Mass Effect 1 and 2 lead writer Drew Karpyshyn is working on Anthem

Drew Karpyshyn spent 12 years at BioWare, working on as a designer and writer on everything from Baldur's Gate 2 to Star Wars: The Old Republic, and of course the first two Mass Effect games, on which he served as the lead writer. He left in 2012 but returned in 2015, saying that he was going back to work on The Old Republic.

Earlier this year, however, Karpyshyn acknowledged that he was working on a new game. I speculated at the time that it might be a new KOTOR game that was rumored to be in development, but it turns out that I was wrong.

Yes. Yes I am. :)June 13, 2017

Unsurprisingly, Karphyshyn is maintaining radio silence about the project, but his presence has to be an encouraging sign for anyone hoping for more from it than 'flying armor shoot-guys making humanity's last stand.'

While Anthem's shared-world approach may not seem like an obvious fit for a studio like BioWare, an injection of its storytelling DNA into the action-adventure genre could lead to a very interesting game.

We don't know a ton of detail about Anthem's systems or story at this point, but the gameplay reveal at Microsoft's conference gave us an extended look at the co-op shooting.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.