Seriously, if there is one game out there that absolutely did not deserve the hate it got, it was Mass Effect: Andromeda. And I’m actually kind of… stunned, looking back at the game over a year later, at just how actually good it is.
And at the risk of stoking the ire of even Mass Effect’s own fandom, I’m going to say this: I don’t just think Andromeda is one of the best RPGs to come out in the last few years (though not the best), but it may actually be the best Mass Effect game overall. And I’m going to explain why.
I loved the original Mass Effect; and I felt that the sequels lost something, as they moved more toward action and left the exploration thing behind. The Mako was abandoned, the planet landing was abandoned, and the RPG system was greatly simplified. Mass Effect 3 was even worse, having far fewer side-missions than Mass Effect 2 offered; and they were done on the game’s multiplayer maps.
This made Mass Effect 3, in addition to other problems I won’t go over here, too short and with not enough chances to show off that the game actually had a really strong and slick combat system. If you liked ME3′s combat, then you’d have to jump into multiplayer, because of how restrictive the singleplayer felt.
Mass Effect: Andromeda… adressed all of these concerns. Literally, all of them. With the focus on a semi-open world and the Nomad, they revisited ME1′s original aim of planetary exploration and vehicle mechanics, and improved these aspects immensely.
ME:A also built on the ME2/ME3 RPG mechanics, expanding them into something that brought back the feeling of bredth and choice ME1 had, so it feels like a proper RPG again.
Further? Biotics. Biotics are so fun, especially if you get the Adept or Vanguard profiles. Then you can do biotic dodges and jumps; so you basically get to zip around like a superhero. It’s so fun, and I can’t emphasize that enough. :D
ME:A also built on the customization options in ME3, and added a pretty decent crafting system. Combined with the ability to create outposts and explore vast stretches of land on multiple worlds, it almost feels like ME:A basically took many of the same design goals as Fallout 4… and did them all infinitely better.
Andromeda’s story is also, surprisingly, compelling and takes a much different direction than the “stopping doomsday” plot that drove the entire main trilogy. What begins as a bold, inspirational narrative of exploration quickly turns to desperation as the reality of just how bad the Heleus Cluster is, sets in. Then you find hope again, by finding the means to make planets livable again.
Most of the characters are also very good, and a step up I think from most BioWare games. You’ll probably quickly notice that many of the humans are people of color, and many of the aliens are likewise interesting and memorable.
Probably the most immediate thing I noticed is that the heterosexual male love interest… is a black man from London, with natural hair and a non-stereotypical accent (read: a Londoner who isn’t a Cockney). Considering the realities of modern London and its status as a mulicultural, cosmopolitan world city, this is a step most media (games, TV, and movies alike) do not do. Overwatch’s Tracer is probably the most immediate example I can think of, of a place where they could have reflected modern London’s diversity, and chose to go with the stereotype.
Not that Andromeda is perfect. It still has a lot of issues that are BioWare-native, and at this point some of them are pretty irritating.
First off, is your sibling. In a grand tradition that arguably started with Baldur’s Gate 2, BioWare always takes the PC’s sibling away. Dragon Age 2 outright killed off one, and had the other taken out of commission in Act 2, only to make a cameo in Act 3. And at the very beginning of Andromeda… your brother (or sister, if you play as a male, but why would you do that?) is put into a coma, and stays this way for most of the game. In fact, I’m almost to the fourth planet, and I still don’t know if Scott will ever wake up.
Then, there’s Cora. BioWare always takes some clearly queer-coded female character, one who looks, acts, and behaves like a lesbian, and then… makes her straight, for some reason. Cassandra was an egregious enough example in Dragon Age: Inquisition, but Cora dials it up to eleven.
This is on top of the fact that Cora is like some kind of weeaboo, but for the asari. She obsesses over the asari to the point that she seems to care more about them than about her own species, or the Initiative overall.
So basically… she’s a human biotic, who served with all-female asari commandos, and takes the input of asari matriarchs over any and all other authority figures… but… she only romances… men… right…
Then there’s her loyalty mission, where Cora becomes disillusioned with her idol, an asari Pathfinder, because she left the last Pathfinder to die in order to save the entire Asari Ark, the Leusinia. Even though Pathfinders all take the job knowing it’s super-dangerous, and they die a lot. Even though the asari are basically Mass Effect’s vulcans/space elves, and this is a classic example of putting the needs of the many over the needs of the few or the one.
Her anger toward the Asari Pathfinder makes no sense whatsoever, and her angst over this “moral conundrum” falls completely flat. And this is totally leaving aside the fact that the asari *are not her people*. I just wish sometimes an asari matriarch would tell her to shut the fuck up, and go be a weeb somewhere else.
Moving beyond all that, I feel like Kadara is the most interesting planet in the game, and where Andromeda really begins to spread its wings. In addition to really opening up the galactic map with new locations and quests, and finally bringing the oft-mentioned Exiles into play, Kadara Port is a beautiful, grimy, cyberpunky-looking place. It’s like Omega in ME2, and I absolutely love it.
Not to mention Reyes Vidal, who has to be this game’s most awesome character. He has the charisma to really make a mark on the game, and I love him. Even Sloan Kelly is cool, for many of the same reasons as Aria T’Loak; she’s lovable in spite of the dirty deeds she’s up to her armpits in.
But those are my thoughts for now. I might post more later.
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