Michael Leask

The Mass Effect Trilogy (the Trilogy) is one of the best series I have ever played. I continue to be struck by the detail of ‘choices’ and how decisions made in the first game continue to the third. The writing for the story, the development of characters, and the setting for empathy were impressively scripted. Enough that the Trilogy is used as a study/comparative guide for story, taught in game development/writing classes.

I’ve played the Trilogy five or six times. The last iteration was Mass Effect: Legendary Edition with Xbox Game Pass. I played it anticipating porting game stats over to Mass Effect: Andromeda (Andromeda), a feature of the Trilogy. Sadly it wasn’t an option.

I had heard the game was shipped broken: characters’ mouths didn’t move properly, bodies could flail. I never read into them. Regardless of the outcome, I needed to play Andromeda. I wanted to know where Bioware was going in this series.

When I play a game, I look to see if there are strengths in other areas that were well done where I can overlook the technical issues. If the mechanics break down or the game crashes, it doesn’t thrill me to play the remainder. However, the errors could be overlooked if the story, choices, or character development were brilliant.

Does Andromeda have enough strengths to overlook the deficiencies? Join me in the following few blogs to find out.