All of Mass Effect's good ideas came from the first game in 2007. After that game established the setting, the rest of the series was just a bunch of wheel spinning in terms of the main plot and recruiting /dating simple archetypes, while turning it into more of a traditional shooter. Same with Dragon Age. One game led by the old guard and then the team had no idea what to do so they dwindled into irrelevance.
And now they dont have the writing talent to establish a good new setting, and on the gameplay front are only capable of making mediocre shooters/action titles. It's the exact scenario people have been saying they're digging themselves into for like 6 years. Nothing here is a revelation.
Brent Knowles [Lead designer on Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age: Origins]: left in 2009
Trent Oster [Founder, Project director on Neverwinter Nights]: left in 2009
Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk [Founders]: left in 2012
Drew Karpyshyn [Writer for Kotor, Jade Empire, Mass Effect]: left in 2012, came back to work on Anthem, then left again in 2018
David Gaider [Writer for Dragon Age series]: left in 2016
Mike Laidlaw [Lead story developer for Jade Empire and creative director for Dragon Age]: left in 2017
James Ohlen [Lead designer for Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Kotor, Jade Empire, and Dragon Age: Origins]: left in 2018
Aaryn Flynn [GM of Bioware Canada]: left in 2016
Alistair McNally [Senior director of creative development]: left in 2017
It's kind of a stretch to go all the way back to 2009, perhaps, but I think there's where they started sliding.
Mass Effect 2 in 2010 was still great, but at least some of the that was because it was building off a solid narrative/universe foundation built previously. Dragon Age 2 in 2011 had that foundation, as well, but mostly just screwed it all up anyway with some bad design decisions and a rushed launch.
Mass Effect 3 in 2012 was still a good game, but they promised so many things [especially relative to the narrative] that they clearly had no capability to actually deliver on.
Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2014 was another decent game, but aside from a few story beats and a handful of quests it had no real staying power and much of the game was kinda empty and repetitive.
Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017 was a technical mess at launch and way too safe with its narrative and world building, and though some attempt was made to salvage it EA cut the cord after just a few months. And then there's
Anthem in 2019, not much needs to be said there.
So, they've basically spent the past decade running a ton of potential into the ground [Mass Effect and Dragon Age] and their own attempt at something new [Anthem] was a spectacular wreck.
