If you want to be somewhat charitable, I'm inclined to think that the budget and man power behind a AAA game will rarely allow something truly awful to slip through. It does happen sometimes, but the 70s there would imply that they got enough right to make a modestly enjoyable game by modern standards, even though it fails to stand out among either other games or their own series. Too many eyes on the game and feedback/pressure to COMPLETELY fuck up, and ME:A does have its fans.
Then again, Unity had that One Weird Bug where people wouldn't have faces... It probably would've been hit harder nowadays without that next gen sheen to it.
EDIT: Though I do have my philosophy that 7 can be "average" in that it's an alright game to play but nothing special, while 5 is "average" in that it's completely bland and unmemorable but MIGHT not have fucked up badly, or if it did it makes up for it in some other areas... but not enough.