It really is an honor to finally have completed what is my favorite game series of all time. My top three favorite gaming series of all time are Fire Emblem, Shenmue, and Mass Effect. Mass Effect has stood as my number one for quite some time, because of the theme of it. I've always been enamored by space travel across the universe/galaxy, ie Star Wars, Star Trek, and other series. I love the concept of a fleshed out universe that is completely original, with wild life, different races, and ecosystems to learn about.
I've played the series since the very beginning on Xbox 360. I recall immediately being thrown back by the combat system. It controlled similar to Halo, which was a game I was still playing heavily at the time. From the description of the game, I was at first a bit disappointed in that, because I wanted more RPG elements. As I got used to it, I grew to like it. There is a weapon wheel that you can bring up to switch weapons in the game. It pauses the action in combat. Your characters have powers known as biotics, which are genetic mutations that allow them to manipulate mass effect fields. They can use this to levitate, throw enemies, create barriers, and launch projectiles. You can enhance all of these abilities as your character's level increases, allowing you to also modify the abilities. With weapons, you have assault rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns and handguns. I find that in Andromeda, there was more viability across the board. I actually used my handgun at times, although it was still borderline useless. As you gain control and command with the alliance, you gain the ability to release people from Cryo stasis. Your twin sister is released, but remained in a stable coma for much of the game. I really liked how you continued to visit and try to communicate with her. Eventually, she has her turn to awaken and take action. You can also deploy unfrozen members on research, commerce and military assignments, utilizing a point system that you build with discovery across the galaxy. Every piece of equipment, weaponry, and wildlife and ores that you discover in each nook of the enormous galaxy means something, as they can all be utilized to research and develop not only alliance equipment, but equipment based on Kett and Remnant technology. And the weapons can be customized and modded through creation, and named. It felt really cool to develop a Krogan Hammer, or Kett Shotgun with my own specs and name it after all of my hard work in research and development. And there are storylines behind even cryo pods. There was one key scientist that was awaiting release from cryo, with a huge story. I found myself going to Podromos on Eos, just to look for her and follow up.
I'll get back to the control system, but first I wanted to lay the groundwork of the overall story. From the beginning of Mass Effect, there was an Alliance of many of the Milky Way races that was controlled from a Citadel. There they have a counsel made up of all representatives of the races. Commander Shepard is put in charge of the Alliance's interests, but from the beginning of the game series, faces very divisive decisions. There is a man known as The Illusive Man, who controls a faction known as Cerberus. This organization moves in the dark, and while not completely sinister, they claim to have humanity's interest as priority, and will choose to defy the Counsel at times. I've noticed that Cerberus is a name used for organizations like that in every game and movie; it seems, like some underlying meaning. In the first Mass Effect games, your decisions literally divided the galaxy, and you met alien races known as Reapers and also Geth. The technology that the
geth founded, were being used by the Reaper. A Reaper known as Sovereign is left behind, and while it overwhelms Shepard at first, he begins to be able to interface with it. Wars ensue, and after literally dying, Shepard is brought back cybornetically, after the initial battle to continue working from the shadows for Cerberus in the second game. Along the way, you make many allies, and even face decisions to end relationships.
I was playing Halo 2 at the time that I played Mass Effect 1. The first Mass Effect game took me only 17 hours. That was somewhat disappointing, because it felt like an action game, packaged as an RPG. And I really did look for additional content. It was just such a limited, yet ambitious game. Mass Effect, as a series, has always been about several objectives, and exploring a galaxy. However, in the first game, if I recall correctly, you only landed on a few planets, and when you did, it was directly into a mission within a very small facility, or map. You had a vehicle that you could use to navigate on land known as the M35 Mako. I really liked traveling around in that vehicle, but you didn't do it extensively. In the second game, they removed travel in the Mako. Your team was just conveniently transported to any important locations upon mission activation. The trade off, was that you explored more planets. Many of these planets could just be mined from outer space, and researched. I appreciated the wider area however. One thing that is consistent, is how detailed the history and specs are for each planet that you travel to. I enjoyed spending hours, just flying around clusters and systems within the galaxy, looking at history and information on gravity, vegetation, and orbital cycles of the various planets, as well as mining them for potential ores. This is something that is perfected in the final game Andromeda, which I will get into.
All 3 of the initial Mass Effect games complete the war against the Reapers, and has a satisfying ending. I clock all of them to total about 60 hours. I often remarked that you have to play them together to get a fully satisfying experience, as they seem to compliment each other's faults. In my opinion, the biggets issue with that is the length. Games like that should all be over 60 hours individually. Yet, I was still in love with what the game was.
The final game takes place 600 years after the events of the first games. After using Reaper technology to access a Mass Effect Relay to the Andromeda Galaxy, all alliance races undergo cryo-stasis, and embark on a trip. When they arrive there, they have about 7 worlds known as golden worlds, initially mapped for habitation. Things are thrown for a loop when they encounter a negative and destructive energy that has enveloped several clusters just prior to their arrival. This has ruined many planets, including the golden world to a degree. You find much later on, that there was a purpose behind this energy, which is known as the Scourge. The initial attack of the Scourge wipes out several of the traveling ships, killing many, including the leader of the Andromeda initial- Commander Garrison. She never gets to learn about her own venture. Your ship survives, and few of the other ships that arrived before you, are shrouded in mystery. The initial settlement, you find was also destroyed by the Scourge. Your father is known as Pathfinder. These are leaders of Initiative outpost exploration and settlement for the different races of the Alliance. Before you and your team even arrive, there was a huge uprising at the Alliance base, where the race known as Krogans left, due to disrespect from the Alliance, and settled on another world. Several humans also defected to numerous planets.
The alliance races are Turians, Salarians, Asari, Krogan, and Humans. Krogans fought to reestablish order in the wake of the uprising, and thought they should be given more say in Alliance affairs. When they weren't, they abandoned the Alliance. A bigger issue in the galaxy, are the Kett. These are a sinister race of aliens, who capture and assimilate other races to add to their ranks, and try to uncover the technology of an indigenous race of computer like creatures know as Remnant. I know, that sounds very similar to the initial case in the beginning games. They seek to find a powerful relic known as Meridian. The location, and tangibility of this is relatively unknown for much of the game, as well as exactly what it does, but the leader of Kett, known as the Archon, uses the protagonist Commander Ryder, to find more info, but following you to the Remnant sites. Your father, Alec Ryder was a spearheader of VI technology known as SAM. VI unlike AI, have the ability to adapt and learn. You find later that he was backed by a mysterious benefactor, but the Alliance rejected that project, so he had to continue in secrecy. Your mother was dying of cancer, that you find much later on, was due to the exposure to mass relays in her Alliance work. Using SAM, which connects via an implant to the hosts consciousness, he was able to extend her life for a while.
When you and your team land on the first golden world in Andromeda, you find the Scourge has taken over, as the world's atmosphere is collapsing during exploration, your father has to replace your cracked helmet with his during extraction, after a battle with Kett commanders on a Remnant site. You rescue a few humans who are scattered during the crash, but he doesn't make it. You watch him wield same during the fighting, and it is amazing, how same can modify and amplify your abilities. In death, he transfers control of SAM over to you, and you become his replacement, leaving so many questions. You embark on a race across the galaxy, to defeat the Kett, and bring peace to different civilizations, including the Angara, who are native to the galaxy. This helps you to win some of their trust.
That is the overall gist of a very deep plot. Along the way, you find many rebellious fighters, or just settlers who were discontent with Alliance conditions, with so many storylines across the galaxy. There was one mission, where a woman with a serious and contagious illness, was released from Cryo, and escaped via pod into space, pursuing a relative. You had to track her down, to contain any spread of disease, while not alarming the Alliance citizens on the Hyperion, and throughout the galaxy. You find several worlds that were golden worlds, were actually being made hostile through the Remnant technology due to Kett involvement. Since you have the SAM implant, unique to all others, you have an ability to interact with the Remnant sites, and reverse the effects on the atmosphere, making several of these worlds, golden once again. It is a long fight, against the Kett in many initial cases, and also the protective Remnant, who you grow to understand more during the game.
I really was blown away by the gorgeous graphics, textures, lighting, and scenery. This was not a typical dark game, where it is always night. However, I would have appreciated daytime changes. You never get night to day or vice versa, and that felt a bit out of place. You do experience different setting however, and this is truly an ambitious title. From what I was told, upon release, the game was loaded with bugs and issues that made it unplayable, resulting in bad reviews. I believe this is due to the scope. Mass Effect Andromeda embodies everything that the game was meant to be. It is truly massive, and takes advantage of current gen technology. Your ability to explore and find things blows away the first 3 games. I literally spent dozens of hours, just combing through the galaxy, finding quests and going across worlds. Similar to the first games, you can now travel on land in a vehicle, the Nova, and now you can upgrade it's ability to move and its shields. The maps are huge. Each world that you land on, is a literal world. You can get lost on these worlds and there are endless inhabitants, settlements, ruins, and bases that you will find, each with ores, undiscovered information, clues about lost or slain colonists, and datapads with information and messages that lost colonist have left. There are too many underlying stories in this game to go over here, and that in itself is amazing. It is literally like traveling around a galaxy. And when I thought you would be limited to a few golden worlds and that's it, I was again shocked. There are a few worlds that are not part of the overall story arch, that have other plot material, and can be fully explored.
Much like Monster Hunter, this game does an excellent job of making additional content weave into the overall story and feel very important in its own way. You don't feel like you are just filling time doing those quests. In fact, I abandoned my main mission often times, in pursuit of answers to other important and involved quests, including loyalty quests for you comrades' back stories. You have a whole crew, including an asari rogue, Peebee that you find on Eos, the first golden world, who joins you, as a potential love interest, and your second in command, Cora, who should have succeeded your father, who also becomes interested in you, as well as a Krogan, Angaran, female Turian and other crew mates, One thing that the game thew at me that was annoying, were the "alternative" love interests. I know, that the millenial way of thinking is that it's now preferred, but I'm old fashioned. The male crew members felt like characters that were designed as gay, and get awkward if you don't choose that option. I understand that the game supports both a male and female lead character, but it was overly obvious and pushed that as a male, 2 of the characters were interested in you. And when you didn't go that route, they both were somewhat involved with a girl, but in an almost hesitant way. During some of the dialogue, trying to bond with some of the male crew members, will make you automatically choose gay options, which was weird to me. It was a deterrent from me bonding with them in the game, because it's as if they were saying that male bonding has to be homosexual contact. Other than that, it was a well fleshed out how the character development was done.
The soundtrack was well done, and consistent with the series. Sound effects for combat sounds felt very appropriate and heavy. Your biotic powers were substantial, which made combat balanced. However, healing items were oddly placed and sparce. In heavy fights, you had to search high and low for healing stations, which are tiny boxes hidden in the field. In my opinion, if you get so few of them, they should be visible. I feel like there should have been some kind of healing mechanic or item besides boxes. Your character will heal up to half of their health when resting between engagements. This was hardly enough. Then, when you're a long way from fighting, you'll get a swarm of health boxes. And the glitches reared their head. There were a few times that I dash warped through the ground and/or into enemy fire. Also, sometimes, my character would seem to move at -100 mph when backing up from enemy fire, even when dashing, as if an imaginary wall had suddenly appeared behind me. I heard that many issues were patched, but from the glitches I experienced, I shudder to think of what it was. There were some glitches that entailed zero damage equating for blatant head shots to enemies, or enemies shooting around corners and hitting me for massive damage. I also found it odd that enemies that used machine guns were more dangerous at range than snipers. Snipers could be handled, but as a sniper myself, I found that a wild AR wielding foe could kill me quickly and accurately, just letting off wild shots at sniper distance, even if I evaded and changed vantage points. This made sniping stupidly difficult in this game. Nakmor Drack, my Krogan ally, was my ace- boon- koon. I went everywhere with him, from the moment we met him. He became by clean up, because he actually took enemies down. As you would guess, enemies have that damage scaling nonsense in this game- meaning that the last pixel of life would last several hits, keeping them a viable threat on the field.
Each major Kett military unit was headed by a powerful biotic Kett that had huge shield around them that had to be constantly disabled to attack them, while they hurled instant kill attacks at you. I feel like few of those fights were so heavily glitched and screwed up, I had to actually lower the difficulty to normal, as I play on hard in this game. Later in the game, Peebee hacks Remnant tech, and builds you a VI drone. That was my main weapon, because as you power it up, it becomes an extremely powerful Remnant companion.
Glitches aside, I saw greatness in this game. I spent probably around 80 hours in it, and still had missions left undone, that can be completed after the main objective is achieved. The dialogue in the game was done very well and extensively. I must tell you, you will be on the floor laughing in this game. The wit of the main character, if that's your personality, is so on point, I was laughing out loud often. But one thing I notice in games and movies in America, is the fact that they feel like in order to convey dignity or respectability, a British accent is needed. I'm half British, and I laugh at that perception. Almost every character in the game has a British accent, including the SAM VI, and only 1 of them is an actual Brit- one of your crew members. What are the rest doing with the accent? And the lewdness and vulgar language at times threw me off and annoyed me. These are alien races you are involved with. Developers and people in general treat debased and vulgar behavior like it's anatomical, and part of being a normal and advanced human, when that's nonsense. It's more degenerate than anything. Language were created to convey important information. Vulgarities and other lewd language are glitches in civilizations if anything, that don't deserved coining in dictionaries as part of an intelligent language, so there is no need to stupidly assume that they would be just as important to alien races. That bothered me a bit, because it took me out of the immersion. I'm not escaping into space exploration to feel like I'm surrounded by millenial thinking idiots. I love the depth of it all and amount of NPC interaction that you can have, some uncovering completely random mini-missions of their own, or just idle conversation. And these NPC's have to number in the high 100's to 1000's.
Many people complained about the ending, and that makes absolutely no sense at all. You get plenty of closure to the story, and there is so much that you can discover about secrets that your father kept. Then the galaxy is free to be explored afterward. It was the perfect end to what has been a memorable series. I'm proud to be a fan. The universe is a huge place. Beyond a game, that's what makes this near perfect- 9/10
