Published Oct 24, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Willa Rowe is a contributing writer at Polygon, covering games and entertainment. She is a New York-based journalist and critic whose work has been featured in Kotaku, Digital Trends, the A.V. Club, GamesRadar+, and more. She also co-hosts the Girl Mode podcast.

ZA/UM's espionage-thriller gives us a taste of what Mass Effect: Universe might have been like

Zero Parades is basically Mass Effect 2 with spies

Image: BioWare/Electronic Arts

This week's news that EA was shutting down Mass Effect developer BioWare and canceling the next game in the series was a blow to the industry. It was made all the worse when a leaked trailer for the game, known as Mass Effect: Universe , showed exactly what we would all be missing: Mass Effect meets James Bond .…