Mass Effect 4: 12 Mistakes Bioware's Next Gen Sequel Must Avoid

11. Terrible Vehicle Sections

When it comes to space opera, exploring planets is a staple of the genre. And one of the strengths of video games is the ability to create huge areas relatively cheaply compared to TV or movies. So it made sense to create big planet levels to explore in Mass Effect 1, and to use a vehicle to get around quickly. The problem was that it was pretty terrible to play through on consoles. There are two equally important parts of vehicle section design: the geography of the level and the vehicle itself. In Mass Effect 1, planets generally were flat plains or valley areas with huge, almost impossibly steep mountains, with items and locations of interest scattered around. That often forced players to climb the impossibly steep mountains to get to those items or locations, which was made even more difficult by the vehicle. In Mass Effect 1, players had to use the Mako, a six-wheeled rover with jump jets, a cannon, shields, and high health. Unfortunately, the jump jets meant that you could flip the entire Mako over and get stuck for a while or fall off of mountains while trying to avoid obstacles. While it worked wonderfully on level terrain or story mission maps that didn't require insane climbing, Bioware decided to remove vehicles from ME2 until the Firewalker and Overlord DLC. While the Hammerhead, a hovertank with a missile launcher and booster jets, was a lot easier to handle in combat than the Mako, it also had the durability of a paper bag. Its levels were also a lot more reasonable in terms of geography, although there was only one DLC that really used the Hammerhead in a large map (Overlord). Sadly, it didn't get a chance to return in ME3, where the only vehicle section involved a turret on the back of a hover-truck. Since the developers of ME4 seem interested in bringing back vehicle based exploration, merging the best of the Hammerhead and Mako into a new vehicle and pairing it Overlord's map design seems like the way to go. It avoids the mobility and durability problems of the old vehicles, while keeping the game from torturing the player with geography and making them loathe having to use a vehicle.