Please Don’t Put Commander Shepard In The Next Mass Effect

thegamer.com:

A new piece of merchandise for Mass Effect 4 (Mass Effect 5? Let’s just say ‘the next Mass Effect’) has suggested that Commander Shepard will be returning and I have to say, if that happens I’m flying to BioWare’s offices to kick them all swiftly in the groin. This reveal has been walked back, but not entirely denied. BioWare stops short of saying Shepard won’t be present, instead telling us this specific reveal was a mistake. Commander Shepard’s story has been told already, and with such a rich universe out there for us to explore, it’s frankly embarrassing that Mass Effect cannot move on from one character in a galaxy of millions.

Once bitten and twice shy, it may be that after the relative failure of Andromeda, BioWare wants to retreat to safer ground. The unmitigated disaster of Anthem has also been and gone, while the Legendary Edition (led by Shepard) helped stabilise affairs. It couldn’t possibly be that a relatively inexperienced studio, during a time of transition, was forced to cut content and rush to meet deadlines on an engine they weren’t used to and which didn’t suit the genre. No, it must have been the lack of Shepard.

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There are so many stories in the Mass Effect universe. Even staying within the Shepard era, we saw little of the batarians (a DLC sees us potentially blow up a settlement), and virtually nothing of the vorcha, elcor, hanar, or several others. Then there’s the fact there are so many different eras the game could explore. The extinction event of the Reapers is obviously monumental, but if that story has been told, why would we need to go back to it? Why can’t we tell smaller stories at other points in time? Whatever Shep faces next,