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First Experience with Mass Effect: Andromeda

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Note:  There are spoilers in this article.

 

Being an avid fan of the Mass Effect series, I had been looking forward to Mass Effect: Andromeda for what seems like forever.  Enough so that I couldn’t resist purchasing the Super Deluxe Edition to get twenty weeks of bonus content for the multiplayer side game.  As with Resident Evil 7 and Dead Rising 4, I was certain that Mass Effect:  Andromeda would not run on the computer I have.  Even more so in this case, since my PC is an i3 with only 6 GB of RAM and Andromeda required an i7 with 16 GB.

I still had to try, if only to cash in on the multiplayer content, but my PC became the Little Engine That Could.  I watched in awe as the game not only booted up, but actually ran without crashing.  I launched the multiplayer to collect whatever booster packs were available – I got an ultra-rare combatant and some nice weaponry in the process – before delving into the main game.  The picture is very grainy and there are a few minor bugs here and there, but nothing that really ruins the overall experience for me.

The story for Mass Effect: Andromeda is fairly simple.  You are playing as Sara or Scott Ryder, the default names given to a set of twins at the core of the story.  No matter which twin you choose as your character, the other still has a role to play.  You are part of an expedition to build a new home for humanity in a galaxy far removed from the Milky Way.  Such a task proves to be a challenge when it’s discovered that an unforeseen calamity has rendered all potential “golden worlds” uninhabitable.  It has also left the space station hub meant to be a waystation for colonists in dire straits.

To make matters worse for Scott or Sara, their twin is rendered comatose and their father, the expedition’s leader\Pathfinder, is killed at the end of the game’s first mission.  The task of finding planets to colonize and thus save thousands of people aboard the space station falls on the shoulders of Scott or Sara.


One of the things I love about Mass Effect: Andromeda is the character customization.  For my first outing, I picked the female Ryder twin, who I renamed as Claire.  The look I chose for her also determined the appearance of her brother and father.  The notion of having a non-playable character’s look be established by what is chosen for the main character is a feature I’d previously seen used in Fallout 4; I really dig the concept and hope to see it utilized in many more video games to come.

My character, Claire, and her father.

Though I had some idea of what to expect from having watched Youtube videos of the opening, I still felt like a out of my element at times.  The first thing that took some getting used to was jumping, particularly over long distances.  The game didn’t offer very clear instructions on how to leap over the more dangerous chasms on the first planet you explore.  I had to resort to trial and error and a lot of failed attempts before I made it across.

The next hurdle was in navigating the terrain.  I got turned around a number of times and was going in circles since there isn’t much deviation in the landscape.  The occasional fights I got into added to my confusion on which way I should be heading.  It’s a wonder that I even made it to a spot on the map where the story would advance.

It took me some time to get through the first mission, but all my roaming still yielded some discoveries about the planet I hadn’t seen in the Youtube videos.  Some landmarks I stumbled across got me inclined to think that this world will be revisited at a later point in the story.

Despite my eagerness to start exploring the next world to potentially colonize, I spent a good deal of time wandering around the space station hub – the Nexus – to talk to people and complete side quests.  After roughly two and a half hours spent “goofing off”, I finally ventured to the area of the Nexus where my character’s personal starship, the Tempest, could be found.  I might not have the best quality picture for the game, but I thought the ship looked beautiful when I first saw it.  In some ways, it looks nicer than the Normandy from the original Mass Effect trilogy.

The game crashed when I initiated a conversation with the Tempest’s pilot, but so far that’s been the only instance where it did.  There was no recurrence of this when I tried it again, so I gleefully surged ahead into the next part of the story.

Exploring the desert planet, Eos, came with its own set of challenges.  Soon after making my way to the planet’s surface, I uncovered a ground vehicle that could make it easier to get from one location to another – unless you’re like me.  As I’ve learned from many other video games that came before, I suck terribly at driving.  This largely led to me spending a half hour doing donuts around the derelict outpost where I found the vehicle or attempting to get up a very small hill with little success.  Part of the trouble associated with the latter was I couldn’t figure out how to shift from four-wheel to six-wheel drive.

After gaining access to and exploring an entire underground vault, I decided to shut down the game for the time being.  Mass Effect: Andromeda was set up so the game could be downloaded at the same time it was running.  I was disappointed when I saw the download, though near finished, had inexplicably halted.  I couldn’t figure out how to get it going again, so chose to cancel and restart it.  This turned out to be a mistake when the download started over from the very beginning.  I was unable to continue my saved game or access the multiplayer side game until it reached a certain point.  My internet connection isn’t the best, so it took two days to pick up where I left off.

As soon as I was able, I accessed the multiplayer game to participate in a few skirmishes.  I had no trouble joining a four-person team, but the load time to start the actual fight was unbelievably long.  After waiting several minutes to join in on the skirmish, I got a message saying my internet connection had been lost.  I subsequently tried a solo run.  While that one did launch after an excessive load time, I quickly got swarmed by the enemy units I was up against.  If that experience taught me anything, it’s to not stay in one spot for the entirety of the fight.

When I was able to resume the main game, I went about establishing a military outpost on Eos to serve as the first successful human colony in the Andromeda galaxy.  I then journeyed to another planet called Aya, where I met with the peaceful alien race, the Angara.  Sadly, this is where my fun came to a screeching halt.  After I recruited an Angaran team member, the game went into an infinite loading screen.  I thought if I gave it enough time, I would be able to carry on with whatever adventure came next.  After waiting nearly four and a half hours, I decided I would have to call it quits.  It appears I will need a new computer if I want to play out the rest of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Until such time, I am determined to stay spoiler-free on what comes next in the story.  But the game has done such a good job setting up several mysteries with the antagonistic Kett alien race and the underground vaults built by an ancient species known as the Remnants that I will anxiously await the day where I get to see how the narrative plays out.   I can promise a continuation of my impressions of the game when that day comes.

©3/28/17

The Top Ten Things I Love About the Mass Effect Series

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(Note: There are spoilers in this article.)

Finding a video game series that is well thought out and has a fully fleshed out history to its name is a rare thing.  One such series that does so is the Mass Effect “Commander Shepherd” Trilogy.  I don’t know of any other franchise on the same level, but the Mass Effect series sets the bar for how to make a trilogy outstanding.  Though the overall ending presented with Mass Effect 3 left many fans disappointed, that shouldn’t take away from the quality of the games as a whole.

The sci-fi series kicks off with the introduction of Shepherd, the second-in-command officer of a starship called the Normandy who leads a team to save a colony under siege.  Though only one colonist is found alive, he reveals the perpetrator as Saren, a member of an elite and exclusive galactic policing organization (SPECTRE) who’s gone rogue.  In addition, Shepherd comes into contact with an alien artifact that gives him or her a cryptic vision of a cataclysmic event to come.

Those are just the basic plot points that set the stage for a huge epic adventure that takes three games to tell.  Unfortunately, the setup doesn’t do much for telling just how great the trilogy is, so here is my top ten list of what makes the Mass Effect games so fantastic.

10) History/Backstory – The first game introduces players to a dozen different alien races.  While each race has a distinct look that makes them intriguing enough, the game’s developers took the time to establish detailed backgrounds for each and every one of them – even the Elcor and Hanar though they don’t play a central role in the story.  I don’t know of many sci-fi games that would build up a cultural and economic history for alien races who don’t get a lot of screen time, so kudos to the production team.

9) Game-save imports – It is not necessary to play all three games in the trilogy to understand the overall story, but it is recommended if the player wants to make the most of their experience.  There are at least a hundred different characters to interact with in Mass Effect 1 – most of whom Shepherd merely engages in conversation with.  However, supporting characters, provided they survive, will only appear in the subsequent chapters of the trilogy if the player imports a save containing data of what occurred in the preceding installment.  These imports add more depth to the overall story.  For example, saving or sacrificing a seemingly unimportant character in the first game has an impact of on how the second or third installment plays out.

Two versions of Commander Shepherd as created by me.

8) Character Customization – I know that there are other games that allow the player to decide how the main character looks or what their name should be, but the Mass Effect trilogy takes it to another level.  Shepherd’s look is not set in stone from one game to the next, even if a save is imported.  For example, Shepherd dies within the first fifteen minutes of Mass Effect 2, only to be brought back to life by expensive scientific means by one of the trilogy’s more shady characters, The Illusive Man.  Upon his or her resurrection, Shepherd’s appearance can be altered by the player if desired.  Though there is no clear reason given for why Shepherd’s appearance is prone to change between the second and third games, the option to alter the main character’s look is also present in Mass Effect 3.

7) Variety – One of the things I love most about the trilogy is how versatile the story is.  There are so many variants present in the games that you would have to replay them multiple times to experience everything.  Whether you’d like to see Commander Shepherd as male or female, peacemaker or badass, or engage in a relationship with one of the many romanceable crew members available, there is guaranteed to be enough variety to keep the games from ever getting stale.

6) Unavoidable decisions – Since nothing particularly bad happens to any of Shepherd’s squad mates\team members through much of Mass Effect 1, it’s easy to get attached to all of them.  So when a mission to take down Saren on the planet, Virmire, comes around late in the game, the player is forced to make a tough call.  Two squad mates – Kaiden Alenko and Ashley Williams – each come under heavy fire at separate ends of Saren’s complex, and Shepherd can only save one of them at the expense of the other.  While decisions don’t carry as much weight in the second game, there are several in Mass Effect 3 that pack the same kind of punch.

5) Multiplayer mode – In addition to its main story, Mass Effect 3 has a multiplayer mode where up to four players can team up via internet connection for a skirmish against one of the enemy armies present in the trilogy.  In this setting, you can choose to be a human combatant or one of the humanoid aliens present in the main game.  My personal preference is to play as a Quarian Engineer since their sentry turrets come in handy in keeping enemy units from sneaking up behind you.  For the most part, I like doing solo runs though those are mostly limited to easy/bronze mode.  Maybe one day I’ll actually get good enough to make it through a hardcore/platinum mode (which has the toughest units from all four enemy armies coming at you right off the bat) on my own.

4) Personal pratfalls – As much as I love the trilogy for its story, variety, and engaging characters, there are a few dumb things I’ve done at points that made it a truly unique experience.  For instance, I’ve come to learn from a number of games that I suck when it comes to steering a ground-based vehicle.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve crashed a car into something within a video game, but in Mass Effect 1, I somehow managed to drive off the edge of a wide cloud-level platform multiple times.  During my first playthrough of Mass Effect 2, I thought I was doing fine until I undertook the mission to recruit Archangel/Garrus as a team member – I got confused on what I was supposed to be doing and personally gunned him down myself.  In addition, I would often play the second game when I was dead tired.  This sometimes resulted in me jolting awake in front of the computer to find myself holding down the forward arrow key and Shepherd face-planted against a wall.

3) Monsters – No matter the game, there is nothing more jarring than being forced to combat someone you think of as an ally.  Mass Effect 3 uses this premise in spades by pitting Commander Shepherd against monstrous versions of the alien races that players had come to know and love.  While most are easy to take out with the right weapon or skill set, none of them are more frightening than the mutated Asari, or Banshees.  A long-limbed grotesque creature with a distinctive scream and the ability to teleport toward you at a fast pace, any one Banshee can kill Shepherd/the player with one blow if he or she isn’t careful.  FYI, Banshees are also included on my list of video game monsters that terrify me.

2) Romances – Pursuing a relationship in the Mass Effect trilogy is quite the experience in itself.  Between the three games, including the expansion packs, there are a total of 18 characters (or 19 if Aria T’Loak even counts) that Shepherd can get up close and personal with.  Romances are something that greatly add to the versatility of the games.  Shepherd can choose to stay true to his or her love interest from the first or second game or move on with someone else.  In most games that offer character customization, I prefer to play as a female character.  However, I have made an exception with the Mass Effect trilogy in the interest of pursuing a romance with one of Shepherd’s female teammates.

1) Humor\One-liners – The one thing that makes the Mass Effect series truly memorable is its unique wit.  The trilogy is filled with zingers guaranteed to get people chuckling.  Whether it’s Shepherd’s trademark statement for ending a conversation (“I should go.”), a snappy comeback to someone who confuses Shepherd with a very distinctive-looking alien (“Here’s a tip.  Two eyes – human.  Four eyes – Batarian.”), or humorous one-liners such as “I don’t need luck, I have ammo,” there is certain to be one bit of the dialogue in the games that will elicit a laugh.

This video game trilogy depicting the adventures of Commander Shepherd will always hold a special place in my heart, even if there is a forthcoming game to be released in March 2017 that may surpass them.  The upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda will be completely removed from the original trilogy by taking place 600 hundred years later in a separate galaxy and featuring an all-new cast of characters.  I don’t know much of what to expect from this upcoming game.  But if it retains the same elements that made its predecessors so great, I’m sure I’ll find it immensely entertaining.

I hope you all enjoyed this article, and please leave a comment below if you did.  Be sure to tune in next month for my first impressions of the soon-to-be-released Resident Evil 7.

©January 18, 2017