Mass Effect: Andromeda is a story of failure. Mass Effect Andromeda review - the path of curvature The journey is clear
Right now, while you are looking at the monitor, there are a lot of interesting and not so interesting video games being made in the world. We know nothing at all about most. We won’t be surprised if tomorrow morning, for example, it turns out that Valve has announced Half-Life 3. But we still know something about some of them. The year is coming to an end, and we can already draw some conclusions. And if we decided to paint a hit parade of games already in development, but nevertheless classified, then Mass Effect Andromeda would definitely be among the top three. The game, to be sure, is interesting, but even if you are an ardent fan of Mass Effect, it is unlikely that you know much about this game.
In general, we thought and went to the Internet in order to sift through all the information that is already more or less reliably known, and try to tell you about the results, if possible, in a fun and interesting way.
What will the game be called?
The most accurate thing that can be said is that the game will be called Mass Effect Andromeda. Although, surprises are possible, and even this seemingly 100% information may turn out to be incorrect. But further, it’s even more difficult.
But why is the game called that way?
But because its events will take place in the Andromeda galaxy. This itself tells us that the game world is huge. In addition, we can assume that such a journey became possible thanks to some currently fashionable jump through space, or some other technological achievement. From here we can make one more assumption: according to the plot, we will be waiting for a time collapse, similar to what we saw in the film Interstellar, when the main character, who flew far into space, remained young, and everyone who was waiting for him on Earth grew old or died .
Who is developing such a wonderful game?
It is being developed by Bioware Montreal, the same studio working under Electronic Arts that has already made Mass Effect 3: Omega DLC for us. By the way, as has already become known, the game is being made on the Frostbite engine. This is the same technology that DICE used to create Dragon Age: Inquisition and Star Wars: Battlefront.
The main character will have to find a planet suitable for the resettlement of earthlings.
Travel is understandable. What is this game about?
Let us answer like American politicians: we are glad that you asked this question! This game, as already mentioned, is about traveling through distant worlds. You will have to play as a man or a woman, and it doesn’t matter who exactly, it will not affect the plot in any way. The main character or heroine will be on an important mission: they will be looking for a planet suitable for the mass resettlement of all humanity. You will have to do this not alone, but with a whole team that will be subordinate to the hero. The developers officially promised us study together, struggle with adversity and even love. By the way, we were already shown the official debut trailer. There we were shown a planet that does not have a sky, as such. In other words, at least one planet will definitely be without an atmosphere. In outer space we were shown flying creatures that looked like dragons. Maybe you'll have to fight them. The main character will have a helmet completely different from the one Shepard had, and will also have a special omni-tool on his hand. The main character's suit will be equipped with a turbine, allowing him to perform something similar to a double jump. By the way, the size of the map, apparently, will be 4 times larger than the one we saw in the third part of Mass Effect. The developers once stated this, but casually and not officially. And, of course, one cannot help but say that the main character in the story will stumble upon the remnants of some powerful civilization, the successful development of technology, which, it seems, will turn out to be the key to victory over all our enemies.
But how does all this connect to the previous trilogy, and does it connect?
As mentioned earlier, the events of the game take place in another galaxy. Judging by some hints, we will assume that the main character was sent on an expedition by the leadership of the Citadel - a huge space station that the Reapers built a long time ago. Therefore, some connection to old characters associated with the Citadel and the plot is possible, but nothing more than just modest references. We assume that Andromeda will have a completely separate story.
Captain Shepard will definitely not be the main character.
Who will be the main character?
The main character promises to be a character nicknamed Pathfinder. This nickname is universal in that in English it does not have such a pronounced masculine gender as in ours. A woman can easily become a tracker there. There were rumors that the surname of the main character would be Ryder, which is a definite reference to Sally Ride, a female astronaut whom some not particularly erudite Americans naively call the first woman in space, “forgetting” about our Valentina Tereshkova.
Who will be on the team?
There are no exact data on this matter, but it seems that there will be only three crew members. The first is a character named Drak, from the Krogan race. The second character is a female biotic named Cora. Nothing is known about the third subordinate. But, it seems, the characters can be subjected to impressive customization. This feature will come to the game from the last Inquisition - the third part of the Age of Dragons, where the process of creating your own character turned, in fact, into a separate entertainment.
Who will play the role of the bad guys?
There is no reliable information about this. Most likely, there will be several bad guys, but we will have to fight the most important battle in the process of studying the mysterious alien, highly developed race that we talked about above. It is there, in theory, that we will encounter the main evil, which may be not only a competitor in the pursuit of technology, but also the very ones who destroyed such a developed civilization. We don't expect them to be, for example, some of the microrobots that were in Stanislaw Lem's Invincible, but are more inclined to favor a choice of enemies to shoot at. According to the latest rumors, the main character will have to face a human enemy wearing armor similar to the main character's armor, which will have "Khet" written on it, while the main character's armor will have the H7 inscription on it.
The key to victory will be a successful struggle for the technologies of some ancient, developed civilization.
What's the deal with the spaceship?
Yes, we will have our own ship, which will be called Tempest. Storm - the name or designation of its class is not clear. There are quite definite rumors that the ship will be able to be controlled manually, maybe even conduct targeted shooting and maneuver. For now, this is all that can be scraped together on this topic.
How will you explore the planets?
Planets, supposedly, will be possible to visit, independently determining your choice: if I want, I’ll fly, if I don’t want, I won’t fly. It will be possible to travel around the planets themselves in a car, better known as a Mako. In addition, the main character and the rest of the squad will have jetpacks, which we already talked about earlier.
What will the gameplay be like?
The answer to this question is a mystery shrouded in darkness. But if just six months ago this darkness was akin to the darkness at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, now we already have some idea. The key feature of the gameplay is mobility, which will be achieved with the help of a jetpack and Mako, because the hero will have to explore vast territories that simply cannot be covered by bicycle. There are also rumors that the hero will have to free and recruit local alien inhabitants who are being oppressed by guys with the inscription Khet on their spacesuits. The locations themselves will be divided into colony camps, where each type of settlement will provide the hero with certain resources. We saw something similar in the last Assassins Creed. Therefore, we personally will not be surprised by the large spaces, large number of bases, and possible criticism from the gaming community that the gameplay turned out to be monotonous and boring.
Will there be multiplayer in the game?
According to preliminary data, yes – it will be. And it will be similar to the one that already exists in Mass Effect 3. We also know that the game will have a special currency called APEX.
Will there be characters from previous parts in the game?
They will definitely be there, but whether Captain Shepard will be there is unknown. If it does, then, as the game makers promise us, it will not play any important role, but will appear in the game for show, and only if we’re lucky. However, many believe that Shepard will definitely be there, and, supposedly, he will even be a playable character. Personally, we don’t think so, but, alas, we are not yet able to refute it with facts.
Some time ago we were accused of criminal inattention to the new brainchild of BioWare. Well, today we will try to correct this oversight by introducing you to the characters of the best role-playing game of all time before the release of The Elder Scrolls VI. The title and “humor” are solely on the conscience of the author of the original article. Particularly impressionable individuals should immediately stop reading and close the page. We warned.
Beyond the starships, biotic wonders, and looming alien threat, Mass Effect: Andromeda is all about people (and aliens) to communicate with, flirt with, and spar with. They will become the heart and soul of the game. The original trilogy was a massive escapist space opera, but it was fueled by the same thing as every other role-playing game in history: rich, interesting characters. How can we forget Mordin's cheerful aria about the salarian scientist, always busy calibrating Garrus, or the debate between Tali and Legion over whether the geth have a soul?
We hope that Mass Effect: Andromeda will give us many new memorable moments and viral memes. In anticipation of the game's release, we have collected all available information about possible companions and minor characters.
Let's start with the main characters. Scott and Sarah Ryder are twins in their twenties. It will be possible to complete the game both for her and for him, and the second Rider in any case will become one of the central characters of your team (and no, you cannot have an affair with relatives. This is not the Game of Thrones, after all!)
Players will be able to customize the appearance of the characters, choose a backstory and change the name, as they could in the original trilogy, but if they leave the standard names, some characters will refer to the hero by their first name (Scott or Sarah) instead of their last name. The names of the father of the Ryder family and the twin of the hero you choose will remain standard in any case so that family members didn't call each other by last name.
We know that the main character will inherit the honorary title of Pathfinder from his father, the famous galactic explorer and N7 fighter Alec Ryder (more about him later). In this role, the hero will lead a team to explore the Andromeda galaxy in search of new planets suitable for colonization, although, of course, the mission is unlikely to remain so harmless for long.
But Ryder’s personality and actions are entirely on the player’s conscience. You can play a hero, a bastard, someone in the middle, or anyone, because we are promised a much more subtle and thoughtful system of morality than before.
Well, one more interesting fact: the main character will have a pet pyzhak (remember those monkeys?), and this pet, apparently, will be able to wander throughout the spaceship "Storm", on which the valiant colonists will travel.
Battle buddies in Mass Effect: Andromeda
These are guys, girls and same-sex aliens who will join your team. You can take them with you on missions, they will have their own classes and skill trees, you can communicate and interact with them a lot, and in some cases it can even lead to a love relationship.
Like the Riders, Cora arrives in the Andromeda Galaxy aboard the ark ship Hyperion. She will be one of the two companions of the main character available from the very beginning of the game. Players were first shown her along with Liam in New Earth trailer, immediately making it clear that she would be a possible romantic interest for Scott Ryder. Details awaited the players in the video, representing team members, where Cora even reads the text.
Cora is a human biotic and a specialist in ground operations. Having risen to the rank of officer in the Alliance military forces, she, through a special program of interspecific integration of military forces, ended up in a unit with the Asari paratroopers and served with the Daughters of Talen. She's the second-in-command on the Pathfinder team and is, in fact, Alec Ryder's successor, so it's kind of odd that one of Ryder's children ends up becoming the Pathfinder. Obviously, this problematic issue will have to be resolved as the game's plot progresses.
Social news site Reddit recently leaked information from a market research: "Cora can create a biotic shield that protects everyone within a hemisphere from outside influence, while allowing her to continue firing at enemies."
This shield was previously exclusive to the Adept (Asari Justicar) class in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer (although a similar shield was created by a targeted biotic during a suicide mission in Mass Effect 2), suggesting that Cora will be an Adept specifically. But her profile page on the official Mass Effect website says that her "favorite" biotic ability is Biotic Charge, and her weapon is a shotgun, which is more similar to the Assault class. This is confirmed by lead designer Ian Fraser in Twitter.
Oh, and here's another thing: Cora's last name is Harper. Like the Phantom (whose real name is Jack Harper). Interesting, very interesting.
Liam is a security specialist responsible for responding to incidents and emergencies. From the same video introducing the team we learned that he studied engineering at university but then decided to retrain as a police officer. For his diverse skills, he was personally chosen by Alec Ryder to complete his task. Liam is Londoner and has a British accent.
"Liam is a young, enthusiastic, sometimes overly idealistic follower," art director Mac Walters told Game Informer. He has high hopes for the future of humanity in the Andromeda galaxy and will strive to inspire and encourage others in the most difficult situations. At the same time, he is quick-tempered, hot-tempered and often reacts overly emotionally. Apparently, somewhere in the middle of the game, this youthful idealism will collide with harsh reality, and we will have to witness it.
Despite his light and cheerful disposition, he takes his responsibilities very seriously, and supports and respects Ryder’s decisions. According to the same Walters, Liam is the one who will always cover the main character’s back.
As for guesses about Liam's class, here, again, you can refer to his page on the official Mass Effect website. It says that he prefers to fight in close combat, using a jetpack to fly up to the enemy, and an “overclocked” resotron with two blades (maybe Ryder can now use this too?). His favorite ability: Ravager Strike (jump forward, stunning enemies and hitting multiple targets with a jetpack). In the multiplayer game in Mass Effect 3, such an ability was a unique tech skill for the Turian Reaver, which is suggestive of the Soldier class. But let's not forget that this guy also studied to become an engineer.
Peebee is an asari, but don't jump to conclusions based on what you've learned about this race from previous games in the series: Peebee has equally little in common with the proud and arrogant Liara and Samara, or with the femme fatale Morinth.
“In situations where Liara was very serious, Peebee is lively and playful,” Mac Walters said about her. - At every opportunity, she acts contrary to generally accepted norms, she doesn’t care about culture, traditions and all that. And the concept of teamwork is alien to her.”
BioWare wants to destroy the stereotypes that players have regarding representatives of alien races, so the new asari will turn out to be flighty and straightforward, rather than restrained and diplomatic. Probably, the whole point is in the very nature of the mission associated with the search for colonies: such expeditions from time immemorial have attracted marginalized people. Pibi, by the way, is a nickname, short for the full name of Pelessaria B'Sale. She comes from Port Lerama, the capital of the planet Gietiana (Milky Way, Silean Nebula, Nahuala), a stronghold of asari scientists.
She quickly became bored with the Milky Way, and she went to Andromeda as part of the expeditionary flagship Nexus, but soon left it, preferring independence. Her page on the official Mass Effect website states that she is "pathologically independent." She is interested in alien technologies that the main character will have to explore while traveling through the Eleus cluster, which means their paths will definitely intersect.
The website states that Peebee is a marksman and chaotic biotic, her weapon of choice is the Sidewinder Outlaw pistol, and her favorite skill is Invasion. This is new to the Mass Effect series, so we can assume that Peebee will be a biotic adept, but with a couple of new tricks.
Already confirmed that it will be possible to have a romantic relationship with her. Voice actress Christine Lakin admitted that Peebee was one of the most fun and interesting roles in her career.
Vetra is a turian. Very little is known about her yet. She flashed in the New Earth trailer, and was first introduced in gameplay trailer, shown at the 2016 Game Awards, where she accompanied Sarah Ryder and Drac (more on him below) on a ground mission to the planet Kadara. It is confirmed that she will have a loyalty task, so she will definitely be a potential companion for the main character.
If BioWare continues to break stereotypes, then this turian should turn out to be a careless klutz who hates guns and calibrations (this is unlikely). She is tall, both in the videos and in the game itself, so the developers provided unique motion animations. That, in fact, is all the official information.
Drac is a krogan wearing a cool spacesuit decorated with bones. He appeared in trailer from the Game Awards 2016: I left the "Storm" with Ryder and Vetra. IN another trailer he also flashed: here he throws some aliens to the ground. “I have no use for the army,” says Scott Ryder. “I have a krogan.”
Game Informer wrote that the krogan will also have his own loyalty task. The krogan's name was not mentioned, but it appeared during a leak of market research data, where there was a hint of a reward for completing this task: “if you agree to complete his tasks and help him find the secret hideout of criminals in order to return the ship to its rightful owners, you earn Drak's loyalty to you and your team, which will also unlock a new skill tree."
We don't know what he's like in a fight - well, other than the fact that he's tough - but biotics are rare among krogan. With the exception of Rex, who, thanks to a rare biotic gift, became a respected Battle Master and the leader of the Urdnot clan, the other krogan in the Mass Effect series are aggressive, exclusively melee fighters, preferring shotguns, assault rifles and heavy armor.
So, we talked about five possible companions (not counting the twin of the main character, who will probably also be able to participate in ground operations). All of them are from races of the Milky Way already familiar to players, but, according to Eurogamer, BioWare has confirmed that at least one companion will come from the new galaxy.
Shortly after the New Earth trailer, Funko, makers of the cute big-headed action figures, unveiled their line of action figures based on the new game. One of them was created based on a lilac representative of the new Angara race. The figurine is called Jaal. BioWare is in no hurry to confirm the information, but in the trailer they devoted quite a lot of time to him (or her?), and he already has his own figurine, so, most likely, Jaal will become the sixth and probably the last possible ally of the main character.
Everything else is written with a pitchfork, but on Twitter Ian Fraser wrote, that if he wants to assemble the most assault of all assault squads, he takes Cora and some character who is still being finalized on the mission. Since we know nothing about other possible companions, it could be either Jaal or some other character still unknown to us.
BioWare representatives claimed that Ryder's team would be smaller than previously in Mass Effect, but each character would be developed in more detail, they would be better revealed in dialogue. In the second part of the trilogy, as we remember, there were 12 possible companions, two of which were from the DLC. In the third part there were only seven companions, and Javik was also added only in DLC. It's possible that Mass Effect: Andromeda will only have five or six teammates, but maybe we'll be introduced to one or two more either on launch or as a paid DLC.
Minor characters of Mass Effect: Andromeda
Now let's introduce you to the supporting characters who are unlikely to participate in ground operations.
Meet your dad. More precisely, the father of the main character. Alec Ryder became one of the first people to pass through the relay. Upon his return, he also became one of the first participants in the military program that would later become known as N7, thereby confirming his status as one of humanity's best soldiers. From video introducing the Pioneer team We also know that he fought the Turians in the First Contact War on Shanxi and served as a military attaché on the Citadel in the 1960s.
He is not only an experienced soldier, but also a scientist interested in the possibilities of using artificial intelligence "as a means of improving the human body" (, hmm). Probably related to this (see below about CAM) is the pressing question: where, in fact, is the mother of the twins? Surely
Mass Effect: Andromeda trailer review
A presentation took place at EA Play. BioWare studio demonstrated another two-minute trailer in which you can see a new main character, a new ship, game locations, and also some gameplay. Fans were left disappointed by the lack of content. However, it must be admitted that the rest of the press conference from EA also did not have much information. Each game was given a certain amount of time and BioWare filled this time with a very informative trailer, from which you can learn a lot of interesting details about the new game. Let's look at the video in more detail.
Protagonist Mass Effect: Andromeda
Let's start from the end. It was in the final seconds of the video that we were shown the main character of the game by name. Official confirmation that this girl is the protagonist of Mass Effect: Andromeda appeared only a day after the press conference. Most likely, we will see her family in the game. In the meantime, we can enjoy the screenshots and see what progress BioWare has made in facial animation of characters, compared to Dragon Age: Inquisition.
In the previous Mass Effect trilogy, there was an appearance editor and a choice of gender for the main character. Obviously, all this will appear in Andromeda. In other frames of the video, we see a male character in already familiar armor with a tinted helmet visor. His face was never shown, from which one can assume that BioWare is bringing to life the studio's old developments, since the Mass Effect series was initially developed around a female character, and only at a certain stage of development, a male Shepard with the appearance of Mark Vanderloo became the main character and face the entire series. This time, things may be different. The female Shepard in the original Mass Effect trilogy was a great success among fans and became a popular heroine in fan fiction.
Milky Way Migrant Fleet
The main character is dealt with, but what about the plot? Apparently, the starting point of the game is planet Earth. Several shuttles go into orbit, where a huge fleet of spaceships assembles. None of these ships are similar to those that were in the previous parts of the game, from which we conclude that the events of Andromeda will take place much later than the events of the trilogy.
We are shown a huge ship, reminiscent of a hybrid of the Citadel and the Horn, on which we will probably go on a long journey to Andromeda. Here you should pay attention to the background. At least two similar Citadel-shaped vessels are visible there. Perhaps a whole fleet of ark ships will be sent to Andromeda, but not all will reach the goal.
Hostile creatures in Andromeda
Andromeda will meet the discoverers quite brutally. As the video progresses, we repeatedly see scenes with broken ships, and not only representatives of the local fauna, but also people act as opponents of the main character. According to rumors, in the main storyline we will be confronted, trying to stop the invasion of aliens, that is... us.
Among the representatives of the local fauna, we were shown a huge creature that fiddles with the character like a rag doll. Some gaming media have called him a yag, although he bears only a distant resemblance to yags, and is unlikely to have the developed intelligence of .
There is a small fragment of gameplay with the same creature, where our character is trying to kill the giant with a pistol. Apparently, the gameplay is not much different from Mass Effect 3, but open spaces give more freedom and allow you to be less dependent on cover due to the use of a jetpack.
In the next screenshot you can see a biotic man performing a jumping kick. This combat technique was already demonstrated at E3 last year, only there the character struck with a uni-blade.
Party members
There will be a woman on the main character's team. Rumors about her appeared a year ago, and even a name was mentioned -. In the video leaked to the Internet, we could see a blonde woman. It wasn't shown in this trailer, but it did show something more interesting.
In the screenshot above we see the main character in white armor with the letter "A" on the shoulder pad. Next to her is another woman. Perhaps the same Kora or asari. But next to them is a creature of unknown origin. I divided the video frame by frame and could not see the krogan in this creature. Apart from the armor with a pronounced hump, the resemblance to the krogan is minimal. The unusual head of this creature is especially striking. I may be wrong, but here we see a representative of a completely new race:
Let's leave theories and return to harsh reality. Azari. This is a new Asari, created using the latest Frostbite 3 technologies and advanced facial animation. It must be said that the animation is truly impressive, although in terms of realism and cinematography it is noticeably inferior to the recently announced Battlefield 1 on the same engine, and looks somewhat cartoonish.
But cartoonishness is not scary. Fans of the trilogy agree that the new asari is, to put it mildly, strange. We will not discuss the attractiveness of the Thessian maiden, but will only pay attention to some details. The Mass Effect trilogy taught us that skin is different from human skin and has a scaly texture, reminding us that representatives of this race are amphibians (maybe to a lesser extent than salarians, but still). In addition, they have no hair at all. Here we see human skin and thick eyebrows. It seems that the artist simply painted the human texture blue and stuck it on the model. Leaving the canon is not the best way to earn the respect of fans of the Mass Effect series, who have been playing it for 9 long years.
In addition to a human, a krogan, an asari and an incomprehensible creature similar to a krogan, the main character’s team will include. He can be seen in footage from the ship's command bridge. This means that the salarians are at least involved in the colonization of Andromeda. We wrote about the fact that they will appear in the new game two years ago. A representative of this race could be seen in one of the first videos dedicated to Mass Effect: Andromeda, when the game existed in prototype form.
Tempest (Storm) - new Normandy
And, of course, we can’t help but mention technology. The main character Andromeda will have a ship called. It vaguely resembles the Normandy, but overall it looks more advanced due to its flat, streamlined body.
Unlike the Normandy, the Tempest's command bridge is located in the bow. The main character selects a destination on the map and the ship makes a hyper-jump. We saw this a year ago in the premiere video. It can be assumed that Tempest is controlled by artificial intelligence, and there is no pilot at all.
The ship can enter the atmosphere of planets and land while hovering above the surface using a mass effect field. The front of the vessel is reminiscent of the old Mako, especially the lower glazed window, which gives a wide angle view of the landscape.
Mako M40
By the way, about Mako. The new M40 model has nothing in common with the all-terrain vehicle from the first part of the game. In early concepts, it looked like a toy car and raised some concerns regarding cross-country ability. But in this video they showed us that he is capable of much. Its ground clearance is quite enough to overcome any obstacles.
Results
To summarize, I will say that I really liked what I saw. Large open spaces, beautiful locations, trips to the Mako, a new advanced ship and the main thing that the new Mass Effect: Andromeda has is intrigue. It was the intrigue that was missing in Mass Effect 3. We didn’t know how the story about Captain Shepard would end, but we were waiting for the ending. Andromeda, on the contrary, opens up a new unknown world for us, which will have to be explored in the next few years, in a single player campaign and in multiplayer.
I believe that BioWare can create a decent game and will finally focus on quality gameplay. As already mentioned, in Mass Effect: Andromeda there will be fewer cut scenes, less dialogue, and the exploration of planets, the ruins of ancient races and the search for artifacts will come to the fore. All this takes us back to the atmosphere of the first part of Mass Effect - the only part of the series that had the spirit of science fiction.
And now we just have to be patient and wait for new information about Mass Effect: Andromeda. There is less than a year left before the release and the hottest details will appear this fall.
Marketers at Electronic Arts are stupid. It would be difficult to come up with a worse idea than to release the first hours of Mass Effect: Andromeda in advance into relatively open access (just for a paid subscription to Origin Access). You know what the most impatient players have encountered: shoals of facial animation, unclear plot and boring rides on an all-terrain vehicle on a desert planet. The new Mass Effect was released amid widespread ridicule and accusatory frenzy. Such a negative background would not harm only an unconditional masterpiece, and Andromeda certainly does not fall into this category. But does the game deserve such treatment? Yes and no.
Belka and Strelka, where are you now?
If BioWare did not have the need to move as far as possible from the Milky Way, which was overwhelmed by the notorious “traffic light,” then the events of the new game could well take place in some poorly studied corner of the familiar galaxy - the local frontier turns out to be too lived-in. After all, the ark ship with the main character on board arrives in Andromeda after the builders of the Nexus support space base. It took a little over a year for some of the personnel to rebel, get away from the station, become local bandit groups and settle in a couple of relatively habitable star systems. And the first planet after the prologue greets us with earthly landscapes, abandoned outposts and crowds of aggressive aliens. Pioneer, you say? Well, well.
Directly with the exploration of locations in Mass Effect: Andromeda, at first everything is also so-so. It’s difficult to resist and not start mindlessly rushing on an all-terrain vehicle from one point of interest to another, rolling past bases with constantly respawning opponents and trying to end painfully long trips across vast spaces as quickly as possible. One planet replaces another, but the gameplay does not change at all. Moreover, even when Andromeda surprises with something new, it quickly turns into routine: an unexpected encounter with a truly impressive enemy - repeat three more times on other planets; descent into the mysterious structures of the forerunners - there will be about twenty more of the same; a fascinating capture of the enemy base with a “boss” that makes you run hard - the third time you won’t even break a sweat. And this fucking space sudoku...
Surprisingly, behind this facade lies not the worst research process. Interesting places are hidden on the planets, not indicated in any way on the map, so a leisurely search still bears fruit in the form of a spectacular natural phenomenon or a generous treasure trove of equipment. This is especially noticeable in the local jungle, for which an all-terrain vehicle is not provided - the territory turned out to be more compact and more detailed than the rest. Those who like to explore every corner will find something to do in Mass Effect: Andromeda, but there are two problems: anyway, in terms of the level of saturation of the world, this is far from The Elder Scrolls from the same Bethesda Softworks, and the Mass Effect series itself, after the first part, took a completely different path, turning into a corridor action movie with spectacular staging and colorful characters. And on this field Andromeda plays with great difficulty.
If we talk about the battle mechanics, then on paper it looks great. The hero has become detached from the floor, hung his jump pack on his back and is no longer obliged to hide in cover. There is a sea of weapons, and they are truly varied. If you want, take your favorite one since the time of the second part, “Black Widow”, and shoot off the heads of your enemies; If you want, grab a chic quarian shotgun that mows down opponents with an electric arc. Don't like to recharge? Here's a car charger for you. Don't you like counting bullets at all? Build a gun based on relic technologies without them! The character development system has finally moved away from class, and no one bothers you to play as a biotic with a heavy machine gun - the only limitation is the weight of the weapon, which slows down the reloading of abilities. It would seem that this is happiness.
But we have huge open spaces, remember? Most battles in Mass Effect: Andromeda do not take place indoors, so why all these tricks when it is easier to shoot enemies with a sniper rifle from a safe distance, especially since opponents do not react to such shooting? At mid-range, combat is also often puzzling: you can kill a dozen enemy dummies running to the same cover in a live (ha-ha) queue. With battles in closed spaces, things are better: computer opponents are not becoming smarter, but they are already capable of causing problems. However, even the rooms here are spacious enough to find a way to pull off a trick with a sniper, and it’s easy to jump away from the aggressors who have reached them on a jetpack. As a result, in a single-player game, the variety of combat capabilities of Mass Effect: Andromeda rests on the very average level of the shootings themselves.
Gray mediocrity
However, we flew to the new galaxy not only for battles and exploration. The developers boasted that there was almost more voiced dialogue in Mass Effect: Andromeda than in the second and third parts in total. And it would be better if they lied! It would be difficult to find such a quantity of completely empty conversations anywhere else. Why monotonously voice over a thousand characters if most of them do not play any role and can only tell the dull everyday details of their boring lives? Who might be interested in why another faceless colonist flew to this damn Andromeda? Learning from the natives about their way of life is a little more interesting, since for the player they are at least a little new, but by the time they appear, a persistent aversion to empty questions has already developed.
The orders of these characters are no less empty. The content of all tasks without exception comes down to either postal quests, or repeated scanning, or clearing out packs of enemies. The lion's share of time is spent traveling on an all-terrain vehicle, and if you're unlucky, you'll also have to fly to another planet, once again watching the boring animations of the takeoff and landing of your home ship and waiting for the end of a long journey to your destination and back. The developers more or less bothered to put only the main tasks into an interesting form.
Not everything is going smoothly with the key characters either: the leaders of the Nexus are uninteresting, the leaders on the planets are little better, and the traditional leader only learns villainous pathos at the end of the game. The first impression of the crew of the ship "Storm" is poor at best: the partners also suffered from the emptiness of dialogue about everyday life and personal problems, and it takes a long time to get to the revelation of their characters. Most of the companions' lines are background exchanges on board the ship, which are funny but don't make any sense. And only when you come to terms with the fact that Mass Effect: Andromeda is not able to offer anything other than characters at the level of the CW youth series, the Storm team still begins to show character in personal and story missions.
The same is true for the main character of the new Mass Effect. Ryder Jr., who inherited the position of pioneer, for half the game gives the impression of an infantile mattress against the backdrop of both the charismatic Shepard and his father, who quickly disappeared from the plot. Having torn the “paragon/renegade” system out of Mass Effect, the developers did nothing to compensate for the loss: without signature polar cues, the illusion of choice became completely illusory, and the character’s character became sterile. The idea of showing the formation of a new hero is laudable, but its implementation is difficult to discern behind the hours spent traveling around desert planets.
Song of an Alien World
Towards the end, Mass Effect: Andromeda gives continuous positive emotions: the awakened plot gains dynamics and allows you to enjoy cinematic spectacle, the main character finally develops his character, and the Storm team becomes close and almost family. But what to do with the previous tens of hours of monotonous play? Understand and forgive? Ah, if only it were possible to erase from my memory the boring running around with the scanner and the gray meaninglessness of most of the dialogues...
Of course, you can make a trick with your ears and imagine Mass Effect: Andromeda as a direct continuation of the ideas of the first part, which the game sometimes strongly resembles, and mainly in its shortcomings rather than advantages. But it’s unlikely that the developers actually tried to return to the roots of the series - it’s just that the Canadian variation of modern “sandboxes” is not far removed from the gameplay of ten years ago.
This is the worst BioWare game in years, but Mass Effect: Andromeda is not a failure yet. At its best, adventures in a new galaxy bring joy, at its worst - irritation, but for the most part - just boredom. And few people will tolerate very average and secondary running around the planets for the sake of rare bright flashes of that same Mass Effect.
Why the space saga spin-off was such a disappointment.
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Mass Effect: Andromeda became one of the biggest failures in recent memory, but many still wonder: how could the developers release such a crude game? They couldn't help but know about her many shortcomings. A Kotaku journalist spoke on condition of anonymity with the game's developers to find out why Andromeda was such an abject failure.
We have retold the material.
Idea
The first Mass Effect, 2007, was not a perfect game: fans especially disliked the Mako, an all-terrain vehicle that the player constantly had to ride. However, Mass Effect 2 and 3 developed the successful aspects of the first part - the plot, dialogue, combat system - and the exploration of planets was discarded.
When BioWare decided to create a fourth game in the franchise, the company wanted to update the game. In addition, it was given to the BioWare branch in Montreal for development, although before that Mass Effect was developed by a studio from Edmonton.
Casey Hudson, executive producer of the main trilogy, was busy with a new title, codenamed Dylan, so he didn't have time for a Mass Effect sequel. His secret project is so called because the team plans to create the gaming industry's equivalent of Bob Dylan.
Casey Hudson
BioWare Montreal was founded to develop additional content. Now she had to create a game for the first time.
However, no one left them to their own devices. When the first meetings began in 2012 about what the game would be about, they included both seasoned BioWare developers and Hudson himself, who wanted to give the project a decent start. He also proposed abandoning the Reapers and Commander Shepard - a complete update of the concept.
In the end, it was decided to make a game about what was missing from the first Mass Effect: space exploration.
Many people have said that we never fully realized the potential of Mass Effect 1. We got the combat system and the plot too. Let's get down to pioneering.
At first, the developers wanted to make a Mass Effect prequel, which would take place during the First Contact War, when humanity first encountered aliens. Then, towards the end of 2012, Hudson asked fans whether they would prefer a sequel or a prequel to the original trilogy. Fans chose the former, as did focus group participants.
So BioWare abandoned the original idea, although the word “Contact” stuck and became the code name for the project.
No Man's Sky from BioWare
In 2013, Mass Effect: Andromeda entered the pre-production stage - at this stage, the team decides what scale their game will be, what needs to be developed and how. BioWare also hired a new project director, Gérard Lehiany, who previously worked on Spider-Man games at Activision's Beenox studio.
Lehyani came up with several very ambitious ideas for the game, one of which became the basis of its plot: during the events of the main trilogy, the Citadel Council sent colonists to a new galaxy in case Shepard failed to stop the Reapers.
Gerard Lehiani (left)
In addition, Lehyani wanted his game to have hundreds of planets available for exploration, which would be generated using procedural algorithms, just like in No Man's Sky. (This infamous game had not yet been announced.)
Due to procedural generation, it was possible to significantly expand the scale of the game. This ambitious idea appealed to many in the team.
No Man's Sky with graphics and story from BioWare. Sounds great.
One of the developers of Mass Effect: Andromeda
In 2013 and 2014, the developers tried different concepts that are now very reminiscent of No Man's Sky. For example, in one of the prototypes, the player flew around the galaxy on a spaceship and could land on any planet, for movement on which he was given a “Nomad”, a new all-terrain vehicle. Then you could climb back into the ship and fly on.
But it wasn't without problems. Nobody knew how to insert a BioWare-level story into a game with procedural planet generation. There were not enough employees in many departments and technological problems arose. The only people who understood how to make procedurally generated worlds were the level designers who used the WorldMachine tool. The rest had neither knowledge nor resources.
Even without procedural generation, the Mass Effect: Andromeda team had one huge problem by default - Frostbite, the game's engine.
In the gaming industry, it is considered one of the most powerful, but at the same time one of the most complex. Frostbite is capable of generating great graphics, but DICE, the creators of the engine, tailored it for first-person shooters like Battlefield - it lacked even the most basic functions for creating RPGs. BioWare programmers had to develop them from scratch, including the character animation system.
One of the developers of Mass Effect: Andromeda draws an analogy with cars. He compares Unreal Engine to an SUV that is capable of a lot, but does not go fast. Unity is a small city car: weak, but easy to park anywhere. And Frostbite is a Formula 1 car. What it is designed to do, it does great. But nothing more.
In particular, planets became a problem because Frostbite could not generate maps larger than 100x100 kilometers, which was not enough for a space RPG. There were also a lot of problems with the save system, on-the-fly texture generation, and mechanics important for RPGs.
Confusion
If 2013 was a year of opportunity and interesting solutions, 2014 became a year of conflict for developers. Studios in Montreal and Edmonton were constantly quarreling: people from Edmonton insisted that pre-production was poorly implemented, and the developers' ideas were not sufficiently developed - employees of the Montreal studio responded by saying that colleagues from Edmonton were sabotaging their project.
By the end of 2014, at least a dozen developers had left BioWare Montreal for other studios, and it was unclear who would replace them. The team responsible for animation suffered especially - its composition was never replenished.
In August 2014, Casey Hudson left BioWare, followed shortly thereafter by Gerard Lehiani. He was replaced by Mass Effect series writer Mac Walters. New creative director - new vision for the game.
Mac Walters
However, even the implementation of old ideas was difficult. The combat mechanics worked out well, like everything related to the Nomad all-terrain vehicle, but there were always problems with flying in space and the procedural generation of planets. In principle, it was possible to create planets, and it was possible to travel on them, but, as one of the developers recalls, it was simply uninteresting.
Another developer, who came to the project towards the end of pre-production, recalls that at that time the team did not have many of the necessary tools, as well as work models. Usually at this stage, developers create a “vertical slice” - a piece of the game that serves as a demonstration of what will be in it. In the case of Andromeda, the cut could not be made.
The team had a backup plan in case procedural planet generation didn't work out - they could simply take the star map from previous games in the series and fill it with new content. Meanwhile, time passed, and the developers still could not choose one of these two options.
A lot of time was spent creating technological prototypes for mechanics that would not be included in the game, such as space flight - all because the concept of the game was never clearly defined.
By the end of 2015, leading employees realized that the procedural generation system was not working. They still liked the concept - and they looked at No Man's Sky with interest - but they couldn't make it work. Therefore, it was decided to reduce the scale of the game.
At first, instead of hundreds of procedurally generated planets, there were only thirty. Their terrain was created by WorldMachine, and the rest was laid out by hand. Then seven planets remained from thirty. Such drastic changes caused confusion within the team, especially in the departments responsible for design, story, and cutscenes.
We had a lot of questions: What does this mean for us as a development team? What will need to be cut? What will remain in the game? Who will work on what?
One of the developers of Mass Effect: Andromeda
Such changes are not uncommon in the games industry, but they usually occur during pre-production to give developers the opportunity to re-plan the process before committing to creating a game. As a result, much of what the studio had done for Andromeda had to be thrown out, especially in the story, levels, and cutscenes. The development of these aspects, unlike the combat system, multiplayer and driving, was far behind schedule.
Even more confusion
Since 2009, BioWare has consisted of three studios: in Edmonton, Montreal and Austin. They worked together on Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda as part of the One BioWare initiative.
In some ways this was a successful approach, but in the case of Andromeda there were more disadvantages than advantages. It was difficult for the studios to interact for a banal reason: they are located in different time zones. It could take an hour just to get everyone together for a video conference, and the logistics were a nightmare. Companies like Ubisoft, with studios in several countries, have armies of producers dedicated to synchronizing the work of employees. BioWare was not ready for this.
However, the company had no choice. To complete development on time, more and more people began to transfer to Andromeda, but some departments simply could not get started. Take the plot, for example: due to the fact that during pre-production the leading employees thought too much about the key ideas of the project, the basics of the plot were not approved, and the team had to work on them first, and then take on the main work.
Many of these key ideas remained in the game, such as the main character, SAM, AI assisting the player, and the final battle on Meridian. But most of the quests and dialogues had to be created from scratch.
But it's not just about the plot. Almost all the developers with whom the author of the material spoke admitted that almost the entire game was created in the period from the end of 2015 to March 2017. That is, in 18 months instead of five years. The movement began thanks to Mac Walters, but he was not all-powerful.
The situation was complicated by what those interviewed called regression of the project. Typically, when creating a game, the last months are spent on “polishing” - during this phase, bugs are fixed, mechanics are calibrated, and existing content is improved. In short, the game becomes noticeably better. Andromeda, on the other hand, was getting worse.
We would finish work on an element, test it, and finally approve it. Then we would move on to another task, and behind our backs, what we had just created would begin to fall apart.
One of the developers of Mass Effect: Andromeda
The true reasons for this regression are difficult to identify. Sometimes everything collapsed due to the fact that the engineer updated the key system, in other cases - due to a change in the NPC model. According to the developers, this process was terrible because they were constantly redoing what was considered ready a few days ago.
The regression is clearly visible in this video. It could be caused by anything from a change in lighting to an animation that was too resource-intensive on the computer. Downgrades have happened to other games more than once (Watch Dogs, The Witcher 3), but never at such a late stage of development.
The hardest hit were the “late” departments involved in effects, cutscenes and sound. Their turn always came at the very end of the project, but everyone else finished their parts of the game later than they should have, so the “late” departments were critically short on time.
According to the developers, in recent months the situation has been completely hopeless. They call Mass Effect: Andromeda the most difficult project of their lives.
Animation
This part of the game was initially considered problematic, along with the plot and procedural generation of planets. In the months since the release, most of the talk has been about the animation: theories about the reasons for its poor quality range from the extremely naive (EA bought BioWare, and everyone at the studio got lazy) to the insane (BioWare made all the characters ugly because the studio is fighting for social justice) .
In fact, there were several reasons.
In 2013 and 2014, during pre-production, engineers and animation technicians were trying to decide how they would do animation in Andromeda. And they had problems.
The studio initially wanted to hire an Egyptian company called Snappers, which created beautiful facial animations, but no one knew how to incorporate them into the game. And everyone was constantly arguing about what technology to use.
Some pushed for FaceWare, which is used by Capture Labs, EA's Vancouver lab, but others thought it wasn't good enough. Almost all of Andromeda's characters' lip movements were generated by the popular FaceFX program, which interprets sounds and automatically changes the position of NPC lips.
One source cited Jonathan Cooper, a former BioWare animator, as having a very credible account of the reasons for the poor animation quality.