Anthem: 9 Things It Must Learn From Mass Effect Andromeda

3. An Actual Story/Worthwhile Sense Of World Progression

Mass Affect Andromeda just straight-up didn't had a story.

It had a premise - "Ryder arrives in Andromeda, Ryder wants to terraform planets to let humans live on their surfaces, Ryder must stop the evil Archon in the process" - but it didn't have anything close to a beginning middle and end comprising character arcs, resolutions, morality and/or meaning.

All of that could've been fine if it was any franchise other than Mass Effect; a series that set the bar for characterisation and world-building, not to mention the notion that the surrounding universes had a thousand more tales to tell.

Outside of the bare-bones motivation and truly terrible antagonist Archon, was the fact that no matter how many planets you terraformed or how much time you spent on the surface, the absolute MOST that might happen over time is you'd change the colour of the sky.

Anthem needs both a solid reason to explore and fight, or failing anything character-based, a world interesting and engaging enough to make us want to head out and drink it in.

Anything less, and this will be The Division in space.