Gamer Reviews -- Mass Effect

Hello everyone, and welcome to my review of Mass Effect Andromeda. This is a game made by Bioware, that has been highly anticipated for years. Many people, I for one, loved the first Mass Effect trilogy where you played as Commander Shepard, fighting off the alien forces that threatened the Milky Way galaxy. Those three games were an excellent blend of sci-fi and third person shooter combat. The only thing people unanimously disliked about them was the way Bioware wrapped up the ending of the third one. Although I agree, I was a little let down by the ending of the first trilogy, I was still hyped for the next one. Then we got Mass Effect Andromeda, a whole new start with a whole new character to play as, and all I saw were negative reviews. People bad mouthed this game so much I didn't even bother to play it when it came out. Recently I decided to give it a chance, and I'm happy to say, it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

Andromeda takes place hundreds of years after the first trilogy, and any choices you made back then don't carry over as far as I know. In this one you leave the Milky Way galaxy to make the 634 year journey, in cryosleep, to the Andromeda galaxy, to find new Earth like planets, with the intentions to colonize the galaxy. Your Father is what's known as a pathfinder, someone who is in charge of scouting new worlds and doing the groundwork necessary to help establish colonies. Something happens to him right at the beginning of the game, so now you are elected to take his place. You must go all over the Andromeda galaxy exploring planets and making them habitable for the thousands of lifeforms that are in cryosleep and need a place to live.

The story starts off good, you wake up from cryosleep only to find that things have not gone as planned. The planets you scanned 634 years ago that seemed like the best ones, turn out to be deadly and not at all what you were expecting. Some unknown force has made these planets uninhabitable, almost like they knew you were coming and what you planned to do. Also there were four huge ships, Arks, each one housing a different species, but only the human one showed up. The other ships are missing in action and no one knows what happened to them. Before the four passenger ships arrived, a main hub called the Nexus, pictured above, came first to get things ready. But when they got here and realized none of the planets were habitable, everything fell apart. There was a mutiny aboard the Nexus, and many people had to be exiled. Also, they are running out of resources, so they can't wake everyone up from cryosleep. The Nexus has been waiting for another ship to arrive with a pathfinder on board so more planets can be scouted before everybody dies.

That's where you come in, as the pathfinder you must traverse the galaxy exploring planets, as well as look for the missing Arks the house the rest of the people. So far so good right? I don't really see what is so bad about this game. You're in a whole new galaxy ripe for exploration, the story is classic sci-fi stuff, and the worlds look beautiful. Granted I started playing the game months after it was released, so maybe whatever issues it had were patched by the time I started. The crew members you recruit are all different alien races that each have their own personalities and looks. You have a good amount of freedom to explore as much or as little as you want, and you get a wide variety of weapons and armor. Each new planet you land on has it's own unique look to it, and are all visually stunning.

When you are ready to land on a planet you can choose two of six different squad members. Each one levels up and has their own abilities to use in combat. To make exploration easier you get to use a six wheeled vehicle to quickly zip around the terrain. Each planet you can land on has a viability meter, you have to go around taking out hostile aliens and building outposts to raise the viability, eventually making it habitable. Once you do this the Nexus can wake up more people from cryosleep to send down planet side, and everyone becomes happier while the colony grows stronger. Each planet has people you can choose to help, or if you think they're a threat you can take them out. Essentially making new allies or enemies. There is an overall threat to your mission, a hostile alien race called the Kett. They are not interested in talking and shoot you on site, as well as sabotage you every chance they get. They have a deeper plot that is part of the main story, but I don't want to spoil anything big so I'm keeping it vague.

With all of the negative reviews I read about this game when it first came out, I really had the lowest of expectations. They said it was a buggy mess, that it had horrible facial animations, that the game was almost broken and the worst in the series. Well, I'm happy to say that I just can't agree with all the bad press this game got. Maybe at launch it was a mess, I don't know, but my experience playing it has been an enjoyable one. As a fan of Mass Effect I was really looking forward to this one, and I let bad reviews stop me from playing it. Now that I gave it a chance I can say that it's not as bad as everyone says. There's a lot of dialog and reports to read, but that's a part of Mass Effect it's to be expected. This game gives you a whole new galaxy to explore. Commander Shepard was awesome, but his story is done, it's time to move on to new horizons. Don't let the early reviews stop you from enjoying this game, if you're a fan of Mass Effect, than you will most likely enjoy Andromeda. Keep your expectations low, keep an open mind, and get it on sale if you can. There's a lot of content here, it's not perfect and can drag on at times, but it's a lot of fun if you're a sci-fi fan. I give Mass Effect Andromeda an:

80