Rumours are that Mass Effect 4 may include Garrus or Javik as a playable character, which, if the latter is true, may take us back a number of years to when the Prothians ruled. If you could choose a previous character to play and unearth a storey in ME4, which would you choose?

I want new faces for once. ME3 was terribly disappointing with the new allies.

Meh, Rumors are worthless to me.
But if I could pick a character it would either be Liara, just to see her get beat up by her mother for being a kid.

No wait, I would want to play as Glyph.
Throwing parties, woo!

If they go back to that I wont ... I loved ME but it ended at 3 ... now we need new stuff.

I would choose none. I want new faces, new adventures.

I agree ... they should do something new with the universe.

They need to do something new with it. Honestly, I'd rather they did nothing with it, but it's going to happen so I at least would like to see a fresh start.

I don't even give a shit right now. I just want Dragon Age III.

Just make it good. Everything else is gravy.

Um, isn't Mass Effect 4 a rumour in itself? And we're already jumping to characters..Surely DA III has to come out before that. And who even knows if thats happening what with the 'Star Wars everything' memo that seems to've been passed.

Anderson served during the First Contact War. Just throwing that out there.

Before the Extended Cut I was imagining the next game being set ~100 years in the future with the relays just beginning to be rebuilt and Liara as a protagonist. I don't even know what another ME game set in the future would look like now. They'd have to pick a canon ending to ME3, and it would probably be Synthesis which would be interesting as long as they get rid of the stupid texture effect.

If it has to be a character from previous Mass Effect games, I'd probably go for a Garrus or Liara centered story. Perhaps Garrus getting shit done as a C-Sec detective on the citadel? Or a kind of adventure game with Liara on the outskirts of the known galaxy?

Either one of those or something from the younger years of one of the series near-thousand year old Asari matriarchs--either Samara, or Aethyta should work just fine.

@blu3v3nom07 said:

Amen, brother. After reading Asunder I'm kinda hyped for the Mage/Templar war what with the Qunari invasion on the horizon and the Tevinter Imperium getting twitchy, not to mention that shit with Corypheus at the end of Legacy.

UGH I KNOW IT'S COOL TO HATE DRAGON AGE RIGHT NOW BUT IT'S A SERIOUSLY COOL SERIES GUYS

If it has to be a squadmate from the last games, I wouldn't mind playing as Garrus I guess. I'll be disappointed if the next Mass Effect involves playing any of the previous characters as a main character though. And I'm going to echo the statement that I'm more interested in another dragon age than another mass effect right now. Mass Effect feels all nicely wrapped up. I want some time for it to sit before jumping into trying to continue it in some way.

none. I want new characters in new stories, I'm fed up with recycling characters and plots until they've worn out their welcome and would rather not see that happen. So if I HAD to pick an existing character, I want to play as Illusive Man during his youth and see where he is inspired to helm Cerberus. If that one doesn't work, I say Saren rising through the specter ranks to his inevitable discovery of the Reapers.

Whether they call it Mass Effect 4 or not, it's already been confirmed that Bioware is working on a new Mass Effect game. Whether it's a prequel or sequel is anyone's guess, but a new game is in the works.

Eh. I hope it isn't a prequel. And if it is, I'd prefer another era (like KoTR) entirely and not something like God of War Ascension or Gears of War Judgement.

I hope they make it a wacky, Sam & Max-style adventure game. Paragon and Renegade will be replaced with Serious and Wisecracking.

I agree with your imaginings, but you're right. I don't think they could do this now. Liara was my favorite character in Mass Effect next to Garrus and Legion.

But honestly, they should just go brand new in the new Mass Effect game. "Sequel" or prequel. Brand new shit would be best.

I know it is all speculation right now but for the future of the Mass Effect universe I would prefer they go into the future maybe 200-300 years in the future. We could see how the universe has changed since the Reapers were defeated and how much the galaxy has recovered. Perhaps there could be some slumbering giants that went into hibernation to avoid the reapers and are now stretching into the galaxy. There could even be some aperances from some old companions from long lived species, an older Liara or Grunt could be interesting.Maybe Liara did have one little blue baby and they became the center of a religious movement based on Shepard worship. Whatever happens I want them to move forward and not go backward and mostly have new characters.

I would totally play an "adventures of Garrus" spinoff game. Busting criminals, solving mysteries, sniping fools, and just being a general bad ass. Wouldn't want that to be Mass Effect 4 though.

You and me both, duder. You and me both.

I think going back to old characters would be a dumb move. The most fun part about Mass Effect was meeting new characters learning about their race, their culture, and their back story, so seeing fresh faces is a must. I know a lot of fandom has been built up around these guys, but if they think that's going to translate directly into sales than they are dreaming. Also I don't want Bioware to do a game where you play as a predefined character, because I would rather they give me decisions to make, and I think they've proven that they can't do both well at the same time.

A bit off topic but this is my pitch for a new Mass Effect game: a prequel set well before Shepard was born. The main character would be the commander of a ship that was sent in to evacuate a colony because of some natural disaster. For whatever reason the colony has all of the series staples Salarian, Quarian, Krogan, Turian, what have you. While the commander has this giant group of refugees aboard his ship, shit gets complicated and they need to use a mysterious relay in order to get the fuck out. The relay spits them out at an unknown location that's completely uncharted. It might not even be in the Milky Way. You spend the course of the game trying to get your ship back home, while also dealing with the politics of having all these different races trying to live in close quarters with one another in this stressful situation, while you're navigating this brand new frontier full of things that are new to both the player, and the characters.

My idea: playing as a Shadow Broker agent. That way they can justify you going around doing special missions and having access to cool shit, but they can cut out the boring military/bureaucracy aspect. Having Liara be your boss gives them an easy connection to the earlier games while still being able to branch out.

Also, this.

If it has to be an established character, I'd like to see a game take place during the First-Contact War where you switch between playing as Anderson and Saren. Trying to make a character specific story(or any story for that matter) after the events of 3 would force them to canonize things and that would just piss people off again. Best if they stick with the established lore and flesh out previous events.

I feel like I won't be buying any more Mass Effect games unless there is a significant improvement on 3. Go back to telling stories and making characters.

I really hope if they do make a new game they keep the story low-key and focused on character. Please no more saving the galaxy.

If I can't play as a bad-ass Elcor commando, the game is dead to me before it even ships.

Ugh, don't do a prequel that's the worst.

I'd also want to make my own character, like Shepard. Playing as Garrus would be dumb, i mean i love Garrus just as much as anyone else, but come on.

And they really should just pick an ending and make it canon. Red or Blue, Green is just dumb. Make the game about rebuilding the galaxy. Make the blue ending canon that way you can chat with reaper-Shepard

I want my fucking loot back, Bioware. God damnit. >__<

I'm only interested in a prequel if it's way back at the fall of the Prothean race. I want a Mass Effect game before humans were involved. That would be interesting to me.

I do not want an established character to be the center of the next ME game. One of the best parts of the series is the customization each player's Sheppard undergoes. If Bioware were to focus on one character it would make ME like any of character action game on the market. They need to bring the series back to its RPG roots.

Pretty hard to do a prequel to a series with such an involved and detailed history unless the choices you made truly did not matter.

I don't even know what I'd want out of Mass Effect 4. I think something new, far, far removed from everything in the trilogy, would be the right thing to do to refresh things. If I see a Reaper I want it to be in a codex about ancient history or as some long buried relic.

Or make it a space noir following a private Citadel investigator lookin into a murder on the space station, and set the entire game on the Citadel. No grand quest, no space fuel, no planet scanning. I should probably play L.A. Noire. Gunpoint has ruined me. I NEED MORE.

@smcn: First Contact War and Anderson's involvement seems like it will have to be the Mass Effect movie, because unless you start there I don't know how you introduce a galaxy to a movie audience. Besides have a kid and an old man fighting Tusken Raiders.

Not a prequel please! prequels are sooo boring and almost always doesn't make sense how the characters have better upgrades/powers than the later games plus we already know the outcome of most events so the details don't really matter.

Mass Effect 4 should take place thousands of years in the future where stuff like "The Shepard" and his/her adventures are a legend, a kid's story about a hero that once saved the galaxy, there's just so much stuff they can do setting the game in the future like introducing new races and advancing the techology and better yet don't be constricted by some events in the past like whatever Shepard did to defeat the Reapers.

I want to be able to make my own dude, not have them dictate it.

If they do a prequel it should be back in the Prothean Era. That would mean seeing all new races, and seeing the old races when they were still stupid. But if it's a sequel it should be set during a time when the relays are being rebuilt and travel is beginning to become possible again.

Judging from how they are marketing DAIII, which they officially dropped the 3 in favour of the subtitle Inquisition, it is safe to say Mass Effect 4 probably WON'T be named ME4. But the implications of this decision, that it it will be a continuation of the story and characters or not, would need the EA marketing team to openly talk about it.

I highly doubt that would happen. To some of us gamers, ME means choice, sci-fi, and interesting people; but to others, the franchise probably means the Citadel, Garrus, and sexy blue aliens. We may be okay with the new one being entirely different because we liked the themes and not the specifics of the universe. I can just imagine the fan outcry.

Mass Effect 4 is probably going to be a free to play multiplayer game, so it makes sense.

Well of course is still Mass Effect they shouldn't drop familiar historty, I'm not saying all the previous galatic civilization races should be scraped but it would make much more sense to set it thousands of years in the future rather than a few decades after the last Reaper cicle and some characters could return I wouldn't mind seeing an old matriarch Liara (she was a very young Asari even by Mass Effect 3) I just don't want a prequel, seeing Anderson fighting a bunch of Turians using old (but totally new!) gameplay wise weaponry sounds so damn boring. I don't know why people would want to go back when the future is always way more exciting and open to new events.