Mass Effect: Andromeda. 10 bad installments in great series

What's Mass Effect: Andromeda about?

After the "end" of the original Mass Effect trilogy, the creators decided on a completely new chapter in this universe. Its heroes, the siblings Scott and Sarah Ryder, go on a mission to Andromeda Galaxy, to explore mysterious new worlds, find places to settle and ways to quickly travel between galaxies. They are the so-called "Pioneers," trained not only to take over new worlds, but also establish contact with foreign civilizations. As you can imagine, not everything goes according to plan...

What didn't click?

Andromeda isn't the worst game here on its own terms, but if fought an uphill battle from the get-go. Literally the entire community gathered around the franchise throughout the trilogy had become absolutely enamored with characters like Garrus Vakarian, Urdnot Wrex, or Tali'zorah, not to mention the protagonist. Actually, things started going south even before the trilogy ended, as the third entry, although mechanically the most refined, was rushed, and significantly underdeveloped in terms of story, offering a very patchy conclusion to the Reaper invasion. As expected, the authors didn't manage to create equally memorable heroes and events.

Furthermore, the Frostbite engine that EA insisted on using, imposed additional challenges. The technology was intended for online FPS games and it did not really click in a story-driven, cut-scenes-based third-person RPG. This resulted in a mockery of characters' facial and movement animations, which were crude and clunky, and prompting a long and painful salvo of every major publisher's arch nemesis: the memes. It wasn't a bad game, it was just a bad Mass Effect. Either way, we're still waiting for a new installment, because there is plenty of potential left in this universe.

1. Mass Effect: Andromeda in our encyclopedia