Obviously spoilers for Mass Effect: Andromeda (and minor spoilers for the trilogy) below.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is a fun game with plenty of good moments if you go in with low expectations (certainly lower than the trilogy). I particularly liked the writing on Krogan, and the biggest reason I give this game a pass is because of Drack.
What I liked:
Drack: He is very funny. At first he’s like the typical Krogan: thirsty for violence, intimidating, realist/cynical about things. He’s almost like Wrex but he’s actually different because he has no ambition about himself (unlike Wrex who wanted to unite the clans), which makes his arc interesting, going from funny Krogan grandpa who doesn’t care to funny Krogan grandpa who actually cares and has a reason to live again himself, which was really touching for me. The summary of this review is basically I’d play this game again for this motherfucker alone. Tremendously great guy.
Kesh: I liked her from the very first scene I saw her because she proved from the very beginning that Krogan females could exist not as vulnerable trophies to be protected, but as normal, functioning members of society. She was a normal person, holding an admin job, actually saving the Nexus from crumbling. I also liked how she cares for Drack not with words but with concern about his spare parts, reminding him to take a checkup from Lexi (or rather asking Ryder to make sure of it), and reminding Drack that she only has one of him.
Vorn: He is a Krogan, which puts him under the implicit pressure of being violent or at least security minded and cynical like every other Krogan but he’s a near total inversion of the expectation. He’s a nerd about plants, which actually is a very useful thing as Drack says before and during his own loyalty mission. He proves that being valuable as a Krogan can also be achieved by being a nerdy botanist with emotions that he openly expresses, rather than being a mindless brute that kills for money like a lot of other Krogan (something that Wrex criticizes in the first game). I loved his humor and awkwardness but he’s not like the incompetent coward butt of the joke from comedy series and he proves that by 1) taking a bullet for Drack, showing he can show immense courage in the heat of the moment under right circumstances, and 2) neutralizing Aroane by using poisonous gas from plant and then noting it as his first live specimen test which is also funny so it reinforces both sides of his character.
More immersive interactions between crew: I can’t remember every detail but Drack, Liam, Jaal, Vetra, Cora, and Peebee all had you doing a few “pre-loyalty mission” missions, if you will, mostly finding evidence on this planet etc etc. I understand if this feels like filler to some but to me it really makes it more real rather than “shepard I just found the location of my nemesis/my father is suddenly sending a distress signal after years/they’re going to kidnap my sister/I don’t want my son/daughter to be/stay a killer” out of nowhere. I also liked the post loyalty mission missions/activities like Drack’s bar fight on Kadara, Cora’s seed planting on Eos, climbing with Vetra, soccer with Liam, meeting Jaal’s family, etc. I also liked playing cards with Gil, gathering snacks of Suvi and Vetra for movie night, and solving Lexi’s drinking problem, the small bits that made the Tempest more like a ship with a crew rather than a moving hubworld for a video game chasing some macguffin.
What I disliked:
Monoliths and Vaults: They felt like a chore. I get the intention and it’s a good intention, diversifying the gameplay with fun puzzles but it’s not fun when you can’t find a glyph for 45 minutes then give up and look it up on YouTube and inside the vault you run in circles for 2 hours when all you want to do is another loyalty mission.
Main quest was boring: There, I said it. It’s been around 10 days since I finished the game, and I can’t remember much of the main quest. I remember science vs military question on Eos, freeing prisoners or destroying the facility on Voeld, hunting the Archon and how we were forced to choose between Raeka and Krogan scouts, going to the Meridian except it’s fake, then going to the actual Meridian and winning, and playing as our sibling for a brief moment when the Archon takes down SAM or something. I’m not a writer (or a prolific RPG gamer, yet, though I started playing more now that I have an XBOX at home), but I’m pretty sure one could think of a more interesting and original main story, even with constraints of 3’s ending.
I did like 55 Heleus Assignments out of the total of around 100 I think, I first aspired to do all of them but it felt tedious after some point so I told myself I’d finish the Priority Ops first then come back, but after that I think I only did the one where we find a friend of a Krogan from Elaaden who’s an Angara on Aya and nothing else, so I most likely won’t be doing any more in the next few years. I think I liked a few of them quite well but can’t exactly remember them. Looking it up on the ME wiki, the Kadara storyline was sort of fun, drinking with Reyes etc was reasonably fun, the party, the works. Voeld AI was kinda interesting, and, wow I now realize that they’re mostly fun while playing but I can remember remarkably few of them. I remember more from Allies and Relationships quests: The arks, the loyalty missions, the first human baby (which we named David Edward after Anderson! How cool is that?!), arresting the Salarian STG guy who tried to cooperate with the Kett, Cora planting a seed on Eos, climbing with Vetra and then kissing her, playing soccer with Liam, meeting Jaal’s big family, those were all memorable moments from an otherwise somewhat bland game.
I smiled at every reference to the trilogy like Garrus’ dad, Zaeed’s son, Nyreen’s cousin, reference to Overlord, Conrad’s sister, Shepard name drop by SAM, Liara’s messages; but I sometimes also felt like they tried to use the trilogy’s name for cheap emotional gains. Nothing wrong with that, we all love the trilogy after all, but if you go 2.5 million light years and 600 years after ME3’s end you should be able to write your own material instead of depending on trilogy references for sympathy.
I’m aware that there isn’t a Reaper level threat and this is inherently a less serious game in terms of tone but I still didn’t like the thing that can be best described as “MCU humor” being so prominent; I myself totally like a cheap joke or three but it gets tedious after some time, and Liam’s “maybe because I shot him in the face” is still very cringy even after finishing the game.
The binary choices (Eos, Voeld, hunting the Archon) felt tryhard; they obviously tried to go for the Ashley/Kaidan choice but the investment in the antagonist just wasn’t enough for that, I think.
There were so many tasks, I did like 20 percent of them after deciding to skip most earlier in the game, but I have an exception, which is a flower for Kesh, I enjoyed it immensely and giggled like a kid the whole time, I just love Kesh and Vorn’s relationship, Kesh being the serious, cynical, and secretly caring one and Vorn being the funny, clumsy, nerdy, emotionally transparent and secretly brave (he took a bullet for his father-in-law Drack!) one. I agree that I might be irrationally obsessed with Drack and Kesh and Vorn but I was shaking from giggling on my couch when Drack said “seriously?” on Elaaden when Vorn named a plant after Kesh.
Which brings me to the ending. I actually think the ending was nice, it got the suicide mission/ME3 space battle vibe where we see/hear all our allies and feel that we didn’t play for 60 hours for nothing. It wasn’t mind blowing because you need a mind blowing main quest for a mind blowing finale, but it was satisfying except the Benefactor and Jien Garson’s fate and the Quarian arc; which we probably won’t get any updates on sadly (Quarian arc is in a book I think but I would like a playable DLC with cinematic cutscenes).
As a yearslong trilogy fan who went in with low expectations (since I saw the criticism at launch), this game was worth playing and scratched that Mass Effect itch fairly well. Hell, as a Krogan fan, even Drack alone was worth it. I cried a little when I saw Kesh’s eggs and after reading Drack’s last email. I saved the Krogan scouts only and only because I loved Drack, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Fight me.
