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

8. Not Building Off Of ME3's Gameplay Mechanics

Whenever someone makes things, especially something as complex as video game, it's important to learn from what you or others have done before. That way, you can avoid making the same mistakes and improve on what works. Admittedly, it's why video games (and most entertainment media) feel so similar and not innovative €“ a lot of times, it's easier to make incremental improvements than something entirely new and unproven. Unless Bioware Montreal decides to do something totally unexpected for ME4, like an XCOM style turn-based strategy game, the game is probably going to be an action RPG. And if ME4 is going to an evolution of the previous games mechanically, then it should build on the foundation set by ME3, which had the best mechanics of the trilogy. ME1 had massive problems balancing old school RPG skills and inventory systems with shooter combat. In fact, things were so bad that Bioware had to build ME2's gameplay mechanics from scratch because it was impossible to make satisfying combat in ME1's system. While ME2 was a massive step up from ME1, there was plenty of room for improvement, especially since there was almost no gear customization. With ME3, it finally felt like the franchise was where it should've been at the start mechanically. There was a lot of ways to move in combat, a large selection of guns with different attributes, a variety of melee attacks, and more freedom to choose between guns, powers, or a mix of the two. On the RPG side, gun customization was brought back with the addition of visual changes to the guns and more diverse skill trees that offered two choices for every skill level past the third level. For ME4, Bioware Montreal's challenge is take those great ME3 mechanics and figure out how to make them even better. And given what they accomplished with ME3's multiplayer, it shouldn't be too hard.