With recent reports indicating that EA is continuing its plan to produce a TV series based on the Mass Effect franchise following the closure of BioWare, former project lead on the now-canceled Mass Effect project, Michael Gamble, has indicated that the game was being made to complement the show.
As caught by Mass Effect fan Kala Elizabeth on social media, Gamble said in a post over the weekend that “Both are meant to complement each other.” He wrote this in response to a question about whether the Mass Effect Universe plot was going to be used for Amazon’s adaptation of the franchise.
In the weeks following BioWare’s closure, many vague details about the canceled Mass Effect project have been surfacing through a number of reports. One of these has indicated that the game was going to take place around 600 years after the events of Mass Effect 3, with the original trilogy’s story being referred to in the universe as the “Reaper War”.
Rather than having Commander Shepard return as the protagonist, the title was seemingly going to introduce an entirely new playable character, described as a cross “between John Wick and James Bond” that would have been a “customizable N7 agent.” The story itself was going to involve three factions that had gained prominence and power over the galaxy. Among these, humanity had seemingly allied with Korgans and Batarians, with other factions being made up of the Council races on one side and the Geth forming a “third superpower”. The entire setting was described as a “galactic Cold War” between the three factions.
Missions were reportedly going to offer more freedom in play styles as well, with the level design described as being akin to Hitman. While no information about moment-to-moment gameplay has been revealed, the report made note of “brutal close-range executions” being among the things that the player would have been capable of. Interestingly, Liara T’Soni – an important character in the original trilogy and one of Shepard’s crew members aboard the Normandy – was also going to be involved in the plot as an “incredibly powerful Asari Matriarch”.
Cinematic supervisor Tony de Waal had also spoken about the project on LinkedIn, noting that it was going to be “something special”, with players having “a level of autonomy and choice that no other game has been able to match.” BioWare was seemingly also paying attention to the evolution of the RPG genre, and was going to take cues from Larian Studios of Baldur’s Gate 3 fame and CD Projekt RED of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 fame.
“We saw what Larian and CD Projekt were bringing to the table with their latest offerings, and started down a path to bring Mass Effect to the next level while remaining true to the Trilogy,” he wrote.
“I’m sad you won’t ever get to see what we were cooking, and sad for the small, talented group of devs who were all punching above their weight to make something special. Please consider those who stayed with BioWare until the very end. They are truly some of the most talented people I’ve had the pleasure of working with throughout my career.”
In the meantime, take a look at how many of the now-former workers on the project have been discussing Mass Effect after the recent N7 Day celebrations.
