Review: Mass Effect Andromeda

Mass Effect Andromeda

I have a lot of thoughts about this game. First, off it should be clear that the Ryders are not the Shepherds. The twins are less experienced and less well known. They aren't coming into the game already defined as a hero or a villain. As such Bioware allows you the player to define who the character is in a way we never could with Femshep or Manshep... This is not necessarily a bad thing because in many ways we came into the original Mass Effect Trilogy already knowing our Shepherds. In contrast with Andromeda, and any future games in the MEAverse Bioware is allowing us more agency in choosing who our Ryder will be.. they will grow in the series as will we. 

I think that in terms of gameplay MEA is a combination of the best of all three of the games in the first trilogy. Much as in ME2 you can choose to play the game as a straight on story based RPG, a FPS, or a combination of both. You can also play on any difficulty ranging from very easy to nightmare difficulty. The game has 55 achievements ranging from achievements for story mode to multiplayer achievmenets. 

While there were some issues and glitches with the game such as bugged tasks (Angaran Lieutenant Training Quest, Lost Scientists), and shoddy facial animations overall it was a good game. It was by no means the ME that I'm used to and it will take some time for me to get used to Ryder rather than Shepherd but, I feel that over time (granted that Bioware doesn't follow the pattern of Dragon Age II and ditch Andromeda) Ryder is a character I will grow to love.

This is like any game in a new series that is part of a larger series in that some fans will take issue with it not being "their Mass Effect" but I tend to take games at face value and accept them for what they are not what I think they should be.. I get that the games designers who sure as hell know more than me about game design have some kind of vision in mind for these characters as hinted at in the final Victory Party Scene after defeating the main villain in the game... I am going to wait to judge this new ME series until I see where they are taking it in games 2+++  but overall the experience left me satisfied in a way only a Bioware game can.