Why Mass Effect Andromeda is Well written.

OK so I have discussed the narrative strengths of MEA before, but recently...thanks to a user comment on the weaknesses of MEA... I remembered that I have not talked about some other things MEA did well.  And since this is one of my favorite concepts of writing, and since I was intending to talk about it, and don't think I have, here we go.  

Now in fiction there is this concept, I call it narrative reversals, but Maurice Suckling in her book on game design called it reverals/ and revelations.  

Revelations are of course when characters discover something about the world, the plot, or another character.  These are usually plot twists that cause both the audience (and sometimes the characters involved) to go *gasp*.  Probably the most classic revelation is the "Luke I am your Father" line from the Empire Strikes Back.  And while Andromeda does have a few good plot twists I wanna focus on the first half.....

Reversals are concepts which usually heighten the tension in a story world.  They are the 'but moment'. The obstacle that the main character has to overcome before being able to move on with their life and claim ultimate victory.  Or die.  These turn boring old smooth running stories with dull characters into truly tense moments where the character has to rally or work their way through a problem.  The difference between a smooth trip to the grocery store and one frought with danger and struggle.  It is these Andromeda does really, really well.  And maybe its only because BioWare hasn't always been good at this that it caught my attention so much in Andromeda, after all the only game that BioWare has done to this point with a good "BUT" then climax in their games has been the original Mass Effect.  They have struggled in almost every game.  

In Dragon Age Inquisition the but moment felt almost like an and moment (a smooth transition).  When you start Doom Upon the World you find out, that out of nowhere, Corypheus has torn open the veil and because of his frustration and defeats he would rather spite the world and see it burn rather than continue with is goal of ruling it.  The Inquisitor sees this, rallies what forces they can, and goes to stop Corypheus.  Sure, this is tense, in its own way, but Corypheus is operating out of desperation...not strength.  

In Mass Effect 3 we got a tremendous moment of a narrative reversal.  We get to Cronus station, find out that the Citadel is the Catlyst, BUT the Reapers also know and have moved it to Earth forcing us into one final show down.  And the the ending did not capitilize on this and sort of fell apart at the end.  I mean the Extended Cut got the ending back to playable...but it still has its issues.  

In Mass Effect 2 we get another good BUT moment.  Shepard goes off to do a mission taking the whole squad, which he has never done before, a mission that we never get to play, BUT the Collectors show up and abduct the crew.  Its a good moment, but I hope the issues with it are apparent from the way I structured that sentence up there.  Still, the payoff for that shaky but moment leads to still perhaps the finest video game ending ever...so...

Which finally leads us to Mass Effect 3.  Its Main plot has plenty of But moments.  

On Eos:


In the Kett Base: 




On the Archon's Ship:



On Khi Tessara:




On Meridian




Anyways in each main quest, or pretty much each major quests, there is one, and sometimes multiple but moments which raise the stakes and gives a problem for the protagonist(s) to solve.  And these often lead to problems which, depending on which actions you take, could lead to the death of many people throughout the game.  

The second thing Andromeda is good at is something I like to call Narrative Cohesion.  Andromeda has a tight narrative that constantly changes and builds on one another.  Each quest we constantly learn new information which is then paid off later in the game, especially in the climax of the main story.  

Doing the same examination we gave the Main Quest in the but chart....
On Eos:



On Voeled: 



On Aya:



On the Archon's Ship:




On Khi Tessara: 




On Meridian: 





In this way side quests effected side quests, side quests effected main quests, main quests effected side quests, and together it formed one cohesive Narrative.  Maybe not the best BioWare has done, but still, good for a video game, and after some recent misteps a step in the right direction.