Mass Effect Andromeda review

Mass Effect Andromeda is very much a black sheep. As an entirely new entry in the esteemed Mass Effect series, it’s perhaps fitting that this game was developed by a completely different team than the original trilogy. Unfortunately, it shows.

Depending on the size of the rock you live under, you’re probably aware of the controversy surrounding this game. I won’t bother going into it all too much as I’m sure most people are already aware of the issues plaguing Andromeda, but the title suffers from numerous bugs and glitches, including some rather amusing ones, and what seems to be a simple lack of effort as far as facial animation goes. All you need is to search youtube and you’ll find numerous compilations of such things, and while some of these problems have been patched or will be in the future they’ve already damaged the game for a lot of people, making it difficult for players to be immersed. But this is a review, not a bug report, so lets get into the game proper.

You would be forgiven for thinking Andromeda takes place in an entirely different plane of existence to the first trilogy due to a complete lack of connection as far as story elements go, which means new players can easily jump into the series with this title and honestly, given the setting and entire point of the main character, it works. The story of the game focuses on your character; Ryder, and his crew venturing into the titular Andromeda galaxy to find a new home for humanity, a second earth if you will. Led by your dear old dad you head out on your first expedition, and without spoiling too much things take a turn for the worse (as they tend to when humans poke around in places they know next to nothing about) and Ryder is thrown into an adventure they were never prepared for. This is actually an aspect of the story I really enjoyed, and one that seems to have gone largely unnoticed by others.

Ryder is by no means the leader the former protagonist Shepard was, and this is a consistent element throughout the story. Ryder comes off as a curious rookie who’s very much new to everything around them, and their inexperience is subtly highlighted in one scene that stood out to me. After arranging their first meeting as a team, Ryder’s crew find themselves at odds with one another and the whole thing ends with bickering and people storming off, all while Ryder unsuccessfully tries to control the situation. Watching their upset allies leaving, a disappointed Ryder murmurs ‘good talk, team’ immediately providing a stark contrast with Shepard, who always seemed to know what to say and generally led his squad without the slightest issue. It’s a small touch, but it reminds us that the character we’re playing as is different this time around. As the story unfolds it follows a fairly safe, perhaps even predictable formula with some interesting turns here and there. While it wasn’t the most thrilling plot I’ve witnessed in a video game it was far from the worst, and honestly I was just as engaged as I was with the prior trilogy.

Gameplay is undoubtedly where this game shines the most, many can agree on this. Having played the original trilogy, I found the combat of those games a bit sluggish, especially given the fantastic sci-fi setting, I felt like such advanced technology and mind-blowing biotic powers were a bit under-utilized. Andromeda however fully embraces what the universe has to offer to make combat as exhilarating as possible, just the jump jet alone adds a whole new element of verticality to encounters which changes the way you play entirely. That’s not even getting into your ability to rapidly dash around and combo certain abilities together for action-packed moments that just make you feel, to put it bluntly, pretty damn awesome, all to a fairly solid background score. The combat has evolved beyond the straightforward point and shoot approach of the previous games, rather than a generic space marine you feel like a technologically advanced hero, and this would honestly make Andromeda my favourite entry in the series if the other aspects of the game had been handled better. An issue I had with the original trilogy has been addressed – I no longer feel as though I have to slog through combat to get to the good part; the story. Sadly, instead of resolving the matter, it’s merely been inverted. I find most combat encounters thrilling and enjoyable, the difficulty satisfyingly challenging, but then once I’m done with it I have to go back to staring at my Ryder’s weird lumpy face again.

This brings me to my next point; the visuals. I was especially excited for this game’s character creation considering I had always found this aspect of the prior games lacking, and got my hopes up as things were looking rather promising for Andromeda. Imagine my disappointment when I loaded up character creation and was met with a bunch of equally ugly dudes to play as. It isn’t much better for female characters either, and this is something many NPC’s suffer from as well. A lot of characters look…weird. Not always outright unsightly, but just…off. The aliens are fine, but the humans have a way of…not looking entirely human all the time. Some games are criticized for making characters unrealistically pretty, but I would criticize this game for making characters look unrealistically ugly, and really, if we have to choose, which would you prefer? Having characters with visual flaws or traits uncommonly seen is fine, and can even add to the character, but pushing things too far into being a freakshow actually results in alienating normal people. That or it was a result of lazy modelling which is just as bad if not worse. On the other hand, the environments of this game are for the most part gorgeous, and the vast open nature of each area makes you want to explore and discover, which is the whole motive of the plot itself, tying the story to the player’s actions. Many of the biotic effects are suitably flashy and spectacular, most of the armor and weapons are well done, and the visuals really do aid the experience as you venture across various different planets in the Nomad, your vehicle of choice which is pretty much what you’d expect it to be.

Side quests can be a divisive thing in RPGs, and it all depends on how they’re handled. Are they interesting, self-contained, smaller stories that remind you that the setting is a living breathing world (or in this case, galaxy) or are they pointless ‘go here, do this’ fetch quests that add nothing to the story and feel as though they have no purpose? Sadly, there are many of Andromeda’s side quests that fall into the latter category, and this is exactly why many gamers groan at the idea of carrying them out. That said, it does have its own share of intruiging side plots that draw you in – it would just benefit from more of them. You want to make the player feel obligated to carry out the side quest of their own volition, not feel like they have to or question why person A can’t just walk across the hall and talk to person B themselves. Fortunately, simply exploring different planets can be a rewarding experience on its own as you acquire numerous materials and gather points via scanning new discoveries that you can spend on upgrades later. It’s a neat way of allowing players to progress without needing to be in combat at all times.

When talking about Mass Effect Andromeda, it’s hard not to think about what could have been. To Bioware Montreal’s credit, as I mentioned earlier they have been actively patching the game, but sadly the damage has largely been done. It’s the little things that hold it back; needing to switch between two different modes in the Nomad – which is an arbitrary mechanic in the first place – simply because you started travelling up the slightest incline, or your personal AI character SAM constantly reminding you that you can mine for resources at mining points whenever you arrive at one. But is it as bad as the masses claim? In my opinion, not at all. In fact, I’d recommend this game to anyone seeking a sci-fi RPG experience, because the things it does right, it does quite well, and the generally minor bugs (most of which have been touched up at this point) aren’t enough to change that. But given how the title seems to sour the mood upon being so much as mentioned, it’s easy to hope for better should a sequel be on the cards.