While neither franchise ever completely went away, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and Mass Effect 4 will be the first new installment either series has had in some time. BioWare has remained relatively tight-lipped about both projects, though leaks, teasers, and plain old speculation still give fans plenty to pick apart. For example, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf's gameplay leak in February included the detail that its action gameplay draws heavily from 2018's God of War.
Unsurprisingly, most analysis of that leak has focused on its implications for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the series as a whole. However, while Mass Effect and Dragon Age have always been very different beasts, they're not entirely separate. Dreadwolf's change in format might have some implications for the upcoming Mass Effect 4.
Mass Effect's Third-Person Shooter Identity
Dragon Age has never been a consistent franchise, as even a cursory glance over the existing games would reveal. Dragon Age: Origins was a CRPG of the kind BioWare was known for at the time, with combat heavily dependent on stats and positioning. Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition never entirely abandoned Origins' core gameplay concepts but were much more action-oriented. So, while it's understandable that some long-time fans might not appreciate how things are going, Dreadwolf's action focus is the conclusion of a trend that started some time ago.
Meanwhile, Mass Effect has always been a series of third-person shooters. Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, and Mass Effect: Andromeda all introduced substantial gameplay changes, of course. ME1, ME2's DLC, and Andromeda experimented with different vehicle mechanics, while vanilla ME2 and ME3 dropped them entirely. BioWare dropped Mass Effect's inventory management after the first game, and character stats and weapon upgrades worked differently in each installment. However, most of these mechanical alterations were about refining and innovating upon the core gameplay rather than redefining it.
The only partial exception was Mass Effect: Andromeda, which dropped the Paragon/Renegade morality system, added crafting, and overhauled the combat system. The latter included replacing the original trilogy's Classes with swappable Skill Loadouts and removing tactical pausing. Andromeda's combat also emphasized mobility, moving away from the preceding game's more static cover system. Additionally, while melee combat played a small but integral role in Mass Effect 3, Andromeda was the first to feature dedicated melee weapons in single-player.
Dreadwolf's Influence on Mass Effect 4
It would be nice if Mass Effect 4 featured both robust shooting mechanics and a fully developed melee combat system. However, Mass Effect games have always been shooters, and there is no reason to believe the new game will feature the same gameplay style as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Still, BioWare will likely consider what works and what doesn't when designing Mass Effect 4.
Dreadwolf's focus on action combat seems to be indicative of a broader trend of BioWare emphasizing more active styles of gameplay. This was true of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem, so Mass Effect 4's combat may have more in common with Andromeda's than the original trilogy. Also, if the leak is correct in that Dreadwolf players can't control their party members, Mass Effect 4 may be the same.
More than that, though, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is also part of a broader trend in AAA gaming. While leakers compared its combat system to the modern God of War games, the last two God of War may have been influenced by FromSoftware games. God of War and Dark Souls are hardly identical IPs, and there are fundamental gameplay differences that set the franchises apart, but even God of War’s developers acknowledge the similarities.
If BioWare is also moving in that direction, Mass Effect 4 could draw inspiration from Gunfire Games' Remnant: From the Ashes. Published by Gearbox, Remnant is a Soulslike third-person shooter from 2019. Praised for its satisfying gameplay, it sold over 1 million copies by December 2019 and tripled that by the end of 2021. While Mass Effect 4 must build its own identity, it's conceivable that BioWare might look to Remnant: From the Ashes when developing its next third-person shooter RPG.
Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf are in development.