to go the distance when addressing human evolution, which becomes especially clear when there are diverging evolutionary paths to compare and contrast. The Expanse novels does this justice and is sort of a central theme: Humans, Martians and Belters have evolved away from each other in a fairly short time, not only physically, but culturally and linguistically as well. The TV show managed to capitalise on that as well, though the physical changes of the belters vs. martians vs. humans were more or less ignored, probably for practical and budgetary reasons, I would guees.

I liked starfield no where near as bad as people made out but not great either a 7/10 worth my time game the main story was a bit poor feeling more like aside quest than anything major. I will replay it when it comes out on ps5

im very much looking forward to the Outer worlds 2 enjoyed the first game and hopefully this improves on that

Im very interested in Exodus and have high hopes however im not sure financially it will be the kind of success needed to make it a long term franchise.

Expanse game interested hopeful it will be good

cant think of anything else in the pipe line that might scratch the mass effect itch

@trev666 I think they took a huge risk by returning to the Milky Way, because of the incredibly high expectations they then set for the fans. There is almost no way they will be able to pull this off with out pissing off many of the fans who may have unrealistic expectations as to what the story will be, but I would love to be proven wrong there. I do think they would be wise to let Shepard rest, though, but that's just my opinion - closing the book on a character, resolving their arc and then resurrecting them due to fan pressure rarely ends well

And yeah, agreed, these kinds of games are more successful when they nail the story and character aspects of it, regardless of whether or not it has the best looking graphics of the bunch, in my opinion