The Mass Effect franchise holds a special place in my heart. It was the first X-Box 360 game I bought for the fledgling system back in 2008 and I bought the subsequent sequels on release day. I played Mass Effect 2 at least 8 times through (clocking in at an average of 40 hours per play through) and even played Mass Effect 3 a few times through; rounding out a trilogy that, overall, I will remember fondly. But now, after nearly ten years, it feels like we’ve come full circle.

Mass Effect: Andromeda released in the UK on the 23rd of March and after having spent roughly 33 hours exploring, fighting, and conversing my way through the brave new world that Bioware Montreal has created; I’m feeling less enthused and more indoctrinated.

Despite the early reviews and videos showing some very questionable facial animations and a rather plagiaristic plot line, I was excited for the newest instalment of Mass Effect and eagerly spent my money to pick it up day and date. The early hours showcased a lot of the bizarre facial expressions that I had come to expect and I pushed on and begin to enjoy myself.

The combat flowed nicely enough, the dialogue was engaging and this new universe was full of potential and wonder. And then it set in. The creeping realisation that, despite paying for a Bioware game, I was actually playing an Ubisoft game in Shepard’s clothing.

Unlocking towers to further story and unlock segments of the map? Check. Waves upon waves of palette-swapped enemies with little distinction between them? Check. Character’s faces melting off or outright disappearing from conversations? BIG CHECK. Turns out I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed this entire time!

I cannot fathom what the Quality Assurance for this game must have been like but I can only assume the producers ignored any and all reports given to them because I have never played a game with so much polish and this many bugs, glitches and frame drops.

It’s a gorgeous game, there’s no denying that. The new Frostbite engine makes each of the playable worlds (a sadly small number) look uniquely stunning and is a large, expansive sandbox for Ryder and company to run around in but holy crap do the graphics start to become a problem when you get in close.

For one thing, did no one on the team pay attention to the dialogue sections of The Witcher III? Or even Mass Effect 2 and 3? Because the level of interaction is sub-Mass Effect 1, with characters standing stock-still, staring wall-eyed at each other like everyone is being held at gunpoint! No character emotes with their bodies, expresses an emotion besides mild befuddlement and don’t even get me started on Ryder’s head swivelling 180° to face the other way. Or characters will be embedded up to their shoulders in the floor. Or ten feet in the air. None of these issues should ever have made it past testing and the entire product is lesser for it.

Your new squad members, while an eclectic bunch of weirdoes, outcasts, and criminals, can be sadly mired in the trappings of the previous games vis-à-vis their gameplay roles. That said, it’s genuinely cool to enter a room on the Tempest and see your crew talking to each other, either about missions, politics or even race relations. Special mention goes to new Andromeda alien crew member Jaal (beautifully voiced by Nyasha Hatendi) and his place amongst the team. We’ve seen, and partnered, with so many aliens in the past that it’s refreshing to see a character taking the outsider’s perspective.

Now, it’s not all negative, as my love of Jaal shows, and a lot of the good in this game can be found in it’s gameplay. Eschewing cover shooting for a more run-and-gun style, battles can shift quickly and often, giving some of the more monotonous encounters some new ways to surprise you.

The Nomad is also a huge improvement on previous games’ exploration mechanics, leaning towards ME1’s Mako like it’s copying it’s homework; which isn’t a bad thing. Bombing around planets in the Nomad gives the adventurous feeling I was looking for and the multiple in-car conversations between squad-mates make it worth the trip rather than fast travelling.

I wish that flying between systems and planets was a little less loading screen intensive or was worth it most of the time (I’ve encountered three systems with little-to-nothing in terms of reason to be there) but once you’re there, it’s pretty fun, with multiple missions and tasks to be accomplished.

There’s a good game here. Yes, it’s taking a lot of cues from the original trilogy’s story and executing it with less style and the dialogue, character models and faces can be jankier than an Eastern European indie game but between fun gunplay, vehicle sections that are an absolute blast and crew members that can give you a genuine chuckle in between missions, I think there’s potential here.

As of time of writing, I’m nowhere near finished but if this is going to spin out into an all new trilogy then, in the spirit of the original Mass Effect and this wild new frontier, I can only hope that the hardships now lead to a better future.

Oh my word, this week is all about the invasion of Earth, isn’t it? But unlike the return of the Nazis, we’re looking at something far more insidious and dangerous in the latest Mass Effect 3 cinematic trailer, Take Back Earth.

God damn, am I excited for Mass Effect 3 after this. The original cinematic teaser got me hyped and this continues the tradition. I’ll not say much and just leave you to watch the trailer for yourself first.

 
Wanna watch it again? I’ll wait….

You good? Pants freshly changed? Aces. Wasn’t that awesome?! That was awesome.

Pew-Pew-Pew!

This little girl is having tons of fun with her toy Alliance Fighter (Which I totally want.)

Lost Innocence

The darkening sky and the reflection of the Reaper in the child’s eye is a really good shot.

Global War

Oh snap! The Reaper sequences are just the first attack on Earth and it’s truly devastating.

Now you’ve done it.

In the scorched fields, Shepard picks up the little girl’s toy and the anger in his face as he sees the Husks is glorious. As he rips through the Reapers’ ground forces with his assembled army, his cold determination really sells how personal this struggle is and then he sees the Brutes.

Keeyaaawwww!

The climax of the trailer is Shepard literally launching himself at the Brutes, Omni-Blade in hand. F*** YEAH!

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Man, oh, man! This is a brilliant trailer (and I believe our first video game trailer for Tease Me, Baby!) and I cannot wait for this game’s release. Mass Effect 3 will be released March 6, 2012 in North America, March 8, 2012 in Australia, and March 9, 2012 in Europe.

The first mission of the demo appears to be the first mission of the game proper. Commander Shepard, stripped of his rank after events in the ME2 DLC Arrival, is brought before the Alliance Defense Committee to confirm their worst fears. The Reapers are coming to Earth. What follows is a psuedo-tutorial as you’re taught the basic controls and your goals for the rest of the game are made clear; Find help, unite the races, survive. The controls felt a little light when I began (I haven’t play ME2 in around 8 months so maybe they’re just like that) but the controls all came back to me after a while. You can still map your powers and select weapons in much the same way as before, which helps assign the new grenade powers to a button.

Speaking of which, I don’t like the new grenades, mainly because they seem like a huge step backwards from the ones in the original Mass Effect. The original grenades could be thrown like a discus and would fly for a while before attaching to an enemy or wall. They could also be modified to allow different effects, regardless of class. They were tits! In ME3, they’re just regular grenades that you lob and the only way to get different effects is to choose a different character class.

The second mission takes place further in the story on the planet Sur’Kesh, homeworld of the Salarians where you help evacuate a group of fertile female Krogan. What they’re doing there is not explained but it seems to tie into the animosity between the Krogans and the Salarians. It features more action and plenty of opportunities to use some of the new abilities and weapons.

The demo also features a multiplayer demo but I’ve not been able to play it yet. It’s been said that you can play the multiplayer without XBOX Live Gold membership but as I said, I’ve not been able to.

All in all, it’s a fun demo and just makes me more excited to get my Collector’s Edition on release day! You can find it now on the XBOX Live Marketplace and the Playstation Network in a few days.

Mass Effect 3 is available on XBOX 360, Playstation 3, and PC from March 6th in North America, March 8th, in Australia, and March 9th, in Europe.