Mass Effect 5 should bring back this abandoned combat mechanic from Mass Effect 1

The original three Mass Effect games combined gun combat with RPG elements with great success, and the legendary re-release resolved many of the issues that made the fight feel dated and clumsy. Still, there is a notable difference between the weapons in Mass Effect 1 and its sequels, and this change lies in the way ammunition works.

While the second and third games utilize a much more traditional and familiar gunplay method, using limited bullets to shoot, collecting more as you go, the first game did something entirely different that made Essentially infinite ammo as long as players timed their shots. It wasn't perfect, but it gave the game a unique style of gun combat that was supported by lore, and the next game in the series could do well if it takes inspiration from these mechanics.

Mass Effect 1's cooldown mechanic has been replaced

A shift to a more traditional ammunition system

In the first game, the player's weapons did not use ammunition, but instead, they could fire for a certain period of time before building up too much heat. Letting a weapon get too hot rendered it unusable for a certain period of time, meaning players needed to control their rate of fire to remain effective in the thick of combat. Better weapons had higher heat limits and martial classes had access to types of firearms with better heat management.

In the game's codex, this was explained as relying on the titular Mass Effect to work. A block of metal was inserted into a gun in place of a magazine, and the gun's inner workings scraped off small pieces of that block and fired them at supersonic speeds, altering its mass. This allowed a gun to be fired thousands of times before reloadingmaking it almost unnecessary in the middle of the operation. It's a cool idea that suits the world's high-tech setting, but it changed in later games with the implementation of “thermal clips.”

Basically, the thermal clips were now what kept the gun from overheating and could be used to fire a certain number of shots before needing to be replaced. This kept the story of the first game intact, but replaced the reload mechanic with one that was, at its most basic level, identical to having bullets and ammunition.

Why other Mass Effect games abandoned this mechanic

Favoring familiarity over experimentation

This change was accompanied by general simplification of the series' combat, with powers reduced and the ways in which weapons were upgraded completely reworked. Bioware's focus was on the franchise's story and characters, rather than the firearms, which overall was the correct choice, as that is where the game's strengths lie. Mass Effect reside. Mass Effect 2 had the simplest combat mechanics, while 3 expanded a little more and Andromeda it got more experimental again.

Mass Effect 1The mechanics were ambitious, but they didn't work exactly as planned in the initial release, and simplification was probably necessary to speed up development. With a new game on the way, however, there is room once again for Bioware to do something different and possibly even bring back some mechanics from the original trilogy title.

Why Mass Effect 5 should bring back cooldowns

Reviving this dead mechanic for the next entry in the franchise

Mass Effect takes place in a world shaped by extraterrestrial scientific discoveries, and its combat should reflect that. Implementing biotic and tech-based abilities goes a long way, but there are many ways to make the firearms combat part feel unique as well, and using some form of cooldown mechanic instead of ammo can help. It could also make sense in terms of lore, tracking a technological collapse following the destruction of the Reapers.

Especially with all the different species traveling through space in Mass Effect universe, there is an opportunity to make different types of weapons that use different types of ammunition. Mass Effect 3 I explored this a little, with salarian weapons firing mostly sticky explosives and Prothean weapons using beam effectsbut this could be taken to a deeper level in a more performance-capable next-gen game. Wherever Mass Effect In the next series, it is almost certain that combat mechanics will undergo changes and improvements compared to previous titles.

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