Veteran Mass Effect writer's new sci-fi game is more The Last of Us than Baldur's Gate 3, but he's "not opposed to going RPG one day"

The Mass Effect Trilogy’s former lead writer reveals his next sci-fi game is more action-oriented, rather than the RPG you might expect from such a BioWare veteran.

In an interview with The Minnmax Podcast, lead writer Mac Walters discussed his new studio Worlds Untold and the lessons it's learning from BioWare’s past, specifically with avoiding the procedural world generation seen in Mass Effect Andromeda.

“I like the bespoke moments,” says Walters. “I am very focused on telling an incredible story… I think that interactive games have the opportunity to at least match [TV and streaming] if not, surpass it in the future, because of that connection we have with the world, with the protagonists, the characters in it, and our kind of that ability to co-author our own story.”

Naughty Dog’s dreary opus was apparently used as an example for the studio on how to create such an experience: “We referenced The Last Of Us a lot because of how much focus they put on really trying to tell a story that felt like you were watching a TV show, but also blending in the interactive elements.” However, the studio head is still conscious that, in the end, he’s still making a video game. “If it was just about the story, I could just go write a screenplay.”

Walters then agrees that the studio’s upcoming game is more Last Of Us as opposed to something like Baldur’s Gate 3 - and the industry’s ballooning costs are partly to blame. “We did it with Mass Effect. Look at what Baldur’s Gate just did. But look at the teams required to do that, especially in today’s world," says Walters. "If you're going to have these incredibly branching, choose your own adventure, choose your own story, choose your own romance, whatever. It’s a huge undertaking.” Worlds Untold might still go down the RPG route “one day,” but the team’s focus is squarely on telling a “really compelling, incredible story” in a world that people “just want to be in all the time.”

Other BioWare veterans recently announced their own new sci-fi endeavor.