So, there’s been a lot of pre-release noise in regard to Mass Effect: Andromeda. The fourth entry in the series had caught some flak from more than a few people based on silly-looking animations and a few other things that are equally hard to summarize or care about. For this series, this isn’t anything new, of course.

However, there was enough of it out there that, when EA/Bioware added the ability to play up to a certain point (and keep the progress once the game was officially released) for $5 to access the game via Origin Insider (which also gives me a 10% off coupon if I choose to buy the game, for a whopping $2 of savings in total!), I jumped on the opportunity. A

Full disclosure – I really enjoyed the original trilogy, despite its warts. I’d go as far as to say its one of the few series that exists that I feel game-love for. I also liked ME3 and ME1 better than ME2.

I’m not someone who reviews games as my livelihood and Game Mechanics is just a group of friends posting whenever the need to write on entertainment hits, so I have very little experience in writing about a game before the actual release. To help flesh things out for people who’re on the fence about pre-ordering vs. waiting for reviews vs. waiting for a sale vs. skipping this title vs. hiding inside a bunker and refusing to interact with Bioware-produced media ever again, I put it out there that I was “buying in” to the first ten hours, and gathered questions that my pals on a couple different social media platforms had about it. Those appear after my initial summary, which is below. Hope this helps!

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Mass Effect: Andromeda launches the player back into the same universe as the first three games, only this time you’re playing as Pathfinder Pick-A-Name Ryder rather than Commander Pick-A-Name Shepard. Oh, and also, once you set up your Ryder, you learn that you’re part of the Andromeda Initiative, a private venture to cross “dark space” from the Milky Way to the Andromeda Galaxy. And also it’s 600 years later than the end of ME3, because apparently that’s how long it takes for your “Ark” ship to get from one galaxy to another. And you’ve been woken up and, inexplicably, the first thing they give you is coffee which anyone could tell you is a terrible choice for the first thing you ingest directly out of 600 years of cryostasis.

It’s worth noting that, as with the vast, vast majority of other video games, we’re limited to the gender binary in constructing our Ryder in Mass Effect: Andromeda. If you play a guy, you’ll have a gal twin sister, and vice versa. I didn’t really expect anything else, but it does seem something that developers should try harder with in the future, since having the option to build your character from the ground-up is basically an acknowledgment that playing a specific type of character isn’t really key to the way you interact with the game.

Anyway, so you’re part of the AI, and your Ark has exited dark space and collided with a bunch of space-glowy-crap that has a name that’s easily less convincing than “space-glowy-crap,” and naturally some of the tutorial is you figuring out the basic mechanics in order to help your shipmates fix a messed-up widget or two.

Did I say you were the “Pathfinder”? Just kidding, it’s your Dad. On a related note, a Pathfinder is apparently the person in charge of finding a new world to live on (a “Golden World” according to the ME:A jargon). I’m not really sure exactly what the credentials for this position involve, seeing as once your dad does the typical Disney parental thing and croaks in order to make sure you live through an encounter with lizard-people, you’re elevated to the position based on his dying proclamation. You then discover that your part of the expedition has actually been the most fortunate, probably, as none of the other Arks–Turian, Salarian, Asari (all names that’ll be familiar if you’ve played one of the first three games, and if not…they’re fellow aliens from the Milky Way)–have shown up yet, and the “Nexus” space station that was sent ahead of you to give you all a home base is behind schedule, has already had to fight off a rebellion (and exile some people, which is definitely going to come up again), is low on resources, and sustained losses to its leadership team to the point where the replacements are now sort of politically at each other’s throats over who has control over what part of the expedition. Hooray!

If this makes it sound like you’re a bunch of Space Incompetents from Planet Dipshit, the good news is that doesn’t really wreck the experience so much as actually add something! For one thing, this seems pretty much how a billionaire-funded private space enterprise would go –  just look at SpaceX. For another, being thrown into a situation where the leadership structure is in tatters and nothing seems to be going the way anyone planned is actually pretty interesting because it bucks the original Mass Effect story arc practice where Shepard was learning about systems already in place that previously hadn’t involved humans or the Systems Alliance, and replaces it with you being relied upon as one of the people to make chicken salad out of chicken shit as Pathfinder Ryder.

Once Cradwap Ryder–sadly, I was one character short of “Cradwapper” but no one should care about that–had an appropriately terrifying vision, neon hair (and let it be said that the character customization is quite fun, as always), and had been confirmed as the Mass Effect: Andromeda equivalent of a Vanguard, we were off to the races. Well, okay, technically that all happened before the Ryder’s father died in a selfless attempt to inject pre-fabricated feelings into the opening couple levels.

The classes have different names and allow for a little more variation within soldiery-types than other Mass Effect games, but otherwise they should seem pretty familiar to veterans of the series. For new people, you’re going to be picking a class that gives your character some ability in Typical Soldiery Shooty Things, Using Drones & Robots To Shoot Things, or Using Your Augmented Brain To Toss People In The Air And Cackle, or some combination of the three. I picked the one that’s a combination of the first and last, because I haven’t yet been able to come up with a good answer to the question, “what is a bad thing about being able to charge into people and headbutt them with brainpower, yet also still being able to operate the gun you are holding?”

And so Cradwap Ryder was off to a couple different places. The first couple levels gave me a chance to get a feel for combat, which is fine, and the interface, which is also, again, fine. The AI of the enemies/your two companions has come under fire as one of the things that needs work whenever Bioware gets around to patching things, and I’ll say that that’s a valid complaint (if overblown like virtually every complaint). Ryder and I had very little trouble with disposing with most enemy combatants on Normal difficulty, up until we got to the point where it’s a big enough fight in a relatively open area that you sort of need your allies to contribute.

At that point, I was sort of glaring sidelong at my idiot comrades and cursing under my breath the same way I do when I’m stuck with an Overwatch team that doesn’t appear to comprehend that at least going through the motions of Shooting What Is In Front Of You And Is Also Shooting You would be extremely helpful to allow me to get us through this fight. I had one other companion–I’d give you the names, but I feel like it’s relevant that none of them made much of an impression during my time with the game, so you’ll have to look it up–who had similar abilities to my character, which was helpful about half the way time. The other half, she went headlong into the middle of four enemies and had to be revived (the typical mechanic where you crouch near your friend’s broken, shattered body and hit “E” until they’re Just Fine After All!) or I had to fight with just me and Idiot No. 2 for the rest of the battle.

To be fair, when it was a more tunnelly battle with lots of cover, my allies did fine. But this engagement, in the second area of the final mission that the Origin Access buys you, uh, access to, you’re fighting around and inside a multi-leveled base, ostensibly an attempt at a sort of evaluation colony before it was attacked by another non-native race called the Kett. And this basically broke my teammates and thus was the only time I died other than my usual handful of deaths involving idiotically walking off a cliff.

In regard to the combat overall, I say “fine” because, while not on the same level of futility as the friendly AI, the enemy AI also makes some puzzling decisions. Such as reinforcements dropping out of a shuttle onto a roof and then bumping into each other in their attempts to be the first one to jump down to the surface and combat The Mighty Cradwap And His Two Moron Disciples. I also say “fine” rather than “great,” because, while I had no problem with the shooting mechanics or using the powers, the Kett, which make up your enemies in the first couple levels, gave the combat a distinctly Mass Effect 1’s Downside feel where it seems like the game has two simultaneous ideas going that are at war with each other: 1. it wants this to be an epic third-person cover-based battle 2. inexplicably gives you a foe type or two whose entire purpose is to try and get into melee range, which are just numerous enough that the first idea doesn’t really pan out. Thus far, the inventory system–related to the combat for obvious reasons–feels similarly Mass Effect 1, in that it’s a mess (as ME1’s kinda was).

However, the added mobility options are a plus, as you’ve also been given the options to “dodge” or use your kinda-jump-jets to quickly relocate, so while this overall feel is way less fluid than the combat in ME3 or even ME2, what you’re left with is something that feels very much like the pieces are in place–especially with the idea that you’ll get more than just your Headbutt and Shoot A Bolt Of Hurty Stuff abilities later on–for plenty of fun. And said ability to jump/boost in any direction sort of helps offset the cover system – the game assures you you’ll automatically take over when you approach a viable object with your gun out, and this works about as inconsistently as you might think if you were given such vague instructions.

Anyway, fun! I certainly did have some, I just wish I could’ve upped my character past Level 5 to see what lies beyond. I don’t think it helped that it’s sort of impossible to see the basic Kett enemies as anything other than “the guys you fight because you have to fight someone to learn to fight.”

Speaking of seeing, that was another thing that merits mentioning. I’d say the proper critique for Mass Effect: Andromeda’s graphics is that they’re not an improvement, from what I’ve seen, on Mass Effect 3, and there are indeed a few more rough edges than in the previous two games. The stuff about the facial animations and character models are both pretty overblown, unless you somehow expected Bioware to suddenly stop having a problem getting the eyes and teeth to look 100% like they go with the skin. I didn’t, so whatever – I wish they’d get a little better at this, but truly this isn’t near the middle of my complaints list.

And I suppose that’s the ultimate conclusion here. A lot of the complaints about Mass Effect: Andromeda are valid, and there’s the unshakable idea for me that this game absolutely should have more polish than it does given all the time that Bioware’s had to craft the first chapter in the new story arc of this series–it’s a little bizarre to be making my way through levels with the simultaneous feelings that the game’s mechanics give the potential for the most dynamic combat/movement in the series, while on the other hand the actual product thus far is something closer to ME1’s combat only not that good. The trial, also, really doesn’t get us deep enough into levelling  for me to look at a bunch of different abilities/tech tree stuff. To say nothing of the element of choice and decisions affecting the storyline and such, a key component of RPGing that understandably hadn’t appeared in the early going.

But overall, despite these caveats and the fact that I really haven’t gotten to know any of the characters yet for any of them to be particularly memorable, I can’t deny that I was pretty much instantly sucked back into the universe. The setting is interesting, the potential conflicts within Nexus leadership and beyond, in the Helios Cluster, are both compelling. None of the characters seem potential-less, just the course of a handful of plot missions didn’t give me much chance to get to know them. The combat really doe seem like it could be significantly. better once I reach level 10 or so. If the question is, “were you, given your own background as a ME fan, convinced you should buy it?” the answer is yes. It’s with with the caveat that I’m not as happy as I thought I’d be, but it’s a yes.

However, a lot of you had other questions, which I’ve done my best to answer below:

Q: Is it even any good? Mass Effect is my favorite series ever, just didn’t have time to play the trial. Worried it will suck.

It feels to me like it’ll be somewhere in the considerable gray territory where it’ll get a fair amount of deserved flak, while still being worth playing (especially if you’ve like the first three). I say that as someone who, also, loves the Mass Effect series despite its warts.

I will say I definitely found parts of it to be lacking, but I also had no trouble getting into the game during my trial time.

What’s that all add up to? For me, it means I’ll skip the digital deluxe stuff and just go for the standard edition.

Q: Can I/should I play this if I couldn’t quite get into ME1?

A: I’m going to say no, not right now. If you like the idea of getting into the series but had a hard time getting into the first, the best starting point is likely to try ME2 – ME2 revamped the gameplay in a way that’s a significant break from the first, so there’s a good chance that if you didn’t get into the first all that much that the second’s reboot of that part of the gameplay will resonate with you. Plus, that way you get some of the sense of build-up to ME3’s climax (assuming you like ME2 enough to keep going).

The weird thing about this game is that, in terms of its graphics style, the first couple missions’ aesthetic, and the combat, this feels like it’s got similar warts to ME1. So if that wasn’t your jam to the point where you couldn’t hold your nose and play through it, I don’t recommend starting here.

Q: re the character model animations as frequently silly as people have made them out to be? Bioware’s animation always had awkward moments, but it sounds like they are far more apparent this time around.

A: As with a lot of the pre-release buzz going around about the game’s issues, it’s both 1. an actual annoyance in some instance 2. horrendously overblown by the Leap To Conclusions section of the internet. The fact is that there’s always been some silly shit in Bioware games, and in regard to facial animations it’s really just more of the same. Disappointing that it wasn’t more fine-tuned? I guess. But the only thing that was remotely glaring in my experience was the example below.

Q: How goofy are the walk/running cycles for your character?

The one place I’ll say that I found it annoying was when the running animation try to realistically portray the way people move when you’ve been running in one direction, and then quickly switch directions – this animation feels like it was built for wide-open areas, so when it kicks it right next to a wall or a box, it’s made my Andromeda Initiative Pathfinder look like a frigging jackass who’s trying to show off the stupidest ways he can run without falling. Practically, the issue is that sometimes this leads to me getting hung up on said object (and sometimes getting shot).

Q: Also, how does the switching between 4 favorite power load outs feel? Especially mid-battle?

The interface itself is definitely not a problem in battle – it feels pretty intuitive, even as the layout reminds me more of the first game than the second or third. I didn’t get too deep into the tech trees, obviously, but it’s not on my list of complaints.

Q: Does the ass-car known as the Mako return?

A: No, but it had a child with a hummer that you’ll get to drive. I have no idea what to say about how it handles, as I suspect it’s going to be rather polarizing like its parent-vehicle.

Q: Has Bioware delved further into non-hetero/queer relationship options for the main character/supporting cast?

A: This is a great question, which I wish I’d have time to reach. Unfortunately, with trial time only taking me through the opening sequence, boarding of the Nexus, and going to a couple cruddy planets, I pretty obviously hadn’t hit the downtime in-between plot missions yet where you have an opportunity to get to know your squadmates better.

Q: Also, can the main character still inflate their ass and float around on the ceiling to avoid gun battles?

No, but it’s pretty easy to accidentally jump-jet into an area that you don’t fit in very well, and then get shot like a jackass. I accomplished this a couple times underneath the base structures in the second area (the one where my squadmates freaked the hell out). The game could’ve used a lot more polish in terms of hints about “can I go under there without my character suddenly becoming afraid of walking.”

Q: Are the shoes fancy enough?

A: Not during my gameplay, but my character is still only Level 5 – there is ample potential for fancier shoes to make an appearance.

Q: Great game or greatest game?

A: Sort of doubt it’s either one, but it’s a lot of fun to be back in this game world. Remains to be seen if it makes more of a long-term impression than that, or if the Andromeda adventures end up playing Hobbit Trilogy (fun and worth your time, but stretched thin and mainly coasting on the success of the previous trilogy) to the first three games’ Lord of the Rings (very good), but the good news is that I don’t think it sucks!