Mass Effect: Andromeda Meant to Do 'What Mass Effect 1 Promised But Failed to Deliver'

Exploration was a large focus for Andromeda's teams but too much time in pre-production let them down.

By Hope Corrigan

The original goal for Mass Effect: Andromeda was to go back and deliver on the promise of exploration that came with the first Mass Effect.

A Kotaku story reveals that Bioware's goals on Andromeda were to find new ways to make the next installment in the popular series distinct and fresh. The team looked at the closing of the Reaper threat and Commander Shepard's epic as a clean slate to start over and pick a new part of space.

One person who worked on the game stated that, “The goal was to go back to what Mass Effect 1 promised but failed to deliver, which was a game about exploration," and after achieving what they had wanted from combat and narrative with the previous games, exploration seemed to be the last vestige to improve upon.

Unfortunately, almost all the developers who spoke to Kotaku report that due to so much time spent in pre-production, that in the end after toying with multiple ideas, the bulk of the game came together during the last 18 months of development.

“It really wasn’t until Mac Walters came on board—and that was very much a reaction to the state of the critical path—he was really brought on board to give it direction and get it into shape,” stated one person who worked on the game. “Before that it was quite rudderless.”

Our review points to long hours and empty spaces as one of the downsides to Mass Effect: Andromeda, which could have been caused by these hiccups in production.

Hope Corrigan is a freelance news writer for IGN. You can find her on the internet.

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