Michael Leask

I can overlook errors in game mechanics, or ignore obvious illogical or inconsistent plot points in the story as long as the narrative, character development, or scene, is strong and well done. However, in Andromeda, that didn’t occur.

The Initiative: All eggs in one basket and defenceless ships.

Between the timelines of Mass Effect 2 & 3, the Andromeda Initiative figured out how to fly to the Andromeda galaxy from a modified Mass Relay. Their goal is to start again in another galaxy and to be a Noah’s Ark for the most prominent species of the Milky Way: Asari, Salarian, Turian, Human, and Krogan (Quarians, Hanar, Elcor, and Drell are supposed to come later).

The idea is sound. A large group of people want to work with each other without succumbing to violence or prejudices of the past and seed themselves in another world. Their species can continue in the event of their destruction in the Milky Way. It’s one of the plausible reasons humans are considering colonizing Mars or other celestial bodies in 2023 and beyond.

However, where the story immediately falls apart begins by telling the player the entirety of each species exists in one Ark: all the Asari are on the Asari Ark, the Humans on the Human Ark, etc. Bioware expects the player to accept that each intelligent species puts all its eggs in one basket.

There are four Arks and four species. Logically a quarter of each species would go on each Ark because, as the narrative of Andromeda acknowledges, a lot can go wrong travelling from galaxy to galaxy. Redundancy is required! How could the most intelligent races, the Asari and the Salarians, agree that putting all their people onto one ship makes sense because nothing will ever go wrong?

The terminology, Asari Ark, Salarian Ark, Turian Ark, and Human Ark, doesn’t change if the Arks are made by their species. As a backup protocol, each Ark and Nexus need to function like the others did not exist. This ensures during the worst-case scenario, the member species survive. This is logic 101. Why couldn’t it have been used in this game?

Moreover, the Arks and the Nexus have no ship weapons to defend themselves. Are you kidding me? They are travelling to another galaxy, not knowing who or what they will encounter, and there are no weapons of any kind to defend the Arks or Nexus? Ship weapons are not a signal of aggression. It’s intelligent to have ways of safeguarding your ship, property, and all the lives aboard from anyone or anything that could be hostile, such as pirates, space debris or rogue asteroids. Unlike in the Milky Way, where several armed vessels could help an unarmed ship quickly, there’s no one for hundreds of years to come to aid if attacked or distressed in Andromeda.

Suppose Bioware intended to ‘show’ the Initiative was not aggressive by removing ship weapons. Why would the same logic accept highly armed squadrons on the ground?

Lastly, the Nexus, the new political capital like the Citadel, first arrived 14 months before the human Ark, the only Ark that has come. When the Nexus arrived, the hull and the food stores were damaged by a space phenomenon called the scourge. Food is scarce, and a portion of the few awakened rebelled because they wanted their families out of stasis.

Let me rephrase this plot point. There’s not enough food to go around, so the people want their families awakened, making less food to share, and starvation occurs. The Director tells them no, stating the obvious. They don’t like him, take up arms, rebel, and are defeated and exiled.

… what?

Unfortunately, as incredulous as it sounds, it is plausible considering the state of the world in 2022 (the trucker occupation in Ottawa, the January 6 riot in Washington) & 2023.

… did they not vet these people before they came to Andromeda?

Finding out everything went wrong on the way to Andromeda was exciting and engaging. Locating your people and putting all the missing pieces together is an adventure. But having everyone stored into one basket, no weapons on the spaceships, and Nexus barely surviving partially due to the rebellion, I’m sorry, I cannot cheer for stupid. Having this narrative at the start of the game ruined my motivation for everything else, exploring and investing my time in the story.

Game Play Mechanics.

I played Andromeda twice, not because I wanted to. I’m competent, but the UI and controls were not intuitive. It took me 20 hours to figure out the game mechanics. I didn’t know I could swap my characters or fast-travel until I completed a day’s worth of gameplay. 

Unlike the Trilogy, two characters were always presented to me for missions. This is part of the mechanics that shows the player this is your squad. There are no highlights to draw the player’s attention to make a change; the presentation suggests you need these characters for the mission. When Peebee was added the first time I played, I didn’t think anything more because my squad showed that I needed Liam and Cora still.

For example, if Jaal is supposed to assess you the first time you meet, he should be part of the squad—otherwise, the story makes no sense. Jaal needs to go with Ryder. Jaal is evaluating you for the Angara to see if the Initiative will be trusted and share vital information. That doesn’t make sense if you don’t take him for the mission, but he approves of you and your actions. This is what happened when I played Andromeda for the first time.

The Mechanics should show the player they need to make the change and how to do it. Eventually, after finding the tiny graphic on my screen for what button to press to change your squad, I figured it out. Too late for my experience with the story, though. Unlike the Trilogy, no squad members are selected before a mission. This forces the player to learn the mechanics and choose their characters. When a mission requires someone, they are automatically selected and highlighted, indicating to the player to pay attention. This character needs to be there. It’s game mechanics 101.

It was the same for Fast Travel. I got bored having to run or drive long distances and wished there was a quick way to do it. I saw the FOBs, but selecting the fast travel option threw me off the first time. It didn’t work. Thinking of game mechanics, I relied on the game to show me when it would work, which never did. Therefore I came to believe that I either had to create a more extensive network of FOBs or I missed turning them on. Again, a waste of my time to troubleshoot instead of being immersed in the game.

When Fast Travel finally worked, I got annoyed at the inconsistency of where the player could Fast Travel. The Nexus doesn’t have it (the tram is not it). Kadara required taking an elevator down (loading new scenes) and running outside the gates to use Fast Travel. This added unnecessary time with loading screens to play the game.

Regarding the game controls, I can understand crafting a different adventure with the jump jet. However, its need is arguable. It’s not necessary to move the story forward or expand the player’s experience. If it was needed, then missions should have been designed to prove the need.

Is the jump jet required to defeat enemies or bosses? No, it was not. The player could take cover and not jump once. Needing the jet to flip a switch or get a chest doesn’t prove the mechanic is required. For example, the game designers didn’t need to make the player jump from pillar to pillar to get a chest. Like in the Trilogy, if it were a requirement for the player to climb, a button option would display when needed.

No character growth.

People will have a lack of respect or constantly challenge someone put into a position they are not qualified for. A community surviving genocide will aggressively distrust any outsiders who find them, especially aliens. Ryder’s journey as a protagonist should be to overcome these significant elements in Andromeda. Instead, they are replaced with Kumbaya moments where natural areas of conflict and the growth and challenges to overcome them are quickly removed so that everyone gets along.

Don’t get me wrong. I agree with altruism and believe communities profit from peace and understanding more than dominance, compliance and rage. I think it’s great when people work together to build a better society. But every story needs conflict for the characters to grow and engage the audience. There’s not much storytelling otherwise.

Conflicts are not just skirmishes or quest battles. The character of Ryder, a green no-nothing ex-alliance soldier whose deployment was at a Mass Effect relay, is thrust into the pivotal role of Pathfinder, the equivalent of the highly elite Spectre agent. Instead, everyone reveres and accepts Ryder and the Pathfinder’s position and actions without question, providing one such Kumbaya moment. This would be the time to express discontent from other characters. They may like him as a person, but as a Pathfinder, there should be doubt and reluctance to follow his command. The player must overcome such challenges to get everyone to follow him. Hell, if there were so many Kumbaya moments with Ryder, why was there a rebellion to begin with?

Stakes are high with Ryder’s level of experience. After meeting the Angara, they treat Ryder as their best friendly neighbour instead of being scrutinizing and distrusting. An unrealistic reaction. Situations and events continue for the rest of the game until they are predetermined for the story. For example, it doesn’t matter how you treat the rebels of Kadara; a colony will start once you complete the mission, so where is the conflict and risk for the character’s development?

All the NPCs, even those of your squad, are equally bland. They have loyalty missions that could show more of who they are, but only Cora’s had any significance.

The rest…
I planned on listing eleven more points that made the game experience akin to painting a kilometre-long fence by hand. It’s very time-consuming, tedious and by the end, you’ll wonder why you started in the first place.

I’ll just list what was terrible about this game without boring you by excessively complaining about them:

The Angara design – Lion’s head on Gumby’s body, and too trusting of others considering the genocide they’re going through.

The Archon and the Kett – One-dimensional, pointless, and recycled villains like the husks from the reapers of assimilation by the Borg but with no end goal.

Space Travel Animations – Cool at the beginning but quickly tedious.

British voice – not bad, but too dominant without variations.

Texture mapping characters – looked like a draft that made it to the final version.

Stock Asari – WTF?! What happened to the ones from the Trilogy instead of tall, blue smurfs?

Flirtation – Poor mechanics and lack of choices. Everything felt platonic instead of romantic.

Viability Rating – The mechanic was too easy to get in the green and did nothing to further the plot.

Mining – Pointless!

Remnant – Reapers or recycled archetype?

The unresolved story – The murder mystery was intriguing but went nowhere and was a big disappointment not to solve. Too much unresolved to leave for another game.

Fast Travel – the level design needed to address this mechanic better.