One of the biggest requests for the next Mass Effect game - I’ll be calling it Mass Effect 4 here, because Mass Effect 5ers are heathens - is multiple playable races. Across the Mass Effect trilogy and Andromeda, we’ve only been able to play as a human, selecting our Shepard’s gender in the original trilogy and choosing which Ryder twin to play as in Andromeda. We meet - and fight alongside - several other races, while several more are minimized to background roles. Because we get entangled with the stories of races from all across the gala♚xy, we become just as connected to the plight of the krogan or the quarians as we are to the suffering of humans. The game looks to the asari, the turians, and the salarans as the leaders of the galaxy, and that encourages us as players to view them as such too.
I'm firmly on team ‘playable races’, but with a caveat. As much as I love the minor races in the galaxy, I understand that the limitati🙈ons of game design mean we’ll need to be bipedal, but that still leaves a lot of options. Humans would still be there, because some people play as the default male Shepard and therefore must despise creativity and fun. It's a pretty safe bet that the asari and turians would be options too. Next in line I think are the krogans, the quarians, and the salarians, and then depending on how wide an array BioWare wants to offer, even drell, batarian, or geth.
We have a taste of this already. In Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer - unfortunately not present in the Legendary Edition - you could unlockꦑ the ability to play as different races with different classes. Andromeda saw these options return, although the limited range of races in the game tied with bugs across the multiplayer wing of Andromeda means Mass Effect 3 is still looked to as the apex.
Here’s the thing though - I don’t want BioWare to offer an endless array of creation options. Sometimes, less is more. I know that Dragon Age does a good job of letting you play as different races, and in my elf run I never felt as though the game was desig𝓡ned for most people to play as humans, even though most people probably do. But your race is more crucial in Mass Effect - in Dragon Age, everyone is more or less from the same place. Certainly, it’s the same place when compared to Mass Effect, where different races are born whole star systems apart. It wouldn't be a tragedy to offer us a range ༒of races, but it would feel like slightly wasted potential.
The first Mass Effect is a very human game. Humanity is new to the galactic community, so it’s natural for Shepard to learn about the niche parts of Mass Effect’s own lore even as they live through it. You and Shepard are both a little green. The rest of the galaxy looks on humans with distrust, as bullies inserting themselves into a higher position in the hierarchy than they have earned. Every single encounter in Mass Effect is heavily shaped 𓃲by the context that you are a human. In Mass Effect 2, it’s less that you’re a human, and more that you’re Commander Shepard. People know you, just as you know the world. It reacts to your presence differently, but your humanity - and the fact you work for Cerberus - remains a key aspect of your narrative.
What I want is a Mass Effect game that does that, but for someone else. How do the contexts change if you’re an asari, or a turian, or a drell? What new light does your culture bring to the game,🃏 what areas can you explore that a human like Shepard or Ryder would have no way of connecting with?
Personally speaking, I think the drell - an underutilised and tragic race - would be the best option, because they have the most interesting story to tell. That or the batarians, as one of the few races universallᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚy detested more than humans. However, I don’t think a single race game would star them; I have my doubts that they’d even be considered if multiple options were available.
The major candidates are asari, turians, quarians, and krogans, and I think the ♕tuꦚrians would edge it. Asari are monogendered but femme coded, and I think that’s enough of a reason for them to be sidelined, while the krogan are shown as angry and volatile too often to lead a game built on nuanced decision making. Meanwhile, it’s not much fun to customise a quarian, is it? Not unless they don’t need those suits and face masks in Mass Effect 4. That leaves the turians as winners by default, in my book.
Even of the favourites, I’d rather be an asari or a quarian ahead of the turians - but I think Mass Effect games are so deeply rooted in what your race is and where it stands in the galaxy that I’d rather have a game designed for a different species than a multichoice game designed mainly ♛for humans that lets you cosplay as a blue tentacle lady.
It's not like the turians are without history - and culturally speaking they seem the closest to humans, so it's not even too large of a leap. But it is a leap that Mass Effect 4 needs to take. Mass Effect has fixated on humans for a long time, but fans have fully bought into the universe now, and the Legendary Edition is only going to ensnare more. The stage has been set for another race to step into the spotlight. While I would have loved for it to be the asari or the drell, I think it's most ꦯlikely to be the turians. But come on, who doesn't want mandibles like Garrus, eh?