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Mass Effect 3 was popular and didn’t get as much bad feedback as the latest.
SCIENCE Fiction and computer games go together like phones and charger cables, bacon and eggs, or social media and recreational outrage.
While most of us have probably accepted we’re not getting our very own robot butler or flying car anytime soon, that hasn’t stopped us dreaming about what to might be like to be a heroic space adventurer commanding a star ship and boldly going into the unknown.
One of the best known space RPGs is the Mass Effect series, which has recently welcomed a fourth instalment — Mass Effect Andromeda.
Developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Mass Effect Andromeda is the space RPG we need and the one we deserve, at least until Bethesda make a Fallout game set on Mars or something.
Mass Effect Andromeda veers towards “assuming you’ve played at least one of the other games” (in that for example, alien races just show up and you’re expected to know they exist and be unsurprised by this) but overall the game does an good job of walking that fine line between “being accessible to newcomers” while also building on the rich lore the series is well known for.
There is a lot of lore in this game, some of which is old news to series veterans but will be appreciated for newcomers, particularly those wondering why there’s a variety of alien races wandering around the Andromeda Initiative’s space station, how come N7-insignia armour is kind of a big deal, and what a Mass Effect Relay actually is.
Put on the uniform of the Pathfinder as Sara Ryder and fight for humanity’s new home. Explore dangerous worlds, keep your crew alive, and unravel the mysteries of Andromeda. The journey begins now. How far will you go?
Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 are rightfully regarded as genre-shaping masterpieces, with Mass Effect 3 also acclaimed but widely criticised for its disappointing ending which was later changed via DLC.
When facial animations are bad, use side shots.Source:Supplied
The latest entry in the space saga shifts it focus to an entirely new location: The Andromeda galaxy, which is about 2.5 million light years from Earth. The game posits a future where mankind (along with several sentient alien races inhabiting the Milky Way galaxy) have launched an extensive colonisation mission to the region, sending 100,000 colonists on a one-way trip into the unknown with a promise that a new life awaits them in the offworld colonies.
Your character — last name Ryder, first name, gender, ethnicity and appearance up to you — is one of the specialists on the Human ark spaceship Hyperion. No word on how many of the 20,000 colonists aboard are telephone sanitisers or advertising executives, though.
The game opens in 2785, following a 600 year voyage (in cryosleep) from the Milky Way and things almost immediately turn to custard and curdle from there. Your character ends up being made a Pathfinder (a combination of explorer, ranger, SAS commando and Captain Picard) and put in charge of un-smegging the situation everyone has found themselves in.
Pretty much everything that could go wrong with an undertaking of the Andromeda Initiative’s magnitude has gone wrong — from space-storms to mutiny to hostile aliens to supposedly ideal planets which actually look like they’ve hosted a Disaster Area concert.
The backdrops are amazing and some of the space depictions are breathtaking — you really do feel like you’re in a different galaxy among the stars. Standing on the bridge of your spaceship for the first-time is an awe-inspiring experience.
As excellent as all this is, Mass Effect Andromeda isn’t perfect. There’s a serious uncanny valley effect with the cutscenes, with some of the models looking more like animations than actual people (or aliens) — they’re still well below what most people would expect from a AAA title nowadays.
Mass Effect 3 was popular and didn’t get as much bad feedback as the latest.Source:Supplied
The writing in the opening states of the game isn’t great either, but once you’ve got past the prologue and the world starts to open it, it improves very markedly as your character develops.
The space station you first arrive at is in a dire state — you’re told there’s been a terrible mutiny, lots of people are dead or exiled and supplies are dwindling below critical levels — yet apparently you’re deemed awesome enough to be almost immediately given a seriously pimp spaceship, experienced crew, supplies and a cheery wave before being let out into the universe — despite having been on the space station for maybe an hour or so and no-one there having any idea who you are besides “Not the guy we were told would be coming”.
There’s also a few of the inevitable “I know you’re the most awesome person in the universe and you’re terribly busy fighting the Omnicronians or whatever, but would you mind going to somewhere inconvenient and talking to someone for me? I’d do it myself but I’m Le Tired”-type quests which appear in pretty much every RPG ever.
It’s a testament to the incredible worldbuilding and story of Mass Effect Andromeda that these issues are easily overlooked or handwaved away.
The combat isn’t anything to write home about either, being your standard cover-shooter fare, but to the designer’s credit, the shooting-to-talking to people ratio feels right and more of the game is about problem solving and discovery than blasting aliens. Somehow an optional multiplayer mode has been shoehorned into the game too, in the form of “Apex strike team missions”, but Mass Effect Andromeda is otherwise a single-player affair and rightly so.
It’s hard to describe but the game has that something which makes it so hard to put down. I constantly found myself wanting to do just one more thing, to explore another planet, to craft another upgrade.
It’s a game that ticks all the boxes; there’s just so much to do in the game and most of it feels like it has a point rather than being empty filler. There are reportedly more than 1200 speaking characters in the game (one of which is voiced by Natalie Dormer from Game of Thrones) and you’ve got numerous star systems to explore and discover.
In short, Mass Effect Andromeda is a masterpiece. It’s a game you cannot only sink your teeth into, but shovel it into your mouth while noisily making “Om nom nom” sounds and embarrassing your significant other in the process.
If you’ve got any interest at all in science fiction, space games or RPGs, then do yourself a favour and buy a copy of Mass Effect Andromeda sooner rather than later.
