Seven years after the release of the controversial Mass Effect: Andromeda, BioWare's creative director has spoken out about the wave of negativity that hit the game. According to him, the project wasn't as bad as the reviews from players made it out to be.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, John Epler said that he still feels guilty and embarrassed about the disastrous launch of Mass Effect: Andromeda. The game featured bad facial animation, bugs, an empty open world, and a mediocre story. However, he doesn't agree with the players on everything:
I do think Andromeda was a better game than its reception suggested, but on the flip side, I don't think the reception was unfair. At the time of launch, there were technical issues and things that didn't work.
For this reason, BioWare took into account the importance of polishing projects before release. This is evident in the example of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, whose technical condition at the time of release was really at a high level. In addition, the studio took into account the wishes of players regarding the open world — according to John Epler, this is why the developers opted for a corridor system:
We did have a version that was a lot more open-world. But again, we ran into the same problem of how do you make it compelling or narratively interesting? The reception to Andromeda definitely solidified that.
Recall that the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard took place on October 31 on PC, Xbox Series X / S and PlayStation 5.
Earlier, the creative director of BioWare confirmed that the new DA will not receive an add-on, since the studio is starting to develop a new Mass Effect. Meanwhile, the head of Moon Studios criticized Dragon Age: The Veilguard, calling it extremely infantile.