We are aware that we have flooded you with articles, videos and information on the new Mass Effect in the last two weeks but on the other hand Electronic Arts and BioWare have shown that they can manage the communication of such an important video game with great effectiveness. Months, almost years of absolute silence and then, all together, chaos. And now, a few days after the final product arrives on the market, we are finally ready to draw our conclusions and explain in detail how this Andromeda is, what we liked about its gameplay and its narrative and aesthetic construction and what instead did not completely convince us.
There have been many changes that this saga has had to face in the course of its original trilogy and this fourth chapter is also fully part of this tradition to the point that it can be considered almost a sort of spin-off or even a new beginning perhaps with the potential to start another epic spread over several episodes. Only time will tell us if BioWare's bet was smart and well structured, but there is one thing we can say already at the beginning of this review, without the risk of being proven wrong. Mass Effect: Andromeda is a title that, although adhering to a specific aesthetic, a certain artistic cut and a precise way of being narrated, all typical elements of the original trilogy, is first of all aimed at a new audience that may not have been never even approached the original game and could enjoy being in his hands a third-person action, at times almost a shooter, much deeper and more multifaceted than what this genre has accustomed us to. Let it be clear that roleplaying mechanics are also present in their more complex tendencies such as craftsmanship, but the title is paradoxically almost more palatable for those who do not have its legacy in mind, and can therefore not throw themselves into the usual nostalgic confrontations while enjoying the title in its rediscovered "lightness" and immediacy. Before going into the details we strongly recommend that you also take a look at our recent preview on the title, which addresses the first hours of the game and explains in detail many of the mechanics of the gameplay, and the special that we published with the attempt to respond to the five most recurring questions about the game, from the management of companions to the combat system.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is immense and frenetic but lacks that epic that characterized the saga
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away
As far as the story is concerned, we will limit ourselves to giving some general information with the precise aim of not incurring any anticipation. This new episode of Mass Effect is set more than 600 years after the original trilogy and has virtually no points of contact with the previous three chapters. Thanks to the interesting narrative device that sees the participants of the Andromeda Initiative starting from the Milky Way between the second and third titles and in full hibernation, no one is really interested in the epilogue of the story that saw Shepard having to manage and solve the problem with the Reapers.
What does this enormous time dilation entail in practice? First of all that Andromeda can be safely played even by those who have no idea what Mass Effect is, but secondly also that the historical fans of the series can expect only very small references to the original saga that often it will be difficult to grasp. No import of old saves or explicit points of contact: everything will be completely brand new starting from the protagonists, the supporting actors, the star systems to be explored up to, of course, the story told that includes unpublished events and antagonists. In short, BioWare's precise will to meet a new audience, possibly more numerous than the previous one, is evident, eliminating any barrier to entry and maintaining "only" that design style and that artistic sector that have always characterized the franchise. In Andromeda we will take on the role of one of the Ryder twins to soon inherit the position of pioneers: our task will be to find a planet suitable for colonization in the new galaxy reached after a very long journey. Unfortunately, we will soon discover that not everything has gone according to plan and we will have to deal first with a strange form of dark energy that threatens to destroy our spaceships, the Scourge, then with a robotic race that has built strange technological artifacts that are making us unlivable. the planets selected for colonization, the Relictum, and finally with an alien species that does not look favorably on our intervention and is also trying to analyze and discover where the power of this highly technological species, the Kett, comes from. Basically the plot is also quite interesting and, to ensure a minimum of familiarity, we will soon have the opportunity to meet most of the races that have made the history of the saga as, like humans, the Asari, Salarians, Turians and Krogan have also embarked on the Andromeda Initiative.
During the adventure we will meet another new alien race which however will line up almost immediately at our side with a prudent but friendly attitude: the Angara. Of course it wouldn't be a Mass Effect, or even a BioWare title, if there were no teammates. Andromeda will place six of them next to you that you will meet in the very first hours of the game and that will become an integral part of the Tempest, the small starship that will allow you to wander through the galaxy (yes, the criticized system scan also returns, in a lighter version but however boring) and which will represent the new hub to weave relationships and manage every single role-playing aspect of this chapter, including multiplayer. In short, it may seem that this new chapter produced by Electronic Arts has all the credentials to mark the beginning of a new science fiction epic but in reality there are several elements of its plot that have not fully convinced us.
First of all, the ties with the comrades are all quite superficial, sometimes not very credible because they are too stereotyped and in any case not very interesting. There will obviously be both straight and homosexual romances and it is crucial to underline that we do not want to highlight a quantity problem, given that the dialogues are so many. It is more a question of quality and pleasure in spending hours and hours in the company of these six adventurers. Here, on this front, we would have expected a better job from BioWare, something that would make us fall in love or even just become passionate about the personal stories of these co-stars but unfortunately we struggled a lot on this front. However, it is the more general lack of an epic tone that has left us dumbfounded. The narrative arc of Andromeda is in fact not very memorable, at times even banal, primarily thanks to a really weak antagonist, cut with a hatchet for what concerns his motivations and that we will very often forget also due to a slightly different narrative. 'too rarefied that focuses on the smallest and most specific events, leaving the main events too much in the background. However, know that it will take you no less than forty hours to see the end of this chapter which you can safely double the moment the spark of total completion is ignited.
But how action is this action RPG?
The second crucial element we need to focus on is the gameplay. Mass Effect: Andromeda is, concretely, an action title with a strong role-playing component. We want to leave aside the age-old debate about how much an RPG still is or how it detaches from previous chapters because we risk getting involved in an endless discussion and we prefer to focus on the positive and negative aspects of the game made by BioWare. Starting with what is good about the developer's new project. Andromeda offers a strongly action-oriented style of play. It is controlled like the most well-known action with third-person view: there is the view from the viewfinder, the jump, the dodge which in this case is guaranteed by a snappy jetpack, the possibility of using three powers previously assigned to the keys on the fly. backbones of the pad, melee shot and weapon switching and a handful of consumables through a radial menu that pauses the game.
But above all you shoot. We shoot a lot. Precisely the fights and more in detail that shooting component that has its roots in the foundations of this Andromeda, are without a doubt the most successful elements of the game, also thanks to a completely automatic management of the covers. The action flows fluid, frenetic and in a particularly reactive way and the result is very satisfying to the point that even the multiplayer, as far as it is an end in itself and completely separate from the single player campaign, manages to entertain for a few hours without ever being frustrating or excessively repetitive. The weapons, although limited to only four categories (pistols, assault submachine guns, shotguns and sniper rifles) plus the melee one, return a fairly pleasant and adequately varied feedback in the combinations of guns that we can wield. Instead, it is the exploration of the environments that represents the negative element of our judgment. Andromeda takes up very closely the subdivision of the scenarios already seen in Dragon Age: Inquisition, to stay in the BioWare house, or in numerous classic role-playing games. In practice, moving on board the Tempest we will be able to reach a handful of explorable planets (five to be exact) and some citadels that act as hubs for the collection of quests, plus the Nexus, the central core from which to manage the Andromeda Initiative. Each globe will consist of a map of very generous but still limited dimensions, which we can freely explore on foot or aboard the Nomad, a vehicle that closely resembles the old Mako from the first Mass Effect. In short, the concept is that of free roaming with sandbox mechanics but which has nothing to do with open worlds like Grand Theft Auto. These levels will literally be chock full of points of interest that represent both the numerous quests to be completed in the order you prefer, and aim to stimulate the player who can't resist the lure of collectibles for their own sake. Even without reaching the negative peaks of Inquisition which for much of the exploration forced the player to succumb to dozens of "fetch" quests in search of this or that plant or forcing him to kill ever increasing numbers of enemies, in Andromeda the exploratory component tends however, to be too rarefied and dispersed, soon even repetitive. In fact, we will find ourselves going back and forth through these often bare areas and artificially filled by the forced respawn of the enemies in search of yet another mineral to be scanned or the tenth relic to unearth. In conclusion, there is a huge distinction between the elements directly connected to the main mission or to that narrow circle of missions with a strong narrative character, and all the other assignments that will be commissioned to the Ryder twins and that after the first ten, fifteen hours, they weigh inexorably on the freshness of the game resulting in mere fillers that will tend too quickly to get bored.
The multiplayer
Recovering an idea already seen in some chapters of Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect: Andromeda allows you to manage assault teams to be sent to carry out some random missions (with a completely computerized management) and recover some loot to be used later in the single player, in the form of equipment and minerals for crafts. Some adventures that these squadrons can face are called Apex missions and can also be completed in four-player cooperative multiplayer. This is a completely unrelated mode from the single-player campaign that will allow us to choose through various pre-configured characters to upgrade and equip and then use on the battlefield consisting of five different maps. The action takes place in the most classic horde mode with seven waves of increasing difficulty interspersed with some secondary objectives such as the management of control points or the retrieval of information through terminals scattered around the location. The rewards, in this case, all remain confined to multiplayer. There is no doubt that EA and BioWare will add new content in the coming months, presumably at no cost.
Of skills, powers and other role components
The qualitative dualism of Mass Effect: Andromeda also crosses the more purely role-playing component of this spin-off sequel. The loss of the class system has in fact helped to rejuvenate those more anachronistic mechanics that would have kept away the new players to whom the title seems to be aimed. But this lightening does not mean absolutely impoverishment because the evolution of one's avatar now takes place through the choice of 36 skills, each one that can be upgraded to six degrees without any kind of limitation or prerequisite. The result is a great level of customization that further emphasizes the action mechanics that characterize the gameplay of Andromeda. Also because the exact same system is also at the basis of the evolution of the six companions. There are further elements that try to underline the role-playing depth of this Mass Effect, such as the presence of some profiles that are unlocked and enhanced based on how we decide to invest our skill points, giving us additional bonuses and making it even more "tailored" the configuration of the protagonist. There's the inventory, a somewhat convoluted quest management system and the inevitable multiple dialogues that have always characterized the series even if we lost along the way any desire to give a moral value to our choices or significantly change the outcome of events and chats. And there is also a good aesthetic customization of the avatar when creating a new game. The problem comes with a couple of completely optional elements: the craftsmanship and the use of the scanner directly connected to it. The latter must be continuously activated in order to analyze every element of the environment that surrounds our protagonist: from flora to fauna, to structures up to minerals and other humanoids. Among other things, just like with Geralt's witcher sense in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt or with Rocksteady's investigative vision of Batman: Arkham, often the use of the scanner will be essential for carrying out some quests.
The problem is that in addition to dramatically slowing down the action, it is an operation that becomes repetitive in the space of a few hours in fact making it not very stimulating to perform in craftsmanship. As if this were not enough then, precisely the phase of creating the equipment falls within those canons of simplicity that further distance it from the most interesting elements of Andromeda. Its operation is in fact very basic: the research points collected through the scanner are used to unlock the projects that are then built using the raw materials collected on the battlefield. Really simplistic although, of course, completely optional for the purposes of game advancement. And since we have mentioned it, the loot is another element that convinced us halfway through Andromeda: while respecting the canons of the genre with equipment of various rarities and a sea of components that serve as raw materials for craftsmanship or that can be sold to collect some credit, fails to arouse that element of surprise or great satisfaction that one feels when in a role-playing game you get your hands on a particularly precious weapon or armor. It will be that most of the equipment can be built as long as you have adequate patience or purchased from vendors scattered around the citadels, but it has been difficult for us to experience with Andromeda that sense of exaltation that one feels when collecting a large object. value after opening the hundredth container or defeating the final boss of a long mission.
PC System Requirements
Test Setup
- Processore: Intel Core i5 4690k a 4.0 GHz
- Memory: 16 GB of RAM
- Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
- Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit
Minimum requirements
- Processor: Intel Core i5 3570 or AMD FX-6350
- Memory: 8 GB of RAM
- Scheda video: NVIDIA GTX 660 2 GB o AMD Radeon 7850 2 GB
- Sistema operativo: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit, Windows 8.1, Windows 10
- Hard Disk: At least 55 GB of free disk space
Recommended Requirements
- Processor: Intel Core i7-4790 or AMD FX-8350
- Memory: 16 GB of RAM
- Scheda video: NVIDIA GTX 1060 3 GB o AMD RX 480 4 GB
I like to move it, move it
We tested Andromeda on a very performing PC: not the top of the range that can be found on the market but undoubtedly a very respectable computer. The results can be seen and underline the excellent work done by BioWare and Electronic Arts in optimizing and cleaning up the game code which always shot at 1080p resolution, with the preset set to Ultra (the maximum available) and with a frame rate that practically never dropped below 60 frames per second. If we exclude the obvious matchmaking issues of multiplayer, Andromeda has never crashed or crashed and has never been plagued by blocking bugs. At the same time, however, the numerous problems that afflict the aesthetic and technical design of this new chapter are under the eyes of all. And let's not talk about the too vivid colors that sometimes contrast with that darkness and that gloomy tone that had traditionally characterized the original trilogy.
As we have shown in the various game rooms and live in fact, the title is strongly below expectations for everything concerning the animations, both the body ones but above all the facial ones, in particular during the "normal" dialogues unrelated to the pre-rendered sequences and more important for the purposes of the plot that denote greater care. Even the game environments, despite being really vast and well characterized for what concerns the variety of flora and fauna, are too bare both in their geometry and in the crowding of the large spaces that distinguish them. Among other things, to be honest, we would not have minded seeing an alternation of the day-night cycle. Let's spend a few words on artificial intelligence, which is decidedly aggressive starting from the third difficulty level out of the five available. Enemies tend to take advantage of the cover, the verticality of the scenarios and do not disdain the throwing of grenades and the use of special skills when available. However, it is true that there is a clear distinction between opponents who can only hit with melee actions, especially animals, and tend to come towards us with their heads down according to a management of aggression just mentioned (sometimes they seem to take into account those who hit them , other times they seem to pass from companions to us without any logic), and all those who instead can shoot and who in fact often tend to stay nailed in their position targeting us from a distance and remaining almost stupid when they are reached for being finished with the Factotum blade . The companions deserve a separate speech, which can be managed manually with two simple commands: go there and come back here, where the go there is contextual to the destination and will cause the character to attack any selected enemy or defend a location. Once in action they will tend to move a lot, to use all their special abilities and often to use ours to activate a combo. Instead, it seems that they do not care for each other and when one ends up on the ground it will be up to us to get closer to make it resume. A final mention goes to the audio component of this Mass Effect: Andromeda. As you know, the game is voiced exclusively in English, with great acting and a frightening amount of dialogue lines. The Spanish is present only in the subtitles which, although well made qualitatively, are not however customizable in size and position. On the other hand, the background music is scarce and rather forgettable, with the exception of the excellent musical theme that can be heard, unfortunately, only in the main menu.
Comment
Tested version PC Windows Resources4Gaming.com8.0
Readers (361)7.3
Your voteMass Effect: Andromeda is a huge title that can probably keep you hooked for tens, if not hundreds of hours. It is deep, multifaceted, full of characters, quests, collectibles and adventures to live. However, it clearly moves away from the tradition of the series by losing that epic, truly science-fiction tone that distinguished the original trilogy. It is true that now the combat system is decidedly more refined, credible and pleasant thanks to a fluid and finally satisfying action, however there is a certain lightness, almost a tiredness in the plot, in the dialogues and above all in the charisma of all the characters met. , both companions and secondaries, even the most important ones. In short, we are faced with a good action RPG, immense and long-lived, which perhaps can be enjoyed more by the new generation since old fans will probably find it difficult to digest the new restart of a brand with too high a nostalgic value.
PRO
- Immense and long-lived
- The combat system is fast-paced, enjoyable and satisfying
- The role-playing component is there and is well blended with the action aspects
- The game is well optimized and really stable ...
- ... however, there are many smudges in the animations and in the quality of the scenarios
- The secondary characters and especially the antagonists lack charisma and are uninteresting
- A large chunk of the side quests are mere fillers
