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Leaked Details Show Canceled Mass Effect Game Would Have Used Every Past Choice
ReLeaked Details Show Canceled Mass Effect Game Would Have Used Every Past Choice
Comments from a former BioWare technical director suggest the canceled Mass Effect: Universe was built to account for choices players made in the original trilogy.
Newly leaked comments suggest the canceled BioWare follow-up to the Mass Effect series was designed to account for the choices players made in the original trilogy. Former technical director Romain Toutain described the project, which was working under the title Mass Effect: Universe, during a recent livestream, according to a report that circulated among fans and gaming outlets.
Toutain said that « all the choices made in the first Mass Effect games were taken into account », and that the title reflected how many decisions players could make. He described a system in which saves could be linked to create parallel universes, though he noted that was a simplification. « You had different timelines, basically, » he said. He acknowledged that exactly how thorough the system would have been remains unknown.
The original trilogy followed Commander Shepard's fight against the Reapers, and players could carry major decisions from each entry into the next. Relationships, character deaths and the fate of an entire species were among the outcomes that shaped the galaxy. Toutain suggested the new project would have allowed players to revisit some of those outcomes, though he did not detail specific changes.
Toutain also said the team had plans for players who wanted to experiment with the story's many branches. He compared the freedom to generate timelines to Spike Chunsoft's 2016 game Zero Time Dilemma. Asked whether the project would have included systems similar to those in Dragon Age: Inquisition and the series' lore-tailoring Keep application, he said, « kinda, yeah. » He described decisions that could contradict earlier events and create plot points in the timeline, and said the underlying theory had worked in practice.
Those plans will likely never be realized. EA announced last week that it had shut down the long-running RPG developer and canceled Mass Effect: Universe, and it put additional plans for the franchise on hold. In response, fans started a #SaveMassEffect campaign, and a petition had gathered about 185,000 signatures at the time of publication.
Toutain's stream also included other details. He said a Reaper-like hand featured in recently leaked footage was named Billy, and he said the developers had aimed to give each player a unique experience. Separate leaks in the days after the studio's closure described Mass Effect 5 plans, including a full trailer and gameplay details promising missions with « Hitman-style freedom. » A Prime Video show based on the franchise is reportedly still in development.
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