Mass Effect 4 Andromeda: 8 Big Risks Bioware Must Take

5. Make Vehicles Absolutely Integral

We've seen that the plan for Mass Effect 4 is to make it about exploration. We can safely assume that vehicles will play a large part, but we don't know if they'll be made with the same care and attention to detail as say, the character's stories. Why spend the money designing large amounts of vehicle gameplay when the last time that was done, the company got burned? Why not instead just have them as a thing that gets you from A to B and nothing more? Or better yet, why not just reskin the galaxy map mechanic? Wouldn't that be safer? Well yes, it would. But it would also hamstring the game. Take Red Dead Redemption, for example. It could have gone for Skyrim's version of horses i.e. things that certainly look the part, but handle like malfunctioning jet engines. But they didn't, because in a game where immersing yourself in the wild west is the whole point, horses are kind of a 'do or die' thing. If Bioware really wants to make an RPG about exploration, it's got to make the players feel like explorers, with a dedicated 'steed' in the Mako being reliable and worthwhile. The feeling you get in Red Dead when your horse skids to a halt at a cliff and you're looking over a vast canyon? The Mako needs to be able to exude the same barely contained exuberant flair, on alien worlds with endlessly beautiful vistas.