The Problem With Mass Effect: Andromeda & "Bigger Is Better"

No one will care about this comment I'm sure, but the response to this game is disheartening.

The comparisons to the original series, or the first game in that series in particular, are ridiculous. Mass Effect became "Mass Effect" because that story was incredible. It was one of the best Sci-Fi stories ever told, in any medium, period.

Expecting that sort of genius to just be replicated is, quite frankly, pathetic. What Andromeda has done is introduced a solid Sci-Fi game that is somewhat formulaic, but certainly far better than average.

What further dismays me about the responses is the fact that games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc are almost always invariably better when the second game in the series releases. Why? Because that is when your big decisions from prior games start to have impact. When you begin to see the world you are shaping, and for those with active imaginations, begin to get sucked more into the experience as a whole.

Maybe it's because I am an older gamer that I appreciate the work and effort that goes into a game like Andromeda. I appreciate that in reality, there are so few "great" games in any given year and even fewer in genres you or I might enjoy. Maybe my age also made me more realistic about expectations, because I never expected Andromeda to be able to compete with the original series. Not for a second.

Hell, name me a game story in the past ten years, in Sci-Fi or out of it, that really gives the original Mass Effect first game a run for it's money. Expecting them to be able to reproduce that miracle? Just silly.

I never played the first Mass Effect, I wish they'd redo it for the newer consoles. However I do agree Andromeda gets better later in the game..I almost put it down and went and bought the Horizon game, but glad I persevered. I am exploring almost all of it before going to the end mission, just because I like immersing myself in open world games.(it's like therapeutic)

Go back and play the original Mass Effect. It's still the best game in the series. Switching to my Level IV Tungsten Ammo into my assault rifle because the synthetics were charging and using dynamic WHOLE TEAM abilities to survive an Insanity mode fight was epic fun. Not to mention one of the most epic bad guy reveals ever... "I am beyond your understanding... I am Sovereign..." (Anybody?)

But then they had to make it Multi-Player because you know, business, so they blew up the whole combat systems to turn an RPG into a Hybrid first person shooter, which ruined II and III. The story and characters is what you enjoyed, not the game play, so you remember them fondly. But go back and replay ME1 and move over to ME2 and you will instantly realize where it all went wrong.

Andromeda is "Paint by Numbers" big studio gaming. The original ME Team have obviously moved on to other things. This cookie cutter experience was meant to be saved by "big visuals" (which did look great) but ultimately ends up a soulless experience. ME-A is what happens when the execs hire MBA's to run the show instead of fostering and maintaining their talent pools that provided the original inspiration.

Bottom line... EA is the devil... EA is where games go to get their souls ripped out of them. Suck it EA.

Also you think Skyrim felt alive and vibrant? haha

Feminists ruined gaming. Thank you very much for that one... Sigh.

The game feel hollow and empty because Bioware gave us a hollow empty galaxy. For a whole galaxy we saw no cities or even ruins of cities ... even scanning from space no cities, no civilization.

How could anyone send colonies to another galaxy and no ships to protect them ... at least a small fleet of destroyers and carriers ... the Nexus and the Colony ships seems completely defenseless.

Jumping from system to system and scanning them is not interesting game play ... it doesn't make the game bigger or better. I'm very disappointed in this game. This is one of Bioware worse games.

Haven't been able to finish the game. Not because it's bigger, because it's boring. It just throws companions at you and screams at you through the screen that you need to bond with them.

In all honesty this is probably going to be the game ever made

Yeeeeah. Same boat.

The larger game world is wasted by being filled with boring, overly simplistic quests with no interesting writing behind them. The characters aren't interesting, some the dialogue is downright annoying or nonsensical, and the plot both doesn't sell itself and repeatedly misses opportunities to develop any kind of compelling foundation.

The boring quest design I could forgive if the writing was on point, but when a BioWare (worse, a Mass Effect) game get wrong THE thing this developer is supposed to be good at, its hard to enjoy the rest of it regardless.

I agree that Andromeda isn't a BAD game, but being a BioWare and a Mass Effect game puts a lot of expectation on it, so it only being a FAIR game is still real disappointing.

When did Bioware say that bigger is better?

I'm 73 hours in Andromeda and I've been holding off the main quest line as long as possible(Cause I'm also a completionist) and Im onlyat 53% completion . Yes, so far it does get tedious and I must agree with Jess that "Padding" is not the appropriate way to make the game bigger. Like Jess also mentions a 15 hour game with a good story line will definitely be better than a 60 hour game consisting of manly "Padding". Andromeda is not a bad game per say, its just that from a design view it could have been much better if the time spent on boring quests was put more into quests involving character development tagged to the main story line.

There's a reason why such games like "The Last of Us" are so engaging and its because the character's and story line go hand in hand and not just thrown in to lengthen the gameplay with boring side quests.

I have hope for future installments of Andromeda because I feel the Bioware are taking all this feedback seriously and we will definitely see a better product in the future.

Good analysis Jess.

I really like this kind of personal video impressions, hope we get more of them in the future by you and others in GS.

I’m so tired of review rubbish like this. “Experts” who haven’t finished the game or make virtually no effort to distinguish between some piece of the game they just don’t like vs something that is actually wrong with the game. They then baptize their personal tastes in a few trite comparisons to a handful of “safe harbor” games and call it a day.

For example, the problem with ME:A apparently is that it’s too big, and therefore has lost focus on engaging quests. If only it were more like, um, Skyrim – that’s safe – it would have been better. Its suggestion like this that make me wonder if I occupy the same space-time as the reviewer.

Don’t get me wrong, I played 200+ hours of Skyrim and enjoyed much of it. But, the suggestion that is avoids fetch quests in a way that makes the majority of its vast open world content engaging -- in a way that ME:A doesn’t -- is just absurd. Huge sections of the guild quest lines, for example, had content that was procedurally generated. How many times in unlocking a city for the Thieves guild did I have to do x instances of a “numbers” jobs where you literally step and fetch your way through machine generated content to achieve the objective. I wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised if the people who complain about these “fetch” quests “space bar” through all the initial context setting conversations, and then complain about how they don’t “feel” heroic. Its fine, just admit, you don’t personally enjoy this type of content. Its not your taste. There’s really nothing Bioware could have done to change that. ME 1 – 3 were filled with all kinds of this small, side content. Collecting dog tags for the fallen dead at the crash site of the Normandy SR-1 isn’t necessarily epic/heroic. As an RPG fan, I got it. If you’ve ever been a solider or known one, you immediately understand how that helps tell a story and contributes to your understanding of the values and concerns of that character.

I submit to you that the vast majority of the side-quests in ME:A are similar to the example above. They aptly address the types of issues you would expect to emerge as the Pathfinder role the games sets up for you. Maybe not all of them appeal to you, but if that’s the case, skip them and move on. It has become increasingly common among professional reviewers to find some aspect of any game they just don’t like, and make that the reason the game is objectively bad. You talk to a doctor struggling to save the life of a guy in a horribly undersupplied clinic. He begs you for help. You have the chance to do it. If engaging in this kind of suspension of disbelief, and taking on a roll isn’t fun for you, then maybe just disclose you’re not a fan of the RPG genre in your review of the game and move on.

Don’t get me wrong. ME:A has things that are objectively bad, and I think Bioware would admit that. The animations need work, way too many bugs, and places where the writing is clunky. But if the reviewer community is going to be the vanguard of accountability for quality and professionalism for game producers, I’m unclear why they get a pass.

Jess McDonalds Rules!

personally i love the witcher 2 "world" more than 3...i think areas like that jungle in act 1..or that huge warzone in the middle of the game...or that small dwarf village... or the best of all that haunting little place where geralt and Triss make love ..all of that because they foucesed on the small world more than the witcher 3 ...the places where more memorable than the witcher 3...still i give the 3 10/10 score and the 2 9/10 as kevin vanord did but not in the world scenario...please think about that before responding to what i just said.

BIGGER means less quality..unless more ppl with talent work on that game which is rare to find those ppl in one spot if u get what i mean... again worst news about a game is :its going to be get bigger....nice article gamespot

took the words right out of my mouth ... perfectly explained as to why this game is mediocre. The multiplayer is great and every now and then there is an awesome mission but there is to much tedious fluff.

Very true. A game, like any piece of entertainment, reflects the kind of work that has been put into it. And sadly, Bioware games have become empty creations, without a clear vision and substance. Just products for the sake of creating products.

I keep wishing for some better music in the game. ME1-3 had some great tracks that really helped amp up the action...but I can't even hum the slightest part of anything that is in Andromeda.

The original ME had a *lot* of flaws, but somehow Andromeda has yet to convince me in the way that game did, which at least had consistently compelling characters and story. Hopefully, I'll be proved wrong in the end, but after 3 games I would expect a much better overall experience, even if the game lacks the classic characters of the original trilogy.

Ok the game have a lot of bugs realy but is an amazing game i play the mass effect trilogy in the past and andromeda have pros and con but at the finish need some improvements but is a good game and if reale like this type of games just play it and stop complain.

How to explain 9 for Inquisition and 6 for Andromeda, games that have the same style of level design that Bioware started using great worlds, but the second is an evolution of practically everything in relation to the first, better plot, more justified protagonist, Better and non-reused villain, much better secondary missions, infinitely better multiplayer, etc. ? LOL

B-but, w-what if I like that it's bigger? Really though, the environments have a ton of stuff to do and unlock within these huge spaces. I skipped all the fetchy stuff and still have completed enough content in these areas you claim to be empty to net me over 200 hours worth of gameplay. Also, every planet on NMS looks the same and the terrain is copy pasted. In this game every planet is absolutely gorgeous and hand crafted. Stupid to compare. You mention The Witcher 3 as a good example of a big game done right but that game was structured almost exactly the same as to how content is distributed across the map. You're crazy to suggest that it's just vast empty space, there is literally so much to find and discover on these planets. Maybe you just don't like big exploration based games, that's fine but it doesn't mean they did something bad by making the game big. Some of us like that. I think this video is just a matter of personal opinion and taste, and a matter of attachment to the original trilogy. Everyone talks about how characters and dialogue are dull... I don't find it to be dull at all, I'm usually pretty engaged and thrilled with everyone's stories about how colonization is going, and the struggles between the exiles and the Nexus, and all these stories that fit right along with this whole theme of colonization. To me it's exciting. I also love all our squad members- I feel like I'm with explorers, not with a bunch of superheroes like Tali and Garrus. Those characters should stay in the original trilogy where they belong. But I like this new ragtag group of space explorers we have here. After doing all of their missions I feel very connected to this crew. I really don't see why everyone is complaining so much. I love this game, I think it's a vast improvement over the original trilogy. I have my gripes- lack of scientific realism (all aliens act and talk like humans, toy sized solar systems, etc), non customizable squad, no day/night cycles (I know a couple of the planets are supposed to be tidally locked but all of them?), and obviously poor animations/faces- but overall this is probably my favorite ME. There's no commander Shepard or Reapers but what he have is a less urgent and even more light hearted but nonetheless epic tale, one about exploration and discovery, not saving an entire galaxy. I like it. I have very little to complain about with this game I think they did a terrific job, **** all the haters, I have my gripes but I am excited to see them improve on this formula.

The game was a flawed masterpiece imo. And while the disparate quality content between the loyalty missions, story missions, and side quests did hamper my enjoyment of the game, there's just so much content, lore, and engaging quests that the scope of the game made up for it's shortcomings.

I started it but stopped, waiting for patches. Too many good games I haven't finished yet (Horizon, Nier Automata to name a couple) to touch this again.

Interesting. I think Angry Joe actually complained that there wasn't enough good use of the Nomad because, in part, the maps were too small for it to be put to good effect.

Opinions are like a-holes...

My a-hole says this is a decent game with some flaws that either you are or you aren't willing to overlook. For me, I went in fairly open minded and, while I agree it doesn't measure up to the first three games, I'm still having fun, enjoying combat, suspending disbelief and romping about the universe interacting with aliens and amusing myself at their expense while wondering why everyone seems to have the same nervous system disorder in their face.

For the most part, I think alot of people aren't willing to overlook those flaws, or perhaps weigh them more heavily than deserved, because they had set their expectations too high. THAT was partly because they have a lot of confabulated rose-tinted memories of the first 3 games, which were heavily flawed in their own ways as well. For that reason alone, I've long argued that game developers need to do more innovating as opposed to iterating. They just set themselves up for this kind of reactionary tantrum sh-tshow when they beat the dead horse and attempt to squeeze too much out of an IP.

I think this was probably one of those situations. Leave it alone for 10 years and let it stew and int he meantime make something brand new instead.

Doesnt live up to the series.
Right there i just got a "does not compute" in my brain. ME:A is NOT ME 4. This is a new game in the same universe and should be reviewed as such. Now try and like it or not on that basis and not like it as it should be nr. 4
I like both the old and this one. Its not a 10 but i would give it 8 out of 10
Perfect 10 would be to take the best of the old ones and mix it with Andromeda.