Mass Effect 3 acts as a fitting conclusion to BioWare’s expansive sci-fi trilogy. But the tale of Commander Shepard’s travails is the only timeline in that universe we’ve ever experienced. In such a richly layered fictional world, there must be more to see.
BioWare’s talented writers have given us a glimpse into key historical events that shaped the trilogy’s era. There are reams of lore referred to, but never experienced first-hand, offering plenty of opportunities for great new games. Let’s explore five such stories, and how they might play out within the confines of different gaming genres.
(Thank you to Brian Altano for the art accompanying each idea.)
In the grand scheme of things, humanity was a latecomer to the galactic scene. While races like the Asari were already mining Helium-3 from gas giants, running into other civilizations and colonizing planets, humanity was barely exploring its own solar system. Yet, by 2148, humans had stumbled upon ancient Prothean ruins on Mars that gave way to what would prove to be integral technology, including faster-than-light travel and the beginnings of mass effect mastery. A year later, humans figured out Pluto’s moon Charon was actually artificial. It was a mass relay, giving humanity access to myriad unexplored sections of the galaxy.
We know when these events happened, but we don’t quite know how everything went down. Was there intense Earth-side fighting over the ruins? Were corporations quarrelling over the rights to the dig site and mass relay? Did proof that we’re not alone in the universe begin to uproot Earth’s religions? A game exploring these stories would be fascinating. Perhaps a well-made Deus-Ex-like shooter, spread across multiple venues, would be best equipped to illustrate such a plot-heavy tale, rife with nuance and implications.
With the discovery of the Charon Mass Relay, humans quickly found new sections of the galaxy to explore. Despite an understanding that the Protheans were real, humanity still didn’t expect to quickly encounter another race. But they did. In 2157, humans ran into the Turians at Relay 314. Humans were trying to activate the mass relay, not realizing that this wasn’t standard protocol (as you never quite know what rests on the other side of the relay).
The Turians subsequently attacked, starting a conflict that nearly spiraled out of control. Humanity battled the Turians staunchly, with the conflict centering around the human colony known as Shanxi.
Such a fight wrought with military and political implications reeks of a first-person shooter, perhaps one akin to the cancelled Mass Effect FPS BioWare had once worked on. But like all other would-be Mass Effect games, there would have to be close attention paid to story, too. After all, the result of the First Contact War was humanity’s realization that there were many other races in the galaxy. Then again, negative repercussions could be felt, too. Humanity was always looked at as aggressive and violent hereafter in the galactic community.
Mass Effect 3 players get a little taste of what went down between the Protheans and the Reapers 50,000 years before the events of the Mass Effect trilogy. But obviously, the details of the Prothean-Reaper conflict are largely unknown. Such fodder could be the basis for a Mass Effect trilogy prequel, and could be especially riveting. After all, what happens between these two races sets the stage for just about everything you experience in the trilogy itself. Prothean technology opened up the galaxy to many races, humanity included, and the ruins of their technology rest at the heart of galactic civilization.
Such a game could play out in a typical story-heavy fashion that would put it solidly at home within Mass Effect’s lore, but perhaps the gameplay could be a bit different than the Mass Effect games we know and love. With two distinct races battling each other across the galaxy — a hyper-intelligent organic race and a synthetic race hell-bent on cleansing the galaxy — such a set-up almost begs a two-sided tower defense game, perhaps on your tablet of choice (and, of course, PSN, XBLA and Steam).
Sometimes, lessons can be learned from the unfortunate galactic mistakes made by other races. One such mistake was the introduction of the Rachni to Citadel space that nearly saw all races eradicated. The mistake in question was the opening of a mass relay that lay dormant, with its end-point in an unknown portion of the Milky Way. That unknown portion of the Milky Way was the territory of the Rachni, and speeding back through the mass relay, they attacked. The conflict was brutal, and lasted for centuries until it was ultimately finished.
The conclusion of the Rachni Wars would make an interesting pick-up point. In such a game — perhaps one that plays very much like the third-person RPG Mass Effect trilogy — you’d play as a Krogan dispatched by the Salarians to the Rachni homeworld. There, you’d be charged with undertaking the events that ended the Rachni Wars — the complete destruction of the Rachni queens and the hiveminds that control the entire race. Of course, such a race-ending ordeal could lead to choice-and-consequence sequences, which will be more than familiar to Mass Effect veterans.
The Morning War — or the Geth War, depending on which side you fall on — marks the culmination of one of the galaxy’s most notorious events. It’s during this war that the Quarian’s mechanical creations, the Geth, fight back and ultimately win independence from their masters. Moreover, the Geth actually take the Quarian’s homeworld over, expelling their creators to live in the space flotilla you find them floating around in during the events of the Mass Effect trilogy. The Geth prove to be a harsh lesson for the Quarians, and mark a fear those on Earth have of artificial intelligence as well; that they may achieve sentience and become uncontrollable.
There are two sides of the Morning War, and thus there’s plenty of nebulous space for the player to work his or her way through. Perhaps such a game would take place on the Quarians’ homeworld of Rannoch in an open-world RPG-like fashion, a la Fallout 3. Moreover, perhaps you can play as the Geth or the Quarians, working your way through the end events of the Morning War that ultimately lead to the Quarians’ ouster from their own home. Either way, this war is compelling enough to see the light of day in a grand scale, doing full justice to its intriguing allusions within Mass Effect 3.
Colin Moriarty is Editor of IGN PlayStation. You can follow him on Twitter and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.
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