Set 600 years after the events of the original trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda eschews former protagonist Shepard in favor of a new character, Ryder. Ryder is one of two twins depending on which gender you choose, and he/she (I'll be saying "he" from this point forward) is one of many volunteers in the Andromeda initiative; a voyage undertaken by several species to the Andromeda galaxy in search of new planets to call home. As it turns out, Andromeda is home to a genocidal alien race known as the Kett, and through various twists of fate, it falls onto Ryder's shoulders to fulfill the initiative's mission and stop the Kett.
Let me get this out of the way right here: This is the weakest story in the franchise, even compared to Mass Effect 2 (which had absolutely zero story but at least had consistently good characters and one of the better end runs I've experienced). Unfortunately, I'm also inclined to say that the story here is weaker than in Dragon Age II, which at least posed several interesting moral questions. The game itself is better than Dragon Age II, as we'll discover as we go on, but the story is its weakest part. Now, when I say that the story is weak, that doesn't mean it's terrible, per-se. There are a few moments that saved it from being just an action movie plot, but not enough to make it worthy of the license.
Andromeda stumbles right out of the gate because it fails to establish the kind of stakes the original trilogy did. In the original trilogy, much of the weight came from the fact that all life in the galaxy was at stake, and if Shepard made one mistake, it could mean the end of every advanced civilization. In Mass Effect: Andromeda, the only lives that are at stake are the lives of a few thousand unnamed volunteers in a galaxy 600 years worth of travel away from home and some alien races that we haven't even remotely gotten acquainted with yet. It also doesn't help that Andromeda subscribes to the lazy-as-all-hell Fallout: New Vegas/Skyrim method of storytelling (a plot mission introduces you to a subplot, drops that subplot entirely, and makes the rest of the subplot into a series of side quests. The plot is essentially a delivery method for side quests and doesn't dare to stand on its own). Occasionally you'll get a mission that has some semblance of plot importance, but a majority of the story missions are just touching down on planets and making contact with someone there (much like Interstellar, except not overrated garbage) or just stopping by the Nexus (this game's equivalent of the Citadel from the original trilogy) to talk to somebody for a second. To prove this, I did a play through with nothing but the main quests and certain other side quests. As it turns out, the story missions involving touching down on a planet for a few seconds aren't actually required despite being labelled as "priority ops". In total, there were only a few quests that involved going somewhere new and fighting something, and the rest were "go here and talk to this person" or "scan this thing." Were it not for the fact that the side quests and activities are actually pretty fun, this lack of story would be a far greater blow.
As the human pathfinder for the initiative, Ryder is tasked with investigating five "Golden Worlds," worlds that show promise for habitation. Most of the side activities take place on these worlds, and many of these quests bring their respective planets closer to viability. This process gives you viability points, which in turn can be used to unlock stasis pods aboard the nexus. I thought this was pretty clever, actually. You see, there aren't enough resources to awaken all people from stasis, but as more and more worlds become more and more habitable, enough resources flow in to be able to allow for more people to be awakened. As a result, you see the Nexus grow more populated and see more side quests start to appear. It's an interesting way to organically keep the amount of side content manageable and consistent.
Ultimately, the side quests the contribute the most to viability are the ones dealing with the "vaults." I won't spoil what those are, but they're the major objectives of each planet. Certain planets will have local squabbles that need to be resolved as well, but the vaults are the key (of course, they're kind of rendered obsolete by the end, but I won't say why). In these vault quests, you'll be tasked with playing what is essentially sudoku a few times. It isn't exactly enthralling action, but I, for one, enjoyed the challenge. When you aren't playing sudoku, side quests will consist mostly of exploring the...admittedly pretty dull...planets, fighting enemies, finding clues to solve mysteries, etc. There is plenty of variety to be found in the side quests, and unlike the original Mass Effect, many of these side quests had intriguing enough premises that I wanted to do them.
When the quest premises fail, however, Andromeda's biggest strength saves the day. It admittedly takes some getting used to, especially if you're a Mass Effect veteran like me, but Andromeda's gameplay is actually the best that Bioware has ever made. At the start of the game, you pick a background that determines your initial powers, but that's the extent of anything resembling a class system. I'm not normally a fan of gutting class systems, but it actually works here. Andromeda allows you to create your own combat flow in a way I haven't seen since Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. When you level up, you choose from one of three trees to invest your skill points in: Combat, Biotics, or Tech. There are powers and passive abilities for all of these, and this system allows you to choose which powers best suit your play style. For example, I played using a shotgun as my only weapon, and the three powers I had mapped were all based around distance. Essentially, I could leap from higher ground, use my combat charge (in mid-air, I might add) to slam into an enemy on the other side of the arena, instantly bring up my reflective shield as I walked the distance to other enemies, and use a shockwave to knock enemies down when the shield failed. That flow of combat let me zip around the battlefield like I was playing Doom (Right Trigger Game of the Year 2016). It was something that I created organically, and I think this new approach to power selection was a brilliant choice on Bioware's part. If nothing else, the fact that this game is fun to play even given the amount of framerate drops that occur shows how well put-together the gameplay is.
That brings us to a subject we all knew was coming. Technical performance. Yes, animations are sometimes wonky and the graphics tend to be bad. But I'm a Dragon Age fan. Nobody gets to complain about graphics less than a Dragon Age fan. So, screw those problems. They don't matter. What matters is the host of other gigantic technical problems that Mass Effect: Andromeda boasts. If you can think of a technical problem, Mass Effect: Andromeda has it. Two of the same character spawning in a room? Entire portions of an area failing to render properly for a few seconds? Texture pop-in? Missing lines of dialogue? Lines of dialogue being cut off mid-sentence as another line plays instead? All of these and more happened to me, and I had one of the milder experiences from what I understand. Dragon Age: Inquisition had far more content than this, a smaller budget, and two years less development time, and it still ran smoothly (and looked better). It would be one thing if this game just looked bad, but this is something else entirely. When you get five years to make a game and tens of thousands of dollars with which to make it, this level of technical incompetence is unacceptable. These bugs didn't take too much away from my experience, but this will be reflected in my final score anyway, because it irks me that much.
At this point, there is still an aspect of Mass Effect's lifeblood that we haven't yet touched on. Earlier, we established that the story is weak...but what about the characters? It wouldn't be a Bioware title without a squad of character to grow close to and fight alongside. There are other characters outside of the crew, but in Mass Effect: Andromeda, those are boring right across the board, so I'll be focusing on the crew. While there weren't any Garruses or Talis, this cast of characters wasn't terrible. I'll just go in order from least-liked to most-liked.
First, there's Liam. The human male companion. I always feel so sorry for the voice actors who play the human male character in Mass Effect games. Much like wearing a red shirt in Star Trek dooms you to die on a mission, being a human male character in Mass Effect dooms you to forever sit on the ship, never taking part in any missions save for the beginning and your loyalty quest. Liam wasn't a bad character, he was just a product of his species and gender combination.
Then there's Vetra, the female Turian companion. She was barely a cut above Liam, but she at least had the benefit of being an alien. That alone gets you taken on at least a few missions in Mass Effect.
Up next we have Cora, the female human companion. She...how to describe this? Bear with me a moment. You know that rich white girl you know who went to India to "find herself" right after college, came back wearing outfits that frequenters of NowThis news might call culturally appropriative, started claiming her religion was the universe, and stopped washing her hands? That isn't a 100% accurate way to describe Cora, but its the closest I can think of. And you know what? It was a really interesting new kind of character. I took Cora on a number of missions because darn it all, I thought her story was pretty fascinating. She's far more no-nonsense and military-trained than the aforementioned rich white girl, but you'll see what I mean as you learn more about her.
Heading up the top three is Nakmor Drack...the Krogan. Look, there's only one kind of Krogan character, but Drack was an interesting new way to view that one kind of Krogan character, and you'll just have to see why for yourself.
Then there's Jaal, who is a member of one of the new alien races. The race itself isn't compelling, but Jaal was by far the most complex character on the team.
And finally, my favorite of the characters....was PeeBee, the Asari companion. I thought I was going to hate PeeBee, just because she looked like a new Sera (Right Trigger Lamest Character of the Year Award Winner 2014, from Dragon Age: Inquisition) in the trailers. However, as a brilliant engineer and academic, PeeBee turned out to be quite a compelling character with unexpected motivations for coming to Andromeda. I was legitimately surprised that I didn't hate her...in fact, I enjoyed her character more than the others to such an extent that it provides a convenient segway into our next topic.
When the original Mass Effect launched back in 2007, Fox News and its cronies had a field day with it because of its use of sex scenes. One trailer showed a human woman and a blue alien woman in the buff, and the soccer moms of Fox News couldn't wait to get their grimy little paws on it. Ever since then, the saga has had a reputation for being about "flying to new planets and having sex with aliens." While its certainly true that you do fly to new planets and can, in fact, have sex with aliens, there's always been more to it than that. A staple of the Bioware RPG is the romantic subplot. In their eyes, an interactive story where you call the shots should also let you choose who the love interest is. As the games have progressed, these romantic subplots have been better and better developed. The key word here is "context." The Fox News folks would have you believe that all you do in Mass Effect is take the "M" off the title, but these romantic subplots always center around some emptiness in a character's life that the protagonist happens to come around and mend. While its also true that some fans of the series perpetuate the "I'm just in it to bang aliens" mentality, these people, once again, miss the point.
To illustrate this, I'd like to point to the love interest I chose in the original trilogy: Tali. THERE WILL BE MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MASS EFFECT 3 (Right Trigger Game of the Year 2012) HERE. If you don't want to know, keep scrolling until you see more all caps. For those new to the saga, Tali was a quarian, a member of an alien race with a weak immune system as a result of having lived on a mostly sterile planet until driven out by hostile machines. The quarians spend their entire lives in exosuits, as even the slightest contact to foreign contaminants could cause serious health issues. This was a character whose face you never once saw, whose body you never saw, for whom there was no "scene." Instead, Tali loved Shepard because he saw the brilliant engineer and person behind the suit, and despite having the ability, she never had to prove anything to him for him to think she was worthwhile. That, dear readers, is not "fly to new planets and have sex with aliens." That is storytelling and character development. While Tali's story was my favorite of them, these kinds of stories were found amongst all of the trilogy's love interests. That's what I wish the folks at Fox News and the folks like them would realize. No "fly to new planets and have sex with aliens" subplot could end with Tali tearfully uttering the words "I have a home," as the man she loved unknowingly marched to his death. You may wonder why I'm bringing all of this up right now, why I'm spending so much time ranting about the media's view of the original trilogy when the item on the docket today isn't part of it.
SPOILERS OVER
The reason I bring all this up is because Mass Effect: Andromeda steps up its game in both aspects of the romantic subplot, and I wanted everyone to be clear on exactly what that means. I guess I'll get the awkward part out of the way first. Dragon Age: Inquisition was the first Bioware title to show full toplessness, and while Andromeda (thankfully) doesn't take the obvious next "one-up" step, it still ups the magnitude to a considerable degree. In the past, Bioware "love" scenes have always been a tad cringy and poorly animated. I can't say for certain whether or not that has changed in Andromeda, because my experience was still awkward, but for different reasons. The animation at least appeared to be better, so it might not have been as cringy...had the music/any ambient noise at all not failed to load. In the past, there was always some specific, beautiful track that made things less awkward, but here it was just...dialogue...and...noise (not really the kind you're thinking, but incredibly awkward nonetheless). I found myself compulsively clearing my throat, looking from side to side to make sure the Pope hadn't entered my apartment to offer me his blessing in spite of my Protestantism, and taking my headphones off to make sure they were really plugged in. The fan was off, the room was a little too warm, and it was just all around kind of not a good experience. So, yeah, next gen hardware still can't make things like this not cringy. If you live with your family or with young eyes and ears or with the aforementioned Pope, I'd recommend being sure of your surroundings the moment it seems like Ryder is going to live up to his name.
I mentioned that Bioware had upped their game in both aspects, so rest assured, at least in the case of PeeBee, the actual romantic subplot has also seen some degree of improvement. Throughout the plot I noticed that, as I picked the flirty dialogue options with PeeBee, regular mission dialogue would become progressively flirtier as well. As a whole, the romantic subplot felt more organic...at least in the case of PeeBee, and to a lesser degree, Cora (who I chose for playthrough #2). Granted, it isn't perfect. Bioware still hasn't figured out how to make "I should go" lines change when the protagonist is talking to their love interest. Its kind of a jarring shift in tone when a conversation goes:
Ryder: *in a smooth, seductive tone* Are we...getting together later?
PeeBee: *in a similar tone* If I have anything to say about it, yes.
Ryder: *in a completely official tone* Thanks for chatting. We'll talk again soon.
(Like, come on, Bioware, it wouldn't be that hard to have the actor record a better ending line. It would, in fact, be less difficult than all the work you did to have flirty dialogue happen organically throughout the game.)
Putting the awkward ending lines out of the picture, though, the romantic subplot in Mass Effect: Andromeda is, at the very least, better than it was in Dragon Age: Inquisition, which had the weakest romantic subplot of any Bioware title to date.
Well, folks, we've come to the end of this review. Thus far we've determined that the story and technical prowess of Mass Effect: Andromeda are lacking while some of the characters and the gameplay pick up the slack. I've seen reviews ranging the entire spectrum, and I myself have had several thoughts on what score I ought to give it. In the introduction, I mentioned that the score I've decided on is going to seem high, but that there was one major caveat to go along with it. The caveat is this: I did nearly everything I could do in Mass Effect: Andromeda. I cycled through characters (yes, even Liam) pretty regularly so that I got exposure to each of them on a consistent basis, I got every planet to 100% viability, I completed every companion quest and several side quests as well, and I even did some scanning in space (not enough to properly review that aspect, though). I played my money's worth in this game, and I can say with certainty that if you take the time to do that, this game is worth the score I'm about to give it. If you don't take the time, if you rush through it, or if you don't already love the universe, it would be fair to say that this game earns a lower score and that you maybe should wait for the price to fall. Either way, I can't put off giving this score that will get fanboys from both sides of the spectrum screaming at me any longer, so here we go.
Its been a decent amount of time since my last review, so if you're new to this blog, I score games by subtracting points from 10 based on the negatives. Any single negative can take off a maximum of 1 point, and the exact amount each negative takes off is determined by how much that negative affected my experience. Something that takes off a full point, in other words, is something that really got in the way, whereas something that takes off 0.1 points was only a minor annoyance
So let us review
-Weak Story: -1
-Somewhat dull planets: -0.3
-Technical Problems: -0.7
So, the final score for Mass Effect: Andromeda with the caveat that the score is earned by investing time is...
8.0/10 - Good
Please be careful next time, Bioware, please be careful next time.
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