BioWare: The Cracks Are Starting To Show
OPINION
Cracks are starting to show in BioWare's previously spotless armor. Dragon Age 2 wasn't the jewel people had hoped it would be and Mass Effect 3 has just been delayed. Can we still blindly buy anything they produce?
Streamlining
It seems inevitable that further RPG elements will be dropped in Mass Effect 3 with the direction that EA and BioWare are so obviously heading. Riccitiello was not the only one spewing forth the statements during the announcement; senior designer Christina Norman had the following to say:
We don't want to have any meaningless behind-the-scenes stat games, where the output is very minor in combat. Every single thing you do has a real impact in the battle.
In other words, what is left is a game stripped of its RPG stats system with little to distinguish itself from an ordinary shooter. If anything, this statement tells you who the target audience is: non-RPG players. Hey everybody, Mass Effect 3 is targeting a larger market by not being an RPG at all. Woohoo! In other words, “screw you loyal fans from over the years that have got us to where we are today – we want more money”. RPG elements are being seen as too complicated, unnecessary and "meaningless". Is this a joke? The only direction this takes Mass Effect 3 in, is a no frills, 'charge in and shoot stuff' kind of game (which it wasn't too far removed from anyway). No character stats in an 'RPG' is ridiculous, and means that the gameplay will rely solely on the player's shooting skill. And with no stats, it would seem we won’t see our characters level up either. Let us zoom in on what the president of EA Games, Frank Gibeau, had to say:
We have some announcements at E3 that I think everybody will be excited about in terms of some feature innovation and some new ways to play Mass Effect
Hmm, “new ways to play Mass Effect”… This could mean anything, really. It has been said that DICE are assisting BioWare to make guns fire, sound and interact better with the environment. This makes sense if Mass Effect 3 is going to be a primarily shooter-only experience. BioWare have a proven track-record of being terrible at this approach to game design (try playing Pinnacle Station) and a bit of help from DICE certainly fits in with the “shooter meets RPG” direction.Perhaps Mass Effect 3 will literally become an FPS. Switching between the third and first person views may have worked in the Elder Scrolls series, but as BioWare's games have always involved companions and team work, a third person view will always work best. However, we should remind ourselves of the last DLC for Mass Effect 2. Arrival featured no companions and was rather, shall we say…. combat-focused? Is this a precursor to Mass Effect 3? You may have noticed in the one trailer we have had for the game so far that the focus is on lone soldiers. The unnamed British guy on Earth is quite clearly fighting by himself, and Shepard is also seen all by himself. It's just an observation for now, but this emphasis on the lone soldier is no accident.