Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!
I know I'm late here, but I've finally gotten around to reviewing Mass Effect Andromeda. So at this point, I'm considered a "second wave adopter", since Legendary Edition brought renewed interest in the franchise, I thought I'd throw my thoughts into the bucket.
Now, I've only managed to get through the game twice; my first time through as an Adept, and my second as a Sentinel. First time through was the "I'm learning the systems, crafting and combat" playthrough, and the second is the "I know the game better and am discovering things I didn't catch the first time" playthrough.
Mass Effect Andromeda takes place 634 years after the events of Mass Effect 2, in a galaxy far, far away (I know, but I had to do it!). You play as Scott or Sara Ryder,(whichever gender you choose to play as during character creation), fraternal twins of Alec Ryder, the human Pathfinder. Alec was one of the crew to travel through the Charon Relay, and one of the first N7s, though based on the events of the first Mass Effect novel, he wouldn't have been an N7 yet, since Anderson was a member of the first class through the program. As Scott or Sara, you are part of the Pathfinder team, a group who follow the Pathfinder in his efforts to find a habitable , or "golden" world, in the Heleus cluster of Andromeda, for the human race.
Unfortunately, Habitat-7, the golden world meant for the human ark, had been destroyed, and Alec was forced to give up his own life and save his offspring, transferring the Pathfinder authority to them. And this is when the story really begins.
Now, unlike the original Mass Effect trilogy, Sara and Scott both exist in the timeline. The one you didn't pick still exists in the story, albeit at a lesser extent; the opposite gender sibling being in a coma for the first half and inactive during the second half. However, you do play as the other sibling during a short mission late game, and as a plot device during the final encounter.
Now, at this stage, much like my Dark Souls Remastered review, I know I'm late here. All the anger over the story, animations, "Deadname Abrams" and what not have died down considerably. In fact, we're at a "was Andromeda really that bad?" point in history, where any video you find on YouTube is pretty much praising it. People are more forgiving of it than they were in 2017.
What's my view on it? I have fun playing it. The combat is very fun, though I had to get used to it. Getting your build just right is important, since you only get three abilities in battle per favorite profile. You have a LOT more mobility than Shepard ever did, though I understand completely why Shepard and Ryder are different. Shepard is a soldier, dedicated to a certain skillset, trained to fight and kill, with an imposed honor code to not allow them to become a monster, though a Renegade character can turn into one anyway. Ryder, however, is an explorer first and a fighter second. Their job is, to quote Star Trek, "seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before." Ryder picks up abilities that are necessary to survive and explore, not just kill their enemies.
And that's something I remind myself of when I create characters. Ryder is NOT Shepard, and should not be treated as such. And to remind myself of this fact, I utilize certain facets of the character creation and color schemes to create a "theme". Shepard's color scheme is black and red, with the N7 logo proudly displayed whenever possible. Ryder, however, is white and blue. I use the tattoos for Ryder, and a beard for Scott due to a lack of military regs on facial hair, to differentiate that they are civilians, not soldiers, and have a different mindset.
I also like the story, though I can definitely tell they were planning for more. The role as Pathfinder, some plot threads and the setup for the quarian ark, the story of Ellen Ryder...all of these are screaming "we were planning on DLC and a sequel, but due to the failure near launch, we're not doing that", leaving me screaming about the untapped potential.
For the things I don't enjoy, a couple of these things are my computer's issues, and the biggest one is a part of the game design. I have auditory glitches during conversations on the Tempest in some locations, (I'm looking at you, bridge!), and if I don't delete the autosaves after an hour or so, the game will crash due to a lack of memory, though again, these two are issues with my computer, one of which will be solved once I get an external hard drive.
No, what I really don't like is the exploration. I HATE open world games, and Andromeda is that in spades. That said, when I remind myself that the Andromeda Initiative is all about exploration and finding a new home for not only humanity, but all the Milky Way species, it becomes easier to stomach. That said, I spend the first...I'd say 20 minutes of my time on a planet driving to unlock the fast travel points so I can actually enjoy the missions.
I also don't like crafting, but I've found some easy ways to get what I want. First off, I pick up Financial Infrastructure 1 and 2 from the AVP terminal so I have a steady stream of money. Second, I get Mining Operations, Hunting Parties, Special Forces and Lab Technicians in that order. And finally, instead of selling weapons and armor, I deconstruct anything I don't want in order to get their materials. That gives me what I need to build my gear, though Remnant and Heleus gear is still time consuming, since you don't get a steady stream of research points.
As for companions, they're not as good as the Shepard Trilogy companions, but we don't have three games to fall in love with these characters. Anyone playing Mass Effect 1 in 2007 might have found certain characters wooden or one note. I mean, fan favorite Urdnot Wrex was grumpy and confrontational in his debut game, and Liara was extremely wide eyed and naive in 1, far more socially awkward than I could ever be. But we grew to love them over time because we had the time to do so.
All in all, I enjoy Andromeda. I'll be doing a full combat engine analysis, as well as one for the characters like I did for the Shepard trilogy. Look forward to that, and stay beautiful freaks!
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