Mass effect andromeda pc vs console
#Mass effect andromeda pc vs console series
Neither Mass Effect Andromeda nor Dragon Age Inquisition offer the strategic and tactical depth possible in previous series entries Inquisition compared to the wonderful Dragon Age Origins, in particular, is painful. The class-based, loot crate formula that worked so well in Mass Effect 3 and again now in Mass Effect Andromeda does not succeed in Dragon Age Inquisition, because combat in Dragon Age Inquisition is not fun.Ĭombat is fun in Mass Effect Andromeda, but it’s also shallow. Multiplayer is another area in which it feels like someone wanted to tick a checkbox: there is absolutely no reason for Dragon Age Inquisition to have multiplayer. PC Gamer has a great comparison of one of Andromeda’s best quests, which sticks out like a sore thumb among much of the game, with one CD Projekt RED threw into The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt seemingly just to take jabs at how lazy and dull quest design can be.) (In Mass Effect Andromeda’s case, even the more substantial secondary content tends to fall short of memorable. Skyrim and Fallout 4’s filler content – the Radiant quests - send you to a huge variety of different places with different kinds of enemies awaiting you, so that even these automatically-generated missions are more interesting than the flimsy stories BioWare attaches to your quest to find four radio signals at random encounter points. The Witcher 3 gives you very quick in-and-out battles like monster nests, and tough challenges like guarded treasures ranging to very high levels. Mass Effect Andromeda and to a lesser extent Dragon Age Inquisition have you suffering through dry collections with little story content, or fighting through dozens of identical encounters. This style of content, padding a game out tens of hours past the lifespan of its primary and secondary quests, is more popular among those who buy a couple of games a year than world-weary games journalists, but even so, there’s no denying the difference in quality between the filler content in Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age Inquisition and something like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Skyrim or Fallout 4.
To fill these enormous landscapes, both Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age Inquisition offer checklist-style open world content. The majesty Bethesda packed into Skyrim, so that every new vista pulls you on to see what’s next, is largely absent. While both games have some lovely landscapes to admire, neither manages to capture that excited sense of wondering what’s over the next rise, because after even just a few hours, you know it’s just going to be more of the same sort of hills, crevasses, forests or whatever. Mass Effect Andromeda is less guilty of it than Dragon Age Inquisition, but both present spaces the player is never driven to except in the pursuit of humdrum fetch quests, collectibles and map icons. Neither Mass Effect Andromeda nor Dragon Age Inquisition pull it off gracefully they don’t have the seamless transitions that are one of open world gaming’s core strengths they don’t offer the joyful traversal we less frequently find in some open world games but they do have all the downsides.īoth games front whopping enormous spaces that are something of a chore to navigate, without presenting a compelling motivation to do so. The most obvious manifestation of this is the shift to a semi-open world setting, as opposed to the dungeon, hub and world map of classic RPGs. Putting aside the studio’s ongoing struggle with Frostbite and technology (and sometimes that’s a pretty big ask) to look squarely at the game themselves, BioWare’s limited, lacklustre output so far this generation smells suspiciously of an attempt to court a larger market than RPGs have typically commanded.īioWare’s limited, lacklustre output so far this generation smells suspiciously of an attempt to court a larger market than RPGs have typically commanded.īoth Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age Inquisition feel shaped by trends in blockbuster triple-A, which distracts from the real strength of the studio – fostering an intimate feeling of investment and connection with characters, world and story.
There are two BioWare games available for current-generation consoles, and neither of them have been quite as successful as fans might have hoped. Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age Inquisition paint a picture of a developer struggling to get a handle on the conventions of a new generation, and losing part of its heart in the process.