Mass Effect Andromeda - who's to blame?

Now that the mercy killing of Mass Effect Andromeda has been confirmed, and we can move on to other pastures to place our criticisms and praise we can only look back at what COULD have been...

I noticed on Twitter that the bioware mass effect threads are littered with a tug of war between fans blaming Bioware and EA for making an uninspired game, as well as fans blaming, well, fans, for their outcry and criticisms on a game that didn't deserve it.

Personally, I believe mass effect Andromeda is a product of a company, (whether ea or bioware or both) that tried to cut corners, by giving one of it's biggest franchises to an inexperienced team with no measure of success, in hopes the name alone would carry its sales and this allocating more resources and better devs to Anthem to make a splash with a new IP.

Not that I disagree with making good on new IP, but I don't believe the greatness of mass effect needed to be caught in the cross hairs... I put the blame squarely on the developer for making a bad mass effect game and a really dry open world game that failed to reach even the lowest bars of the original trilogy. This is an EA/Bioware problem and I feel they know it.

Apologists don't send a message of accountability in my opinion.

If you've played it, you have context and perspective , if you haven't, youre just shooting from the hip based on what you've heard. So in this case, now that the dust has settled, who ruined the mass effect franchise?

Mass Effect is to blame. They knew chasing graphical gimmicks is risky business.

From what I've read, BioWare Montreal was an inexperienced studio with a ton of ambition who got in way over their heads. They were talking about a No Man's Sky-style procedurally-generated galaxy and things like that. They also apparently spent much of the development time testing tech, and supposedly, the story content stuff we saw was basically 18 months of work. It was simply a mismanaged development cycle from start to finish.

I don't think the Mass Effect franchise is ruined, exactly, they just had a hiccup. Every franchise have their low points. I don't think EA are going to leave a big brand name like Mass Effect dormant forever. That said, EA is one publisher who tend to learn all the wrong lessons from their mistakes. They might instead just respond to a mess-up with more mess-ups.

SJW's are to blame. Mass Effect has so much potential yet Bioware focuses more on gay relationships than making an actual interesting story to cater to their SJW base.

@NathanDrakeSwag: Im afraid thats the least of its issues. Sad youd even try to blame such a thing.

I really fail to see why some people think it is a bad mass effect game. I played it and enjoyed it.

Gay romances has been a staple in BioWare games since at least KOTOR, so I don't see how that would suddenly become a problem in a BioWare game. Moreover, the game's main problems had nothing to do with the romance options. Your claim and hypothesis is a non sequitur.

@TheEroica:

I did buy Andromeda myself and I personally didn't find anything wrong with it. I think people were just expecting too much because of the previous trilogy so anything less than that is considered terrible. It wasn't ACTUALLY terrible but it wasn't great either. It was just good enough. I was just happy to have a new Mass Effect. I think it would've been nice to see if the team would have learned from their mistakes but I don't blame anyone for feeling like we didn't need a sequel. It was an OK game with a not so interesting cast in a not so interesting storyline. During the time I spent playing Andromeda, I never felt a need to go back because I wanted to see what happens next. I only went back because I wanted to keep playing for a bit.

It's certainly true to me that the SJW ideology was thick in this game, but that was merely one of the many many issues I had with this game. I like the gay relationships for pretty obvious reasons and expect them to be in the game. Pity none of them were with interesting characters.

Worst story. They previously had a slow build drama, with a menacing life changing enemy over the horizon. Now we have an identikit enemy with tracing paper design I couldn't care less about. So you get to this brand new galaxy and what? Whats there?

Totally squandered the idea of a new galaxy by introducing one single friendly race in the whole expanse of it. One. And they looked lazy and uninspired. So list of fresh new ideas for this fresh new story arc: Boring new friend alien. Boring new enemy alien. Boring robots. That's your lot.

Boring, no actually achingly boring locations. No Omega, no Illium. Just a massive bunch of contructs and empty deserts.

Ugly designs for NPCs, who all pretty much looked like they come from the same liberal arts college they got the designers from.

Truly awful writing. We've seen the "my face is tired" trope. The tip of the iceberg. No one was interesting, no one was normal, the writing was snarky sixth form level humour shit. Retconning the Asari so they have gender fluidity? Why? Why would they possibly have that? They consist of females only. Who is driving this writing and for what purpose?

Most boring characters, not one of them I cared to save. Peebee? Pee....bee? **** off. Just **** off with this infantile shit.

Animations from hell, goes without saying. I played it on launch, the fact that they got around to fixing some of these issues a long time later means what to me? Nothing.

Found a ton of bugs on release. Does anyone remember when we used to call this shit out? There was nary a playthrough I could get through without something stopping me in my tracks! Now we just wait for the inevitable patch and say nothing. Jesus H Christ we are weak.

I'm glad it failed. This will send the right message that this is not acceptable. You can't live off your name. Do you think Mario platformers are still sought after by name only? Do you think the Witcher 3 was living off a reputation? No.

These games live up to their reputation.

I probably will skip Anthem and will definitely wait for the sales for it, because Bioware have gone into the pile marked "former games companies" and they have offended me just like Konami and Capcom. You can claw your way out of there, like Sega, but let's face it. They are exactly where they want to be.

Its a let down indeed, I enjoyed the story, new characters, & gameplay/combat. Premise was pretty damn good too. Some of the bland gameplay options, pacing, lack of Aliens returning like Quarian, Vorcha, Geth, Drell, Volus, Elcor, and enemies held it back. I think if the game had less busy work, some more impact in the story it would have made a big difference.

But let's face it @TheEroica, Andromeda never got the support it deserves to begin with. EA and Bioware moved on entirely and dumped it on 1 of their B teams to see if they can squeeze a few dollars out of the franchise and keep it afloat with minimal effort. They got their money but seeing all the negativity and fan/critic reviews have told them to just shut it down. They don't care. It was never meant to rival the trilogy, this was more of a spin-off then it is a sequel despite this takes place over 600 years into a newer Galaxy unaffected by the Reapers. At this point, the Main Bioware Team is all focusing on Anthem, there next big thing and from what I seen, I'm very hype for Anthem then I am for anything Mass Effect now. Ever Since Casey Hudson left Bioware during Andromeda development, I had a bad feeling Mass Effect franchise is doomed from the start he left.

The game makes the same mistakes Final Fantasy XV did, it sacrifices interesting story telling, characters and sidequests to cater to people that want a huge empty, drab open worlds filled with MMO-like junk quests and pointless busy work. Even if the game did have perfect animation and was bug free it still wouldn't be able to escape that it's the most boring Mass Effect game and doesn't come even anywhere close to matching BioWare's once upon a time quality standard. Here's what I think they need to do;

1) BioWare needs to be sorted out first and foremost. The SJWs need to be put on lesser roles and we need to get the true raw talent back in there. I'm not saying no gay romances, transgenders(although keep that stuff to a minimum), they just need to make it not so obvious that they're pandering to the SJW mindset over just wanting to make an interesting story to tell. The SJW mindset and quality writing are just completely at odds with each other. They will never blend well. Point being, they need to start appeasing the Mass Effect fanbase again and not just Anita Sakeesian who doesn't play games at all.

2) Fully remaster Mass Effect 1,2 and 3 on PS4, Xbone and PC. Refresh peoples minds on why those games where so great.

3) Make Mass Effect 3's red ending the canon ending. Bring Shepard back for Mass Effect 4. :D

I believe that is all that needs to be done to bring this franchise back on it's feet. Success awaits if you follow these 3 easy steps.

Instead of me writing a block of text this sums up my thoughts aswell.

With regards to peebee they should have used her real name pellassaria which sounds more appealing. Why do all asari have the same character model?

The Kett aren't even close to the Reapers, the first time you meet Sovereign still gives me chills.

@davillain-: I agree with all that. They used the name like an old gym sock and damned the product to hell.

@DocSanchez: I'm gonna go one step further and say that putting it in an entirely new Galaxy was also a misstep in the end. Think about it... Youre returning to the mass effect universe only nothing is familiar. No locations, no characters... no Events... Outside of some liara tapes and n7 armor, along with a few familiar species, they made a sci-fi game that no one felt connected to, given it's name. There first f$#@ up out of the gate was severing mass effect from mass effect.

I'm not a huge fan of sequalizing games to holy hell, but if you're going to retain the mystery and feeling, dare I say ,soul of the previous games but tell an all new story I can get behind a new corner of the milky way.. When you put us light-years away from anything familiar I just don't feel connected.

While Bioware is to blame for cutting corners, stupid ass critics are to blame for the needless QQ, "oh but the facial animations are ugly AF", congrats you just described 75% of game animations out there. The industry is just becoming a hypocrite pos machine

That and the whole Internet, hating on Andromeda had become a trend, ppl who hadn't even played the game bashed it to death

Now, this game is not what I expected it to be, but it's far from a bad game, actuall, many of its flaws are present in a shit ton of other games with very good reception, if the game was criticized just like the standard, just like the other games, I'm sure we would be hearing news about a sequel or a DLC rather than the death of the franchise.

People needed to judge MEA as a new entry, not if it can be as good as ME1 and ME2 cause that would be pointless. The original ME games had thee perfect cast, has one of the best protagonists ever created (Shepard).

This is all BioWare's doing, though I'm sure it would be convenient for everybody just to blame it on EA like usual.

It was BioWare who chose their most inexperienced team to make this with none of the original creators so they could make Anthem, that huge online PvP/PvE game that was supposed to be EA's answer to Ubisoft's The Division or Activision's Destiny. That's what Mass Effect Andromeda should have been.

@Ballroompirate: Couldn't agree more

Definitely the developer.

They started as an inexperienced team and then went on to employ people based on their political beliefs and sexual orientation, from a man hating lead character artist who hadn't coded a thing for a decade to an open racist more intent on attacking white people on social media than doing his job. If they'd employed people on ability instead then it may have been a different story and outcome for ME:A.

I blame bioware.

tired of their stupid SJW, LGBT and all other stupid pointless things that they added to the DA/ME series, on top of that their shitty engine.

People say they want more women in control of tech companies, Bioware is a reason this does not work, I don't want lesbian looking women in my game.

@DocSanchez: @NathanDrakeSwag: @metalslimenite:

You guys are idiots! Gay relationships are almost non existent, how the **** is it even a problem to you? Does it just offend you to have gays in a game?

How can anyone say that it's an SJW game when the main plot is basically "Integrating outside alien cultures into your own is bad? I'm getting tired of seeing everyone is labeling Andromeda a SJW game is plain fucking stupid!

Thats true but there's something in the more recent Bioware games thats just more "in your face" then say in KOTOR, DA: Origins or ME1/2

I really started to notice the somewhat forced gay or ethnic variety relationships more prominently in DA: Inquisition when the heterossexual interest were butchered in the process. For ex, the heterossexual female interests were 1. A manly woman (Cassandra) or 2. a boring, fugly, political woman (Josephine). If you wanted to date a beautiful, feminine woman (cause those exist too), bad luck, you couldnt. Bioware started to brag about their "diversity" even before this SJW debacle started. Its just too damn obvious now.

I've no problem with diversity in games, mind you, I just find it out of place when its there for the sake of being there and thats how I feel about the more recent Bioware games

Wut? So you wouldn't try to fight against an alien civilisation that multiplies by kidnapping other species and stripping their DNA to enhance their own capabilities? (in other words trying to create racial purity)

I'm fairly sure the base premise and over all objective of the game was about trying to establish colonies in a new galaxy through co-operation and integration with the intelligent indigenous species. Even though there are only two, one of which are the bad guys, in a galaxy far bigger than our own but that's a different issue all together.

The blame is to whoever decided to pass ME to an inexperienced studio in order for the real talent to focus on Anthem. I mean come on this is Mass Effect we're talking about, one of the most iconic franchises in video game history, you can't treat it like that...

As for the game itself, I wasn't bothered by animations and bugs. I just found it dull and boring. The Andromeda galaxy, the new species, the storyline, most of the sidequests. I did have fun with the game but it was lacking. I'm going to back some other opinions here and say that they should bring the Milky Way back - that's where Mass Effect feels at home IMO. Like @omnichris said, make the red ending cannon and show us what happened to the Milky Way after the Reaper arc. And as much as I miss Shepard I think he should stay put, his story is done. And with a proper studio developing it, this could become another fresh start and a return to the roots for the franchise.

@GarGx1: @metalslimenite: This just seems like pandering to the biggest degree. I don't really give a crap if anyone is into Same-Sex, transgender or whatever, But I do take issue with people trying to force it on everyone and everything but Andromeda is label as a SJW. This whole SJW is made up by the internet racist crap.

@GarGx1:

There was such a war. It was when man made first contact with the other species. But eventually, they decided to settle their differences and let humans join the Citadel council. But even then, the majority of other species hate humans.

The whole premise of the games was about mankind trying to prove its worth and that we can learn to work with the other races if we try. No one else in the galaxy trust us and sees mankind as shovenistic assholes.

@killered3: You didn't bother reading my post did you? I specifically said I like the gay relationships in the games, because I'm bi and I like those things in the games. You didn't read it, yet you responded. Why?

Agree with the majority that Bioware is to blame for assigning an unexperienced team to it and not really providing them support either

@TheEroica: I would definitely have kept it in the milky way galaxy and just introduced a few more locations we had not seen. It's not like we had exhausted the place any more than star trek has exhausted it's supply of races.

But they could have handled this so much better even with the concept of moving. Imagine if humanity gets there, and there actually are lots of new races. Lots of possibilities there. For instance, one of them is like the evil empire in star wars, and humanity has to deal with them somewhat covertly and unite the rest against them? There's a lot of potential, they blew it all.

@DocSanchez:

I accidentally grabbed your Name to my post!!That's why!!

That's a bit of a stretch.

Well, again, "acquired taste" and YMMV romance options have also been a staple of BioWare games since at least KOTOR. Bastilla basically spent half the game telling you what an awesome Jedi she was. DAO's Morrigan was a cynical social Darwinist witch. DAII's Isabela basically threw her tits at you all the time, while Merrill was Blood Mage, so you always felt there was something wrong with her. ME1's Ashley was an anti-alien racist. ME2's Miranda was initially arrogant and cocky until you dug deeper, while Jack was basically a psychopath. So on and so forth. It seems to be something BioWare just like to do.

Honestly, my problem with this blaming disappointing games on diversity and SJWs is threefold. One: it's conspiratorial thinking, putting things between the lines whether they're there or not. We know BioWare Montreal tried to go big and got in over their heads. We know they had problems with the Frostbite engine; one account described it as like a racing car - really good at one thing and not much else. We know they pretty much built the game in just 18 months. Let's stick with what we know. Two: it presumes that diversity instantly makes the writing worse, and reducing it automatically makes the writing better, and I just think that's a simplistic, black-and-white non-sequitur. Clumsy writing is clumsy writing, doesn't matter how diverse the cast is. And three and my biggest problem with this is: it excuses incompetence. Blaming everything on "SJWs" and "diversity" just distracts from very real and objective flaws with these games, and you're giving them a pass on simple, clear-cut incompetence that caused them.

So, as I said, BioWare have been experimenting with "acquired taste" and YMMV romance options for a long time. That their latest offerings seem to fall short is a valid complaint - I just don't think it's a new phenomenon. What is arguably new, however, is the deteriorating quality in the writing and a fleshing out of these characters. That is clear-cut, blatant incompetence. Let's not distract from that or give BioWare a pass.

Gamer logic: Optional same-sex relationships are why this game didn't turn out that good.

Yeah, it had nothing to with major franchise being handled by an inexperienced developer.

Out of all the things I've heard Andromeda criticized for, that was not one of them

There was a demo for this and after playing it I was glad Xbox gave refunds for digital preorders. Haven't kept up with news about this but I think I read it was developed by different people in the company. If that's true, I think when new people get their hands on familiar franchises, it has a higher possibility of not being as good as the games developed by original developers. It's like movies, where the originals are always better than the sequels almost most of the time. But the game is not that bad, yes they seem to mess it up but it's not that bad. I'm just glad once again Xbox got EA Access and this will be on there free sooner than later. They need to partner up with MS again so maybe they could save the franchise.

The only ones to blame here. Every other answer is wrong.

Well I should have said modern history. It's definitely one of the stand outs of last gen and many people have very fond memories of it.

@johnd13: I think it's entirely fair to say one of the most iconic in history. It may be more recent but so what? Pac man was once recent. This was one of the biggest franchises in recent times.

@killered3: I don't think it was an accident. You assumed my position based on skimming my post.,then you slandered me by lazily suggesting I'm a bigot. I would have just accepted a simple apology. You don't accidentally add someones name. We've all done what you just did, but you shouldn't go around accusing people like that.

I'm going with the owner/publisher on this one. EA could have tempered the expectations of a new and inexperienced team with management problems, and had them go for a smaller scale game. The Mass Effect universe as a somewhat generic sci-fi, is ripe for all kinds of character stories and interesting plot points. Easy pickings for a team to play a safe card and go for low stakes adventure-game style stories.

But no, instead they had to start fresh with a terrible RPG engine forced in for Frostbite marketing, and build the scale of the game higher than any of the others. Open worlds, tons of quests, high stakes story, etc etc. And all with a pathetic open-world budget of 40 million no less.

Not gonna say the Bioware B team did their best with the cards given, but it seems clear the issues here are top-down. If they were allowed to keep it simple and play to strengths, or at least allowed the resources to really put forth an earnest effort, it probably would have turned out a lot better.

@DocSanchez:

I just told you it was. I hit reply by mistake.

Bioware

Haven't played it yet, but I will eventually , mainly because I hear the combat is good.

Shame that other aspects of the game were not that great, but the chances of them beating the trilogy in terms of story/characters were slim.

Should have hired people for their skill, not fill equality quotas. :P

It's a shame that "blame" has to even be meted out, i thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game for what it is, perhaps my taste is deteriorating along with my fleeting youth.

I don't understand why all the hate for Mass Effect Andromeda. It has one of the best horde mode coupled with an amazing combat system. The universe is quite nice especially when you go to Kadara and the character backstories are all very interesting. Take it as a whole, it is definately well worth $60 if you bought it day 1.