Mass Effect: Andromeda – A Missed Opportunity
Mass Effect is a series close to mine and many gamers’ hearts. If you read my memories piece , you’ll know the carefully-crafted stories far surpass anything imitators have tried, and have enabled me to forgive a lot of gameplay issues. Andromeda, on the other hand, tested me like no other instalment ever has.

Welcome to the Initiative, Pathfinder
By kicking off events between Mass Effect 2 and 3, the writers have neatly sidestepped the burning question of which ending to that trilogy is canon. They made an odd decision to throw you into the deep end, starting the story with your arrival in the Andromeda galaxy with no build-up. More jarring is that your character is supposed to have a close relationship with your father and (initially) comatose twin, but that relationship is never established. As a result, I had no connection to either character. A short intro, like the beginning of the The Last of Us, would’ve tied this game to the original trilogy and established your character and their relationships.



After the short prologue, you are immediately thrown into conflict with the main villains, the Kett. You land on a planet and you see them attacking your crew members. We do not see if we, as the alien colonists, have created a misunderstanding that led to this. All we get is that they are big, scary, and want to kill us. A more nuanced introduction that leads to war would’ve better served the game’s narrative. Instead, we basically get the simplistic “we are the good guys and they are the bad guys” setup.

As the story develops, you get glimpses of a more complex narrative. The Kett also seem to be colonists from elsewhere in Andromeda, but are searching for something tied to the “Remnant” technology scattered throughout the worlds you explore. Conveniently, this technology is the key to the Initiative’s survival in the Andromeda galaxy. The central storyline has glimpses of brilliance, but the execution is unfortunately substandard for a BioWare game.

One aspect that annoys me is that you effectively behave like any other historical example of a colonist — invading a planet and immediately overriding any concerns as you strive to establish a colony. Each planet has life that evolved for that environment, like being able to survive radiation that would kill you in minutes. Not once have I heard an NPC question the wisdom of terraforming the planet to suit the Initiative colonists. Interestingly, it seems as if morality, as enshrined in Star Trek’s Prime Directive, and the struggle to balance survival against respecting alien worlds, is a foreign concept to the Andromeda writers.

Find us a Home, Pathfinder
The game delivers on the premise central to the game that you are an explorer and pioneer. You become this legendary Pathfinder after the very first mission. As much as you are exploring Andromeda for a place to call home, you are also exploring your new-found role and abilities conferred via “SAM”, a new constant AI companion. This is a wonderful touch, mirroring the external journey with the personal.



Each world is beautiful in its own way, from the initial lush green world, to the deserts of Eos and the ice plains of Voeld, the Frostbite engine has never rendered anything better. However, the worlds are empty. Much like a road trip through the Karoo, all you care about is reaching your destination. You will run into a couple of points of interest, but they are generic, amounting to little more than a reason to engage in a firefight to get some XP, scan some items for research points, and then move on. Nothing in the design makes you excited to see what’s around the corner.

Driving the Nomad is made more tedious by the distances between points of interest, luckily you unlock fast travel points by driving to supply drop spots. This highlights a central problem with the game’s design and internal rules: these drops are identified on your map immediately. Logically, if you can identify the suitable spots and drop the pods from orbit, surely you could just drop them all to the planet once identified, instead of driving to the spot to trigger the drop?

A second illogical design decision is the fact that your AI SAM is talked about as this supercomputer able to complete countless complex calculations in seconds; in fact, one mission relies on this ability. Why then can he not complete the puzzles required to unlock the various monoliths found in the game?

Coupled with the tedious driving on-planet, are tedious transitions when you travel on the Tempest between planets and star systems. Initially, the first-person transition is exciting and interesting. However, at around 15 seconds per transition, it is too long to spend doing nothing as you travel around this huge map.

Help us Pathfinder, You’re Our Only Hope
Ryder and the crew of the Tempest, as befitting a game, are the only ones seemingly capable of exploring the galaxy and finding suitable planets to colonise. Of the tools at your disposal the most important is SAM, your AI that is integrated into your technological implants and brain. SAM acts as the one to point out the obvious to guide you and enables the newest mechanic: allowing you to switch between skill profiles on the fly. Unlike previous games, you invest in your skills as you see fit: biotics, combat, and tech. As you invest in each tree, you unlock the classes such as “Vanguard” and “Engineer” and, by the end of the game, you should be able to unlock all the classes.

There is a quick swap option for four profiles available via the options button, the developers could have made it more obvious. This system has its uses, but to my mind removes an important aspect of any party-based RPG experience: balancing your party. If you can be every class, then your companions are just exposition hubs and targets for enemies.

Companions are also your chance to create a meaningful relationship in a new galaxy, or at least they should be. These companions lack the personality of those from original trilogy, and making them unattractive and indistinguishable. Romance is far too easy; after one or two conversations, you can start the romance via a big heart that appears in the dialogue wheel. There is hardly any need to get to know the character before you can make your intentions known. Within the first hour of the game I had identified and started romancing both Suvi, ship’s co-pilot, and Peebee, the Asari treasure hunter. While the doctor shuts you down, there are many romance options, so Ryder will never be lonely.

Your companions can be effective in battle, sometimes saving your bacon by distracting enemies. Party management is limited to simple commands into position or to focus on your current target, with no option to jump into a party member should Ryder fall. Ryder’s death equals mission failure, where you encounter the messed-up checkpoint system. I have rage quit a few times because a death has taken me to the beginning of a mission instead of reloading to a point before a major combat encounter.



Thankfully, combat is where the game shines. The gunplay is fantastic and the new contextual cover system works well, with only one or two instances where I couldn’t break or enter cover. The new jet pack is probably the best addition to the game. It allowed for more open arenas with elevation instead of the corridor battles of the original trilogy, allowing you to utilise higher ground flanking. Be careful though, because the enemy AI has also learned how to get around cover. You also have a dash ability that gives you a short burst of lateral speed, allowing you to escape charging or flanking enemies.

Enemies are suitably varied, with quick, agile, and weak enemies, supported by behemoths who can soak up a ton of punishment. The variety helps break the monotony of battle and, with judicious use of profiles, skills, biotics, and the right weapons, combat becomes a fun and frantic chess game of identifying priority enemies and picking them off.

Play Well With Others, Pathfinder
If you enjoy the combat, you will truly enjoy the multiplayer. While it is effectively just horde mode, its frantic and engaging nature highlights the work that BioWare put into the gunplay. Each difficulty level, Bronze through to Gold, provides a challenge for up to four players of differing skill levels, allowing you to create memories of that last stand survival as each round in the match draws to a close.

Matchmaking is decent allowing you to play with friends or to fill out your match with up to three random players. Importantly, the servers were stable. Not once did I experience a dropped match, a definite plus. The maps are small, yet complex enough to allow you the opportunities to flank and ambush enemies. Each wave is designed to test your skill and reflexes as well as the balance of your team. A team of Vanguards can win a match, but will have to work harder than a more balanced team. Overall multiplayer is a satisfying distillation of the game's excellent gunplay and combat. It is effective as a memorable experience that draws you back time and again.



An Outfit for any Occasion, Pathfinder
As with any RPG, loot drops and stat boosting via equipment and weapons is important. You can pick up equipment from convenient chests located all over, or you can research new blueprints and then craft the items you want. This encourages exploration because you need to gather Research Points (via scanning) and resources to craft items. It works well enough, but I found that I would rather just sell loot and buy equipment than craft it. I may miss out on that super gun that does a gazillion damage, but the weapons for sale and those dropped were good enough to get me through the game.

In multiplayer, you receive loot for successfully completing matches, but if you are impatient you can spend real world money to obtain the rewards. The latter isn’t necessary, because the loot drops are sufficient to give you that sense of progress and reward as you rise through the ranks.

You will need looted weapons and armour to deal with the side quests in single-player, because many involve combat. Like Dragon Age: Inquisition, side quests are generic filler and more an irritant than aiding the overall narrative. When not required to massacre some innocent aliens, you are often running around performing menial tasks like dropping off a necklace at a dead colonist’s favoured thinking spot. These chores, that is what they are, appeal to my inner completionist, merely present to fill a large open world with activities.



Thank You, Pathfinder
Overall, Mass Effect: Andromeda is a huge missed opportunity to carve out a unique experience, familiar to fans of the original trilogy, without the narrative baggage. The game’s underdeveloped story fails to meet series standards. While the animations can be janky and weird, they don’t overly distract you. Combat is the game’s saving grace, redeeming the overall score. Combat makes the slog between missions worthwhile and has brought me back time and again.

Unfortunately, combat alone cannot save this game from being average to mediocre and more's the pity. The opportunities to explore what it means to be a pioneer, to discover new cultures and define the impact you have on them are all present, just never fully realised. Like the pioneers they sought to create, hopefully the developers can learn from the critical response and improve in the inevitable “Mass Effect Andromeda 2”.