Mass Effect: Andromeda
Mass Effect is my Star Wars. The way people describe the way they love the Star Wars universe, the way they can remember the mundane details or technical specs of the Death Star, I can do with the Normandy (SR1 or 2,) or the way they quote the characters and show their love of them, I can do that with Garrus. Especially Garrus. All of that had me excited for Mass Effect: Andromeda the moment it was announced. I even did the thing people dread and pre-ordered it, followed every bit of pre-release info on it. Because how could my favourite franchise, the one that's given me a lot of moments I could fit on a list of favourite video game moments, disappoint? And it hasn't...for the most part.
In a way Andromeda reminds me a lot of Mass Effect 1. Both clearly ambitious games, and while not quite reaching that ambition, make me excited for the future of the franchise. But they're both pretty rough to play. While Mass Effect 1 was rough because it played like an RPG that was forced to be a shooter under duress, Andromeda has issues trying to build a game as big as a new galaxy and has trouble keeping that galaxy interesting.
The combat isn't the reason for the uninteresting moments however. While still familiar in its combination of powers and arsenal options, Andromeda adds a jump jet that adds movement and verticality to its combat. This makes for enemies that move more often to flank you and way more cover options than convenient knee high walls in corridors. It's a fun time jetting around the battlefield to get better vantage points at enemies and using a jet boost to dodge incoming attacks. This freedom does make the two AI companions that accompany you on every mission feel like they're lagging behind though. And while you get to direct the AI to move to different points, I almost never used it. I also found myself wishing I could pick which powers my companions used, a feature that is oddly absent from Andromeda and makes the squad feel less like partners and more like guns that constantly fire. Still it manages to be fun enough throughout the game with the exception of combat that takes place in the overworld areas. These encounters don't feel like they're designed and more random encounters from old school RPGs that are there to dole out a few experience points.
Which is also a problem with a lot of the sidequest unfortunately. While it's obvious that the sidequest designated as 'task' are going to be less flavourful than the other sidequest, a lot of the sidequest are bland. They range from fetch quest, to scanning an object, to defeating enemies on a bit of the overworld, these quest are just overwhelmingly placed throughout the game. They start to make you forget about the fun quests that are filled with character and are written with more detail than just a quick problem to be solved. And while they're a step up from ME3's overheard sidequests, they're not much better.
Still if you manage to finish these or just skip them, the main storyline and more companion focused sidequest are more than entertaining enough to keep you entertained for the hours it takes to beat the game. The main story focuses on the challenges of humanity and the other council races of Mass Effect, trying to find a new home in the Andromeda galaxy. This proves difficult with harsh environments, a new alien threat, and the general technical problems that arise from moving to a new galaxy after 600 years. And it does a good job of making you care about the new main character, Ryder, and his or her's crew and manages to tell a fairly good sci-fi epic.
Of course the characters are the strongest point of Mass Effect to me and Andromeda does a good job of introducing and fleshing out the crew. Everyone gets a mission to flesh out their motivations and personality and by the end of it I cared about everyone in the crew. And the character moments are all pretty strong reminiscent of Mass Effect 3's Citadel DLC. And while there's nothing as emotionally affecting as the krogan or quarian storylines in 3, it's a fun emotional journey with the crew.
Finally I'll talked about the thing everyone's been talking about, the technical issues. While NPCs robotically animate around the environments, and facial animations range from static to actually emotive, none of it bothered me enough to make a negative impression. It does make me hope for a more focused game though. One that learns the lessons that ME2 learned from ME1. Andromeda is still a solid entry in a franchise I love though with a lot of great moments that are held down by a shaky framework.