Mass Effect has a passionate following, but you’d be hard-pressed to find just one reason for that passion. Some people love the characters; others, the sci-fi world it creates. Others loved the RPG systems of the first or the power-based combat of the second, or the cooperative multiplayer of the third. Change has been a constant, and in that respect, Mass Effect: Andromeda has shifted more than its predecessors in the five years since the series’ last installment. 

 ENTER THE ARK

As you're almost certainly already aware, Andromeda stands apart from the previous games in the Mass Effect series in that it occurs in a completely different galaxy.At some point between the second and third games in the original series, humanity banded together with the other alien races of the Milky Way and sent a fleet of ships on a mission to find a new home in the Andromeda galaxy.600 years later, this rag-tag band (read: thousands of beings from a number of species) finds itself in the Heleus Cluster, where the glorious future of the ‘Golden Worlds’ (planets perfect for colonisation) awaits.As you've probably predicted, the worlds turn out to be anything but golden - and the cluster actually turns out to be the new home of the biggest, most evil form of candy floss ever. This 'scourge' does exceptionally nasty things, such as damage ships, mess with the whole ‘being alive’ thing, and take the last Rolo without even a hint of apology.Thankfully, the fleet has a Pathfinder to tackle just this sort of situation. Ok, maybe not exactly this sort of situation, but situations in general, and you, one of his twin children, are there to help.In your role as offspring-of-a-galactic-figurehead, you spearhead the reclaiming of these blasted worlds through a series of missions, each aimed at improving the chances of an outpost surviving. For example, you might have to restore peaceful relations with the Krogan, or deal with exiles - those who have left the initiative to create their own border town.One of the most important tasks you can undertake is the exploration of the Remnant Vaults. These alien tech systems are found on planets and are incredibly destructive. They need to be discovered and investigated in order to progress both the story and the chance of outpost survival.Bioware has done a great job of making each vault interaction a joy. These could’ve so easily been cookie-cutter experiences, but instead you get variations on a theme, which keeps things fresh – and you on your toes.PURE ANTICIPATION5 reasons to be excited about Mass Effect: Andromeda

NEW FRIENDS GALORE

To assist you in your galactic endeavour you have your ship, the Tempest, and your ride, the Nomad.The Tempest is a lovely craft, distinctly reminiscent of the original series' Normandy in design, but better laid out internally. The Nomad, though, is the real star, particularly when it comes to racing across sand dunes or sliding across ice like an intergalactic Colin McRae.Far less helpful are the Kett, a race of bone-friendly aliens that have had access to the cluster for a while now and have their own plans for the vaults. It's your interactions with them, along with the settling of the worlds, that acts as the main spine of the story.This feels like as good a time as any to admit that a single review can’t do Andromeda justice. With a purported non-player character cast of roughly 1200, you can walk around, talk to and interact with so many people and things that it becomes somewhat bewildering.The original trilogy, complete with side missions, is a drop in the ocean compared to the range of missions available in Andromeda. Sure, you could knuckle down and smash through it, but there is so much to see, to do, and to explore that if you don’t savour it, follow the side quests and interact with the locals, you’re doing yourself - and the game - a disservice 

 

MULTIPLAYER

Similarly to Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect: Andromedafeatures a cooperative multiplayer component that allows four players to team up in wave-based survival scenarios with a variety of objectives, using the same combat mechanics as the main game. These are now available directly within the main campaign, via the APEX Strike terminal on the Nexus or aboard the Tempest. We haven’t had much time to spend with the multiplayer component yet, as the game is live only to EA Access players onWindows PC and Xbox One, but my early impressions suggest it could have the same legs behind it that surprised so many players with Mass Effect 3. 

 

Immersive interaction

It is highly enjoyable, too, with an organic cover system in place, as well as an intelligent AI system that makes your squad more aggressive and therefore more useful.A new jump mechanic throws something new into the mix, allowing you to seek out different forms of cover - which is now destructible - as well as bringing a novel dimension into levels, where advancing might mean hopping onto a ledge or boosting across a crevice.Also of note is the redesigned conversation wheel, as well as the morality decisions. It's now all about the tone of what you want to say, split across four key groups: emotion, logic, casual and professional. I played Sara Ryder as a heart-led, casual conversationalist who would engage in logical conversations with certain races, heart conversations with others, and only drop into professional conversation in those rare moments that I had to sound as if I knew what I was doing.As a result of this, the flow of the conversations was better signposted. It lead to far more enjoyable interactions, which is a very strong plus in comparison to the original trilogy where that wasn’t always the case.Indeed, I’m fairly certain that the more I played, the more the ‘off book’ conversations I had with my squad (the conversations while driving the Nomad, for example) reflected in my conscious language choices. There was something delightful in hearing Ryder goof off and wondering if that was a result of the decisions I’d made.The companions you pick up along the way who become part of your team are delightful, too. If you’ve come from the original trilogy and think you have a handle on the various race/character archetypes, Andromeda has fun mixing it up.

STABILITY AND BUGS

BioWare’s games have never been strangers to bugs, and Andromeda is no exception. Over my 80-plus hours with the game, I saw a number of glitches during conversations in particular — characters would often freeze in place while speaking, losing all animation in their body, or a background character would zip in and out of frame. Sometimes audio and video would fall out of sync as well. None of this is game-breaking, but it is distracting.In some rare instances, however, I encountered gameplay bugs that did halt my progress, like buttons that wouldn’t activate or nav points that wouldn’t trigger the next phase of my mission when I hit them. This was always solved by waiting a minute or reloading during my primary Xbox One S playthrough, but it was still pretty annoying.More problematic were some prominent performance problems in more intense firefightsduring my time with the game both on a debug PlayStation 4 build and the Xbox One, though I had fewer issues on the Xbox One S. Mass Effect: Andromeda isn’t a twitch shooter, but it can get pretty frantic, and the frame rate issues were definitely a problem from time to time. Hopefully this can be fixed post-release — we’ll be keeping an eye out for updates from EA and BioWare. 

My rating for this game will be 4.5 After playing for around 42 hours of campaign and multiplayer.

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Official Trailer