Mike Gamble is now Project Director at BioWare - What could he be in charge of?

I disagree. The best thing that ME2 did was take the focus away from the Reapers, the big bad of the franchise, focus on smaller stories, tied them together in a neat little package and made sure that a smaller stakes narrative with more life* breathed into it can stand on its own, reaffirming the franchise's survivability. What I don't understand is the unreasonable rush to wrap up the entire Reaper saga in one single game. Which is one huge, backward, ridiculous idea, for what was Bioware's greatest undertaking ever. It was just not going to cut it.


Well, that is subjective to taste.


As an assassin, Thane has the potential to move silently, as he exhibits in his recruitment mission and loyalty mission, between foes and create dissent and confusion, which is a huge asset to an infiltration squad that is fighting nearly impossible odds. Zaeed is a seasoned soldier and a grunt who will hold the line thanks to his battlefield experience. He is clearly unfit to lead, though, but his fighting prowess and keen eye in battle will offer valuable support in any firefight. Samara is a formidable biotic and the only one, besides Jack, that can hold the biotic bubble. Even just as a substitute for that job, in case the only other capable biotic should die for whatever reason, is invaluable, but Samara brings her own skills to the table and also the option to have a pure biotic on the team, while Jack holds the bubble, or vice versa.


Besides the main cast of Jacob, TIM, Miranda, Joker and Shepard, not many others interacted with the main plot. And that was a caveat, because some of them could die or not even be recruited. With a bigger budget and more development time, perhaps a better compromise could be reached, but under the circumstances, it was probably the best that could be done.


Well, the Okeer mission went south and my guess was that Bioware was trying to make a case that sometimes, with such renown, baggage sometimes can become insurmountable. And Grunt is completely optional. You can keep him in the brig and never open his tank.


That is a false equivalence, since Star Wars was an established franchise, with a literal ton of lore and I do mean literal. All the supplementary books and EU stuff should weigh more than a ton, altogether. If anything, I'd argue that ME1 did too little, in terms of writing and wasted too much potential in superfluous world building, with too much tell and not enough show. Especially Shepard's conversation with Sovereign was immersion breaking. The very fact that Sovereign acknowledges Shepard and addresses him, severely undermines the Reaper's supreme intelligence.


Honestly, a very good move to allow further and better characterization without plot constraints. Allows for a more personal, hands on approach to character development. There were elements of that even in ME1, with Garrus' conversations aboard the SR1 and Wrex and Tali's, but to a much smaller extent. The fact that Garrus' character development is swept under the rug between ME1 and ME2, however, was telling of the things to come. Sweeping things under the rug became a recurring thing with Bioware.


Well, you are entitled to your opinion.


No argument there.