We don't know much about the next Mass Effect game in development at BioWare except that it's happening, and even that feels a little soft right now, what with all the layoffs and looming sale of Electronic Arts to Saudi Arabia. But one thing we do now know, thanks to a Fall Damage interview on YouTube with Commander Shepard actors Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale, is that they're both pretty eager to return to the role.
After a bit of semi-philosophical musing on the question of whether Shepard is alive following the events of Mass Effect 3 (spoiler: well, maybe), Hale invited fans to "email the powers-that-be who make these games and say, 'Give us more Shepard, please'."
It could happen. BioWare made a point of offing Shepard at the start of Mass Effect 2, and insisted that it was really for real—but then of course he was brought back to life by the Lazarus Project so he could save us all from the Reaper threat. Classic hero stuff.
If it can happen once, it can happen again, and while I personally feel like bringing Shepard back for a new adventure would be a rather shabby treatment of the original trilogy, I can see why the suits at EA might find the idea appealing: After the mess of Mass Effect Andromeda and the failure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard to meet expectations, a return to the reliable familiarity of tried-and-true videogame heroes might seem like the best next step.
The very little that BioWare has teased of the next Mass Effect has certainly leaned on familiar elements, including Liara T'Soni digging up a broken chunk of something with the N7 logo on it. That was five years ago and things can change, but for now it's what we've got.
But if Shepard doesn't return for the next Mass Effect, that's okay too. "Sometimes narratives have an ending," Meer says. "I am happy with the way it ended, considering that chronologically anyway the very last thing that we did was the Citadel DLC, which I think addressed issues that people had, especially in terms of closure."
"The Citadel DLC was the bomb. It was so much fun. It was a love letter from BioWare to the entire community," Hale adds, setting Meer up for the closer: "My favorite DLC on the Citadel."
Whatever's ahead for Mass Effect, it won't be with former BioWare project director Casey Hudson at the helm, who's busy working on the next closest thing: Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic.
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