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?
Multiplayer?
Some of the more radical reactions to DICE’s involvement in Mass Effect 3 have imagined online co-op possibilities and even a competitive multiplayer component. While these ideas may not be entirely out of the question, they are very unlikely to feature in Mass Effect 3. Then again, having DICE come on board and then delaying the game certainly increases the likelihood of a multiplayer feature. Most of us could not imagine multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed, but it worked.
Riccitiello explicitly ties the idea of a shooter with a larger market share, this could indicate that a multiplayer is on the way at some point. It’s no secret that Call of Duty is the biggest selling video game because of its multiplayer. EA have been actively trying to stop this phenomenon and aim to do so with DICE’s upcoming Battlefield 3 this year. EA’s handymen at DICE know multiplayer better than anyone else than the publisher has at hand.
Have EA fallen to the temptation to ask DICE to help out with a multiplayer mode for Mass Effect 3? It seems unlikely but there are many signs pointing towards it. Reaching that “larger market” usually means providing a multiplayer experience of some kind in today’s modern games. So is that the reason for the delay? If this is the case it seems ridiculous that an extra couple of months is enough to work on a multiplayer component. How could it be polished in that amount of time? However, considering the many shortcomings of Dragon Age 2, maybe EA and BioWare are not so bothered about these issues anymore.
We Have Guns!
For now it is best to just forget about any multiplayer component and focus on whether Mass Effect 3 will even resemble an RPG on its release. If we are lucky, BioWare will retain some of their storytelling charm outside of all the gunfights. There wasn’t much RPG-ing left after Bioware was done with Dragon Age 2 but I was willing to give them one more chance to redeem themselves as a quality RPG developer.
Now, after hearing the direction they are taking with Mass Effect 3, I just cannot be bothered with them anymore. I hate to be so negative about a game so far off from release, but it is the attitude and development plans that resemble Dragon Age 2's shift in focus that has caused my worry. If anything, Mass Effect 3 is going to be very combat-focused and will function a lot more like a ‘twitchy’ shooter for all of those Call of Duty fans out there.
BioWare, if you want to make a third person shooter, then do it. But do you have to mutilate your RPG franchises in the process of doing so? Do you think it is wise to neglect your fans and your games in favor of money? If so, I cannot fault you for being a company trying to make a buck. It just won’t be my buck anymore.
Next there will be a zombie mode…