Some authors are trying to see something in Mass Effect: Andromeda that the game cannot and does not want to be. A good enough reason to complain a bit.
I wish you all a nice Wednesday. I actually wanted to skip the complaint Wednesday because Mass Effect: Andromeda is waiting to be fully played through. But no, then I would disappoint all those who look forward to the column and let down all those who get upset every week that this column exists.
But let’s get straight to the point: Mass Effect: Andromeda.
After I published my review of the game a few days ago, I naturally wanted to read what other sites are saying. While I don’t always completely agree, I can certainly understand some criticisms, there was one article that particularly caught my attention.
The article “In Space, No One Can Hear You Moan” (Link to the article on “Zeit Online”) raised my eyebrows already with the headline. But if you look at the URL, you can roughly guess where the journey is heading: “mass-effect-andromeda-sex-geschlechtsverkehr”. Zeit Online focuses on the possibility of sexual relationships in ME:A in the article and opens up many barrels around sex, relationships and love. It is mostly about the significance of interpersonal relationships, how sex changes a relationship and what feelings, emotions, drives and many other things come with it.
Above all, however, it is about the fact that the relationships in Mass Effect: Andromeda are nothing more than “Press X for Sex”.
I find the accusation fundamentally wrong. It’s like accusing the latest Hollywood action movie of not being a relationship drama. Yes, in some ways that’s true, but the film doesn’t want that at all.
It always depends on what a game wants to be and how other games handle the topic so it can be put into context. From my perspective, Mass Effect is clearly more mature than most other games that feature sex.
The characters are autonomous and far from a “Grab a prostitute to feel better” like in GTA. They are multi-layered, have their own opinions, preferences and dislikes, and feel like real characters.
But in the article, there is an attempt to make something out of Mass Effect: Andromeda that it cannot and does not want to be: a relationship simulator.
As the author himself says in the last paragraph, Mass Effect: Andromeda is not a game about “complex, fragile, and painful relationships including sex.” Correct. I don’t want to discuss with Peebee what we will do on our anniversary and who will do the laundry today and whether a vegan diet would be better for us.
I also don’t want Liam whining in my ears because he doesn’t know if we can afford a second child, whether the child allowance application from the Nexus has been approved and whether I, as a Pathfinder, am considered self-employed or employed and if I need to tax my credits differently.
It is a goddamn sci-fi action RPG and not a relationship simulator.
