BioWare doesn't take risks and reuses already known elements and mechanics and the result is a massive game with many hours of fun. Technical issues are obvious, although not so serious to burden five years of development work from a studio that has brought us great moments in the past and will keep doing it in the future. Andromeda exists to be thoroughly explored with that curiosity that fuels the Initiative. It's not perfect, but it's without a doubt enjoyable.
While it’s underwhelming in places, there’s a lot to like as you venture into the weirder parts of Andromeda. Frequent technical issues hamper the experience a bit, as does an uninspiring main story. [June 2017, p66]
I had a lot of fun with Mass Effect: Andromeda. The galaxy I got to explore was full of life and the combat felt incredibly satisfying. But various issues with important mechanics like the scanner and hefty technical problems prevented my enjoyment from ever lasting too long...Although familiar in some regards, this is a positive in Andromeda’s case. Though, a truly successful revival needs to be innovative, not repetitive, and Andromeda often falls into a trap of tedium. It's a shame because it could have been so much more.
If the combat is Andromeda’s most pleasant surprise, it is the alarming drop-off in the game’s writing that is of most concern. The dialogue, in particular, is unusually flat and laboured for a Bioware game, while Andromeda often fumbles what should be its biggest moments.
It's also an utter mess in a technical sense. There are a few enjoyable moments here and there, and over time you can see the skeletal framework of a better game start to emerge, but given the heights Mass Effect has reached in the past, it's hard to believe this is what we've been waiting five years for.
*Note: I never played Mass effect 1 and it’s been years since I played mass effect 2 so I can’t speak for it*
Weaker story compared to Mass Effect 3. The world is so shallow you have little reason to explore or care about the new alien races. The Angarans BARELY have a presence in their own home turf, have no history because it was lost, and they’re in worse shape than our characters! Game felt less like exploration and more about putting out fires.
Things get better as the story gets going but the flaw of the alien races being undeveloped still remains. The squad mates felt like the only good parts about the game. They single-handedly carried the game for me, hearing their conversations and banter in the vehicle as we drove around the map. The protagonist isn’t as strong as Shepard but I feel like if given more time to develop, they couldn’t developed as a character along with the other side characters.
The combat was also great and when the world was lively, such as the planet with the Krogans, things were good too.
I found it hard to continue playing. There are way too many side quests compared to the main quest, the main quest feels short. Character interaction is lacking something too, I didn’t connect or feel anything for most of the squad mates in the game. I am biased, I find myself comparing Andromeda to ME 1-3 and BG3, which are in a league of their own. I do have 66 hours logged for the game and I haven’t finished yet, so take this review with a grain of salt. You can get the game for really cheap (I think I got it on sale for $7?) and there is easily 100 hours of gameplay, I think it’s worth it. Definitely falls flat coming after ME 1-3 but without comparing Andromeda to anything I think it was fun and enjoyed experiencing something new in the Mass Effect universe.
Poorly made game with horrendous, childish, MCU-like writing it felt like this game was made for kids. It's overwhelming from the get-go and poorly paced throughout. The premise is interesting, but never utilises its potential. Dialogue is corny and ham fisted and doesn't feel engaging nor stimulating. Animations and character models and so janky and unpolished it's laughably bad.
THE MOST egregious thing this game does is by wasting your time even further with load screens after load screens. It's horrific optimisation results in things like waiting a minute or two to access the main menu, another minute to load into the game itself and roughly 7-15 seconds to open a door that leads into any main area.
There some positives however, such as gameplay is genuinely fun. There's a lot customisation that you can swap up your playstyle on the fly, which makes for interesting outcomes when you factor in the Biotic and Tech combos. The Strike Team missions are low stakes fun also.
This game would be somewhat tolerable had it been its own IP. However, since it's tied to the Mass Effect franchise there's an enormous expectation on quality that this game simply does not have. As a new fan to the series I thought people where just exaggerating how bad this game truly was, sadly they were not wrong. An absolute far cry from what the first three games accomplished and what impact they had.
A nice RPG that allows you to build a colony in a galaxy far, far away. The gameplay is nice, even though they were plenty of known bugs that were never fixed.
Unfortunately, the storyline is a bit childish, predictable, and - in some places - incosistent. The idea of exploring a dangerous, new galaxy and meeting an unknown race that you can't communicate with was exciting, but ended up with your AI being able to quickly translate languages so there's no more mystery or "first contact" issues. Exploration is also flattened to a level of "Cold Planet, Warm Yourself". It could have been so much more than this.
What is more, BioWare quickly abandoned this game due to backlash and caused more backlash among those who actually enjoyed the experience. It was especially painful for those who focused on multiplayer, invested their time and money, and got a product that was worse than what the previous game (ME3) offered.
As a fan of the Mass Effect trilogy, I was heavily disappointed with what Andromeda offered. It seemed as if they had a nice idea that they turned into a generic "good guys, bad guys" game and then threw it away.
SummaryThe story opens after a 600-year journey to the Andromeda galaxy, as the crew begins searching for a new home for humanity. The dreams of easy settlement are quickly shattered, as worlds expected to be paradises are instead wastelands, and the Pathfinder discovers that not all inhabitants of the galaxy welcome humanity. Terrifying enemie...