I’m tired of saving the world. I’ve done it a hundred times over the course of hundreds of games. I’ve eliminated terrorist threats in Call of Duty, I’ve subverted the evil plans of giant corporations in Assassin's Creed, and I’ve traveled across the galaxy building a team of aliens in order to stop the biggest threat the universe has ever seen in the Mass Effect trilogy. And that makes sense when the best stories I’ve experienced have focused on what’s happening in the world, rather than who's trying to destroy it.
And that’s exactly what I’d like to see in BioWare’s next space adventure, Mass Effect: Andromeda. A self contained adventure that focuses on our new main character, Ryder, and the characters he/she runs into. We’ve already been through a three game journey to bring peace to the galaxy, it’s time we explore more of what Mass Effect’s universe has to offer.
We don’t know much about what we’ll see in Andromeda, what we do know is that it takes place in a new galaxy, hundreds of years after the events of Mass Effect 3, so we won’t get the chance to see Commander Shepard and the rest of the Normandy’s lovable crew. And that’s a good thing, we have a clean slate to start fresh on.
While nothing is confirmed,we have heard rumors that you’re the leader of a military group set on taking a new home, needing to eliminate the indigenous race standing in your way. If this is true, it’s great start to set up a compelling story that juggles with more moral ambiguity then fighting the Reapers did. But it still could lead to a standard good vs evil tale if the indigenous race is painted as some ambiguous force that needs to be destroyed.
Some chapters within Red Dead Redemption’s story are prime examples of what I’d love to see in
Andromeda. Chasing down Marston’s former crew and putting down a rising rebellion in Mexico are two examples of how Redemption’s narrative challenged the player—I didn’t want to join with General Allende to take down the Mexican rebels, but I had too. It wasn’t black and white, it wasn’t straightforward. And I liked that.
Much of what Marston was faced with wasn’t straightforward. He was forced by the FBI to track down his former crew—unlike other westerns he wasn’t the champion of some small western town terrorized by an oil tycoon and he didn’t ride with the sheriff to take down the Joe Schmoe band of bandits. Rockstar’s original tale of redemption was one reason it received so much praise.
While Red Dead Redemption 2's plot is still under wraps, the first game felt complete, we didn’t get left at the altar with a cliffhanger. And according to it’s developers, Andromeda isn’t supposed to be the start of a new trilogy, and hopefully it won’t be another epic that feels like nothing but more of the same.
I’d love to see BioWare emulate Rockstar with Andromeda’s plot, I’d like to see Ryder take part in some unorthodox tasks that we haven’t seen done in some big blockbuster titles. Have Ryder try to defect when invading the new territories, seeing how he shouldn’t take a home from its indigenous people—even if they may be violent.
I’ll be exploring the galaxy regardless once Andromeda comes out on March 21st, I’m just hoping that BioWare realizes that they need more than space environments to keep me interested.
