Mass Effect: Andromeda & The Bioware Crisis - Part 3
Originally published April, 2017Welcome back to my multi-article analysis of Mass Effect and Bioware! In previous articles, I discussed the details of the Mass Effect franchise and gave a brief history of Bioware as a company. I also discussed the Mass Effect 3 debacle and its effects on the company. In the final article, I'll be going over the opinions surrounding Mass Effect: Andromeda, as well as what this may mean for Bioware in the coming years.
Part III: A Middling Return
Andromeda's Ambition
While Mass Effect 3 had put a cap on the trilogy, eliminating the possibility of continuing the story of the characters involved in the original Mass Effect story, the Mass Effect universe was far too vast to simply leave behind. There was plenty of room to write more stories into that universe. Thus, Andromeda's synopsis made perfect sense as an excuse to return to it: a series of colonizing ships exploring another galaxy looking for a new home. It would be a fresh new start, in a new galaxy, but in the same beloved universe. A lot of favorite alien species could make a triumphant return and players could jump into the shoes of a new hero, exploring the deep reaches of space.
Image: Electronic Arts | Artist: Brian Sum, Bioware Senior Concept Artist
Easier said than done, apparently. Everything I've seen so far in regard to the main protagonist and storyline is a retreading of the Mass Effect plot. Instead of playing as Commander Shepard, a human Spectre who has special privileges and a reputation, you're playing as Ryder. Ryder is the Pathfinder, a special person with special privileges and a special reputation. The contrived similarities are almost as striking as the unfortunate flaws Andromeda wears on its sleeve. For one thing, the numerous alien species that inhabited the Mass Effect games are absent from this one. You still have some of the favorites like the Turians, Krogans, and Asari. But the Hanar and the Elcor (my favorite) are woefully absent. A story excuse is given to explain why the extra races that had been established as a part of this universe would be missing, but I think it's safe to assume the real reason is likely a strict development schedule prevented them from being added to the game.
Again, I haven't played this game myself yet, so you should take everything I say with a grain of salt. I'm only regurgitating what I've seen scattered around the internet. Nonetheless, the evidence is pretty apparent that this game is unfinished. Really, everything I've seen about Andromeda has led me to believe that this game needed, at least, another year of development. It's difficult to say if a year's delay would save this game from any writing concerns or story issues. Those are usually things that need to be fixed from the start. Still, it might have resolved some of the blatant presentation issues, of which there are many.
Rough Around the Edges
Perhaps the thing that has gotten most people's attention since Andromeda's release is how the game looks. Unanimously, people agree the environments look great. There's a great deal of detail paid to each planet that makes it believable and immersive. There are plenty of indications of solid art design, like the worlds and the aliens you can talk to. The aliens and their faces are also overflowing with detail. Textures layered upon textures make the faces of these creatures pop with detail during interactions. They look great, partially because of the attention paid to them, and partially because there's less of a risk with the uncanny valley. The humans, however...
Image: Electronic Arts
It seems somewhat small, but crucial details are missing from the faces of the human characters in Mass Effect: Andromeda. Everyone looks really weird and surprised when they're supposed to be stoic or melancholic. Other times, their faces are contorted in minor ways that indicate an emotion that isn't supposed to be there. The movement and way characters talk during interactions or in the background are weird and distracting. There are also plenty of moments I've seen that show the AI freaking out and running all over the place because the Pathfinder is interrupting their pathing. It is all very indicative of an unfinished game.
Goofy interactions between characters have been acceptable in video games for decades. Back when Resident Evil was first released in the ‘90s, it had some of the lamest voice acting and weirdest character movements around. Yet, it was acceptable at the time due to the limitations of the technology and the fact that not many other games had been ambitious enough to include voices and cutscenes in that way before. It got a bit of a free pass and became a classic for its game design, regardless of the rough presentation.
Image: Electronic Arts | Derp
Andromeda has less of an excuse for its presentation failures being released in 2017 and with the name Mass Effect attached to it. For years, Bioware has been on the front lines of the battle for making character interactions more meaningful and emotional in their video games. Going back to Knights of the Old Republic, the interactions were strange and overly animated, yet they were acceptable at the time. Mass Effect still never quite got rid of the robotic interactions, but it was getting better and better with each new release.
Bioware games also had their fair share of bugs, but those were less frequent in games that were reusing familiar engines. Mass Effect was using its own engine throughout the original trilogy, so it would make sense that the bug count would decrease as the developers got more comfortable with the engine. However, Andromeda, being a new game of a new generation, is using a different engine than before. With that in mind, you might expect a little more time would have been given to the developers to allow them to smooth out the edges. Alas, the release schedule seemed too tight for EA and Andromeda needed to make it out the door, so post-release patches were likely argued as the solution.
Image: Electronic Arts
From here, it simply looks like there was a collision of unfortunate circumstances that negatively impacted the production of Andromeda. What else could go wrong, right?
A Precise Strike
The voice-acting is rough in Andromeda. The delivery is flat and effortless in many interactions with the main protagonist. This isn't just restricted to minor interactions with nameless or unimportant characters. Some frequently visited and somewhat-important characters are stuck with below-average voice talent. Andromeda may be the first of many big games to feel the real hit from the voice-actors strike that is currently happening.
If you're unaware, voice actors, many of which involved in the games industry, have been pushing to get more recognition and royalties for their work. The gaming industry makes frequent use of these talented people who put in quality work for much less than an established movie actor gets for the same job. After Bungie paid tons of cash out for the voice of Peter Dinklage in Destiny, whose voice work was regarded as bland and lifeless by most players, they patched his voice out of the game entirely and replaced him with the more enthusiastic and affordable Nolan North.
Image from Daily Star - Nathan Drake (left); Nolan North (right)
North, who is best known for his Nathan Drake voice in the Uncharted games, has provided his voice for countless characters with varying degrees of recognition. He also gets paid a lot less than someone who is on Game of Thrones. As a result, Bungie was able to make better and more use of the enthusiastic actor and get a great deal more voice work from him. However, North and many others, including Bioware favorite, Katherine Hale, have been refusing to provide their voices to video games until their wages increase and they're given some sort of post-sale compensation. There's no indication of when the voice actor strike will end, as it's still going on and has become one of the longest acting strikes in SAG history.
With regards to Andromeda, I've recently heard the phrase "in a post-Witcher 3 world" multiple times in regards to how The Witcher 3, released two years ago, managed to elevate the expectations in the quality of facial animations and voice acting. While that makes me all the more anxious to play The Witcher, in some ways, I'm more curious about the games coming out in the next few years and how they'll be affected by this strike. Are we going to go back to the good old days of having QA testers provide voice work? Will it mean we'll get more videos like these? One can only hope.
Bioware's Reputable Future
All joking aside, what does all this negative attention mean for Bioware? It could mean nothing, as the company has bounced back or even thrived from negative attention in the past. It could also mean the company is closer to the EA guillotine. Despite the occasional years where EA seems to have some good intentions behind their decisions, the publisher is still known for its ability to acquire successful companies, exploit them until they're used up, and then execute them with an unforgiving ax when something doesn't perform. Bioware has gone through the acquisition process. Bioware has gone through an exploitation process—at some point, seemingly every RPG game published by EA had a Bioware logo slapped on it somewhere, even if it wasn't actively developed by them. Now that another of their current and biggest franchises has received such negative attention, many are questioning the ability of the studio to stay alive.
Image: Electronic Arts
When The Doctors who had founded the company got fed up with the industry and left, it was a huge blow to Bioware's capabilities and reputation. People immediately wondered if it would recover without the key players at the helm anymore. The Old Republic and Dragon Age: Inquisition have proven that Bioware is still capable of making games that are well-received, without input from The Doctors. However, even those games were displaying the warning signs of a shift in focus.
The good news is that since I first started writing these articles, Bioware has already issued patches to fix numerous bugs and improve the performance of Andromeda. They even added some shaders to the human eyes, which, while a small touch, makes a big difference. All it takes is a slight shadow on the doll's eyes to make it seem like there's a little life there. So, at the very least, it shows a commitment from Bioware to the game for the time being. Still, the fact that these fixes didn't come with the game at the time it launched, is a bit of a problem. It already created a significantly negative reputation for the game—it's part of the reason I chose to write about Andromeda in the first place. It also raises a bigger discussion about the validity of game experiences pre and post-patches and what is considered acceptable behavior for companies from the consumer perspective.
Image: Electronic Arts
Personally, I hope that Bioware continues to survive and thrive under whatever publisher banner they choose. I want more stories in my video games. While they may have never been the best at technical demonstrations in video games, they've always managed to capture my attention with the worlds they've created. I have no interest in playing their MMO—which is unfortunate for me since that's where a lot of their great story writers have gone, apparently—but I fully intend to dive into the Mass Effects I haven't tried and even more Dragon Age when I have the time. Even with the disappointing attention, their games have still been positive investments for EA so I don't expect them to close up shop yet. In fact, they have an unannounced game in the works, and I'm hopeful that it is something new so they can finally start fresh and get out from under the Doctors' shadow. It will be a great opportunity to show the world that, even though Bioware has changed significantly over the years, it is still capable of creating something new and interesting.
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