My Advice to Bioware for the next Mass Effect

[happyninja42]

This is a simple list of suggestions to make the next ME game better than ME 3. Now personally I thought ME 3 was pretty good. It had it's flaws sure, but it didn't engender in me, the nerd rage I've seen online. It's simply my opinion, so feel free to say I'm full of it if you disagree.

1. Scale down the size of the conflict
ME 3's Big Epic End of the Universe plot was so huge, so clunky, that it was literally relegated to the background. I never really felt any significant tension, or ominous empending doom, because all the stuff the Reapers were doing was happening off camera, or was simply an animated background screensaver, while I'm running around the chest high wall map, shooting smaller threats. When your big threat isn't actually part of the story/action, it's not a threat, its backdrop. Make the story about one planet, or one solar system maybe, nothing bigger. Bigger doesn't always mean better. To use a classic example, the first Die Hard movie. Very small scale, isolated environment for the action to take place, minimal list of protagonists/antagonists. Give me an N7 team that's been tasked with saving a city, or planet, or solar system, from a very specific, reasonably sized threat, and I will be a happy camper.

2. Don't mention Shepherd. No, really, don't bring him up. Don't have cameos from the original crew's survivors. The universe is a big freaking place, and while everyone might know about Shepherd's sacrifice, it doesn't mean it's going to come up all the time, with every person. Give me a group of people who have way more urgent things on their plate than talking about what Shepherd did. Just because the game is in the ME'verse, doesn't mean it revolves around Shepherd.

3. Don't do the space travel map stuff. Really did anyone enjoy that stuff? I didn't. It felt like busy work between combat maps, that I was compelled to do in order to get upgraded equipment. Otherwise it was simply a loading screen between chest high wall maps. We have characters who are engineers, scientists, etc, that we spend points into to make them more powerful in these skill sets....let them be the mechanic for upgrading gear. As we put points into their mechanical/scientific skill, it opens up new upgrade options for our weapons/armor and ships. You did something similar in the first ME with the security on the doors, and I liked that, do something similar.


Just a friendly list of suggestions from a fan, that has enjoyed the series, and hopes to see the series being as good, or better in the future.

 

[The_Scrivener]

I want them to do whatever they think is best for the game/series and I agree with you generally. My biggest concern with BioWare is that it is evident they just shouldn't have the ball with the game on the line. They're the Weezer of game developers. They do something inspired and interesting and heartfelt but as soon as they see they've attained success they completely lose sight of why they achieved what they did to the point you're astounded that they were the same group that made something good previously.

I don't like the idea of fans influencing the series or the projects, but it's difficult to argue that they didn't bring this sort of thing on themselves with that disastrous final game. That Escapist readers voting it GOTY was astounding to me. Shows how great the first two were that the denial could take so long to wear off.

 

[gavinmcinns]

1. Fine, it can work, but the game can't be longer than 8 hours or else it will turn into busywork filler nonsense. It goes against the vision of the first game, but at this point the series has been butchered beyond recognition so go ahead and chop it up some more.

I was going to write more but bioware is just a husk so anything more I write is pointless.

 

[SonicWaffle]

1. Scale down the size of the conflict

I think they kinda have to. They can't have the annihilation of all life happening again, so really scaling down is the only way to go.

2. Don't mention Shepherd.

I dunno, I don't think a mention or two of the most important event in recent galactic history is out-of-place. The game shouldn't revolve around it, but it would be seriously weird not to see any aftermath from the Reaper war.

3. Don't do the space travel map stuff.

I did. Not so much the flying around and avoiding the Reapers from ME3, that was hassle, but it made the game feel much bigger to be able to view the galaxy and choose destinations. Plus the fact that planet scanning from ME2 was one of the most relaxing and therapeutic things I've ever done in a game. It made no damn sense for the saviour of the galaxy not to delegate the task, but it was still very soothing. Maybe that's why he didn't.

 

[Raikas]

3. Don't do the space travel map stuff. Really did anyone enjoy that stuff? I didn't.

I did. Given how it was scaled back in ME3, I wouldn't be surprised if they did away with it, but people who enjoyed it (yes, even scanning for minerals in ME2) do exist.

It made the game feel more substantial to have more than just combat missions and hubs with dialogue.

 

[Not Gabe Newell]

My suggestion for Mass Effect 4? Don't make it.

We don't need another Mass Effect. The first three were fine. The trilogy is done. It's over. The galaxy is saved, the Reapers are gone, end of story.

They were fun while they lasted, but I don't want to see Mass Effect become the new Assassin's Creed.

 

[Clowndoe]

They were fun while they lasted, but I don't want to see Mass Effect become the new Assassin's Creed.

I would say this. Let series die with what dignity they have, which would be none to some people, but all the same. And I would say the same about any saga, no matter how much I like it.

But since that's not going to happen, I'm going to say I agree with points 1 and 2 more than 3. A problem a lot of people had with Mass Effect 2 was that when you reached the third game you realise that the second game achieved almost nothing story-wise. This is because the whole point of the suicide mission is to prevent the Reapers from coming, but they do that anyway in the third game. The third game should have just been another mostly independent story with running themes and characters. It also would have given them a chance to explore Cerberus further beyond having them be obvious villains with no rhyme or raisins.

Point two I agree with in principle, but it would be kind of weird to not mention Shepard at all. I think it's clear he should be mentioned as part of the lore. But you shouldn't meet or talk to him/her or his/her crew. That could throw the whole thing out of whack by making the ending the player got in ME3 irrelevent, and dissociating him from the Universe he helped create.

Speaking of which, how would they even do the endings? I mean, control, synthesis and destroy can kind of be side-stepped no matter what because they were all so vague in the first place, but what about the Genophage and the Geth? If you destroyed the Geth in the third game for example, and they decide the Geth lived, then they just dicked you over. Another reason to not make a fourth game.

So yeah, don't make a fourth game, unless you Final Fantasy it, although that's not great either.

 

[EternallyBored]

Definitely agree on point 1 having another reaper equivalent threat would be a copout at best. The reapers really did feel like a weight around the whole series by the end. When people talk about what they like about Mass Effects story it's always talking about Shepard's crew or various other characters, nobody really gave a shit about the reapers as enemies.

The whole saving the universe thing could have worked, but with the reapers always being in the background, it made it hard to really care about the reapers outside how they effected the smaller characters in the series. Mass Effect would really benefit from a story set with a more mundane enemy like the Shadow Broker or a Cerberus style enemy. Even with Cerberus magically being able to pull bullshit fleets and cyborg ninjas out of its ass by Mass Effect 3 I still cared a whole lot more about stopping the Illusive man than I did about a bunch of robotic squid that talk to me maybe 5 times in whole series.

I think that's one of the most tragic things about Dragon Age 2 is that Bioware finally breaks out of its save the world rut and then attaches it to a thoroughly unimpressive game. By the sounds of Dragon Age 3 Bioware seems to have gone right back to saving the world, so it worries me that they are going to try and come up with some grand threat like the reapers to stick in a Mass Effect sequel. If they set it as a prequel it may also mean that Bioware will have us exposing or fighting reapers yet again, just as a different character.

Mass Effect's main draw for me has always been its pulpy space opera setting (that they have unfortunately pulled away from in the sequels a little bit), and the setting worked really well when it was just fighting Saren, or the geth, or mercenaries, or Cerberus. It doesn't have to be limited to a single planet or system, traveling the galaxy to bring down a rogue merc group or crime syndicate would work too, and it would allow us to see the seedy underbelly of various species and fight in large cities, for a giant galaxy spanning civilization, a lot of the levels made the galaxy feel very empty.

 

[TheScottishMexican42]

I agree with point 1, but not 2 and 3.
I like travelling around the galaxy, and as for 2:

Spoiler

There is an ending where Shepard survives, so I'd like him to at the very least have a cameo

 

[RJ 17]

This is a simple list of suggestions to make the next ME game better than ME 3. Now personally I thought ME 3 was pretty good. It had it's flaws sure, but it didn't engender in me, the nerd rage I've seen online. It's simply my opinion, so feel free to say I'm full of it if you disagree.

Pretty much how I felt. I loved the game as a whole, admit that it has it's short-comings (I was disappointed at the ending, but I wasn't punching holes in the wall, but the EC ending did fix the problems I had with it), but I never raged hard-core about it. I mean seriously people, did the Kai Leng fight on Thessia REALLY piss you off that much? You act as if it's the first time you've ever encountered the concept of plot armor. I'm not saying it's a good practice, but it's been done many times before and will be done many times in the future.

1. Scale down the size of the conflict
ME 3's Big Epic End of the Universe plot was so huge, so clunky, that it was literally relegated to the background. I never really felt any significant tension, or ominous empending doom, because all the stuff the Reapers were doing was happening off camera, or was simply an animated background screensaver, while I'm running around the chest high wall map, shooting smaller threats. When your big threat isn't actually part of the story/action, it's not a threat, its backdrop. Make the story about one planet, or one solar system maybe, nothing bigger. Bigger doesn't always mean better. To use a classic example, the first Die Hard movie. Very small scale, isolated environment for the action to take place, minimal list of protagonists/antagonists. Give me an N7 team that's been tasked with saving a city, or planet, or solar system, from a very specific, reasonably sized threat, and I will be a happy camper.

Here I've gotta disagree with you...though more just on your assessment rather than your point. I wouldn't mind if the next ME game was scaled down, in fact I'd dare say that it has to be scaled down as there really isn't much bigger of a threat than giant space monsters coming to kill every advanced civilization in the entire galaxy. However you have to think of Shepard's mission in this story. His/her mission was to gather allies, not confront the Reapers directly. I mean what, would you like to have Shepard charge a giant robotic space squid that's the size of a sky-scraper throwing warp hadoukens and shooting it with a Carnifex? The only way to have Shepard actually confronting the "Reapers" - as you seem to be defining them by the giant menacing space monsters - would be to change it from a shooter to a star-fighter sim. So really the big threats HAVE to be in the background because really, what the hell are you going to do against a full size Reaper? Besides, you do get to personally assault and take down 2 (possibly 3 if you count the Last Stand at the end of the game) of the smaller Reapers.

This is why I never understood people who said one of their complaints was "the threat never felt real, there was no sense of urgency or dread." Sooooo watching Palaven burn while you're picking up the Primarch create a sense of urgency? Landing on Thessia right when it's getting hit by one of the main Reaper invasion forces didn't give you a sense of impending doom? Well, to each their own I guess, but I've never understood that complaint.

With that said, however, I certainly wouldn't have a problem with things being scaled all the way down to a single solar system, planet, or even city. I doubt it'll be that micro, but I certainly wouldn't mind if the story was set on a single planet.

2. Don't mention Shepherd. No, really, don't bring him up. Don't have cameos from the original crew's survivors. The universe is a big freaking place, and while everyone might know about Shepherd's sacrifice, it doesn't mean it's going to come up all the time, with every person. Give me a group of people who have way more urgent things on their plate than talking about what Shepherd did. Just because the game is in the ME'verse, doesn't mean it revolves around Shepherd.

This one I don't think you'll have to worry about since the next ME game will most likely be a prequel rather than a sequel (in fact I think someone at Bioware even mentioned that it's going to be prequel, but I could just be imagining things...thought I read about that on this site though). There's just WAY too much they'd have to retcon in order to make a sequel, especially considering the fact that - despite what the majority of pissed-off players thought - the endings for ME3 leave the galaxy in vastly different states. Either everyone is united in a bland, boring utopia with ever lasting peace between all races - including the Reapers themselves - because everyone is now a synthetic-organic hybrid, or the Reapers are around but controlled by the benevolent will of ParaShep who uses them as a galactic peace force to protect all the races, or the Reapers are dead along with the Geth. That's not to mention all the choices made in the games (are the rachni alive? Was the genophage cured? Did the geth or quarians get wiped out or was there peace between them?).

Really the only way they could pull off a sequel without getting gamers pissed off at major retcons would be to do what Obsidian did with Knights of the Old Republic II: have a bit of a primer during the very introduction in which there's a conversation between two characters in which the story gets set straight. Like how in KotORII you determine whether or not Revan was a man or woman and whether or not he/she saved the galaxy from the Sith or went on to rule it AS the Sith. They'd basically have to do the same thing with a sequel to the ME3 story, allowing you to set what Shepard's history was like.

Soooo yeah, like I said, you shouldn't have to worry about people fawning all over Shepard in the next ME game since more than likely it's going to have to be a prequel. My guess is that it's going to take place during the First Contact War. Or, if they REALLY wanna get nifty and let you play as a non-human, during the Rachni War. My only problem with prequels is that the audience will always know what's going to happen...just like with the Star Wars prequels, pretty much everyone was sitting there through all three movies saying "QUIT YOUR BITCHIN' AND TURN INTO VADER ALREADY!"

3. Don't do the space travel map stuff. Really did anyone enjoy that stuff? I didn't. It felt like busy work between combat maps, that I was compelled to do in order to get upgraded equipment. Otherwise it was simply a loading screen between chest high wall maps. We have characters who are engineers, scientists, etc, that we spend points into to make them more powerful in these skill sets....let them be the mechanic for upgrading gear. As we put points into their mechanical/scientific skill, it opens up new upgrade options for our weapons/armor and ships. You did something similar in the first ME with the security on the doors, and I liked that, do something similar.

This one I'll say "fair enough" to. Personally I never had a problem with the space travel and I can definitely see how people could find it to be rather tedious. But with that said, I could see myself enjoying a game that focused more on the actual inner workings of the ship and its crew rather than just doing laps around the ship after every mission to have a conversation with everyone before flying off to the next mission.

 

[Cabisco]

My suggestion for Mass Effect 4? Don't make it.

We don't need another Mass Effect. The first three were fine. The trilogy is done. It's over. The galaxy is saved, the Reapers are gone, end of story.

They were fun while they lasted, but I don't want to see Mass Effect become the new Assassin's Creed.

I disagree based on I love the universe they created. The trilogy is done but that doesn't mean I never want to see a Turian, Asari, Reaper or the Illusive Sheen again. They made such a compelling world for us it would be a shame never to experience it again.

The biggest problem I think they'll have is how to deal with the endings if they plan to set it after the reaper war. I think the best bet would be to set it in the Turian-Human war, or just some point before the ending.

Edit: I'd be exceptionally intrigued if they tried to change up how you play the game instead of replicating the same style as the previous mass effects, say something closer to dishonoured and you're a cerberus agent. Going around the Galaxy inflitrating meetings, sabotaging anti human groups and listening to the voice of Martin Sheen...

 

[BloatedGuppy]

This is why I never understood people who said one of their complaints was "the threat never felt real, there was no sense of urgency or dread." Sooooo watching Palaven burn while you're picking up the Primarch create a sense of urgency? Landing on Thessia right when it's getting hit by one of the main Reaper invasion forces didn't give you a sense of impending doom? Well, to each their own I guess, but I've never understood that complaint.

It's a question of pacing/unevenness, and it's a problem in every game that has these faux "races against time". Dragon Age suffered the same issue.

Yes, certain individual moments or tableaus communicated a sense of "urgency or dread", but it's immediately lost when the next thing you do is spend several hours diddling about scanning planets for Prothean relics because some Volus will slip you a few credits if you do.

It's one of those gameplay/story disconnects that more modern games are starting to get hammered for. The closer you mimic traditional storytelling mediums like film, the more the intrusion of "gamey" elements stand out like sore thumbs. How willing you are to forgive them depends on how important immersion is to the game in question, and how motivated you are to give the game the benefit of the doubt. And we all know how a great many people felt about giving ME3 the "benefit of the doubt" post credits. Those glasses were most definitely NOT rose colored.

 

[RJ 17]

This is why I never understood people who said one of their complaints was "the threat never felt real, there was no sense of urgency or dread." Sooooo watching Palaven burn while you're picking up the Primarch create a sense of urgency? Landing on Thessia right when it's getting hit by one of the main Reaper invasion forces didn't give you a sense of impending doom? Well, to each their own I guess, but I've never understood that complaint.

It's a question of pacing/unevenness, and it's a problem in every game that has these faux "races against time". Dragon Age suffered the same issue.

Eh, fair enough I suppose. I will concede the fact that ME3 doesn't "keep the pressure" up when you're not actively on a mission. To be fair they did try to keep things up with the fact that the Reapers would chase you out of a solar system if you scanned too much in that area, but I'll admit that doesn't really do much to add to the tension (but at least it's an attempt). I guess for me the weight of the big moments compensated for the lack of weight between those moments. I mean, it is pretty easy to lose perspective when side-missions/conversations have you running laps around the Citadel for an hour and a half.

 

[Zetatrain]

But since that's not going to happen, I'm going to say I agree with points 1 and 2 more than 3. A problem a lot of people had with Mass Effect 2 was that when you reached the third game you realise that the second game achieved almost nothing story-wise. This is because the whole point of the suicide mission is to prevent the Reapers from coming, but they do that anyway in the third game. The third game should have just been another mostly independent story with running themes and characters. It also would have given them a chance to explore Cerberus further beyond having them be obvious villains with no rhyme or raisins.

Mass Effect 2 was never about preventing the Reapers from coming back. It was about stopping the Collectors who were posing a threat to human colonies. I'll admit that in the grand scheme of things destroying the Collectors probably changed very little, but as Liara pointed out in the "Lair of the Shadow broker" that's one less asset the Reapers will have when they invade.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Ideally, just don't make another game. The trilogy is over, and while the ending was questionable at best, it adequately closed the franchise. But considering they will eventually do it anyways:

1. Scale down the size of the conflict

I don't think you can find an enemy in current Mass Effect lore as threatening as the Reapers. Consequently, they'll have to scale down to some extent.

Still, I don't think they should try to completely scale away from a major, galaxy-wide threat. Though we normally didn't get a chance to see the Reapers in action during ME3, except for a few missions and when they chase you while on the Galaxy Map, their presence was constant felt if you spent some time interacting with people on the Citadel, talking to your crew and Admiral Hackett, and through other methods. For me at least, it created an atmosphere of tension and despair very well at times. Again, they might not be able to pull off the same scale in the next game, but they shouldn't shy away from a large-scale threat.

2. Don't mention Shepherd.

Hasn't Bioware already confirmed they don't plan to?

Anyways, I doubt they will. With three alternate endings to Shepard's story, mentioning him/her might be a bad idea, considering it may inevitably cause conflict in the story. I can see them giving subtle references to Shepard, but nothing too major.

3. Don't do the space travel map stuff. Really did anyone enjoy that stuff?

I did. OK, so it was beyond tedious in ME2 and was a pain to control in the first game, but I think ME3 did a decent job with it, giving some sense of tension while not overdoing it. It also gives a greater sense of where your place in the galaxy is--as someone who needs resources for advancing humanity (ME1 and ME2) or to aid in a war (ME3). It also gave a decent break from the combat sections, which would have gotten tiring had we had to do them all the time over the course of the game.

 

[Tomeran]

1. Scale down the size of the conflict

Its hard for them not to, since the reaper conflict is one of the biggest things to ever feature in a video game, ever, when it comes to the stakes.

But here's the thing: Big threats with big things on the line are fairly popular. And frankly? Personally for me its going to be a bit of a downer if ME4 is about you playing soldier John Smith tasked to saving the local colonist village against say, a band of pirates or something.

It may have worked well for the Riddick series, but mass effect has already set the tone with three previous games with a pretty awesome story, so it would be a shame not to use that.

I sort of agree with this one since it would be ridicilous(if not impossible) to try and match the stakes of the other three titles, but personally I feel that there should still be quite a lot on the line, perhaps related to the reaper conflict. Maybe this character is helping Shepard's crusade against the reapers somehow without Shepard ever realizing it. That would be a fitting compromise.

2. Don't mention Shepherd.

This I definetly dont agree with.

Shepard was the main focus of the first three games, and to simply eliminate him/her from the next title is going to upset a lot of people. One of the primary reasons the franchise was so succesful was BECAUSE of Shepard, because you could build the character and make it your own. Because of his/hers teammates and because of how personal the game became, perhaps one of the most personal game series ever made, because of the relations that you gradually built to your companions and how you evolved Shepard.

Its going to be a colossal downer to not bring -any- of this into the next mass effect title. Dont get me wrong though, Shepard's story is done, finished, finito. He/she shouldnt feature A LOT in the next title, it should be a side character at most that features perhaps once or twice or three times(with character data imported from a save of your choice). But even with a limited cameo role, his/hers appearance is going to be a delight to a lot of people, especielly if they do it well.

This goes for the companions as well. The mass effect companions are some of the best ones to feature in the medium. I welcome the chance to bring in new ones, but again, cameo appearances are awesome, especielly from people you've grown to love from the last three games.

It should be limited though, to not steal too much spotlight from the new main character and his companions.

3. Don't do the space travel map stuff. Really did anyone enjoy that stuff?

What? I sure did. It allowed you to see different places! Sure, the mako-exploring of the planets in ME1 could be tedious, the mineral-gathering in ME2 could definetly be tedious, but that wasnt the space travel map's fault. It allowed you to make the game less linear, to take on missions and explore stuff in the way you wanted. If you take away that you'll just have space-CoD working in the most linear fashion imaginable. No thanks.

That's not to say im not open to something new and inventive instead though. As long as there is an alternative that allows for missions and exploration to be left up for the player, to keep the good balance of linearity and open-world that it's had before.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

Something I'd like to see is something barely and Sci-Fi has touched upon. The far future. Like as in very far future. Mass Effect takes place in and around 2256, right? How about the next Mass Effect to take place sometime around the 5000's or even further into the future. The only way for this to work, with these ME3 endings, is either a prequel, but that would suck, or to go so far into the future that they become irrelevant. Not to discount the happening of the shepard trilogy, but thousands of years later none of it would matter (beyond the fact that the reapers stopped reaping so further technological and societal advancement becomes possible).
But if you think about it, applying a bit of the space-magic used in he previous MEs, things could go back to staus quo regardless of the ending. Think about the citadel relay for a minute now. Activating it would allow the reapers on dark-space to come through. Relays work in pairs( even when not, a relay is required for departure), meaning the is a citadel-class relay somewhere in darkspace, which we can assume has not been adapted to be used by organics. Pure, un-altered reaper technology of that scale is certainly of some interest, and retrieving it could presumably allow the construction of a new relay network.

Even if not, the very far future could work. Maybe a mixed-species expedition to another galaxy? One that hasn't been devastated by reapers, and is therefore eons ahead of us in advancement? Where the protagonist would be the security chief of said expedition (since we know where ME is headed, and that is action), or, god forbid, the lead diplomat? (now that would be interesting)

Or another interesting, if risky, concept would be the organic races witnessing the reaper's fears become true(synthetics blowing organics to kingdom come), and eventually they would come to the same conclusion as the catalyst-starchild-thing did, and would create their own versions of the reapers, and thus things would come full circle, as the universe is locked in an ever repeating cycle.

Or if they somehow find a way of keeping us in close temporal proximity to ME3, then what I could see being the story is that the survivors of the war haphazardly throw some government together, re-form the specters who they send out to different parts of the galaxy to fix everything up and put shit back together.


As for gameplay, I personally liked the galaxy map, and flying around it. I want a more tactical combat system where the different squaddies actually feel unique and useful. I want a moral system deeper than choosing between mother teresa and skeletor, and a more dynamic conversation system. Keep the "investigate" thing opening up more options, but allow us to make our personal opinions clear to certain characters, and that would affect what information they do or don't reveal to us (like alpha protocol, just don't put a timer on it, please)

 

[William Ossiss]

I think that they almost have to mention Shepard.. But yeah, I agree that the supporting characters from the last game showing up in the new one would be a waste of time.

I'd be all in for a brand new adventure with approximately the same mechanics, upgraded a bit, with a new story and backdrop. To be able to take part in the universe of ME, again, would be fantastic. I almost expect the next game to be AFTER the events of the last one...
Or even do the back to front shpeel. The original trilogy was the end of the series, so now we have all of this universe to play with.

Basically; I just want to fly around the universe being a badass again. While also being able to choose my own race, back story, etc, I want to do exploratory missions, shootout missions, the whole nine yards.

ME is a series I doubt I'll ever get rid of. I own all the DLC, have all the achievements, still play multiplayer...

I want more.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

3. Don't do the space travel map stuff.

I did too in the first one. Actually, if done right, it'd be nice if the next Mass Effect focused on a small crew that's determined to explore the depths of the galaxy in search of fame and fortune. It'd be rather different from the tone of previous games, and possibly a good way to test the waters of Mass Effect to see if it's ready again.

 

[Zhukov]

My suggestion for Mass Effect 4? Don't make it.

We don't need another Mass Effect. The first three were fine. The trilogy is done. It's over. The galaxy is saved, the Reapers are gone, end of story.

They were fun while they lasted, but I don't want to see Mass Effect become the new Assassin's Creed.

Yeah, this.

Anyone who has read any of my posts known I love me some Mass Effect. But the trilogy is done, for better or for worse, and I don't see what's to be gained from milking it.

However, they're going to do it come hell or high water since the last game still pulled in good sales despite the ending business and everything that came with it.

Oddly enough I find myself hoping the Mass Effect 4: Revenge of the Reapers crashes and burns in spectacular fashion, just to show them in terms they understand that they can't get away with that bullshit.

That said...

1. Smaller conflict.
- Agreed. Although I really wouldn't put it past them to pull a new galactic scale threat out of their arses.

2. No mention of Shepard.
- Agreed. May be a foregone conclusion if they go the prequel route. Would also prefer to see a clean break from the rest of the cast, although, not gonna lie, I'd be delighted if Wrex/Liara/Mordin/etc showed up at some point.

3. Space travel map stuff.
- Ambivalent. Depends on how it's done.