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This year's N7 goodies seem to actually be telling us something for a change. The Mass Effect 5 update, delivered by way of a blog post to commemorate the RPG series' annual day of celebration, is expectedly cryptic. In it, BioWare exec Mike Gamble waxes lyrical about how much the team appreciates us fans and our patience, reinforcing that the developer is still hard at work on Mass Effect 5 and giving no indication that EA's $55-billion buyout has complicated matters. He also shares that the new Mass Effect TV show will take place after the events of Commander Shepard's trilogy ("because after all … that’s YOUR story, isn’t it?") before assuring us that there definitely isn't a hidden meaning in his message.
But the cheeky bugger was lying, of course. You don't need my decades of proofreading to spot the nine italicized letters scattered throughout the blog post, spelling out a mysterious URL fragment. Long story short, a new Mass Effect 5 image is safely in our hands, depicting a Krogan soldier leading an army and captioned "civil war". With a pivotal choice at the end of Mass Effect 3 indicating only one way this many Krogan could be around in the new game, could this be confirmation of BioWare reneging on its commitment not to canonize player choice? Or could it actually be telling us the contrary – that it'll respect our decisions, and find unique ways of doing so?
Someone else might've gotten it wrong
If there's one thing I've learned about Mass Effect's hardiest alien race, it's that Krogans love a good battle. They're built like stocky turtle-oid tanks, born with an innate militarial understanding that makes for excellent soldiers and generals. That's why many Mass Effect 3 players, myself included, opted to cure their genetic disease and enlist the Krogan army as a war asset.
Whether or not you view the genophage as a necessary act of biological warfare, inflicted upon the Krogan by Turians in an effort to control birthrates and prevent another Krogan uprising, deciding to cure it is a pivotal moment in Mass Effect 3. Freeing a race from centuries of forced eugenics feels like one of the less morally-challenging choices in the game – the opposite of which, there are many – especially when the alternative is to deceive your old friend Urdnot Wrex (if he's alive to see it) and be a bit of a bastard. For the greater good, some might argue, but I disagree.
After poring over the new picture of a Krogan civil war for way too long, my first thought was that it could only mean one thing: Mass Effect 5 will show the genophage cured for good, allowing the Krogan race to proliferate, as well as the consequences of not heeding the Turian's warning of an second Krogan war should their combative natures get the better of them. It certainly looks that way in the image Gamble pointed us to.
But if BioWare committed to that choice – something that would have rippling effects through the world of Mass Effect as we know it – what other player-based outcomes could it canonize in ME5?
Between a rock and a hard-headed place
A Krogan civil war seems possible no matter what you chose to do in Shepard's final act...
The destruction of all synthetics is another huge decision players can make in ME3, with implications for the whole galaxy that would surely be referenced in future games.
But there's only so much we can expect to see reflected in ME5. As our very own BioWare superfan Heather Wald said in relation to Dragon Age: The Veilguard's limited array of choices carried across from Inquisition, seeing which major choices will be honored in the new Mass Effect game also means that others might not be. So much happened in the trilogy, after all, and it would be a staggering amount of work to accommodate each and every variation of ME3's endings into the next big instalment.
But the Krogan presence in Mass Effect 5, something all but confirmed at this point, could also be explained in the context of an un-cured genophage.
Even with their limited numbers, Shepard's betrayal in procuring a fake cure in Mass Effect 3 could have sparked a civil war between those Krogan who wanted a cure and those who defected and joined forces with the Citadel. This would prove an intriguing setup for a galaxy wherein the Krogan become even more hostile to outsiders than before, turning them into a powerful adversary for whoever our new player character might be.
The fact that the Krogan's ongoing existence in Mass Effect 5 could be the result of either choice outcome has given me hope that BioWare is going to let us carry that decision across. The parameters are flexible enough that a Krogan civil war seems possible no matter what you chose to do in Shepard's final act, which makes it all the more exciting to theorize on how BioWare would actually implement it.
Again, this is pure speculation, but I'm glad to have more than a seconds-long video of someone walking (thanks, 2023) to chew over this year. Though, I mean, an extra little something wouldn't have gone unappreciated…
If you can't wait for ME5, check out these other games like Mass Effect to give you a similar dose of RPG goodness.
