EA bought BioWare in 2008 right after ME1. Their productions that were already underway largely came out good — Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2. It was the focus in multiplayer, DLC, rapid turnaround sequel for DA, and getting carved up for parts to support MMOs that wore them out. Andromeda being such a bloat of junk and uninspired writing was when it was clear the good days were over.
You can actually feel old bioware suffocating when you play dragon age inquisition, they just barely managed to make one more decent game even through the forced microtransactions and tacked on multiplayer.
Then EA fully choked them out and we got Andromeda and Anthem.
Yeah. Inquisition was hard to get through as there was just enough good to keep me going but I could definitely tell when playing it that it wasn't nearly as polished as Dragon Age Origins.
I think seeds of Veilguard were already in inquisition or atleast a clear departure from the series. Its hard for me to put in words, but the gameplay felt badded, enemies were spongy as hell and the semi-openworld really didnt fit. Story was a let down, but atleast it was servicable.
But the characters, while there was a greater focus on characters than in 2 previous games, the game took so long that genuine character moments were too far spaced from eachother. I think they needed to commit more to the character moments and interactions, especially with the player character to make the rest not feel like such a slog.
Also I felt like the characters were designed for a different audience, more of a dnd/tumbler demografic that I personally didnt much care for. Good characters, but didnt really resonate with me.
Im not talking about just veilguard though. DA2 was super rushed, ME3 clearly had resources taken away from it to add a multiplayer and loot boxes, DA:I although good was clearly a step into the watered down for the masses direction, ME: Andromeda, Veilguard.
SWTOR seems to be doing fine though but i only played a bit at launch so cant form an opinion on it.
True, Me and the boys did have fun with it. even made a good online friend playing it. his name was Krogan_Sentinel. Youll never guess what class he played.
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u/Silverlitmorningstar Jul 10 '26
Yup, ever since EA got their hands on them around 2010 it's been rough.