Highlights
- Mass Effect 4 is set to be released after Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, with a possible 2029 release window.
- BioWare has been teasing fans on N7 day every year since 2020, including a new trailer showcasing a mysterious woman in an N7 coat.
- The teasers hint at a connection between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, suggesting that Mass Effect 4 will involve a new Mass Relay connecting the two. The Angara and Geth are seemingly seen as well.
Mass Effect 4, or whatever it ends up being called, is on its way eventually. The official announcement came in 2020 in a blog post from Then-Vice President Casey Hudson. However, the game isn’t coming until after Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, with rumors pointing to a possible 2029 release window.
Still, that hasn’t stopped BioWare from sharing annual teasers every N7 day since 2020. This includes a new trailer released on November 7, 2023, showcasing a mysterious woman in a helmet and N7 coat. In addition to that, fans also got a new poster and a few cryptic lines of text. The latter of which has an interesting connection to the 2022 teaser, which could point to a major plot point in Mass Effect 4.
Mass Effect 4 N7 Day Teasers
Mass Effect 4’s N7 day 2022 teaser presented players with a neat little augmented reality game. BioWare tweeted out a clip of a Mass Relay under construction with scrambled audio. The studio uploaded a clean version a few hours later. While still heavily distorted, the viewer could make out one side of a conversation between the returning character Liara and one of the Geth. “I can see it; how did we miss this?” she says. Responding to an unintelligible comment from the Geth, she replies, “Exactly, the Council will be furious! Although, they should know by now not to underestimate human defiance.”
Assuming the audio and visuals are related, it seems likely that Liara and the Geth were talking about the Mass Relay. However, the clip left more questions than answers, leaving fans to wonder what Mass Effect’s humans are up to and why the Council wasn’t allowing it.
What Mass Effect’s 2023 Teasers Add To The Mix
Mass Effect 4’s 2023 teaser was similarly elaborate and mysterious. Adding /epsilon to the end of the URL for Mass Effect’s page on EA.com took fans to a secret page where they would be met with a mysterious countdown. The countdown ran down to zero at 2:00 PM Eastern, and the page now shows a cryptic message and a short video clip.
The parts that stand out the most are “Andromeda distress signal detected” and the final line echoing Liara’s statement from Mass Effect 4’s 2022 teaser. The video, meanwhile, was a few seconds of boots walking in a dark hallway. Fans quickly discovered a second secret URL using the code oculon-2819-defiance. This revealed a few more seconds of the mysterious stranger, revealing a red stripe running down her sleeve. However, one of the more interesting details is the use of the number “2819,” which is the year when Mass Effect: Andromeda takes place.
BioWare considered The Epsilon Effect and The Oculon as possible titles before deciding on Mass Effect. The Oculon was also BioWare’s original name for Mass Effect’s Citadel space station.
BioWare later shared the full trailer, revealing the figure to be a helmeted woman in an N7 coat who briefly turns around before drawing a pistol and walking away. The company is also selling a lithograph poster of this character, with a bar scene superimposed on her billowing coat. The poster isn’t available yet, and the preview images aren’t high enough resolution to make out some of the finer details. However, in addition to the more clearly visible humans and aliens are a few figures that some fans believe are Mass Effect’s Angara and Geth.
Mass Effect 4’s Intergalactic Mass Relay
Considering that the Geth are only in the Milky Way, and the Angara live in Andromeda, this could indicate the new Mass Effect will feature a much greater degree of contact between each galaxy. While that may be a reach, it’s clear from the 2023 teasers that both galaxies play some role in Mass Effect 4. Combining this new information with the 2022 teaser may also reveal some major plot points from the new game.
Putting everything together, it appears the Alliance received a distress signal from Andromeda in the year 2819. It also began constructing a new Mass Relay, seemingly against the wishes and without the knowledge of the rest of the Citadel council. It’s therefore not a giant leap to suggest that the Mass Relay will connect the two galaxies. While this still leaves a lot of questions, it might explain how BioWare plans to tie Mass Effect’s two stories together.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is a three-game pack, featuring the original Commander Shepard trilogy. Players will have access to each game, as well as all of the appropriate DLC. The titles feature graphical enhancements and other small tweaks.
- Franchise
- Mass Effect
- Developer(s)
- BioWare
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
- Genre(s)
- Action, RPG
