Man kan tveklöst se det som ett slags underbetyg för spelbranschen att många idag nostalgiskt ser tillbaka på titlar som Mass Effect: Andromeda och Assassin's Creed Unity, med tanke på deras problematiska lanseringar. Andra menar istället att det var en period då vi var alldeles för hårda mot stora spel som inte riktigt levde upp till förväntningarna. Tom Taylorson, som gjorde rösten till den manliga versionen av Ryder i Mass Effect: Andromeda, trodde att han skulle få följa karaktären i upp till ett decennium, men mottagandet på nätet satte snabbt stopp för de planerna.
I en intervju hos We Are Mass Effect berättar Taylorson:
"[It was] hands down one of the best things I've ever worked on. I had an immense amount of fun working on it, made good friends along the way, learned SO MUCH, and while the opportunities didn't always pan out, it did lead to many other opportunities for work down the line. Still one of my favorite things I've ever worked on in any medium. It was a special and challenging time in my life and I'm forever grateful to have Andromeda be a part of that."
Samtidigt minns han mottagandet vid lanseringen med betydligt mer bitterhet:
"It was done dirty by a publisher expecting too much from it, not being fully cooked, forced out the door too early, forced to use corporate's shiny new engine when many of the team didn't know how to work with it and it was NOT suited to the storytelling part of the game. On top of that, it was released to a VERY toxic atmosphere online and elsewhere in the gaming space. It quickly became punching bag of the week for online chuds for views and clicks. Their love of hate sealed the deal."
Tom Taylorson berättar också att han arbetade på Highguard, ett annat spel han ansåg var dömt på förhand på grund av hat på nätet. Beslutet att inte gå vidare med Andromedas berättelse var särskilt tungt att acceptera, och han säger:
"It hurt most because I knew that was it - Ryder wouldn't be coming back. I, and others, thought we'd have a good decade of playing with these characters in these spaces. And just like that - Gone. Grateful to have made the connection for the audio book production house I worked with a lot, Blackstone Publishing, to the publishers of the physical tie-in books for Andromeda. That got me and Fryda the opportunity to work on those books and play a little bit more in that place we had so much fun in that was taken away from us,"
Vad tycker du själv om Mass Effect: Andromeda i dag?
Bättre än sitt rykte eller fick det vad det förtjänade, och hur hade det stått sig på dagens spelmarknad?
