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Mass Effect: Andromeda - Destined For Failure


EA and Bioware recently announced that there would be no more single player support for Mass Effect: Andromeda. Some people rolled their eyes, others continued with news they saw coming. Then there were those that cried out in pain as if a part of their soul had been taken from them. There were fans, there were creators, soldiers suffering PTSD and more that were hurt by this news. The writing had been on the wall since the day the game was released but it was still hard to accept as the game had been destined for failure since day one.

For starters, the concept of Andromeda changed significantly in the last stretch of development. Initially it was scheduled to feature procedurally generated planets. When No Man's Sky received horrible reviews this was scrapped. Instead the team was forced to create these free roaming planets themselves which led to a lot of empty space on all of the planets. All of these planets were built in the last 18 months of production. That's less than two years of work on a game of this size. Bioware Montreal had not handled a game of this size before, yet they remained understaffed throughout production despite request for more team members.

I know you noticed the poor inventory management for Andromeda. That came courtesy of the Frostbite Engine that EA had build for the Battlefield series. They insisted Bioware use this engine. Frostbite struggled to manage inventory items and the use of powers in combat. Bioware Montreal was forced to build their own version of Frostbite from the ground up. This is why previews for the game looked so detailed and polished compared to what received. The version of Frostbite in the trailers is what was provided for them, and it couldn't handle the needs of a Mass Effect game. Eventually they were able to borrow some assets from the team of Dragon Age, who also received a mudslide of negative reviews with their most recent outing. Yet they soldiered on.

Usually when EA promotes a Mass Effect game it goes as far as you can see. There's billboards, pre-release copies of the game for reviewers, commercials and everything else. Not this time, there were no early copies of the game. Trailers were limited and there were no cross promotions with other games as Mass Effect had done in the past. There were hints of DLC in the game, but there were no promises made to the people. When DLC was released it was only to collector's edition buyers, and all they received was an alternate casual outfit for Ryder.


Instead EA was focused on telling anyone who would listen about Anthem. This was their answer to Destiny. Anthem is an action adventure game with RPG elements. Similar to how Mass Effect is an RPG with action adventure elements. Despite Andromeda's rocky release and commitment to improvement soon after, it was all eyes on Anthem. Anthem would be shown off at shows that Andromeda wasn't even at. There were shows where EA would pull Andromeda from at the last minute with no explanation.

Then there were the unrealistic expectations, not just from fans, and critics but EA as well. Mass Effect 3, the final entry of the original trilogy sold 1.85 million copies in the first week. Mass Effect 2 sold just over 1 million in the first week. The original sold 384,121 units in the first week. Andromeda sold 1.03 million as well. The only games to have better opening sales than Andromeda at this point in 2017 have been Horizon Zero Dawn, Crash Bandicoot and Ghost Recon. Yet EA considered this a disappointment. In a conference call they stated the game was expected to sale 5 million copies in the first month. That is a ridiculous number, especially for an RPG when many people avoid that genre like the plague.

Critics and fans alike complained about graphical glitches in the game such as the funny way Ryder would handle stairs at times. This was "sickening" for some to watch a game perform like this. What they all seem to forget is this was a new engine, and Mass Effect has a history or ridiculous graphical glitches. There have been times when heads rotated sixty degrees, turned inside out and so much more during the original trilogy. These things were nightmare fuel and if anyone forgot these, then they must have repressed the memories. Western RPGs in general are super glitchy due to all the moving parts. For comparison, Skyrim was released in 2011, 6 years and 6 different consoles, 3 major DLCs, countless updates and a special edition, we still have the same damn glitches. Yet, Elder Scrolls fans have come to accept what is given to them. That's just one game in the series, imagine if we add in Fallout and Dragon Age. People expected a masterpiece, a lesson in perfection when Mass Effect has never been that.

Andromeda may have been the most Mass Effect game in the franchise. It focused on exploration, something that was lost in the shuffle after the first game. While ME2 and ME3 focused on making the crew more human, Andromeda finally succeeded in that. You may hate or love certain crew members but they all have different and unique personalities as well as character arcs. We were introduced to a new species in the Angara and learned more about them in one game than we did other species in the three originals. Despite all of that Mass Effect: Andromeda seemed to be destined for failure from the start. When Bioware announced that it had been shelved until further notice it was only confirmation of what we already knew.

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet. You can also check out his playthrough of Sleeping Dogs or Skyrim

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