GAME SPOTLIGHT | 'Mass Effect: Andromeda' Playthrough Part 1
'Mass Effect: Andromeda' is here, and expert gamer David Nolan is promptly playing through this quarter's MASSIVE game release to bring you the detailed lowdown on narrative, characters and all the important game specs you should know.
After a 600-year-long journey across intergalactic space, about as far away from any contentious narrative developments as possible, the Andromeda Initiative finally reaches its destination in the new galaxy.
We will put our trip through the original 'Mass Effect' trilogy with Shepard on hold and instead follow the people who left the Milky Way sometime during the events of 'Mass Effect 2'. As they awake in a new galaxy, they quickly discover that this new set of worlds has similar conflicts and troubles just like the ones they left behind.
The first thing that you notice after firing up the game is the best thing: the art design is amazing. The artists really took the opportunity to design worlds and systems that feel truly alien but beautiful. The music is also a highlight and the main menu, just like the original game, has a tune that is both mournful but filled with hope. Now for the most important part of any RPG: character creation.
Andromeda’s creation system is different to the other games’ in the series. It’s easier to create a character that seems like a person thanks to the wide variety of pre-sets provided, plus it’s still possible to create a crazy looking abomination if desired. But there are a few areas where the customisation seems lacking. One that really struck me was the lips, which might seem rather minor, but even on the lowest level of “lip size”, my Ryder still looked like she’s had injections.
This brings us to what my particular playable Ryder looks like. You actually have to design both Ryder siblings and you can actually have them look very different despite being twins. The game will design your parents to fit with the characters’ looks. I ended up designing “Niamh Ryder” to look like the actor Grace Park was playing her (because 'Battlestar Galactica' was on and I thought "why not?"), which ended up causing the father Alec Ryder to look like an older Daniel Dae Kim (apparently this is 'Hawaii Five-0' in space). For once in all my years playing RPGs, I didn’t need to start the game again and redesign my player character.
Now we can start our intergalactic adventure! Niamh Ryder is the daughter of the human Pathfinder, Alec Ryder, serving aboard the human ark Hyperion. This is what you are told at the start of the game and it isn’t made clear what all these terms mean until later. While this is a common technique used in Sci-Fi, it isn’t well-handled here as the sense of discovery is swamped by an immediate crisis, just like in the first game, and any opportunities where the game can provide hints as to what the 'rules' of this setting are aren’t taken. Eventually it’s established that Pathfinders are a sort of scout/commando/chief diplomat sort of role. Basically whatever the story needs them to be.
Niamh wakes from cryo-sleep in Andromeda. The 600-year trip is over, but now the real work begins. There are 20,000 other humans aboard the ark Hyperion and you, as a member of the Pathfinder team, are responsible for finding them a home. There are a few asari medical personnel, including one voiced by Natalie Dormer - whom I instantly distrust because she’s played by Dormer - but it’s mostly humans aboard.
Before we can get to work investigating the world that the Initiative planned for the main human colony, the ark is attacked by a space force (for want for a better term) called the Scourge. Niamh’s brother, Scott, is still in his pod during the attack and is forced into a coma. Alec gets the members of the Pathfinder team together and launches a scouting mission of the planet cleverly dubbed Habitat 7. On the way down, however, the two shuttles the team is travelling in get struck by lightning and crash. Not the best start.
Fortunately, Niamh and two fellow members of the Pathfinder team survive. Meet Cora and Liam. Cora is a biotic specialist while Liam is a straight-up shooter. So basically a gender-swapped version of the first two squad members in 'Mass Effect'. They’re both easily the most boring squad members in the game which is a shame but thankfully other more interesting characters show up before too long.
After admiring the gorgeous scenery of the world, including some flying rays (!), we get to test out the new movement system with our jump jet-equipped armour. It’s one of the coolest new things in the whole game and zipping around the battlefield feels far more natural than anything else. Quickly, Niamh comes across a wounded comrade and the new enemy aliens of the game: the kett. They look like a cross between the Locust from 'Gears of War' and the Elites from 'Halo', and it’s a little disappointing that the sentient aliens are still humanoid. 2.5 million light-years and we’re stuck on the same number of limbs.
This is where one of the game’s biggest bugbears comes to the fore: the cover system. While 'Mass Effect 2' and '3' had a simple button-press system for moving into and around cover, 'Andromeda' returns to the position recognition system of the first game. Ryder will automatically duck when near an object they can take cover behind.
This is an interesting choice to say the least since no-one seemed to like the first 'Mass Effect' cover system. It’s still too hard to recognise what objects will protect from gunfire and there’s no simple way to change your position. You even have to manually tell Ryder to change their stance so they’re not staring at a wall. In a combat system where taking cover from enemy fire is so important, it’s absurd that gameplay designers thought that this was a good idea.
However, one positive attribute added to the movement system is the jump jets and booster packs. They are shown off in the landing cutscene and initially there’s a concern that they’ll be a cutscene only feature of Ryder’s armour. Fortunately, Bioware saw that that would be a terrible idea and you can zip around the battlefield, complete platforming puzzles and hover in mid-air. It’s a welcome addition and many of the later dungeons are designed around this gameplay element.
After some more firefights you reunite with some more wounded squad mates and, finally, the Pathfinder Alec Ryder. He’s found an ancient alien structure that the kett are interested in. Oh dear, more ancient alien technology because apparently the present races are too stupid to figure out a way to solve their own problems. I’m not sure why Bioware is so drawn to this idea but it seems almost insulting.
After holding off a couple of waves of kett, Alec opens up some sort of monolith and activates it. The monolith clears the sky but has a security system that throws the squad off a cliff. Niamh can’t stabilise herself and ends up cracking her helmet on a rock. Alec comes across his daughter suffocating and decides to give her his helmet at the cost of his life, causing him to transfer the role of Pathfinder to Niamh. Despite this terrible setback, the Pathfinder team manages to get back to the Hyperion and, since Habitat 7 was a bust, now has to find the rest of the Initiative.
Fortunately, the ark’s captain has a lead: the Nexus (this galaxy’s version of the Citadel) is apparently in its correct position. As the Hyperion approaches the Nexus things don’t look good. It’s unfinished, there are no other arks and much of the station is powered down. Once aboard, the Pathfinder team discovers signs of firefights and few people until the leader of the Nexus militia turns up and guides you to the powered section of the station.
It turns out the Nexus has undergone a split, with many of the crew assigned to the station leaving when they chafed under the leadership of the Salarian, Director Tann. It turns out the Nexus’ attempts at colonising didn’t go much better than the first landing at Habitat 7. So now it’s up to the unexperienced Niamh to save the whole project and find somewhere to call home.
We’ll continue next time as Niamh is given her ship, arrives on the first world, Eos, and we’ll see how the open world of Andromeda fares. Stay tuned!
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