What just happened? As BioWare continues to work on the next Mass Effect game, it celebrated N7 Day over the weekend by sharing some ME art. In case you are unaware, N7 Day is a fan-imposed holiday celebrating the franchise on November 7.
The art comes by way of a game poster shared via the Mass Effect Twitter account. It shows some kind of crash site or meteor impact. Below the crater is a ship with a crew of four walking toward the crash site. At the bottom is the Mass Effect logo and the words, "Will continue." The devs followed up the tweet a bit later with a download link to the high res version of the poster.
"It's come to our attention that some of you might like to download this poster, so here it is! Print it. Frame it. Make it your wallpaper," it reads. "Just don't zoom in and try to play detective."
It's come to our attention that some of you might like to download this poster, so here it is! Print it. Frame it. Make it your wallpaper... Just don't zoom in and try to play detective. 😉 https://t.co/UuMmwjaXla
--- Mass Effect (@masseffect) November 8, 2021
As the tweet concludes with a wink emoji, you can bet there are some clues about the upcoming game hidden within the image, and Twitter was alight with speculation.
I gave it a cursory glance and noticed just a few things. The most obvious was the shape of the impact site, which looks like a Geth's head. Others think it's a buried Mass Relay. It's hard to make out the crew, but one of them is definitely a Krogan. The middle of the three humanoids looks to have a blue head and could be an Asari (Liara?). The ship is new and looks remarkably different than the Normandy from the trilogy or the Tempest from Andromeda.
From left to right: New ship, Tempest (Andromeda), Normandy (ME 1,2, and 3).
What sparked up the most debate is the two dead bodies up near the crater. One is clearly visible and looks like a Geth. Some speculate that it's Legion (doubtful), a Geth squadmate introduced in Mass Effect 2. Up a little further, near the edge of the crater, is a more humanoid-looking form. It is impossible to tell by zooming in, but some believe it's Commander Shepard.
Mass Effect 4, or whatever they decide to call it, does not even have a vague release date. BioWare only confirmed that a new game was coming at last year's Game Awards Show, so it's still in the early development stages. The studio also announced last month that it is working on the next Dragon Age game. With two AAA titles in the pipe, it might be a while before we see either.