Mass Effect: A Great Franchise Ruined by SJWs

The original Mass Effect trilogy is my favourite video game franchise of all time, and the original Mass Effect is my favourite in the series. I loved Commander Shepard's conversations with Sovereign and Vigil. Those conversations were the highlight of my Mass Effect experience. Great writing. Great characters. Great plot development.

 

The Mass Effect story arc faltered towards the end of Mass Effect 3. And now... now we have Mass Effect Andromeda.

 

There were signs that Bioware was going in an SJW direction. They often included gay and trans characters in their games, but I didn't mind that as long as these characters were well developed. Hell, I don't mind poorly developed gay and trans characters as long as they don't detract from the overall experience. Then, I found out that they hired Manveer Heir to work on Andromeda. Manveer Heir's tweets reveal that he hates white people, as per the usual SWJ narrative. Even then, I didn't think much of it. One guy alone cannot ruin a great franchise. I'm willing to overlook Bioware hiring one racist as long as the rest of the team produces a great product.

 

But they didn't produce a great product.

 

Mass Effect Andromeda has poor facial animations, poor writing, a terrible plot, and plenty of glitches.

 

I don't know if SJWs had anything to do with this failure. It's likely, though you don't need SJWs to ruin a game. Incompetence is not exclusive to SWJs, though I suspect most of them probably are incompetent given their inability to handle the real world. What I do know is that the story sucks, which is disappointing because Bioware has a reputation for creating great stories and characters.

 

Here are my criticisms of the story:

 

 

1. It relegates the events of the original trilogy far into the backstory rather than integrating the old trilogy into a new story arc. For much of the game, nobody in the Andromeda Initiative is aware of the Reaper threat. It's like the trilogy never happened. As a result, Andromeda does not feel like a continuation of Mass Effect. It feels like an unrelated story arc that sprang out of nowhere. Bioware should have created a new IP instead of slapping the Mass Effect name on a game that has nothing to do with Mass Effect in its core story.

2. The Andromeda Initiative colonists have a weak and implausible motive for joining the expedition. The primary motive behind the colonists is the desire to explore a new galaxy, to go where no Milky Way species has gone before. This is boring. It's generic. It's not even plausible. Only a small percentage of the Milky Way has been explored by the time of the Andromeda Initiative, so wouldn't prospective explorers focus on exploring the Milky Way before reaching out to another galaxy? It's like Christopher Columbus dreaming of exploring Mars while having no interest whatsoever in exploring an undiscovered America. And in Christopher Columbus's case, he was tasked with finding a shorter, more direct route to the Orient. Finding this route would enable the Kingdom of Spain, his primary benefactor, to reach the Orient faster, which means more trade and more money. Money, power and empire were the primary motivating factors for exploration. This is a much more compelling motive than exploring for the sake of exploring. What's even more frustrating is that the Andromeda colonists could have easily had a compelling motive, and that is to escape the Reaper threat. But no! For some unknown reason, the people backing the Andromeda Initiative decided to keep everyone in the dark about the Reaper threat. This makes no sense. Why keep it a secret? Wouldn't it help the initiative get more funding and more colonists? Ah, the squandered potential.

3. The story relies heavily on 'ancient technology' to construct the plot. Basically, an ancient race called the Remnants constructed these vaults that hold tremendous power, including the power to terraform planets. This is important because the colonists need to terraform the planets to make them habitable. The original trilogy already features plenty of ancient and advanced civilizations that play an important role in the story. Why do it again? This is becoming a cliche.

4. Uninteresting antagonist – The Kett, the primary antagonist species, have a stupid motivation. They are facing genetic stagnation, and so they go around harvesting other species for their genetic material. Exaltation is the process by which the Kett extract useful DNA from other species. The process kills the victim and transforms the victim into a subservient drone of the Kett. The story portrays the Kett as masters of genetic engineering. If this is true, why don't they study the DNA of other species using small samples collected using non-intrusive means? Why can't the Kett re-design their DNA in the lab instead of transforming an unwilling victim into a Kett subspecies? None of this makes biological sense. Even if we set aside scientific implausibility, the motive still makes no sense. Why is it so important for the Kett to continually tinker with their gene pool? Aren't they already a highly advanced and successful species? Why is genetic 'stagnation' such a concern for them? They have created a civilization where there is no more selective pressure to favour one trait over another. Things are good the way they are because everyone can survive and reproduce just fine. Do they have no understanding of evolution and natural selection?

5. The tone of the story is inconsistent with the plot of the story. Why is the main protagonist and his squad mates constantly making stupid remarks? The colonization effort is in serious trouble. All the colonists could die if the protagonist doesn't fix the situation. Not only that, they are facing a dangerous foe. Shouldn't the protagonist and his squad mates take their jobs more seriously? Look, it is possible to create humour out of a serious situation. Stargate's Jack O'Neil is an example of how you write a character who's funny while simultaneously taking his job seriously. Every time Jack O'Neil taunts the enemy, it's funny as hell, and at the same time you fear for him because you know he's playing with fire. His enemy is very dangerous, and he's really pissing them off. His brazen disregard for diplomacy is shocking because Stargate does a good job of setting up a serious tone. This is lacking in Andromeda, and the result is that most of the flippant dialogue falls flat.    

 

Bioware, whether or not you're SWJ, just do a good job. At the end of the day, that's all that matters. Put the political bullshit aside and do a good job. I don't need you to agree with me politically. You can hire whoever you like, and I don't care what their political opinions are. Just do your job and do it well. Your ability to survive as a company depends on it.