I have very little hope for this actually being any good. Studios are made of people that make games and the people that were around to make the previous titles really aren’t around any more. The spotlight of Inquisition for me was the excellent weaving of previous world building into the current plot in a way that felt organic and exciting. Now after going through the nightmare of Anthem and then clearly some development hell with this game I have to wonder how many people ended up sticking around and how that will reflect on the final product.

The stories I’ve read on how Arkane lost a lot of talent often line up with how Bioware has gone. Making a game in a genre the team wasn’t interested in with an overall goal to just make more money jumping in on a live service which led to major staff departures means that even should they try again, the studio isn’t made of the same people anymore and that expecting another great game is shaky at best and should be approached with at least some realism.

I want it to be good because I’ve enjoyed the series but it’s been 9 years since the last game and the people that made that game good did it despite everything. When they put out cinematic trailers and in-engine screenshots not even 6 months before the announced release, I’m left wondering why they can’t show actual stuff from the game. They should be done with the most major systems by now, environments should be made. I’ve seen this song and dance one too many times in the games industry and until I see people actually playing it I’ll temper my expectations.