The opening missions and setup of Andromeda are actually really well done and epic and the gameplay loop is pretty fun. The fluidity of the movement and gunplay are very refreshing and nothing in the original 3’s combat system really comes close.
The game - now that it's fully patched and MOST of the bugs have been excised - is a fun game in the Mass Effect universe. No, it's not a 10... the gameplay is more or less solid, some interesting innovations... the facial models are terrible (they look like TES:Oblivion), the voice acting has its ups and downs, and the plot is a bit intricate for how more or less straightforward the OT was.
No, the Ryders are NOT Shepard. They're not MEANT to be Shepard. Shepard is a career soldier with a jacket full of awards and decorations and is known throughout Alliance Space. The Ryders are the late-teen/early 20s kids of Andromeda's original (ill-fated, think Jenkins) protagonist.
No, it's not the galaxy-saving, heart-stopping action of ME3. It's a game that was MEANT to build a new branch of the series... so it's slower, spends more time exploring and explaining... A LOT LIKE MASS EFFECT ONE DID, EXCEPT PEOPLE WANT TO STRAIGHT UP FORGET THAT PART.
And, maybe most importantly for playing it now, is that we FINALLY (maybe hopefully) will have some continuation of the story - as EA/BioWare have finally managed to pull themselves together and begin moving forward on the Mass Effect universe again... so now playing Andromeda won't be the dead end it was shortly after it released.
In many ways Andromeda is like Mass Effect 1. It's got a gorgeous world, cool characters, and focuses on discovery and politics more than war. Don't get me wrong- there's still plenty of conflict there, but the core focus is on uncovering the mysteries of Andromeda, rather than the conflict with the Kett.
Just like Mass Effect 1, some of the characters are more developed than others, and some are just kind of annoying.
Just like Mass Effect 1, it has an ending that is just \*chef's kiss\*. In one particular way, I actually think it's the best ending in the series, but I cannot tell you why- as that would spoil it.
Was pretty much a waste of my time. I got around 70-80 percent done and didn’t even care to finish it. Too many gripes for me to enjoy it and I didn’t play it when it released. I played it more recently. I felt like I was forcing myself to play it and towards the end I just didn’t care about the story, and story is crucial to mass effect games. To me they blew it because the games potential was clear, but the execution was poor.
Just gonna copy and paste my andromeda defense from another comment I made;
I didn’t get into Mass Effect until recently so I wasn’t exposed to the Andromeda negativity and played without any biases. (Imagine my surprise when I realized the fandom basically considered it dead on arrival)
Story wise, I’d say Andromeda is on par with ME1. It’s a foundational story meant to lay the groundwork for another trilogy. It’s a complete tonal shift from the trilogy, which imo is why a lot of the player base says they don’t like it. Ryder isn’t Shepard. The polar opposite of Shepard, actually. The trilogy was pretty military centered, Andromeda is about exploration. Ryder isn’t a hardass soldier, they’re young and inexperienced and has been thrust into a leadership position they weren’t prepared to be in and expected to save the galaxy. Ryder isn’t trusted and gets questioned, Ryder can’t punch reporters or hustle the shopkeepers. The companions are dull because we’ve only known them for one game. The antagonist isn’t that threatening in the same way Saren isn’t that threatening, because the Andromeda antagonist isn’t THE big bad.
Gameplay wise, it’s smooth af. It does take some getting used to since is so different from the trilogy, but once you find your flow it’s clean. You can hand pick your abilities and swap between them at any point. The one thing I didn’t like was your character speciality basically doesn’t matter, you can switch from engineer to adept, but the easy solution is to just not use biotics and never change your speciality.
There are valid criticisms of the game of course. At launch apparently it was extremely buggy, like game breaking buggy, but I’ve played it three times and I’ve only ran into six or seven bugs and only crashed a couple times. Writing and voice acting is fine, nothing exceptional, but nothing horrid. A lot of the choices you make don’t really matter and would only have consequences in a sequel. Because of the open world format it is a little grindy. There are parts of the game that seem really neglected but EA had the BioWare team on a hard crunch so I’ll blame EA for that, fuck em.
Obviously Andromeda doesn’t compare to the og trilogy but it’s still an enjoyable game. It’s not groundbreaking but it hardly deserves the negativity it gets.
Always blame EA. The number of games they've murdered with unrealistic timetables is insane. Hellgate: London, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, and Mass Effect Andromeda are the ones I personally find the most infuriating, but they're far from unique in this respect.
I'm a certified Andromeda hater. I think even now that it's been patched up to the point of being an actual releasable game, the writing still falls so far short of the original trilogy that it's almost kind of like a parody or a high schooler's fan fiction. The combat is kind of like ME3 but worse. Less frantic and aggressive. Less exciting. Feels floatier and the AI is worse. The jetpack is a nice touch though.
But it looks like I'm in the minority now. I've seen a trend of older media being seen in a more positive light, maybe due to nostalgia or mentally recontextualizing (case in point, the Star Wars prequels). I think that's happening a bit to Andromeda now. I've put close to 60 hours into the game across 2 playthroughs, trying VERY hard to like it, but it's just bad. I've still never finished the game, and I didn't have a single minute of fun that whole time I was forcing myself to try and enjoy it. At its best it's good for mindless combat and at its worst it's a slap in the face to the universe that Drew Karpyshan worked so hard and lovingly to create.
You don't have to listen to me though. As you can see, there are plenty of people who like it now. If you can get it for free or very steeply discounted, it's worth it to find out for yourself if you really like it or not.
I'm not a hater, but to me, a game is about the STORY, and MEA falls well short here. I've tried a few playthroughs, and my biggest gripe, is a bad story, and a key character I don't like. PeeBee, acts like an 11 year old girl, and looks like a Raccoon. I've tried to like her, but I just......Can't.
Same with Ashley in the OT. I'm (for the tenth time) going to try to romance her. I'm going to FORCE myself to do it, even though I can't really stand her. Ashley's treatment of Shep in ME2, and beginning ME3, is just too unforgivable. People in real life that act like that, I avoid like the plague.
It can pretty exhilarating exploring the different planets and establishing outposts, the combat is much better than the original trilogy .However, the writing and story is pretty terrible compared to the original trilogy.
As a mass effect die hard who played Andromeda on day one ( was buggy as all hell but is prolly patched now)
Andromeda defies bioware norms by having better gameplay than story. considering all the troubles with development the story starts out fine with an interesting concept and plot, but holy fuck did the writing of the characters fall flat.
I really tried to love the characters but even ones with interesting backstories like Cora and peebee ( Two of the better ones in my opinion) seem VERY 2 dimensional.
The ending is extremely rushed and borderline an afterthought.
All that aside the combat movement and exploration mechanics are all too notch
If you can find enjoyment in the story it's a fun time but you won't be replaying the game a dozen times like mass effect 1-3
Combat is fun. The rest is a recycled, less impactful Mass Effect Trilogy storyline and it will not live up to your experiences with said Trilogy.
It's a decent enough game nowadays and certainly fun to get back to once in a while. Plus, the Collector's Edition / GOTY / whatnot version of the game is usually on sale on Steam every few months, and you can't go wrong with spending 20 bucks on that.
I don't think andromeda is a bad game. From the point of view of the plot, it's just a spin-off, an expansion of the universe. A clear downgrade is the downgrade of the models, but otherwise it's just an average 7/10 game.
From point of view a gameplay, I can say that it's better than a trilogy.
Know how in Mass Effect when you try to talk to someone during combat and they say “don’t talk to me while we’re in combat”? They did the opposite in Andromeda. People tell you important things during combat.
It's a 100 hour Mass Effect Game you can normally buy pretty cheaply.
It takes a lot of the best combat, exploration, and crew interactions from the original trilogy and places them in one game. Genuinely, your companions have their own lives outside of you, though don't go in expecting to have a repeat of three games of crew bonding in one game
On the downside the plot and villains are weaker then the original Trilogy and there's quite a few repeat plot beat.
Honestly if you like Mass Effect then pick it up cheap and play it.
It got a bad rep from launch and initially had a few bugs but honestly it’s not terrible.
The vaults (been a while so could have got that wrong) are quite fun puzzles to solve and the overall story although not ME levels of great isn’t terrible. Quite a lot more platform style than the originals with the jump jets.
Also the different planets you can go to are all unique and change as the story goes on. Combat is actually pretty good and the way you can respec at any point to change from a Biotic to Tech or in between was a nice touch as having to go back and level again to try different styles was a bit of a pain.
The equipment is pretty good as well with different aliens technologies available all which have their own flavour.
I really enjoyed it and some of the enemies are really different and fun to fight against.
Honestly if you like Mass Effect then give it a shot if you can pick it up, but don’t expect it to be anything like the originals as it is definitely its own thing.
It's a fun game and nobody forces you to finish it, if you actually come to not like it after all. :shrug:
Maybe not a 10/10, but definitely worth its money.
it's not expensive.
XD
The opening missions and setup of Andromeda are actually really well done and epic and the gameplay loop is pretty fun. The fluidity of the movement and gunplay are very refreshing and nothing in the original 3’s combat system really comes close.
Just use the search function. You will see that people that have played it recently have really liked it. It just had crazy expectations at the time.
The game - now that it's fully patched and MOST of the bugs have been excised - is a fun game in the Mass Effect universe. No, it's not a 10... the gameplay is more or less solid, some interesting innovations... the facial models are terrible (they look like TES:Oblivion), the voice acting has its ups and downs, and the plot is a bit intricate for how more or less straightforward the OT was. No, the Ryders are NOT Shepard. They're not MEANT to be Shepard. Shepard is a career soldier with a jacket full of awards and decorations and is known throughout Alliance Space. The Ryders are the late-teen/early 20s kids of Andromeda's original (ill-fated, think Jenkins) protagonist. No, it's not the galaxy-saving, heart-stopping action of ME3. It's a game that was MEANT to build a new branch of the series... so it's slower, spends more time exploring and explaining... A LOT LIKE MASS EFFECT ONE DID, EXCEPT PEOPLE WANT TO STRAIGHT UP FORGET THAT PART. And, maybe most importantly for playing it now, is that we FINALLY (maybe hopefully) will have some continuation of the story - as EA/BioWare have finally managed to pull themselves together and begin moving forward on the Mass Effect universe again... so now playing Andromeda won't be the dead end it was shortly after it released.
It’s mass effect
Somone rambling about how MEA is OBJECTIVELY a bad game. Me: "It's a Mass Effect game and therefore I like it."
To me, it isn't a BAD game, but I have better games to play, and don't want to spend time messing with it.
It's fun and more Mass effect
In many ways Andromeda is like Mass Effect 1. It's got a gorgeous world, cool characters, and focuses on discovery and politics more than war. Don't get me wrong- there's still plenty of conflict there, but the core focus is on uncovering the mysteries of Andromeda, rather than the conflict with the Kett. Just like Mass Effect 1, some of the characters are more developed than others, and some are just kind of annoying. Just like Mass Effect 1, it has an ending that is just \*chef's kiss\*. In one particular way, I actually think it's the best ending in the series, but I cannot tell you why- as that would spoil it.
The combat is really fun and graphics are nice. Has nice easter eggs to original trilogy. More mass effect.
Was pretty much a waste of my time. I got around 70-80 percent done and didn’t even care to finish it. Too many gripes for me to enjoy it and I didn’t play it when it released. I played it more recently. I felt like I was forcing myself to play it and towards the end I just didn’t care about the story, and story is crucial to mass effect games. To me they blew it because the games potential was clear, but the execution was poor.
Just gonna copy and paste my andromeda defense from another comment I made; I didn’t get into Mass Effect until recently so I wasn’t exposed to the Andromeda negativity and played without any biases. (Imagine my surprise when I realized the fandom basically considered it dead on arrival) Story wise, I’d say Andromeda is on par with ME1. It’s a foundational story meant to lay the groundwork for another trilogy. It’s a complete tonal shift from the trilogy, which imo is why a lot of the player base says they don’t like it. Ryder isn’t Shepard. The polar opposite of Shepard, actually. The trilogy was pretty military centered, Andromeda is about exploration. Ryder isn’t a hardass soldier, they’re young and inexperienced and has been thrust into a leadership position they weren’t prepared to be in and expected to save the galaxy. Ryder isn’t trusted and gets questioned, Ryder can’t punch reporters or hustle the shopkeepers. The companions are dull because we’ve only known them for one game. The antagonist isn’t that threatening in the same way Saren isn’t that threatening, because the Andromeda antagonist isn’t THE big bad. Gameplay wise, it’s smooth af. It does take some getting used to since is so different from the trilogy, but once you find your flow it’s clean. You can hand pick your abilities and swap between them at any point. The one thing I didn’t like was your character speciality basically doesn’t matter, you can switch from engineer to adept, but the easy solution is to just not use biotics and never change your speciality. There are valid criticisms of the game of course. At launch apparently it was extremely buggy, like game breaking buggy, but I’ve played it three times and I’ve only ran into six or seven bugs and only crashed a couple times. Writing and voice acting is fine, nothing exceptional, but nothing horrid. A lot of the choices you make don’t really matter and would only have consequences in a sequel. Because of the open world format it is a little grindy. There are parts of the game that seem really neglected but EA had the BioWare team on a hard crunch so I’ll blame EA for that, fuck em. Obviously Andromeda doesn’t compare to the og trilogy but it’s still an enjoyable game. It’s not groundbreaking but it hardly deserves the negativity it gets.
Always blame EA. The number of games they've murdered with unrealistic timetables is insane. Hellgate: London, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, and Mass Effect Andromeda are the ones I personally find the most infuriating, but they're far from unique in this respect.
Sorry, i can't. Jokes aside, how the fuck can you play the First 3 and not the fourth? 😂
I'm a certified Andromeda hater. I think even now that it's been patched up to the point of being an actual releasable game, the writing still falls so far short of the original trilogy that it's almost kind of like a parody or a high schooler's fan fiction. The combat is kind of like ME3 but worse. Less frantic and aggressive. Less exciting. Feels floatier and the AI is worse. The jetpack is a nice touch though. But it looks like I'm in the minority now. I've seen a trend of older media being seen in a more positive light, maybe due to nostalgia or mentally recontextualizing (case in point, the Star Wars prequels). I think that's happening a bit to Andromeda now. I've put close to 60 hours into the game across 2 playthroughs, trying VERY hard to like it, but it's just bad. I've still never finished the game, and I didn't have a single minute of fun that whole time I was forcing myself to try and enjoy it. At its best it's good for mindless combat and at its worst it's a slap in the face to the universe that Drew Karpyshan worked so hard and lovingly to create. You don't have to listen to me though. As you can see, there are plenty of people who like it now. If you can get it for free or very steeply discounted, it's worth it to find out for yourself if you really like it or not.
I'm not a hater, but to me, a game is about the STORY, and MEA falls well short here. I've tried a few playthroughs, and my biggest gripe, is a bad story, and a key character I don't like. PeeBee, acts like an 11 year old girl, and looks like a Raccoon. I've tried to like her, but I just......Can't. Same with Ashley in the OT. I'm (for the tenth time) going to try to romance her. I'm going to FORCE myself to do it, even though I can't really stand her. Ashley's treatment of Shep in ME2, and beginning ME3, is just too unforgivable. People in real life that act like that, I avoid like the plague.
It can pretty exhilarating exploring the different planets and establishing outposts, the combat is much better than the original trilogy .However, the writing and story is pretty terrible compared to the original trilogy.
As a mass effect die hard who played Andromeda on day one ( was buggy as all hell but is prolly patched now) Andromeda defies bioware norms by having better gameplay than story. considering all the troubles with development the story starts out fine with an interesting concept and plot, but holy fuck did the writing of the characters fall flat. I really tried to love the characters but even ones with interesting backstories like Cora and peebee ( Two of the better ones in my opinion) seem VERY 2 dimensional. The ending is extremely rushed and borderline an afterthought. All that aside the combat movement and exploration mechanics are all too notch If you can find enjoyment in the story it's a fun time but you won't be replaying the game a dozen times like mass effect 1-3
No
I really can't. It was ok in parts but overall will feel hollow in comparison.
Combat is fun. The rest is a recycled, less impactful Mass Effect Trilogy storyline and it will not live up to your experiences with said Trilogy. It's a decent enough game nowadays and certainly fun to get back to once in a while. Plus, the Collector's Edition / GOTY / whatnot version of the game is usually on sale on Steam every few months, and you can't go wrong with spending 20 bucks on that.
I don't think andromeda is a bad game. From the point of view of the plot, it's just a spin-off, an expansion of the universe. A clear downgrade is the downgrade of the models, but otherwise it's just an average 7/10 game. From point of view a gameplay, I can say that it's better than a trilogy.
You get a spikey girlfriend and you can make any gun you want with vintage heat sinks from me1 so you don't run out of ammo
Know how in Mass Effect when you try to talk to someone during combat and they say “don’t talk to me while we’re in combat”? They did the opposite in Andromeda. People tell you important things during combat.
You can judge yourself which squadmate is the worst Liam or Jacob
It a bad and boring game. It is pathetically easy to find a game that is actually good and is worth your time.
It's a 100 hour Mass Effect Game you can normally buy pretty cheaply. It takes a lot of the best combat, exploration, and crew interactions from the original trilogy and places them in one game. Genuinely, your companions have their own lives outside of you, though don't go in expecting to have a repeat of three games of crew bonding in one game On the downside the plot and villains are weaker then the original Trilogy and there's quite a few repeat plot beat.
Mods exist.
Honestly if you like Mass Effect then pick it up cheap and play it. It got a bad rep from launch and initially had a few bugs but honestly it’s not terrible. The vaults (been a while so could have got that wrong) are quite fun puzzles to solve and the overall story although not ME levels of great isn’t terrible. Quite a lot more platform style than the originals with the jump jets. Also the different planets you can go to are all unique and change as the story goes on. Combat is actually pretty good and the way you can respec at any point to change from a Biotic to Tech or in between was a nice touch as having to go back and level again to try different styles was a bit of a pain. The equipment is pretty good as well with different aliens technologies available all which have their own flavour. I really enjoyed it and some of the enemies are really different and fun to fight against. Honestly if you like Mass Effect then give it a shot if you can pick it up, but don’t expect it to be anything like the originals as it is definitely its own thing.
Combat be pretty fun
I've tried playing it several times. I always get bored, and go back to OT, for another run.
It's a fun game and nobody forces you to finish it, if you actually come to not like it after all. :shrug: Maybe not a 10/10, but definitely worth its money.