Mass Effect: Andromeda - a disjointed babble similar to the game itself

Mass Effect: Andromeda.

When it comes to the fourth game of the Mass Effect franchise, my approach was pretty simple: I would wait until the price was low enough for me to buy it without feeling it in my pocket. By my calculation that would be until the price had dropped to what is currently 20 USD. That had been my resolution and I'll admit it faltered with the recent sale on the game. Not quite 20 USD, but close enough that I could justify to myself that I had waited a sufficient time.

I'm still deciding whether it was actually worth the selling price.

There are a couple of reasons to this. EA and Bioware haven't really done much to redeem my poor opinion of them. I like to think I'm a forgiving person, but that is sorely tested when it comes to those two.

Anyway, I'm out of practice when it comes to blog writing, so I'm just going to fall right into it without any grace that I might have used when I still babbled up a storm.

Mass Effect: Andromeda (from now on referred to as ME:A) starts off with a team of colonists from the Milky Way galaxy mozying over to Andromeda. When they shake off their 600-year hibernation, they're shocked to find that the worlds they had designated as habitable don't look so nice anymore. You are Rider, son/daughter of the main man who is supposed to lead the colonisation. After some bumbling about, daddy steps aside and you become the Pathfinder instead of the second-in-command who spent years preparing for this venture.

Sound a little holey in logic, right? But there you go, your character needs to become the game changer and so that's how it goes.

There are may little holes like this in the game's logic that has me studying ME:A like one would a specimen rather than diving into it as a fun game. I'm not very far into the story, so I can't really comment on the game as a whole, but your willing suspension of disbelief needs to be wide not to get distracted by things that don't add up. Unfortunately, this includes things such as blurry graphics and what on earth did they do to omnitools?

But I digress. As I've said, the habitable worlds suddenly don't look as habitable any more and its up to you to 'fix it, Felix'. This has you jetting off to different worlds, working ancient things and making big decisions such as deciding on what kind of colonies to establish when you finally sorted out the habitation problem.

The more I've played ME:A, the more conflicted I've felt. On the one hand, it makes me very angry. I can see the potential of this game and the creators have been very sloppy. Which is sad and annoying. There's a strong ideal that plays out - the desire for a home. It's there and yet you're constantly bombarded with design choices that distract you from that main thrust. Parts of this game looks beautiful. Parts look like an unintended train smash.

Combat seems to have taken a step backwards from ME3 and feels almost as clunky as ME1 at times. Roleplay also feels degraded somewhat with dialogue choices that are both limited and just... Well, let me give you an example to explain.

There's a science officer on board your ship who believes in God. She comes out and says it right smack in the first conversation you ever had with her. Now, that's fine. Random, but fine. Here's the kicker though, your limited to respond to her stance in one of two ways: 1. I agree with you. 2. There is no god.

... Where's the third option of smoothy skirting past the comment? How about a Rider who doesn't believe that isn't a jackass? Or one who does believe, but might choose to keep it to herself? Oh and by the look of things, the believer is a potential romance partner. There's a dialogue option to flirt like one had in Dragon Age Inquisition with some characters.

I can't help but feel that the creators of ME:A didn't really know what they were doing which after the fourth game shouldn't really be a point of discussion. I didn't really have my hopes all that high and I'm surprised by my own disappointment. I suppose that deep down I still wanted them to capture me. To surprise me. To be good at what they had been in ME1 and ME2. And maybe now that the disappointment has settled in, I can just play the game and see what creature it does end up becoming. I think I will still get my money's worth out of it and maybe it will make me sit back and go 'not bad' in the end. At the moment though, it still has me scratching my head and asking 'but why?' more than usual.