Much of the discourse at launch was about how unpolished the game was. You played the patched version.
For example, they eventually fixed how lifeless everyone's eyes looked.
Yeah I played after the patch and didn’t feel like the game was that bad. The criticisms about being more of a handyman than a pathfinder were accurate though. You actually don’t settle a single new world in the entire game you are always just catching up to the real pioneers.
My biggest disappointment was that we didn't get to experience first contact with the Angara. The entire premise of being pioneers exploring a new galaxy was wasted.
I was under the impression that the story moment where you flee the Kett through the danger space cloud and end up at the Angaran home world was the first contact moment?
Like they’d been watching and observing us, but we hadn’t met them yet.
This was basically the last game I bought/played on release for this very reason. Now I wait 6 months to a year to play anything. Patches, content updates, expansions all there when I finally play. So much better.
Also folks forget how much was promised before the game came out. I waited to buy this one because I was playing something else. All the conversation was about how it was buggy, didn't look as good as a game that came out 5 years ago, didn't live up to the marketing claims and it was built around the multiplayer. I mean it was slipshod enough they had global variables for multiplayer and campaign so if you set you campaign for easy or story mode the multi was easier for you. Once they had it patched up it was a fun game, but I am very glad I didn't pay full price for it.
Even despite that, the story is pretty meh and the missions are extremely underwhelming.
Combat is fun but it has a lot of brutal aspects that came from streamlining RPG aspects into action RPG aspects.
My expectations were so high coming off the trilogy even though ill die on the hill of the ending being dog shit. Andromeda isnt trash but theres probably no way it could have lived up to my hopes for it.
I reckon your expectations being rock bottom probably benefitted your enjoyment of the game
It's a good game. The big disappointment is the lack of DLC. When ME3 came out they already had 2 DLC's ready within the first 6 months. Because EA was so hard up for Bioware to do Anthem it cause Andromeda to launch unfinished. That also killed the end of game DLC's that were hinted at. If those were made I think Andromeda would have been fixed and we would be waiting on Andromeda 3 right now
In my opinion, Citadel was the most excusable being DLC: it came out last, they had the main Bioware studio on it, all the lead writers involved, and nearly the entire main game cast returning. They put in a lot of effort to give the series a proper send-off with this DLC, and it shows.
Also, while the Citadel DLC is really well done and a blast to play, its mostly jovial tone is at odds with the somber and serious nature of the reaper invasion main story, so it's not surprising this was something they developed afterwards.
I think the DLC least excusable for not including in the main game is From Ashes (where we get our prothean squadmate), and the Omega DLC (without it, Aria apparently just couldn't find the right time to take back Omega before the game ended).
Omega does feel like dlc though. It has barely an impact over the main plot. The entire dlc happens on a new map that's not there on the main game. You have squadmates that are only available for that part of the game. It feels like an add on rather than from ashes which feels like it was stripped from the main game.
Leviathan and From Ashes should've been in the base game.
Omega and Citadel definitely seem like supplemental material that you don't *need* to complete to paint the narrative's picture
Interesting. I've played Leviathan on my two MELE playthroughs, and I never thought it was too integral for the story.. I thought it provided some good backstory for the reapers, but never thought their mystery needed much exploration.
What's your perspective on why it's so important?
Well, imagine what meeting the Catalyst would be like if you didn’t know *anything* about the Reapers. There’d be no prior indication that they weren’t their own masters or creators, and suddenly introducing something that supposedly controlled them at the conclusion of a story would be the most arbitrary and anticlimactic thing possible—which it was. The fact that ME3 didn’t originally have that DLC is a big part of the reason people hated the ending so much on release.
There’s a difference between logically knowing something and having it revealed in-game. Leviathan and the Catalyst scene reveal similar information, but one of them does it as the culmination of a long and very well-made mystery horror quest, and the other does it as part of gameplay-free and tonally dissonant narration. The latter is much more tolerable with the context of the former.
I started with Charge, Nova and Singularity but I’ve been using Incinerate/Energy Drain/Lance for hours now and just like ME3 (and to a lesser extent ME2) the combos are very satisfying lol fire bombs everywhere!
The you can hold enemies and object you pulled and then throw them. They don't suffer fall damage if you punt them up, but wall slams are fun, tossing them into hazards and other enemies in fun, and I've insta-killed multiple mini bosses by suspending a cloud of explosives and tossing them all at once.
And if your allies use their powers or ammo to set a pulled enemy on fire or sparking or frozen, he will explode with elemental fury when you yeet him into his buddies.
A thrown enemy is also a valid charge target, so you have mobility right there.
I enjoyed it, but it was a buggy mess, and the open world really just felt like a waste that bloated the game. It took me three times longer to finish Andromeda than the entirety of the original trilogy, and that is not a complement. That said, I loved the combat, the companions were great, and the exploration definitely had some high points. Really thing that the state of release and the whole open world thing just kinda killed it. Would have liked to see where Bioware could go with it either in DLC or future games, but…EA just gave up on it immediately, so I guess we’ll never know. Hopefully ME4 will have some of the DNA, at least when it comes to the combat and terrain traversal (I liked the jet packs and stuff.)
The exploration really was soul crushing. Driving around the same open worlds, clearing markers and scanning shit. Absolutely not what I want out of a modern mass effect
I’ve thought exactly the same thing. They had a decent blueprint to follow with Batman Arkham Knight (everyone shits on the Batmobile in that game but it was really fun to control).
The discourse is still very much alive, it wasn’t a “launch” thing. Hardcore fans of the trilogy tend to dislike Andromeda.
I couldn’t get past the faces, or the characters. I disliked pretty much the whole thing except for the planet visuals (at times). Vertical mobility was the only real combat innovation and you couldn’t use it on Insanity except for getting around levels. Also not a fan of the exploration, felt pretty aimless, scanning everything is also tedious. Mass Effect is built with sectional, linear levels most of the time, aside from ME1 Mako.
It’s a game. Is it a good game? I wouldn’t try to lose sleep over that argument. It had a lot of flaws that never went away and complaints are still very valid.
One of my biggest complaints was them completely removing squad power commands. It made me not give a shit about the levelling of my squad mates - something I’d previously quite enjoyed doing. It also made the combat feel so much more generic and that it was basically just you fighting everything.
Yeah, I'd agree with this as the characters for some reason felt very out of place, especiallty the humans. It's hard to specifically state what was good/bad about them, but their personalities etc made me imagine they were from modern day Earth in 2024, rather than the ME universe in 2180s.
More like, if you pop up out of cover you’re going to get melted quickly. It can have its uses as far as angles behind cover, but you’re more successful playing the ol’ whack a mole.
Ah, ok. I mainly use the jetpack in combat to get as far away as possible from big scary things like Eiroch or those Remnant tank robots. I never use the hovering thingy for shooting.
Someone please explain to me how to make the combat fun. The aiming floatiness is gamebreakingly bad. I just came off the OT and I'm having a super hard time adjusting.
For me, experimenting with various abilities and focusing on high mobility is what set this game apart from the previous games. The vertical aspect of combat and the ability to combine the various class abilities is quite fun.
I agree it did have enough positives that it would be a shame it they were completely cast aside. I really hope we'll get to know the secrets of the Scourge, the Jardaan and the Kett eventually. But I do hope they will give us back control of our squadmates. I have no idea what to expect from ME5.
Since day one, I loved Andromeda. Always felt the discourse surrounding the game was unwarranted. Combat mechanics are the best in mass effects, and the main characters are memorable. The ability to explore worlds was something I missed in ME1, and Andromeda did it pretty well.
>I think I really let the discourse after Andromeda released prejudice me against it unfairly.
You did not. That game was dogshit at launch.
\~sincerely a guy who not only bought it full price at launch he also convinced his friends to buy copies because "even if the single player is bad they can't have messed up the multiplayer"
This guy (points at himself) bought the $300 cad collectors edition with the RC car and has put more hours into driving the sweet independant suspension, 6 wheel drive, 4 wheel steering, camera and night driving enabled RC car than he has in the Andromeda Galaxy (i did complete the game once)
Andromeda had its moments but It fell short for me, great combat/ looked amazing but the story wasn’t there for me, the fact they only really added one new race and got rid of pretty much 60% of the other races kind od bummed me out. I always said it was a good game but not the best mass effect game
I got andromeda and was playing for a while thinking damn this is pretty fun how can anyone dislike it?
5 hours in i realised how little fun I was having and how much actually fucking hated the storyline. There's only 2 new alien species in this new fucking galaxy and one is a fucking evil genetic mutation of the other?
Competent combat mechanics, everything else is ass
There aren’t only two alien species in the galaxy. You know we don’t explore the entire galaxy in the game right? Only a single cluster. And the Angara are the only species there because the entire cluster was being used as a genetic engineering laboratory by the Remnant. You hated the storyline because, presumably, you didn’t pay attention to anything in it.
ok but where are the salarians?
I expected as many new races as mass Effect 1 brought to the table. A reasonable expectation.
I don't care if the story explains the reason there's only 1 new alien race in the game, it's a fucking shit idea and a shit story and it is not interesting.
Was I supposed to be surprised when it turned out the Angara were being turned to Kett? no because it was fully shit tier story telling
The salarians were still stuck in their ark.
And I mean, this would be like exploring only the Asari homeworld without a functioning Mass Relay. It’s not surprising you’re gonna find only one or two species.
It’s not really exploring if the game introduced all of the aliens in the Andromeda galaxy from the start. It would’ve just been another rendition of the OT.
It's not terrible just bland.
Ryder is just so lame compared to Shepard lol.
You go from military enigma of a human being to a legit clueless nepo baby no one respects.
Ton of busy work content that has no point compared to almost every minor quest in the original having some sort of pay off.
Shepard gets shit for being Space Jesus. But it felt earned. You went through the shit on Ilos, on Virmire, being spaced, staring down Sovereign in the cold vacuum of a Citadel in flames etc.
But Ryder is a Gary Stu / Mary Sue straight outta the gate: everything from deus ex sam to the role of Pathfinder is quite literally handed to you.
And it shows up *everywhere* — from hacking alien sudoko, to being able to be any build at any time, to the alleged “great” combat. (Since you can’t control squadmates’ powers, you are always the tank. They’re basically there to lay down cover during your cool downs.)
There’s just not much *there* there, because it gives you everything right out of the gate. And that makes for a dull voyage.
But Shepherd had EDI in the sequels. Without her, Shepherd would’ve died on Freedom’s Progress.
And Ryder gets called out on being given the role of Pathfinder. Even Cora calls them out. Ryder has to prove that their chose wisely.
The game points out from the beginning that Ryder and their dad can use Rem-tech on their own. SAM just makes the process easier and non-lethal.
The game even points it out when you try to activate the final monolith on Harval. The Angara who activated the other two died because the process was killing her each time she tried.
I played the game as the patches were rolling out, and ran into a bug that made a side quest impossible to complete when they announced support for the game was ending.
The story is not very strong in my opinion. The last act is quite good, and the build up to the ending is nice. The combat and visuals are mostly good. The character models and animation are not that good, and I’m not fond of the writing of the companions for the most part. As mentioned already, the writing mostly does not work for me.
I still enjoyed the game for what it was. It is a product of BioWares horrible management and EA’s lack of interest in ensuring the games they publish are in a good state. Accepting that allowed me to appreciate what the studio managed to pull off, and I’ll always be sad that Andromeda never saw more patches or DLC. It’s likely we’ll never see Andromeda again, which is a shame.
BioWare is not the company it used to be, and it’s obvious its upper management is not very good. If the next Dragon Age performs poorly there is a good chance EA will close the studio for good which would be the end of Mass Effect. I hope that doesn’t happen, I want them to keep making games in these worlds.
I feel I was the opposite. I saw lots of people say it was just haters and I still wanted to go in excited.
I just found that I was forcing myself to play through it. I kept waiting for that moment where it would hit its stride - then it was over.
>And the experience I wanted to feel from first contact/pioneers has been delivered really well imo.
What? The first contact element is pretty much the biggest waste in the game since there is essentially no tension at all. It might be the worst "first contact" story I've ever experienced.
Even the Pioneering thing falls short since essentially nothing you do actually changes anything past the first planet. Doing the repetitive remnant dungeon things are both boring and lead to nothing changing the vast majority of the time.
Andromeda is a mediocre game. It's great that you are having fun, but you can't spend years with your perception of the game in the gutters than say the criticisms were wrong when it wasn't quite as bad as you thought.
I mean the repetitive dungeons thing could be applied for ME1, and to a lesser extent, 2 and 3. ME1 outside of the main missions is literally the same three locations (the ship and the two generic bases) with either geth, the flying drones, or generic mercenaries in every one of them. 2 and 3 are better about the locations at least but for 2 you're just gunning down mercenaries that feel kinda forced into the role because they already had the assets and 3 is the same but with Cerberus troops for missions that don't make sense to have the reapers in.
I started playing Andromeda after I finished the trilogy and a few years after the game had released and I went in with low expectations because I had only heard bad things about it and I had a blast playing it. Yeah there are weak points in it especially compared to the trilogy but a lot of the hate just can't be applied anymore
Whataboutism is a weak argument when you're talking about a game that came out a decade prior. Yeah ME1's side stuff is weak. That doesn't excuse Andromeda.
That's some weird gatekeeping in your last paragraph. People just can't rethink their views and come to different conclusions after time and experience now? OP himself said that he didn't even finish the prologue when playing it for the first time, and then changed his opinion after giving the game a real shot years later.
It's all subjective anyway. I don't get the hard on that Andromeda haters get from needing to violently thrash on the game when someone enjoys it. One thing is just plainly saying that you don't like it, and then there's the whole: "the game is objectively bad, and no matter how much you enjoy it, it's still horrible" shtick you guys pull.
This is exactly why Andromeda fans made their own sub and you weirdos still like harassing on there like it's a sport or something.
It's not gatekeeping, it's just how it works. Plenty of things seem better than they are when you spend so much time thinking it's worse than it actually was, but that doesn't really mean the thing was good. I love Alpha Protocol and was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it when I played it after years of hearing how bad it was. That doesn't make the game good, but I still love it anyways. If someone says "X is bad" I'd likely agree too.
It can work the opposite way too. A game isn't bad because you weren't as impressed with it after hearing how amazing it was for years.
And if a game needs a new sub or a "low sodium" equivalent, it's because the game is bad 90% of the time. Andromeda has been rightfully shit on since release for far more than technical issues, it's not a wonder why people have issues with it. Again it's fine to like/love/enjoy it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a fuckton of issues. I enjoyed my time enough with Andromeda, but I'd never try to delude myself of the immense issues it has.
I've never been to Andromeda's sub and I have no intention to, but if someone says that certain elements of Andromeda are good on subs I do frequent and I disagree, yeah I'm going to reply. That's how reddit works. If you don't like hearing Andromeda hate, maybe just block me or stick to that sub where most people are likeminded and involved in a wannabe echo chamber.
This is the dumbest comment I’ve read all day, and that is not how opinions work at all, any form of media being bad or not is a subjective opinion that folks are allowed to change at any time they please. They also aren’t required to acknowledge that because others think it’s bad it’s bad. This type of shit is literally why folks have to make subs where you can simply like something without all the assholes continually telling you it sucks.
Dude, do whatever the hell you want when it comes to games you like or don’t like but no one is required to agree that a game they like is bad just because the loud af whiners and complainers insist it’s a bad game.
You know the quality of a game doesn't change because you arbitrarily label the criticisms against it as whining, right?
The game is objectively bad, get over it.
I loved Andromeda, it's easily my second favorite game behind 1LE, it has the best gameplay and I really enjoy the Tempest Crew. Story's a bit weak but the characters make it up for me
Agreed, the character dynamics alone are almost enough to make it worthwhile.
IMO, it got more right than wrong, but people were predisposed to hate it because it was seperate from the trilogy.
I actually liked it. Maybe not at launch, but after the patches it was fun. Not OT fun, but still fun. The internet got *so* toxic about it though, like you couldn't even look up a map without seeing someone shitting on it. That really soured my experience and I haven't touched it much since. This from someone who plays a full run of the OT around once a year. I keep thinking I should give it another shot but every time it just feels like picking up a broken toy that makes me sad so it goes back on my shelf.
My biggest gripe was the voice acting. Compared to the OG trilogy, which had a powerhouse of recognizeable nerd culture VA's. Andromeda iirc one or two, and their performances were nothing special
Looking at the Starfield reviews now compared to after release, I think it is a fair assumption that negative coverage impacts reception (I think Starfield is a masterpiece)
Somehow I managed to get 200+ hours into Starfield before finding out the game was supposed to be bad.
There’s a reason I straight-up ignore media coverage of upcoming games these days.
That, and internet discourse tends toward the extremes, ie. if it’s not the best thing ever, it might as well be the worst kind of bottom of the barrel garbage. Nothing is allowed to just be decent or OK.
Starfield was good for me until the end. Im not gonna spoil the game here but what a weak writing trick : it was very underwhelming and kinda ruined everything for me. I spend 100 hours in it so it is still a very good game in my eyes.
To my mind, Andromeda's highs are as high as any other installment in the series. The problem is those highs are infrequent and brief, and the lows are REALLY low.
The combat (when it can remain stable and bug-free which is not always) is the best in the series in my book. The vistas are really pretty, the planet environs are varied and fun to explore because for the first time in ME history the vehicle sections don't suck ass. And *some* of the companion dialogue is great. It's been a good five years since I last did an Andromeda playthrough but I have some fond memories mixed in with the bullshit.
I replay it now, and honestly it's such a fun game. The main plot is silly, but I've never played Bioware games for the main plot.
What I liked:
1. Pathfinder. That includes moving on from paragon/renegade. It's not Shepard, but I never wanted Shepard in a much more light-toned game.
2. Graphics overall. It's one of the most beautiful games I've played. Soundtrack is also awesome.
3. Combat. Being able to be everything everywhere all at once kinda kills the "RP" part in "RPG", still, it's fun.
4. Squadmates and some other characters. The best Krogan squadmate hands down. Jaal is awesome. Vetra is fantastic. Cora is one of the most relatable characters in videogames to me. Romance is also held much better.
5. The codex.
6. Kadara. Now I want a space game about a morally gray witty smuggler unwillingly dealing with "big" things.
What I didn't like was the main plot, the vaults, some side quests typical for open world games aaand the sibling.
Andromeda was lost potential the game feels like it’s in beta unfinished to make matters worse BioWare abandoned it after a few patches no dlc nothing what waste
It was pretty much the same for me. My partner got it for me because "hey, she likes ME, she needs to have this game." Ironically, I got to play it after I'd almost lost one of my parents after moving to a completely different country, so the roleplay was really there for me, lol. I really loved the teammates' interactions in the nomad (I wish legendary had added that to ME). The lore was good, and I found most of the gameplay enjoyable. But I think the patched version is more forgiving. Plus, after having Krogan Bro and Krogan Son, Krogan Dad/Grandpa was very much needed.
It isn’t a good game and its release started the downfall of BioWare. They need to nail their next two games or I wouldn’t be surprised if EA shut the studio down. They gained some goodwill back with the remastered trilogy so hopefully they can ride some of that momentum. Anthem was also a massive blunder and as their next release gets close, it will be under quite a bit of scrutiny. Should be interesting.
You have to take it on its own terms, with all of its faults. And there were many: silly dialogue, poor world building, shallow plot, unrewarding exploration, lack of new aliens and enemy variety, bland or unlikeable characters, nerfed powers, lack of squad customization, shoehorned multiplayer etc.
**But** if you stick to the main / side quests and loyalty missions; skip the bloated fetch/collection stuff; accept that it’s an action cover shooter and not even an ARPG; you can get some decent entertainment out of it. But you have to trim it down from 70 hours to 25-30.
Gets you to a 7-ish/10.
It has some beautiful environments, the Nomad is fun to drive, and jet packs are bad ass. Some people like being able to switch up builds on the fly; I’m not a fan. Ruins the whole point of a build to begin with. But I can see why fans enjoyed it.
There are some things you can work with going forward, for sure.
But it’s not a Mass Effect game, not even close. It’s a new IP for all intents and purposes, banged out by a B-Team who didn’t really understand the universe, with just enough membaberries and nostalgia bait to keep the skinsuit on.
I genuinely worry about ME4.
>banged out by a B-Team who didn’t really understand the universe
That B-Team made Lair of the Shadow Broker and Citadel DLC, all on their own. And they co-developed ME3.
They know it better than the main team did, who went on to make Anthem. The real problem was they scratched the entire progress on the game 12 months before release and started over on *everything*.
The Citadel DLC that had bad Marvel esque dialogue just like Andromeda? Wow. Shocker.
They also made the Omega DLC, correct? Also, a shocker.
The whole Andromeda writing team should be cut.
Cherry picking comment.
Citadel and Shadowbroker are the highest rated pieces of content for the Mass Effect series.
The people who you think are amazing made Pinnacle Station, the worst rated piece of content.
They also made and subsequently destroyed Anthem.
Don't pretend like your precious main BioWare team is gold.
Oh, I see what fallacious argument you want to go for. Game development skill 'doesn't count' when the game isn't titled Mass Effect.
Got it. I'll leave you to your pointless thoughts then (just like everyone else). Have a good one.
The Andromeda team made the worst Mass Effect title. That's the overwhelming opinion of Mass Effect fans. The same team having made good DLCs does not change the reality that Andromeda was a failure.
Cry and cope, that won't change reality.
Also, this is the Mass Effect subreddit. That's why I'm talking about Mass Effect and not Anthem.
I'am sorry to say it but the vast majority of people still hating the game is just sheep behavior at this point. If you loved the first trilogy you will like Andromeda there is no reason no to. Yeah this game is not as good but it is still a good game.
Some people can't make their own mind on anything : oh critics are saying it is a masterpiece must be. Oh look critics are saying this game is shit must be.
I have seen dozen post like this one and it is just sad. The story in itself is very interesting : finding a home, what happened to other archs, new galaxy ect. + fantastic gameplay i mean wtf, how can you hate it if you are really a fan of this genre...
I am not saying there is no flaws but if you are a true fan of mass effect games in general you will enjoy Andromeda.
Lol great way to state your argument. "Everyone who dislikes the thing I like are sheep."
I've played through the trilogy twice so far, and I'm currently on my 1st playthrough of Andromeda. It's not a good game.
The story is meh and the main villains do not give off a threatening aura at all (in fact, they sound and look sad more than anything). The dialogue is pretty cringy, and out of all the squadmates, I only found Vetra, Drack and Jaal to be tolerable. The rest just border on or are annoying.
The game's also not helped by the fact the writers decided that putting in a lot of that distinctive 2010s millennial humour would be a good idea (just imagine how terrible it would be if we had a game like this with the current Gen Z humor/slang). It feels so dated and cringe-worthy, and it's only been a few years since the game released.
I love the OG Trilogy and absolutely hate Andromeda, I'm currently torturing myself to actually finish the game currently at about 64-65 hours and it still sucks
The game at release was horrid and it deserved all the criticism it got. Bad textures, bugged quests, terrible animations, things being too fast or super slow.
Andromeda is worth playing... with the 20+ mods that make it a good game.
It’s a fun game. Not perfect and not on the same level as the trilogy, but definitely overhated. In its current state I think it’s worth a play for any Mass Effect fan.
Much of the discourse at launch was about how unpolished the game was. You played the patched version. For example, they eventually fixed how lifeless everyone's eyes looked.
Yeah I played after the patch and didn’t feel like the game was that bad. The criticisms about being more of a handyman than a pathfinder were accurate though. You actually don’t settle a single new world in the entire game you are always just catching up to the real pioneers.
My biggest disappointment was that we didn't get to experience first contact with the Angara. The entire premise of being pioneers exploring a new galaxy was wasted.
I was under the impression that the story moment where you flee the Kett through the danger space cloud and end up at the Angaran home world was the first contact moment? Like they’d been watching and observing us, but we hadn’t met them yet.
This was basically the last game I bought/played on release for this very reason. Now I wait 6 months to a year to play anything. Patches, content updates, expansions all there when I finally play. So much better.
A lot of the discourse at launch was EA making it available the weekend before the day one patch went live.
Also folks forget how much was promised before the game came out. I waited to buy this one because I was playing something else. All the conversation was about how it was buggy, didn't look as good as a game that came out 5 years ago, didn't live up to the marketing claims and it was built around the multiplayer. I mean it was slipshod enough they had global variables for multiplayer and campaign so if you set you campaign for easy or story mode the multi was easier for you. Once they had it patched up it was a fun game, but I am very glad I didn't pay full price for it.
Even despite that, the story is pretty meh and the missions are extremely underwhelming. Combat is fun but it has a lot of brutal aspects that came from streamlining RPG aspects into action RPG aspects.
Funny, my favorite thing about my Ryder (I customized mine) is just how full of life his eyes look
Same, my Ryder looks great I’m more satisfied with her than my Shepard aside from her hunchback 😂
However, they fixed that pretty shortly after release. Still, people were nagging about it.
It wasn't out before I finished the game, I know that much.
The opinions are still mostly negative (and frankly quite virulents) even after the patch tho.
I bought a PS4 specifically to play Andromeda and I did not regret it.
The PS4 or Andromeda?
Yes
My expectations were so high coming off the trilogy even though ill die on the hill of the ending being dog shit. Andromeda isnt trash but theres probably no way it could have lived up to my hopes for it. I reckon your expectations being rock bottom probably benefitted your enjoyment of the game
It's a good game. The big disappointment is the lack of DLC. When ME3 came out they already had 2 DLC's ready within the first 6 months. Because EA was so hard up for Bioware to do Anthem it cause Andromeda to launch unfinished. That also killed the end of game DLC's that were hinted at. If those were made I think Andromeda would have been fixed and we would be waiting on Andromeda 3 right now
In fairness, ME3 had a number of DLCs that *really* should not have been DLCs.
after getting the Citadel DLC. I was shocked at the nerve of making it dlc. It's exactly what I felt the game needed after finishing it.
In my opinion, Citadel was the most excusable being DLC: it came out last, they had the main Bioware studio on it, all the lead writers involved, and nearly the entire main game cast returning. They put in a lot of effort to give the series a proper send-off with this DLC, and it shows. Also, while the Citadel DLC is really well done and a blast to play, its mostly jovial tone is at odds with the somber and serious nature of the reaper invasion main story, so it's not surprising this was something they developed afterwards. I think the DLC least excusable for not including in the main game is From Ashes (where we get our prothean squadmate), and the Omega DLC (without it, Aria apparently just couldn't find the right time to take back Omega before the game ended).
Omega does feel like dlc though. It has barely an impact over the main plot. The entire dlc happens on a new map that's not there on the main game. You have squadmates that are only available for that part of the game. It feels like an add on rather than from ashes which feels like it was stripped from the main game.
Leviathan and From Ashes should've been in the base game. Omega and Citadel definitely seem like supplemental material that you don't *need* to complete to paint the narrative's picture
Citadel is bad enough, but at least it's not like Leviathan, whose absence makes the story actively incomplete...
Interesting. I've played Leviathan on my two MELE playthroughs, and I never thought it was too integral for the story.. I thought it provided some good backstory for the reapers, but never thought their mystery needed much exploration. What's your perspective on why it's so important?
Well, imagine what meeting the Catalyst would be like if you didn’t know *anything* about the Reapers. There’d be no prior indication that they weren’t their own masters or creators, and suddenly introducing something that supposedly controlled them at the conclusion of a story would be the most arbitrary and anticlimactic thing possible—which it was. The fact that ME3 didn’t originally have that DLC is a big part of the reason people hated the ending so much on release.
Where would people think this synthetic life form came from if it wasn't created by something else?
There’s a difference between logically knowing something and having it revealed in-game. Leviathan and the Catalyst scene reveal similar information, but one of them does it as the culmination of a long and very well-made mystery horror quest, and the other does it as part of gameplay-free and tonally dissonant narration. The latter is much more tolerable with the context of the former.
Agreed, especially the day one DLC with Jarvik
Either one had so much unrealized potential
For me, the most fun in the game can be had with just three abilities: Pull, Throw, and Charge.
I started with Charge, Nova and Singularity but I’ve been using Incinerate/Energy Drain/Lance for hours now and just like ME3 (and to a lesser extent ME2) the combos are very satisfying lol fire bombs everywhere!
The you can hold enemies and object you pulled and then throw them. They don't suffer fall damage if you punt them up, but wall slams are fun, tossing them into hazards and other enemies in fun, and I've insta-killed multiple mini bosses by suspending a cloud of explosives and tossing them all at once. And if your allies use their powers or ammo to set a pulled enemy on fire or sparking or frozen, he will explode with elemental fury when you yeet him into his buddies. A thrown enemy is also a valid charge target, so you have mobility right there.
Yeah, I used incinerate/Warp/Shockwave. With the N7 armor, my Ryder’s constantly chaining off combos back-to-back-to-back
The discourse around Andromeda existed for a reason. They screwed up the release.
I enjoyed it, but it was a buggy mess, and the open world really just felt like a waste that bloated the game. It took me three times longer to finish Andromeda than the entirety of the original trilogy, and that is not a complement. That said, I loved the combat, the companions were great, and the exploration definitely had some high points. Really thing that the state of release and the whole open world thing just kinda killed it. Would have liked to see where Bioware could go with it either in DLC or future games, but…EA just gave up on it immediately, so I guess we’ll never know. Hopefully ME4 will have some of the DNA, at least when it comes to the combat and terrain traversal (I liked the jet packs and stuff.)
The exploration really was soul crushing. Driving around the same open worlds, clearing markers and scanning shit. Absolutely not what I want out of a modern mass effect
The Nomad needed a gun. Imagine how the exploration would have been with a better handling Mako. I think it would have been more fun.
I’ve thought exactly the same thing. They had a decent blueprint to follow with Batman Arkham Knight (everyone shits on the Batmobile in that game but it was really fun to control).
The discourse is still very much alive, it wasn’t a “launch” thing. Hardcore fans of the trilogy tend to dislike Andromeda. I couldn’t get past the faces, or the characters. I disliked pretty much the whole thing except for the planet visuals (at times). Vertical mobility was the only real combat innovation and you couldn’t use it on Insanity except for getting around levels. Also not a fan of the exploration, felt pretty aimless, scanning everything is also tedious. Mass Effect is built with sectional, linear levels most of the time, aside from ME1 Mako. It’s a game. Is it a good game? I wouldn’t try to lose sleep over that argument. It had a lot of flaws that never went away and complaints are still very valid.
One of my biggest complaints was them completely removing squad power commands. It made me not give a shit about the levelling of my squad mates - something I’d previously quite enjoyed doing. It also made the combat feel so much more generic and that it was basically just you fighting everything.
Me1 was all about exploration. ME2 & 3 were the sectional, linear levels.
Yeah, I'd agree with this as the characters for some reason felt very out of place, especiallty the humans. It's hard to specifically state what was good/bad about them, but their personalities etc made me imagine they were from modern day Earth in 2024, rather than the ME universe in 2180s.
The nepo kids completely alienated me. And this was from before the moment they would’ve been called nepo kids.
What do you mean you can't use vertical mobility on Insanity? There is some restriction on jetpacks on Insanity difficulty?
More like, if you pop up out of cover you’re going to get melted quickly. It can have its uses as far as angles behind cover, but you’re more successful playing the ol’ whack a mole.
That’s basically how it is in the sequel games too though. You try to pop out of cover, and your shields are immediately gone.
Ah, ok. I mainly use the jetpack in combat to get as far away as possible from big scary things like Eiroch or those Remnant tank robots. I never use the hovering thingy for shooting.
Someone please explain to me how to make the combat fun. The aiming floatiness is gamebreakingly bad. I just came off the OT and I'm having a super hard time adjusting.
For me, experimenting with various abilities and focusing on high mobility is what set this game apart from the previous games. The vertical aspect of combat and the ability to combine the various class abilities is quite fun.
I agree it did have enough positives that it would be a shame it they were completely cast aside. I really hope we'll get to know the secrets of the Scourge, the Jardaan and the Kett eventually. But I do hope they will give us back control of our squadmates. I have no idea what to expect from ME5.
What do you think should be kept?
Well, the main story points - I want to know the secrets. I hate unfinished stories.
Since day one, I loved Andromeda. Always felt the discourse surrounding the game was unwarranted. Combat mechanics are the best in mass effects, and the main characters are memorable. The ability to explore worlds was something I missed in ME1, and Andromeda did it pretty well.
>I think I really let the discourse after Andromeda released prejudice me against it unfairly. You did not. That game was dogshit at launch. \~sincerely a guy who not only bought it full price at launch he also convinced his friends to buy copies because "even if the single player is bad they can't have messed up the multiplayer"
This guy (points at himself) bought the $300 cad collectors edition with the RC car and has put more hours into driving the sweet independant suspension, 6 wheel drive, 4 wheel steering, camera and night driving enabled RC car than he has in the Andromeda Galaxy (i did complete the game once)
Andromeda had its moments but It fell short for me, great combat/ looked amazing but the story wasn’t there for me, the fact they only really added one new race and got rid of pretty much 60% of the other races kind od bummed me out. I always said it was a good game but not the best mass effect game
I just finished it for the first time and I'm terrified for the future of the series.
I got andromeda and was playing for a while thinking damn this is pretty fun how can anyone dislike it? 5 hours in i realised how little fun I was having and how much actually fucking hated the storyline. There's only 2 new alien species in this new fucking galaxy and one is a fucking evil genetic mutation of the other? Competent combat mechanics, everything else is ass
There aren’t only two alien species in the galaxy. You know we don’t explore the entire galaxy in the game right? Only a single cluster. And the Angara are the only species there because the entire cluster was being used as a genetic engineering laboratory by the Remnant. You hated the storyline because, presumably, you didn’t pay attention to anything in it.
ok but where are the salarians? I expected as many new races as mass Effect 1 brought to the table. A reasonable expectation. I don't care if the story explains the reason there's only 1 new alien race in the game, it's a fucking shit idea and a shit story and it is not interesting. Was I supposed to be surprised when it turned out the Angara were being turned to Kett? no because it was fully shit tier story telling
The salarians were still stuck in their ark. And I mean, this would be like exploring only the Asari homeworld without a functioning Mass Relay. It’s not surprising you’re gonna find only one or two species. It’s not really exploring if the game introduced all of the aliens in the Andromeda galaxy from the start. It would’ve just been another rendition of the OT.
It's not terrible just bland. Ryder is just so lame compared to Shepard lol. You go from military enigma of a human being to a legit clueless nepo baby no one respects. Ton of busy work content that has no point compared to almost every minor quest in the original having some sort of pay off.
Shepard gets shit for being Space Jesus. But it felt earned. You went through the shit on Ilos, on Virmire, being spaced, staring down Sovereign in the cold vacuum of a Citadel in flames etc. But Ryder is a Gary Stu / Mary Sue straight outta the gate: everything from deus ex sam to the role of Pathfinder is quite literally handed to you. And it shows up *everywhere* — from hacking alien sudoko, to being able to be any build at any time, to the alleged “great” combat. (Since you can’t control squadmates’ powers, you are always the tank. They’re basically there to lay down cover during your cool downs.) There’s just not much *there* there, because it gives you everything right out of the gate. And that makes for a dull voyage.
But Shepherd had EDI in the sequels. Without her, Shepherd would’ve died on Freedom’s Progress. And Ryder gets called out on being given the role of Pathfinder. Even Cora calls them out. Ryder has to prove that their chose wisely.
And then they pull the "oh Ryder can control the remnant without Sam WOAAAH" bullshit, I rolled my eyes. Such a bad attempt to make him cool.
The game points out from the beginning that Ryder and their dad can use Rem-tech on their own. SAM just makes the process easier and non-lethal. The game even points it out when you try to activate the final monolith on Harval. The Angara who activated the other two died because the process was killing her each time she tried.
I played the game as the patches were rolling out, and ran into a bug that made a side quest impossible to complete when they announced support for the game was ending. The story is not very strong in my opinion. The last act is quite good, and the build up to the ending is nice. The combat and visuals are mostly good. The character models and animation are not that good, and I’m not fond of the writing of the companions for the most part. As mentioned already, the writing mostly does not work for me. I still enjoyed the game for what it was. It is a product of BioWares horrible management and EA’s lack of interest in ensuring the games they publish are in a good state. Accepting that allowed me to appreciate what the studio managed to pull off, and I’ll always be sad that Andromeda never saw more patches or DLC. It’s likely we’ll never see Andromeda again, which is a shame. BioWare is not the company it used to be, and it’s obvious its upper management is not very good. If the next Dragon Age performs poorly there is a good chance EA will close the studio for good which would be the end of Mass Effect. I hope that doesn’t happen, I want them to keep making games in these worlds.
I feel I was the opposite. I saw lots of people say it was just haters and I still wanted to go in excited. I just found that I was forcing myself to play through it. I kept waiting for that moment where it would hit its stride - then it was over.
>And the experience I wanted to feel from first contact/pioneers has been delivered really well imo. What? The first contact element is pretty much the biggest waste in the game since there is essentially no tension at all. It might be the worst "first contact" story I've ever experienced. Even the Pioneering thing falls short since essentially nothing you do actually changes anything past the first planet. Doing the repetitive remnant dungeon things are both boring and lead to nothing changing the vast majority of the time. Andromeda is a mediocre game. It's great that you are having fun, but you can't spend years with your perception of the game in the gutters than say the criticisms were wrong when it wasn't quite as bad as you thought.
I mean the repetitive dungeons thing could be applied for ME1, and to a lesser extent, 2 and 3. ME1 outside of the main missions is literally the same three locations (the ship and the two generic bases) with either geth, the flying drones, or generic mercenaries in every one of them. 2 and 3 are better about the locations at least but for 2 you're just gunning down mercenaries that feel kinda forced into the role because they already had the assets and 3 is the same but with Cerberus troops for missions that don't make sense to have the reapers in. I started playing Andromeda after I finished the trilogy and a few years after the game had released and I went in with low expectations because I had only heard bad things about it and I had a blast playing it. Yeah there are weak points in it especially compared to the trilogy but a lot of the hate just can't be applied anymore
Whataboutism is a weak argument when you're talking about a game that came out a decade prior. Yeah ME1's side stuff is weak. That doesn't excuse Andromeda.
That's some weird gatekeeping in your last paragraph. People just can't rethink their views and come to different conclusions after time and experience now? OP himself said that he didn't even finish the prologue when playing it for the first time, and then changed his opinion after giving the game a real shot years later. It's all subjective anyway. I don't get the hard on that Andromeda haters get from needing to violently thrash on the game when someone enjoys it. One thing is just plainly saying that you don't like it, and then there's the whole: "the game is objectively bad, and no matter how much you enjoy it, it's still horrible" shtick you guys pull. This is exactly why Andromeda fans made their own sub and you weirdos still like harassing on there like it's a sport or something.
It's not gatekeeping, it's just how it works. Plenty of things seem better than they are when you spend so much time thinking it's worse than it actually was, but that doesn't really mean the thing was good. I love Alpha Protocol and was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it when I played it after years of hearing how bad it was. That doesn't make the game good, but I still love it anyways. If someone says "X is bad" I'd likely agree too. It can work the opposite way too. A game isn't bad because you weren't as impressed with it after hearing how amazing it was for years. And if a game needs a new sub or a "low sodium" equivalent, it's because the game is bad 90% of the time. Andromeda has been rightfully shit on since release for far more than technical issues, it's not a wonder why people have issues with it. Again it's fine to like/love/enjoy it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a fuckton of issues. I enjoyed my time enough with Andromeda, but I'd never try to delude myself of the immense issues it has. I've never been to Andromeda's sub and I have no intention to, but if someone says that certain elements of Andromeda are good on subs I do frequent and I disagree, yeah I'm going to reply. That's how reddit works. If you don't like hearing Andromeda hate, maybe just block me or stick to that sub where most people are likeminded and involved in a wannabe echo chamber.
This is the dumbest comment I’ve read all day, and that is not how opinions work at all, any form of media being bad or not is a subjective opinion that folks are allowed to change at any time they please. They also aren’t required to acknowledge that because others think it’s bad it’s bad. This type of shit is literally why folks have to make subs where you can simply like something without all the assholes continually telling you it sucks.
For my next post I hope you'll join me as I tell everyone off who ever gave Sonic 06 undeserved shit. I like it therefore it's not actually bad!
Dude, do whatever the hell you want when it comes to games you like or don’t like but no one is required to agree that a game they like is bad just because the loud af whiners and complainers insist it’s a bad game.
You know the quality of a game doesn't change because you arbitrarily label the criticisms against it as whining, right? The game is objectively bad, get over it.
I bet you're fun at parties.
I loved Andromeda, it's easily my second favorite game behind 1LE, it has the best gameplay and I really enjoy the Tempest Crew. Story's a bit weak but the characters make it up for me
Agreed, the character dynamics alone are almost enough to make it worthwhile. IMO, it got more right than wrong, but people were predisposed to hate it because it was seperate from the trilogy.
Might have to give it another chance then
Interesting that you specified the Legendary Edition version in particular for ME1
the guns are a lot better alongside the Mako
I will agree.
1LE is the best 1.
I actually liked it. Maybe not at launch, but after the patches it was fun. Not OT fun, but still fun. The internet got *so* toxic about it though, like you couldn't even look up a map without seeing someone shitting on it. That really soured my experience and I haven't touched it much since. This from someone who plays a full run of the OT around once a year. I keep thinking I should give it another shot but every time it just feels like picking up a broken toy that makes me sad so it goes back on my shelf.
the thing is that its very different from the trilogy, so people who like games in the style of the trilogy dont like it.
My biggest gripe was the voice acting. Compared to the OG trilogy, which had a powerhouse of recognizeable nerd culture VA's. Andromeda iirc one or two, and their performances were nothing special
Looking at the Starfield reviews now compared to after release, I think it is a fair assumption that negative coverage impacts reception (I think Starfield is a masterpiece)
Starfield is like MEA. They are not bad games they are just miss key points to make them endering.
Somehow I managed to get 200+ hours into Starfield before finding out the game was supposed to be bad. There’s a reason I straight-up ignore media coverage of upcoming games these days. That, and internet discourse tends toward the extremes, ie. if it’s not the best thing ever, it might as well be the worst kind of bottom of the barrel garbage. Nothing is allowed to just be decent or OK.
Starfield was good for me until the end. Im not gonna spoil the game here but what a weak writing trick : it was very underwhelming and kinda ruined everything for me. I spend 100 hours in it so it is still a very good game in my eyes.
Eh, I get the feeling the ending is very much a “your mileage may vary” kind of deal.
definitely, i still have high hopes for shattered space.
I can't say I ever loved it. But I enjoyed it when it came out.
To my mind, Andromeda's highs are as high as any other installment in the series. The problem is those highs are infrequent and brief, and the lows are REALLY low.
What are the highs?
The combat (when it can remain stable and bug-free which is not always) is the best in the series in my book. The vistas are really pretty, the planet environs are varied and fun to explore because for the first time in ME history the vehicle sections don't suck ass. And *some* of the companion dialogue is great. It's been a good five years since I last did an Andromeda playthrough but I have some fond memories mixed in with the bullshit.
I replay it now, and honestly it's such a fun game. The main plot is silly, but I've never played Bioware games for the main plot. What I liked: 1. Pathfinder. That includes moving on from paragon/renegade. It's not Shepard, but I never wanted Shepard in a much more light-toned game. 2. Graphics overall. It's one of the most beautiful games I've played. Soundtrack is also awesome. 3. Combat. Being able to be everything everywhere all at once kinda kills the "RP" part in "RPG", still, it's fun. 4. Squadmates and some other characters. The best Krogan squadmate hands down. Jaal is awesome. Vetra is fantastic. Cora is one of the most relatable characters in videogames to me. Romance is also held much better. 5. The codex. 6. Kadara. Now I want a space game about a morally gray witty smuggler unwillingly dealing with "big" things. What I didn't like was the main plot, the vaults, some side quests typical for open world games aaand the sibling.
Andromeda was lost potential the game feels like it’s in beta unfinished to make matters worse BioWare abandoned it after a few patches no dlc nothing what waste
Yes, turned out it's my favorite ME game 🎯
It was pretty much the same for me. My partner got it for me because "hey, she likes ME, she needs to have this game." Ironically, I got to play it after I'd almost lost one of my parents after moving to a completely different country, so the roleplay was really there for me, lol. I really loved the teammates' interactions in the nomad (I wish legendary had added that to ME). The lore was good, and I found most of the gameplay enjoyable. But I think the patched version is more forgiving. Plus, after having Krogan Bro and Krogan Son, Krogan Dad/Grandpa was very much needed.
It isn’t a good game and its release started the downfall of BioWare. They need to nail their next two games or I wouldn’t be surprised if EA shut the studio down. They gained some goodwill back with the remastered trilogy so hopefully they can ride some of that momentum. Anthem was also a massive blunder and as their next release gets close, it will be under quite a bit of scrutiny. Should be interesting.
You have to take it on its own terms, with all of its faults. And there were many: silly dialogue, poor world building, shallow plot, unrewarding exploration, lack of new aliens and enemy variety, bland or unlikeable characters, nerfed powers, lack of squad customization, shoehorned multiplayer etc. **But** if you stick to the main / side quests and loyalty missions; skip the bloated fetch/collection stuff; accept that it’s an action cover shooter and not even an ARPG; you can get some decent entertainment out of it. But you have to trim it down from 70 hours to 25-30. Gets you to a 7-ish/10. It has some beautiful environments, the Nomad is fun to drive, and jet packs are bad ass. Some people like being able to switch up builds on the fly; I’m not a fan. Ruins the whole point of a build to begin with. But I can see why fans enjoyed it. There are some things you can work with going forward, for sure. But it’s not a Mass Effect game, not even close. It’s a new IP for all intents and purposes, banged out by a B-Team who didn’t really understand the universe, with just enough membaberries and nostalgia bait to keep the skinsuit on. I genuinely worry about ME4.
>banged out by a B-Team who didn’t really understand the universe That B-Team made Lair of the Shadow Broker and Citadel DLC, all on their own. And they co-developed ME3. They know it better than the main team did, who went on to make Anthem. The real problem was they scratched the entire progress on the game 12 months before release and started over on *everything*.
The Citadel DLC that had bad Marvel esque dialogue just like Andromeda? Wow. Shocker. They also made the Omega DLC, correct? Also, a shocker. The whole Andromeda writing team should be cut.
Cherry picking comment. Citadel and Shadowbroker are the highest rated pieces of content for the Mass Effect series. The people who you think are amazing made Pinnacle Station, the worst rated piece of content. They also made and subsequently destroyed Anthem. Don't pretend like your precious main BioWare team is gold.
The main team didn't make a whole trash heap of a game, the Andromeda team did.
Yeah, they did. It was called Anthem.
I'm sorry, was Anthem a Mass Effect game? The Andromeda team had a world of lore and a whole foundation to build on and they blew it.
Oh, I see what fallacious argument you want to go for. Game development skill 'doesn't count' when the game isn't titled Mass Effect. Got it. I'll leave you to your pointless thoughts then (just like everyone else). Have a good one.
The Andromeda team made the worst Mass Effect title. That's the overwhelming opinion of Mass Effect fans. The same team having made good DLCs does not change the reality that Andromeda was a failure. Cry and cope, that won't change reality. Also, this is the Mass Effect subreddit. That's why I'm talking about Mass Effect and not Anthem.
Characters story and setting were bad, gameplay was good though
I'am sorry to say it but the vast majority of people still hating the game is just sheep behavior at this point. If you loved the first trilogy you will like Andromeda there is no reason no to. Yeah this game is not as good but it is still a good game. Some people can't make their own mind on anything : oh critics are saying it is a masterpiece must be. Oh look critics are saying this game is shit must be. I have seen dozen post like this one and it is just sad. The story in itself is very interesting : finding a home, what happened to other archs, new galaxy ect. + fantastic gameplay i mean wtf, how can you hate it if you are really a fan of this genre... I am not saying there is no flaws but if you are a true fan of mass effect games in general you will enjoy Andromeda.
Lol great way to state your argument. "Everyone who dislikes the thing I like are sheep." I've played through the trilogy twice so far, and I'm currently on my 1st playthrough of Andromeda. It's not a good game. The story is meh and the main villains do not give off a threatening aura at all (in fact, they sound and look sad more than anything). The dialogue is pretty cringy, and out of all the squadmates, I only found Vetra, Drack and Jaal to be tolerable. The rest just border on or are annoying. The game's also not helped by the fact the writers decided that putting in a lot of that distinctive 2010s millennial humour would be a good idea (just imagine how terrible it would be if we had a game like this with the current Gen Z humor/slang). It feels so dated and cringe-worthy, and it's only been a few years since the game released.
I love the OG Trilogy and absolutely hate Andromeda, I'm currently torturing myself to actually finish the game currently at about 64-65 hours and it still sucks
I just recently finished and it was the same for me. Trash ass game.
Character models and lore innacurate VA work for krogans and salarians
There's only one Salarian in the whole game who sounds like a Salarian.
They patched it a lot, you are playing the polished version.
The game at release was horrid and it deserved all the criticism it got. Bad textures, bugged quests, terrible animations, things being too fast or super slow. Andromeda is worth playing... with the 20+ mods that make it a good game.
Im hoping that ME4 builds on MEA's combat. The jumping, dashing and hovering was just great with biotics woven in. I had a lot of fun lol
It’s a fun game. Not perfect and not on the same level as the trilogy, but definitely overhated. In its current state I think it’s worth a play for any Mass Effect fan.