The Mass Effect game franchise is loved by many for numerous reasons. Worldbuilding, characters, and story have all contributed to the love of the series. But for many, the latest installment, Mass Effect: Andromeda, failed to meet expectations. Andromeda had a rocky release that many games nowadays are frequently having.
It wasn’t all bad though. New combat, story, and characters won over many fans that would like to see more from Andromeda. More has been promised from the series, whether players will be playing in the Milky Way or Andromeda isn’t clear. Either way, there are some lessons that Mass Effect 5 can learn from Andromeda.
10 Less Exploration Based
Mass Effect: Andromeda saw a return to the exploration of planets. Like the first Mass Effect, players were able to traverse several planets. Andromeda had five planets with large open-world maps. Players were able to explore each planet completing side missions, main missions, and finding collectibles. Bioware’s Dragon Age: Inquisition had a similar problem where there was a lot of world and little to do. Returning to a more linear mission structure would help any sequel in the works. With less of an open world, the game wouldn’t feel like a slog to get through.
9 Fixed Classes
Mass Effect has always had classes that players can pick for their characters. Straying from the traditional warrior, rogue, and mage Mass Effect has its own sci-fi versions. Soldier, Infiltrator, Vanguard, Engineer, Adept, and Sentinel made a return. Instead of choosing one class to play as, Andromeda allowed a constant switching of classes to adapt to every situation.
While fun to begin with it quickly lost its appeal. A fluid class structure made decisions and gameplay seem to lose some importance as well as replay value. A return to a fixed class structure will add to the next game’s important decision-making aspects.
8 Losing The Chosen One Trope
Many RPGs have this in common. The main character is usually the one person who can get things done and save the day. Bioware has had this role for most of its franchises and are exploring this new way of playing the main hero in the next Dragon Age game. In Andromeda, Ryder is the one person who could interact with the Remnant. This trope has been overused for too long. Playing a character grounded more in reality where their role is important, but not godly, can add a fresh new way of playing Mass Effect.
7 Playing Alien Races
Fans have been wanting this one for a long time now. Playing a human in a fantasy or science-fiction game can be enjoyable, but it doesn’t add perspective. The ability to play as an Asari, Turian, or Krogan can add replay value as well as an increased roleplaying value that Mass Effect hasn’t explored yet.
There could definitely be some issues with animations and choices, but the good outweighs the bad. Seeing how NPCs treat an alien protagonist versus a human one would add new perspectives and values to the Mass Effect franchise.
6 More Companion Interactions
One of the most enjoyable things to listen to is how party members react to one another. Mass Effect: Andromeda did the best out of all of the games when it comes to party banter. While driving the Nomad the chosen party members will talk to one another every few minutes. The crew message board on the Tempest was another great way to show companions interacting with one another. The next Mass Effect would need just a little more interaction between companions and crew onboard the ship to be an improvement from Andromeda.
5 More Crew
The Tempest was an amazing way of showing homage to the original trilogy while also creating a new experience for a new story. The ship has no weapons to show its exploration purpose and its crew is the same. However, the crew is small. Companions make up the majority of the crew with only four crewmates. More people on the ship would add a feeling of importance to both the ship and the mission. Walking around The Normandy in Mass Effect 2 and hearing how some of the crewmates felt about the mission, politics, and world was something small, but enjoyable. A return to this kind of ship population would add more immersion than the Tempest had.
4 Controlling Squad Mates
Every squadmate in Andromeda has its own designated class. Along with the normal class abilities, they get a specific character ability. However, in Andromeda, players could not choose which ability their squadmate used when ordered to attack. In previous games, players could choose what weapon and ability a companion was using. In Mass Effect 5 the ability to customize companions in this way is essential to controlling the battlefield.
3 Finished Product
While fans have many dividing views on Mass Effect: Andromeda, they can agree that the game wasn’t ready. Andromeda was greatly anticipated by fans and that anticipation died as gameplay was released. It was clear that the animations weren’t the best that players had seen.
If the game was from a smaller studio there could have been some slack, but the fact that it was from a major studio got people worried. The rushed date left multiple bugs, glitches, and horrendous visuals in the game. Wherever the blame lays, Mass Effect 5 needs to be more polished on release than its predecessor.
2 Paragon And Renegade Options
A staple of the Mass Effect franchise, Mass Effect: Andromeda has no options for playing as a paragon or renegade. Andromeda features a dialogue wheel similar to the one found in Dragon Age: Inquisition. This wheel allows players to role play a bit more by being able to choose dialogue options with more predictable emotion. But the absence of the paragon and renegade system was not subtle. The biggest issue with system was that it locked out options during cutscenes. A return to the old system with a new Andromeda twist would be appreciated by many.
1 More Interesting Characters
Mass Effect: Andromeda brings the return to a smaller squad. Andromeda has half the amount of squadmates as Mass Effect 2, but not as much character. Most of the characters seemed lackluster and forgettable. The alien races of Andromeda also share similarities with most of the aliens from the Milky Way. The Kett and Angara are both humanoid and not as creative as some other species. While new, they don’t seem new enough to garner extreme interest from players. Mass Effect 5 needs to work on having characters that spark interest as well as aliens that are more complex than the ones that already exist.
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