Mass Effect Andromeda: Review

(NOTE THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA! DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU WANT THE GAME RUINED FOR YOU!!!

The Mass Effect Series is probably the most successful video game series where you forget you are playing a video game but are instead the lead character off on an adventure in a movie you control from the very start. So it is no surprise that Mass Effect has become a household name among gamers and avid science-fiction fans. So when Mass Effect 3 came out in 2012, it was to mark the ending chapter to a story involving Commander Shepard as he tried to stop the imminent arrival of a race of machines that wipes out civilization every 50,000 years called the Reapers. After that series had ended gamers wondered what would be next for the Mass Effect franchise although Bioware remained tight lipped about any possible sequels or other games with standalone characters not relating to Commander Shepard's story. Ever since Mass Effect: Andromeda was announced I waited with a mixture of excitement and nervousness given that this new story takes place some 600 years into the future in a completely different galaxy than our own. I remembered how Mass Effect 3's ending soured gamers with myself being one of them away from the franchise. Although Bioware did go back and fix some of the plot hole's in the ending for Mass Effect 3 it still didn't address the games biggest flaw being the main villain introduced within the last twenty minutes of the game. Even now when I am on my seventh repeat playthrough of Mass Effect 3 it still feels off to me, like a splinter in your mind that won't go away. So when it comes to Mass Effect: Andromeda I reserved my opinions of it until I could actually play the game. I am now over 50% into the game and I have played all of the previous Mass Effect games before this one. So when it comes to what I think about the game know that my opinion is informed.

The Story

The story of Mass Effect: Andromeda is an entirely self contained adventure separate from the story of Commander Shepard and the Reapers. You play as either Scott/Sarah Ryder who are the children of the leader of the Ark Hyperion, a large vessel carrying some 20,000 people on a 600 year journey to colonize the Andromeda Galaxy. Your father on your very first mission to colonize a new "golden" world is killed and you are made the Pathfinder essentially acting as an interstellar Christopher Columbus for those who remain on the Hyperion. On your way to colonize new worlds you encounter a new enemy race called the Kett and their insidious leader the Archon who has his own plans for the Andromeda galaxy. In your journey you pick up a motley crew of various companions such as Peebee, the overly energetic Asari researcher to Jaal, an Angaran soldier. So this game like many of those in the Mass Effect series prioritizes exploring all the worlds you visit and uncover th mystery of the civilizations that once called Andromeda home while fighting against a bigger threat that is also bent on using what you find to their own ends. The game doesn't break any new grounds in terms of the story. It's pretty much the same as the other games in the Mass Effect series, but that isn't a bad thing. If something works and makes the story interesting then don't bother to fix anything. With that being said this game was created to expose new gamers to the Mass Effect series while also giving older fans of the series something new to do in the Mass Effect universe.

While the story isn't unique it has it's drawbacks. One of the common criticisms I have read is that the game takes forever to get into. This is a fair and accurate criticism. The game would have been better if the first eight hours of the story had been streamlined rather than having the main plot quest exist alongside fetch quests from the onset of arriving on the first planet in the game. How I would have made this work is by breaking the story down as follows. Your character wakes up, goes on their first mission where they encounter the Kett, father dies, you become Pathfinder, arrival at the Nexus and are informed of dire situation the Initiative is in, arrival on Eos which due to high radiation levels is uninhabitable, you active the Remnant monoliths and vault to colonize Eos, defeat Kett for good on Eos, then all secondary quests and fetch quests become available. This would allow for the story to take priority and heighten the sense of importance of the colonization efforts that the Initiative has tried rather than have the main plot quest run alongside secondary quests most of which are pointless. You also after making Eos habitable for colonists defeat the Kett once and for all rather than twice which you do in the game. After defeating then I would have all secondary quests open up to you allowing for exploration of the world rather than being limited by where you can go due to high amounts of radiation like you do before activating the monoliths. Andromeda would benefit from streamlining the first bits of the game to make them more enjoyable and less tedious as has been reported by numerous gaming sites.

The Characters

The Mass Effect franchise is known for having characters who feel so real and fleshed out that you come to care about them as if they were people you really knew. Mass Effect: Andromeda is no different. Each of the characters feels like a fully realized person. They all have backstory's that make them who they are and as you progress through the game each of them opens up to you. Personally my favorite characters so far are Vetra Nyx, your turian companion and potential lover, and Peebee, the Asari researcher. While the main cast of characters are great, some of the secondary characters are down right annoying at times or just generally aggravating. This is apparent with characters like Sloane Kelly, the leader of the Exiles on Kadara. She is very rude and gives you no opportunities to get to know her despite she is crucial to settling matters between two different criminal factions. She is basically an Aria ripoff from Mass Effect 2, just less interesting to get to know. Another character named Addison is the director of colonial affairs for the Andromeda Initiative. She works against you at every turn and undermines your authority as the Pathfinder even though she is desperate for your support. She comes off as being rather hollow and uninteresting not to mention robotic but that is due to poor facial animations which I will cover in another section.

The Gameplay

As I am sure that by now everyone has heard about how the characters in the game have broken facial animations that make them seem robotic and creepy or how the game has numerous glitches making the game feel clunky. Unfortunately this is where Andromeda's faults become more apparent. For a game that was in the works for years you would figure that the developers would have spent just a little more time smoothing out the gameplay rather than releasing a buggy game at launch. While some bugs are too be expected Mass Effect: Andromeda would benefit from a patch that lessens the odd facial animations and broken gameplay that sometimes tend to happen. What I have encountered so far is during one conversation with Drack, your Krogan squadmate a double version of himself was present during the conversation my Ryder character had that made me wonder if Drack was having an out of body experience during the conversation. Another thing I encountered as I mentioned above is that talking to Director Addison feels like you are having a conversation with a robot than a character that is supposed to be human. It kinda breaks the illusion of the gaming experience you are having in Mass Effect: Andromeda by making the characters seem more unreal than was intended.

The other bit of clunky game play concerns loot and storage. In the game you have a finite amount of things you can store away in your inventory. After a few hours of playing the game I had accumulated a fair bit amount of loot like different weapons and armor sets. This game would benefit from a loot storage system that is common in other RPG games like Bioware's other title series Dragon Age. Better yet have the system that Mass Effect 3 had where all your weapons and armor sets were stored away on your ship and ready to chose before you head out on your latest mission. That way your inventory would not become overcrowded with five different variations of the same weapon or armor set. Also in regards to this that the other games did better is that in Mass Effect 2 and 3 the armor sets you got in game were the best they could possibly be upon either purchasing them from vendors or if you got the latest DLC pack. In Mass Effect: Andromeda you will usually encounter the same armor set usually starting at level one with level five armor sets being the best you can have. It is somewhat impossible to acquire a full set of the best armor because most of the loot is generated at random upon killing enemies in game. Mass Effect: Andromeda would benefit greatly from implementing what worked well in Mass Effect 3 in regards to weapons and armor that way players would not have to hunt around for the things they want to equip their character with.

Final Impressions

Mass Effect: Andromeda is kind of a mixed bag of same old well worn story tropes combined with clunky gameplay. The game itself shines as an example of the level of passion that game makers have for a franchise. The level of talent invested in the game is undeniable but until the poor facial animations are addressed and the bits of gameplay that feel a little to clunky Andromeda's full potential will not be realized. That being said I recommend getting the game for yourself and determining whether or not it is a worthy addition to the Mass Effect series.