Entertainment for the masses

Chemistry has always been the poor man of science in video games, but Mass effect: Andromeda has reached a new nadir. The game sets you up as a colonist that’s made the 600-year journey to colonise a new galaxy, along with a collection of engineers, scientists and militant types. You can walk around your base, speak to people about their scientific interest and learn a little about xenobiology, the physics of black holes or asteroid mining. Yet chemistry, it seems, is less important to intergalactic exploration than a heavy drinking session. ‘I just want guinea pigs,’ the chemist-turned bartender moans inexplicably. ‘Chemists need guinea pigs, don’t they?’ That the game then spends the next 60 hours asking you to travel around planets detecting various elements through futuristic spectroscopy is quietly ignored.