MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA
Less a giant leap, more a small step
How much are you willing to forgive to get to the good stuff? Because the caveats that come with recommending this space opera cover more than just some off-putting faces. Heading off to a new galaxy should be a fresh start, yet the past proves hard to escape for the intrepid explorers of the Andromeda Initiative. Not that there’s masses of excess baggage. As part of a 100,000 strong expedition from the Milky Way, you are the Pathfinder – or Ryder to the friends you’re going to make. Like in previous Mass Effects, you have a clear aim: to find alien planets that can rehome the species that made the journey. To do this, you will go planethopping across large sandbox levels, recruiting a crew and discovering tech that seems to be powering said environments.
Despite the distance, this galaxy you’re trying to settle in just isn’t that alien. There’s little in the way of surprises, with only three new races to discover (and the majority of your time is spent talking to other species from the Milky Way). While I’ll get into the meaningful changes you’ll notice, the biggest disappointment is the inescapable feeling of never being far from home.
ROCKY START
It certainly doesn’t help matters that your first hours in the Heleus Cluster are by far the weakest. A breathless opening whisks Ryder from
“YOUR CLEAR AIM: TO FIND ALIEN PLANETS THAT CAN REHOME THE SPECIES THAT MADE THE JOURNEY.”
a 634-year cryo-nap onto the craggy hellscape of Habitat 7 via a crash landing. It’s disorientating – and not always in the way intended, as I find out with my first encounter with the Kett. The de facto enemies of this game, they look like bipedal rocks, and have as much personality. Discovering them as they search through the wreckage of a shuttle, first contact quickly devolves into shooting these grey blighters against similarly hued surroundings. Picking them out amid the slate surroundings proves to be a dispiritingly bland start.
As you continue to make your way through the prologue, Bioware’s writing standards appear to become more variable. There are a few weird plotholes that defy the game’s internal logic, while other moments are so frustratingly convenient and familiar, it’s hard to really care about what happens. The first crewmate you spend any time with, cockney Liam Kosta, comes across as a murder-loving space racist; it’s a complete contrast to the rest of the time you spend with him outside of the opening.
Andromeda is capable of so much more than this disappointing introduction suggests, but it’s an early warning sign of the main issues that hamper it.
CULTIVATED MASS
Fortunately, the early taste of the vastly improved combat helps pull you through the rough patches. Ryder is much more agile than Shepard ever was, being able to jump and dash with ease. Cover is now taken automatically, with Ryder – in theory – sidling up to any suitable object and hiding behind it. Initially, this intoxicating freedom of movement seems to encourage you to take the fight to foes, rushing and flanking them more quickly than ever.
That would be a mistake. At its core, this is still a cover shooter and any extended time outside of the sweet safety of cover will see your hero sucking lead like cherry drops. Initially tough, even when you’ve got weapons at the more powerful end of the spectrum, it’s an enjoyably solid foundation to play with. However, it’s not until you start unlocking skills later in the game that combat really begins to click.
Unlike in previous entries, you pick the powers you want to use à la carte, rather than being restricted to the ones in your class. There is an impressive variety to choose from, and they also offer significantly different approaches to tackling threats. Add the ability to prime and detonate combos and there’s another enjoyable tactical consideration that makes for a surprisingly complex system that’s never too fiddly.
My preferred setup has the biotic Singularity power as my primer – it sucks enemies into its orbit – followed by Throw to blow them up, firing their bodies away from me. Both visually arresting and pleasingly weighty, finding the right combination is a major part of the fun. Profiles replace the old class system (although all the profiles are the same as they were in the original trilogy, barring the new Explorer type) and offer stat bonuses depending on where you spend skill points. You’re also able to switch profile on the fly when the situation demands it.
By the time you’re attempting the final mission, the ease of flinging yourself behind cover, sending out a combo primer, softening up enemies and then detonating your power is not merely ‘good for an RPG’, it’s just plain brilliant. The only slight flaw here is that I rarely felt the need to shake up a system that works so well.
But let’s rewind a little. Once the shackles are off after the prologue and you’re free to explore the galaxy in your sleek ship, the Tempest, Andromeda really takes off. Like previous entries, your ship is bustling with a crew you recruit, chat to and, if you’re a horny pup, flirt with. Despite some initially dodgy introductions – and as ever, the humans tend to be the dullest – your new squadmates are a likeable bunch that are a part of an overall lighter tone.
Take Drack. A grizzled Krogan who gleefully refers to everyone as ‘kid’, his love of his granddaughter and getting into a fight – not necessarily in that order – makes him a charmingly no-nonsense presence. PeeBee, on the other hand, is a motormouth who’s fascinated by the technology you find on planets, and this obsession is quickly endearing. While none of the crew is as immediately lovable as Garrus or Mordin, they’re a fun bunch who have the potential to become just as revered as their original trilogy counterparts.
Tone is an important aspect of this Mass Effect, with the old Paragon/Renegade system having been jettisoned. There are now four different types of response: casual; professional; emotional; and logical. In truth, it doesn’t feel like a radical alteration from the old binary system, just a more nuanced way of steering the game. It’s also why the rare moments when you’re asked to make a very clear decision or react quickly don’t have the same impact as they used to. The few times the game brazenly asks you to make a ‘big’ choice, the consequences don’t carry enough weight to make these overt dilemmas worthwhile. As backwards as it sounds, the less aware you are of what you’re doing, the better the surprises.
PLANET AHEAD
Back on the ship, there’s plenty of depth to what you can (and should) do that the game struggles to satisfyingly explain. The Research & Development terminal is the most egregious example. Andromeda introduces a crafting system where you can unlock blueprints to create weapons (including the new melee ones), armour, and modifications, and then create them with the resources you find across the galaxy. On first inspection it’s relatively intimidating to RPG newcomers, with menus, stats, and lore splayed across the screen. Ignoring it is understandable, but doing so puts you at a significant disadvantage when you’re in combat, as weapons you usually find tend to feel like water pistols compared to the ones you can craft. Once you get used to it, it’s a pretty comprehensive system, but it’s a shame it’s not more thoughtfully introduced.
The Tempest’s main job is to ferry you between destinations. Combat-free hubs return, here the Nexus replaces the Citadel as the Milky Way’s main melting pot, and has a well of interesting stories. But, let’s be fair, you’re not coming for the space station, but the planets it’s orbiting.
Once you’re off the ship, the focus switches to exploration and/or following the critical path missions. When it’s you, the Nomad – which handles better than we ever dared hope – and an open stretch of land to explore, Andromeda enthrals. Sure, the art style is a little too familiar, but whether it’s the bitter ice planet of Voeld or the scorching canyons of Eladeen, each has its own personality and are a joy to explore.
Naturally, the Kett aren’t the only inhabitants of Andromeda, but this game is somewhat stingy when it comes to introducing new races. You’ll come across the infinitely more interesting Angara and their lush planet of Aya early on.
“THE VASTLY IMPROVED COMBAT HELPS PULL YOU THROUGH THE ROUGH PATCHES.”
(Aya acts as a hub similar to the Nexus.) They’ve been at war with the Kett for decades and the interactions with them showcase Bioware’s talents at building interesting cultures. Watching new Angara crewmate Jaal try to flirt with Ryder is disarmingly sweet.
There’s also the mysterious robotic Remnant, who prowl around strange, potentially-terra forming, artefacts one very planet. There’ s little in the way of personality with them – they’re mysterious bodyguards; we’re not expecting to romance their circuit boards – but the vaults they’re protecting are the main source of Andromeda’s puzzles and secrets.
On each planet, you’ll need to find a way to access the vault and then work out how you can override the core at the centre. All vaults differ just enough to make sure they never grow dull, and they’re a welcome change of pace, as you engage with your brain more than your trigger finger. There’s even a sudoku puzzle hacking mini-game, which is… well, it’s sudoku. You already know if you’re going to like it or not.
The breadth and depth these planets offer is a reminder of the magic the series offers when it’s playing to its strengths, but unfortunately this doesn’t carry over to the game’s critical path quest.
CRITICAL DAMAGE
You control the pace of the main narrative, but you’re doing yourself a major disservice if you stick rigidly just to the main story. This game just doesn’t have the same laser focus of past Mass Effects. Despite a clear objective, the discovery of the Kett means the narrative spirals into a few different tangents that vary in quality. Taking on the Kett, and their leader, Archon, means having to prevent another warrior race destroying the galaxy, which turns out to be blandly familiar. While there are some interesting religious wrinkles to the Kett culture, they’re a grey pestilence who are hard to truly care about.
However, when you’re focusing on healing the rift between the Nexus and its exiles, there’s a thematically rich idea of watching our species repeating history by splintering off again. It’s a story thread that’s maybe too sedate to take centre stage, but it lingers in the mind long after the climax of your battle with the dogged Kett.
The looser focus also means that side quests are much more important, and they often offer genuine surprises. Whether it’s the supreme silliness of discovering the real reason behind an SOS call or sly nods to past games, scouring the planets of Andromeda to find these little nuggets is more satisfying than reaching the default endpoint.
“SIDE QUESTS ARE MUCH MORE IMPORTANT, AND OFTEN OFFER GENUINE SURPRISES.”
BUGGING OUT
An unfortunate, but major, impediment to all of this, though, is just how severely bug-riddled Andromeda is.
The most extreme example of the technical problems I suffer comes during one mission on the planet of Eos. I’m trying to storm a Kett stronghold, and after a gruelling, bitterly long battle to the heart of this base, I’m unable to trigger the door that leads to the end of the mission. Loading up my last auto-save fixes it, but at the cost of sending me back around 15 minutes. Replaying this frustrating section only gets ‘better’ when enemies inadvertently disappear, but can still fire their weapons at me. The term omnishambles has never been more appropriate.
It’s not just isolated incidents. There’s near constant pop-in when driving the Nomad. Sometimes monsters on planets will just freeze and let you finish them with no resistance. One cutscene has Ryder magically walking through a door. The list, it goes on. Yes, ambitious RPGs tend to have problems you overlook. But there’s a point where they go from irritating to immersion-shattering, breaking the spell of the game.
Performance issues do not have to be permanent. If, and more likely when, Mass Effect’s more egregious bugs are eradicated, it’ll be easier to love. Chances are, if you venture away from the critical path to the charmingly playful tangents and fantastically intricate combat that Bioware peppers throughout, you might love it regardless. With the journey proving to be far richer than the destination, pathfinding is a fitting theme for this endearingly messy RPG.
VERDICT
While it’s underwhelming in places, there’s a lot to like as you venture into the weirder parts of Andromeda. Frequent technical issues hamper the experience somewhat, as does an uninspiring main story. Ben Tyrer