Once upon a time, the fourth game in a series was released. It was about a multi-species religious coalition of genocidal aliens who worshipped Precursors and used Plasma Cannons that fired Homing Boulders. They were opposed by a human Space Marine with an Artificial Intelligence companion. The game was made by an offshoot studio of the original creators, and they had a Tough Act to Follow. Their solution was Going Cosmic and adding the Precursors as an enemy faction. By and large, the fourth game was considered inferior to the (unusually high) story and gameplay standards set by the third... Though at least it lacked the third's controversial ending.
The game's name? Halo 4. And also Mass Effect: Andromeda, once BioWare apparently gave up on making their own game.
Andromeda, of course, draws from its own series as well, but mostly the bad parts. The very large mission worlds of 1 are back, with the result that you can get lost amongst the Sidequests, unsure how to actually progress the plot. It also dilutes Character Development; you have to play for five hours and complete 10% of the game before you can even try to talk to your squadmates. For Padding, we have both planet scanning and the boring car drives. And it turns out that most of those mission worlds don't need to be completed in order to beat the game. The result? The game fails the Eight Deadly Words pretty early on and never recovers.
Andromeda doesn't feel very alien. In the first game Shepard had four discrete alien species as party members, and met at least five more as NPCs. The Heleus Cluster only has two, and they're both Rubber-Forehead Aliens that make the asari look downright exotic. And that's before we get to the Whole Plot Reference mentioned above.
And worst of all, the Karma Meter is gone. The original trilogy excelled at only one thing: making players feel like their choices matter. The Paragon / Renegade mechanic, which rewarded those choices by unlocking Third Options, was what actually drove the franchise. Andromeda removes this engine entirely. Is it any wonder the resulting game bogs down under its own weight?
The Mass Effect franchise has been put back into stasis after this Actionized Sequel. I can see why. If this is the best Bioware can do, then ME5 would have involved SAM trying to enslave the universe (or convert Earth into Cybertron), and I'm glad I won't have to see it.
The Andromeda Initiative went the wrong direction.
Once upon a time, the fourth game in a series was released. It was about a multi-species religious coalition of genocidal aliens who worshipped Precursors and used Plasma Cannons that fired Homing Boulders. They were opposed by a human Space Marine with an Artificial Intelligence companion. The game was made by an offshoot studio of the original creators, and they had a Tough Act to Follow. Their solution was Going Cosmic and adding the Precursors as an enemy faction. By and large, the fourth game was considered inferior to the (unusually high) story and gameplay standards set by the third... Though at least it lacked the third's controversial ending.
The game's name? Halo 4. And also Mass Effect: Andromeda, once BioWare apparently gave up on making their own game.
Andromeda, of course, draws from its own series as well, but mostly the bad parts. The very large mission worlds of 1 are back, with the result that you can get lost amongst the Sidequests, unsure how to actually progress the plot. It also dilutes Character Development; you have to play for five hours and complete 10% of the game before you can even try to talk to your squadmates. For Padding, we have both planet scanning and the boring car drives. And it turns out that most of those mission worlds don't need to be completed in order to beat the game. The result? The game fails the Eight Deadly Words pretty early on and never recovers.
Andromeda doesn't feel very alien. In the first game Shepard had four discrete alien species as party members, and met at least five more as NPCs. The Heleus Cluster only has two, and they're both Rubber-Forehead Aliens that make the asari look downright exotic. And that's before we get to the Whole Plot Reference mentioned above.
And worst of all, the Karma Meter is gone. The original trilogy excelled at only one thing: making players feel like their choices matter. The Paragon / Renegade mechanic, which rewarded those choices by unlocking Third Options, was what actually drove the franchise. Andromeda removes this engine entirely. Is it any wonder the resulting game bogs down under its own weight?
The Mass Effect franchise has been put back into stasis after this Actionized Sequel. I can see why. If this is the best Bioware can do, then ME5 would have involved SAM trying to enslave the universe (or convert Earth into Cybertron), and I'm glad I won't have to see it.