Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition to Share “Core Systems”

Bioware Montreal’s Yanick Roy has said the new Mass Effect will draw on Dragon Age: Inquisition resources.

Mass Effect and Dragon Age arguably exist on different sides of the role-playing pond. Sure, they both might have Bioware writing, epic storylines, and moral choice systems, but beyond that they’re very much different beasts. There is, of course, the obvious “fantasy vs. sci-fi” difference between the two. More than that however, there is fairly wide gulf when it comes to the way they play. Dragon Age, even in the faster-paced combat of Dragon Age 2, is generally a more tactical affair while the Mass Effect games, especially after the original, pretty much embraced third person shooter mechanics.

That said, recent talk from Bioware would indicate that the next entries in the respective series might have more in common than they did in the past. Yanick Roy, studio director for BioWare Montreal, recently Tweeted a picture of a blue binder containing the design document for the next Mass Effect. After being questioned by a fan on how long it take for the new game to be made, Roy said, “We started a while ago, and we are ‘borrowing’ a lot of game systems from [Dragon Age: Inquisition].” This comment, in turn, led to another fan asking if the two games would have similar role-playing elements. Roy’s response confirmed that two games will share engines and “some of [Dragon Age: Inquisition’s] core systems.”

Now, this could translate into a lot of different things. RPGs tend to be complex experience with multiple facets and for all we know, Roy could mean the games will have similar inventory systems, or dialogue menus. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see where Bioware takes the new games and to find out what elements the two wind up sharing.

Source: IGN