The Bioware I used to know

 

I did something utterly insane the other day. I did something that there was a good chance no one else in the entire world was also doing at that exact time despite the horrifically easy accessibility of it to just about anyone. I loaded up Anthem. And let me just specify- I'm not talking about logging into my packed Anthem character from back in the yesteryear to check out my stats and gear for nostalgia's sake- because no such character exists. I never played Anthem before, but I was curious and I wanted to satiate that curiosity by playing what many would consider the beginning of the end for the once-beloved RPG studio known as Bioware. And as we trudge ever closer to one of the most confusing 'comeback' attempts ever, headed by a studio who don't appear to resemble the developers we once saw as the saviours of the western RPG- I can't help but think back to the Bioware that I used to know and recolour my lens with what I now know.  

There is no sugarcoating it- Bioware was very much the company that introduced me to what an RPG was as a gamer. The first RPG I really fell over in heels for was Fallout 3, but Bethesda have always developer action RPGs- good ones, but not into the intricacies of the TTRPG-inspired titles like the genre-type was born from. Bethesda games do their best to live by those basic principals but disguise them as cleverly as possible behind more accessible gameplay systems and friendly-facing loops. For which there is no problem, I endeavour to impress. There is a lamentable distaste for 'accessible' games out there that render games like Skyrim inferior because they aren't as RPG dense as predecessors like Morrowind despite, you know, Morrowind's gameplay being ass. Morrowind serves an endlessly fascinating world with a curiously politically charged narrative that bears few equals- but don't pretend you get a rush from duking it out with those snore-fest combat systems- please! Bioware very much occupied a similar space of the RPG industry, but with a greater emphasis to the routes of RPGs.

Mass Effect and Dragon Age were my favourite games of their type- Sci Fantasy and 'apparently' Dark Fantasy worlds that felt brimming with stories, potential and life: they were limitless in my eyes. Immersive universes propped up on treasure troves of lore, character and imagination. These were the pinnacle of RPGs. It really is amazing, in hindsight, just home much heavy lifting the story-telling chops of the team were, considering how comparatively rudimentary these games were on a raw level. Satisfying, no doubt, and just deep enough to sustain themselves- but nowhere near the level of robust complexity that later and former CRPGS would champion- I would come to recognise that far too late not to take it for granted.

So sold I was into the Bioware way of doing things that I never questioned the odd weak narrative plot point here and there because I just figured they knew what they were doing, masters of their world like they were. It would take the distance of years to look back and see how Tali's whole narrative throughout Mass Effect 2 actually ended up going nowhere, or how strangely written Overlord is in the grand scheme of the series- I'm still not all that upset about how the ending of three either, because I always just looked at the entirety of Mass Effect 3 as the consequence of the decisions that came before and don't really hold a grudge that the state of the universe was condensed into three resolutions because... well what do you want? That's the best you could hope for! Bioware had me wrapped around their little fingers.

Which is why Anthem felt like such a betrayal, I should think. All that time spent building this intricate worlds that feel like ours to shape- giant sprawling narratives- and what we got was the absolute anthesis to all of that. At least Mass Effect Andromeda took what was there and made something cool out of it- at least in my opinion- but the money went into Anthem and that game turned out to be a misguided pipedream leading in a direction that no one rightly understood. Dragon Age Inquisition was good, but started to slip into that old pattern of 'overpromising' that might be common amidst AAA, but never for Bioware- and then it all fell apart with. It just seems like the 2010's in general were not kind ton the company.

Which brings us to the 2020's. Bioware has been quiet for the last 10 years regarding Dragon Age and to be honest- I don't really see the vision in their new game. Beyond the bad marketing which set off alarm bells for many out there- it was the actual gameplay that set the chills up my spine and everything I've seen since has cemented my feelings that something wrong has entered the pipeline and been allowed to fester. Apparently somewhere along the way someone fostered the belief that party based tactical gameplay was bad. Not just 'no longer vogue' but actively 'to be avoided'- and now they've settled to developing an action adventure slasher... at the same time as some other studios have gone the same path and now I have to compare this game with titles it doesn't really feel ready to go up against.

Let me see- are there any other traditional RPG games that switched to hack and slash recently? Oh wait... aren't the new Final Fantasy games startling examples of this kind of gameplay? Yeah- when you decide to focus heavily on the action gameplay you shift into the quality of that gameplay and Bioware... haven't really absorbed new play styles very well. Then again it cannot be denied that the currently make up of the company is entirely distinct from the legendary Bioware of all, so maybe all these new people are simply clueless when it comes to complex RPG mechanics but can whip up a hack'n'slash when push comes to shove? I don't know, I'm trying to keep together over here.

The Bioware that I used to know always made me feel excited, the always presented a new vision of what their franchise was that felt additive onto the experience. They always made me feel like we as an audience were progressing towards something. I don't see that anymore. 'Veilgaurd' doesn't make me feel much of anything to be honest. And maybe that's just me growing past Bioware as a company and the games they made- even old faithfuls like Origins feel a little quaint now even compared to some of their more complex contemporaries, but certainly in the face of more modern sweeping epics like 'Pathfinder: Kingmaker' and 'Baldur's Gate 3'. I hope they can win me back, but maybe that's the kind of optimism best saved for the Bioware that I used to know.