Well, although I personally still would love to see another
game with Shepard in it, because in my humble opinion Shepard is Mass Effect, I can still understand that they want to have a new protagonist so a
game without Shepard as the main protagonist might work.
However, there are some things they really should and shouldn't do if they want this
game not to fail horribly.
NO PREQUELS: Seriously, no. Not only do we already know what will happen after the prequels, prequels are also not good at creating stories which are connected to each other. If they want to make new Mass Effect
games, they have to be connected with each other through the main character, which is virtually impossible (Those wars are both too small to make let's say three
games out of them, and the problem is that the main protagonist can't be featured in both events because of the time between them.) if you want to make prequels of big events like the Rachni Wars and the First Contact war. If they want to truly call the new
game Mass Effect 4, they should make a sequel, otherwise give the
game another name because it would be nothing more than a spin-off then.
The other major mistake which they could make is to propell the
game thousands of years into the future to erase all the consequences of the Reaper War. If they decide to do this, they could just as well create another IP, because this
game would then completely miss the Mass Effect feeling. (Almost everything we know and love will practically be gone then, and we will probably never see the results of the reaper wars.)
So
for me, this leads to one time zone: Shortly after the Reaper War. (Max 100 years, the best would be around 10 years after the war.) Now the problem with the Endings appear. Which ending do we have to choose? There is only one option which would be logical
for the
game series to continue: The best Destroy ending. Synthesis makes everything into mindless peacefull zombies, and control would not be a good setting
for a
game because the council races would then be way too OP
for an interesting
game.
The destroy ending would leave the best ending
for a sequel: Every race keeps its feelings about other races and special attributes, there are no giant squids to annihilate everything the council races come across, and Shepard might still be alive which might add some interesting things to the story (which I will later elaborate).The setting is truly ideal
for an epic
game:
The Milky way is completely destroyed, there are a lot of potential dangers: (Leviathans, war between the weakened council races, a new threat from one of the new spacefaring races, new mass relays which are opened by other races, civil war, rebuilding the galaxy, the krogans who now can repopulate, the rebuilding of earth, etc etc etc. The possibilities are almost endless, and all can contribute to another great story.
I know that ME 4 would probably not feature Shepard as a main protagonist, but the best destroy ending gives us some interesting options if the
game takes place a few years after the war. Shepard might be found and survive the war, and he could take over the position of councilor of earth, which is now vacant. (This can be used in
game for some pretty interesting storylines.)
Like I said, I know that ME 4
wants to start over with a new protagonist, but that does not mean that the
game shouldn't keep important elements from the previous
games. The nice thing about a maximum of 10 years after the Reaper Wars is that you can still see the effects of the Reaper Wars. You can see what happened to
former squadmates (some might even make a return), Shepard (they could give us an option to insert a save to change his or her appearance and romance choice, so that we can see how that worked out), the normandy, the earth, etc etc etc. while we are still able to focuss the
game on the new crew and story!
To make a long story short: A Sequel would be the best option, just after the Reaper Wars, with characters from the
former
games making appearances so that we still have the connection with the
former
games, but a new protagonist and story to keep the
game fresh and new. I know that probably no developer is going to read this, but I still thought that it was worth a try to post my ideas here. Maybe more people like them?