Developer: BioWare
Platforms: PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Genre: Action role-playing, third-person shooter
Published by: Electronic Arts
Mass Effect: Andromeda is the epic galactic voyage you haven’t played in a few years or longer. It’s an action based RPG that has a massive emphasis of exploration, character interaction and lots of grand action and combat. So to sum it up, it’s a huge bag of variety with everything in between thrown in. I have a soft spot for Mass Effect especially from the first and second incarnation of the games. I was looking forward to see how time and a new platform will help the game.
First off, the great scale of the game hits you, even early on. You have a huge galaxy to explore with lots of planets dotted around the galaxies. The plot is a story driven with actions in the game having consequences all throughout the game and the development of your character. This is the in thing in games, not just junction based choices near the end or climatic end but a general progression to good, evil or indifference. The story line in this game isn’t as dark as the previous ones. Be prepared for lots of dialogue and character interaction, the voice overs and the story provide a fairly structured background to the gameplay.
The core missions are engrossing and time consuming but the side missions are huge, plentiful and interesting too. I spent a good amount of time just wondering and exploring the game as it should be played. There various opinions on the graphics and general visuals of the game. The graphics in the rawest terms are good but not amazing, it’s a next gen title but not pushing the boundaries any further but the game is huge and every world is open and the combat style is a lot more nimble than the old cover shooter style. Overall, I thought the layout, graphics and presentation is solid, there a few glitches in terms of level design I encountered early but apart from that I was happy. I think it’s good but not excellent but I can’t really think of many games that blew me away graphically. Gameplay more than made up for the glitches and good graphics. I liked the less cover based action which made the combat more fluid and enjoyable. Lots of levelling up and character development and customisation is available. The variety of planets, destinations and space travel give a real sense of you being an explorer in this game.
Mass Effect: Andromeda does a lot well and is fairly big in terms of gameplay. There have been minor changes from previous games in terms of combat, the story being less dark and the worlds being even more open. I think there is something here for the seasoned Mass Effect player and newbie a like. There is tons to do in terms of missions, side missions and character development. It’s the awesome space game we all want to play and be apart.
Overall: 8/10
Enjoys more than the odd game, long time gamer, somewhat a technologist and everything else in between.
Also enjoys a good solid game of FIFA online. Currently PS4, XBOX 360 and STEAM.
