I was going through my game list today just randomly looking for something to play and I came across Mass Effect: Andromeda again, and I remember saying to myself "Ugghh poor Andromeda" not because I thought the game was bad, quite the opposite actually, but Andromeda was the first game that was a real victim of GamerGate, a great game that was destroyed by public opinion before it had even been released.
I was firmly on the anti Andromeda bandwagon when it first got announced for numerous reasons, but I'm a very very staunch believer in actually playing a game before you judge it, so i decided to pick up Mass Effect: Andromeda and I realized i'd made a terrible mistake in judging the game as did a lot of us, so I thought today i'd revisit it for a game review and try to shift some negative perception on what was objectively a great game.
So lets jump right in.
A game that was never given a chance.
Mass Effect: Andromeda got absolutely hammered by early reviews of the game, coupled with a lot of rumors and genuine hatred for the game it was essentially dead on arrival, I said above this was the first game that was completely torpedoed by the effects of GamerGate and it's pretty true, people began to find the developers and their political beliefs and the game quickly got labelled as SJW fan service, there was only one problem with that, it wasn't true.
Objectively comparing Mass Effect to Mass Effect: Andromeda, not much had changed in terms of story development and choice, people were cherry picking specific things from the game trailers and leaked dialogue that served the narrative of it being SJW infested when in reality it just wasn't, i picked up the game with the most negative perception you could imagine and expected it to be an abject failure, i was incredibly surprised though by the game.
We have a problem now days of judging a game by it's developers and the perceived reaction of the masses which can completely influence how we see and play a game, ME:A is the prime candidate of this, it's image was almost completely destroyed before the game even got released and inevitably killed the entire franchise off before it even got started.
So why exactly did this game fall into the void and how did it start? well it's very simple, like I said above this is the effect of GamerGate, as the developers had a large female staff and were putting the female player character in all the marketing people immediately though the worst, coupled with the political beliefs of a lot of the developers it was a tinderbox ready to ignite at any given moment, but it wasn't until the game play trailers got launched that this really hit the fan.
While not the most refined and precise game, it was no where near as bad as people were saying it was, people were instead focusing on bugs and glitches that literally every fucking game since the dawn of time has had on release, they also got it into their the head that somehow the story line was going to be a feminist sjw borefest, I don't really know the back story to that one all i know is that it wasn't in anyway shape or form like that in the actual game, the actual story line was pretty amazing given they had to make it from scratch after the end of the original Mass Effect trilogy.
But crowds are hard to soothe and word of mouth can make or break anything, unfortunately for Andromeda, it broke everything the game was pretty much dead on arrival for a number of factors, those of which i'll list below and compare the perception to the actual reality.
"The Graphics Are Terrible".
Verdict: Minimally True.
The big thing from the graphical argument was the facial structures of humans, and while I agree they were pretty bad for a 2016 Triple A title, the entire rest of the game was beautiful, the massive open worlds where extremely detailed and the games environment and other races looked great, as did armor and weaponry, this one started when people got a hold of the "Facial Animator" for Andromeda and found out she was a fat positive, SJW feminist who had minimal experience in graphic creation, this only has a sliver of truth to it.
Anyone who understands game development or is a part of it knows there's no such thing as THE "Facial Animator" it's a team effort, unfortunately the person they chose to give this title to was all of the above mentioned things but was only pretty much a student learning from the veteran team, but that didn't stop the rumor of her being in charge of the graphics, so as you can expect people found the worst screenshots they could and said that is what the game is going to look like, as you can see below that's not the case.
But credit where credit is due, they did manage to fuck up the human and asari facial animations and expressions, I don't know what part of the team was responsible for that but objectively they failed pretty badly and that was used as a the driving force for the whole the graphics are bad argument, like I said it's hard to stop a mob on the internet so once these got circulated around, people looked at them, laughed and didn't even bother to give it a second look.
Now while it's true the game didn't look on par for a massive company like EA, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as people made it out to be, the environment was great and extremely detailed as were enemies armor and just about everything except for the faces of two of the races, this falls on EA as well for not doing quality control and changing the faces after the negative reactions, modders managed to fix up the facial models in a few days after the release so I don't really know why EA let it go out in that state.
Either way, while not winning any awards in revolutionary graphics, graphically the game was fine and some of the parts where actually incredibly interesting to look at and explore.
"The Story is SJW Nonsense"
Verdict: Woefully Untrue.
This one I never understood, there was nothing in the story line that suggested even the slightest hint of SJWness, the story was about the Pathfinder and his family who had traveled to the Andromeda Galaxy after the reapers began to attack the Milky Way to establish a new colony along with the other races, there was a central hub built in the Andromeda galaxy before the arrival of the races that would serve as the capital of the galaxy while the various races settled in across the planets.
Once you arrive though, half the galaxy is covered in an intrusive electromagnetic web known as the scourge and the planets that were ID'd going in have been severely altered and are almost uninhabitable due to wild climate changes, the Scourge itself or a hostile alien race that has taken up residence in the galaxy, as the pathfinder you have the unique ability to interact with ancient constructs known as the Remnant, a superior alien race that had learned how to control the planets but have ultimately disappeared and the galaxy has fallen victim to the scourge.
As the Pathfinder you have to set up a team to investigate these things on different planets and make them inhabitable, as well as finding the other ships who made the voyage as well who have been lost somewhere in the galaxy, you also have to deal with a superior alien race known as the Kett, a strange cult like government who seems intent on destroying the galaxy you plan to make home, as you delve deeper into it you begin to understand who and what the Kett are and how badly it will be for you if you fail.
You have to do all of this against the clock as your supplies dwindle and your enemies grow, as well as a small civil war that broke out in the Nexus(the capital) among certain factions that have now become bandits and marauders taking over certain planets which means you will have to fix this problem eventually as well if you're to survive in the Andromeda Galaxy.
There is literally nothing in the story to suggest it has any real world agenda a part from a few select dialogue pieces that were taken out of context entirely, while not the biggest or most original story ever, it's a far cry from what people labelled feminist trash and disposed of, the game itself is about the struggle of humanity and the other races attempting to start a new civilization in an incredibly hostile galaxy, surrounded on all sides and internal struggles of the people living there already.
Once again, I have no idea how this started but it just simply isn't true, much like the graphical argument, I think people looked at the development team making the game and simply wrote it off with rumors.
"The Game Play Is Terrible"
Verdict: Neutral
Look game play is a subjective area for reviews, unless something is objectively extremely bad to play than it's really up to the person who is playing it, personally i liked it, it was fun and engaging while also giving you things to do outside the usual run and gun such as leveling, different classes, upgrading and some management duties such as choosing who to free from stasis or building outposts and how they're going to function in the long run, it was pretty involved from the start and personally I loved the game play.
The one important thing to note is that game play is very fluid, engaging enemies feels more like finding people on a battlefield than it does playing a level with set spawns, the cover mechanics make for some fun fights, coupled with your choice of glass and easily controlling your party it feels only a little different to Mass Effect 3 in terms of mobility and gun play with the added bonuses of the small jet pack boosts that can help you navigate around the field of battle quickly.
Comparing the game to Mass Effect 3 was always going to happen, but I personally feel this wasn't a downgrade in any sense, some of the aspects were more refined and some things where just flat out better than Mass Effect 3, again it was a negative rumor that got started by focusing on the bugs and glitches that all games have and putting them at the forefront of public opinion when in reality unless you were trying to cause these bugs you never really saw them at all.
But again this is the problem with what happened with Andromeda, the game wasn't allowed to speak for itself, public perception dictated how nearly everything was in this game was going to be, most of which was false but once something is done it's done, and there was nothing they could do to reel people into the game with such negative perception of the game from all angles and with people being so weary of not only the company but the industry as a whole when these rumors pop up.
A solid game that will never get a fair deal.
Mass Effect: Andromeda fell victim to the persecution mentality, while the game and everything in it was perfectly fine the damage had been done long before it was released, this was one of the products of GamerGate and how incensed we the consumer had become at this that even the mere mention of it was enough to torpedo this game, now I'm not saying that ME:A was a grounding breaking title, but it was no where near as bad as it was made out to be.
And to fans like me, it actually pissed me off, because now there's more than likely not going to be a sequel, all DLC was scrapped and the development team was broken up and put on other projects given the low sales of the game, i'm a massive fan these types of RPG's and having what is essentially a sequel to one of the most decorated RPG franchise in history was going to be something I could look forward to for many years, much like I did with the original trilogy.
So what's the conclusion here exactly? well it's two fold, I always tell people in my reviews and opinion pieces to take their own word first, if I had of just listened to the crowd on this one I would of missed out on an entertaining experience, on the other hand gamers need to let the GamerGate mentality die, i was heavily engrossed in it when it first came out and began to question nearly everything in the industry which ultimately led to me just not enjoying anything.
Gaming is like movies or music, it's subjective, what you enjoy and don't enjoy isn't true for the next person, so actually experience it for yourself first before making up your mind, if the biggest part of my blog is that I get you guys to actually play games first than I'll consider it a success, because for Andromeda that didn't happen, a mob mentality ruled the release of this game and ultimately killed it for no reason and as a gamer it pisses me off that a game can be derailed before it's launched.
I want to make the distinction here though as I was very critical of Battlefront 2 without having played it, there is a big difference between a terrible game and terrible business practices, ultimately however, Mass Effect: Andromeda stands as a testament to what can happen when we get in the mob mentality, this was a pretty decent game that was never given a chance because of it and personally i'm kinda upset i won't get to play number 2 anytime soon.
The conclusion is the same as always for me, play the game first before you judge it, you can't have anyone, including myself telling you what you enjoy and how you should enjoy it.
