Mass Effect Andromeda has been getting brutalized by some reviewers over the last few days. While some would-be gamers like to fancy themselves as respectable ‘Reviewers’ I am hopeful that they learn what it means to grade a piece of media on any sort of scale (qualitative or quantitative) and the danger it poses for some gamers that might actually enjoy the game – regardless of reviews.
I am not an Xbox One owner and I don’t own a PC that can run the new Mass Effect without buying a new case and GPU to play the game early. I can say from my experiences as a former Mass Effect player that most of the reviews I have read don’t really surprise me in many regards. It does make me wonder if any of these people played through the initial trilogy.
I played through Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 before taking a hiatus after hearing that the trilogy had a ‘bad’ ending. See what a bad review can do to someone that should make their own decision? The first sentence of this paragraph is why I am more than willing to give Mass Effect Andromeda a chance. I don’t know that I will be a day one purchaser, but I can tell you that the crux of the bad reviews has left a bad taste in my mouth.
Some reviewers talk about how the navigation system of cumbersome and counter-intuitive controls. Did they never play the first three titles? Seriously, I still didn’t know how to equip attachments to my weapons by the time I finished ME2! The wheel navigation, the loading screens, the seemingly pointless conversations with NPCs… the list goes on in some ways. Mind you – this was my impression of the initial trilogy… not Andromeda.
By the time I finished Mass Effect 2 I found myself actually missing Jack (a character I really grew to appreciate) as she died at the end of my playthrough. I have read a lot of books in my life and I have become attached to a lot of characters in those printed words. Never did I feel sadness at the loss of a character like I felt when I lost Jack. This was nearly ten years ago and goes to prove my point that while Mass Effect had controls that I didn’t particularly care for and dialogue that was lame at times – it was a great story that grabbed my soul in some ways. It is up to the gamer to find their reason to save the universe and maybe some of the people in it.
Mass Effect is a story meant to be played through. Yes, you get to choose your own adventure in some ways. Deciding to be a dick to someone asking you a stupid question might make you feel like the renegade you are earning points for, but really… aren’t you playing a role in something bigger? In a game about the far reaches of a galaxy it doesn’t seem fair for someone to say a game is crappy or bad because the dialogue options seem mundane. Granted, maybe they should take a look at their own reviews and ask themselves who the real cliché is in this case.
I won’t be an apologist for whatever Mass Effect Andromeda turns out to be. If it is as disappointing as No Man’s Sky I will be the first to laugh at my future purchase (thank the gaming gods that I never bought NMS). However, you won’t find me being harsh to a game that will hopefully prove to be a nice reintroduction to the Mass Effect universe.
I hope to find a character that grabs me like Jack did during the original trilogy. In the end, we are all just trying to find a reason to save our own universe. In the case of Mass Effect Andromeda I hope to do the same.
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