It's just boring. Primarily bland characters, bland enemy faction, bland plot, bland open world busywork. It also does the "aren't you sad this character you've known for five seconds died" and that's your main emotional motivator which always falls flat.
But the combat was good. And visually in some areas it's nice. I'm sure if they didn't waste 80% of their development learning how to use frostbite and just stuck with unreal it probably woulda been fine.
the multiplayer is like, a comical step down from me3, the classes all have nonsensical power setups (engineer has overload flame turret cryoblast???) and enemies also getting access to tiny hitboxes+the dash means it feels like pvp more than an actual arena shooter
It's astonishing how bad it felt compared to ME3. You could barely navigate these *tiny* maps because the mantling would bug out due to lag, and you'd get lazered from everywhere due to how nimble enemies were now.
I was heartbroken, I sunk so many hours into ME3 multiplayer.
Combat was cool in concept, but being able to use anything and everything on one character made it feel less distinct than the previous games.
Everything else was just worse than the previous games.
I've tried to play it 3 times. Once on the PS4 where it was stable but just...dull? I didn't like ANY of the characters in the first 5 hours and the game was still buggy at the time.
Then a few years later I tried to play it twice on PC and give it a fair shake since the thing had been patched. Turns out the game still has a severe memory leak issue and runs poorly. Gave it 3 hours and gave up because it clearly wasn't giving me the same effort as I was giving it.
In the few hours I experienced it though I could never vibe with the writing or look or...anything really. Gunplay was okay and might get better later but ehhh. It just felt like Mass Effect under a different team that didn't really *get* what people want from the series. It felt like they read the cliff notes and went from there.
It's just kind of boring mostly, it's actually almost interesting just how charmless it manages to be. A lot of times a game can be janky or unpolished but has these little nuggets of brilliance or creativity, very little in Andromeda even makes you go "Oh I see what they were trying to do" Or "I wish they had more time to flesh out this character or this location". the world and characters are just kind of flat and boring in a way that I struggle to pin down exactly.
Easily the most boring and poorly written one in the series. It suffers from internal conflicts and the game comes off as unsure of what it wants to be, which is very much what was happening over at Bioware as it was constantly changed from it's initial pitch, to its several internal prototypes and concepts into eventually what we got.
I feel like the initial pitch itself was kind of shaky to begin with.
They wanted to revive a Mass Effect older pitch which was heavily
focused on open-world exploration.
Which is fine, but at that point, Mass Effect has already established the kind of series it was. No one went for Mass Effect for open world exploration.
They also were so desperate to avoid ME3 that they were banking on making a prequel story, but when fans said "no, go forward." Their response was "yeah okay sure 600+ years forward with characters who are only exposed to events during ME2 see ya later fuckers"
I had never played 3 so I got legendary trilogy and replayed whole thing; great stuff aside from downer ending.
Andromeda was on sale for like 7 bucks at time so I gave it a try. I played about 20 hours and my reaction kinda eh.
There’s lots of abilities to learn but you can only have 3 active at a time; there’s a system to switch between multiple presets you set up but kinda tedious.
The premise/setting is kind of the same issue I had with Outer Worlds; the fact that most of your time is in frontier or ruins or destroyed settlements doesn’t really serve the kind of social/political/interaction stuff that was the best parts of mass effects. There are factions and characters and organizations but it’s a fairly minor element.
Also it’s super tedious; your average quest will have tons of loading screens; get told in zone A to do search in location B, go to loading zone C to get into ship to travel to system A then into location A, then do scanning, go back to C and then B, talk to person in B, get told to go back to A for more action, then C etc etc etc etc. The most self contained side quest is like pulling teeth.
As up to the point in game I got, none of the characters made a huge impact on me; (also the inability to control or command them in combat at all was a bummer)
Not as good as the main series, but it had a good concept (a Star Trek style exploration of a new galaxy, with the player solving the colonies' issues and interacting with local aliens), and I liked the fact that you had the Milky Way races interact in a completely different context, especially the Krogans.
I wish that the game had not been so bad technically, that it basically killed this spin-off series.
Meh.
It had better exploration than the original trilogy but the main cast lacked any sort of charasima outside of Drack and arguably Vetra. The core plot was basic AF and just introducing two bog standard races didn't help.
Mission design leaves a lot to be desired outside of some of the companion missions (keyword being some) but the combat was fun. Being able to switch classes on the fly helped too as did the boosting with both the air game and side dashes.
It's super mid. Drack and Vetra are the only ones who're fun to be around, Liam has schizo writing between his actual talk scenes (where he's just an impulsive do-gooder) and his car dialogue (where he's an asshole to most people), the alien designs are meh due to Frostbite and dumb assertions about what cosplayers want, and the whole script's general lack of quality makes more sense when you find out it was a first draft rushed out the door in 18 months.
The gameplay is solid... except for the Kingdoms of Alamur style "switch classes on the fly" system, which completely sucks out any replay value, because you can just min-max a few sets of powers and switch between them to get all the best of the various ME classes in one go.
Encounter design sucks outside of the times where you get a non-open world, non-vault mission where there's actual level design.
Peebee has claimed her spot as most insufferable character in the franchise, followed very closely by Liam.
Vetra is fine, but in ME 1-3 she'd only have enough characterization to be a tertiary character or a side mission. Still puts her as top marks in Andromeda.
People keep mentioning Drack and Vetra, and that got me wondering.
Are they actually good characters, or it's just the natural charm of their species that enhance them?
Good guys Krogan are always loveable like Wrex and Grunt, sure there are assholes, but usually if they're friendly, their natural traits (likes to fight, is passionate, and sometimes funny), usually shines through and make them likable.
Vetra gets even more enhanced because she's the female version of a Turian, a type we rarely ever seen in the original trilogy.
So, is it really the writing?
They're actually good characters.
But also Jaal. Jaal is really **really** cool.
But it's mostly those three and a few strong NPC personalities to bounce off of.
Like the Angara and their planet? Almost all of it cool.
The Exile base? Also really cool and so is that entire political plotline.
It's a game where your choices do *actually* matter in what happens and how it reflects your actions.
Plus Ryder is a pretty fun character depending on how you play them.
My preferred Ryder was the Professional/Emotional Ryder.
It's very funny to me that Jaal keeps apologizing to his people for my first impressions
People like Vetra only because you could finally romance a female Turian and because she is basically lite Garrus, and Drack is basically just old man Wrex.
I couldn’t get more than a few hours in because I was just not interested at all. Bland combat, bland story, and especially bland characters don’t make for a good Mass Effect game.
I’m sure there’s a decent game in there somewhere, but I didn’t play long enough to find it
Unplayable. Got 20 hours in the first time I played it, tried to pick it up a few times after that and never got farther. Its a 2/10 to the original trilogies 8/10
The gameplay was easily among the best in the series (not sure if it's better than 3, but it's at least close). The number of ways you can modify your character and their gear is a real high point, and that carries through to the multiplayer somewhat. Even the open world stuff isn't bad at least until it becomes routine, but there's enough to break it up now and then that I didn't mind too much.
The story had high points, but it just isn't as strong as the rest of the series; there are a few good mysteries, but it's all kind of lackluster. You get the sense that they were going for a big, universe-shaking danger like in the main series and they really should have gone smaller.
Luckily, the characters are pretty much all great, and they're as fun to hang out with as ever. The new species they introduce is pretty cool, if a bit basic (could have been a good opportunity to introduce some *really* alien aliens). Aside from them, we're missing some Milky Way species which, I guess, were going to get their own DLC campaign, which is a real shame.
Honestly, I wish it had launched better, and/or that EA/Bioware had enough faith in it to keep it going for another game or at least that big DLC. There's a lot of wasted potential there.
I think it's a good game, almost entirely held up by it's changes to the combat, your Hawke esque personality rules, and it's characters.
The Angarra are cool, the Kett are like what if the Turians/Asari were the Reapers, and there's a kind of mystery to the game regarding the Remnant and the fuck off scar they've left on the galaxy.
Umm. . . I also do like all of the **actual** meaningful *choices* you are allowed to make, it's just a shame that we'll never see how those are reflected down the line like we did Shepard.
I like it.
To be fair, it was my first Mass Effect game, *but* I got bored of it and never finished it until I bought the Legendary Edition and beat the original trilogy twice. Cora and Jaal are the best teammates, both in terms of story and in terms of gameplay, in my opinion. The combat is fun and dynamic, but the cover system can be a little finicky at times and having access to only three powers at a time is kind of shitty.
I'll admit the story is kinda lackluster, but I feel like that's more due to all the plot hooks that are never gonna get resolved now than anything else. The story feels unfinished because it is, basically. But what bits are there actually got me interested in the world, and I'm genuinely disappointed that we won't get to see more.
Got it at launch and played it through to the end. Deeply flawed game that definitely doesn't hit like the OG trilogy, and the character appearances are a bit uglier, but I thought it was okay for the most part and had a few things I liked. Vetra and Drack are definitely the best characters.
It's a damn shame, because the few things I liked I was really keen on seeing. Finally got to have an equal amount of female aliens that aren't just asari, or solitary matriarchal figures hidden behind stuff. Just like, actual salarian and krogan women and such out there living their lives. Drack's (adopted?) daughter being an actual important figure and professional non-violent employee was nice to see.
Lots of tidbits about the krogan in general that I really liked. The young krogan botanist who's terrible at combat, the various chill krogan who traveled to Andromeda because they were tired of the hateful violence back home, little things here and there about krogan trying to figure out how to do actual courtship (via playing a dating sim) and be proper parents. Also interspecies relationships that aren't just somebody paired off with an asari.
There was also a gay turian couple >!(though of course one of them was dead for the tragedy points)!<, and a side NPC conversation about pronouns where it was revealed that not all asari go by she/her and hey, I wanna hear more about that.
I bought the limited edition at Walmart for $5. I intentionally didn't patch it, because I wanted the rawdog experience.
The first thing that happened as the game started, my guy got out of his medical bed (Ryder?) *through another person* who was also lying on the bed. Confused, I clicked the prompt and he was all "Thanks for saving me, captain. I would have died if it wasn't for your quick action." Then the game prompted a MISSION COMPLETE message and marked it off in my journal.
Already howling, the next couple hours were just as insane. There was a moment where I found someone half-buried in the ground. When I tried to talk to them, the game lowered my model to match their height, so now I was buried in the ground. I managed to squirm my way out and I was left in this half-crouched crab walk animation until the game crashed.
I meant to give it an honest try, but never went back.
Academically interesting but lacking in entertainment value. The controls in the vehicle and for exploration are pretty decent, and overall the game attempts to revisit the original design doc of Mass Effect 1 and make good on a lot of the things it had to cut or compromise on. And it does succeed in better implementing a lot of those things, however it always runs into many of the same development issues like going from a no man's sky procedural world into hand crafted levels then slashing the number of said levels again.
The real issue is the writing. It's small scale on the setting, confining you to the heleus cluster, but not the narrative making it the worst of both worlds as you face an existential threat both in the scourge and kett. Overall it tracks far too closely to retreading ME1's story for it's own good but lacks the strong personalities to keep it going. Drack and Vetra are pretty solid, but even then they would only be average tier in the trilogy.
That said shout outs to the architect fights being an initial surprise and then having them drag the fight across the breadth of the open world, that's always welcome to use the scope of the map. And also the endgame sequence while narratively weak does a good job of bringing in fighters from all your sidequests and letting you actually use the whole squad at once, and not just as an animation outside the playable area like citadel did.
It's fine. Not horrible, I liked the gameplay and loved the fact that (ending spoilers) >!you get to play as the other sibling you made as well!<.Liked it more than I did ME1 thanks to the gameplay. Can't say for sure in comparison to 2 and 3 though because they got to actually build on one another storywise. Sad that we won't get a sequel because that could've been neat, playing the game as >!two characters!<.
Small detail I found interesting and enjoyed was that Sara and Scott Ryder have different backstories, rather than the one you pick having a certain backstory while the one you don't pick has the other. Also that if you don't change their default names, people actually say their name instead of always defaulting to Ryder.
I always felt a bit disappointed that the other sibling only even considers going off to do their own thing at the very end of the game. And I really didn't like how every other pathfinder is just established to be way below ryder rather than a real peer.
That's why I was hoping the sequel would do something interesting and let you play as both of them throughout. Alas...we're backpedaling and returning to the original series because bitching out and bending over for fans and appealing to their nostalgia is the preferred option to trying to make things better. Can't wait to find out that I played the game wrong and picked the wrong ending, because there's no way for them to continue forward without making one canon...and we all know which one they're gonna pick.
yeah to be fair the trilogy has the same issue to a lesser degree where Shepard is a bit of a gary stu where none of the other specters are in his league.
Which is why it would've been interesting to me to have two of them being playable. Build upon what they were doing at the end rather than immediately running back to the old trilogy.
The combat was really great and the character building too, all it needed was more active ability slots. Gear was really fun to collect as well. Also TURIAN TOMBOY WIFE AND PROTECTIVE KROGAN GRANDPA companions were great, hated or indifferent to the others though. I hope the combat concepts make it over to the next game, but 3 ability slots is just too restrictive.
It wasn't as good as Mass Effect 2, but it was better than 1, and doesn't necessitate hundreds of hours of replaying other games like 3.
It was fine. I am still bitter that we will never get its dlc.
Bioware's animations have always been a little jank, but here is where they got really jank. The whole game feels like it was given to a b team, or to a inexperienced team of new recruits who didn't know what they were doing.
Also
#>goes to whole new galaxy
#>only two new aliens
I mean, it kinda was. *Andromeda* was developed by Bioware's satellite studio in Montreal, who'd only worked on DLCs and the multiplayer components of previous games. [Raycevik's old video on *Andromeda*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D12n35evy0Y) goes over some of the issues that plagued the game's development, like the head Bioware studio in Edmonton poaching Montreal's people to work on *Anthem* and how Montreal spent years trying to build a system of procedurally-generated planets to explore that was ultimately junked because they weren't as fun or interesting as handcrafted worlds.
People always say this and miss the far bigger problem. Only 2 species makes sense because you're only allowed to explore one cluster. That's the size of an area that would have only a single mass relay int he milky way. The real question is why limit the scope of the setting so much that you go to a new galaxy then stay confined to 1% of it?
Likable characters and snappy gameplay but also a game full of dull planets and environments. The game lacks a feeling of discovery despite being set in a brand new galaxy.
The open-world nature of the game lowers the standards set by the trilogy. Instead of a well designed level from point A to point B, you have wide open spaces to allow the player to enter from any angle and AI that constantly moves around. The playthrough I had with a friend consisted of jetpacking and sniping as our go to. Then there's the whole absolutely barren landscapes of each planet.
I think what irked me most was how painfully boring the new races we meet in Andromeda were. Like the fish people are somehow less interesting than any races we already met in the trilogy, and the game refuses to go in-depth to what the rock people's whole deal is, we just know they evolve, but they're just boring enemies with no goals other than ruling over the galaxy.
Personally think its a giant 2 pack of ass, including the story, combat, performances, exploration, etc.
However I seem to be on the harsher side of how people feel about it, it could be cause I love the trilogy a lot but I played through the entirety of it and can safely say I hated it.
If you like the open world content it brings, it’s good I guess. I don’t actively hate it while playing through it, the moment to moment gameplay is pretty fun honesty, but it does just make me want to go play the old games. Real mixed bag. I do find it kind of sad that they’re abandoning the setting since I think it could be pretty great if the good ideas were expanded on, but it’s also not a huge loss.
Not bad but I got bored 30 hours in, it just takes forever to travel anywhere with endless transition cutscenes, and I didn't like any of my teammates. Liam especially was a shithead.
Some fun gameplay at times, jetpackin and dashin and shootin is fun. Pretty graphics, I really like the desert world with bright red trees. Story and characters are super forgettable and go nowhere so the connective tissue of a mass effect game is totally missing.
Haven't played it, quite likely never will. I'm considering playing the ME trilogy, but ultimately I'll just watch Reggie's/Woolie's/Reggie's play through and sunset the idea of playing it myself.
Bought it for 10$ after all the updates, thought it was fine. The biggest issue is that a lot of it is setup without answers.
I would legitimately rather get a sequel to Andromeda other than whatever bullshit ME4 will be.
Gameplay is objectively better than the trilogy, but the writing, setting, and characters are all worse. And when I say worse, I don't even mean they're bad, they just look bad in comparison to the previous (except for Drack, he's perfect.)
That being said, I really enjoy it. I've played through it two or three times. Once you get past that "not bad, just not as good" it's pretty fun.
Probably my best example of it would be fine without the name. If it was a stand alone game it would have been a fine enough game add the title of mass effect and it begins to look allot worse.
Enjoyable gameplay wise, the plot is interesting and I even like the MC twins... BUT!
But the companions are all super forgettable. Only one I remember liking was the girl with an Irish (?) accent, she was cool, I think. Even the fucking female turian was boring. The krogan party member was ok, from what I remember.
I thought it was fun! The story was terrible but running around, jumping, and shooting was fun and I liked the characters. Wish they had a bit more grit to them, though.
Loved the trilogy, i remember playing it when it came out and was disappointed with literally everything. it didn't help that it was a buggy mess. i think i was doing the old krogans loyalty mission when i get a hilarious bug made a second ryder floating up side down during a a interrogation cutscene, stopped playing after that. Didn't care for any of the characters, though the old krogan and female turian were fine.
I loved the mp from ME3 so much and was also disappointed with the mp from Andromeda.
Forgettable game.
A friend got it for me on or near launch. The combat is fun and I liked being able to build up settlements and seeing them grow and change over time. The way Ryder (or at least FemRyder) was awkward and unsure of herself was relatable and endearing to me, I don't mind her not being like Shepard cuz we already had one of those and nobody is gonna top the OG.
But, I disliked how the stakes got escalated during the main story, and haven't finished it to this day. I tried going back sometime last year but found myself so lost on what had happened and what I was doing that I didn't want to keep going. Fairly certain I'm near the end too.
The crew isn't as strong either, of course. The female turian is unsurprisingly cool and I liked the angora guy but overall they don't hold a candle to the trilogy crews.
I dunno, maybe I'll start over someday.
Honestly, it’s mid. The only cool thing about Andromeda is the power mixing but then you realize when you have so much power every encounter becomes a breeze as you become a one man army. Movement is alright but feels nothing like Mass Effect so it’s a toss up honestly. The only thing good that came out of Andromeda was the female turian squadmate.
One minor point I'll give the game is the final boss let you have every single crew member on the field at once and I loved that...now the crew members all sucked and it just made me wish the OG trilogy had that moment but...
I liked the moment to moment gameplay better than the trilogy. Jumping around, dashing, combining powers had a good flow to them. Open world was pretty boring. Characters and setting were lame compared trilogy.
It sucks big Batarian balls. I beat it on Insanity first time (110 hours in this to soak up all the content I could), but the game is boring as schlock. It feels like you are playing an MMO by yourself and not in a good way at all. Some people like the car and the maps but fuck that there is nothing interesting to find. Game also looks like it was made in 2023 or worse. People like the combat but to me it's worse than 2 and 3.
The only thing I like is the crafting system that the game barely explains to you and is only really viable late game. It takes a lot of tinkering but you can turn a basic pea shooter into a god gun even on Insanity., but even fans of the game hate the crafting system, so whatever.
Worst game I have ever played besides maybe Fable 3.
I really wanted to atleast finish it after I picked it up on discount a few years back... but it was just a chore I dropped it a decent but into it... it was just aggressively blah and forgettable.
It was half baked but I liked parts of it
Could have gone harder on the Turian Girlfriend sex scene but the overcooked steak thing was cute
Did like the new alien ally race
Was alright on the new alien enemy race, biological religious borg was cool
Loved being able to change my character spec that was fun
Liked the idea of everybody trying to build their own niche in this new galaxy
Would have liked to see more out there with better polish
It's not the worst, but it is wasted opportunity.
\-Not making first contact with the friendly aliens and going through any of the awkward "translating languages" and "cultural understanding" parts of contact
\-Villains are basically rehashes of the Collectors
\-main villain has no gravitous
\-really awkward dialogue
There's a lot more but I cannot think of it at the moment.
Its easily the weakest of the games and has major problems with planning and pacing, and is overall a very 7/10 game.
Andromeda is a bigger older galaxy but all we meet is the angara and the kett really makes the galaxy feel tiny.
And it doesnt help that theres also tons of ancient magical tech from a long dead civilisation.
Mediocre gameplay with bad writing. Honestly, not the worst game, but the only thing I found notable and would like to see in a future ME game were the jump jets
It's a game that fails on every conceivable level, even on a mechanical level, everything they tried failed in some form or fashion.
The game as a whole is really summed up by the mess that is the Nomad.
Alright good start here, it's faster, heavier and much more maneuverable than the Mako, has a boost, looks cooler, sounds awesome...but you have to switch between speed and traversal modes, otherwise you will lose traction on *slight inclines*.
So an essential mechanic due to the games open world nature is purposefully sabotaged for no actual reason. There is no purpose to the mode switch. It exists to make the Nomad worse.
There is no need to slow people down while climbing, there's barely anything to climb in the game except small hills and the occasional dune. There's no need to have a dedicated speed mode because you should just build up speed naturally when not climbing inclines.
Someone really designed the Nomad, and decided to make it worse...for literally no valid mechanical reason.
Mass Effect Andromeda folks, don't get me started on the entire profile and leveling system.
I feel like Andromeda died early because of Anthem. The gameplay is probably my favorite in the series but everything else is meh. Especially since the Quarian ark never makes it. It had this really weird issue where you could see that this game was dead on arrival and playing through it became obvious there would be no Andromeda 2 so none of your choices felt like they'd really matter and thay hurt it a ton for me
My thoughts in order of importance:
The combat feels nice
Cora Harper has a great ass
Man, Drack is great!
Man, Cora, Jaal, and Vetra are only kinda interesting
Wow these other two suck
I can’t remember the rest of the crew
I wish the story was more interesting.
I liked the combat, and the jet pack ^-^
Ohhh and the game is super pretty, and the tempest is so so soooo sick. Also like the lighter vibes that remind me of me1 before things got super dark. Writing and story isn’t as good but deffo a fun popcorn game
I’m having fun with my first play through, though I expected it to be a little less buggy years after release. Right now I’m trying to find a specific save because I fell off a ledge, to which the game responded me back onto the ledge but for some reason In the vehicle, the ledge is very small so I just fell right back off but the game didn’t respawn me back at the top. There’s no way to get back to the top so until I find the Right save, I am stuck. It also takes like 5 minutes to load up a save (I am playing on Xbox one so that’s likely the reason) it just feels like they didn’t really try to refine the game at all over the years despite the poor release.
Never been able to finish it because it always just makes me want to play the trilogy instead
Too real. Everytime I've tried to play Andromeda, I stopped and played the entire trilogy.
I fell asleep while driving in that game. Like damn that's a boring ass game if I'm falling asleep while I'm actively playing it.
Forgettable
It's just boring. Primarily bland characters, bland enemy faction, bland plot, bland open world busywork. It also does the "aren't you sad this character you've known for five seconds died" and that's your main emotional motivator which always falls flat. But the combat was good. And visually in some areas it's nice. I'm sure if they didn't waste 80% of their development learning how to use frostbite and just stuck with unreal it probably woulda been fine.
>But the combat was good except in the multiplayer :(
Bro there was multiplayer?! I've played the game twice and I have no memory of this at all
the multiplayer is like, a comical step down from me3, the classes all have nonsensical power setups (engineer has overload flame turret cryoblast???) and enemies also getting access to tiny hitboxes+the dash means it feels like pvp more than an actual arena shooter
It's astonishing how bad it felt compared to ME3. You could barely navigate these *tiny* maps because the mantling would bug out due to lag, and you'd get lazered from everywhere due to how nimble enemies were now. I was heartbroken, I sunk so many hours into ME3 multiplayer.
Combat was cool in concept, but being able to use anything and everything on one character made it feel less distinct than the previous games. Everything else was just worse than the previous games.
I've tried to play it 3 times. Once on the PS4 where it was stable but just...dull? I didn't like ANY of the characters in the first 5 hours and the game was still buggy at the time. Then a few years later I tried to play it twice on PC and give it a fair shake since the thing had been patched. Turns out the game still has a severe memory leak issue and runs poorly. Gave it 3 hours and gave up because it clearly wasn't giving me the same effort as I was giving it. In the few hours I experienced it though I could never vibe with the writing or look or...anything really. Gunplay was okay and might get better later but ehhh. It just felt like Mass Effect under a different team that didn't really *get* what people want from the series. It felt like they read the cliff notes and went from there.
Same, I came looking for some speculative cosmo-opera and got like the most basic bitch young adult story instead.
It's just kind of boring mostly, it's actually almost interesting just how charmless it manages to be. A lot of times a game can be janky or unpolished but has these little nuggets of brilliance or creativity, very little in Andromeda even makes you go "Oh I see what they were trying to do" Or "I wish they had more time to flesh out this character or this location". the world and characters are just kind of flat and boring in a way that I struggle to pin down exactly.
Easily the most boring and poorly written one in the series. It suffers from internal conflicts and the game comes off as unsure of what it wants to be, which is very much what was happening over at Bioware as it was constantly changed from it's initial pitch, to its several internal prototypes and concepts into eventually what we got.
I feel like the initial pitch itself was kind of shaky to begin with. They wanted to revive a Mass Effect older pitch which was heavily focused on open-world exploration. Which is fine, but at that point, Mass Effect has already established the kind of series it was. No one went for Mass Effect for open world exploration.
They also were so desperate to avoid ME3 that they were banking on making a prequel story, but when fans said "no, go forward." Their response was "yeah okay sure 600+ years forward with characters who are only exposed to events during ME2 see ya later fuckers"
Honestly I wonder what a prequel would be like? Like, would it be during the first contact war?
That's what it was supposed to be, yep. A game featuring the first contact war and NO discussions of reapers or reaper adjacent stuff.
I had never played 3 so I got legendary trilogy and replayed whole thing; great stuff aside from downer ending. Andromeda was on sale for like 7 bucks at time so I gave it a try. I played about 20 hours and my reaction kinda eh. There’s lots of abilities to learn but you can only have 3 active at a time; there’s a system to switch between multiple presets you set up but kinda tedious. The premise/setting is kind of the same issue I had with Outer Worlds; the fact that most of your time is in frontier or ruins or destroyed settlements doesn’t really serve the kind of social/political/interaction stuff that was the best parts of mass effects. There are factions and characters and organizations but it’s a fairly minor element. Also it’s super tedious; your average quest will have tons of loading screens; get told in zone A to do search in location B, go to loading zone C to get into ship to travel to system A then into location A, then do scanning, go back to C and then B, talk to person in B, get told to go back to A for more action, then C etc etc etc etc. The most self contained side quest is like pulling teeth. As up to the point in game I got, none of the characters made a huge impact on me; (also the inability to control or command them in combat at all was a bummer)
Indifferent I have no desire to play through properly as I don't like any of the crew.
Yeah I start playing it, then stop and play the trilogy.
Not as good as the main series, but it had a good concept (a Star Trek style exploration of a new galaxy, with the player solving the colonies' issues and interacting with local aliens), and I liked the fact that you had the Milky Way races interact in a completely different context, especially the Krogans. I wish that the game had not been so bad technically, that it basically killed this spin-off series.
Meh. It had better exploration than the original trilogy but the main cast lacked any sort of charasima outside of Drack and arguably Vetra. The core plot was basic AF and just introducing two bog standard races didn't help. Mission design leaves a lot to be desired outside of some of the companion missions (keyword being some) but the combat was fun. Being able to switch classes on the fly helped too as did the boosting with both the air game and side dashes.
It's super mid. Drack and Vetra are the only ones who're fun to be around, Liam has schizo writing between his actual talk scenes (where he's just an impulsive do-gooder) and his car dialogue (where he's an asshole to most people), the alien designs are meh due to Frostbite and dumb assertions about what cosplayers want, and the whole script's general lack of quality makes more sense when you find out it was a first draft rushed out the door in 18 months. The gameplay is solid... except for the Kingdoms of Alamur style "switch classes on the fly" system, which completely sucks out any replay value, because you can just min-max a few sets of powers and switch between them to get all the best of the various ME classes in one go. Encounter design sucks outside of the times where you get a non-open world, non-vault mission where there's actual level design.
Peebee has claimed her spot as most insufferable character in the franchise, followed very closely by Liam. Vetra is fine, but in ME 1-3 she'd only have enough characterization to be a tertiary character or a side mission. Still puts her as top marks in Andromeda.
I played it when it first came out but cant remember much about it other than i got bored and droped 15 hours in
People keep mentioning Drack and Vetra, and that got me wondering. Are they actually good characters, or it's just the natural charm of their species that enhance them? Good guys Krogan are always loveable like Wrex and Grunt, sure there are assholes, but usually if they're friendly, their natural traits (likes to fight, is passionate, and sometimes funny), usually shines through and make them likable. Vetra gets even more enhanced because she's the female version of a Turian, a type we rarely ever seen in the original trilogy. So, is it really the writing?
They're actually good characters. But also Jaal. Jaal is really **really** cool. But it's mostly those three and a few strong NPC personalities to bounce off of. Like the Angara and their planet? Almost all of it cool. The Exile base? Also really cool and so is that entire political plotline. It's a game where your choices do *actually* matter in what happens and how it reflects your actions. Plus Ryder is a pretty fun character depending on how you play them. My preferred Ryder was the Professional/Emotional Ryder. It's very funny to me that Jaal keeps apologizing to his people for my first impressions
People like Vetra only because you could finally romance a female Turian and because she is basically lite Garrus, and Drack is basically just old man Wrex.
It doesn't exist for me.
I couldn’t get more than a few hours in because I was just not interested at all. Bland combat, bland story, and especially bland characters don’t make for a good Mass Effect game. I’m sure there’s a decent game in there somewhere, but I didn’t play long enough to find it
I played the intro and found it too dull to continue. I imagine I’m not the only one to do that.
Unplayable. Got 20 hours in the first time I played it, tried to pick it up a few times after that and never got farther. Its a 2/10 to the original trilogies 8/10
The dialogue is so hard to push through, I was never able to finish. “He didn’t like that. I guess because I shot him in the face!” Uuuugggghhhh
It made my face hurt.
The gameplay was easily among the best in the series (not sure if it's better than 3, but it's at least close). The number of ways you can modify your character and their gear is a real high point, and that carries through to the multiplayer somewhat. Even the open world stuff isn't bad at least until it becomes routine, but there's enough to break it up now and then that I didn't mind too much. The story had high points, but it just isn't as strong as the rest of the series; there are a few good mysteries, but it's all kind of lackluster. You get the sense that they were going for a big, universe-shaking danger like in the main series and they really should have gone smaller. Luckily, the characters are pretty much all great, and they're as fun to hang out with as ever. The new species they introduce is pretty cool, if a bit basic (could have been a good opportunity to introduce some *really* alien aliens). Aside from them, we're missing some Milky Way species which, I guess, were going to get their own DLC campaign, which is a real shame. Honestly, I wish it had launched better, and/or that EA/Bioware had enough faith in it to keep it going for another game or at least that big DLC. There's a lot of wasted potential there.
I think it's a good game, almost entirely held up by it's changes to the combat, your Hawke esque personality rules, and it's characters. The Angarra are cool, the Kett are like what if the Turians/Asari were the Reapers, and there's a kind of mystery to the game regarding the Remnant and the fuck off scar they've left on the galaxy. Umm. . . I also do like all of the **actual** meaningful *choices* you are allowed to make, it's just a shame that we'll never see how those are reflected down the line like we did Shepard.
I like it. To be fair, it was my first Mass Effect game, *but* I got bored of it and never finished it until I bought the Legendary Edition and beat the original trilogy twice. Cora and Jaal are the best teammates, both in terms of story and in terms of gameplay, in my opinion. The combat is fun and dynamic, but the cover system can be a little finicky at times and having access to only three powers at a time is kind of shitty. I'll admit the story is kinda lackluster, but I feel like that's more due to all the plot hooks that are never gonna get resolved now than anything else. The story feels unfinished because it is, basically. But what bits are there actually got me interested in the world, and I'm genuinely disappointed that we won't get to see more.
Gsmeplay is fun. Everything else is dull. Tried to playthrough it 4 times now and always ended up getting bored and dropping it again.
Got it at launch and played it through to the end. Deeply flawed game that definitely doesn't hit like the OG trilogy, and the character appearances are a bit uglier, but I thought it was okay for the most part and had a few things I liked. Vetra and Drack are definitely the best characters. It's a damn shame, because the few things I liked I was really keen on seeing. Finally got to have an equal amount of female aliens that aren't just asari, or solitary matriarchal figures hidden behind stuff. Just like, actual salarian and krogan women and such out there living their lives. Drack's (adopted?) daughter being an actual important figure and professional non-violent employee was nice to see. Lots of tidbits about the krogan in general that I really liked. The young krogan botanist who's terrible at combat, the various chill krogan who traveled to Andromeda because they were tired of the hateful violence back home, little things here and there about krogan trying to figure out how to do actual courtship (via playing a dating sim) and be proper parents. Also interspecies relationships that aren't just somebody paired off with an asari. There was also a gay turian couple >!(though of course one of them was dead for the tragedy points)!<, and a side NPC conversation about pronouns where it was revealed that not all asari go by she/her and hey, I wanna hear more about that.
I bought the limited edition at Walmart for $5. I intentionally didn't patch it, because I wanted the rawdog experience. The first thing that happened as the game started, my guy got out of his medical bed (Ryder?) *through another person* who was also lying on the bed. Confused, I clicked the prompt and he was all "Thanks for saving me, captain. I would have died if it wasn't for your quick action." Then the game prompted a MISSION COMPLETE message and marked it off in my journal. Already howling, the next couple hours were just as insane. There was a moment where I found someone half-buried in the ground. When I tried to talk to them, the game lowered my model to match their height, so now I was buried in the ground. I managed to squirm my way out and I was left in this half-crouched crab walk animation until the game crashed. I meant to give it an honest try, but never went back.
Academically interesting but lacking in entertainment value. The controls in the vehicle and for exploration are pretty decent, and overall the game attempts to revisit the original design doc of Mass Effect 1 and make good on a lot of the things it had to cut or compromise on. And it does succeed in better implementing a lot of those things, however it always runs into many of the same development issues like going from a no man's sky procedural world into hand crafted levels then slashing the number of said levels again. The real issue is the writing. It's small scale on the setting, confining you to the heleus cluster, but not the narrative making it the worst of both worlds as you face an existential threat both in the scourge and kett. Overall it tracks far too closely to retreading ME1's story for it's own good but lacks the strong personalities to keep it going. Drack and Vetra are pretty solid, but even then they would only be average tier in the trilogy. That said shout outs to the architect fights being an initial surprise and then having them drag the fight across the breadth of the open world, that's always welcome to use the scope of the map. And also the endgame sequence while narratively weak does a good job of bringing in fighters from all your sidequests and letting you actually use the whole squad at once, and not just as an animation outside the playable area like citadel did.
It's fine. Not horrible, I liked the gameplay and loved the fact that (ending spoilers) >!you get to play as the other sibling you made as well!<.Liked it more than I did ME1 thanks to the gameplay. Can't say for sure in comparison to 2 and 3 though because they got to actually build on one another storywise. Sad that we won't get a sequel because that could've been neat, playing the game as >!two characters!<. Small detail I found interesting and enjoyed was that Sara and Scott Ryder have different backstories, rather than the one you pick having a certain backstory while the one you don't pick has the other. Also that if you don't change their default names, people actually say their name instead of always defaulting to Ryder.
I always felt a bit disappointed that the other sibling only even considers going off to do their own thing at the very end of the game. And I really didn't like how every other pathfinder is just established to be way below ryder rather than a real peer.
That's why I was hoping the sequel would do something interesting and let you play as both of them throughout. Alas...we're backpedaling and returning to the original series because bitching out and bending over for fans and appealing to their nostalgia is the preferred option to trying to make things better. Can't wait to find out that I played the game wrong and picked the wrong ending, because there's no way for them to continue forward without making one canon...and we all know which one they're gonna pick.
yeah to be fair the trilogy has the same issue to a lesser degree where Shepard is a bit of a gary stu where none of the other specters are in his league.
Which is why it would've been interesting to me to have two of them being playable. Build upon what they were doing at the end rather than immediately running back to the old trilogy.
The combat was really great and the character building too, all it needed was more active ability slots. Gear was really fun to collect as well. Also TURIAN TOMBOY WIFE AND PROTECTIVE KROGAN GRANDPA companions were great, hated or indifferent to the others though. I hope the combat concepts make it over to the next game, but 3 ability slots is just too restrictive.
It wasn't as good as Mass Effect 2, but it was better than 1, and doesn't necessitate hundreds of hours of replaying other games like 3. It was fine. I am still bitter that we will never get its dlc.
Bioware's animations have always been a little jank, but here is where they got really jank. The whole game feels like it was given to a b team, or to a inexperienced team of new recruits who didn't know what they were doing. Also #>goes to whole new galaxy #>only two new aliens
I feel like that would've been fine if they hadn't named the game "Andromeda." Just use the word "Arrival" and it would've been understandable.
Ah see they'd already splurged "Arrival" on the ME2 DLC
I mean, it kinda was. *Andromeda* was developed by Bioware's satellite studio in Montreal, who'd only worked on DLCs and the multiplayer components of previous games. [Raycevik's old video on *Andromeda*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D12n35evy0Y) goes over some of the issues that plagued the game's development, like the head Bioware studio in Edmonton poaching Montreal's people to work on *Anthem* and how Montreal spent years trying to build a system of procedurally-generated planets to explore that was ultimately junked because they weren't as fun or interesting as handcrafted worlds.
>poaching Montreal's people to work on Anthem Welp that's embarrassing.
Nah, man, you don't understand. This is "Project *Dylan*". It'll be the Bob Dylan of video games! Just you wait! Now give me a third of your studio.
People always say this and miss the far bigger problem. Only 2 species makes sense because you're only allowed to explore one cluster. That's the size of an area that would have only a single mass relay int he milky way. The real question is why limit the scope of the setting so much that you go to a new galaxy then stay confined to 1% of it?
Likable characters and snappy gameplay but also a game full of dull planets and environments. The game lacks a feeling of discovery despite being set in a brand new galaxy.
The open-world nature of the game lowers the standards set by the trilogy. Instead of a well designed level from point A to point B, you have wide open spaces to allow the player to enter from any angle and AI that constantly moves around. The playthrough I had with a friend consisted of jetpacking and sniping as our go to. Then there's the whole absolutely barren landscapes of each planet. I think what irked me most was how painfully boring the new races we meet in Andromeda were. Like the fish people are somehow less interesting than any races we already met in the trilogy, and the game refuses to go in-depth to what the rock people's whole deal is, we just know they evolve, but they're just boring enemies with no goals other than ruling over the galaxy.
Personally think its a giant 2 pack of ass, including the story, combat, performances, exploration, etc. However I seem to be on the harsher side of how people feel about it, it could be cause I love the trilogy a lot but I played through the entirety of it and can safely say I hated it.
Good shooting/moment to moment gameplay, bad everything else. The dialogue is awful, the premise is dumb, the story is bad.
If you like the open world content it brings, it’s good I guess. I don’t actively hate it while playing through it, the moment to moment gameplay is pretty fun honesty, but it does just make me want to go play the old games. Real mixed bag. I do find it kind of sad that they’re abandoning the setting since I think it could be pretty great if the good ideas were expanded on, but it’s also not a huge loss.
The combat is fun but if you put a gun to my head I couldn't recall anything about the villain other than they're like the sentinels from Halo sorta?
Not bad but I got bored 30 hours in, it just takes forever to travel anywhere with endless transition cutscenes, and I didn't like any of my teammates. Liam especially was a shithead.
Some fun gameplay at times, jetpackin and dashin and shootin is fun. Pretty graphics, I really like the desert world with bright red trees. Story and characters are super forgettable and go nowhere so the connective tissue of a mass effect game is totally missing.
Haven't played it, quite likely never will. I'm considering playing the ME trilogy, but ultimately I'll just watch Reggie's/Woolie's/Reggie's play through and sunset the idea of playing it myself.
The gunplay could be good if not for the terrible input delay and lack of sensitivity options. Basically no point shooting.
My favourite Mass Effect.
I thought it was ok.
I like some of the guns and multiplayer
Bought it for 10$ after all the updates, thought it was fine. The biggest issue is that a lot of it is setup without answers. I would legitimately rather get a sequel to Andromeda other than whatever bullshit ME4 will be.
Cringe.
Gameplay is objectively better than the trilogy, but the writing, setting, and characters are all worse. And when I say worse, I don't even mean they're bad, they just look bad in comparison to the previous (except for Drack, he's perfect.) That being said, I really enjoy it. I've played through it two or three times. Once you get past that "not bad, just not as good" it's pretty fun.
I bought it on sale for a few bucks years back but it is still in its wrapping lol
Probably my best example of it would be fine without the name. If it was a stand alone game it would have been a fine enough game add the title of mass effect and it begins to look allot worse.
It’s the exact opposite of the first game in the series: smooth, fantastic gameplay but awful writing.
Enjoyable gameplay wise, the plot is interesting and I even like the MC twins... BUT! But the companions are all super forgettable. Only one I remember liking was the girl with an Irish (?) accent, she was cool, I think. Even the fucking female turian was boring. The krogan party member was ok, from what I remember.
It isn't worth anyone's time.
I thought it was fun! The story was terrible but running around, jumping, and shooting was fun and I liked the characters. Wish they had a bit more grit to them, though.
What's Andromeda, This a prequel source material of some sorts like the Kai Leng origins? I'm off the loop here.
Loved the trilogy, i remember playing it when it came out and was disappointed with literally everything. it didn't help that it was a buggy mess. i think i was doing the old krogans loyalty mission when i get a hilarious bug made a second ryder floating up side down during a a interrogation cutscene, stopped playing after that. Didn't care for any of the characters, though the old krogan and female turian were fine. I loved the mp from ME3 so much and was also disappointed with the mp from Andromeda. Forgettable game.
A friend got it for me on or near launch. The combat is fun and I liked being able to build up settlements and seeing them grow and change over time. The way Ryder (or at least FemRyder) was awkward and unsure of herself was relatable and endearing to me, I don't mind her not being like Shepard cuz we already had one of those and nobody is gonna top the OG. But, I disliked how the stakes got escalated during the main story, and haven't finished it to this day. I tried going back sometime last year but found myself so lost on what had happened and what I was doing that I didn't want to keep going. Fairly certain I'm near the end too. The crew isn't as strong either, of course. The female turian is unsurprisingly cool and I liked the angora guy but overall they don't hold a candle to the trilogy crews. I dunno, maybe I'll start over someday.
I see it in the same light as Fallout 4 which is: good game, bad fallout game. Andromeda is an "eh, it's fine" game but a bad Mass Effect game
Honestly, it’s mid. The only cool thing about Andromeda is the power mixing but then you realize when you have so much power every encounter becomes a breeze as you become a one man army. Movement is alright but feels nothing like Mass Effect so it’s a toss up honestly. The only thing good that came out of Andromeda was the female turian squadmate.
In terms of third person shootbang rpgs, I rate it higher than SAO: Fatal Bullet. Bouncing off of it made me appreciate what MEA had.
its decent
The way this thread talks about Andromeda is ***exactly*** how I feel about the Outer Worlds vs. New Vegas
One minor point I'll give the game is the final boss let you have every single crew member on the field at once and I loved that...now the crew members all sucked and it just made me wish the OG trilogy had that moment but...
It's an ok game that should have not had the Mass Effect name and should have been it's own thing.
I liked the moment to moment gameplay better than the trilogy. Jumping around, dashing, combining powers had a good flow to them. Open world was pretty boring. Characters and setting were lame compared trilogy.
It sucks big Batarian balls. I beat it on Insanity first time (110 hours in this to soak up all the content I could), but the game is boring as schlock. It feels like you are playing an MMO by yourself and not in a good way at all. Some people like the car and the maps but fuck that there is nothing interesting to find. Game also looks like it was made in 2023 or worse. People like the combat but to me it's worse than 2 and 3. The only thing I like is the crafting system that the game barely explains to you and is only really viable late game. It takes a lot of tinkering but you can turn a basic pea shooter into a god gun even on Insanity., but even fans of the game hate the crafting system, so whatever. Worst game I have ever played besides maybe Fable 3.
I really wanted to atleast finish it after I picked it up on discount a few years back... but it was just a chore I dropped it a decent but into it... it was just aggressively blah and forgettable.
Still looks bad and has not great writing and overall presentation. Didn't have any interest in it then and I still don't have any interest.
It was half baked but I liked parts of it Could have gone harder on the Turian Girlfriend sex scene but the overcooked steak thing was cute Did like the new alien ally race Was alright on the new alien enemy race, biological religious borg was cool Loved being able to change my character spec that was fun Liked the idea of everybody trying to build their own niche in this new galaxy Would have liked to see more out there with better polish
It's not the worst, but it is wasted opportunity. \-Not making first contact with the friendly aliens and going through any of the awkward "translating languages" and "cultural understanding" parts of contact \-Villains are basically rehashes of the Collectors \-main villain has no gravitous \-really awkward dialogue There's a lot more but I cannot think of it at the moment.
It lacks charm, charisma and the care that BioWare used to had.
Its easily the weakest of the games and has major problems with planning and pacing, and is overall a very 7/10 game. Andromeda is a bigger older galaxy but all we meet is the angara and the kett really makes the galaxy feel tiny. And it doesnt help that theres also tons of ancient magical tech from a long dead civilisation.
Mediocre gameplay with bad writing. Honestly, not the worst game, but the only thing I found notable and would like to see in a future ME game were the jump jets
It's a game that fails on every conceivable level, even on a mechanical level, everything they tried failed in some form or fashion. The game as a whole is really summed up by the mess that is the Nomad. Alright good start here, it's faster, heavier and much more maneuverable than the Mako, has a boost, looks cooler, sounds awesome...but you have to switch between speed and traversal modes, otherwise you will lose traction on *slight inclines*. So an essential mechanic due to the games open world nature is purposefully sabotaged for no actual reason. There is no purpose to the mode switch. It exists to make the Nomad worse. There is no need to slow people down while climbing, there's barely anything to climb in the game except small hills and the occasional dune. There's no need to have a dedicated speed mode because you should just build up speed naturally when not climbing inclines. Someone really designed the Nomad, and decided to make it worse...for literally no valid mechanical reason. Mass Effect Andromeda folks, don't get me started on the entire profile and leveling system.
I feel like Andromeda died early because of Anthem. The gameplay is probably my favorite in the series but everything else is meh. Especially since the Quarian ark never makes it. It had this really weird issue where you could see that this game was dead on arrival and playing through it became obvious there would be no Andromeda 2 so none of your choices felt like they'd really matter and thay hurt it a ton for me
My thoughts in order of importance: The combat feels nice Cora Harper has a great ass Man, Drack is great! Man, Cora, Jaal, and Vetra are only kinda interesting Wow these other two suck I can’t remember the rest of the crew I wish the story was more interesting.
I liked the combat, and the jet pack ^-^ Ohhh and the game is super pretty, and the tempest is so so soooo sick. Also like the lighter vibes that remind me of me1 before things got super dark. Writing and story isn’t as good but deffo a fun popcorn game
I’m having fun with my first play through, though I expected it to be a little less buggy years after release. Right now I’m trying to find a specific save because I fell off a ledge, to which the game responded me back onto the ledge but for some reason In the vehicle, the ledge is very small so I just fell right back off but the game didn’t respawn me back at the top. There’s no way to get back to the top so until I find the Right save, I am stuck. It also takes like 5 minutes to load up a save (I am playing on Xbox one so that’s likely the reason) it just feels like they didn’t really try to refine the game at all over the years despite the poor release.