The depressing closure of BioWare has been thrown atop an already horrendous year for gaming. After spending years on the studio’s long-awaited Mass Effect 5, which was helmed by a number of original trilogy devs, the studio has been struck down.
Considering EA’s ability to sit on IP and do nothing, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see another game in the Mass Effect franchise, although a TV show adaptation is in the works at Amazon. But what would the next Mass Effect game be like if it wasn’t cancelled?
In a post on LinkedIn, cinematic supervisor Tony de Waal, who was “one of the remaining 50-ish people” at the studio explained that the team was “all punching above their weight to make something special”.
De Waal, who worked at BioWare as the lead cinematics animator from Baldur’s Gate to Mass Effect 2, rejoined the studio during Dragon Age: The Veilguard. “I came back in 2021 to help get what would become Dragon Age: The Veilguard back on track”.
The cinematic supervisor explained that players have “no idea the ceaziness going on under the hood of that game”, especially for a title built on Frostbite. After Dragon Age: The Veilguard, it was confirmed that Mass Effect 5 would not be built on the Frostbite tools EA mandated, but instead on Unreal Engine 5. It’s worth noting that the original Mass Effect trilogy was also built on Unreal Engine.
As for the scrapped Mass Effect 5, de Waal explained that the game would’ve been “something special” with “a level of autonomy and choice that no other game has been able to match”.
“We saw what Larian [Baldur’s Gate 3] and CD Projekt [The Witcher/Cyberpunk 2077] were bringing to the table with their latest offerings,” they said, “and started down a path to bring Mass Effect to the next level while remaining true to the trilogy.”
It’s well known that Mass Effect 5 would have been a return to the Commander Shepard storyline last seen in the third game. While Mass Effect Andromeda had some strong ideas, the game’s new characters and technical state (built on Frostbite) resulted in an underwhelming experience, and a return to Shepard was the best path forward.
Nevertheless, it sounds like BioWare was on the right path with Mass Effect 5, following in the footsteps of the most iconic RPGs of the generation. A Mass Effect game with more choice and consequence is exactly what players wanted, and it’s a shame we’ll never get to see how it would’ve all panned out.
