Ahoy hoy, my fellow gamers, planet explorers and RPG enthusiasts. Whilst the joys and problems of Mass Effect Andromeda have been raging over the internet, with numerous memes to cover its pros and cons, and now that Bioware has halted any production on MEA, it seemed a perfect time to talk about its multiplayer.
Some viewed Mass Effect Andromeda’s multiplayer almost perfect, with a blend of horde mode style gameplay and customizable weapons, skins and skills. Even the rewards system wasn’t too heavily criticised as it pushed more about grind than the micro transactions it had in place. So when Mass Effect Andromeda came out, I was interested to see if they could keep the trend or fall flat on their face.
No fear, Mass Effect Andromeda continues to get it right by coming up with a generous amount of appropriate reasons to shoot lots of enemies with friends. You’re a special forces team called APEX, a unit tasked with hunting down resources, stealing intel and hacking archives whilst under fire from one of the three enemy factions. The objectives are almost identical to Mass Effect 3, such as, hack three terminals, kill certain enemies, or mow down the entire group. The only difference being from ME3, is the choice; you can choose a standard multiplayer mission to grind those credits to open a loot box, or an APEX Mission.
If you choose an APEX mission, it comes with a variety of rewards for the single player game and a small lore introduction on why you are doing it. You are also not tied into you actually doing the mission yourself as you can send away an AI team, which shows a percentage success rate instead, and just go on to play multiplayer with friends. Another good feature, is that you can do this in either single player or in multiplayer. Get in!
ME3 did a great job of letting you control characters that receive brief mentions in the main game. That mode continued to add new life to the multiplayer with numerous updates, finally letting us play a variety of different species. My favourite was the Vorcha, which were able to regenerate health on the fly and do devastating damage with their flames, along with the sheepish merchant Volus clumsily bobbing along between cover points, only pausing to blast an enemy with a shotgun as big as him.
And again, thankfully Andromeda does exactly the same thing here. The difference here is that there is currently a limit on the different species to choose from, however, looking at ME3, I have faith this will only expand with time.
The multiplayer mode doesn’t have the single players laborious crafting system thankfully. You can open a loot box and suddenly play with an assault rifle that fires grenades. Putting aside the single players bloated research and crafting system, Andromeda does a good job at creating a long-distance progression system combined with a high-mobility third person shooter combat system. Class systems that lock abilities are a necessary, and provides the right blend of rewards to push you forward, not to mention to give you the opportunity to switch between roles on the fly.
Andromeda has updated its combat system since ME3. It now provides you with a new jump action & dash animation which looks great as you jump high onto landings, dash in mid-air, and punch someone on the ground. It looks fun. However, because of this, it has had to sacrifice a button pressed cover system with an automated one. When this works, its fluid, fast and fun. When it works. I have often found myself spending more time than I’d like trying to get the system to put me in cover, only to die as it won’t lock onto a piece of wall or a crate. This can be incredibly frustrating and I have heard more players complain about this than anything else.
The unlocks system, is exactly like ME3. You can put real money into it, or grind to buy boxes with points earned, and thankfully I’ve never felt pressured to spend. Though I do enjoy the choice of whether to get a small box or save for the big caches full of exotic weapons and new characters. I have often got what I want using them games in house points. So far the games is generous with its points, and the characters level at an exciting pace. It’s a sensible evolution of the work started in Mass Effect 3 and hit an almost perfect balance in Andromeda. I know… a micro transactions system that works…weird right?
Overall Andromeda continues where Mass Effect 3 set the bar with some great new touches and fun combat. I’ve spent more time here than in the main game and it brings me a lot of joy and excitement to see how my characters progress. Yes, the cover system isn’t always great, but I’m hoping this can be patched or even a button added mode for those who have more than the standard controllers button selection. To me this is a fantastic multiplayer experience that will keep me coming back, hopefully for more new characters, weapons and co-op fun.
Fingers crossed Bioware will continue to keep it up to date, as this may very well see them through this tough time.
