Mass Effect: Andromeda

Ah yes, the infamous and maligned Mass Effect Andromeda. Full disclosure: I mocked this game when it came out, but I never actually played it. That’s basically a cardinal sin if you’re trying to make any kind of critical statement at all. So at long last, years after its release, I finally sat down and played it. The whole game. 100% galactic viability. What I’ve learned is to not think in absolutes. Nothing is completely binary. No game is wholly good, no game is entirely bad. Andromeda CERTAINLY dips into both sides of the pond.

So unlike the slightly-open but mostly structured mission layout of the first three games, Mass Effect Andromeda succumbs to the Open World Plague that AAA gaming loves oh so much. Me, personally? I don’t hate open world games. I often love them a lot. But holy moly, does this present some real pacing problems. It starts off innocuous enough; run around collecting chests, mining minerals, doing side quests that range from major plot points to barely even a footnote, and in general just run around and shoot things. The issue is, as the game progresses, this gets more and more…boring. Yes, it becomes boring. The first couple of worlds I was all on board for. I was gung ho about doing it all. But towards the end of the game, I realized just how pointless most of it really was. I never needed minerals. I never needed research points. I never needed XP even. You hit your prime condition very early on.

Just as well, I suppose. You could condense the entire game experience down to about half the time I spent (60 hours, or so the game tells me) and you’d likely have a -better- time. The truth is, the actual game itself - meaning the art of shooting things - is actually remarkably fun. Sincerely, the moment-to-moment act of blasting things apart is the best the series has been. Weapons are varied - I particularly loved the particle beam with unlimited ammo - and a little jumpjet pack makes traversal a breeze. Though, the way you land and take a second to get your bearings after -every- jump could have been handled significantly more elegantly. But the point is, the game is FUN. Except for when it isn’t.

I mentioned how pointless some things feel. It’s incredibly reminiscent of Mass Effect 1 in that way. If you run around and try to do EVERYTHING in Mass Effect 1, you’ll be overpowered the entire game and have more money than you will ever spend and more equipment than you’ll ever use. Exact same conundrum in Andromeda. I researched everything I could have possibly needed in the first, like…Ten hours of the game. What good were minerals and research points after that point? That’s just it; there were none. Now I suppose you COULD make it your personal goal to construct EVERYTHING the research terminal has to offer, and you’d likely find more need for it, but at what point are we simply creating redundancies for the sake of trying to find purpose in an underbaked system?

This is all marred even further by the shocking technical issues. I played this on my brand spanking new PC. i9 processor, 3080ti, the works. Just about a best-possible build. For the most part, it showed. I played max graphics on 4K the entire time and during actual gameplay, I never saw a framerate drop. EXCEPT for during cutscenes. They weren’t locked to 30; they just kept flailing all over the framerate spectrum. Also, on the player’s ship. Technically that’s gameplay, yes, but you never fight anything there, so I don’t really want to count it. Frame drops aside, cutscenes also have a terrible problem with cueing up the next segment. Sometimes I sat there waiting several seconds for the next portion of a cutscene to catch up and play. Outside of cutscenes, I dealt with exploding polygons, voice lines triggering at wrong moments, quest objectives not loading in, you name it. And this is all POST launch. The game was even WORSE the day it came out. I finished it, yeah, so it’s playable, but man it’s just barely held together by popsicle sticks and Elmer’s glue.

Aside from technical -flaws-, the rest of the game’s presentation is a mixed bag. Sometimes the graphics are unspeakably beautiful. Gorgeous lighting effects, beautifully molded terrain, breathtaking cosmic bodies - other times, you get the feeling there was no actual care put into it at all. Effort? Maybe. Care? No. Everyone talks about how the Asari mostly share the same kinda ugly face model. It’s true. There is ONE Asari in the entire game who has a unique character model. How’s that for lazy? I also stumbled upon multiple unnamed NPC’s who shared the same model as your ship’s navigator, who may I add is a pretty major character. Outside of character models, some vegetation winds up just being flat sprites on the ground if you focus too hard on them, so that’s a bit of a debbie downer.

What about the plot, though? Surely a Mass Effect game’s gotta have a good plot. I answer that question with a resounding; eh. I wasn’t insulted by it. I wasn’t super jazzed about it either, though. The final mission? Great. But there’s no big ‘reaper’ level reveal. No massive plot twist that makes you WANT to play the game for 50 more hours. On the plus side, though, I found that peoples complaints about the crew and Ryder having no personality were way overblown. I gave my Ryder a porn ‘stache and chose mostly the unprofessional options, and I found him to be a great protagonist. The crew makes were overall very good, too. The male human was more likable than Kaiden, Jack, and Jacob put together, the female turian was charismatic, Drack the krogan might be the best krogan squadmate in series history - I’m serious, I enjoyed the supporting cast. Even Peebee, who I initially hated due to a very poor intro scene, found herself stuck on me. In more ways than one IF YA KNOW WHAT I’M SAYIN’ HYUCK

So I dunno. It’s a very, very mixed bag. It’s not the end of the world. Well, it’s the end of the entire Milky Way I guess so really it’s the end of MANY worlds, but there was promise here. You really do feel like you’re exploring new ground. That part feels nice. The main story, while not a GREAT story, has nice enough moments to feel worth playing. But man. You really have to be choosy with how you spend your time, because the pacing grinds to a halt if you let it. Between that and the absolute technical apocalypse that’s occurring the entire time as the game struggles to keep it together, it’s difficult to completely recommend. If you’re STARVED for more Mass Effect and don’t mind putting 60+ hours into something you might not love, give it a go. It can’t hurt you.

I originally began to write this review on Steam, before I realized how small their character limit was half way through writing this, so a lot of this pertains particularly to the Steam version when talking about functionality or opening the game.

Background

Mass Effect: Andromeda; by far the most disliked and written off game in the Mass Effect series. Liking the original trilogy as much as I had, and hearing that many of the disastrous issues at launch had been fixed with time, I wanted to give this game a fair shot. Even though it is largely disconnected from the original trilogy, I was eager for more Mass Effect. Playing the game, I don't think it's as bad as it was made out to be at launch, but it definitely has its issues, which I will get into a bit later.

IMPORTANT NOTE: EA Launcher and Issues

This goes for most modern EA games run through steam, but for this game, you have to go through the EA launcher in order to open it. There are mods out there to launch it through the Origin app (which I would highly recommend), but by default, it needs this launcher to open.

What this means in particular for your game play is that sometimes cloud saves may get slightly messed up, saving correctly on Steam but not on the EA platform (though it's usually not so bad as to where you lose progress), and that you HAVE to connect to this service to open or properly save the game. The EA Launcher does not have an offline mode, so if their servers are down or you lose internet connection, you may not be able to open the game, even if your steam client is functioning perfectly fine.

A final thing to note is that sometimes you will be logged out of this app. It will not tell you when you are, but you won't be able to open the game until you go into the EA app and log back in.

I know this is a lot, and probably not the best note to start on as someone who does generally recommend the game, but it is definitely something to keep in mind as it can be frustrating (and is largely unavoidable for most modern EA games now due to this integration).

Pros

Despite the game's reputation, there are still a fair amount of things to enjoy, and even some which are general improvements over the previous Mass Effect games. Many of these pros come with the game play and general quality of life updates to the UI and other aspects of the game.

One of the most immediate and significant changes to the game play is the addition of jump jets, a sort of jet pack built into your character's armor which allows you to propel yourself in different directions as well as hover (which has its own perks and upgrades you can get through skill upgrades). This game is very organized when it comes to upgrades. Although several new elements are introduced, all of which have different purposes, different ways of acquiring them, different rarities, and different things they apply to in different ways, the organization of the UI and general upgrade and research/development screens help prevent the several additions from feeling overwhelming or confusing.

Character upgrades in general are sorted into three different folders depending on their roles in combat or general game play, and each have the same branched skill upgrades as Mass Effect 3. There are tens of different skills you can upgrade, and some which come with other perks and upgrades (though these too are often listed on the pages where they apply and directly tell you which perks you need, like having a 3rd weapon slot requires having the first 3 upgrade tiers in the combat fitness line unlocked, and it will show this on the loadout screen).

The foldered and bulleted missions and objectives from Mass Effect 2 are also brought back here, now separated into 5 or 6 categories depending on where the mission was acquired, what type of mission (e.g. priority vs loyalty), and its general priority towards the story, which makes it easier to plot out how you want to play the game and avoid progressing the story before you play the missions you like.

Another thing which is brought back is the ability to drive across alien worlds, which was largely relegated to DLC in Mass Effect 2 and practically non-existent in Mass Effect 3. Your primary vehicle, the Nomad, becomes essential in many of the areas of the explorable planets, with different and varied environmental hazards. The nomad isn't perfect, it has no guns and running over enemies is largely ineffective, but it's pretty fun and responsive to drive around in.

That brings me to one of the best aspects of Mass Effect: Andromeda; the worlds. At first I was disappointed at the small scale of the game, it only taking place in 1 cluster and introducing only 2 new sapient races, but despite this, the developers and level designers manage to do a lot more with a lot less. The worlds are expansive and detailed, with various flora and fauna to explore (or try to run over) and several missions, mining spots, and other thing scattered throughout which really encourage exploration. This game is full of some amazing attention to detail, from small things like footprints and tire tracks in sandy worlds (even changing depending on how you move across them) to reflective effects on surfaces, to larger things like some pretty full-feeling and nice to explore settlements and small city areas with several unique conversations and missions to be found by taking to locals.

This attention to detail isn't just seen on the worlds you can explore, though. Even planets in space where all you can do is scan them feel real, with unique animations and things like thunderstorms on their surface being animated very well, and many of them having pretty unique and interesting designs as well. Anomalies and things on the planet which you can scan also have their own unique models or animations on the surface which can be seen from orbit. This paired with a 360 view of the planets, different regions on many of them, and animations when travelling between planets and star systems add a pretty exciting sense of realism to the game which really brings a lot of it to life. Another small detail I thought was pretty cool is that when you're at the command window, you can see which planet you're at through the glass, with a pretty cool orbital view.

I'd gone a little into the combat with the jump jets, but the combat in this game is another thing I definitely think shouldn't be written off. The AI in the game is really good and challenging to fight, and I've often found myself getting flanked or surrounded by the AI and killed simply because I didn't move enough, or didn't watch an enemy or two as it tried to go around me. There are also some pretty cool aspects to the combat as well like elevation effecting your ability to shoot or be shot at (e.g. if you're behind low cover and an enemy is above you on a balcony where they could realistically still shoot you, they will be able to in the game). This can get kind of frustrating with the covering mechanic all being automatic, at times making you feel like you have little control over where your character goes or how you can avoid being shot at, but this can often be remedied by continuing to move or finding a wall or something larger to hide behind.

Another thing I like about this game is the new personality system. I will admit that I do miss the paragon/renegade system, and I do still think it could have been incorporated here, but in Mass Effect Andromeda, there are several character paths: professional, emotional, logical, casual, romantic, friendship building, and ones that continue the conversation.

Cons

And now we're on to the cons of the game, of which there are unfortunately many. To people who are interested in playing the game, though, I would say to at least stick it through past the introduction, because many of the issues I and many people have with the game when it comes to writing come in the introduction and aren't as bad after.

One of the biggest issues I have with many of the characters, especially the side characters, is the voice acting. Often, their line delivery can sound flat, unenthusiastic, or just plainly do not fit the situation at all. Many of the character's dialogue from main characters can feel misplaced or forced because of the line delivery, and sometimes their vocal inflections will randomly change in the middle of a conversation in ways that can be jarring. It also feels like the game can never really tell what kind of tone it wants to take.

This is shown in the writing as well, which often tries (and often fails) to throw in comedic elements. The introduction may be the worst offender, with the character outright saying "there are many people depending on us" several times, but even afterwards, there are moments where I found myself having to justify writing choices in my head. The game tries several times to insert comedic elements, but it's always at the wrong times, and can often make it hard to feel any of the stakes the game tries to build or take them seriously.

Another issue I have with the writing of the game is how many characters are introduced. There's SAM, which is the new EDI and several other crew members and squad mates, all of whom have their own lines and talk during missions, which can make it kind of jarring and hard to tell who is who, or even sometimes what everyone is talking about because there are just so many conflicting voices.

The pacing of the story isn't the best either, and the story beats rarely ever feel earned or built up to, especially when it comes to interactions/romances between characters and Ryder. It feels like certain characters like Liam and Cora have an instant connection to the main character which largely comes out of nowhere despite the conflicts they mention them having, which largely feel secondary in interactions with them.

It's not always the worst, though, and I do like how there are many interactions between characters on their own like in Mass Effect 3. They aren't always the best and are bogged down by the same writing issues as many other aspects of the game, but they're still a nice attention to detail which help with the world building.

If I had one last criticism it would be the same planet hopping animations I praised before. While they are skippable, there's still an extra animation afterwards where a view of the planet is shown before zooming out that you have to watch every single time you move to another planet (which is often), and it makes it get old pretty quickly, especially after you've seen it so many times on so many other planets.

Mass Effect Andromeda is a step down from the original trilogy in most ways. The story is blander, the characters are more forgettable, nothing in this new galaxy feels particularly fresh, and there's a general sense of corporate soullessness to the whole thing. But it's not all bad. It's often very lovely to look at, the action is serviceable, and the writing/characters do have their occasional moments - there's a pretty decent 20 hour game in here somewhere. Unfortunately it's so egregiously padded with repetitious open-world nonsense that if you're the kind of person who takes their time with RPGs, you'll easily spend 60 hours on top of that on pure filler. A typical sidequest will send you flying all over the galaxy, sitting through numerous loading screens (disguised as unskippable cutscenes), driving over the large and mostly barren worlds to discover that nope, your current waypoint isn't what you're looking for, you've gotta fly across the galaxy to the next waypoint - rinse and repeat a few times. I hear this game was a technical shambles at launch, but playing it a few years down the road, it's a little buggy, but nothing that really gets in the way.

Mass Effect is one of my favourite franchises so it was tough when I stopped playing Andromeda because I realised I had stopped caring about it.
Nothing about the story or the characters had me invested, I can't even remember their names.
The gameplay puts itself in a corner too by giving you immediate access to all abilities, I found a combination of moves I liked and then didn't change it for the rest of the time I played so combat got boring pretty quickly.

It's a shame, it has signs of something that could have worked, but it just didn't.

Players would benefit from setting aside any preconceived notions before giving this a go. The notorious technical glitches that plagued this game at launch are no longer a problem because of the many patches and updates that it has since received. For fans of the original trilogy there's plenty of tie-in lore to be enjoyed, and the controls and graphics are top notch. The mainline story is pretty simple and straightforward (about 16-20 hours in length), but there's a ton of optional content and quests that are compelling and help flesh out the narrative and context of your adventure. I wish the player character was more charismatic overall, on the level of some of the more interesting companion characters. It's also disappointing that the conclusion leaves you with some unanswered questions that set the stage for a sequel which will probably never materialize.

People from the races that reside within the Milky Way go into stasis on board large vessels known as arks. Their 600 year journey has the aim to find new planets to colonise in the Heleus Cluster. However, when they get there, the planets are no longer safe; there's a strange substance called the Scourge, the planet's atmosphere isn't as hospitable, and an aggressive race known as the Kett are exploring the cluster. With only key members leaving stasis in order to set up the new home, a team of soldiers accompany human Pathfinder Alec Ryder to investigate the planets and aim to make them hospitable.

The Pathfinder's goal is to explore and take lead on the colonisation process. He has combat skills and an AI assistant known as SAM. The Pathfinder dies on the first mission and transfers responsibility to your character who is his son (Scott)/daughter (Sara). Just like the previous Mass Effect games, you can play as Male or Female.

The story doesn't seem very complex like the main Mass Effect series, but this game puts the focus on exploration, and yet again; it's easy to get lost in the lore. There are many races, and individual characters each have extensive backstories and motives. It's easy to rack up the hours talking to characters you meet across the planets, on the main base called The Nexus, or your crew on your spaceship; the Tempest. Your codex is constantly updated, acting as an encyclopedia and has summary notes on your relationship with the characters.

The dialogue system in the main series was a “Paragon/Renegade” system where you could give good/evil/neutral responses. When reaching a high level of these extremes, sometimes you had the option to Charm/Intimidate. This has been changed to a system with four options; Emotional, Logical, Casual, Professional which gives more personality to the tone of the conversation.

Your primary goal is to colonise a few planets. This process has several mandatory missions then loads of optional missions. You will need to complete some side missions in order to increase the planet's viability level. Once you have met the prerequisite, then your colony can be started. There's many missions that are interesting, but then most of them are just basic fetch quests and general tedium.

These planets have a large area to explore. Your primary transport is the Nomad which is like the Mako. This vehicle has two modes, one is for speed and the other is for steeper inclines. It also has jump jets to help navigate jumps or rocky areas. Most planets allow you to enter/exit your vehicle freely, although planets usually have some kind of environmental problem which drains your life support system.

Your character also has a jet-pack to help navigate the area. There are some moments, particularly at the start of the game where it seemed platform-heavy, but these are actually fairly rare moments. Scattered across the map are points where you set up a Forward Station. This acts as a quick travel point, and a place where you can restore your ammunition.

There's plenty of areas which are really beautiful to look at, but there are some blander areas and some copy-and-paste design. The wildlife on each planet is usually very similar; just basic palette swaps which isn't really realistic when the planets will have a completely different ecosystem.

There's loads of side missions that unlock on The Nexus as you progress through the story. The other races (Asari, Krogan, Turian and Salarian) arks are all missing which have their own set of missions.

The combat is similar to the main-line game, but there are some simplifications. Although you can command your 2 team-mates to attack certain enemies or go to certain positions, you cannot order them to use abilities. The cover system is automatic meaning you snap in and out of cover as you move, but it doesn't always work as you expect. These changes are very disappointing and make the combat gameplay seem too simplistic.

When you level up, you can increase your abilities in Assault, Biotic, Technical, and can be a combination of them. Your character has way more available abilities than your support characters and so you gain more points when you level up. When you spend points in an ability, sometimes you get a choice of the effect (could be extra damage, or larger damage radius).

There's equipment and resources to find as you explore. You can also buy them at shops, or spend your research points to obtain them. I didn't really pay much attention to this system. The menus seemed quite cluttered and hard to compare equipment to what you currently have.

Much was said about the poor facial animations and general bugs. Compared to some games, the animations aren't as good. It's been a long time since this game came out but it generally seemed fine to me. There were times where I saw characters suddenly jerk, or end up floating mid-air though.

The biggest disappointment to me was the lack of music. There is music in parts, but then there's sections where even the general ambience is lacking.

The game might not be as epic as the main series, but the effort to flesh out the universe to make it feel believable is very impressive. The amount of content in the game is very impressive too. I completed the main story with loads of side-quests and only managed to complete 63% in around 40 hours.