7 Mass Effect Species That Need Their Own Games
Human protagonists are all well and good, but wouldn't Mass Effect Andromeda be better as a Krogan?
Mass Effect is one of gaming's most beloved franchises, with phenomenal commercial and critical success across three installments of the grand space adventure. With an original, imaginative universe full of weird, wonderful aliens and fantastical technology ready to be discovered by players as captain of their own starship, Mass Effect scratches a real Star Trek itch.
But while fans the world over have greatly enjoyed customising the way their Commander Shepard looks and behaves, taking their character and all their decisions with them from game to game, a recurring request from players is the chance to play as some of the other races in the future.
It's a perfectly reasonable desire given Bioware have cooked up some of the finest fictional aliens in all of sci-fi. The Asari, Elcor, Geth, Quarians, and more feel fully fleshed out, with careful consideration put into their biology, culture, technology, and relationships with each other. These are definitely not just wacky character designs; they play an active part in making the Mass Effect universe feel enormous and organic.
As awesome as the upcoming installment, Andromeda, looks, sadly it won't diverge from the template of its predecessors, and players will once again be taking on the role of a human captain. While it's undoubtedly easier to put yourselves in the shoes of another human, fans can't help but imagine a story unfolding from an entirely different perspective.
With that in mind, here are seven Mass Effect species it'd be a joy to play as.
7. Krogan
The Krogan are a race of enormous war-faring dinosaur-esque behemoths with multiple sets of organs who live on one of the least hospitable planets in the whole Mass Effect universe. Tribal in nature with a culture centered around strength, they make perfect soldiers, with many working as mercenaries. While their tank-like physiques and love of combat make them a natural fit for the shooter genre, there are two better reasons why a Krogan game might just work.
Firstly, their home world of Tuchanka is teeming with hordes of enormous predators. Who doesn't love shooting at giant monsters? What's more, Krogan rituals demand they go out into the wilderness and fight said creatures to the death! Think Lost Planet meets Monster Hunter meets Gears of War.
Secondly, their plight of mass sterility thanks to the Genophage has made fertile females a commodity, as seen in a Mass Effect 3 mission where the player must protect one from an attack. As problematic as it is to reduce females to plot devices to be won and lost, given the circumstances of potential extinction it's a natural fit. And why not tackle that issue head on? ME3's Eve was far from a damsel in distress and what better critique and response to the industry's poor treatment of female characters than a game about infertile gun-toting dino-soldiers fighting for survival on an apocalyptic planet full of monsters?