I agree, it’s sad to see such a rich universe with so much untapped potential being basically abandoned, but we did get 3 great games out of it, and another game that eventually became great in its own way. Andromeda had sooo much potential, but it got in its own way a lot, too.
I do think, mechanically the games improved over each iteration (Andromeda was imo undeniably a smoother experience gameplay-wise than even ME3, which was smoother than ME2, and ME1 was clunky af sometimes). But the writing and details suffered in Andromeda.
Back to my original point: there were a lot more stories to tell in the ME universe, but we did get to have a hell of a good time in it while it lasted. So I’m glad we at least got we got out of it. Still my favorite franchise of all time.
I’m hoping the players just take it and run with it. I know we can accept it’s closed and move on, but we literally don’t have to. The continuity of it would be weird but if a group of people got together and wrote a coherent story built within a thorough understanding of the universe, we could have a gamer-made saga.
It’d be like modding. Skyrim couldn’t be what it is today without the players. Fallout too. All of these expansions being made just for the love of the game when coding was done manually? The future is gonna get weird and I reeeally hope it goes the cool way where we get to enjoy these worlds and not let them die behind weak ass corporations.
God, those menus still drive me INSANE! Thy are so clunky and just illogically and confusingly stacked on top of one another I never even bothered switching "profiles" because it was just too much of a hassle to manage (only effing THREE) abilities across several such "profiles" you are meant to swap between on the fly, not to mention crafting and other nonsense nested features.
But yes, the overall gameplay was SO much better than the MET and one of the reasons I still replay Andromeda. I will say the writing is def a mixed bag, but not as terrible as everyone thinks it is. Sure, it's nowhere near as good as the MET's, and there are a lot of mediocre, bad, repetitive, and cringe moments, but there are also a fair amount of heartwarming, funny, dramatic, and mysterious moments as well (the now forever unsolved murder mystery revolving around the mysterious "benefactor" of the Andromeda Initiative is one I still think about and there are some pretty cool theories about; another being Cora's potential backstory being TIM's daughter). They're just often buried in sidequests or found much later in the game (though I do think the game's into "hook" storyline with you dad is touching, dramatic, and tragic as well), like all of the companions' personal loyalty quests were very unique and fun to play and most gave a fair amount of depth to the characters. But I think it's lightyears better than Veilguard's writing (for the most part), honestly, and potentially their last game that still has a semblance of "classic Bioware."
Yeah, I was referring specifically to gameplay. I think they tried to do too much that was too new (and going open world didn’t do it any favors either - ME was somewhat linear, and thus they could focus more on narrative, which was always one of ME’s draws) but looking purely at gameplay it was awesome.
There was a ton to critique but it was hella fun combat.
Same. The first game is still my favorite because it did an absolutely masterful job of establishing a universe full of history and potential. It’s a shame to see all that lore just end.
After Anthem and Veilguard, honestly, I didn’t trust BioWare with the next Mass Effect game at all. I hate that the studio is closing, I hate that 400 people are losing their jobs, but part of me is relieved because as a studio BW repeatedly demonstrated incompetence with IPs old and new.
Agreed, but at the same time the trilogy was perfect and as andromeda showed it’s hard to recapture that energy.
I’d rather it be shelved or saved for a company that truly loves the franchise than to see it become a meh game and BioWare as it stood at the end was not that company
Bioware was wasting it already and this guys saying another studio might get to take it up. Im not sure what to tell you but thats literally the best case scenario for fans
While I do agree it’s a waste, please don’t let that paint your potential enjoyment of something that could take its place…help games like this thrive so we can at least TRY to have more of them.
I’m mixed here, I’m glad that current Bioware isn’t making another Mass Effect, as I really didn’t like the sound of where it was going, but this is also tragic in so many more ways than that.
It's one of my biggest gripes with game companies (especially Blizzard): under-utilization of their IPs. There's so much room for so many kinds of games in these universes and they just... don't do it. You'd think the greedy, soul-sucking shareholders at least would realize they're leaving money on the table by not making a Mass Effect 4X game or space sim.
I think there were a lot of potentially great stories in the Mass Effect universe, but I don’t think EA/Bioware were realistically ever going to tell them. Almost all the comics and novels are about humans and Cerberus for some reason, and the only time they made an actual sequel to the Trilogy it was a kinda hollow feeling spinoff in a new galaxy that might as well have been a completely new series.
I’m actually more sad about Dragon Age, and after seeing Veilguard I’m kind of glad they didn’t take another shot at Mass Effect.
It's entirely likely that they'll sell mass effect to someone else provided that they take some of the debt that was included in the leveraged buyout. There's still an Amazon TV show of mass effect being made and if someone at Amazon was told that they could own their next fallout style property, they might just jump at it.
I know how you feel, but I guess in the positive side this is how we get more games and more creativity in the space. Plus exodus has a squid party member…
Or at least that’s what I’m going to tell myself while I cry over the corpse of BioWare.
They were great games, but I'm not sure what more could be done without a reboot. Doing anything more with Shepard or the Reapers would just cheapen 3. There wasn't a clean way to do a post-Reaper story in the Milky Way without simulating a ton of different choices. Nothing else was really left unresolved in the Milky Way, but there wasn't enough interest in continuing in the Andromeda galaxy.
It sucks we didn't get one more banger from the IP before it was done, but maybe this is for the better. We at least know it won't overstay its welcome.
Mass Effect is Mass Effect because of the people who made this games. The setting was no particularly innovative. They can do the same in a new similar setting
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u/weirdest-timeline 8h ago
yeah but as much as I am looking forward to those games, they just aren't Mass Effect. It is such a shame to waste this amazing universe.