With the Xbox One soon to head off into the sunset thanks to the arrival of the Series X/S it’s worth stepping back to revisit some of the games that made an impact here during this generation. Not all of them are exclusive but each of them resulted in many hours spent glued to controllers and that’s all that really matters. 🙂

Despite plenty of well reported launch issues the Mass Effect Andromeda actually does a lot of things better than it’s predecessors. In combat you were more agile than ever before and there finally was a rover worth driving for long stretches, new worlds to explore and possibly the best finale of any game in the series. It’s by no means perfect but the game is far better than its reputation suggests. It’s a real shame that the backlash all but ended what was meant to be a new trilogy as Bioware’s game still feels like it’s a unique spin on the sci-fi RPG.

The game does an excellent job of throwing your character into the deep end from the outset and thanks to an epic crash sequence and it initially feels like shades of the opening to Mass Effect 2. Those elements of danger were much needed too in what could easily have been a more timid start to the game. Being part of a community trying to colonize another galaxy means it’s less about red/green/blue decisions and more about completing tasks to support the people (a lot of side quests like that) but there’s plenty to discover and new races to encounter. So what’s at stake may not be at the same level (how can you compare it to saving a whole galaxy?) but the game does well to try and make the experience more personal which helps.

And the finale… not everyone is going to agree with me but it was by far the best thing a Mass Effect game had done with an ending that combined all of the tricks and techniques you learned over the course of the game. It made me think immediately of Halo 3 (you’ll know it when you play it) and I can’t think of a better compliment – it really ended the game on a high note. So looking back at Mass Effect Andromeda now I do have more positives that I can recall than negatives which has got to be a good sign of how much of an impact it had on me as a gamer.