Mass Effect: Andromeda Final Review
Happy Weekend, Nerds
Finally, after 4 days I have come to the conclusion of Andromeda and gathered my thoughts. This is an updated review because when I wrote Part one I was only 15 hours into the game but felt it was necessary to get my thoughts out and address the flood of extremely negative reviews that got attached to this game.
I will still be keeping this review as Spoiler free as possible by not mentioning any story points that could ruin someone experience.
With that out of the way, let us talk about Mass Effect: Andromeda
Let's talk about Ryder.
He's/She's no Commander Shepard. And that's not a terrible thing at all. Scott (Male Ryder's default name) is more charismatic if you let him be. Less concerned with the politics, or lack thereof in the Andromeda Galaxy. You begin just as you always do in Mass Effect, and most other RPG's, by creating your protagonist. In Andromeda however you can also customize the look of your twin sibling (male or female, the opposite of what you want your Ryder to be), who also will play a role within the story. What is interesting here is that the way you customize the siblings will directly effect the physical appearance of Alec Ryder, the twins father. This means you can potentially have an the whole protagonists family be caucasian, black or asian. I wasn't aware of this when I first started the game and only knew about it once I was online and saw many people upload their own pictures of what Alec looked like. If I had known I would of snapped a picture for the purpose of this review.
Gone are the Paragon and Renegade dialogue choices and welcome a fraction of the emotional spectrum. You can respond to most conversations by speaking emotionally or logically. There are quite a few occasions where you can spark a sarcastic come back and cause people to grunt in your general direction as a retort. These responses I have not found to have any impact on relationships in the story, other than the obvious "Story Changing Choice A/Story Changing Choice B". I don't think that is a problem though. The whole purpose of removing Paragon/Renegade was to allow people to respond with responses that wont impact the narrative and help tailor the Ryder you want to be.
Let's talk graphics.
The character models are not good. And the sooner you convince yourself of this, the much more fun you will have simply just enjoying the game. I don't agree that the graphics for the original trilogy is better here. ME3 was released 5 years ago, they have made a pretty significant leap in graphics. However, compared to todays standard, the character models are not good. Dead eyes moving erratically around while talking, characters making odd facial expressions, one conversation I had with a squad mate about the death of a significant character left Scott Ryder gyrating his eyebrows up and down as if my mourning team member had just made a sexual pass at me.
The environment however is a whole different story. Absolutely stunning with a massive pallet of colours covering the skies peering into the Andromeda galaxy.
You will visit a variety of planets where the scenery will change dramatically, and all of which so far have been visually stunning.
Needless to say, if you can get past that the character models looks just slightly better then a Bethesda game, you will fall in love with the environments.
Let's talk gameplay.
Gameplay is three quarters of the answer to the question "What's so good about Mass Effect". It's a fun cover based shooter with a fairly deep RPG system. A system that I feel this entry deepens further. When I play Mass Effect I tend to use the Biotic class. In this however, I play as a Vanguard. A role that you unlock though upgrading your individual skills. You don;t pick your class at the beginning of the game like other ME games. You customize your characters play style however you see fit. By placing most of my skill points early game into my Biotic powers I unlocked the "Adept" profile which helps boost my biotic profile. Once I started placing point into the Combat tree I eventually earned the Vanguard which is unlocked for focusing on both Biotics and Combat centred. Where there is no level cap in the game it is possible to unlock all profiles and change up the way you play on the fly.
R&D is huge in ME:A, you will constantly be collection scraps, minerals, augmentations, item attachments and so on. To be completely honest, I wont go into absolutely everything there is to get into as far as R&D goes because it is extremely overwhelming at first. For example, you explore planets and level up the Nexus which allows you to unthaw other travellers who have been sleeping so they can help to advance your research faster by choosing what department they work in. Depending on what department you choose you will gain a "buff" for lack of a better term to help you slowly get the materials needed to make some bad ass weaponry. You then need to scan object and gain enough intel to create blueprint, then you need the materials to actually physically make the weapons. So, it's a trek and a half. The game doesn't do the greatest job of explaining it to you. It took me a few hours and some wasted materials to really discover what I wanted to save up for and experiment with some insane weapons.
Let's talk story.
Alright, so without giving any of the story beats away, if you mainline this game and don;t do any side quests I would say it is possibly the shortest Mass Effect game to date. However, that is not how a Mass Effect game should be played. The good news hear is that once you beat the game you are still free to finish up any side quests you have and explore to your hearts content. Is that done by resetting your save before the last mission? Or is the games world still playable after the last mission? I won't spoil that for you. Just know that you don't need to panic if you find yourself in the final mission without having finished all the loyalty mission.
[MINOR SPOILERS]
On that note, during my play through, as I was trying to finish the game relatively quickly, I only managed to finish two teammates loyalty missions. That being said, unlike previous Mass Effect games, the completion of these quests don't seem to have any effect on the ending whatsoever. I could be wrong, but nothing noteworthy occurred from the characters I did the mission for, nor the characters that I skipped. They loyalty missions are also still available to complete after you have completed the main quest.
Perhaps in a follow up game we will get something as consequential as the "Suicide Mission" in Mass Effect 2.
[END SPOILERS]
Keep in mind I did only complete two loyalty mission, but I managed to complete the main story of the game in just under 20 hours (19 hours 55 minutes) with a level 29 Ryder. This however only gave me a completion rate of 49 percent. There are still very many things to do in Andromeda, and I can't wait to get back in there.
As far as our antagonists go, without giving much away, I am getting a massive Galaxy Quest vibe. I have the Male lead, female character that I am trying to hook up with and cast of aliens from other planets exploring a new galaxy with me. Also, I swear Alan Rickman's character from Galaxy Quest is just a lesser evolved species of your teammate Jaal. Curious to know if anyone else shares my thoughts on that last bit.
However, I am enjoying my new team. Not as much as those in the original trilogy. Though I am not sure if I just managed to grow extremely fond of them over the course of three games or if they were simply handled better. The current cast of heroes are handled very well. Some characters did fall flat. I picked my clear favourites to accompany my throughout the course of our galactic mission.
Let's talk Multiplayer.
My time with the multiplayer as been very limited so far. I would say maybe two hours, tops. It feels like the core game's gameplay with the same formula as Mass Effect 3. At times I feel like there is something missing, like the multiplayer needed to evolve more for this new game. That's not to say it wont, I am sure Bioware plans to keep supporting the multiplayer just as they did the third game. I only hope they add some more substance to it. Now, take that with a pinch of salt because of my limited time with the game mode, but also note that the gameplay is still great and it is extremely fun to jump into a wave based survival mode with friends and strangers. I love leveling up each character and class, though I do wish they added customization to the characters abilities. Rather than each of the many individual characters having their own specific set. I want to be able to customize my characters like I did with Ryder.
And there you have it. The complete Mass Effect Andromeda review. To sum everything up:
- Funny graphical bugs, Nothing game breaking
- One of the shortest Mass Effect games (Main Story wise)
- Characters haven't completely earned the accolades the original cast did
- Ryder is a great replacement for Shepard
- Gameplay is the best Mass Effect has seen
- Addicting, fun but initially confusing crafting system.
- A really fun multiplayer mode that could of used some changes from 3, but why fix what wasn't broken.
I am not completely comfortable giving numbered scores to games. But to those who absolutely need them, if I had to grade the game at this very moment, I would give it a solid 8 out of 10.
Let me know if you agree or disagree with the final review. I'd love to have a conversation about it. Especially considering the amount of backlash the game has received.
I'm out, nerds!
Finally, after 4 days I have come to the conclusion of Andromeda and gathered my thoughts. This is an updated review because when I wrote Part one I was only 15 hours into the game but felt it was necessary to get my thoughts out and address the flood of extremely negative reviews that got attached to this game.
I will still be keeping this review as Spoiler free as possible by not mentioning any story points that could ruin someone experience.
With that out of the way, let us talk about Mass Effect: Andromeda
Let's talk about Ryder.
He's/She's no Commander Shepard. And that's not a terrible thing at all. Scott (Male Ryder's default name) is more charismatic if you let him be. Less concerned with the politics, or lack thereof in the Andromeda Galaxy. You begin just as you always do in Mass Effect, and most other RPG's, by creating your protagonist. In Andromeda however you can also customize the look of your twin sibling (male or female, the opposite of what you want your Ryder to be), who also will play a role within the story. What is interesting here is that the way you customize the siblings will directly effect the physical appearance of Alec Ryder, the twins father. This means you can potentially have an the whole protagonists family be caucasian, black or asian. I wasn't aware of this when I first started the game and only knew about it once I was online and saw many people upload their own pictures of what Alec looked like. If I had known I would of snapped a picture for the purpose of this review.
 |
| Emotional responses replace Paragon and Renegade |
 |
| Savage Ryder |
Let's talk graphics.
The character models are not good. And the sooner you convince yourself of this, the much more fun you will have simply just enjoying the game. I don't agree that the graphics for the original trilogy is better here. ME3 was released 5 years ago, they have made a pretty significant leap in graphics. However, compared to todays standard, the character models are not good. Dead eyes moving erratically around while talking, characters making odd facial expressions, one conversation I had with a squad mate about the death of a significant character left Scott Ryder gyrating his eyebrows up and down as if my mourning team member had just made a sexual pass at me.
The environment however is a whole different story. Absolutely stunning with a massive pallet of colours covering the skies peering into the Andromeda galaxy.
You will visit a variety of planets where the scenery will change dramatically, and all of which so far have been visually stunning.
Needless to say, if you can get past that the character models looks just slightly better then a Bethesda game, you will fall in love with the environments.
 |
| Glorious vacation spot on an astroid |
 |
| Or Andromeda's equivalent to Canada |
Let's talk gameplay.
Gameplay is three quarters of the answer to the question "What's so good about Mass Effect". It's a fun cover based shooter with a fairly deep RPG system. A system that I feel this entry deepens further. When I play Mass Effect I tend to use the Biotic class. In this however, I play as a Vanguard. A role that you unlock though upgrading your individual skills. You don;t pick your class at the beginning of the game like other ME games. You customize your characters play style however you see fit. By placing most of my skill points early game into my Biotic powers I unlocked the "Adept" profile which helps boost my biotic profile. Once I started placing point into the Combat tree I eventually earned the Vanguard which is unlocked for focusing on both Biotics and Combat centred. Where there is no level cap in the game it is possible to unlock all profiles and change up the way you play on the fly.
 |
| Just the biotic skills, there are the Combat and Tech trees as well |
 |
| List of all the different Profiles you can unlock |
R&D is huge in ME:A, you will constantly be collection scraps, minerals, augmentations, item attachments and so on. To be completely honest, I wont go into absolutely everything there is to get into as far as R&D goes because it is extremely overwhelming at first. For example, you explore planets and level up the Nexus which allows you to unthaw other travellers who have been sleeping so they can help to advance your research faster by choosing what department they work in. Depending on what department you choose you will gain a "buff" for lack of a better term to help you slowly get the materials needed to make some bad ass weaponry. You then need to scan object and gain enough intel to create blueprint, then you need the materials to actually physically make the weapons. So, it's a trek and a half. The game doesn't do the greatest job of explaining it to you. It took me a few hours and some wasted materials to really discover what I wanted to save up for and experiment with some insane weapons.
 |
| You developed what now? |
 |
| The assault rifle appropriately named "Fuck em' Up". As that is exactly what is does. |
Let's talk story.
Alright, so without giving any of the story beats away, if you mainline this game and don;t do any side quests I would say it is possibly the shortest Mass Effect game to date. However, that is not how a Mass Effect game should be played. The good news hear is that once you beat the game you are still free to finish up any side quests you have and explore to your hearts content. Is that done by resetting your save before the last mission? Or is the games world still playable after the last mission? I won't spoil that for you. Just know that you don't need to panic if you find yourself in the final mission without having finished all the loyalty mission.
[MINOR SPOILERS]
On that note, during my play through, as I was trying to finish the game relatively quickly, I only managed to finish two teammates loyalty missions. That being said, unlike previous Mass Effect games, the completion of these quests don't seem to have any effect on the ending whatsoever. I could be wrong, but nothing noteworthy occurred from the characters I did the mission for, nor the characters that I skipped. They loyalty missions are also still available to complete after you have completed the main quest.
Perhaps in a follow up game we will get something as consequential as the "Suicide Mission" in Mass Effect 2.
[END SPOILERS]
Keep in mind I did only complete two loyalty mission, but I managed to complete the main story of the game in just under 20 hours (19 hours 55 minutes) with a level 29 Ryder. This however only gave me a completion rate of 49 percent. There are still very many things to do in Andromeda, and I can't wait to get back in there.
As far as our antagonists go, without giving much away, I am getting a massive Galaxy Quest vibe. I have the Male lead, female character that I am trying to hook up with and cast of aliens from other planets exploring a new galaxy with me. Also, I swear Alan Rickman's character from Galaxy Quest is just a lesser evolved species of your teammate Jaal. Curious to know if anyone else shares my thoughts on that last bit.
However, I am enjoying my new team. Not as much as those in the original trilogy. Though I am not sure if I just managed to grow extremely fond of them over the course of three games or if they were simply handled better. The current cast of heroes are handled very well. Some characters did fall flat. I picked my clear favourites to accompany my throughout the course of our galactic mission.
 |
| Someone at Bioware was taking notes |
Let's talk Multiplayer.
My time with the multiplayer as been very limited so far. I would say maybe two hours, tops. It feels like the core game's gameplay with the same formula as Mass Effect 3. At times I feel like there is something missing, like the multiplayer needed to evolve more for this new game. That's not to say it wont, I am sure Bioware plans to keep supporting the multiplayer just as they did the third game. I only hope they add some more substance to it. Now, take that with a pinch of salt because of my limited time with the game mode, but also note that the gameplay is still great and it is extremely fun to jump into a wave based survival mode with friends and strangers. I love leveling up each character and class, though I do wish they added customization to the characters abilities. Rather than each of the many individual characters having their own specific set. I want to be able to customize my characters like I did with Ryder.
 |
| Limited in the amount of skills they can learn |
And there you have it. The complete Mass Effect Andromeda review. To sum everything up:
- Funny graphical bugs, Nothing game breaking
- One of the shortest Mass Effect games (Main Story wise)
- Characters haven't completely earned the accolades the original cast did
- Ryder is a great replacement for Shepard
- Gameplay is the best Mass Effect has seen
- Addicting, fun but initially confusing crafting system.
- A really fun multiplayer mode that could of used some changes from 3, but why fix what wasn't broken.
I am not completely comfortable giving numbered scores to games. But to those who absolutely need them, if I had to grade the game at this very moment, I would give it a solid 8 out of 10.
Let me know if you agree or disagree with the final review. I'd love to have a conversation about it. Especially considering the amount of backlash the game has received.
I'm out, nerds!
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