The next Mass Effect can be great if ‘people get out of the way’ and let the original creators work, former dev says

A former developer who worked on the first Mass Effect games says he’s confident the next game can be great, as long as nobody interferes with the team’s plans.

In an interview with FRVR, Armando Troisi – who was a cinematic designer on Mass Effect and lead cinematic designer in Mass Effect 2, as well as narrative director on Halo 4 – was asked if he  had any advice for the BioWare staff working on the next game in the series.

Troisi replied that the team didn’t need any advice from him, especially because developers who worked on the original trilogy – such as lead designer Preston Watamaniuk, art director Derek Watts and lead cinematic animator Parrish Ley – were still at BioWare and knew what they were doing.

“It’s hard for me to say [any advice] because a lot of people that are on that project were there [for the originals],” Troisi explained. “They know. Preston is there, and Derek is there, and Parish is there, and they’re the OGs, you know? I don’t think there’s anything that I could tell them that they don’t know what to do.

“When I was leaving [after Mass Effect 2], everybody wrote on a card… [Preston] said ‘passion and craft is excellence’… I think they’ve got both of those, so I don’t think that I can give them any more advice than they already have. They know this stuff.”

Troisi explained that in his opinion, the success of the next Mass Effect game will depend on whether those original creators and the rest of the team are given the free reign they need to make the game they want to make, an apparent nod to reports that claimed Dragon Age: Veilguard struggled because BioWare was told to make it a live-service game until plans changed at the last minute.

“It’s one of those things where, if people get out of the way and let game creators just do their thing, you never know the magic that they can create,” he said.

“I think, obviously, there’s a lot of different things that come to play in making a game of that scale. But trust your people and try to change the world with everything that you try to do. And I think that they can do it. I’m rooting for them.”

He added: “The vision was always clear. There was a BioWare formula and they were going to iterate on that formula and keep turning out best-in-class cinematic RPGs and that’s basically what the mandate was.

“And then they had to live through the live service era – which is still happening but is maybe not as prevalent – and we’re all beholden to companies and stakeholders and all the rest of that.

“I think BioWare, when they break it down and do that single-player, interactive narrative driven, deep combat, progression-driven game, really, there’s nobody that can touch them.

“It’s kind of like the [Master] Chief [from Halo], it’s like going on a walkabout and finding themselves and coming back. I think BioWare can do it if we just leave them alone to do what they do best.”