Now I know I said I was gonna finish up Nier this week. But the shit storm around Mass Effect: Andromeda was too much to ignore. So Nier is gonna have to be a bit late. You guys don't mind right? I didn't think so.
Here we go.
Mass Effect: Andromeda (ME:A) has some mighty big shoes to fill. Regardless of how you felt about the ending to the original triology (it was shit), Mass Effect has a legacy of great characters that we've all grown attached too. At least if you have played the ME games before, if not, then I doubt this review even concerns you. So a new ME game set in a new universe with a whole new cast of characters all trying to be just as good as the originals is just about impossible, especially when you consider the way the story turned out for the original characters.
But on paper ME:A sounds like a great idea to continue the franchise without having to work out all the fine details. Which is an interesting statement when you consider just how many fine details were "overlooked" in ME:A. The premise is, the major races (not the minor ones because fuck them the reapers can have those worthless shits) created migration ships called arks and sent them off with a decent starting population to a new galaxy. The races figured that the fight with the reapers was gonna go belly up, so this served as a nice back-up plan to keep the plague of their existence going. And all told, it's a really good concept. It gives us a plausible reason to not only have a new galaxy to explore, but also make yet another game with all the same lovable races that we've grown to love in the first games.
The problem is...it's only a good idea on paper, because in practice the writing throughout ME:A is dogshit. The characters are fairly shallow, with highlights here and there, the tone of each character varies on a whim or plot convenience, it's like a bunch of 13-year-old school boys all got together to write a massive Mass Effect Fan Fiction, but forgot to talk to each other to make sure their stories inconnected in a natural fashion. So you end up with a clunky story with a lot of random atmosphere to it. You team members will ask a question about what happened to a ruined outpost, then immediately answer their own question as if they suddenly got struck with a lightning bolt of clairvoyance.
Not that it really took me out of the game however. You see, even though it is sloppy, I found myself enjoying the story because the premise still remains very good throughout. It's like watching a really bad movie, still fun and enjoyable even if you spend most of your time laughing at it. When you consider that the gameplay hasn't really changed much from ME-3's enjoyable combat, you have enough of a fun experience to keep you going despite some cringy writing here and there.
Let's talk for a second about the black cloud that has hung over the game since previews started popping up online. The animations are shit. However when you are playing the game, you are paying more attention to the story and deciding your dialog options than REALLY focusing on the jank. Facial expressions have never been Bioware's strong suit, and it is hard to real expect them to suddenly be CD-Project Red. What you do notice is the sheer amount of bugs through the game. Whether you character's walking animation breaks after landing on a rock that makes him/her look like their doing the studder step, to gameplay mechanics breaking. I had an issue with the climbing mechanic just randomly stop working completely for no reason, forcing me to shut the game down and reboot it to get Ryder to sudden remember that you can grab onto ledges. Enemy AI breaks to the point where they'll get knocked down and just lay there while you murder them, or get stuck in walls which always yields that fun gameplay element where they can shoot you but you can't shoot them.
As I played the more I felt like I was playing a Bethesda game. Mass Effect by way of the kings of weird open-world RPG's. Say what you want about Bioware's animations, I never personally saw any bugs in the original trilogy when it was made by people who actually gave a shit.
Never-the-less there is something I quite enjoyed about ME:A and I find it really hard to shut the game down completely.
Objectively, the writing is hit or very very very very miss. The side missions are mundane, the "tasks" or "Side side misssions" are incredible trash, the scanning mechanic is annoying for how important it is, the crafting system is cluttered and unfriendly to use to the point where I only ever used it to craft upgrades to my weapon of choice the Assault Rifle.
However, the worlds are beautiful and watching a world transform into a livable planet as you complete objectives on it is really satifying. The Nexus growing as you increase it's capability to support more and more people feels good as well even if it isn't as cool as the Citadel. The Mako doesn't handle great, but it is way better than it was in the first game.
ME:A does everything the original trilogy did to try and get you attached to it. Character relationships, Mako driving, planet scanning, if you did it in a previous game, you are going to do it here. Sadly the writing is the most important thing in an RPG like this, and the writing is so up and down in it's quality that the game loses a lot of its potential. You don't end up caring about your companions as much, because they aren't written as well as old favorites. Not that they aren't unlikable, they just aren't good enough to strike those same chords.
In the end though the concept was enough to get me through ME:A. Like watching a fun but terrible movie, there is fun and enjoyment to be had here. All credit to them, there is actually a ton of content here as well, but most of it may not be interesting enough to compel you to do it all.
ME:A is a solid 5/10 for me. It's a good time, if you don't take it so seriously and you don't try to milk everything out of it. I'd easily say it's worth playing if you can get it cheap, if for nothing more than to get through the main story.
Here we go.
Mass Effect: Andromeda (ME:A) has some mighty big shoes to fill. Regardless of how you felt about the ending to the original triology (it was shit), Mass Effect has a legacy of great characters that we've all grown attached too. At least if you have played the ME games before, if not, then I doubt this review even concerns you. So a new ME game set in a new universe with a whole new cast of characters all trying to be just as good as the originals is just about impossible, especially when you consider the way the story turned out for the original characters.
But on paper ME:A sounds like a great idea to continue the franchise without having to work out all the fine details. Which is an interesting statement when you consider just how many fine details were "overlooked" in ME:A. The premise is, the major races (not the minor ones because fuck them the reapers can have those worthless shits) created migration ships called arks and sent them off with a decent starting population to a new galaxy. The races figured that the fight with the reapers was gonna go belly up, so this served as a nice back-up plan to keep the plague of their existence going. And all told, it's a really good concept. It gives us a plausible reason to not only have a new galaxy to explore, but also make yet another game with all the same lovable races that we've grown to love in the first games.
The problem is...it's only a good idea on paper, because in practice the writing throughout ME:A is dogshit. The characters are fairly shallow, with highlights here and there, the tone of each character varies on a whim or plot convenience, it's like a bunch of 13-year-old school boys all got together to write a massive Mass Effect Fan Fiction, but forgot to talk to each other to make sure their stories inconnected in a natural fashion. So you end up with a clunky story with a lot of random atmosphere to it. You team members will ask a question about what happened to a ruined outpost, then immediately answer their own question as if they suddenly got struck with a lightning bolt of clairvoyance.
Not that it really took me out of the game however. You see, even though it is sloppy, I found myself enjoying the story because the premise still remains very good throughout. It's like watching a really bad movie, still fun and enjoyable even if you spend most of your time laughing at it. When you consider that the gameplay hasn't really changed much from ME-3's enjoyable combat, you have enough of a fun experience to keep you going despite some cringy writing here and there.
Let's talk for a second about the black cloud that has hung over the game since previews started popping up online. The animations are shit. However when you are playing the game, you are paying more attention to the story and deciding your dialog options than REALLY focusing on the jank. Facial expressions have never been Bioware's strong suit, and it is hard to real expect them to suddenly be CD-Project Red. What you do notice is the sheer amount of bugs through the game. Whether you character's walking animation breaks after landing on a rock that makes him/her look like their doing the studder step, to gameplay mechanics breaking. I had an issue with the climbing mechanic just randomly stop working completely for no reason, forcing me to shut the game down and reboot it to get Ryder to sudden remember that you can grab onto ledges. Enemy AI breaks to the point where they'll get knocked down and just lay there while you murder them, or get stuck in walls which always yields that fun gameplay element where they can shoot you but you can't shoot them.
As I played the more I felt like I was playing a Bethesda game. Mass Effect by way of the kings of weird open-world RPG's. Say what you want about Bioware's animations, I never personally saw any bugs in the original trilogy when it was made by people who actually gave a shit.
Never-the-less there is something I quite enjoyed about ME:A and I find it really hard to shut the game down completely.
Objectively, the writing is hit or very very very very miss. The side missions are mundane, the "tasks" or "Side side misssions" are incredible trash, the scanning mechanic is annoying for how important it is, the crafting system is cluttered and unfriendly to use to the point where I only ever used it to craft upgrades to my weapon of choice the Assault Rifle.
However, the worlds are beautiful and watching a world transform into a livable planet as you complete objectives on it is really satifying. The Nexus growing as you increase it's capability to support more and more people feels good as well even if it isn't as cool as the Citadel. The Mako doesn't handle great, but it is way better than it was in the first game.
ME:A does everything the original trilogy did to try and get you attached to it. Character relationships, Mako driving, planet scanning, if you did it in a previous game, you are going to do it here. Sadly the writing is the most important thing in an RPG like this, and the writing is so up and down in it's quality that the game loses a lot of its potential. You don't end up caring about your companions as much, because they aren't written as well as old favorites. Not that they aren't unlikable, they just aren't good enough to strike those same chords.
In the end though the concept was enough to get me through ME:A. Like watching a fun but terrible movie, there is fun and enjoyment to be had here. All credit to them, there is actually a ton of content here as well, but most of it may not be interesting enough to compel you to do it all.
ME:A is a solid 5/10 for me. It's a good time, if you don't take it so seriously and you don't try to milk everything out of it. I'd easily say it's worth playing if you can get it cheap, if for nothing more than to get through the main story.