An Avoidable Disaster - The Tragedy of Mass Effect Andromeda

After shipping Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on PC in 2004, a team led by Casey Hudson entered pre-production on Mass Effect, the project that would allow BioWare to explore its own space opera across a three-part epic. Mass Effect’s groundbreaking choice-based systems and role-playing elements set the bar for many RPGs that followed, and solidified BioWare as one of gaming’s most pioneering studios. An innovative save system capable of carrying user progress across each entry further elevated the experience. But the characters, the stories, the carefully crafted lore both pronounced and subtle, along with the player’s intimate role in it all, encouraged millions to flock aboard the Normandy in every form it took. The perceived belittlement of the player’s role at the trilogy’s end tainted the journey for some, however, leaving whatever came next with a decidedly tall order to fill.

Shifting their focus to the new IP later known as Anthem, Mass Effect leads at BioWare’s main office in Edmonton assigned the next installment to BioWare Montréal, the support group previously responsible for Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer and Omega DLC. A long road lay ahead for the team, its destination locked to the Andromeda galaxy, pulling Mass Effect away from the Milky Way, Commander Shepard, and the once all-encompassing Reaper threat. Other challenges beyond the stressors of changing the scenery and protagonist beset much of the project’s development, though. An unclear vision, mismanagement, bouts of infighting, and technological woes each contributed to Mass Effect: Andromeda’s less-than-stellar release as well as the series’ impromptu hiatus.

This is the tragedy of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

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[Edax_Royeaux]

The most bizarre thing about how they planned this out is they *didn't* include the Quarians, whom didn't need complex facial animations because of their masks.

[Latinkon]

Friendly reminder that Bioware prioritized development of _Anthem_ over _Mass Effect: Andromeda_ (at least according to Jason Schreier). Given that _Anthem_ had an aimless direction for most of its nearly 7 year long development cycle, _Andromeda_ should have been a bigger priority.

[bork]

One of my biggest gripes with this game is how they went to a completely different galaxy and all the aliens are humanoids. The world's didn't feel unique either except for a few of the underground structures. It seems like a huge missed opportunity to make something crazy and new and mysterious but instead it just felt like we were still in the Milky Way.

[RikkyNelihan]

Almost every in game character who's sent to the andromeda galaxy seem to be the dumbest they could find

[kirishima]

They gave a tripple AAA title, with a AAA advertising budget, to a B+ studio who didn't have the authority to say 'NO' to every new concept and technology forced upon them from the higher ups. It's a miracle they shipped at all. The fault lies not with the studio but with EA/Bioware's top management.

Rule no.1 of game development - don't change tools during development. You stick with what you know and what works, even if it becomes outdated.

[GUMMRUCHK]

The talent that made Mass Effect great is largely no longer at Bioware it is the same with Blizzard the talent behind WoW is also largely gone these companies are not going to create anything even approaching their past glory.

Players make the mistake of attaching good games to company names when what they should do is attach it to developer names if those developers leave expect your games to decline.

[jaysim]

The talent has left Bioware and the developers bit off more than they could chew, much like CDPR with Cyberpunk 2077. When I saw that aside from Peebee all the Asari had the exact same face I knew it would going to be a mess. I managed to play it a few years after release, post patches and it was decent, but nowhere near the level of the OG trilogy.

[timogul]

The glitches and technical failures were memeable, but were secondary to the game's plot failures. There were elements of a good game in there, but it was structured entirely wrong. They should have focused less on the Kett in the first game, keeping them purely as an unknowable horde, and focused entirely on finding and developing a relationship with the Angara, allowing you to make that friendly or hostile by your own choices. It should have been way more about exploration, and NO advanced teams that already have bases set up and contact made, YOU would be the first person to communicate with the Angara and would need to build language with them over time.

[bitofapickle]

My pain was even worse considering I was working as a QA tester for EA at the time. I worked on Andromeda from its inception until launch. As a huge ME fan, it was just painful

[JonoSSD]

Not to be outdone, BioWare Edmonton decided to follow up Andromeda's excepcional launch with a masterpiece of their own: Anthem.

The rest is gaming history.

[de_STORM]

Had a good 40 hours in this game. Felt like that a second entry to this series would have ironed out most problems. But man, EA gotta stop shovin Frostbite down every publisher's throat.

[MADba]

Regardless of the things that could've been fixed with time like weird animations, bugs, etc.
The worst part of the game was its cringy dialogues, bland characters and completely non-threatening villain. Even if the technical side was influenced by EA and rushed production, the travesty of a script is entirely the devs' fault.

[Ahglock]

At 3:45 it begins one of the key problems with MEA. They weren't there to find habitable planets in case they failed from the citadel. As a secondary motive it was revealed in the memories you unlock but the primary motive and why everyone signed up had nothing to do with a reaper backup. Arriving as refugees would have been a totally different tone. Arriving after the Nexus was another big story flaw. You feel less like an explorer when everyone else has already explored it and all you were doing was using your magic AI to fix another broken AI. The combination of these two factors has your character set up as an explorer who never seems to be exploring. The bad animations were meme worthy but that is not why the game was mediocre, the story and characters were the real flaws.

[slinkbradshaw]

I'll never forget getting early access and logging in to play, ready for a brand new adventure in my favorite game franchise.

And man I will NEVER forget the absolute feeling of dread that set in as I was creating a character. Everything just looked...wrong.

It took me a few playthroughs to realize there was a relatively good game buried under piles of b.s.
Never been more disappointed with a game. Until 2077 that is....

[jimharrison]

This is one of my favorite YouTube channels. Also I actually enjoy this game's combat and some character interactions. But most of the dialogue and quest giving NPCs were just terrible.

[nobody-wkej]

Honestly... I gave up when I saw Ryder smile after learning his/her Dad died... Jesus Christ... . I don't care if I have to wait longer for a game. Just give me a finished game. When did the industry become so full of shit? What happened?

[Texelion]

As a 3D artist myself I can imagine how switching to 3Ds Max and dealing with Frosbite could have been a huge problem. It doesn't excuse the shitty writing, quests, story and characters though, but on a technical level, the mess makes sense.

With all the money EA makes, they shouldn't have abandonned it. If they only kept a team working on it for a year or two they could have made an enhanced edition and correct a lot of problems.

Instead they sent them on Anthem... what a waste. I'm curious to see how the next Dragon Age and ME4 will turn out.

[oldmanonyoutube]

Andromeda was a beautiful trainwreck. There were so many videos detailing the many bugs and glitches. The characters are so odd and derpy looking, the dialog off putting and strange. You can even see this while they were making the game at 8:49 with the Joker like grimace in the characters face.

[jvc]

Andromeda could have been such a good game and in some aspects does it really show that. The Mako was fun to drive, gunplay and overall movement felt good, game looked amazing (for the most part) and the story showed hints at something greater BUT sadly it ended up hollow and void of that special mass effect feeling.

[chowchilla]

Imagine developing a story driven role playing game and putting the story on the back seat.perfect