“All the Side Stuff” – What Mass Effect: Andromeda has to Offer
There is much to do in Andromeda, especially besides the main mission. But can that enthuse? Is it just generic “run from A to B” nonsense? And how are the dialogues in the game? Interesting or just chatter?
Side Missions – Lots to Do… Sometimes Too Much
The planets of ME:A are packed. There is something to do, shoot, discover, or explore at every corner. Often, one is almost overwhelmed by the number of side missions offered. Completing them all before tackling the next main mission seems pure madness.
The quality of the side missions varies. Some just send us crisscross across the planet to find things – corpses, minerals, plants, mementos. These quests may seem tiresome, but they serve as “breadcrumb” quests that lead us to new tasks. Currently, I have more than 50 open missions in my quest log and could still take on 7 more. Whoever keeps saying there is “nothing to do” in Andromeda isn’t looking closely enough.
However, many side quests are surprising. During an otherwise boring “Yes, go to the desert and set up some drills so we can get water” quest, interesting developments occur.
A few exiles want one of the drills to extract gas that they can then sell to avoid starving. At the last drill, things get even worse. We awaken a giant construct of the Remnants, which turns out to be a tough boss fight that almost wiped out my Ryder multiple times.
Conversations – As Much as You Want
As usual in Mass Effect, we can also talk extensively with characters in Andromeda. Even the most insignificant side character from “Sidequest 254” has several dialogue options that reveal details about their motives, views, and actions. For relevant characters important for the main story, you often have up to 10 options to delve further. This is, however, never obligatory.
If you only have your sights on “the next mission”, you don’t explore further and click through the relevant options that are always marked with a arrow. However, those who investigate (marked with a question mark) discover many details that sometimes even lead to further side quests. But this is not mandatory. If you want to, you can talk for hours with characters. If you don’t want that, you jump straight into the next fight.
The Philosophical Side
ME:A has, aside from all the space action and exploring, also an aspect that is quite thought-provoking. Often, the devil is in the details, and time and again one gets that queasy feeling in the stomach when one can follow the decisions made by the people here.
Sometimes you walk through the cryo lab where a person says, “Wow, if we tell the Milky Way about this, my family will be so happy,” only for a scientist to soberly state, “600 years have passed. No one in the Milky Way remembers us anymore. All the people you ever knew are long dead.”
Or when Suvi, the navigator of the Tempest, invites us for tea and melancholically states that these are the last tea leaves she brought from Earth. After that, there will be no more of this tea and it will never be available again – because this specific plant does not exist in Andromeda.
However, the space scenes are truly fascinating when traveling from one planet to another. Never before did I feel so small and insignificant, and could so strongly feel the vastness of a galaxy. When gliding through asteroid fields in the short sequences and seeing the selected planet slowly approaching – that is a feeling of “science fiction” that even series like Star Trek or the Star Wars franchise could never convey.
In addition, the choices help, where rarely is there a clear separation between “good” and “evil”. The options are almost always gray, and satisfying all sides only succeeds in the fewest moments. Do I let a group of Salarians die and save the Krogan? The Krogan are friends of my team member Drack, but they chose the danger while the Salarians were kidnapped. No matter what choice I make, someone will be very angry, and the feeling of having made the wrong choice – no matter what I do – is overwhelming.
