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The Mass Effect trilogy is a mostly stunning set of action RPGs, and it stands as one of the best gaming experiences of the last twenty years, as long as you don’t get too worked up about its finale. It casts you as an interstellar hero and takes you on a years-spanning journey throughout an epic galaxy, building relationships and making world-changing decisions along the way.
Sure, it kind of fumbled its ending. And then over-corrected based on fan outcry and they spent too much time trying to fix said ending. And then they released a fourth game that totally flopped. But it’s still awesome, on the whole, and represents a bygone era of game development and legendary game development studio Bioware operating at peak output.
Now, in the wake of the genuinely tragic utter failure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard (which sold half of the copies it was meant to), Bioware has “refocused” their efforts on the next Mass Effect game. It was greenlit long ago and teased with a pointless trailer, but otherwise seems like it basically doesn’t exist.
I’m a big fan of the studio…but that doesn’t mean as much today as it did fifteen years ago. Their output has faltered over the last decade, with three whole games that had lofty hype and ambition surrounding them which…
