Mass Effect Concept 1

The BioWare N7 day roundtable stream is now over, and although we basically sat through half an hour of developers rattling off their favourite Mass Effect moments for the sake of seeing several pieces of brand new concept art, we did actually manage to nab some new info regarding the next title in the series.

For starters, new alien races have been confirmed, and despite a lack of details, this could mean that the game takes place after the events of Mass Effect 3. After all, the franchise is set in our galaxy alone, so unless these races were simply hiding away from the Reaper invasion and somehow avoided being detected by the established races for hundreds of years, it may be safe to say that we'll be journeying far beyond Commander Shepard's story.

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The Canadian developer was also keen to stress the importance of exploration. As we already knew, the Mako – the weaponised moon buggy that appeared in the first game – is making a return, and you'll be using it to navigate sprawling planet surfaces. However, the studio also stated that you won't be forced to drive around if you're not a fan of the futuristic vehicle, so we suppose that that means that most of the exploration will be optional.

Elsewhere, it sounds like BioWare has a particular protagonist in mind. While we're sure that you'll be able to customise your hero – or anti-hero – once again, the developer was keen to point out that this character won't start off as famous as the great Commander Shepard, and instead, you'll be working your way up from being a bit of a nobody. Again, there aren't many details to go on, but it sounds like it could be a decent premise for a good intergalactic narrative.

Mass Effect Concept 8

How do you like the sound of the next Mass Effect so far? We should be hearing more about it in the coming months, but until then, let your imagination run wild with the concept art that we've embedded, and don't forget to release your hype in the comments section below.

[ Thanks to NeoGAF members GavinUK86 and salromano for the images ]

[source neogaf.com]