Bioware has revealed that the main character in Mass Effect 4 will not be Commander Shepard, but rather, someone else who will have a different adventure and, while they did announce that there would be some “nods” to the previous games, the storyline would not focus directly on the previous trilogy.
If all this is true, then: Why the hell are they calling it Mass Effect 4? Why not focus instead on something else, a new direction for the company, a new story, a new everything, while leaving Mass Effect intact?
If history has taught us anything is that there is no such thing as a flawless sequel, more to the point, there is no such thing as a perfect 4th installment, (we could argue that there are some exceptions to this claim, since Resident Evil 4 was one of the best games in the series, and yet, look at what it did to the franchise by setting the stage Resident Evil 4 and 5, which have so much deviated from the formula that if someone likes one of those and plays the first Resident Evil, surprises are to be had as to the difference in the whole experience).
While Mass Effect 4 could be an interesting experience, it is a needless one, with the franchise going all Terminator on itself, by planning on giving us an installment that is not truly necessary, and that may cause the franchise to suffer.
