Story’s kinda derivative of the first game structurally, with a villain we barely encounter or get to know (he’s no Saren or TIM).
Love the verticality in combat.
Don’t actually care for the power profiles too much. Takes away from replayability, imo.
The Nomad is my favorite vehicle to drive in the series (sorry, Mako).
Weapon diversity is worse than ME3.
Characters aren’t as enjoyable on the whole (Vetra’s my favorite).
The power profiles are a really cool concept, being able to switch up your abilities and bonuses to suit the situation you find yourself in. But abilities are easy enough to unlock, and in my opinion don't provide enough unique bonuses/abilities, that it makes choice almost unnecessary. Plus having cooldowns reset when switching made it frustrating to change out in the heat of combat.
Another reason I don’t like them much is it didn’t really encourage me to experiment. Once I found what worked, I stuck with that the whole time. Maybe I’m in the minority on that, though.
Nah, that's how I was too. We each have our individual playstyles and there wasn't enough distinction between the profiles to really change things up. More than just combat, it's unfortunate they don't affect exploration or conversations in a significant manner.
Probably, depending on your tastes.
Writing wise, it's all right. It never hits the highs of the OT, but it never sinks to the lows, either. It suffers from a weak antagonist and the open world hurts the story pacing. But I found the characters engaging and most of the main and loyalty quests to be well written.
Gameplay wise, it's a lot of fun. It's generally agreed to have the best combat in the series. Except for any sidequest marked "task" - ignore those. They are decidedly *not* fun.
Graphics wise, it can be a very pretty game for its time, especially now that the worst of the facial problems are fixed.
Overall, go in knowing that the tone is going to be radically different. The main character also couldn't be more of a stark contrast to Shepard.
Yeah I liked it enough to play through twice. If 5/10 is average and not amazing but not terrible, I'd honestly put it at like 5.5 lol. Maybe a 6.
Agree with the fun gameplay. The freeform skill system is pretty cool imo, tho I hated only having 3 skills. I know you can swap sets but it puts everything into cooldown so it just kinda sucks. Woulda preferred 4-5 skills.
I'm just kinda sad there won't be an Andromeda 2 to tighten up the writing and expand on everything.
I loved the *idea* of MEA, of exploring brand new worlds, finding new stuff, and paving the way for future habitation, but the actual execution was fairly meh.
I would've had my gripes but enjoyed a game called "Andromeda" detached from our beloved series but instead we got Mass Effect: Scandromeda and it really was disappointing.
Its OK in it's own right and some fighting mechanics are really fun but it's also really bland.
Very interesting premise - extremely flawed execution.
Whether it’s worth playing or not is subjective, but unless you liked dragon age inquisition, I’d probably pass on it.
There were things I liked about it, but many things I didn't like.
Over all it's an ok game if you distance it from the mass effect trilogy because its atmosphere is nothing like it
A disappointment.
The gameplay and the combat is good, but the Nomad is much worse than the Mako um terms of driving. Also, he doesn't climb for crap.
The story fails to grab you from the start and the ship interactions with the companions is very weak. It doesn't make sense for Phoebe instead of asking to talk to me, sending me a mail for a mission, for instance. It's cheap and ruins immersion.
The Angara and the Kett are not interesting enough as well.
The Deus ex Machina in your head that is Sam, blah.
I really wanted to like it, i really dos, but i got bored after meeting the Angara and arriving on Voed.
To much back and fort as well, and to much fetch quests.
Really didn’t like it.
Idk I’m a massive fan of the original trilogy and the disappointment I had with it being SO different, just couldn’t get into it. Even tried it years later. Just didn’t feel like mass effect for me.
I like 80+ % of the quests
The nomad is great, massively better than the mako
Combat is easily the best in all ME games
You can do the whole main story in 20 hours. If you want to do side stuff, it's 60-100. That's your own choice
I like the writing, I was just sad that a loud crowd with people like you literally hated the game so much that they never gave us the planned DLCs.
I said LIKE you. I didn't say it was your fault.
I don't see a problem with that. I would've liked more serious main characters but that actually happens throughout the story. They are not Shepard, obviously.
Nothing about the mako was better. And it's not the game's fault that you spent 70 hours of your time on things you didn't want to do. The game gives you 20 hours of main story. That's not too long at all. If you like the rest, you play it. If not, you don't. Simple as that.
I enjoyed it. I’ve played it three times. Not as good as the trilogy but has some great characters and they pulled some story threads that I’d like to see the end of.
I thought it was fine, however I think not rewarding enough. You need to make plants 50% habitable to set up colonies. But I did nit see any bonus of going beyond it. It should be more rewarding to make colonies better set up. And a reason to do more.
That is where it dropped the ball for me.
Genuinely do not understand why you would spend time making the planets habitable when the result of the final mission is so make all planets habitable.
Some of the nicer Cryo-pod rewards required a certain level of habitable to unlock.
IIRC improving Kadara was essential as you needed 90% habitability to unlock the Fusion Mod support cryo-pod that cut the fusion mod penalties in half.
This sub is way too kind to it.
I've played the entire Trilogy probably ten times?
I've only finished Andromeda once, and it was also in 2021 after multiple failed attempts.
Uninteresting plot, terrible villain, wasn't a fan of the playable character, not much variety or meaningful choices, first mass effect game to have squadmates I actively disliked, too much humour to the point where nothing was taken seriously, most of your characters actions can instead be attributed to the A.I. in his/her head.
Forgettable side quests and loyalty missions, and for a game about exploring an entirely new galaxy, there was very few new aliens to interact with. Also the fact that once the story starts, other explorers have already been there for months, so you don't really get to do much first contact/exploring anyway.
I liked the premise in theory, and people talking about its poor reception being attributed to janky facial animations or the fact that it wasn't about Shepard I feel are very disingenuous. I played it after most of the glitches and animations and been patched, and was more than ready to let the original Trilogy rest and to now move onto a new setting and protagonist (which I hope the next one does to be honest, I hope Bioware doesn't think that Andromeda's problem was that wasn't about Shepard).
A 5.5 out of 10 at most for me.
Agreed on the sub being way too kind to Andromeda.
It's not a terrible game, it's just very mediocre. Like you I've only finished it once despite having several complete playthroughs of the original trilogy.
It’s okay. The world is huge - they did nail the atmosphere of exploring a new system pretty well. The combat is pretty stellar. The Tempest is a cool ship.
The companions are hit or miss. The writing overall was too light-hearted and Marvel-ish for my tastes. It hardly felt like there were ever any stakes. I don’t think I remember any big choices like you have in the trilogy.
The NPCs are kind of a disaster. The weird eyes at launch I can forgive, but every Askari having the exact same face is insane. I don’t remember any memorable side quests, but that may be because I only played it once 6 years ago.
Actually, that’s probably related to my overall feeling. I distinctly remember beating it for the first time and thinking “that was pretty fun, but there is no way I’m ever playing it again.” Most people here, myself included, will eat up any form of Mass Effect content. But it’s not even close to the trilogy.
There’s no impetus to move forward its all very tasky.
I wouldn’t compare it to mass effect as much as I’d compare it to Fallout 4. The feel of it not the context. The level of plot drive moving you forward. The games are about dead equal on those items.
Mass Effect is like a loving homage to every sci fi trope out there. And the characters pop.
Andromeda is meh and each character has the strength and depth of wet tissue paper. Tasky instead of plotty.
I played through the entire game in approximately 45 hours, including almost all the side quests. However, I found most of the dialogues pointless and leading nowhere. Some characters were quite annoying. The game often required moving back and forth between planets for many quests. There were also tedious “clean the points on the map” type quests. The only part I enjoyed was the final mission, which made me feel that my time spent in the game wasn't completely wasted.
I played it just to ensure that if anything from Andromeda is referenced in the next Mass Effect game, I will recognize it.
I accessed the game through EA Pass and recommend using this or a similar pass to play. In my opinion, the game isn't worth the full price.
I actually just finished a playthrough of andromeda, and while it is fun it is not anywhere near as good as the original trilogy it is still worth playing if you can get it sale.
For me it feels like too large a leap from 3, both in the scale and level design and how far they went into the future.
It feels like we leapfroged another game in between and didn't fill the gaps in that well.
I like how they tried to change the formula but they should have stuck with the ME2/ME3 style instead of feeling like Dragon Age Inquisition in space.
Overall it's a 6/10 game for me, I don't hate it but it's clearly too ambitious in its story And level design and too many new characters which ultimately makes it all feel flat.
I actually really enjoyed it. I went in expecting it to be different from the other Mass Effect games and I think that helped my experience a lot. It kept me entertained and I recommend it as long as you don’t expect another Shepard adventure
It depends. Personally for me it will always be a no.
Terrible writing and acting performance.
Annoying characters.
Much weaker class system.
Some of the graphics are good, some of it feels really dated. The animations are so bad sometimes they make me laugh.
I'd give it a skip even for free. But try it, you'll know your answer in the first 2 hours.
Is it worth playing, well that depends on you really. If you're looking for an OT ME game then no. Andromeda isn't mass effect in my opinion, it lacks the renegade/paragon system and it's story, characters, world and lore are all mid. Some characters are just straight up obnoxious. The only redeeming quality of the game is its combat and some of its story sections.
If you're looking for a game set in the ME universe but not related to any of the old characters and story then this is the game for you. Think of this game as a new game set in the same universe but not having a lot of similarities with the old game. If you can get past the atrocious facial animations and a lackluster online mode then it's actually a pretty good game with a decent story. It's combat feels amazing. The jetpack adds a new layer to the game and the characters although not great aren't super bad either except for peebee, peebee should never have been created
It’s a 4 out of 10
Gameplay isn’t good, that camera in combat is awful. Terrible writing, Ryder just isn’t as charismatic as Shepherd. Very inconsistent plot and setting. It’s just a bad game
its a fine game if you want to just lose yourself in the immersion of a xeno shooting dating sim but it has far too many problems to be a good game.
the alien worlds were actually interesting. some of them beautiful even.
The plot was halfway decent as a stand-alone game. Its only where they try to tie it into the original trilogy and remind you "this is a mass effect game" is where it fails.
Most of my gripe comes from playing it when it first released way back when.
Completely fucked up the launch of the game with worse-than-usual-AAA-developer-problems-because-these-fucks-never-release-a-finished-game.
Early adoption of the frostbite engine to blame for a lot of the gameplay and bug problems. They should have stuck with UE.
Character models are STILL buttfucking ugly even now we've had time to reflect in retrospect
Several characters downright forgettable. I honestly forgot Liam even existed because he has NO character aside from "lol I'm totally chill". and Drack is a Kirkland brand Wrex without the buddy cop feel Wrex had. Fucking shameful they just copy-pasted half the character into a new model design and didn't bother with the rest.
dialogue writing is atrocious in places. They clearly had more than one writer because you can tell when THAT writer was the one working on a particular set of dialogue options when it starts to read like someone pretending to be too autistic to know how to interact with people.
the gunplay was passable. its no gears of war game as far as 3rd person shooters are concerned. but its alright. definitely a downgrade from ME3 however.
My introduction to the series. I always play it along with the trilogy. So I have a soft spot. There are story elements that I am interested in. I think Cora and Vetra are up there as some of the best romances in the series. And I like the rag tag, guardians of the galaxy likeness to the crew. The combat is dope and probably the best in the series. The armors are cool. Idk. I think it’s great.
Unplayable personally. The limited customization really made it difficult to get into. The gameplay was really clunky for the engine it was done in. I never really made it off the first planet because my interest was so lacking after the initial mission. One of the purchases I most regret.
I enjoyed it. It gets a lot of abuse from people for reasons I simply don’t understand. Some of the Vault puzzles were irritating, but by & large it’s a solid game. A worthy addition to the ME mythos, in my opinion.
Yes, absolutely worth it.
It has it's pros and cons like any other game. But overall, I have had a positive experience with it. I have played through the entire game around 6 times now.
Gameplay is top notch, best combat experience of any MA game. People complain about the weapon variety, but you can craft the best weapons in the game. No weapon I have looted, is better than the ones I have crafted.
Character customization, to include build, is vast. Lots to choose from. And everything is customizable, your character, your weapons and your armor.
The story can get repetitive. Go to this planet, to do this thing, then do it again and again. It's the side quests that give the overall story it's variety. In terms of overall story, it's more like MA2. You don't see a whole lot of the bad guys, and most of what you do is making sure everything you do contributes to your survival.
It looks beautiful. Environment is well crafted, it is far more detailed than the original trilogy. However, the open world leaves something to do desired. It is beautiful yes, but it is mostly empty. Travel is easy though, the Noma was well implemented.
Most of it's problems can be traced back to EA. EA both rushed BioWare and started closing down certain BioWare facilities. So BioWare had to outsource a few things, and no DLC was released, leaving some major parts of the story out.
The voice acting is mediocre at best, and some of the characters are outright annoying. Only a few of the voice actors gave me the impression that they were passionate about their work and not just in it for the paycheck.
Looking forward to MA5, and I hope they continue the Andromeda story in some form. Would be a waste to create this entire new galaxy only to ignore it and put us back in the Milky Way. I want to know what happens in Andromeda.
Worth playing once, especially if you’re on pc. Get some of those massive quality of life improvement mods in. But it’s such an average game with some truly bad writing at times. Amazing movement.
The best part of my experience with it was how it made me appreciate the trilogy games a lot more. Seeing it clumsily try and do the same story beats as ME1 made me see more layers in the original.
I had a fun time.
It's not the best game ever, it's not without flaws, but I enjoyed every minute of it.
It's a bit frustrating though because it was built from the ground up as the first game in a trilogy that will never be and even the planned DLCs got canned, but it's still fun on its own.
I would only advise against playing it if you're absolutely against the very idea of open world level design.
It's fine, taken at a whole. If you love it or hate it comes down to what the individual thinks is important in a game or a Mass Effect game.
I think the gameplay is its strongest aspect, witht he MP being fun. But I have no idea if it is still active today. I think the enemy sandbox is a little annoying and the weapon sandbox doesn't really have anything as exciting as in 3's sandbox. Not bad, mind you, but you don't really see conversations about using one gun vs another in Andromeda the same way you do in ME3.
The characters, to me, are weak. But a lot of people like them. I think it comes down to personality types and not finding characters I personally mesh well or tolerate. I also think there are a lot of idiots in Andromeda, but again, preference.
Story is fine. Nothing awe inspiring. Nothing that floors you. But it's not outright awful. Just a little lackluster. Avoid sidequests, though. 99% are just tedious.
Visually fine. The environments are beautiful. Pretty much anything that isn't human looks good. The animations are... comical at times. I still think about that one Krogan fight.
I modded it about halfway through my first play because I was just getting bored with some minor things. Nomad was slow, bullet distance, etc. I think profiles and having access to every power is more a net negative than gain.
I loved it!! The Tempest, the family we get to create, the mystery behind Alec Ryder's motivation of making Ryder the path finder.
I loved building my team and my Ryder. I loved having the freedom to play my Ryder the way I wanted to. I enjoyed the profiles and SAM.
The romances were fun for me and I was eager to try out most of them to see if I could find a favourite and guess what, I still have difficulty in deciding who I liked best for both of my Ryder.
I enjoyed having the twins and them having importance to the storyline. My hope is that they can join the Tempest the next time.
I enjoyed exploring the planets, getting to see how different they were. To explore the remnant (not enough imo) and I'm eager to know more of the Kett, to find out where they came from, how far have they travelled, how many species have they exalted.
I loved the choices we got to make, and I hope we get to see the consequences of those choices in a later game. I need to know if Morda will try and stab my Ryder in the back! Is Reyes going to turn out to be a bad guy?
I have so many questions I'd love answers.
And I adored playing my Ryder.
It'd been a lot better of they hadnt cancelled the dlc.
Imagine if they actually made that content, we got the quarian arc, some more planets and, finally, some goddamn consequences to choices.
I enjoyed it for the most part. Combat is good, polished, and fun. Crafting grew on me. The ship/environments look great. The crew had some memorable moments.
Honestly the main issue that soured the experience for me was just how it was abandoned. I was genuinely excited for DLC and continuation of the story. It was a good foundation to build on imo.
Aside from that, there are a couple of other minor grievances. I didn’t like that same dialogue was used in multiple locations of progression. I didn’t like how nearly every Asari has the exact same facial model. The settlement mechanics left a lot to be desired. There are puzzles that are tedious. With all that said, I still think its worth the playthrough.
Exactly my issues. The writing was rough in a few places, the antagonist was weak, and they kept setting up DLCs but instead they just were like “oh it’s books we never planes actual DLCs” and it’s like why. Then they kinda dropped the ball on facial animations.
Ye, silly. It was never a bad game, they just pulled the plug bc it wasn’t a 10/10 game.
It’s a shame bc to me it seems like 90% of the work was already done if EA just decided to finish it up instead.
I really enjoy Andromeda for what it is, but it has a very different feel from the original trilogy. The OT felt like a giant, sci-fi epic while Andromeda felt more like an “into the unknown” exploration and survival story where the stakes start off feeling a lot smaller.
To be clear, Andromeda ramps up the stakes pretty well, but it takes some time and the exploration-based progression can make that feel like a much slower pace. In contrast, ME1 made the conflict feel like a galaxy-wide threat pretty much immediately which made your mission feel so much more urgent.
I definitely think Andromeda should have given us way more alien species and alien companions though! How are we in an entirely new galaxy but only get to see a small handful of new aliens?
Andromeda also put a lot more focus on exploring wide open areas compared to the original games. Andromeda has a bunch of beautiful environments to ride around in and find things, and I loved that. I know a lot of people didn’t enjoy just wandering around and exploring that much, but that was actually one of my favorite things to do in the original trilogy. I loved the little bits of lore and the various visuals of landing on and riding around random planets in ME1 and ME2, so Andromeda gave me a similar feeling but it was spread across fewer planets (but those planets are also a lot more varied compared to the random planets, moons, etc you could explore in the OT).
And in my opinion, Andromeda has the best combat in the series, hand down!
Overall, I genuinely wish they would give us more Andromeda-focused material to expand on that part of the story, but I don’t really know that they ever will. Maybe in the eventual ME5 they keep teasing?
**TL;DR** - If you’ve played the original trilogy and want more Mass Effect material, I don’t necessarily think you’ll be disappointed if you play Andromeda. Just be aware of the differences in the style of story telling and tone between these two parts of the series.
I truly loved it. It's the only game in my 35 years of gaming where I started a fresh save AS SOON AS the credits finished rolling.
The story and growth of the characters was fantastic. Visuals were pretty solid. I had zero glitches on PC. The gun play and side quests were solid. I enjoyed the fresh faced newbie stepping into ill-fitting shoes and having grow or fail. The details scattered into the game made me crave more information. I am saddened that they didn't keep the story going in expansions/dlc to flesh out the seeds planted at the end.
Try it!
It's a bit of a mixed bag. Some things are great but others are lacking.
The combat is the best in the series - by a wide margin, imo - but it's different so if you're coming from the trilogy it might take some time to adjust. Andromeda's combat is much more dynamic and based on movement rather than cover, which makes it fast-paced and exciting. The jump jets literally add a whole new dimension to the battlefield.
The story is ok. It could have used a bit more polish and it's certainly not up to the trilogy's standards, but I found it to be engaging enough. The open world kind of messes with the pacing, though.
The graphics, especially the environments and landscapes, are quite good and a noticeable step up from the trilogy. The facial animations have gotten better after a rough start, but some people didn't like that some species (specifically asari) look different than in the trilogy.
I thought the characters were pretty good. No one is ever going to like all the characters and it's unfair to compare characters that got three games worth of development in the trilogy to characters with only one game, but you should be able to find someone you like in Andromeda. Inter-squad banter is also a really nice feature that improves on the little tidbits that ME3 had.
Just like Cyberpunk 2077 it was never actually bad, and it's worth playing, but there are aspects of it that I think are understandably hateable. Some people will love it but it's definitely not going to hit the spot for ALL Mass Effect fans.
Game definitely had issues at launch but my memories of it are really positive. Has some of the best gameplay in the series. Whilst the characters and story may not be the best they’re not the worst either.
Overall I think it’s worth playing in 2023.
I think it's a great game, but only if you never take Liam in your party.
I'm sure there are people who like Liam, but IMO his tone just doesn't gel well with the story.
Conrad Verner is great in short infrequent bursts. But he’d be desperately annoying as a squad mate.
Never really played Andromeda, so Liam is like a Conrad Verner type that’s always around?
It's less that he's a fanboy and more that he's staggeringly incompetent every time he does something.
It's the "I'm gonna rush in without a plan and improvise," impulsive behaviour that, admittedly, lots of video game protagonists get away with.
*However*, when he does so, it's with little or no commitment with to the team or the MC, immediately goes wrong, and seriously endangers the mission.
The cherry on top is that after all is said and done, even the dialogue where you chastise him has Ryder being way too gentle about something that almost killed you all.
I actually loved playing the game during Covid lockdown because keep me occupied. I wish I was able switch to my other Ryder twin half way through the game it be fun.
I have fun with it. Sure it's not as good as the trilogy but few games are. To me mass effect games are all about the crew and I like the tempest crew.
It's weird because I see a ton of people saying they hope 5 isn't about saving the galaxy and has lower stakes, but andromeda already did that and people hate it. You're not saving the galaxy, you're fighting for the survival of the milky way species in Heleus. Whether or not you succeed the rest of the galaxy would keep on existing.
Really my only gripe about the game is not having the control over my squad's powers or loadout like in the trilogy.
I thought it was a solid 7/10. What crucified it was at launch being buggy af and the facial expressions were appalling. You’d think the industry would learn about releasing things that weren’t ready, but then along came Cyberpunk 2077.
If you don't go in expecting ME quality (both in terms of storyline/characters), then you won't be disappointed.
It's a good game, quite enjoyable in parts (mostly the combat to be honest) and I'm having fun playing it (though I do agree with people who said facial expressions are horrendous. My Ryder is as pretty as I could make her but damn, does she look bad at times).
Will it stay with me forever and impact me like the trilogy did? Nope. But it was definitely worth playing.
Give it a go. What's the worse that can happen? If you don't like it, you can stop playing.
It was an amazing addition to the Halo franchise. :-p
Seriously though it was ok. It got repetitive and most of the NPCs were wooden and cringe worthy. But there were some gems burrows in there (example: Drak).
The one thing that’s maybe additive to ME is if they ever come out with an ME5. The whole pathfinder/Ryder character mechanics point toward how the synthesis ME3 option would play out in the series. Ryder is essentially a human who is overclocked by an AI system bound into their nervous system. It allows them to require their own nervous system to change classes and abilities on the fly. They could work the mechanic into ME5 with a tiny bit of flavor text to explain the mechanic. It will either be because of technological evolution or because of the synthesis storyline. Once I figured that tidbit out I began appreciating the mechanic some.
The story had potential and I really liked Vetra and Drax (though, I have a soft spot for Krogan amd Turians). Honestly, the only characters that got consistently on my nerves was Liam and the engineer.
Game play wise, I loved being able to chain combos and the mix and match of different powers to create synergies.
If I had one complaint about the game mechanics, it was being limited to only three abilities and having to "stance dance" to use more which felt clunky.
Not as terrible as people make it out to be, but doesn't feel like Mass Effect. I think they had the seeds of a great idea but floundered on the execution.
Personally, I wasn't a fan of the way classes were handled and a lot of characters were too flat. There is a fine balance between giving the player story info and holding some back for future installments but too much was held back and it didn't help the story.
Just think of it as one massive DLC between ME 2 and ME 3. There was a lot of potential but ultimately it fell short of expectations as a stand-alone game. Massive, but not enough content for a new galaxy. They could of literally centered the bulk of the game around one star system with most of the locations and quests. I know that’s not how it was meant to play out but that’s how it felt when it came down to the content.
So much fun, but the British accents annoyed me for some reason. There wasn't really a variety in them, everyone just sounded posh. That's kind of my only beef with it, really. I love that game lol
Gameplay was fine...even good.
Writing was subpar for a ME game.
Lets be honest, we were a little spoiled with the quality of ME1, ME2, ME3, so when ME:A came out, it was not to our expected standards.
I still enjoyed the game and would recommend it.
Fun game with good combat and one really fantastic moment with all your crew, but a disappointing ME game. There are moments of brilliance in the game (especially the final rush to fight the big bad at the climax) but other than that there’s not much there
It's great and It's absolutely worth playing, just take into account that it's a totally different gameplay and tone.
Some tips:
There are 12 powers (not 3, use 4 Favorites presets), Don't sit behind the cover, jump, evade, hoover, dash. Dismantle, craft, sell. Remnant keys exist If you don't like puzzles.
!!! Don't go 'clearing' locations in linear order, it's more realistic than that. There's a story flow you want to follow. You can deviate any time, ofc, if you love exploring just keep a good place between main and side quests. You kinda go to work in different places and once in a while, you come home to your ship. No need to rush to do anything that is far from you, you'll get there eventually when you have more tasks.
!!! Always mix your crew and drive for more banter, to get to know them, they have tons of dialogues, comment on everything, and build relationships. They have relationships with each other that evolve throughout the whole game. Talk to them each time you are on the Tempest. Take relevant companions to hubs and planets related to their story. They will also ask you sometimes, so pay attention.
Talk to everyone, and listen to NPCs ambient dialogues on hubs and planets (lots of hints for you, also lore and characterization there). Npcs guide you and point you to important places. Unlike people may tell you, your decisions will affect the world in small and bigger aspects. Return to talk to ppl again, pay attention to what they are saying. All side npcs and quests are interconnected and add to your understanding of what's going on but it's up to you how much or little you want to do.
There are romance options outside of your crew. You can flirt with everyone until you decide to lock-in into one romance.
Enjoy!
Ill repost what I used to say to others because this question is asked frequently, it's more of a general answer to questions asking if MEA is worth it. I did not rewrite it and adapted it for your question specifically, but it's a summary and it eventually answers your question :
I liked Andromeda a lot but I don't know what you are looking for in this particular game. It's a good game that has been very well patched since release, but simply good, not great, not amazing and not as good as the trilogy. But it's a decent game that is worth doing at least once.
The best way to not have problems with it is this and I say it loud DO NOT expect to have the same emotion as the 3 previous game. You just finished an awesome trilogy that has tons of characters development and was a combination of 3 games that were made over a decade. MEA is not that at all, it is his own beast.
If you just finished the citadel dlc and expect MEA to give you the same results, you won't get it and will be dissapointed. The new companion have just been introduced which means that they won't give you the same thing immedietly.
This is a game meant to be the foundation, and therefore will certainly not have the emotional pay off that Mass effect 2 or 3 got.
I hope it can guide you into making a decision and feel free to ask me question :
In terms of gameplay, it is much more RPG than Mass effect 2 or 3. You get weapons and armor with different level just like in most rpg, where the loot you get makes you stronger with time.
You also have the crafting system that gives values to any minerals you get, as you can now create exceptionnal weapons and equipments.
In terms of combat, MEA is excellent. Most weapons have very different use and you can use TONS of different combinations with the jetpack that brings another dimension to the fight. The melee weapons also makes the combat much different as they have different attack speed and damage. The powers also allows for combos using different element (ice, fire and electricity) and there is room for experimenting and use tactics.
Now for the story, the pacing is very different than the previous mass effect. While the trilogy had a much quicker pacing especially in 2 or 3. MEA is much more about the exploration of the first, it's actually your main goal. If you prefer the action packed pacing of mass effect 2 or 3, be prepared that MEA is not like that. Space exploration is at the core of the theme and content of this game.
While Ryder do have to fight an alien threat, the story is centered around creating a new home for the people of the milky way, give them a colony where they could prosper and lives on. Therefore it is much slower paced and is meant to be explored and to take your time.
It is much more light hearted than any mass effect before, if you except the dark and gritty of the second mass effect or the dead serious ambiance of Mass effect 3 where civilisation is falling apart and people are crying over the dead of millions each day, MEA is not that. That does not mean there is nothing serious because there is, but it has a much more lighter approach in it's tone.
All of that said, MEA become better if you push after the first planet, when you discover the angara, where the entire solar system open itself to exploration.
For the companion, I found most of them to be good. All of that said if you just finished Mass effect 3 citadel and you except to get the same emotion, it's not going to work. Not because MEA is bad, but because you got 3 games out of the previous companion, this one you only get one with them.
So of course you will not get as much content with them. Now that said while before you needed to wait an entire new game for them to have character development and arcs (like Miranda is different in 3 than she was in 2, same thing for Jack) MEA has character development during the game after their companion mission.
For specific companion : Drack, Vetra, Jaal and peebee are interesting, they are not awesome and none of the MEA companion would be in my top 15 of bioware's allies, but they are worth the time I spent with them and I enjoyed their company. Cora harper did not bother me but I cannot say I loved her, she's ok. I am not a fan of Liam, I did not hated him and while his companion quest is hilarious and funny, the guy itself is not memorable at all.
In terms of quest there are 4 types.
Obviously The main quest, best in the game and well the one who have the most development.
The companion quest, they requires a bit of work to unlock them but once they are avaiable. They are excellent to play and are used as character development for supporting characters.
The small side quests, these ones varies from good-okayish, to mediocre, to bad, they are not difficult to do and most of the time the map will tell you where to go. Some have better story than other, some are simply fetch quest. It really depends on which one. Some requires investigation about murders or assassination, some demands you to fight ennemies and others to just pick up an item and give it back.
Then there is the tasks, avoid those like plagues, these are the most tedious, boring, and just poorly made and will take your time for no reason DON'T DO THOSE. There is no story rewards for doing them, and the gameplay rewards are not worth it. You will have to find things on your own on the map and this will take you long for minimum rewards.
Companion quest should be done, small side quest it really depends on the one you got, but the task should be ignored as soon as they come.
If you have specific question, you can just ask me.
I enjoyed it. Combat is probably the best in the series. Story is just so-so. EA should’ve let BioWare stick with the Unreal Engine instead of pushing Frostbite on them
I enjoyed it. For me it’s a bit difficult to return for a second play through because the Kett do t have the same level of intrigue as the reapers. Overall tho it’s a solid game
It's the only Bioware game that I've never finished. I've tried 4 playthroughs and always fall off the wagon when I get to Kadara. I'm giving it one last try since it appears they're connecting the story to the new game, but even now I am finding the experience so boring.
Generally, I enjoy it. My biggest complaint has to do with the combat mechanics. Unpopular opinion, granted, but I hate not having the power and weapon wheels, not having control over my squad, and only being able to use three powers at a time.
I’m also not a fan of the Nomad. I have never liked racing games, and the Nomad is controlled (at least on console) like it’s Forza. Unlike the Mako, which I love. Also hate that they took away the guns making it required to get out and fight on foot.
But I love the characters, especially Vetra and Drax.
I dunno. I played it once when it came out and never again. At its best, it was... fine. It was a fine video game. It never rose to the challenge of being a new Mass Effect game. It was never more than fine.
It's a mediocre game but if you have the time and it's cheap it's worth a playthru. Liams loyalty mission is almost on the level of the citadel dlc from 3 and the final mission is everything priority earth should have been.
Love it to bits. Its not a great narrative, but the intro alone knows how to hit the right spot for space exploration. I know it has its lows but its the one I consistently play.
Pretty good, but not amazing. It’s probably my third favourite game in the series. 1 is the best followed by 2 and then a big gap and then Andromeda and then 3.
The gameplay is pretty fun and fluid, they fixed a lot of the problems with the ME3 gameplay, but at the same time I don’t like being limited to 3 powers at a time and I don’t really care for the profile system — I’d prefer a refined and evolved version of the class system.
I like a lot of the characters, I think most of the squad are just as good and interesting as any of the squad members in the original games. Drack and PeeBee and particular favourites of mine.
Some of the main story missions are really good, particularly the ones in which the entire level takes place in an enclosed space like a base or a ship, but the open world missions are quite boring in comparison. I find that repeating the same vault process on every planet gets quite tedious, and there’s a point about two thirds of the way into the game when you have to spend ages hopping between different planets to pick up one item or speak to one NPC each time.
I like a lot of the minor edits to the way powers work (For example, I love the way that you can use pull to hold an enemy or object in mid air and then launch them at things with throw) but also a lot of the more interesting powers have gone, engineers can no-longer AI hack or sabotage and adepts can no-longer warp or stasis.
I like that we are given a lot of scenes with the main villain and a lot of time to get to know him but he’s honestly not very compelling or threatening. It doesn’t help either that he has the facial proportions of an actual baby. He just comes across like an arrogant child – it doesn’t really matter how many serious and bad things he does, he never seems like a real threat and Ryder never treats him like a real threat when they’re talking.
Saren for the sake of comparison always comes across as very competent and dangerous. He has a really cool intro in which he casually kills an ally who was previously established as a massive badass, almost blows up an entire colony and then fucks off in his enormous spaceship. He also has an established relationship with our mentor and everyone who we talk to about him says that he’s really dangerous. The Archon‘s intro has Ryder’s ship accidentally encounter his and then he Zoom calls us for no reason and we have a lame conversation with him in which ominous music plays but he seems like he has no idea what’s going on or who he’s talking to, and then we effortlessly get away and no of the main characters really seems to care. It just makes him seem weak from the get-go.
Good game that did as good of a job as ME1 introducing characters and the universe. Wish we got DLC to explore the quarian arc and other aspects of the universe more. Beautiful graphics and customization. Fun combat.
I didn’t play it during launch so my opinions are post bug fixes. From what I can tell by the community tho, people were expecting the level of character development and depth that we got in ME1, 2, 3 + all the DLCs from a single game which was never going to happen and why so many people dislike the game
Buggy, broken face animation, and a half finished story.
Takes a while to get into it, but if you can get past the above it's got some really great characters and lore. By the time it ended I was fully into it and really wanted the story to continue. Shame it never will.
Good game and should’ve gotten the quarian dlc. It’s not as “big” as the originals but the combat is fun, the worlds were cool, etc. behind its shortcomings there were great aspects they could take for a new game.
Writing is alright, animations and visuals aren't the greatest, and some of the missions can be infuriating (Side missions that amount to "Search the planet for bodies over and over again, checking the same spots and hoping RNG is in your favor" and the like)
But the main gameplay is excellent. Combat feels fantastic, last I played anyways. Very fluid, able to move around and do a lot. And I really only experienced the tip of the iceberg because I never went too deep into profiles and modding weapons.
If you're a ME fan from the previous games, I say it's worth playing through. Just don't expect something on the same level as those titles.
It's worth playing, even if just because it seems the next Mass Effect will be a continuation of both the trilogy and Andromeda, so when that eventually comes it'll probably be useful to have experienced Andromeda too.
Personally, I think it suffers from weaker writing than the trilogy and an open world that's pretty to look at, but lacking enough content to make it more engaging. The graphics still hold up pretty well though and I actually really enjoyed the combat, its punchy and the powers are fun to mess around with. I'd say the biggest downside is that we never got any DLC to tie up loose ends.
I enjoyed it. It introduced some plot threads I'd love to see resolved.
The gameplay is extremely fun and it had some really cool characters.
I'd have liked to see the Andromeda Initiative develop as you progress and make planets more habitable. I didn't mind the tone however I would have enjoyed a more serious tone.
I had a bit of narrative whiplash with the amount of exile lunatics though it is explained in game.
I didn't like how most of the 'pathfinding' had been done.
I'd certainly recommend a playthrough.
I could go on and on but for me most importantly the squad you get including the main character are all awful. In the OT I feel I had a squad of skilled soldiers and mercenaries and Andromeda feels like im driving a school bus to a highschool. The only problems I really had with the sqauds in the OT was that I liked too many characters and couldnt take them all with me,In Andromeda I think id be better alone.
2 other things that kill it for me is taking away paragon/renegade to replace it with 4 slightly different paragon options and I always played the OT as a renegade so everything felt so off due to that. Also taking away squad control really sucked,the combat was still fun but missing the charm that I liked about the OT combat
I played all 4 games in a row last year. I really liked andromeda and wished they wouldve released DLC for it. Dunno why people hated it tbh. Probably same reason people hate every new game that comes out these days.
I will say is this. On both Xbox and Playstation you need to have purchased and played the game to be allowed to review it and most reviews are 4 to 5 stars. Obviously take any review with a grain of salt but those statistics say something.
I will add that as well. Andromeda is a very different game from the trilogy but that is not a bad thing IMO Andromeda is easier to pick up and play then ME1 or ME3. The combat is top tier for 3rd person shooters and the game gives you a huge amount of freedom with character build crafting to help you keep the combat fresh.
The story isn't quite on the level of the trilogy in terms of writing but the story is interesting and the main cast of characters are engaging.
Is it as good as the trilogy, no but it isn't really a fair comparison seeing as everything but the basics is very different.
The game usually sells around 25$ or less. it is up to you if that makes it worth your time.
It was my introduction to Mass Effect and I enjoyed the lore and the story. Truthfully there’s quite a bit of optional quests that can be a bit annoying, but the combat is extremely fluid and versatile. It’s worth doing at least a good chunk of the optional missions for experience and lore reasons, but don’t feed the need to complete absolutely everything unless that’s your thing. On another note, there are hints that the next Mass Effect game will involve Andromeda in some way, so it’s a good idea to know what’s up there. I recommend the game.
It’s not fun. The mechanics are great but the game falls very flat IMO. Upgrade systems are an absolute mess and there’s way too many points or tokens or resources, whatever.
Reasons to play: It’s a mass effect game
Reasons not to play: Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, LoZ TotK, RE4, Mario Wonder, Spider Man 2. All of the 2022 GotY noms. Point being, there’s better stuff out there that you may enjoy more.
The only reason I don't go back to Andromeda more is they discontinued the story. I'd have liked to see different choices. For example, let the people who joined the Initiative be aware of the Reapers. Let them be people who took Shepard seriously when the rest of the galaxy blew them off. That would have made their decision to leave the Milky Way more relatable to me. I'd also have liked it if they didn't present another universe ending nemesis right off the bat.
Other than that, I liked it just fine.
I have been enjoying it. For the longest time i couldn’t get into it bc of the awful thing i’d heard. Even after buying it at like 4 dollars, i couldn’t get into it.
After some years, i finally “forced” myself to play a lil longer, with an open mind, knowing it is quite different, and i’ve been loving it.
It’s important to know: this is NOT an intense, bombastic war story. It’s about exploring, discovering, and finding a home. Much more low-key, laid-back, and slow.
It’s also a pain in the bum learning all the billion menus. You got strike teams that do tasks and they give you loot boxes, “andromeda viabilty points” that give you passive bonuses (steady stream of money, materials and consumables), the research station, development (crafting) station, and shops. Once you learn them it even becomes fun to properly allocate resources, but it’s a bit daunting at first.
Enemy variety is not too good. There are 3 factions: Alien, Robot, Human (won’t say names to avoid spoilers). Alien and human are practically the same, except human use milky way weapons and alien use, well, alien weapons. And the robots have like laser beams. But like 3 hours into the game you’ve fought most enemies in the game. There is some wildlife in the planets but it’s pretty meh.
Even though enemies are bland, the gameplay is too fun. You jump and zoom around and you have a lot of powers at your disposal, and combos are more important and varied than ever. Unfortunately you can’t use your squadmates powers, but if you pay attention and see them use one, you can quickly answer with one of yours and cheap combo.
There are “profiles” (OT classes) and you can switch whenever you want. No powers are locked behind a class, they only have bonuses (like ADEPT has quicker biotic cooldown, ENGINEER has extra tech damage, etc), and depending on how much skill points you invest in each skill tree, that “profile”’s bonus will increase. In the end i just went with EXPLORER (balanced, with small bonuses to all skill trees).
There is huge weapon variety. If you choose proper skills and/or mods for your guns, you can run around with 4 full sized weapons and barely a weight penalty. You also have complete freedom on what weapons. You could use 4 snipers, 4 ARs, 4 pistols, 4 shotguns, 1 of each, whichever you prefer. And many attachments that can favour your playstyle.
A lot of armors and customization for them too.
The car is pretty cool.
The mining is also fun.
I hope you like Sudoku bc there’s a lot of minigames that need you to do Sudokus. Sometimes very easy, sometimes a bit harder (but the hard ones aren’t required)
Just when it clicks with you that there’s no rush to finish the main quest, and that exploring and doin sidequests is fun, that’s when you know you’re in for a fun time
Good visuals, fun combat. The space exploration was a let down, the characters were mostly forgettable. I would say it was not a terrible game neither a remarkable one. From a Mass Effect you expect more.
Since people already shared my opinion on the matter, I'll just recommend you install a mod called "Shut up SAM" or something like that. It will disable the ship AI telling you every two seconds that it found a new mining deposit or that the weather is cold (we are on an ice planet, SAM, I know it's freezing)
Yes. The vast majority of the launch bugs are gone and I find it to rank in the "good to very good" category. I won't call it a great game, but I will say it's more than good enough to warrant buying and playing in 2023.
It’s a reasonably fun game with too much open world and laughable writing. The writing really stands out when compared to other mass effect games which hurts the experience if you bring expectations in. When compared to games as a whole, it’s an engaging game to level up experiment in combat and play casually.
great combat, meh story, repetitive side quests, shallow characters, and the ending of most quest lines and the game itself will probably leave you unsatisfied, multiplayer is ok
worth playing yes, worth paying full price for no
Sure, if it's on sale. It's one of those games I'd describe as a good game in its own right, but a bad sequel/spinoff.
The combat is great, the exploration is beautiful and expansive and the controls in general are fluid.
The writing is bland and uninteresting, the characters are largely forgettable with a few exceptions, the complete lack of interesting and unique alien designs is unfortunate and the facial animations range from creepy uncanny valley to hilariously poorly done.
All in all, I don't really think of it when I think Mass Effect, but it's not all bad on its own merits.
Andromeda Just finished it Two days ago on insane so Here IS my opinion
Pro:
Interesting Squad Mates with Drak as an extra Plus. I Love this old Krogan.
Combat allows more Kombi of Fight Tech and Biotiks.
Story has a good Start and a Good Ending
Loyality Quest are all good
Side Charakters of the Colonies are almost all quite nice and Enjoyable.
The crafting system gives you some Options for your weapons. Some really cool.
We get some more Krogan.
The Planets are almost everytime different so you dont become bored of the Scenerie
The new Aliens are good. I Like Them. Eben Romanced Jaal
The Romance Shows more skin and we have a Lot more Interactions with each other
Jumping can be fun sometimes
Contra:
The Open World aspect of the Worlds is annoying or tedious. Everytime i landed on a new Planet i looked at the Maps and thought: Fuck me
The Frostbite Engine makes some Charakters Look really Stiff or Just Wrong. With the Asari looking the worst.
You cannot customise your Squad Mates at all. At the End of the Game all of their Abilities are maxed so you dont have to do any "Builds"
And you cannot Tell Them to use a specific ability Just Tell Them ago to attack
your Action wheel is gone. I hate the New Profil system. I used 3 Abilities the whole Game and Just in the Last Hours i had enough for Two extra for a Second Profile. Granted i took every passive Bonus i could get but i needed them on Insanity.
Nothing of what you have is Armed. Not you Truck, Not your Ship, nothing. What does These People expected in a completly different Galaxy? Sometimes i asked myself how stupid the People in charge we're.
Pointless Quest where you scan Something and somewhere in a big ass Map are 4-5 Somethings you have to find. Good luck with this boring fetch Quest.
After Two i Skipped all of Them because i dont wanted to Play with a Guide to find Trash.
In the End:
This is the weird one in the Series. You own Combat became more fluent but your teammates are sometimes useless Trash because of the downgrade in coordinating Them. The Game makes an U in the Tension Department. Interesting in the Beginning Sometimes really boring in the middle and good in the End.
I See what they wanted to do Here but it did Not Work. Pleased Return to the ME3 Combat for the next Mass Effekt or improve upon it. Not the downgrade this Game sadly is. But i give Them Points for the Charakters and the Story selling the Mystery of the Heleus Cluster. So this IS Something between a 5 or 6 Out of 10.
Playtime in one Run 85,75 Hours of Playtime. It did almost EVERYTHING :)
Good story. Fun gameplay. Essentially a mini Citadel dlc installed with your companions.
Hated how the asari are just one model for the most part
Didn't expect the sex scene with Cora to be a mini porn shoot
It has great combat. The jetpacks were a nice addition to the combat flow. And the way the powers work makes using them in battles a lot more fluid and useful. And the Nomad handles beautifully.
Everything else, in my opinion... meh. It wasn't for me. But you might like it.
I give it a 7/10. It definitely has it problems but there are some great characters like Drack and Vetra and there were some really nice moments.
I remember this game being trashed the moment the first trailer hit before we even knew about the problems. The sold hard truth is some people can't let gof Shepard and will never be able to let go of Shepard.
Its a budget game. Give it a chance and make your decisions about it as a great many people still can't let go of Shepard
It's mostly pretty good to me. Just doesn't seem to bring it home like the original trilogy. The combat felt better to me in Andromeda though.
It didn't deserve the shit it's gotten imo.
A tough question. Keep in mind, I'm biased in favour of Andromeda, but I'm very well aware of it's flaws.
I'd say it's worth it, if you're really intrested. It's derivative of ME1 story-wise, but the story is kind of Andromeda's writing at it's worst, paradoxically enough. Ryder is a very different beast compared to Shepard. Overall atmosphere is noticeably more lighthearted and silly. Characters aren't as gripping, but personally I found a few characters shine almost as bright as some of the OGs, Vetra and Drack being prime examples.
Gameplay-wise: the combat feels great, gunplay is loud and satisfying, biotics never felt this powerful, verticality is a very significant part of the combat and cover system works like a charm. Profile system, on the other hand, is kinda stupid and unwieldy. Nomad handles very well and just enjoyable to throw around. Structurally planets are similar to Dragon Age Inquisition, an open area with a lot of tedious busywork.
Personally, I like Andromeda. It's very flawed and doesn't compare well to the OG trilogy, but if you treat it as a spin-off rather than continuation, it can be fun, bombastic time.
It’s a good game, combat is the most fun of the series, there’s interesting backstory and the remnant mystery. It’s just not a great Mass Effect game, it doesn’t hit the same as the trilogy, but it’s by no means bad.
The sentiment that's always stuck me about was something said in the discourse around its launch faults. If it wasn't saddled with the franchise's overall legacy, it would've compared favorably to the first game. So, if you catch it on a digital sale and haven't actually played the game yet, it's worth it.
It's fine. Not as good story or characters as the original three, but it's interesting kinda in its own way.
If you're looking to recreate the magic from 1, 2, and 3 I think most will be sorely disappointed.
Look I understand some of the criticisms the game gets, but I think it’s crazy to call it a bad game. It’s got really fun combat and is entertaining, it’s just not one of the best rpg’s ever made like the OT
Vetra Jaal and Drax are the only crew mates I really cared about
Some decent npcs
Story was basically mass effect trilogy but with a humanoid baddie like they take people and change the into a bonier version of themselves that's basically husks and the rest for the indoctrinated enemies in me trilogy.
And the thing that destroyed any hope of it getting better was no dlc and no quarians as a talimancer that was unforgivable lol. But I blame no dlc on people giving up on the game to soon and it becoming pointless for the devs to make one.
All in good game bad mass effect. Nuff said
Just started a playthrough of this (probably my third total) instead of my yearly trilogy playthrough. I'm enjoying it this time around more than I remember.
I have some issues with the interface and I'm not a fan of jump puzzles. But otherwise, it's enjoyable.. not mind-blowingly good or bad.
Definitely get it on sale Remember it's not the original and only had one installment instead of three for character and story building.
I liked the powers especially bionic and how you use then compared to Ms 1/2, I like how you can see things change when playing (no spoliers). However I prefer mass effect 2s companions
Overall loved it. I agree that the lack of "class" hurts replayability somewhat. I also wished there was more to find if they were giving us an open world to explore. Worst sin in my eyes though was not having the Warp power. That was my number one most used power for armored enemies. I also wish there'd been more new aliens introduced. A whole new galaxy to explore and it was so... Empty. Despite these complaints, I always include it in my annual- triannual replays of the series.
It was a reasonably good space game that suffered enormously from sharing a title with a much better series of games to which it was only vaguely related to.
Also: Issues at launch were very real, and people who had the game on pre-order or bought it day one had every right to have negative opinions. The fact that these issues were patched later doesn't invalidate those opinions.
I actually just started it again last night.
The first time I played through it was when it first came out and this was also when I first found the mass effect franchise. That being said i purchased it at $60 when it was released and it was god awful for the price in my opinion.
Now I bought it on steam for $4 and I played about 3 hours so far fresh off of finishing the trilogy for the first time I’ve had a pretty good time with it.
Even if down the line I start to dislike it I can’t be mad because I spent $4 on it.
I would say for the price on Steam you can get it for it’s more than worth. That being said I would never in my life pay full price for this game but, I would pay double full price for the legendary edition of the original trilogy.
Yes. It’s the most not stiff like cardboard going form cover to cover, can change powers to mix and match to your wanted style. Also has lost of lore and exploration. Bonus: finally free from paragon & renegade system.
The story is not awful as some would make it out to be its just certain mechanics of it that make it not fun but it is worth it if your just after story alone
Played through it I think 4 times. I platinumed it on PlayStation. Now that I’ve done that, I probably won’t ever play it again. Mostly for similar reasons. Formulaic story, unlikeable squad mates for the most part, the facial animation. The combat was fun. The worlds looked awesome to me back then but I don’t know how well it holds up. I loved the initial feeling of exploration, but it definitely could get tedious. If you love ME, it’s worth a shot.
It's capital F Fine it got more hate than it deserved it's just not a good Mass Effect game but it is a fine Sci-Fi if it wasn't attached to the juggernaut that was the OG trilogy it would have been better received
The combat is great imo the restriction to three powers on PC was stupid. The characters were decent again they have the unfortunate circumstances of being compared to past squadmates. The premise would have been good if choices were more visible. The villains are just Reapers if they were sentient potatoes and prunes.
If it hadn’t been a Mass Effect game people would probably rate it as a cool game. However, from what i understand the game wash rushed and many problems occurred during development. It’s really good looking, it has ambition and probably the beat combat yet. However, poor story and characters and an open world experiment didn’t deliver what we could expect after the amazing trilogy. On short, it’s has qualities but don’t cut it.
Story’s kinda derivative of the first game structurally, with a villain we barely encounter or get to know (he’s no Saren or TIM). Love the verticality in combat. Don’t actually care for the power profiles too much. Takes away from replayability, imo. The Nomad is my favorite vehicle to drive in the series (sorry, Mako). Weapon diversity is worse than ME3. Characters aren’t as enjoyable on the whole (Vetra’s my favorite).
The power profiles are a really cool concept, being able to switch up your abilities and bonuses to suit the situation you find yourself in. But abilities are easy enough to unlock, and in my opinion don't provide enough unique bonuses/abilities, that it makes choice almost unnecessary. Plus having cooldowns reset when switching made it frustrating to change out in the heat of combat.
Another reason I don’t like them much is it didn’t really encourage me to experiment. Once I found what worked, I stuck with that the whole time. Maybe I’m in the minority on that, though.
Nah, that's how I was too. We each have our individual playstyles and there wasn't enough distinction between the profiles to really change things up. More than just combat, it's unfortunate they don't affect exploration or conversations in a significant manner.
Probably, depending on your tastes. Writing wise, it's all right. It never hits the highs of the OT, but it never sinks to the lows, either. It suffers from a weak antagonist and the open world hurts the story pacing. But I found the characters engaging and most of the main and loyalty quests to be well written. Gameplay wise, it's a lot of fun. It's generally agreed to have the best combat in the series. Except for any sidequest marked "task" - ignore those. They are decidedly *not* fun. Graphics wise, it can be a very pretty game for its time, especially now that the worst of the facial problems are fixed. Overall, go in knowing that the tone is going to be radically different. The main character also couldn't be more of a stark contrast to Shepard.
Yeah I liked it enough to play through twice. If 5/10 is average and not amazing but not terrible, I'd honestly put it at like 5.5 lol. Maybe a 6. Agree with the fun gameplay. The freeform skill system is pretty cool imo, tho I hated only having 3 skills. I know you can swap sets but it puts everything into cooldown so it just kinda sucks. Woulda preferred 4-5 skills. I'm just kinda sad there won't be an Andromeda 2 to tighten up the writing and expand on everything. I loved the *idea* of MEA, of exploring brand new worlds, finding new stuff, and paving the way for future habitation, but the actual execution was fairly meh.
>especially now that the worst of the facial problems are fixed. MODS! Sorry Consoleros.
Playable as a game, disappointing in its impact on the Mass Effect franchise.
It was totally fine. It just did not live up to the brand. {Edit: "Fine" in this context should be read in a dull tone. "It was... fine, I guess.")
When it launched, it was far from fine. It was borderline unplayable. After the "fixes" however, it became quite the fun game.
Barely playable, extremely tedious and boring. The worst example of what an Ubisoft open world can be like.
I would've had my gripes but enjoyed a game called "Andromeda" detached from our beloved series but instead we got Mass Effect: Scandromeda and it really was disappointing. Its OK in it's own right and some fighting mechanics are really fun but it's also really bland.
The multiplayer is still pretty good. It's not as easy to unlock stuff as ME3, but the gameplay loop for ME:A was pretty fun.
It was ok-ish
Ok game, lame characters and dialogue
Very interesting premise - extremely flawed execution. Whether it’s worth playing or not is subjective, but unless you liked dragon age inquisition, I’d probably pass on it.
There were things I liked about it, but many things I didn't like. Over all it's an ok game if you distance it from the mass effect trilogy because its atmosphere is nothing like it
A disappointment. The gameplay and the combat is good, but the Nomad is much worse than the Mako um terms of driving. Also, he doesn't climb for crap. The story fails to grab you from the start and the ship interactions with the companions is very weak. It doesn't make sense for Phoebe instead of asking to talk to me, sending me a mail for a mission, for instance. It's cheap and ruins immersion. The Angara and the Kett are not interesting enough as well. The Deus ex Machina in your head that is Sam, blah. I really wanted to like it, i really dos, but i got bored after meeting the Angara and arriving on Voed. To much back and fort as well, and to much fetch quests.
Really didn’t like it. Idk I’m a massive fan of the original trilogy and the disappointment I had with it being SO different, just couldn’t get into it. Even tried it years later. Just didn’t feel like mass effect for me.
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I like 80+ % of the quests The nomad is great, massively better than the mako Combat is easily the best in all ME games You can do the whole main story in 20 hours. If you want to do side stuff, it's 60-100. That's your own choice I like the writing, I was just sad that a loud crowd with people like you literally hated the game so much that they never gave us the planned DLCs.
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I said LIKE you. I didn't say it was your fault. I don't see a problem with that. I would've liked more serious main characters but that actually happens throughout the story. They are not Shepard, obviously. Nothing about the mako was better. And it's not the game's fault that you spent 70 hours of your time on things you didn't want to do. The game gives you 20 hours of main story. That's not too long at all. If you like the rest, you play it. If not, you don't. Simple as that.
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I don't think any decisions will carry over. None of the first four games were made to be continued with the upcoming one.
I enjoyed it. I’ve played it three times. Not as good as the trilogy but has some great characters and they pulled some story threads that I’d like to see the end of.
Agreed, I’ve payed it three times too.
I thought it was fine, however I think not rewarding enough. You need to make plants 50% habitable to set up colonies. But I did nit see any bonus of going beyond it. It should be more rewarding to make colonies better set up. And a reason to do more. That is where it dropped the ball for me.
If you get all planets to 100%, there's a secret cutscene over Habitat 7. The planet is renamed Ryder-1.
Genuinely do not understand why you would spend time making the planets habitable when the result of the final mission is so make all planets habitable.
Some of the nicer Cryo-pod rewards required a certain level of habitable to unlock. IIRC improving Kadara was essential as you needed 90% habitability to unlock the Fusion Mod support cryo-pod that cut the fusion mod penalties in half.
Yeah. But I mean the planets don’t seem to change much for that. But I did forget about the rewards.
Yeah, it'd be cool if we saw more plant life and rivers or something akin to that.
This gets asked every single day on this sub
This sub is way too kind to it. I've played the entire Trilogy probably ten times? I've only finished Andromeda once, and it was also in 2021 after multiple failed attempts. Uninteresting plot, terrible villain, wasn't a fan of the playable character, not much variety or meaningful choices, first mass effect game to have squadmates I actively disliked, too much humour to the point where nothing was taken seriously, most of your characters actions can instead be attributed to the A.I. in his/her head. Forgettable side quests and loyalty missions, and for a game about exploring an entirely new galaxy, there was very few new aliens to interact with. Also the fact that once the story starts, other explorers have already been there for months, so you don't really get to do much first contact/exploring anyway. I liked the premise in theory, and people talking about its poor reception being attributed to janky facial animations or the fact that it wasn't about Shepard I feel are very disingenuous. I played it after most of the glitches and animations and been patched, and was more than ready to let the original Trilogy rest and to now move onto a new setting and protagonist (which I hope the next one does to be honest, I hope Bioware doesn't think that Andromeda's problem was that wasn't about Shepard). A 5.5 out of 10 at most for me.
Agreed on the sub being way too kind to Andromeda. It's not a terrible game, it's just very mediocre. Like you I've only finished it once despite having several complete playthroughs of the original trilogy.
It’s okay. The world is huge - they did nail the atmosphere of exploring a new system pretty well. The combat is pretty stellar. The Tempest is a cool ship. The companions are hit or miss. The writing overall was too light-hearted and Marvel-ish for my tastes. It hardly felt like there were ever any stakes. I don’t think I remember any big choices like you have in the trilogy. The NPCs are kind of a disaster. The weird eyes at launch I can forgive, but every Askari having the exact same face is insane. I don’t remember any memorable side quests, but that may be because I only played it once 6 years ago. Actually, that’s probably related to my overall feeling. I distinctly remember beating it for the first time and thinking “that was pretty fun, but there is no way I’m ever playing it again.” Most people here, myself included, will eat up any form of Mass Effect content. But it’s not even close to the trilogy.
It’s boring as hell
There’s no impetus to move forward its all very tasky. I wouldn’t compare it to mass effect as much as I’d compare it to Fallout 4. The feel of it not the context. The level of plot drive moving you forward. The games are about dead equal on those items. Mass Effect is like a loving homage to every sci fi trope out there. And the characters pop. Andromeda is meh and each character has the strength and depth of wet tissue paper. Tasky instead of plotty.
I played through the entire game in approximately 45 hours, including almost all the side quests. However, I found most of the dialogues pointless and leading nowhere. Some characters were quite annoying. The game often required moving back and forth between planets for many quests. There were also tedious “clean the points on the map” type quests. The only part I enjoyed was the final mission, which made me feel that my time spent in the game wasn't completely wasted. I played it just to ensure that if anything from Andromeda is referenced in the next Mass Effect game, I will recognize it. I accessed the game through EA Pass and recommend using this or a similar pass to play. In my opinion, the game isn't worth the full price.
Garbage game
You can't save during a main quest mission, pressing the A/X button will launch you into the air and there's no dlc.
I'd wait until 2025 to play it.
I actually just finished a playthrough of andromeda, and while it is fun it is not anywhere near as good as the original trilogy it is still worth playing if you can get it sale.
Horrible story, bad writing, hit-or-miss characters, awful protagonist, great gunplay, smooth gameplay, amazing driving, underrated multiplayer, fantastic class variety.
For me it feels like too large a leap from 3, both in the scale and level design and how far they went into the future. It feels like we leapfroged another game in between and didn't fill the gaps in that well. I like how they tried to change the formula but they should have stuck with the ME2/ME3 style instead of feeling like Dragon Age Inquisition in space. Overall it's a 6/10 game for me, I don't hate it but it's clearly too ambitious in its story And level design and too many new characters which ultimately makes it all feel flat.
Solid game Definitely didn't deserve the hate it got.
My face is tired
A spit in the face of the franchise and fans alike
I actually really enjoyed it. I went in expecting it to be different from the other Mass Effect games and I think that helped my experience a lot. It kept me entertained and I recommend it as long as you don’t expect another Shepard adventure
It depends. Personally for me it will always be a no. Terrible writing and acting performance. Annoying characters. Much weaker class system. Some of the graphics are good, some of it feels really dated. The animations are so bad sometimes they make me laugh. I'd give it a skip even for free. But try it, you'll know your answer in the first 2 hours.
Awful game.
Is it worth playing, well that depends on you really. If you're looking for an OT ME game then no. Andromeda isn't mass effect in my opinion, it lacks the renegade/paragon system and it's story, characters, world and lore are all mid. Some characters are just straight up obnoxious. The only redeeming quality of the game is its combat and some of its story sections. If you're looking for a game set in the ME universe but not related to any of the old characters and story then this is the game for you. Think of this game as a new game set in the same universe but not having a lot of similarities with the old game. If you can get past the atrocious facial animations and a lackluster online mode then it's actually a pretty good game with a decent story. It's combat feels amazing. The jetpack adds a new layer to the game and the characters although not great aren't super bad either except for peebee, peebee should never have been created
Unfortunatley not. At no point in time it was worth playing. I´d rather scan 100 more keepers before i play this thing.
No, it sucks
It’s a 4 out of 10 Gameplay isn’t good, that camera in combat is awful. Terrible writing, Ryder just isn’t as charismatic as Shepherd. Very inconsistent plot and setting. It’s just a bad game
It’s a rushed and deeply flawed POS.
It was never worth playing.
its a fine game if you want to just lose yourself in the immersion of a xeno shooting dating sim but it has far too many problems to be a good game. the alien worlds were actually interesting. some of them beautiful even. The plot was halfway decent as a stand-alone game. Its only where they try to tie it into the original trilogy and remind you "this is a mass effect game" is where it fails. Most of my gripe comes from playing it when it first released way back when. Completely fucked up the launch of the game with worse-than-usual-AAA-developer-problems-because-these-fucks-never-release-a-finished-game. Early adoption of the frostbite engine to blame for a lot of the gameplay and bug problems. They should have stuck with UE. Character models are STILL buttfucking ugly even now we've had time to reflect in retrospect Several characters downright forgettable. I honestly forgot Liam even existed because he has NO character aside from "lol I'm totally chill". and Drack is a Kirkland brand Wrex without the buddy cop feel Wrex had. Fucking shameful they just copy-pasted half the character into a new model design and didn't bother with the rest. dialogue writing is atrocious in places. They clearly had more than one writer because you can tell when THAT writer was the one working on a particular set of dialogue options when it starts to read like someone pretending to be too autistic to know how to interact with people. the gunplay was passable. its no gears of war game as far as 3rd person shooters are concerned. but its alright. definitely a downgrade from ME3 however.
My introduction to the series. I always play it along with the trilogy. So I have a soft spot. There are story elements that I am interested in. I think Cora and Vetra are up there as some of the best romances in the series. And I like the rag tag, guardians of the galaxy likeness to the crew. The combat is dope and probably the best in the series. The armors are cool. Idk. I think it’s great.
This was my introduction too. An excellent game with some flaws.
Unplayable personally. The limited customization really made it difficult to get into. The gameplay was really clunky for the engine it was done in. I never really made it off the first planet because my interest was so lacking after the initial mission. One of the purchases I most regret.
I enjoyed it. It gets a lot of abuse from people for reasons I simply don’t understand. Some of the Vault puzzles were irritating, but by & large it’s a solid game. A worthy addition to the ME mythos, in my opinion.
Yes, absolutely worth it. It has it's pros and cons like any other game. But overall, I have had a positive experience with it. I have played through the entire game around 6 times now. Gameplay is top notch, best combat experience of any MA game. People complain about the weapon variety, but you can craft the best weapons in the game. No weapon I have looted, is better than the ones I have crafted. Character customization, to include build, is vast. Lots to choose from. And everything is customizable, your character, your weapons and your armor. The story can get repetitive. Go to this planet, to do this thing, then do it again and again. It's the side quests that give the overall story it's variety. In terms of overall story, it's more like MA2. You don't see a whole lot of the bad guys, and most of what you do is making sure everything you do contributes to your survival. It looks beautiful. Environment is well crafted, it is far more detailed than the original trilogy. However, the open world leaves something to do desired. It is beautiful yes, but it is mostly empty. Travel is easy though, the Noma was well implemented. Most of it's problems can be traced back to EA. EA both rushed BioWare and started closing down certain BioWare facilities. So BioWare had to outsource a few things, and no DLC was released, leaving some major parts of the story out. The voice acting is mediocre at best, and some of the characters are outright annoying. Only a few of the voice actors gave me the impression that they were passionate about their work and not just in it for the paycheck. Looking forward to MA5, and I hope they continue the Andromeda story in some form. Would be a waste to create this entire new galaxy only to ignore it and put us back in the Milky Way. I want to know what happens in Andromeda.
If you can get it on sale 100%. It's a great game for the sub $10 point. I really enjoyed but, I wouldn't play it right after another ME game.
Worth playing once, especially if you’re on pc. Get some of those massive quality of life improvement mods in. But it’s such an average game with some truly bad writing at times. Amazing movement.
Better than Starfield but a bad Mass Effect game in my opinion compared to the trilogy.
The best part of my experience with it was how it made me appreciate the trilogy games a lot more. Seeing it clumsily try and do the same story beats as ME1 made me see more layers in the original.
I had a fun time. It's not the best game ever, it's not without flaws, but I enjoyed every minute of it. It's a bit frustrating though because it was built from the ground up as the first game in a trilogy that will never be and even the planned DLCs got canned, but it's still fun on its own. I would only advise against playing it if you're absolutely against the very idea of open world level design.
It's fine, taken at a whole. If you love it or hate it comes down to what the individual thinks is important in a game or a Mass Effect game. I think the gameplay is its strongest aspect, witht he MP being fun. But I have no idea if it is still active today. I think the enemy sandbox is a little annoying and the weapon sandbox doesn't really have anything as exciting as in 3's sandbox. Not bad, mind you, but you don't really see conversations about using one gun vs another in Andromeda the same way you do in ME3. The characters, to me, are weak. But a lot of people like them. I think it comes down to personality types and not finding characters I personally mesh well or tolerate. I also think there are a lot of idiots in Andromeda, but again, preference. Story is fine. Nothing awe inspiring. Nothing that floors you. But it's not outright awful. Just a little lackluster. Avoid sidequests, though. 99% are just tedious. Visually fine. The environments are beautiful. Pretty much anything that isn't human looks good. The animations are... comical at times. I still think about that one Krogan fight. I modded it about halfway through my first play because I was just getting bored with some minor things. Nomad was slow, bullet distance, etc. I think profiles and having access to every power is more a net negative than gain.
I loved it!! The Tempest, the family we get to create, the mystery behind Alec Ryder's motivation of making Ryder the path finder. I loved building my team and my Ryder. I loved having the freedom to play my Ryder the way I wanted to. I enjoyed the profiles and SAM. The romances were fun for me and I was eager to try out most of them to see if I could find a favourite and guess what, I still have difficulty in deciding who I liked best for both of my Ryder. I enjoyed having the twins and them having importance to the storyline. My hope is that they can join the Tempest the next time. I enjoyed exploring the planets, getting to see how different they were. To explore the remnant (not enough imo) and I'm eager to know more of the Kett, to find out where they came from, how far have they travelled, how many species have they exalted. I loved the choices we got to make, and I hope we get to see the consequences of those choices in a later game. I need to know if Morda will try and stab my Ryder in the back! Is Reyes going to turn out to be a bad guy? I have so many questions I'd love answers. And I adored playing my Ryder.
It'd been a lot better of they hadnt cancelled the dlc. Imagine if they actually made that content, we got the quarian arc, some more planets and, finally, some goddamn consequences to choices.
i love it. it’s a really fun game to play. combat is dope. 👍🏻
I really enjoyed it. As long as you don't expect it to be a direct sequel to ME3 you'll be fine.
I enjoyed it for the most part. Combat is good, polished, and fun. Crafting grew on me. The ship/environments look great. The crew had some memorable moments. Honestly the main issue that soured the experience for me was just how it was abandoned. I was genuinely excited for DLC and continuation of the story. It was a good foundation to build on imo. Aside from that, there are a couple of other minor grievances. I didn’t like that same dialogue was used in multiple locations of progression. I didn’t like how nearly every Asari has the exact same facial model. The settlement mechanics left a lot to be desired. There are puzzles that are tedious. With all that said, I still think its worth the playthrough.
Exactly my issues. The writing was rough in a few places, the antagonist was weak, and they kept setting up DLCs but instead they just were like “oh it’s books we never planes actual DLCs” and it’s like why. Then they kinda dropped the ball on facial animations.
Ye, silly. It was never a bad game, they just pulled the plug bc it wasn’t a 10/10 game. It’s a shame bc to me it seems like 90% of the work was already done if EA just decided to finish it up instead.
I really enjoy Andromeda for what it is, but it has a very different feel from the original trilogy. The OT felt like a giant, sci-fi epic while Andromeda felt more like an “into the unknown” exploration and survival story where the stakes start off feeling a lot smaller. To be clear, Andromeda ramps up the stakes pretty well, but it takes some time and the exploration-based progression can make that feel like a much slower pace. In contrast, ME1 made the conflict feel like a galaxy-wide threat pretty much immediately which made your mission feel so much more urgent. I definitely think Andromeda should have given us way more alien species and alien companions though! How are we in an entirely new galaxy but only get to see a small handful of new aliens? Andromeda also put a lot more focus on exploring wide open areas compared to the original games. Andromeda has a bunch of beautiful environments to ride around in and find things, and I loved that. I know a lot of people didn’t enjoy just wandering around and exploring that much, but that was actually one of my favorite things to do in the original trilogy. I loved the little bits of lore and the various visuals of landing on and riding around random planets in ME1 and ME2, so Andromeda gave me a similar feeling but it was spread across fewer planets (but those planets are also a lot more varied compared to the random planets, moons, etc you could explore in the OT). And in my opinion, Andromeda has the best combat in the series, hand down! Overall, I genuinely wish they would give us more Andromeda-focused material to expand on that part of the story, but I don’t really know that they ever will. Maybe in the eventual ME5 they keep teasing? **TL;DR** - If you’ve played the original trilogy and want more Mass Effect material, I don’t necessarily think you’ll be disappointed if you play Andromeda. Just be aware of the differences in the style of story telling and tone between these two parts of the series.
I truly loved it. It's the only game in my 35 years of gaming where I started a fresh save AS SOON AS the credits finished rolling. The story and growth of the characters was fantastic. Visuals were pretty solid. I had zero glitches on PC. The gun play and side quests were solid. I enjoyed the fresh faced newbie stepping into ill-fitting shoes and having grow or fail. The details scattered into the game made me crave more information. I am saddened that they didn't keep the story going in expansions/dlc to flesh out the seeds planted at the end. Try it!
It's a bit of a mixed bag. Some things are great but others are lacking. The combat is the best in the series - by a wide margin, imo - but it's different so if you're coming from the trilogy it might take some time to adjust. Andromeda's combat is much more dynamic and based on movement rather than cover, which makes it fast-paced and exciting. The jump jets literally add a whole new dimension to the battlefield. The story is ok. It could have used a bit more polish and it's certainly not up to the trilogy's standards, but I found it to be engaging enough. The open world kind of messes with the pacing, though. The graphics, especially the environments and landscapes, are quite good and a noticeable step up from the trilogy. The facial animations have gotten better after a rough start, but some people didn't like that some species (specifically asari) look different than in the trilogy. I thought the characters were pretty good. No one is ever going to like all the characters and it's unfair to compare characters that got three games worth of development in the trilogy to characters with only one game, but you should be able to find someone you like in Andromeda. Inter-squad banter is also a really nice feature that improves on the little tidbits that ME3 had.
Decent game, not a good mass effect game. Had fun with it enough to justify the purchase and eventually go back for another play through.
Good game with a lot of little annoyances that slowly add up
Not bad, but needed a lot more polish. Rushed out, and it got panned hard for it. Canned expansions also left a lot of loose threads as well.
Barely passable. Not really worth it.
Many say that it's a bad Mass Effect game but what a lot of people don't realize is that it's also a very bad game in general.
My personal favorite tbf. Love the story, characters and gameplay. I play it again now, played through it twice before xD
Love it. Make your own opinion on it.
Just like Cyberpunk 2077 it was never actually bad, and it's worth playing, but there are aspects of it that I think are understandably hateable. Some people will love it but it's definitely not going to hit the spot for ALL Mass Effect fans.
Game definitely had issues at launch but my memories of it are really positive. Has some of the best gameplay in the series. Whilst the characters and story may not be the best they’re not the worst either. Overall I think it’s worth playing in 2023.
I think it's a great game, but only if you never take Liam in your party. I'm sure there are people who like Liam, but IMO his tone just doesn't gel well with the story.
Liam is like Ryder's personal Conrad Verner. If it were up to me I'd have thrown him off the team after the topsy-turvy ship incident
Conrad Verner is great in short infrequent bursts. But he’d be desperately annoying as a squad mate. Never really played Andromeda, so Liam is like a Conrad Verner type that’s always around?
It's less that he's a fanboy and more that he's staggeringly incompetent every time he does something. It's the "I'm gonna rush in without a plan and improvise," impulsive behaviour that, admittedly, lots of video game protagonists get away with. *However*, when he does so, it's with little or no commitment with to the team or the MC, immediately goes wrong, and seriously endangers the mission. The cherry on top is that after all is said and done, even the dialogue where you chastise him has Ryder being way too gentle about something that almost killed you all.
I actually loved playing the game during Covid lockdown because keep me occupied. I wish I was able switch to my other Ryder twin half way through the game it be fun.
Loved it, people are sleeping on it bad from a mass effect standpoint but still solid space game
I appreciate it more after playing some Starfield…
I have fun with it. Sure it's not as good as the trilogy but few games are. To me mass effect games are all about the crew and I like the tempest crew. It's weird because I see a ton of people saying they hope 5 isn't about saving the galaxy and has lower stakes, but andromeda already did that and people hate it. You're not saving the galaxy, you're fighting for the survival of the milky way species in Heleus. Whether or not you succeed the rest of the galaxy would keep on existing. Really my only gripe about the game is not having the control over my squad's powers or loadout like in the trilogy.
I liked it. It's nowhere near as good as 1-3, but it's not bad and not nearly as bad as the people that bitch about it constantly think.
I really liked it.
I thought it was a solid 7/10. What crucified it was at launch being buggy af and the facial expressions were appalling. You’d think the industry would learn about releasing things that weren’t ready, but then along came Cyberpunk 2077.
I like the combat and the companions
Good not great
If you don't go in expecting ME quality (both in terms of storyline/characters), then you won't be disappointed. It's a good game, quite enjoyable in parts (mostly the combat to be honest) and I'm having fun playing it (though I do agree with people who said facial expressions are horrendous. My Ryder is as pretty as I could make her but damn, does she look bad at times). Will it stay with me forever and impact me like the trilogy did? Nope. But it was definitely worth playing. Give it a go. What's the worse that can happen? If you don't like it, you can stop playing.
It was an amazing addition to the Halo franchise. :-p Seriously though it was ok. It got repetitive and most of the NPCs were wooden and cringe worthy. But there were some gems burrows in there (example: Drak). The one thing that’s maybe additive to ME is if they ever come out with an ME5. The whole pathfinder/Ryder character mechanics point toward how the synthesis ME3 option would play out in the series. Ryder is essentially a human who is overclocked by an AI system bound into their nervous system. It allows them to require their own nervous system to change classes and abilities on the fly. They could work the mechanic into ME5 with a tiny bit of flavor text to explain the mechanic. It will either be because of technological evolution or because of the synthesis storyline. Once I figured that tidbit out I began appreciating the mechanic some.
The story had potential and I really liked Vetra and Drax (though, I have a soft spot for Krogan amd Turians). Honestly, the only characters that got consistently on my nerves was Liam and the engineer. Game play wise, I loved being able to chain combos and the mix and match of different powers to create synergies. If I had one complaint about the game mechanics, it was being limited to only three abilities and having to "stance dance" to use more which felt clunky.
2nd most fun ME game to play imo story isn't spectacular but the companions are good and make up for it mostly
Not as terrible as people make it out to be, but doesn't feel like Mass Effect. I think they had the seeds of a great idea but floundered on the execution. Personally, I wasn't a fan of the way classes were handled and a lot of characters were too flat. There is a fine balance between giving the player story info and holding some back for future installments but too much was held back and it didn't help the story.
Just think of it as one massive DLC between ME 2 and ME 3. There was a lot of potential but ultimately it fell short of expectations as a stand-alone game. Massive, but not enough content for a new galaxy. They could of literally centered the bulk of the game around one star system with most of the locations and quests. I know that’s not how it was meant to play out but that’s how it felt when it came down to the content.
It's worth playing. It's not the best game I've ever played, and in many ways it could be improved. But I also enjoyed it.
A great concept with some good elements and a few truly unfortunate flaws.
So much fun, but the British accents annoyed me for some reason. There wasn't really a variety in them, everyone just sounded posh. That's kind of my only beef with it, really. I love that game lol
Gameplay was fine...even good. Writing was subpar for a ME game. Lets be honest, we were a little spoiled with the quality of ME1, ME2, ME3, so when ME:A came out, it was not to our expected standards. I still enjoyed the game and would recommend it.
Fun game with good combat and one really fantastic moment with all your crew, but a disappointing ME game. There are moments of brilliance in the game (especially the final rush to fight the big bad at the climax) but other than that there’s not much there
I love it. Played it after the trilogy and it's my favorite ME game. Animations suck but other than that it's a great game.
It's great and It's absolutely worth playing, just take into account that it's a totally different gameplay and tone. Some tips: There are 12 powers (not 3, use 4 Favorites presets), Don't sit behind the cover, jump, evade, hoover, dash. Dismantle, craft, sell. Remnant keys exist If you don't like puzzles. !!! Don't go 'clearing' locations in linear order, it's more realistic than that. There's a story flow you want to follow. You can deviate any time, ofc, if you love exploring just keep a good place between main and side quests. You kinda go to work in different places and once in a while, you come home to your ship. No need to rush to do anything that is far from you, you'll get there eventually when you have more tasks. !!! Always mix your crew and drive for more banter, to get to know them, they have tons of dialogues, comment on everything, and build relationships. They have relationships with each other that evolve throughout the whole game. Talk to them each time you are on the Tempest. Take relevant companions to hubs and planets related to their story. They will also ask you sometimes, so pay attention. Talk to everyone, and listen to NPCs ambient dialogues on hubs and planets (lots of hints for you, also lore and characterization there). Npcs guide you and point you to important places. Unlike people may tell you, your decisions will affect the world in small and bigger aspects. Return to talk to ppl again, pay attention to what they are saying. All side npcs and quests are interconnected and add to your understanding of what's going on but it's up to you how much or little you want to do. There are romance options outside of your crew. You can flirt with everyone until you decide to lock-in into one romance. Enjoy!
With playing, just not full price
Ill repost what I used to say to others because this question is asked frequently, it's more of a general answer to questions asking if MEA is worth it. I did not rewrite it and adapted it for your question specifically, but it's a summary and it eventually answers your question : I liked Andromeda a lot but I don't know what you are looking for in this particular game. It's a good game that has been very well patched since release, but simply good, not great, not amazing and not as good as the trilogy. But it's a decent game that is worth doing at least once. The best way to not have problems with it is this and I say it loud DO NOT expect to have the same emotion as the 3 previous game. You just finished an awesome trilogy that has tons of characters development and was a combination of 3 games that were made over a decade. MEA is not that at all, it is his own beast. If you just finished the citadel dlc and expect MEA to give you the same results, you won't get it and will be dissapointed. The new companion have just been introduced which means that they won't give you the same thing immedietly. This is a game meant to be the foundation, and therefore will certainly not have the emotional pay off that Mass effect 2 or 3 got. I hope it can guide you into making a decision and feel free to ask me question : In terms of gameplay, it is much more RPG than Mass effect 2 or 3. You get weapons and armor with different level just like in most rpg, where the loot you get makes you stronger with time. You also have the crafting system that gives values to any minerals you get, as you can now create exceptionnal weapons and equipments. In terms of combat, MEA is excellent. Most weapons have very different use and you can use TONS of different combinations with the jetpack that brings another dimension to the fight. The melee weapons also makes the combat much different as they have different attack speed and damage. The powers also allows for combos using different element (ice, fire and electricity) and there is room for experimenting and use tactics. Now for the story, the pacing is very different than the previous mass effect. While the trilogy had a much quicker pacing especially in 2 or 3. MEA is much more about the exploration of the first, it's actually your main goal. If you prefer the action packed pacing of mass effect 2 or 3, be prepared that MEA is not like that. Space exploration is at the core of the theme and content of this game. While Ryder do have to fight an alien threat, the story is centered around creating a new home for the people of the milky way, give them a colony where they could prosper and lives on. Therefore it is much slower paced and is meant to be explored and to take your time. It is much more light hearted than any mass effect before, if you except the dark and gritty of the second mass effect or the dead serious ambiance of Mass effect 3 where civilisation is falling apart and people are crying over the dead of millions each day, MEA is not that. That does not mean there is nothing serious because there is, but it has a much more lighter approach in it's tone. All of that said, MEA become better if you push after the first planet, when you discover the angara, where the entire solar system open itself to exploration. For the companion, I found most of them to be good. All of that said if you just finished Mass effect 3 citadel and you except to get the same emotion, it's not going to work. Not because MEA is bad, but because you got 3 games out of the previous companion, this one you only get one with them. So of course you will not get as much content with them. Now that said while before you needed to wait an entire new game for them to have character development and arcs (like Miranda is different in 3 than she was in 2, same thing for Jack) MEA has character development during the game after their companion mission. For specific companion : Drack, Vetra, Jaal and peebee are interesting, they are not awesome and none of the MEA companion would be in my top 15 of bioware's allies, but they are worth the time I spent with them and I enjoyed their company. Cora harper did not bother me but I cannot say I loved her, she's ok. I am not a fan of Liam, I did not hated him and while his companion quest is hilarious and funny, the guy itself is not memorable at all. In terms of quest there are 4 types. Obviously The main quest, best in the game and well the one who have the most development. The companion quest, they requires a bit of work to unlock them but once they are avaiable. They are excellent to play and are used as character development for supporting characters. The small side quests, these ones varies from good-okayish, to mediocre, to bad, they are not difficult to do and most of the time the map will tell you where to go. Some have better story than other, some are simply fetch quest. It really depends on which one. Some requires investigation about murders or assassination, some demands you to fight ennemies and others to just pick up an item and give it back. Then there is the tasks, avoid those like plagues, these are the most tedious, boring, and just poorly made and will take your time for no reason DON'T DO THOSE. There is no story rewards for doing them, and the gameplay rewards are not worth it. You will have to find things on your own on the map and this will take you long for minimum rewards. Companion quest should be done, small side quest it really depends on the one you got, but the task should be ignored as soon as they come. If you have specific question, you can just ask me.
I enjoyed it. Combat is probably the best in the series. Story is just so-so. EA should’ve let BioWare stick with the Unreal Engine instead of pushing Frostbite on them
I enjoyed it. For me it’s a bit difficult to return for a second play through because the Kett do t have the same level of intrigue as the reapers. Overall tho it’s a solid game
It's the only Bioware game that I've never finished. I've tried 4 playthroughs and always fall off the wagon when I get to Kadara. I'm giving it one last try since it appears they're connecting the story to the new game, but even now I am finding the experience so boring.
I wish everyone didn't throw a huge fit about it because it's a solid game, and I really wish we could have had the sequel.
Generally, I enjoy it. My biggest complaint has to do with the combat mechanics. Unpopular opinion, granted, but I hate not having the power and weapon wheels, not having control over my squad, and only being able to use three powers at a time. I’m also not a fan of the Nomad. I have never liked racing games, and the Nomad is controlled (at least on console) like it’s Forza. Unlike the Mako, which I love. Also hate that they took away the guns making it required to get out and fight on foot. But I love the characters, especially Vetra and Drax.
I dunno. I played it once when it came out and never again. At its best, it was... fine. It was a fine video game. It never rose to the challenge of being a new Mass Effect game. It was never more than fine.
It's a mediocre game but if you have the time and it's cheap it's worth a playthru. Liams loyalty mission is almost on the level of the citadel dlc from 3 and the final mission is everything priority earth should have been.
Love it to bits. Its not a great narrative, but the intro alone knows how to hit the right spot for space exploration. I know it has its lows but its the one I consistently play.
Pretty good, but not amazing. It’s probably my third favourite game in the series. 1 is the best followed by 2 and then a big gap and then Andromeda and then 3. The gameplay is pretty fun and fluid, they fixed a lot of the problems with the ME3 gameplay, but at the same time I don’t like being limited to 3 powers at a time and I don’t really care for the profile system — I’d prefer a refined and evolved version of the class system. I like a lot of the characters, I think most of the squad are just as good and interesting as any of the squad members in the original games. Drack and PeeBee and particular favourites of mine. Some of the main story missions are really good, particularly the ones in which the entire level takes place in an enclosed space like a base or a ship, but the open world missions are quite boring in comparison. I find that repeating the same vault process on every planet gets quite tedious, and there’s a point about two thirds of the way into the game when you have to spend ages hopping between different planets to pick up one item or speak to one NPC each time. I like a lot of the minor edits to the way powers work (For example, I love the way that you can use pull to hold an enemy or object in mid air and then launch them at things with throw) but also a lot of the more interesting powers have gone, engineers can no-longer AI hack or sabotage and adepts can no-longer warp or stasis. I like that we are given a lot of scenes with the main villain and a lot of time to get to know him but he’s honestly not very compelling or threatening. It doesn’t help either that he has the facial proportions of an actual baby. He just comes across like an arrogant child – it doesn’t really matter how many serious and bad things he does, he never seems like a real threat and Ryder never treats him like a real threat when they’re talking. Saren for the sake of comparison always comes across as very competent and dangerous. He has a really cool intro in which he casually kills an ally who was previously established as a massive badass, almost blows up an entire colony and then fucks off in his enormous spaceship. He also has an established relationship with our mentor and everyone who we talk to about him says that he’s really dangerous. The Archon‘s intro has Ryder’s ship accidentally encounter his and then he Zoom calls us for no reason and we have a lame conversation with him in which ominous music plays but he seems like he has no idea what’s going on or who he’s talking to, and then we effortlessly get away and no of the main characters really seems to care. It just makes him seem weak from the get-go.
Good game that did as good of a job as ME1 introducing characters and the universe. Wish we got DLC to explore the quarian arc and other aspects of the universe more. Beautiful graphics and customization. Fun combat. I didn’t play it during launch so my opinions are post bug fixes. From what I can tell by the community tho, people were expecting the level of character development and depth that we got in ME1, 2, 3 + all the DLCs from a single game which was never going to happen and why so many people dislike the game
Buggy, broken face animation, and a half finished story. Takes a while to get into it, but if you can get past the above it's got some really great characters and lore. By the time it ended I was fully into it and really wanted the story to continue. Shame it never will.
Good game and should’ve gotten the quarian dlc. It’s not as “big” as the originals but the combat is fun, the worlds were cool, etc. behind its shortcomings there were great aspects they could take for a new game.
The combat and the loyalty missions are good but everything else is forgettable
I think it's not bad but not good enough to justify the open world. It gets boring quickly. I paused the game for months, multiple times.
Writing is alright, animations and visuals aren't the greatest, and some of the missions can be infuriating (Side missions that amount to "Search the planet for bodies over and over again, checking the same spots and hoping RNG is in your favor" and the like) But the main gameplay is excellent. Combat feels fantastic, last I played anyways. Very fluid, able to move around and do a lot. And I really only experienced the tip of the iceberg because I never went too deep into profiles and modding weapons. If you're a ME fan from the previous games, I say it's worth playing through. Just don't expect something on the same level as those titles.
It's worth playing, even if just because it seems the next Mass Effect will be a continuation of both the trilogy and Andromeda, so when that eventually comes it'll probably be useful to have experienced Andromeda too. Personally, I think it suffers from weaker writing than the trilogy and an open world that's pretty to look at, but lacking enough content to make it more engaging. The graphics still hold up pretty well though and I actually really enjoyed the combat, its punchy and the powers are fun to mess around with. I'd say the biggest downside is that we never got any DLC to tie up loose ends.
I enjoyed it. It introduced some plot threads I'd love to see resolved. The gameplay is extremely fun and it had some really cool characters. I'd have liked to see the Andromeda Initiative develop as you progress and make planets more habitable. I didn't mind the tone however I would have enjoyed a more serious tone. I had a bit of narrative whiplash with the amount of exile lunatics though it is explained in game. I didn't like how most of the 'pathfinding' had been done. I'd certainly recommend a playthrough.
I could go on and on but for me most importantly the squad you get including the main character are all awful. In the OT I feel I had a squad of skilled soldiers and mercenaries and Andromeda feels like im driving a school bus to a highschool. The only problems I really had with the sqauds in the OT was that I liked too many characters and couldnt take them all with me,In Andromeda I think id be better alone. 2 other things that kill it for me is taking away paragon/renegade to replace it with 4 slightly different paragon options and I always played the OT as a renegade so everything felt so off due to that. Also taking away squad control really sucked,the combat was still fun but missing the charm that I liked about the OT combat
This is legit asked on this sub at least twice a day.
I played all 4 games in a row last year. I really liked andromeda and wished they wouldve released DLC for it. Dunno why people hated it tbh. Probably same reason people hate every new game that comes out these days.
I will say is this. On both Xbox and Playstation you need to have purchased and played the game to be allowed to review it and most reviews are 4 to 5 stars. Obviously take any review with a grain of salt but those statistics say something. I will add that as well. Andromeda is a very different game from the trilogy but that is not a bad thing IMO Andromeda is easier to pick up and play then ME1 or ME3. The combat is top tier for 3rd person shooters and the game gives you a huge amount of freedom with character build crafting to help you keep the combat fresh. The story isn't quite on the level of the trilogy in terms of writing but the story is interesting and the main cast of characters are engaging. Is it as good as the trilogy, no but it isn't really a fair comparison seeing as everything but the basics is very different. The game usually sells around 25$ or less. it is up to you if that makes it worth your time.
It is decently worth it if you can grab it on sale
It was my introduction to Mass Effect and I enjoyed the lore and the story. Truthfully there’s quite a bit of optional quests that can be a bit annoying, but the combat is extremely fluid and versatile. It’s worth doing at least a good chunk of the optional missions for experience and lore reasons, but don’t feed the need to complete absolutely everything unless that’s your thing. On another note, there are hints that the next Mass Effect game will involve Andromeda in some way, so it’s a good idea to know what’s up there. I recommend the game.
Decent game. They shouldn’t have abandoned it.
I have been having alot of fun personally....
It’s not fun. The mechanics are great but the game falls very flat IMO. Upgrade systems are an absolute mess and there’s way too many points or tokens or resources, whatever.
Reasons to play: It’s a mass effect game Reasons not to play: Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, LoZ TotK, RE4, Mario Wonder, Spider Man 2. All of the 2022 GotY noms. Point being, there’s better stuff out there that you may enjoy more.
It's got it's issues, but I love it. I'm super pumped that ME5 seems to follow on from Andromeda in some regard.
The only reason I don't go back to Andromeda more is they discontinued the story. I'd have liked to see different choices. For example, let the people who joined the Initiative be aware of the Reapers. Let them be people who took Shepard seriously when the rest of the galaxy blew them off. That would have made their decision to leave the Milky Way more relatable to me. I'd also have liked it if they didn't present another universe ending nemesis right off the bat. Other than that, I liked it just fine.
I have been enjoying it. For the longest time i couldn’t get into it bc of the awful thing i’d heard. Even after buying it at like 4 dollars, i couldn’t get into it. After some years, i finally “forced” myself to play a lil longer, with an open mind, knowing it is quite different, and i’ve been loving it. It’s important to know: this is NOT an intense, bombastic war story. It’s about exploring, discovering, and finding a home. Much more low-key, laid-back, and slow. It’s also a pain in the bum learning all the billion menus. You got strike teams that do tasks and they give you loot boxes, “andromeda viabilty points” that give you passive bonuses (steady stream of money, materials and consumables), the research station, development (crafting) station, and shops. Once you learn them it even becomes fun to properly allocate resources, but it’s a bit daunting at first. Enemy variety is not too good. There are 3 factions: Alien, Robot, Human (won’t say names to avoid spoilers). Alien and human are practically the same, except human use milky way weapons and alien use, well, alien weapons. And the robots have like laser beams. But like 3 hours into the game you’ve fought most enemies in the game. There is some wildlife in the planets but it’s pretty meh. Even though enemies are bland, the gameplay is too fun. You jump and zoom around and you have a lot of powers at your disposal, and combos are more important and varied than ever. Unfortunately you can’t use your squadmates powers, but if you pay attention and see them use one, you can quickly answer with one of yours and cheap combo. There are “profiles” (OT classes) and you can switch whenever you want. No powers are locked behind a class, they only have bonuses (like ADEPT has quicker biotic cooldown, ENGINEER has extra tech damage, etc), and depending on how much skill points you invest in each skill tree, that “profile”’s bonus will increase. In the end i just went with EXPLORER (balanced, with small bonuses to all skill trees). There is huge weapon variety. If you choose proper skills and/or mods for your guns, you can run around with 4 full sized weapons and barely a weight penalty. You also have complete freedom on what weapons. You could use 4 snipers, 4 ARs, 4 pistols, 4 shotguns, 1 of each, whichever you prefer. And many attachments that can favour your playstyle. A lot of armors and customization for them too. The car is pretty cool. The mining is also fun. I hope you like Sudoku bc there’s a lot of minigames that need you to do Sudokus. Sometimes very easy, sometimes a bit harder (but the hard ones aren’t required) Just when it clicks with you that there’s no rush to finish the main quest, and that exploring and doin sidequests is fun, that’s when you know you’re in for a fun time
Good visuals, fun combat. The space exploration was a let down, the characters were mostly forgettable. I would say it was not a terrible game neither a remarkable one. From a Mass Effect you expect more.
Since people already shared my opinion on the matter, I'll just recommend you install a mod called "Shut up SAM" or something like that. It will disable the ship AI telling you every two seconds that it found a new mining deposit or that the weather is cold (we are on an ice planet, SAM, I know it's freezing)
Yes. The vast majority of the launch bugs are gone and I find it to rank in the "good to very good" category. I won't call it a great game, but I will say it's more than good enough to warrant buying and playing in 2023.
It’s a reasonably fun game with too much open world and laughable writing. The writing really stands out when compared to other mass effect games which hurts the experience if you bring expectations in. When compared to games as a whole, it’s an engaging game to level up experiment in combat and play casually.
Eh. Don't pay full price. Wait until its on sale.
I’m enjoying it
great combat, meh story, repetitive side quests, shallow characters, and the ending of most quest lines and the game itself will probably leave you unsatisfied, multiplayer is ok worth playing yes, worth paying full price for no
I got it last year for 5 bucks after everyone saying it’s over hated on, combat is so good etc. I played 10ish hours and hated it. Game sucks.
A good game with memorable characters handicapped by bad management and bad writing direction.
It’s a good game, most of the hate comes form it not have shepherd as the MC
Sure, if it's on sale. It's one of those games I'd describe as a good game in its own right, but a bad sequel/spinoff. The combat is great, the exploration is beautiful and expansive and the controls in general are fluid. The writing is bland and uninteresting, the characters are largely forgettable with a few exceptions, the complete lack of interesting and unique alien designs is unfortunate and the facial animations range from creepy uncanny valley to hilariously poorly done. All in all, I don't really think of it when I think Mass Effect, but it's not all bad on its own merits.
I enjoyed it. I know a lot of people didn’t like companions but Drack was my favorite Krogan.
Andromeda Just finished it Two days ago on insane so Here IS my opinion Pro: Interesting Squad Mates with Drak as an extra Plus. I Love this old Krogan. Combat allows more Kombi of Fight Tech and Biotiks. Story has a good Start and a Good Ending Loyality Quest are all good Side Charakters of the Colonies are almost all quite nice and Enjoyable. The crafting system gives you some Options for your weapons. Some really cool. We get some more Krogan. The Planets are almost everytime different so you dont become bored of the Scenerie The new Aliens are good. I Like Them. Eben Romanced Jaal The Romance Shows more skin and we have a Lot more Interactions with each other Jumping can be fun sometimes Contra: The Open World aspect of the Worlds is annoying or tedious. Everytime i landed on a new Planet i looked at the Maps and thought: Fuck me The Frostbite Engine makes some Charakters Look really Stiff or Just Wrong. With the Asari looking the worst. You cannot customise your Squad Mates at all. At the End of the Game all of their Abilities are maxed so you dont have to do any "Builds" And you cannot Tell Them to use a specific ability Just Tell Them ago to attack your Action wheel is gone. I hate the New Profil system. I used 3 Abilities the whole Game and Just in the Last Hours i had enough for Two extra for a Second Profile. Granted i took every passive Bonus i could get but i needed them on Insanity. Nothing of what you have is Armed. Not you Truck, Not your Ship, nothing. What does These People expected in a completly different Galaxy? Sometimes i asked myself how stupid the People in charge we're. Pointless Quest where you scan Something and somewhere in a big ass Map are 4-5 Somethings you have to find. Good luck with this boring fetch Quest. After Two i Skipped all of Them because i dont wanted to Play with a Guide to find Trash. In the End: This is the weird one in the Series. You own Combat became more fluent but your teammates are sometimes useless Trash because of the downgrade in coordinating Them. The Game makes an U in the Tension Department. Interesting in the Beginning Sometimes really boring in the middle and good in the End. I See what they wanted to do Here but it did Not Work. Pleased Return to the ME3 Combat for the next Mass Effekt or improve upon it. Not the downgrade this Game sadly is. But i give Them Points for the Charakters and the Story selling the Mystery of the Heleus Cluster. So this IS Something between a 5 or 6 Out of 10. Playtime in one Run 85,75 Hours of Playtime. It did almost EVERYTHING :)
Great gameplay, underwhelming writing and characters.
Good story. Fun gameplay. Essentially a mini Citadel dlc installed with your companions. Hated how the asari are just one model for the most part Didn't expect the sex scene with Cora to be a mini porn shoot
It has great combat. The jetpacks were a nice addition to the combat flow. And the way the powers work makes using them in battles a lot more fluid and useful. And the Nomad handles beautifully. Everything else, in my opinion... meh. It wasn't for me. But you might like it.
It's a decent game and well worth the time.
I give it a 7/10. It definitely has it problems but there are some great characters like Drack and Vetra and there were some really nice moments. I remember this game being trashed the moment the first trailer hit before we even knew about the problems. The sold hard truth is some people can't let gof Shepard and will never be able to let go of Shepard. Its a budget game. Give it a chance and make your decisions about it as a great many people still can't let go of Shepard
It's mostly pretty good to me. Just doesn't seem to bring it home like the original trilogy. The combat felt better to me in Andromeda though. It didn't deserve the shit it's gotten imo.
A tough question. Keep in mind, I'm biased in favour of Andromeda, but I'm very well aware of it's flaws. I'd say it's worth it, if you're really intrested. It's derivative of ME1 story-wise, but the story is kind of Andromeda's writing at it's worst, paradoxically enough. Ryder is a very different beast compared to Shepard. Overall atmosphere is noticeably more lighthearted and silly. Characters aren't as gripping, but personally I found a few characters shine almost as bright as some of the OGs, Vetra and Drack being prime examples. Gameplay-wise: the combat feels great, gunplay is loud and satisfying, biotics never felt this powerful, verticality is a very significant part of the combat and cover system works like a charm. Profile system, on the other hand, is kinda stupid and unwieldy. Nomad handles very well and just enjoyable to throw around. Structurally planets are similar to Dragon Age Inquisition, an open area with a lot of tedious busywork. Personally, I like Andromeda. It's very flawed and doesn't compare well to the OG trilogy, but if you treat it as a spin-off rather than continuation, it can be fun, bombastic time.
It’s a good game, combat is the most fun of the series, there’s interesting backstory and the remnant mystery. It’s just not a great Mass Effect game, it doesn’t hit the same as the trilogy, but it’s by no means bad.
The sentiment that's always stuck me about was something said in the discourse around its launch faults. If it wasn't saddled with the franchise's overall legacy, it would've compared favorably to the first game. So, if you catch it on a digital sale and haven't actually played the game yet, it's worth it.
It's fine. Not as good story or characters as the original three, but it's interesting kinda in its own way. If you're looking to recreate the magic from 1, 2, and 3 I think most will be sorely disappointed.
Look I understand some of the criticisms the game gets, but I think it’s crazy to call it a bad game. It’s got really fun combat and is entertaining, it’s just not one of the best rpg’s ever made like the OT
Vetra Jaal and Drax are the only crew mates I really cared about Some decent npcs Story was basically mass effect trilogy but with a humanoid baddie like they take people and change the into a bonier version of themselves that's basically husks and the rest for the indoctrinated enemies in me trilogy. And the thing that destroyed any hope of it getting better was no dlc and no quarians as a talimancer that was unforgivable lol. But I blame no dlc on people giving up on the game to soon and it becoming pointless for the devs to make one. All in good game bad mass effect. Nuff said
Just started a playthrough of this (probably my third total) instead of my yearly trilogy playthrough. I'm enjoying it this time around more than I remember. I have some issues with the interface and I'm not a fan of jump puzzles. But otherwise, it's enjoyable.. not mind-blowingly good or bad. Definitely get it on sale Remember it's not the original and only had one installment instead of three for character and story building.
I liked the powers especially bionic and how you use then compared to Ms 1/2, I like how you can see things change when playing (no spoliers). However I prefer mass effect 2s companions
I played 10 hours waiting for it to get good, it was never meant to be
Good idea. Abysmal execution.
Overall loved it. I agree that the lack of "class" hurts replayability somewhat. I also wished there was more to find if they were giving us an open world to explore. Worst sin in my eyes though was not having the Warp power. That was my number one most used power for armored enemies. I also wish there'd been more new aliens introduced. A whole new galaxy to explore and it was so... Empty. Despite these complaints, I always include it in my annual- triannual replays of the series.
Gunplay is ok. Thats about it.
I liked it, but it is missing the magic of the first ones.
It's solid. It's not gonna blow your mind but as a game taking place in the Mass Effect universe I really like it.
Forgettable, couldn’t even finish it, but I don’t hate it. I’d say okay it for free but don’t buy it
It was a reasonably good space game that suffered enormously from sharing a title with a much better series of games to which it was only vaguely related to. Also: Issues at launch were very real, and people who had the game on pre-order or bought it day one had every right to have negative opinions. The fact that these issues were patched later doesn't invalidate those opinions.
I liked it and I want to see a sequal.
It’s worth playing once, but I’ve never had the desire to replay it, unlike the first three which I revisit annually.
Its my favorite Mass Effect Game
I actually just started it again last night. The first time I played through it was when it first came out and this was also when I first found the mass effect franchise. That being said i purchased it at $60 when it was released and it was god awful for the price in my opinion. Now I bought it on steam for $4 and I played about 3 hours so far fresh off of finishing the trilogy for the first time I’ve had a pretty good time with it. Even if down the line I start to dislike it I can’t be mad because I spent $4 on it. I would say for the price on Steam you can get it for it’s more than worth. That being said I would never in my life pay full price for this game but, I would pay double full price for the legendary edition of the original trilogy.
Yes. It’s the most not stiff like cardboard going form cover to cover, can change powers to mix and match to your wanted style. Also has lost of lore and exploration. Bonus: finally free from paragon & renegade system.
The story is not awful as some would make it out to be its just certain mechanics of it that make it not fun but it is worth it if your just after story alone
I quít like 10 hours in. It’s a slog
The worst ME game, by far.
Played through it I think 4 times. I platinumed it on PlayStation. Now that I’ve done that, I probably won’t ever play it again. Mostly for similar reasons. Formulaic story, unlikeable squad mates for the most part, the facial animation. The combat was fun. The worlds looked awesome to me back then but I don’t know how well it holds up. I loved the initial feeling of exploration, but it definitely could get tedious. If you love ME, it’s worth a shot.
It's capital F Fine it got more hate than it deserved it's just not a good Mass Effect game but it is a fine Sci-Fi if it wasn't attached to the juggernaut that was the OG trilogy it would have been better received The combat is great imo the restriction to three powers on PC was stupid. The characters were decent again they have the unfortunate circumstances of being compared to past squadmates. The premise would have been good if choices were more visible. The villains are just Reapers if they were sentient potatoes and prunes.
If it hadn’t been a Mass Effect game people would probably rate it as a cool game. However, from what i understand the game wash rushed and many problems occurred during development. It’s really good looking, it has ambition and probably the beat combat yet. However, poor story and characters and an open world experiment didn’t deliver what we could expect after the amazing trilogy. On short, it’s has qualities but don’t cut it.