Mass Effect: Andromeda is Beautiful, But Glitchy

Mass Effect: Andromeda had a lot to live up to, following in the footsteps of Bioware’s Mass Effect cult classic sci-fi trilogy that sold over 10 million copies in its lifetime, won several Game of the Year awards in 2010, and has billions of articles, art, cosplays and stories based on it.

While Mass Effect: Andromeda (ME:A) is one of the glitchiest next-generation console games I’ve ever played, it’s also one of the most vivid and beautiful. Filled with stunning spacescenes, imaginative new worlds and a fantastic soundtrack, I’ve enjoyed exploring the universe the Bioware team has created. Each planet you visit has its own feeling, expressed through some of the best environment graphics and animations I’ve seen. Even the smallest details are there. You can leave footsteps in snow or sand that change slightly depending on the foot shape of you or your alien companions.

ME:A follows the characteristic Bioware set-up of a custom player character who travels the world fighting bad guys, recruit companions who come alongside you as you travel and fight, and whom you can interact with and potentially romance. In ME:A you play as Ryder, the ‘Pathfinder’ who is tasked with establishing colonies for the human and alien colonists who left the Milky Way galaxy to start homes in the Andromeda galaxy where the game is set.

Bioware’s strength has always been the great companions in its games, and this game has outdone them all. ME:A has six recruitable companions who all feel like living, breathing people. They, alongside your other crewmates, all have individual storylines, and depending on the gender of your Ryder can be potentially romanced. Your companions, other crew members and you live and travel on your ship. Living in close quarters isn’t unusual for Mass Effect games, but in ME:A your crew interacts, banters, plays poker, fights and has movie nights with or without your input.

Unforunately, the game is also ridiculously glitchy for its $99.95 price tag. So far I’ve had to restart my console three separate times due to the game breaking or locking me in somewhere, and it isn’t unusual to have to go off-planet to restart a mission that just won’t trigger. On top of that, the animations for humans and the humanoid race Asari are warped and disjointed, if they even work at all. All creatures’ movement animations are distorted, clip through the world and sometimes just don’t work at all.

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The character creator is also very limited, and forces you to stick with a few default pre-made faces the game provides. Additionally, you cannot skip the long load screens to travel between worlds. If you want to move from one planet to the next, you have at least three minutes of beautiful space and ship scenes before you get there.

Overall, while I really enjoy playing ME:A, it has some serious issues that need to be worked on before I could recommend it to someone without giving them a long warning. With vividly written characters, beautiful worlds and an amazing soundtrack, this game has the potential to be fantastic given the right polishing up through patches. In it’s current state it’s not yet worth the price tag.