LONDON: Bioware has expected a big market share for Mass Effect 4.While this may help bring Mass Effect 4’s release date forward in time for the XBOX One, PS4 and PC, will it actually have an affect on how it plays too? One of the main things that players are wondering about is whether Mass Effect 4 will be an open world game on release date, at least in the form of Dragon age: Inquisition. Let’s take a look at what we know on this front.
Naturally, the large degree of information that we’ve received about Mass Effect 4 has been fairly cryptic so far. However, we are aware that Bioware intend to place a stronger emphasis on the Mako in the next instalment. I think it’s fair to assume that their next work will be closer to Mass Effect 1 in terms of exploration, though naturally improved upon and diversified.
You can check out some of the conceptual footage for the movement of the Mako and the terrain in Mass Effect 4 here. From what this demonstrates, I’m sure that Mass Effect 4’s open world stage will be extremely similar to that of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Rather than using the war table, we’ll have our system map once more, which will allow us to navigate different worlds, each one having a lot more room and characters to interact with than before.
The Witcher 3 has taken a similar approach in how it allows players to explore its dynamic world. There are several large maps that the player travels which will be filled with side quests and characters to interact with. Hopefully there will be a lot more to do on the planets in Mass Effect 4 on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC then there was in ME1 .
But with an open world framework comes issues for a cover-based shooter. If Mass Effect 4 became gave us more freedom to wander, would the combat suffer? The ME series has a lot of carefully designed corridors and open rooms, filled with objects to take cover behind. If we wander around a large open space, wouldn’t it be strange to have so many objects we could take cover behind scattered around the terrain? Or be forced into a fight with no cover at all?
But then I’m sure that Bioware could find a fluid way to make combat work. But taking a look at the conceptual footage above, perhaps the Mako will fill in for fights in large open space. Maybe it will become as key to the combat as the Batmobile is in Batman: Arkham Knight. Perhaps if we come upon a base or village we can hop out and then engage in cover-based shooting more effectively!
