Casual Reassessment Part 2--The Open World Dilemma

After playing my way through Mass Effect:  Andromeda I have been trying to work to understand the things I liked and disliked about the newest addition to my favorite space RPG.  I tried listing out the things I enjoyed and the things that I felt were weaknesses.  In the end I think Andromeda suffers from something that I've seen often in the most recent BioWare games but also see in other series--the need to create an expansive world that's chocked full o' stuff.  The real challenge, and one that I think very few RPG-makers have gotten remotely right, is to make all the "stuff" meaningful.  Andromeda suffers from a glut of meaningless map-filler--resource nodes to mine, Remnant ruins to explore, Kett camps to storm--but what do you get out of completing that filler?  Some loot that you don't really need.  A happy little blue icon on your map.  Is is satisfying?  Sure, in a very minor way.  But is it enjoyable?  Not so much.

In my quest for understanding I decided that it would be interesting to go back and replay the original Mass Effect as a point of comparison.  Mass Effect is a ten year old game so the mechanics have drastically changed since it's release in 2007 aaaand of course things like graphics are going to be much better in a modern game.  One of the weird things I noticed last night was how much less bored I am.  Even when I'm exploring the same bunker layout over and over there is an overlying story that makes it interesting.  I'm freeing a hostage from crazed biotics or I'm eliminating a Cerberus base in my attempt to find a missing Alliance officer.  I can think of very few instances in Andromeda where there is some kind of interesting story linked into all the exploration.

As another point of comparison I started thinking about The Witcher 3 and how well it manages to incorporate aspects of an open world with story-based elements.  There are definitely shades of the icon checklist game but it doesn't feel as empty because there's always a well-written quest to break up the monotony of exploration.  Or there's something fun to do--horse racing or Gwent.  Andromeda could definitely take a page from The Witcher 3 and add in missions with a storyline as opposed to empty fetch n' grinds.

The Thorian.  It's ugly, but at least it's interesting.

Story is something that needs to become a focal point for Andromeda.  All too often as I was playing I felt that it was simply a rubber-stamp of what a Mass Effect game should be--cool ship--check, quirky crew--check, central Citadel-like hub--check, advanced mysterious alien race--check, aliens with sinister motives--check.  We need something fresh!  Last night I played through the Mass Effect mission on Feros and I remembered how awesome it really is.  You have a sentient plant-like being that defies classification that can telepathically control other species AND it can create clones from captured aliens.  The Thorian is great sci-fi writing!  What does Andromeda give us?  Nothing even remotely close to the Thorian.

One of my other major gripes has to do with the need for Andromeda to feel more like the alternate universe that it is supposed to be.  The environments in the game are beautiful, but they don't have that same "space" feeling that I get when I'm bouncing the Mako along a mountainous path in Mass Effect.  Too often the environments feel familiar--Eos could be Arizona.  I recently watched the movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (let me just insert here that it's not a good movie and you should skip it) and one thing I enjoyed was the interesting aliens.  Shapeshifting blue jelly-like creatures, robots that look like jellyfish in jars, the beautiful sparkly aliens of the planet Mul..  Those aliens felt genuinely, well, alien.  Take note Andromeda.

With the recent-ish semi-news that there won't be any singleplayer DLC for Andromeda it may be quite awhile before we hear anything about the next step in the series.  I think that Andromeda can be salvaged if BioWare really tries to play to its traditional strengths and not try to play the e-peen "game of maps" (you know...the one to see who can create the biggest playable areas).  A focus on writing memorable and meaningful missions and stories, a cast of interesting characters with their own motivations (be they good or bad OR something in-between), and some more alien...aliens could really spice up a series that has sadly grown way too bland.