Summary
It’s been over three years sinceMass Effect 4’s first teaser trailer, and fans still know very little about the game. Most of what fans do know about it comes from scraps of information from theyearly N7 Day teasers. Last November saw the reveal of a mysterious figure in a long N7 coat and face-covering helmet. In addition to their reveal in the trailer, fans can also order a lithograph poster of the character from BioWare’s official merch store.
The poster also features a bar scene superimposed over the character’s lower body. Fans can make out several recognizableMass Effectraces, including figures who appear to be Angara and Geth. However, since the Angara only live in Andromeda, and the Geth are only in the Milky Way and possibly extinct, that raises the question of how both could end up inMass Effect 4.
Mass Effect 4’s Logistics Problem
Mass Effect: Andromeda’s Angara specieslive in the titular galaxy’s Heleus Cluster, where they are under attack by the invading Kett. Andromeda is over 2.5 million light years from the Milky Way, and even with the benefit of faster-than-light travel, it still took the Andromeda Initiative around 600 years to get there. Furthermore, while many races participated in the Initiative, the robotic Geth were not among them.
HowMass Effect 4intends to solve that problem will depend on whether the game occurs in the Milky Way, Andromeda, or both. If the game does take place in Andromeda, it would simply be a matter of Geth traveling there for their own reasons at some pointbeforeMass Effect 3. Being robots, the journey would likely be easier for the Geth than for organics. However, the teasers indicate the game will take place primarily in the Milky Way.
That said, the Andromeda Galaxy is visible in the opening shot of the2020Mass Effect 4teaser trailer. Meanwhile, last year’s N7 Day teaser included an augmented reality game where the Systems Alliance receives a distress signal from Andromeda. This suggests that the new game will either see people arriving from Andromeda or the creation of a stable travel link between the two galaxies.
Either way, it would need to be much faster than the first time around, since a second 600-year trip is nothing to sneeze at. More than that, a 1200-year gap between the trilogy andMass Effect 4just seems unlikely. After 1200 years, the Milky Way would be an entirely different galaxy, and theMass Effect 4teasers also don’t give the impression that over a millennium has passed between the trilogy and the new game.
By comparison, 1200 years ago from today was 824, which was about 30 years into the Viking Age.
How Mass Effect 4 Could Bring the Angara to the Milky Way
Fortunately,Mass Effect 4’s 2022 N7 day teasermay hold the answer to rapid intergalactic travel. The image shows a Mass Relay under construction, though the design differs significantly from the originals. It also appears much larger than the already colossal constructs, though that’s hard to tell. Meanwhile, the audio clip accompanying the image alluded to humanity defying the Citadel Council. While this is just a theory, it could be that the Alliance is constructing a Mass Relay capable of reaching Andromeda.
Mass Relay travel is functionally instantaneous in theMass Effectgames, shortening a journey by years or even centuries. While the secondary relays only have a few hundred light years range, the primary relays range is in the thousands of light years. A Mass Relay connecting Andromeda and the Milky Way would need to be 1,000 times more powerful. Still, the roughly 600 years between the original trilogy andAndromedais plenty of time to figure that out.
Granted, even if a Mass Relay could send ships from the Milky Way to Andromeda, they would need a second relay to get back. However, building a second would presumably be much easier once they know how to build one. Plus, this assumes that the Mass Relay is under construction in the Milky Way, when for all anyone knows, it could actually be in Andromeda.
Mass Effect 4’s Geth Face Questions About the Canon
Having the Geth be alive inMass Effect 4is also a can of worms, and there really isn’t a clean solution. If eitherMass Effect 3’s Control or Synthesis endings are canon, then there is no problem. However, the ruined Citadel, dead Reapers, and possibly post-apocalyptic earth in the originalMass Effect 4teaser imply that’s not the case. The Geth existing inMass Effect 4is incompatible withMass Effect 3’s Destroy ending.
At a minimum,Mass Effect 4would need to justify rebuilding the Geth after they were destroyed. At a more extreme end, BioWare could say that the Catalyst was either wrong or lying and that at least some of theGeth survivedMass Effect 3’s Destroy ending. That, orMass Effect 3 Extended Cut’s epilogue vastly overstates how different the three endings are.
Alternatively, BioWare could simply ditch the color-coded endings altogether.TheMass Effect 3 Extended CutDLCallowed players to refuse the Catalyst’s choice. This resulted in the Reapers cleansing the galaxy, but Liara’s time capsule wasn’t destroyed, giving the next cycle a chance to survive. However, BioWare could declare that non-canon and instead say that the united galaxy succeeds in repelling the Reapers through conventional means.
Retcons are always controversial, and this would basically invalidate all ofMass Effect 3’s endings. However, given the controversy aroundME3’s ending, some fans might view it as a change for the better.
