While it may be a long wait forMass Effect 4, you’ll be able to check back in Commander Shepard and their allies with a new, cooperative board game out later this year.
Mass Effect The Board Game – Priority: Hagalaz is an unwieldily titled tabletop game for up to four players, bringing back many of the most popular names, places, and enemies from across the series.
Mass Effect The Board Game – Priority: Hagalaz
A cooperative, story-based game for up to four players set during MAss Effect 3. The game follows Shepard and their crew as they investigate a crashed ship, and fend off the various enemies who want to claim its secrets.
Priority: Hagalaz takes place during Mass Effect 3, when the Reapers staged their full-scale invasion of the galaxy. While trying to fire up the Crucible, the only weapon that can stop the reapers, they’re sent to the remove planet of Hagalaz to recover the secrets from a crashed Cerberus ship before the Reapers can get their hands (or tentacles… or whatever Reapers have) on it.
The game involves a branching story for between one and four players, who all take on the role of either Shepherd (male or female), Garrus, Liara, Wrex, or Tali. Each character has their own 32mm figure, while the enemies you encounter are decided through a deck of cards.
Like Mass Effect itself, publisher Modiphius has ensured Priority: Hagalaz also has a similar branching story, withdecisions you and your party makedeciding not just the eventual outcome, but also things like which enemies you encounter and which missions you need to complete.
Priority: Hagalaz is split into three to five chapters, depending on the choices you make. With each chapter taking up to an hour to complete, you’re getting a decent chunk of story here, if not quite as much as you get from your average Mass Effect game.
The game is designed by Eric M. Lang, who worked on games likeMarvel Unitedand the tabletop adaptation of Bloodborn, and writer Calvin Wong Tze Loon, who has worked with the likes of Fantasy Flight Games and Netrunner.
Between the two, there’s plenty of experience in both designing tabletop versions of video games, and also writing the freeform storytelling that Mass Effect is known for, and so it’ll be interesting to see how effectively they bring Mass Effect to the table.
Despite being such a popular series, Mass Effect hasn’t ventured into tabletop gaming too much before now. Outside themed editions of other games, like Risk, Monopoly, and Cards Against Humanity, Mass Effect hasn’t received the same treatment of other series like Bloodborn or even Fallout.
The naming of this release suggests that Priority: Hagalaz is just the first release, and that we may see other missions and adventures come later down the line if it proves to be successful. Modiphius hasn’t confirmed anything past Priority: Hagalaz, but perhaps we’ll see the likes of Mordin, Grunt, Jack and Javik as future expansions?
A release date for Mass Effect The Board Game – Priority: Hagalaz has not yet been revealed, although it has been confirmed it’ll hit shelves some time in 2024.
