When Anthem released back in 2019, it ended up copying a lot of the worst parts of the MMO model, particularly Destiny 2. Destiny 2 is an excellent game, but the most boring part of the game is going back to a central location to speak to people who have nothing to offer other than a few items to purchase or another quest to give. Aside from that, these quests are presented in the most uninteresting way possible. This type of game was not something the developers were known for. In fact, it was the opposite. BioWare’s strength was its story arcs, and its ability to tell these stories in interesting and cinematic ways. What the new Mass Effect needs to understand is that it can be a fun game and still have a compelling story.
If they’re going to have any kind of multiplayer in the new Mass Effect, they should limit it to being cooperative play in the main story. They can keep the multiplayer that they introduced in Mass Effect 3; however, it shouldn’t be the main focus. The one game they could copy from is Baldur’s Gate 3. Baldur’s Gate 3 allows for drop-in, dropout, cooperative multiplayer, and it does it well. Your friends can either take control of one of the main story companions already pre-written, or they can create their own character.
Once a player leaves the game, the character they were controlling stays in your party. You can then dismiss them back to camp. The camp could be replaced by your ship. Similar to Baldur’s Gate 3, the spaceship also has all the characters from the story for you to pick from. Every Mass Effect game has already given you two companions every time you go on a mission, so it would only make sense to continue this trend.
As well as Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem, Mass Effect 3’s cooperative combat was excellent, so it has been proven to be possible in the past. There wouldn’t be much need to change the gameplay all that much, despite a few tweaks here and there.
A second interesting aspect that goes along with what has already been said is that during the story beats of Baldur’s Gate 3, the main character or just one character initiates or controls the conversation. They could also allow the players playing cooperatively to interrupt the conversation via button prompts, similar to the paragon/renegade interrupts from Mass Effect 2 and 3. This would allow them to play as some of the other companions without worrying about them doing something that would be completely out of character during story beats.
Another option would be to allow players to continue roaming around and ignore the conversations completely, similar to Baldur’s Gate 3. They could be at the store buying items, they could be engaging with enemies, they could focus on their character builds, All of this is contingent on the idea that they are adding cooperative play to Mass Effect 4. There has been nothing to suggest they are doing this. Considering they wanted multiplayer in the original trilogy and did have it in both Andromeda and Mass Effect 3, this would be the best way to have multiplayer in the new game without thoroughly ruining it. The only thing they would need to balance is the combat.
In the end, the real lesson to be learned from Baldur’s Gate 3 is that there are millions of gamers out there who crave narrative-driven role-playing games.
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Related: Elijah Wood and Sean Astin play Baldur’s Gate 3 with Larian CEO Swen Vincke
I was born and raised in a town so small there were more cows than people. I joined the USAF as soon as I could, and I currently reside in San Antonio. I am a singer/songwriter on the side, but I've been a gamer since birth. I grew up with PlayStation and Nintendo, though, I don't discriminate between consoles and PC. I have a PC with a 3080, Steam Deck, and a PS5.
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