Mass Effect: Andromeda

So after self isolation in 2020 I decided to travel as far as I could, so I picked Andromeda Galaxy... After an edgy launch in 2017 Andromeda was hated and obliterated... Maybe at launch it was pretty bad with all these animation issues and bugs... Some time passed, game was patched and since in 2020 there is not many worthy sci fi RPGs to play anyway I decided I will give it a go... My God It's full of stars... Now I am reviewing the game as someone who played all 3 mass effect titles , 2 Kotor titles and Dragon age 1 &2... What can I say about Andromeda? I am enjoying it... As much as I am a fan of ME2 , which had one of the best stories ever, Andromeda does not shine with story and dialogues as much... But the exploration and combat mechanics as well as character building is actually better... I now suspect that it's fans of ME2 that generally hated Andromeda... ME2 was the most cinematic and more action focused than exploration focused out of the 3 and since majority of gamers come from that background anyway I can see why they hated Mass Effect franchise leaning toward ME1...

Regardless of your thoughts relating to the ending of Mass Effect 3 back in 2012, at least the Bioware team making that game had the excuse of being under the gun to create something in 18 months that was not only new, but also to build upon technical advancements made in Mass Effect 2. Such a limited timescale no matter your resources, leaves little time to explore the creative aspects that often need much input and refining to really make the material into something that will be interesting, and impactful to the gamer playing it.

I do not however, have such sympathy for the team that made this mess. Who not only had over 5 years, a budget of over $40million, but most crucially a free creative pass to make almost any sort of Mass Effect game they wanted to. The drip-feed releases of screenshots and game footage showed promise, especially with Mass Effect now transitioning to the Frostbite engine. The changing of the November 2016 release date to March 2017 again showed promise, that Bioware & EA were actually going to take real care with Mass Effect after they damage they took in 2012. I myself was quite hopeful that this was going to be a great game to put things back on track.

Then we got to play the game for the 10 hour trial, and……oh my. If it wasn't a matter of public knowledge they spent 5 years on this, I'd have thought they cobbled this together in a year, and then didn't bother to QA or beta test it. If there wasn't such a thing as a 5 year rush job for a production of this nature, then Mass Effect Andromeda is the first. Graphically the game is nice, and some of the scenery can even be breath-taking, but now we get to what really brings it down. The animations, specifically character face ones. I've never seen backwards progress on such a thing until now, the ones from the original Mass Effect back in 2007 are better than these ones, and they weren't the best to begin with! With this being a game you spend hours talking to people, this is a key basic you need to get right. When characters greet the news that they've lost a friend or family member with their eyes darting around, and producing a goofy, vacuous smile like they have mental issues, then you have a fundamental problem with your game. Serious stuff ends up inducing laughter, and the actual comedy just becomes slapstick comedy since even punches characters make don't connect as if you were watching WWE.

Enemies glitch out of nowhere, your party members glitch all around you in combat, NPCs appear/vanish from thin air, some cutscenes don't trigger, some quests don't advance, dialogue in hub areas all cut one another off, so you can't listen in to any of it. Heck, there was even a bug where my character turned into something like the liquid metal T-1000 from Terminator 2!

It ends up being death by a thousand cuts, a few of those issues you could live with, but being so many of them that directly impede or taint your experience, it goes beyond farce and definitely beyond unacceptable. It's not worth talking about the story or lore, which have their own issues.

At the most basic level, Mass Effect Andromeda fails to be a good, solid game first and a Mass Effect game second. There is undoubted potential here, but it's all ruined by the awful work made of putting it together. There's so much wrong that if you couldn't laugh at it, you'd cry instead.

Don't bother getting this for at least a year, when they've hopefully fixed it or you can get it at bargain bucket prices. It's not worth your time or money in its current state, more importantly a purchase for this game now, is telling Bioware & EA that it's okay to release games in this state, and it simply isn't!

Don't jump on the bandwagon that some harsh critics started. This game is actually very good! It's only real flaw is that it had to follow one of the greatest trilogies ever. Yes, people wanted insane graphics and they wanted mind blowing gameplay, but realistically, how likely was it that this game was going to be everything that everyone wanted it to be??

I played through this game after completing the first three and I really enjoyed it. I loved the sense of being in an unknown galaxy, where nothing is known and everything is being experienced for the first time.

Yes, there are some flaws with graphics (in very few places if at all now that BioWare have patched them). And the lack of alien species encountered in this new galaxy can be a bit frustrating. But overall I thought this was a brilliant game, and a very good follow up to the original trilogy with a very good storyline and characters that have serious potential if this new series of games is allowed to unfold without everyone hating on it.

I encourage you, ignore the original hate, start playing with an open mind and you will honestly enjoy this game for what it has to offer!

Mass Effect: Andromeda begins in the year 2185, when you set out on a journey in large ships with the goal of settling the Andromeda galaxy. A coalition of Milky Way races - human, asari, turian, salarian and krogan join the 600 year journey and are placed in deep sleep machines to ensure they don't age during the journey. Prior to the voyage, worlds in Andromeda's Heleus Cluster had been identified as highly suitable for settlement. Each ship consists of a crew led by a pathfinder tasked with exploring these worlds and other potential locations and making sure they are safe before settlement begins.

Depending on your initial choice, the game can start with one of the Ryder twins, Scott or Sara Ryder, and then you follow their father, pathfinder Alec Ryder, as he tries to assist in his endeavors. Alec and his children are traveling aboard the Hyperion, one of the ships with mostly human passengers. Unlike the familiar Shepard from previous games, the Ryder brothers do not have a respected status in the past, instead the protagonist's character and reputation grows as the story progresses. Since the events in Andromeda take place in the future, characters from the original trilogy are not present, and decisions made in past installments have no impact during the events in this game. This has been done to ensure that the game is understandable for new players. However, references to some of the characters from the original trilogy games can also be found for older players during exploration and interaction with various people.

The morality system of Paragon and Renegade choices from previous games has been changed. Tone of speech choices are used instead. Tone choices no longer fully affect gameplay as they did in the previous games, so Ryder is free to speak as harshly as he wants without affecting gameplay. As in the original trilogy, there's a Galaxy Map for navigating space, but it's different from its predecessors. The map is located at the helm and uses an overlay over the actual view of space. There is still the scanning of valuable minerals on planets that was in the previous games. This time the resource scanning is done on planetary surfaces using the ND1 Nomad. The main starship Tempest does not require refueling when traveling through space, unlike the Normandy SR-2.

The game features side quests similar to those in the Witcher series. Producer Mike Gamble has emphasized that Andromeda is not an open world game, but rather an exploration-based game. Either way, it is not linear. Ryder can learn any skill and is not locked into a single progression tree. In a given game, Ryder can have combat, tech and biotic abilities, while Shepard, the protagonist of the previous games, was limited to a maximum of two skill categories. However, Ryder's teammates do not have such flexibility and follow more typical classes. Ryder's abilities can be optionally reset on a regular basis as the situation dictates.

Ryder can unlock profiles by investing skill points in certain ways. For example, players who focus on combat and biotic powers can unlock the Vanguard profile. Each profile comes with bonuses tailored to the player's style. Six of the profiles correspond to existing Mass Effect classes. The seventh profile is called the Explorer and is obtained by investing skill points in combat, biotic and technology powers. Combat is faster than in previous games. Power wheel pausing and aiming have been removed. The game can still be paused, but it is no longer part of strategies. Characters automatically take cover when heading towards an object and leave it just as quickly.

Two types of vitality are gained by the player during the game. The first type is the AVP icon. These points are earned just by playing the game. Completing missions, interacting with the team, exploring and pretty much everything Ryder does can potentially earn points. These points increase his Nexus rank and allow him to awaken more of his expedition members who are still in Cryo sleep. The second type of points is known as vitality and is earned directly on specific planets, which unlocks more activity on that planet. Mass Effect: Andromeda also introduces a crafting system where Ryder can acquire blueprints for armor and weapons throughout the campaign. Weapons can be given custom names, and there is also a slot reserved for a new class of weapon now known as melee weapons. Six teammates are available to choose from during gameplay. Mass Effect Andromeda offers over 60 hours of gameplay.

I think the extremely bad reviews exaggerated and consider the game a must-have for any RPG, and especially fans of the series!