There could have been a great follow-up to Mass Effect: Andromeda, at least according to creative director, Mac Walters. Mass Effect: Andromeda may have come out back in 2017, but the developer still hasn’t given up on the game, wishing that BioWare produced a sequel.
In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Walters explained that he would have loved to see a sequel, even despite the game’s mixed reception. The developer, who has been involved with the entire Mass Effect series from the very beginning, acknowledged the shortcomings of Andromeda, but highlighted the potential for improvement in a sequel.
“I only wish we had been able to then do a second one, because then you would have really seen that polish, just like we did from the first to the second on the original trilogy,” Walters remarked. The developer went on to describe how the team faced significant challenges in trying to match the scale and quality of the previous entry in the series, Mass Effect 3, while simultaneously introducing a new storyline and characters.
The reception for Mass Effect: Andromeda was less than ideal, leading to the game being largely shelved in favor of the upcoming Mass Effect 4. Or Mass Effect 5, whatever it's marketed as. Walters openly discussed the lessons learned from Andromeda's development, emphasizing the need for reduced scope and a focus on quality. He admitted the team had to relearn and figure out several aspects of the game, something which made achieving the same level of polish as Mass Effect 3 a substantial challenge.
The main difficulty was that Mass Effect: Andromeda was entrusted to BioWare Montreal, a different studio entirely from the developer who created the original trilogy, BioWare Edmonton. This added an additional layer of complexity to the project, BioWare Montreal having only worked with downloadable content prior to Andromeda. Walters believes that allowing BioWare Montreal to start from scratch in terms of scale and reducing the scope of Andromeda might have resulted in a more polished and tighter experience.
“If you tried to put all the content of Mass Effect 3 on the Mass Effect 1 team, it would have taken us ten years,” Walters noted. “Similarly, there were just a lot of things that we had to relearn, re-figure out, and ultimately when you do that, it’s very, very challenging to come out and be as polished as your third iteration was, and we didn’t hit that. And we probably should have, in hindsight, just reduced scope more and executed on what we could.”
While players may be disappointed that a sequel to Mass Effect: Andromeda may never see the light of day, they can take solace in the fact that a new instalment is currently in the works. While details about the game are scarce, it remains a promising prospect for fans of the series.