New Galaxy
Even at the development stage, fans were divided into two camps: some believed in an excellent sequel, while others, on the contrary, predicted the failure of the game. How did the game turn out in the end? I will try to talk about this in this review .
I’ll probably start with the most important thing - the plot. We’re already accustomed to various twists and turns, but what we can’t take away from the mass effect series is a great plot. What do we see here? It would seem like a great idea to send players to conquer a new the galaxy, and the completed story with Shepard can be left alone, but the implementation is terrible. I don’t know whether there was not enough time, or the fact that several experienced specialists were lost in the development process, but the plot is banal and as simple as two fingers. There are good ones, but there are bad ones, here’s a big world for you and the means to achieve your goal, go for it. This is not a mass effect level. Many will say, and the developers also said, that their criticism is not justified. But excuse me, weren’t you the one who took the name of the most excellent franchise and with your project showed the inability to even come close to achieving the success of the series. If BioWare had taken a different name, then where would it go? Well, I think the criticism is deserved. And don’t tell me that they followed the lead of the market and decided to stuff in the now popular Disney cliche “good-evil.” I will repeat once again, this is not the level of mass effect. As a result, the plot was not impressive, and I had difficulty getting through the plot.
Not finding the plot interesting, I hoped to get even in the gameplay part. It seemed that something could not be done to spoil the combat, but that was not the case. If in the previous parts, party members really helped in battle, using their abilities, then here it’s just anarchy. You give the order to hold a position, after a couple of minutes he runs to attack. You order the fighters to keep their distance, and they run head-on, almost hand-to-hand combat and die faster than you can somehow help them. In general, you basically had to rely on yourself, since the rest of the team members were of no use.
But I don’t want to talk about the rest of the gameplay. BioeWare walked on very thin ice and instead of the quality of quests, they put forward quantity in the spirit of give and bring. I perfectly understand that there is no escape from this, but make it interesting, interest the player. As a result, you spend most of your time running/driving from point A to point B. Surprisingly, in the plot, everything is exactly the same, 10 min video and then run to the trail point. Over time, you begin to give up on most activities and move further along the plot.
And the riddles are a different story altogether! The developers couldn’t offer us anything more ingenious than Sudoku. The worst thing is that you will have to deal with this throughout the entire game.
I hoped that maybe these mechanics: exploring planets and choosing the type of base (military/research) would diversify the gameplay, but the developers did everything terribly, or rather did nothing. Remember how they told us in commercials that you can study new early unexplored planets? So, someone already lives on part of the planet, and studying the planet turns into the same algorithm: complete a bunch of quests, secure the plan, etc. The same They said the same thing about the bases: your decision will affect your relationship with representatives of other races and will have serious consequences. But what really? But nothing, there will be only one quest and then it can be resolved peacefully and that’s it, no more consequences. there is, no matter what you choose, nothing much will change.
You can write about this creation forever, you can hate it, or, on the contrary, praise it, but everyone decides for themselves. Personally, I can’t give this game higher than 6 points, the developers have cheated in too many ways. So, if you are an inveterate fan of ME, I advise you to avoid this game, but if you have never played mass effect, then I think it’s worth it to see if you like it universe, and then proceed to the trilogy and enjoy the plot.