Not super surprised because sales are way up again with the discounts. Multiplayer is jam packed at all hours of the day- more so than at launch perhaps. There’s a reason why Bioware fronts ME first over and above its other titles and why its prominently on display in the Origin front end. Not to mention MP as a low lethality shooter is just plain more well designed on the technology side, fun and challenging than half a dozen more recent F2P shooters, and I’ve tried all of them.
Obviously highly contrived if not Shepard-less, so Bioware should probably best go forward gasp without him/her and the Normandy. A new title to perpetuate the franchise really needs a brand new engine, not refurbishing Bioware’s heavily customized Unreal Engine 3.x yet again.
The world is so richly detailed you could tell most any story. The Citadel Year One. A bigger squad based N7 type deal with lots of RPG elements ala ME1 - lots of people miss the original RPG design and don’t like the dumbing down of gear. Really any story but the game version of Paragon Lost starring James Vega, sorry Freddy Prinze, be content with straight to DVD. Would the Adventures of Liara T’Soni have enough mass appeal?