We know next to nothing about the next Mass Effect game — tentatively dubbed Mass Effect 4 by many — but there’s growing speculation that it takes place after the events of the trilogy. Whether this will mean Commander Shepard will return, well the jury is still out. That said, it looks like the main baddie from the trilogy could be set to return in some capacity, or at least that’s what the metadata of the N7-day teaser from November suggests or, more specifically, possibly suggests.
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If you look at the metadata of the teaser a couple of things stick out, but for the purpose of this article we want to focus on the mention of “Reaper” under “Pantry Originator.” For those who forgot their memory, the Reapers are the giant insect-looking AI and villains of the Mass Effect trilogy. In the game’s one and only trailer, a dead Reaper can be seen, but it’s dead. Is it possible they aren’t all dead? Well, we still don’t know. Either way, they could play a significant role in the new game dead or alive.
It’s worth pointing out that the mention of “Reaper” could have nothing to do with Reapers, but be a reference to REAPER, a digital audio workstation BioWare could have very well used to make the teaser.
At the moment of publishing, none of this speculation has drawn any type of comment or clarification from BioWare or anyone involved with it. If this changes, we will be sure to update the story accordingly. In the meantime, remember we are in deep speculative territory at this point. This would be an odd coincidence if this data was just for the aforementioned audio technology, but even if it’s a reference to the Reapers that doesn’t tell us anything about the actual game and their involvement.
As always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. Would you like to see more Reapers or should BioWare leave them behind with the trilogy?
