Mass Effect: Andromeda - Opening Hours Review

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@RockPaperShotgun John Walker is not impressed by Mass Effect: Andromeda's opening hours.

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Yeah, about that. The first few hours of Andromeda are a gruesome trudge through the most trite bilge of the previous three games, smeared out in a setting that's horribly familiar, burdened with some outstandingly awful writing, buried beneath a UI that appears to have been designed to infuriate in every possible way.

I had gone in assuming this would be more BioWare pleasure. So far - and let's be clear, there's lots of room and time for it to pick up and turn things around - the first few hours have been just awful.

This time out you begin by choosing whether you're a lady or a man called Ryder, daughter or son of a leading figure in an expedition to leave the Milky Way and start new lives in Andromeda. Using magic telescopes the various familiar races of Mass Effect were able to spot "golden planets" in the new galaxy, and setting out in massive ships called arks, each race shipping about 20,000 passengers, they set off on a six hundred year trip in cryo-tanks to reach the new lands. I love this start! It says, "We can be anything, do anything!" If that's the plan, the game isn't showing its hand in this early section.

I'm at a loss. What I expect from BioWare is slightly dodgy combat, but splendid writing and characters. What I've seen so far is some decent enough combat (but nothing beyond what you'd expect in a third person shooter), and some of the most dreadful writing. I cannot emphasise enough how poor it's been.
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