Mass Effect 5 is in development at BioWare, but after the disappointing reception of Mass Effect: Andromeda, it remains unclear whether or not the studio will continue the Andromeda story or begin to tell a new one.
BioWare recently released a teaser image for Mass Effect 5 that showed several figures emerging from a ship as the sun set on an unknown planet. The image also contains a detail, however, that may hint that BioWare will be leaving the Andromeda Galaxy behind in the next game. At the very least, it shows that some mistakes from Andromeda may be getting corrected.
The Drell Problem
BioWare released a teaser image last month with the title “mud-skipper” – presumably the name of the type of ship depicted in the image. The image also came with the caption with the following caption: “a veteran team has been hard at work envisioning the next chapter of the Mass Effect universe." As a result, this confirms that this art is related to Mass Effect 5 and not the Mass Effect Legendary Edition or the upcoming book, The Art of the Mass Effect Trilogy: Expanded Edition.
The picture shows four figures emerging from their ship, and their silhouettes may already be familiar to some fans. The silhouette on the far right of the group appears to be a distanced, darkened version of Mordin Solus’ model from the Mass Effect 2 squadmate menu. To the left of the salarian scientist is a silhouette which appears to be Thane the drell assassin as depicted in the same Mass Effect 2 menu.
After the ending of Mass Effect 3 it seems unlikely that Mordin and Thane themselves will actually be included in the next game in the series, especially due to Mordin’s possible death. The use of their silhouettes is likely just meant to indicate the presence of a salarian and a drell. However, the inclusion of a drell in the image has implications for the next game’s relationship with Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Mass Effect: Andromeda’s story takes place in the Andromeda Galaxy after several “ark” ships depart from the Milky Way and embark upon a centuries-long journey to Andromeda, with the crews being placed in stasis for most of that time. The first ark to depart was known as Nexus, and would operate as the HQ for the Andromeda Initiative once it completed its journey. After that, four arks departed from the Milky Way with the intention of reaching Nexus. Each of these four arks carried members of a single species: humans, asari, turians, and salarians. However, there was another ark which left at a later time.
Director Tann reveals at the start of Andromeda that this final ark contains quarians, hanar, batarians, elcor, volus, and drell. Though this ark is expected to arrive significantly later than the others, Ryder receives a distress signal from the ark toward the end of the game. Its location remains unknown, but the ark isn’t asking to be rescued: instead, it is warning others to stay away.
In other words, the drell didn’t make it to Andromeda in the game, which could mean that the inclusion of a drell in the teaser image implies that Mass Effect 5 will not follow the plot of Andromeda directly. However, the missing ark plotline was originally a set-up for a planned DLC for Andromeda which was cut after the game’s disappointing launch. In the book Mass Effect Andromeda: Annihilation it is revealed that the ark was held back by a mysterious virus which was affecting members of the crew, outright killing some drell which only dogpiles more questions onto the image.
Other Possible Paths for Mass Effect 5
By the end of the novel a cure has been discovered, and Anax, a drell, has survived, though many of the other drell on board were the first victims of the virus. It’s possible that the people on the missing ark do eventually make it to Andromeda. However, the ending of the last game implied that Ryder would have something to do with the missing ark’s rescue. Unless the next game begins with Ryder recovering the ark, the teaser image’s inclusion of a drell makes it seem less likely that Mass Effect 5 will continue the Andromeda story.
However, one of the other figures in the teaser image also resembles an angara, a species only introduced in Andromeda. If it is an angara, this could imply that Mass Effect 5 will be set in Andromeda after all. Despite that, while all these silhouettes are made from repurposed in-game graphics, they are distant and obscure enough that it’s possible that they aren’t actually supposed to represent the same species that they were originally taken from. Only the salarian’s silhouette looks definitively inhuman from a distance, but the other silhouettes could be intended to represent any of the more humanoid Mass Effect species.
For now, fans will only be able to speculate. The image could indicate a new setting distinct from Andromeda, but it could also indicate that the missing ark will finally reach its destination and be reunited with the other Milky Way arks before or during the start of the next game. If that is the case, BioWare will have to be careful to avoid it feeling like the missing ark plotline was ignored in the game and resolved off-screen, while also making it feel less like a workaround after Andromeda's reception, which it would be.
There is a final possibility that might reconcile the ending of Andromeda with the presence of a drell and an angara in the teaser image. It’s possible that the next Mass Effect game will take place in the Andromeda Galaxy, but that the missing ark plot being resolved in a separate book will not undermine Ryder’s involvement in the narrative. This could be possible if Mass Effect 5 tells a new story with new characters using the Andromeda setting. In that case, the retrieval of the ark could be part of the backstory but would not be so central to the new game’s plot that its quick resolution would feel cheap. Until more images or details are released, fans will have to wait from an update from BioWare to gauge the direction of Mass Effect 5.
Mass Effect 5 is in development.