In what can only be read as an attempt to assure fans of the sci-fi franchise that its next entry will not fall into the same trappings as Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare project director Michael Gamble has assured fans that the upcoming Mass Effect sequel will decidedly not play fast and loose with its overall identity.
Gamble, who prior to being put in charge of the next Mass Effect served as a producer on every series entry since 2 (including the disastrous Andromeda), offered this reassurance on October 28th via his personal Twitter account.
Attempting to calm fan fears that the aforementioned Veilguard, which has drawn widespread ire among fans of all stripes for a multitude of issues, including a drastically reduced dialogue system, mobile-game-tier graphics, and ham-fisted injection of real-world sociopolitical discourse, was representative of BioWare’s overall future as a studio, Gamble clarified to the concerned that while they made share a parent company, the Dragon Age and Mass Effect teams held very different creative intents.
“Lots of people asking me about Mass Effect now that Veilguard reviews are out, and Oct 31 is close,” wrote the producer. “Both are from the studio, but Mass Effect is Mass Effect. How you bring a Sci Fi RPG to life is different than other genres or IPs…and has to have different kinds of love.”
Finding his initial post met with a plea of “Please don’t Pixar Mass Effect like you guys did with Dragon Age” from a fan – a direct reference to Veilguard‘s new, more cartoony art style – Gamble explained in turn, “I’m not sure I agree with the Pixar thing, but Mass Effect is photo realistic and will be as long as I’m running it.”
Offering one further, albeit brief comment on the matter, Gamble ultimately asserted, “Regarding tone questions: Mass Effect will maintain the mature tone of the original Trilogy. This is all I’m gonna say for now.”
First announced as part of the 2020 ‘N7 Day’ celebrations (held on November 7th and named after the highest rank an individual can obtain in the franchise’s fictional Interplanetary Combatives Training program, N7 Day is usually celebrated by BioWare with the announcement of Mass Effect-related news), very, very little is known about the next Mass Effect entry’s outside of existence.
While BioWare has kept the veil down on the game in order to guard its secrets, what is known is that the game will be developed on the Unreal Engine, worked on by a number of as-of-yet-publicly-unnamed returning devs from the original trilogy, (including lead cinematics animator Parrish Ley), and will serve as a direct sequel to Commander Shepherd’s previous adventure.
Outside of this bare bones amount of information, what BioWare’s return to space will entail remains anyone’s guess.
And while fans may be hoping that Gamble and his team will deliver on their promises, the mere fact that Veilguard comes from the studio suggests that they may do best to keep their Mass Effect expectations tempered and money firmly in hand until the game finally releases.
To that last point, as of writing, the next Mass Effect game has yet to receive an official release date.