There's a common consensus among fans that one of Mass Effect: Andromeda's failings was its lack of new aliens. Many are hoping that BioWare's upcoming Mass Effect 4 rights this wrong and introduces a number of new races to the Milky Way. The original Mass Effect games introduced its multicultural interstellar community perfectly, featuring an impressive variety of different species that lived and worked alongside the galaxy's human race. Mass Effect 4 has many lessons to learn from both the original trilogy and the more recent Mass Effect: Andromeda, and making sure it has a vibrant mixture of aliens for players to encounter is definitely one of them.
Although it's no secret that a lot of players would love Mass Effect 4 to introduce some new aliens, there is a slight question mark over how the game will manage to do this. There are a number of complications in a post-Reaper Milky Way, and still many mysteries around how Mass Effect: Andromeda will be incorporated as well. Mass Effect 4 has an array of different narrative threads to tie together, as well as its own story to tell, and how it goes about bringing new aliens into the setting that fans have come to love so much will be an interesting challenge.
New Aliens In Mass Effect 4
Although they've featured before, both the kett and the angara would technically be new visitors to the Milky Way if they made an appearance in Mass Effect 4. One promotional image seemed to show the silhouette of an angara, and with many speculating the main setting of Mass Effect 4 will be the Milky Way thanks to the announcement trailer, it seems the Initiative's new allies may have made the journey across after all. However, this poses some difficult questions, and means Mass Effect 4 may include a time jump to incorporate the Andromeda Initiative's 600-year journey to another galaxy.
While Mass Effect 4's official time period remains unconfirmed, players can only speculate about when or where it will be set. However, even if it is in the Milky Way there are still ways to introduce new alien races that gamers didn't encounter in the first three Mass Effect games. Players might have spent a lot of time with the so-called Citadel races like asari, turians, and salarians, but there are plenty that have been referenced but not yet seen in-game. More primitive races that have a lack of resources or technological advancements may also not have made contact with the main species yet, but the Destroy ending could help facilitate that.
How The Milky Way Could Be Different In Mass Effect 4
Now that Mass Effect 3's Destroy ending appears to have been made canon, gamers can expect some big changes to the Milky Way. With the destruction of AI species like the geth and the mass relay network that the galaxy was so dependent on, many of the Milky Way's races will have struggled in the years since Shepard's victory. Without the ability to travel great distances, many planets will be cut off from each other and from the Citadel, leading to some interesting societal developments. If there were previously undiscovered alien races out there, they could help the established galactic community learn to live without the technology they had become so dependent on.
Without the Reapersl, it's not clear what Mass Effect 4's big antagonistic element is going to be. Before Shepard and their crew alerted the galaxy to the impending danger, not many knew of or believed in the Reaper threat. Due to the fact that Reapers lived in dark space – the starless void between galaxies – they remained hidden for millennia, and this could mean that there are other alien races occupying this space too. The Initiative's journey between the Milky Way and Andromeda could have awakened something else, and this new alien threat could be Mass Effect 4's answer to the Reapers.
Mass Effect 4 is in development.