Did you know that Cora used to be an Asari Commando? Apparently she has some really rare dialogue where she tells you that she used to live and train with the Asari. Supposedly only happens in like 90% of the conversations you have with her.
It's really amazing how they put these little sprinkles of added info in, right? The game also lets you find out that Vetra has a younger sister she raised pretty much on her own, but you have to really dig for that one.
@@minenhledlamini334 Tbh I always found Cora, of all people, idolizing someone to this extent just ridiculous. Hero worship is something children or the generally naive do. The fact that Cora, a pragmatic spec ops officer respected for her professional and calculating nature, worships someone to this degree and then stays salty about having her bubble burst for almost the rest of the game makes me think the writing department probably had a "bring your kids to work" day at some point...
"All the great Bioware villains like Saren, the Illusive Man, Loghain, Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2, and Mac Walter, lead writer of Mass Effect 3." I died here hahaha
The only thing is that games are subjective. One person might hate a game, but another person loves it. Or a game that is considered mediocre by many could be a masterpiece to someone else or another group of people, or a game that is considered a masterpiece, others will think is overrated/overhyped or terrible. I can use Batman: Arkham Knight as an example. A lot of people hate the batmobile stuff in Arkham Knight and think it's overused. But then there is me. I played Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City so much that I loved the batmobile parts. It's a nice change to the gameplay/combat. Then throw in that a lot of people kept thinking that the batmobile was the only kind of transportation and were trying to twist stuff like the game was forcing you to drive the batmobile everywhere and you couldn't glide. But I mostly stuck to gliding around the city/map instead of using the batmobile as often as others. My first playthrough (and I've played Arkham Knight a whole bunch of times), I only ever used the batmobile during main story missions where you HAD to use it, or for Riddler trophies, or a couple side missions. Other than that, I barely used it. Once in a while I did use the batmobile as transportation to get around the city/map. But from the sounds of it, everyone is making it seem like the game made you use the batmobile for EVERYTHING. But a lot of people consider Arkham Knight to be the second worst Batman: Arkham game (the worst is Batman: Arkham Origins). But for me, I love Arkham Knight and enjoy it as much as the other Arkham games. There is other reasons too that people dislike Arkham Knight, although I'm fine with everything else they complain about. So games are subjective. Any/every game can be considered mediocre. And I'm not factoring in the trolls or haters/those that hate on something to be cool. I'm just looking at honest opinions. With honest opinions alone, ALL games are fair to be called mediocre.
@@projectpat8807 "Any/every game can be considered mediocre." I believe you missed the obvious implication that kind of renders that entire monster wall irrelevant... Someone who's a fan of Mass Effect, will expect a Mass Effect game. It's a ""Mass Effect"" game. Pretty much THE worst writing in the entire series, bland characters, bland story, bland protagonist, no impact of note, packed full of dull sidequests. It's decent in combat/builds, and it's got some fun concepts and decent moments. But overall as a game it's "ok" to pretty decent, and as a Mass Effect game it's a disaster.
@@higueraft571 it was a “mass effect” game but it was its own mass effect game. Not mass effect 4. When not comparing it to three of the best rpgs ever made in video games i think it was pretty good. I played it as its own game seated in the lore of the ME universe and I think because of that I highly enjoyed it. Also because the combat was on point and not many deny it that.
@@projectpat8807 exactly games and even movies are subjective it goes back to the old expression one man's trash is another man's treasure. You can't please everyone all the time
@@MrMonro27 It was a mass effect game but following a different storyline than the first three of course it will have it's hard difficulties the only thing that concerned me about the entire mass effect franchise was if going to the Andromeda Galaxy was even a possibility and they left during the adventures of ME2 than why not have all the humans,turians, Assari,salarians, and all other races just do that leaving the reapers with an empty galaxy when they got there it would have still given Comander Shepard a good story where he or she could have help the ryder characters including Alec to get all the races settled in Andromeda. Quite plainly to me the third game was not really necessary but then again I am not really fond of closed world games Andromeda had a very open world for players to explore and even write their own stories based on what they chose to do when dealing with the krogans on eledaan (sorry if I spelled that wrong)
My biggest problem with Andromeda was the promise of being the first to explore or make contact or whatever and instead you spend the whole game cleaning up other people's messes.
@Ihsan ryder did not make first contact with the Kett, they were attacking the Nexus people for months before she arrives. The angara also encountered the exiles of the nexus first, though ryder was the first milky way person to go to Aya.
@@roguegn Shepard was already a renowned war hero by the time you "take control", as well as an N7 Special forces officer. Ryder is just some kid thrown into boots bigger than their feet and they have to learn to grow into them as well as prove themselves to everyone who expected someone greater (Their dad).
Oh my God I know it's one of the things that pissed me off so much because every fucking asari had the exact same goddamn face besides PB hell if you look at the original trilogy even asari characters that aren't really important to the main story or or that are just sidecares had a different look to them making them unique and different like look at Aria or Samara or liara they all are different from each other.
@@raywalker8367 Aria, Samara and Liara (I think also Tela Vasir and Tevos) all had a special face model. The rest had stock variations, probably based on female human faces. But they looked different. In Andromeda every Asari is Lexi (except for PB).
@@KrutoiPersonazh All looks the same except the humans lol the female salarians the only difference is the voice, damn, the rest of the species has the same model, it just varies only tatoos or colours sadly, even the Angaras.
The one thing ME:A did for me was show how good the combat could have been in the original trilogy. The abilities really highlighted how pigeon-holed the first games were in combat.
The Legendary Edition drives that point home even further when you play the games back to back. ME1 and 2 combat feels so clunky by comparison. I just made it to ME3 and the combat feels like a breath of fresh air by comparison, and it's still not near the level of combat in ME:A. Andromeda did in fact have some things going for it that sadly got overlooked due to its other lackluster elements.
@@V4EVega ya I'm currently in ME:A after playing ME2 and 3 and I just feel everything all over again. Being super excited by the combat but really not wanting anything to do with the writing or choices. The story has so much potential but between dialogue and a lack of choices, it doesn't feel right. But the only reason I stopped being a soldier for my ME2 and 3 play through was because ME:A was so good.
IIRC only the 3rd game was done in the Frostbite engine (the one used for Battlefield as well) which is why it's game play is miles above the 2, however, this meant that you lost a lot of "RPG"-ness in the last game. Honestly, if the characters and the world of ME were not top notch, I think the inconsistent game play of the trilogy would turn people away.
@@NewbOoyNS Frostbite only came into play for Andromeda. The trilogy actually ran on Unreal Engine 3, which honestly makes the vast difference in gameplay between them that more jarring in a lot of ways. I 100% agree with you that if it wasn't for the characters and world being so great, players would have revolted at how inconsistent the gameplay was as a whole. But I suppose that's one of the benefits with working with a particular engine for so long, you end up with time to learn it well. I actually finished up the LE and did decide to pick up Andromeda again and something about Frostbite feels..... hollow? I can't really think of a better way to describe if. It's almost like the characters lack a sense of weight. It's somehow less noticeable to me with my own party because you have the jumpjet as an excuse as to why you can zip around. But when you see the Kett executing similar moves in combat without jets it's a bit jarring to me. Obviously it's because it's all part of the animations and combat mechanics implemented, but its throwing me off and I honestly didn't really pay attention to it the first time around.
@@NewbOoyNS LOL what kinda hot take is this? Good combat Loss of RPGness. Plenty of gamers have associated jank with RPGs because a lot of early RPGs had nothing but jank. But 3 wasn't any less of an RPG than 1. You still had plenty of dialogue options, 3's skill trees were even bigger than 2's and harkened back to 1's. You even had really deep weapon and loadout customization in 3 that allowed you to either be a biotic god or a walking tank, or something in between.
My biggest beef with the story was you arrive in a brand new galaxy...and there's already people waiting for you at the non-citadel. Killed the frontier spirit for me. Then we meet a brand new alien race...that are 2-eyed bipedal humanoids. Was hoping for something wild similar Hanar or Elcor.
I definitely approve of more tentacle and non-humanoid aliens. Although apparently the skeleton rigging of hanar is a lot more "expensive" or taxing on gameplay systems than simple bipeds. Unless I made it up in my mind a long time ago, I think there's video out there somewhere of a dev playing around with a hanar model while testing MP stuff. A hanar being able to hold like 4 pistols simultaneously or something would be badass. Honestly don't know why Blasto in the Citadel dlc is the only time we see a hanar dual wielding pistols, and its during a cutscene on a movie set. An unfortunate belief among certain writers/devs is that players can't connect with or relate to non-humanoid characters so that's another reason we see so few non-humanoids.
@@BradTheAmerican isn’t that a psychological thing? lol i swear i read a study on this and it pointed that we’re more sympathetic towards humans or some can’t remember since it was years ago
@@ij7697 It is. Humanoid Aliens are so prevalent, because we can connect and empathize with them easier. You go for Hanar-like aliens if you need a mysterious villain or just some background species. Having a tentacle blob as one of the major companion races would be incredibly difficult to pull off
@@ij7697 Yea I've heard it a lot but I just don't buy that is has any sort of significant validity. If people in general had trouble sympathizing with non-humans or non-humanoids, then a large chunk of children's fiction would be dead on arrival, yet it's some of the most financially successful stuff on the market. Finding Nemo is a story about a dad and his kid, it doesn't matter that they're fish. How many Disney films alone have some form of sentient household items, toys, cars, animals, etc. I doubt anyone's complaints about those movies are ever about a character's lack of human-ness.
Ryder at the end-game is very confident though. Ryder also starts Andromeda 10 years younger than Shepard was at the start of Mass Effect 1. We watch Ryder grow in confidence in the game.
You mean the orchestrated fanboi hatchet job? There were three triple A games that year that were TOTAL DIARRHOEA and were given more chance than Andromeda. It was a deliberate attempt to destroy the game, cleverly done and all the idiots just followed on. Most of them never even played Andromeda.
I would say the DLC probably would have just tied up a lot of loose ends and answered a bunch of questions. Unfortunantly EA decided that despite the game selling fairly well but not making all the money on earth, and receiving harsh criticism that it was better to just scrap all future DLC. All we got was a mega content drop for the multiplayer that was generic as generic can be. Here guys 16000 new cards 95% of it are just extra levels for characters and 3 identical variants of the same guns already in the game, enjoy...
@@SvenTviking I've just done another playthrough of Andromeda and while a have a better appreciation for it the second time around a lot of the criticism was well deserved.
@@frankieseward8667 Yeah well. Game had flaws. Characters were sadly bland(and this is why bioware got into a decline- used to make amazing characters) Gameplay was nice too, if a bit buggy. Story....was well....abysmal. Overal it wasnt a bad game.....but when a AAA dev (even if offshoot) makes a mediocre game it doesnt bode too well for the firm. You could tell this though- ME andromeda was a test for the engine for anthem....And anthem turned out to be gobshite. That is the problem though- when a dev looses their defining quality, their shtick, their gimmick they loose themselves.
@@cactusmann5542 Some of the same issues were part of this and Anthem (and some in DA:I). Being forced to use a brand new graphics engine that wasn't really designed for this type of game, EXCESSIVE Over-hyping, and locking themselves into an iron-clad release date so theycouldn't say "We found some problems and need to work them out" The facial animations were a problem that could be seen in the release announcement, but they'd already announced the release date so EA went "It'll be fine!" It wasn't fine. And instead of buckling down, explaining things and fixing it they acted like "You don't like it? Fine we'll not going to do anything else with it then!"
Cora isn't bad looking, i don't call people ugly in general, but i do think they did better on her than they did sarah ryder. Ryder's oufits are better, but cora's outfit is cool too and her physical build is better than ryder's too. If modding was a thing on console, i actually would have model swapped (if that kind of mod exists) ryder for hers.
I remember having a conversation with Cora and she was pissed that Ryder was chosen as the Pathfinder instead of her. And I remember Ryder's ultimate response was, "Well my dad picked me." And her response? "You're absolutely right. Totally my b." And that was the end of the discussion. It reminded me of the time I told Ashley I didn't want her on the Normandy, and she fired back with a defense. We had an actual disagreement, and continued to butt heads throughout her time aboard. But she always followed orders. That was so much more satisfying then the way, most of the "disagreements" were handled in Andromeda. There was a snarky remark made by Ryder, or an npc, and then a handwave response from either Ryder or an npc, and it was over. To be clear, I didn't want constant hostility or negativity, but I wanted conversations and relationships that felt, at the least, realistic. There's none of that in Andromeda. It all just feels like the barest of gameplay mechanics; these conversations and relationships are there, because they're part of the game, and that's all. I had a real friendship with Chakwas, Joker, Garrus, Liara and Kaidan. Wrex and I had mutual respect, that turned into a friendship. I didn't agree with Ashley, probably didn't even like her, nor she me, but we worked together and got shit done. I took a tough love approach with Jack, like she was my bratty teen daughter, and it paid off. I fought with Mordin all the time over the ethics of the genophage, and in the end, I hope I was his friend. Andromeda had none of these complex, realistic interactions. I think the fact that when I talk about playing as Ryder I refer to him as Ryder, but when I talk about playing Shepard I use "I" or "Me/My," speaks volumes about the different characters. One is someone you play, the other is one you identify with. Meaningful conversations and actions go a long way.
Exactlyyyy. I remember playing ME3 for the very first time, and in ME2 I had romanced Thane. I remember crying when Thane ended up dying on the third one. Literally sitting there with my tears welding. And Mass effect 2 and 1 were literally apart of me, since my dad had played it, and then my sister did, and then eventually I did, and it was so good. Every single game was so good. The fact every single choice you made MATTERED. If you managed to destroy the batarians homeworld in ME2 ALL THE BATARIANS WOULD HATE YOU IN ME3. Certain people, places and things follow you throughout every game and import. The way that ME3 has literally FIVE ENDINGS. So much about that game was brilliant, perfect, just the right amount of combat, action, and even romance and friendship and comradery. A perfect mix for me and will always be a masterpiece. And then there's... "Trash Effect Blandromeda"... LOL What I have confusion with is why ask in the beginning of the same what gender was Commander Shepard only for there to be no traces of them, not even a small amount? Just small Easter eggs here and there and Dr. Liara T'Soni's logs. I don't have a problem with me no longer being able to play with commander Shepard, but the fact that the storyline of the game was so basic and terrible, and that the gameplay was repetitive (the only good thing about ME:A was it's combat variety except for me hating certain controls) Ryder has the potential to be their own character, but enough of that wasn't well shown throughout the game. The fact that some of the characters are literally a snore fest and you barely interact with them well enough just drains me of energy. A game should keep me engaged not put me to sleep.
I was hoping to find this comment. I really, really liked Andromeda for a lot of reasons, but the forced friendship with everyone honestly pissed me off the most. For me, it was Liam and Peebee. They both went way too far on their loyalty missions (Liam even before and after it, but different story) and I desperately wanted Ryder to grow a pair and be an actual officer in charge. Of course you get the option to reprimand them for their actions right after their missions are over, but after that... nothing changed. Literally every character becomes your bestie even if you strictly choose to be professional only/distant with them. It's infuriating tbh. You can't lose anyone's loyalty either. Help Drack with his loyalty mission and you're set. You can leave his scouts behind on the Salarian ark and make every decision from here on against the Krogan and their, _HIS_, colony. He'll still treat you like the best thing since omni gel. Same with Jaal. The game gives you the option to treat him, his people and his opinions like absolute crap, but once you finish his loyalty mission he literally doesn't care anymore. Remember when loyalty was a fragile thing you could actually lose if you made one bad move too many? When your literal second in command could choose to no longer be loyal to you because you decided to side with someone she utterly despises in a conflict? That's how it should have been. They really should have kept it like that and the fact that they didn't will never sit well with me.
@@antediluvianatheist5262 All of them were "rushed" tho. That's not an excuse. Look up the developers (some have channels on very UA-cam), where they share the horror stories that was development at BioWare. BioWare was a talented team of devs, but not a good company from a business perspective. Literally after the first ME launched, the company imploded. Merging with another studio. A lot of the original team then left. The drama continued into ME2 and onward, and the eventual EA acquisition was the cherry on that cake. Andromeda was bad for other reasons.
The WTF moment for me was when I was talking with Addison, and he congratulated me on the Eos mission. He then plastered my achievement all over the Nexus. Then the Krogan and Turian (Khan? See I can't even remember their names. That never happens in the other games) crashed our conversation, and accused Addison of favoring humans, and cutting them out of the greater plans. I tried both dialog approaches but the result is always the same. They magically chill out and wait and see. 🤷♂️
I initially didn’t do a complete playthrough, when Andromeda first came out because I got bored after Eos, but decided to go back and finish it when the Legendary Edition was announced and set to release. I have to say, a lot of the criticism was justified but I wouldn’t necessarily call the game “trash”, there were some great ideas put into the game in terms of combat, exploration, class system, etc. One particular thing I liked about the game was that they made both the male and female characters related to each other, which was something that BioWare never did with the previous Mass Effect games. While I didn’t like the fact that the Nomad has no weapons on it, it definitely handled so much better than the Mako. It would have been nice to see some sort of a follow up to Andromeda, to allow BioWare to kind of improve many things that were wrong with Andromeda but I wonder how Mass Effect 4 will integrate elements and story from both the trilogy and Andromeda together.
Andromeda was kind of a struggle, game is like 80+ hours long if you try to 100% it. Which by comparison that's about how long it takes to 100% the entire original trilogy.
@@Shishomuru which would be difficult to do because it’s not that side missions were hard, to me, a decent amount of the side missions came off as just tedious. One thing that was kind of interesting was that you couldn’t complete certain side missions until you progressed through a certain portion of the main story.
@@D-Skotes you do make a fair point, but it still maintains that Mass Effect element and Lorre, I’m more curious how BioWare is going to implement areas of Andromeda into Mass Effect 4.
@@D-Skotes storywise and lore are the real problem, but the premise is really good. Different from the og trilogy this game has more in common with Lost in Space and Stargate, than with the Star Wars / Star Trek from the previous. I love the whole exploration and the side quests are a bit tedious after while but, they do connect with the main plot. This isn't a bad game, it just isn't Mass Effect.
I actually really loved the fact that my crew had no confidence in Ryder, because it was so realistic. They were following your parent, and not you. You were given your incredibly important job just because you were related to the person in charge, who was now dead. Shepard had been serving in the alliance for many years. However... that sort of conflict usually is concluded with a huge redemption arc of people telling you that they were wrong, and/or treating you in a more diplomatic fashion. That didn't seem to happen, as far as I can recall (I only played through it once at 100% years ago). With that said, just let me romance a salarian for once and I'll be good 🤣
Dude thats not the problem. The problem is ryders dialogue itself. There just isnt any real choice on how he will act. He always acts like a fking pus*y no matter what you do
Yea but we weren’t given option to be a prick at them as a mainly renegade shep this had me fuming as I wanted to let my crew know I don’t give a shot about them or there opinions
This remembers me a sega game, Valkyria Chronicles, where you are given command in a similar way , being a young boy the veterans don't respect you, but challenge them , if they win the battle with your crazy plan, they will get in line, and they come to accept you because you showed competence to command. Interesting enough all soldiers have some perks and quircks, some can play better or worse with teamates, or in certain terrains/circunstances. But is a tactical game anyway.
With the "Big" choices, They were probably going to have the consequences in the (Now trashed) sequel. But with no sequel to show what how what we did affected anybody, they feel empty.
While this is true, the first ME still had consequences. Kaiden or Ashley died, for example. I always felt bad about that. There aren’t any equivalent gut-wrenching choices in ME:A
They hinted that the next game is sequel to both ME3 and MEA, no idea how but that "Ark 6" might have something to do with it. So there is a chance we'll get to see those consequences.
@@RaRmAn I really hope you're right. Andromeda had issues but I felt like it was easily good enough to warrant the sequels. If it was a new franchise I suspect people would have raved about it, expectation killed it off...
@@adeptdamage3669 Not disagreeing with that, but Andromeda had plenty of potential. Series like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed get new releases most months it seems and very few of their games are half as good as Andromeda. I mean...Star Wars Battlefront got a sequel and that barely even qualifies as a game.
Imagine this. You step onto Eden Prime for the first time, with Kaiden and Jenkins, minutes into the game Shepard tackles Jenkins to the ground and gets shredded by the geth drones instead. Jenkins ends up seeing the Prothean's vision and for some reason he ends up in charge of the Normandy This is the situation Ryder finds himself in, Unprepared, untested and with great expectations suddenly dropped on his shoulders. It makes sense in my opinion that Ryder doesn't get the same respect as Shepard
exactly. at the start of ME1, shepard has years of combat experience and has at least one great feat attributed to them by the start of the game. meanwhile, Ryder is just a recon specialist with the bare minimum of combat experience who happens to have a cool dad. Ryder isn't the Shepard- Alec is. and ryder wasn't even SUPPOUSED to be Alec's replacement. they literally did not ask for this job.
That was roughly my opinion of Ryder as well. He had to fight for every scrap of respect because he is untested. It made enough sense I never had to question it.
@@spacezombie13 That's one of the reasons I actually really liked Ryder. Shepard in the first game had already been in the Alliance Navy for 11 years. They're an enlisted officer and due to their "great feat" in the earlier years they were invited to and graduated from the N7 program, which is something deemed exceptionally difficult. Their skills are precisely why they're considered for SPECTRE status. So we have this big, elite, highly trained "best of the best" special forces type versus a 22 year old with experience as either an archaeologist or....A security guard on a Mass Relay. The twins still do have a bit of N7 training from their dad, but that's about it.
It's called roleplaying I wanna be a badass Ryder tht even if he lacks experience he will not be stepped over by his squadmates and other ppl. But you can't roleplay which is an issue unlike in the original.
That would have been a very clever idea. It makes sense that (as Big Dan shows) your team don't take the Ryder kid seriously at the start, but if you step up and get stuff done/make hard choices then you should get more respect and more flexibility, similar to earlier loyalty mechanics. Irrespective of *what* you chose. That would contrast with Shepherd who starts ME as a respected and experienced Commando and is instead more affected by the content/morality of their choices.
My problem with Adromeda is the fact that you're not only "finding a new home" but "saving the galaxy" They made all the planets somehow lived in AND new. The game couldn't find the right atmosphere. What If instead, they made it where things get worse and worse and worse. Maybe one of the "hubs" got destroyed, then a massive famine and you're running out of food each day, then a new lifeform gets a taste of flesh and decides to actively hunt the races, Then ammo becomes short and you have to really conserve ammo, All those things can then impact your companions, maybe choose who to feed, choose who to do loyalty missions for, really make choices with urgency. Maybe you find the Golden world but all the other things have to be taken care of. then the end game is you fighting the New lifeform who wants to eat you.
@@keepiticy it has been said that good criticism is improving the idea of the creators image for a concept, rather than making it into what you would want from that concept
Their character build section was pretty similar to KOTOR's. They could probably incorporate a respect or influence meter like the one in KOTOR 2. It would be interesting seeing how my actions influenced my comrades.
Mass Effect 4 seems to be a lesson learned from bioware it seems. They went back on their statement that shepards story was done and the trailer shows liara looking for shepard. Still wont pre order it but i will buy it day one tho
@@wargames43 I feel EA is the true problem with bioware and not bioware itself, since ea cause 3 developers to go bankrupt and had their change around in the early 2010 it hasn't been the same. And I don't think they learned from me:A otherwise they would have put more effort into anthem. They dropped to failures back to back. It was tough fr.
I believe that the lack of impact from your choices is due to the game being cut short. This is clearly the opening game in a trilogy or series of games, where the choices made in Andromeda 1 would have had an impact. Since the series was canceled and no more Andromeda games produced, we'll never know where the story was headed or what impact your choices would have had.
This, just played mass effect 1 again and i realized most of the choices have an impact on the later games. the feros colony has a mission on 2 and is an asset on 3, the rachni queen is an asset in 3, and the human councilor Anderson gets you specter status in mass effect 2. A lot of other mission have impact on the rest of the series, people just expected far too much for a single video game.
@@lphphd5298 But it's not just how those choices play out in later games that matter. The difficult, on the spot, "right now" decisions and the immediate effects they had on you, your crew, and the game world is what made this series great. ME:A lost a lot of that. Once you earn your squad members loyalty, it doesn't matter what choices you make. They are loyal forever. The game world and their input is somewhat non existent since you left to an alien galaxy, and 3/4 of those that followed were lost in space and not available most of the game to judge your actions. Those that are around to judge you, only voice their opinions, but it has no bearing on their loyalty or commitment to you. 🤷♂️ When you play a story driven game, you play for the moment. Not what those actions will do in future titles. Mass Effect released in 2007, and Mass Effect 2 released in 2010. None of us played ME and wondered *how will this play out in ME 2 or 3* ?!?!? We didn't even know how many sequels there would be. Hell by the time ME2 released, most of us needed a refresher on the first game so much time had passed. Mass Effect was great because it really made you make some tough decisions. Ashley or Kaiden? Wrex and the genohage cure? Or no cure keep Wrex. No cure, kill Wrex? I can go on and on.
@@LynxStarAuto Of course the" right know" choices matters . If you don't help the mission with the hacking stuff the Nexus's captain dies not matter what. If you didn't help with the electricity problems the nexus will not longer enough to the other pathfinders to survive the last attack ( they will all die) . If you let die the matriarch of the Angara is too much difficult to the Angara to gain trust to humans and you will not be able to build a proper embassy at the Nexus. On the other hand if you save her, it will be more easier and the embassy will be enable to the nexus. If don't find the others pathfinders, they will not help you against The Archon. Also, the Loyalty mission is based on a mission related to them to gain their " friendship" look at the codex my friend. You will not have the final movie theater scene and most of them will not refer to you as a friend. As a difference from ME trilogy this crew are not only your comrades, they are your friends. Lexi will left the crew, Vetra will travel to another planets, Cora will stay and Liam will start with the milicia. They all are supposed to have long roles during a, supposedly, second game. You also can tell that ME1 choices, most of them are irrelevant to the next games as only mentions or even not that. The major choices matter to the next game , ME2 and ME3, hell , ME3 depends so much on M2 choices. There are many moments in MEA that are right now consequences: choosing matriarch or the people, let Jaal get shoot, saving Peebe's friend Or shoot her, helping Knight's son, saving Sloane or not, etc.. Those are choices that you have to live with all the game. So, I need to correct you about it : MEA didn't lost that not even close.
I'm with California Sniper...yeah, don't care as the first story failed to grab me (enough that I did one play-through and every time I even consider a second, that lasts for about eight seconds before I realize what a chore it'll be)
If you choose the salarians you end up having to fight converted krogan in the end fight, whereas choosing the scouts means you fight easier enemies instead. I am sure the whole military or science question was meant to have meaning with the sequel. And that is probably what's wrong with a lot of the choices in Andromeda. Most of them were meant for the sequel which is probably not going to be made now.
Exactly, I think it's not very fair to say choices in the trilogy games had more consequences when even supposedly big ones like saving or sacrificing the council only ever changed a couple lines of dialogue and altered the numbers of some ME3 war assets. Dont get me wrong, the trilogy games reacted to your choices amazingly, but let's not kid ourselves , you could never drastically alter the trajectory of the story with your choices or anything.
@@mattd5857 Most of what he called filler isn't. That's the problem. Andromeda is almost entirely setup. It pre-assumes a sequel, and as anyone who knows entertainment can attest, that is always a bad assumption to make. The STAR WARS sequels being a perfect example. Now, even if there is a sequel to Andromeda it will almost certainly be written by a different team and nothing from Andromeda will play any role in it.
@@williamst.romain7393 while there’s probably not going to be a direct sequel to Andromeda, I don’t think BioWare is going to completely drop it off the map. I genuinely do think that the story of this game while be a major factor on what BioWare decides to do with ME4, at least story wise
@@williamst.romain7393 You dont know that and development was such a shitshow that the story most def is full of fillers. Reading how bad things were makes me appreciate that the game is in this state at all.
I kinda liked how your crew was there and had their input. It’s what I liked about ME1. In ME2 it was like only Miranda and a few others knew what was going on. Then in ME3 you had to weigh everyone’s feeling individually after each mission.
That was a great element in ME1, I loved the post-mission meetings and Council reports. Who doesn’t have fond memories of telling the Council to go fuck themselves?
Shepard in modern culture is the embodiment of toxic masculinity, which is why even female Shepard is a great character and not just the male one. The definition of "toxic masculinity" has been distorted so much that you can't have a badass war hero who is willing to make hard decisions without being apologetic about it anymore. A true war hero who commanded respect from everyone, even his enemies. Ryder is just your average no spine zoomer that copes through every situation using le sarcastic xDDDD zoomer humor. Even forcing Ryder through dialogue choices to threaten someone is laughable as it feels like he/she is just making empty threats. Compare Ryder telling the Cardinal "I will fuck your shit up" like a cringe kid to Shepard threatening the Illusive man or the Fake Shepard where you can literally feel his rage and can tell that when he is telling them that he will rip their head off he really means it because they dared to put his crew's life in danger.
you could understand all this just by a single look at this soy zero testosterone bi***, and every other character who looked like sh** just because of the agenda and no one in computer games can look great anymore (at least korean and some japanese studios are not infected with the virus)@@demetst760
The main issue I had with this game was the fact that the dialogue choices were AWFUL. The Paragon/Renegade choices are gone. Instead, you are given 4 choices of dialogue that are pretty much the same and all serve the same purpose: -Say Hello -Say Hi -Talk to them -Greet the person Ruined it for me completely.
@@justaguy8218 Yeah that's why the dialogue wheel itself isn't really the issue, DAI was great at making you feel like a completely different character depending on your choices, an emotional response could be completely different to a strong one (and the reputation system helped a lot) it's not as RP friendly as DAO but it was good enough Ryder's choices are different flavours of the exact same person, a few choices are really different but overall you won't change too much,
@@Igneeka I’d agree. I see quite a few options to differentiate characters in DA:I based on gender/sex and race. A female elf is a whole other ballgame than a human male, and class also makes a big difference, especially a mage, but even a warrior. I think that possibly there are fewer differences in ME:A because you’re just playing the brother or the sister, both of which are Ryder and both are human with the same overall background and family. Still, they could have given us a few more options.
@@justaguy8218 dragon age dialogue wheel has thought and effort and blended 100s of ways Andromeda is a smack in the face , like they just didn't even try on this one .
My main issue with Andromeda was that I didn't feel like the hero of the story, I felt like I was carrying the hero around with me (even when getting the Tempest Suvi greats SAM first and then quickly greets you as a quick aside and that carries through the game). SAM also got really annoying telling you what to do and how to play not even giving you a chance to solve a puzzle or problem, the one scene at the endgame just felt like it was thrown in to appease people catching on to this. Without SAM the Pathfinder had nothing to stand out where other games the MC's were normally given a chance to stand out on there own.
Yeah, that was exactly my issue with the Andromeda. While playing it I basically felt like a some sort of walking and breathing meat avatar helping SAM to do stuff it physically can't do. And to make it even worse SAM is just utterly fucking boring. Unlike EDI or Legion, SAM has absolutely no personality at all. It is just a bland and monotone chat bot constantly pestering you with "temperature is low" or "temperature is high" nonsence.
I know what you mean SAM just made me feel like a child who was just doing whatever my parent was telling me. Though in this case the "parent" is a bland monotone AI.
How is that any different to Shepard? Shepard was literally just a soldier. A very good soldier, but a soldier nonetheless. Shepard didn't kill Sovereign, s/he just took down his shields. JOKER delivered the killing blow with the Normandy. Every time Shepard's on a mission, s/he defers to his/her squadmates or EDI. Without Shepard's team, s/he is nothing. This is exemplified by the fact Shepard dies at the end of ME2 if everyone on his/her team is dead. Shepard is nothing without his/her team. Shepard was also limited to one class. Ryder by comparison can multiclass, thanks to they symbiotic relationship s/he has with SAM. FemRyder was a civilian as well (not a soldier), as was the majority of the Tempest screw. The Tempest crew was literally a ragtag band of misfits who not only accomplished the impossible task of traveling to an entirely new galaxy, but managed to settle there despite a hostile alien species. For as much credit as you give to SAM, he could do nothing without Ryder and vice versa. That is no different to Shepard, who relied on a team of specialists and an AI.
@@TheFuronMothership Shepard disabled sovereign completely and if Shepard hadn’t dealt with Saren the reapers would have come through. Shepard is a commander any commander worth their salt will listen to those who follow them. The team is nothing without Shepard. Shepard can fight perfectly fine without them they just allow Shepard to be better.
I think the air on habitat 7 was poisonous. Not just unbreathable. Young Ryder almost died even with the helmet the whole time. And probably would have if they shared it.
@@mckrackin5324 I nearly barfed at the “darkly beautiful” bs. Don’t want to imagine how much more cringe it would have been with her if you could romance her.
Minor point, but I hear the "why don't they share the helmet and take turns?" idea while ignoring that ryder already hyperventilated and inhaled a lot of the toxic atmosphere and promptly passes out even with the helmet on, it would be pretty hard to co-ordinate while unconscious. That said, Alec had far more going to make him a more interesting protagonist than the kid and killing him off for a "big shoes to fill" type story doesn't really work when Ryder never really comes into their own as a leader, just as someone who happens to have special AI powers nobody else gets.
Ryder DOES come into their own as a leader though. By the end of the game literally everyone on the Tempest follows Ryder without question, refuse to leave a meeting until Ryder dismisses them, and all the Nexus leaders and other pathfinders (if you find them) all follow Ryder's orders against the Archon. Mass Effect: Andromeda is a coming of age story. Ryder is going through his/her Elysium, Akuze or Torfan. Shepard had a built-in reputation and the respect that comes with rank. Ryder has neither rank nor reputation when they become Pathfinder.
Imagine if you played Alec and depending on your 'choice' of character (brother or sister), the one you pick dies, or at least goes into a Coma or some such. Maybe have an alien race in this new sector have a medical knowledge of how to reconnect a 'soul' to a deal body (essentially what Project Lazarus in part did for Shepard, beyond of course rebuilding his body). That way you play a driven character trying to seek a way to save your son/daughter with the help of your other child.
Did you just not play through the game? By the end, you’re a renowned and lauded hero and leader by the entirety of the Nexus. You start as a nobody, because Ryder (Sara and Scott) are nobodies, and have to learn how to go from there the hard way.
I thought the exploration was cool too and I liked the banter and dynamics with your crew. I also think the story, though underwhelming, was not horrible like so many people say.
I think the character arc is fitting in the sense that Ryder is learning on the job. They were never meant to be Pathfinder and everyone knows it should've been Cora, and likely would've been, had Alec not had to sacrifice himself to save his kid. Ryder is figuring it out as they go so a sense of uncertainty is a welcome approach and more in line with feeling relatable because we as players have about as much info as the character.
Exactly. It would have been massively weird if the "new Pathfinder" casually aced his new job. Cora even mentions how she trained for years to follow in Alec's footsteps, yet he overrules that "decision" by promoting his own kid. That is still kind of green behind the ears and needs to learn/grow on the tasks.
Andromenda's biggest fault (and one of many) is that it was set up for a sequel(s) which will very likely never materialise. Consequences don't materialise either and tbh how many choices actually did in mass effect 1? You lost one 1 squadmate regardless of who you choose on virmire, and then assuming you don't pass the speech check another one with wrex. Aside from that I don't remember much, killing the rachni queen? Like 1 line of dialogue from the turian councilor before I hung up on him. Killing/not killing the colonists on feros? Like 1 line from one of the colonists, in fact I forgot what choice I even made on feros until tali mentioned it too me in mass effect 2. Shit even letting the council live or die has literally no consequences in ME1 (which, tbf is because of where the choice is placed in the game) Now of course that doesn't excuse Andromenda's lack of morally complex choices and ruder being a bitch for the entire game (makes sense at the start but as the game goes on ryder should get more confident and assertive)
Learning on the job is one thing, constantly sounding weak and unsure got on my nerves... he might be new at it but he's meant to be leading a crew and inspiring confidence, which he clearly did not.
Andromeda was doomed to fail from get go. Resources for development were diverted to Anthem (Want to talk about a trash game, there it is) and the deadline for development of Andromeda forced it to be rushed. While not the best game in the trilogy, it was entertaining in its own right. Also Drax is the best companion in the whole game. "I hate you all, just let me be old and cranky in peace".
It also had the issue of stopping development, scrapping the entire thing, and restarting the damn thing from scratch, multiple times over the course of the 4 or 5 years it was in development hell. Not even in the first few months, more like they'd go for a year, toss it, restart, 6 months later restart, rinse and repeat until they had to rush it.
MEA was also written by racist sexist SJW's. They're actually the reason the female characters are purposefully ugly -- sorry, "realistic." And why you can't put the kibosh on Liam -- would be racist to portray a black character as dumb or inept, let alone getting shut down by a most likely white player's white avatar.
@@Mortablunt I would have no problems there...through a hundred ME series playthroughs, Paragon and Renegade, male and female, my Shepards and Ryders are always black!
The thing with Ryder not being super assertive I found to be very intentional by the story. Ryder isn't a seasoned badass like Shepard was at the beginning of ME1, so the story is about Ryder rising to meet the challenges thrown at him/her and become the kind of character Shepard was at the start of ME1. And it shows imo, by the end of the story Ryder is issuing orders and pursuing goals with a lot more confidence than at the beginning of the game. The real shame of Andromeda being cut off is that we will never get to really see the payoff of Ryder's character arc.
Yeah, the Shepherd stand in was the Father. Ryder was never supposed to be the leader at the beginning and I think a bulk of the arc was showing them try to step up to the plate and learn on the job. Which I suppose is a harder adjustment to make for fans expecting a straight up power fulfilment fantasy as you would in the ME trilogy. Ultimately, making a reskinned Shepherd would've been a bigger problem, because the shadow Shep left would be more obvious. Taking a new direction allowed them to try new things, with varying success.
If you want to sell inexperienced, let the player be more assertive anyways, but make Ryder more cocky and arrogant. The position goes to his head, and he gives orders easily, but also just makes an ass of himself. Paragon and Renegade Shepard were two very different things, but still filled the same role. Both over and under confidence can fill the same role of inexperienced, too.
@@YourCrazyDolphin Why though? A cocky, arrogant PC probably wouldn't have been given this burden, because a person like that wouldn't be up to it. A Pathfinder is not a Spectre... their job is to _find a save haven for humanity_, not protect an existing galactic order at any cost. The nature of the mission lends itself to a more observant, less reactive person. I really enjoyed the feeling of EARNING my confidence in Andromeda.
@@MICjordanTPR Cool, in the series about choice you should, well, have choice. Have an influence in your character's personality. You want unconfidant Ryder, play that Ryder. You want something different? Should be able to play the other way, too. And from what I understand, Ryder got his position from chain of command, not choice, and was doubted to begin with either way, and growing into the role is part of his arc either way. Learning to slow down is just as much a character arc as learning confidence.
Actually, while hunting the archon, choosing the pathfinder or the scouts does affect your game. Not majorly, but it changes one of the enemies you'll fight. Saving the pathfinder results in Krogan Kett. Saving the scouts results in salarian Kett. The Salarian Kett are much easier to kill.
While I knew about the Krogan Kett's appearance hinging on whether or not you chose to save the Salarian Pathfinder, I did not know/realize there were Salarian Kett if you saved the scouts. They really must have been that much easier to kill lol.
The one major gripe I do have is Ryder being able to wear N7 anything. In the originals, the N7 status was something to be achieved through near suicidal fights or situations few could come out sain from. Even though Shepherd starts out as an N7, we chose what terrible day got him that rank plus the nomination for Spectre. That's how the originals showed respect. The only reason Vega is allowed to even get an N7 tattoo is because he's been all but actually inducted into the ranks as such. He needs to survive the last push with the crucible. Shepherd okays it to give him hope. I feel like Shepherd would have ripped Ryder's dad's suit right off of him. He didn't actually earn it. Yet. The combat I liked. The characters intrigued me. They weren't trilogy besties like Tali or Garrus. But they had... something. I wanted more varied enemies. I wanted to be forced to fall back...not constantly. But frequently. I wanted to feel desperate. As in. Everyone is a long way from home. We're either winning this fight. Or we're dead. The only thing that really really really really grinding my nerves to shit Was when I realized they took the mini games you do in the trilogy to get extra... everything. Now those games weren't necessary to beat the campaign. In Andromeda you have to do them allllll the fucking time to progress.
Which is bizarre because some of the funniest moments in both the original trilogy and in the dragon age series are when you be an absolute twat to someone 😂
@@Nemesis_T-Type I think it’s more that Ryder doesn’t have the credibility to be mean and have people be okay with it. Shepard can be mean to people because Shepard can back up everything he/she says, and is generally highly respected due to his/her experience (i.e. being an N7 and a spectre). Ryder is nearly 10 years younger, and doesn’t have the same level of experience, so people just wouldn’t put up with it in the same way that they did with Shepard. I agree that it’s annoying from our perspective, but it does kinda make sense from a story perspective.
@@MrBobthened That's probably what Andromeda's inept writers had in mind, but its not how it came across and it makes no sense. A good example of a sci-fi story about an inexperienced person being suddenly put in charge and challenged about it is TNG'S Arsenal of Freedom episode. In Andromeda, Ryder just comes off as being incompetent and gutless, his/her own crewmates frequently disregard his/her orders and break the chain of command, show a lack of basic military discipline (even walking out before Ryder dismisses them from briefings), actively endanger the life of their superior with little to no consequence (Peebee's loyalty anyone?) and many more. Its not that Ryder "can't be mean", but he/she can't be the least assertive to save his/her own life and that's never treated as a flaw or comes to haunt them later (in fact its played for laughs most of the time), and anything only gets done simply because the writers want it so, if the story had the least semblance of verisimilitude, the entire operation would have quickly gone down the shitter. Ryder might not be an N7 and young, but he/she has at least a bit of combat experience and military training, the fact that even civies can shit on the Pathfinder is not only annoying, but completely breaks the immersion. Besides, who likes to roleplay as a pussy that lacks leadership skills anyways?
I like Ryder being more awkward. And I have noticed that Ryder does get more confident as the game goes on. Every game has you as the confident, in charge guy that everyone listens to. As Ryder, you earn it
Didn’t want a carbon copy of shep (who admittedly was less sure in me1 compared to the rest). They are thrust into the leader/saviour role with no prep overseeing a disaster. Of course it takes time to adapt.
Although the dialogue option were a bit too contrasting between a total goody and asshole as far as I remember, Ryder was a young unexperienced dude with somewhat of a military background. And his job was to make a home for the human race, not prevent the end of the world. Even if the Kett were a threat. He was just what he needed to be but fans are idiots.
I agree that I think Ryder is actually a character they did well. Alec was just like Cmd. Shepard, so losing him and having to try and the void he left behind is a huge task. Enter the player character. Your Ryder is completely unprepared for what they need to do, have to absolutely learn on the fly in a situation they are at a huge disadvantage in, and deal with a beaurocracy that doesnt believe in them or outright tries to manipulate them. Shepard was a hero and n outright living legend BEFORE the start of ME 1. Ryder is a nobody.
Andromeda had enough things it did right that make me feel the next Mass Effect (given time and direction from the onset) can be good. The combat is universally seen as the best in the series to date, the alien worlds looked and felt actually alien (Havarl in particular), and the exploration aspect was a fairly good approach to take but suffered from typical open-world blandness in terms of quests. Had they not wasted so much time chasing down the procedural generated worlds aspect in the beginning, they could have made this game amazing. I didn't even mind the revamped dialogue system itself, but the available options were overshadowed by the narrative direction being imposed. No matter what you chose, Ryder was always going to be depicted as an inexperienced rookie because that's what the story demanded, whether you played it professional, casual, or anything in between. I personally liked making Ryder sarcastic in my play through, more of a Han Solo swashbuckler type rather than stoic soldier. But that's ultimately lost when the game makes it mandatory for all the cast to see you as a stupid noob regardless of your choices until plot demanded otherwise. And SAM. Good lord, way too much reliance on SAM for EVERYTHING. Not to mention SAM's voice was so grating compared to EDI
I totally get what you mean by the noob Ryder, but doesn't it make perfect sense? I can't get behind people comparing Ryder to Shepard - consciously or not - because they are two different characters. The character creation already gives you the background so Shep has experience and respect at the start of the game. Ryder is a total noob with nothing to their name so the lack of respect is understandable. Also, Ryder is visibly younger than Shep (visually and voice, at least the female) so she feels like a 20 something y/o trying to fill in big shoes. 100% agree with way too much reliance on SAM, feels like Ryder is just a vessel and SAM does all the hard work.
@@kujda22 Ryder being a noob did indeed make sense. I think the approach made sense, it's the execution that fell flat for me. You're not respected until the plot says you're respected; there's no actual building of that respect for yourself via choices and quest completion. If anything, ME3's reputation system would have been perfect for this in conjunction with the revamped dialogue options. Let you build up your reputation scores in each of the categories. If I play largely as a sarcastic Ryder, let that influence how others interact with me. Maybe some characters are more willing to work with you, maybe others outright refuse because they see you as too unprofessional. Not only would it add replayability by giving you missions, interactions, and side quests you might not be able to access on the first run, but it also makes it feel like your actions have a direct impact on the world around you. Make good choices, be treated with admiration. Make bad choices, be treated with skepticism and even disdain. But ultimately, let the player craft that. I don't want another Shepard, but I think what made Mass Effect so popular with fans was how you ultimately felt connected to the protagonist via the choices you made. ME:A felt like a step backward in that particular role playing aspect. It probably wouldn't have been quite as noticeable had it not been in the same series that had done that aspect of it so well before.
I feel with Sam it was a missed opportunity to have character development. As Ryder grows as a pathfinder, Sam should grow into a proper individual. We see the three other Pathfinders and it would have been good to see a juxtaposition between Ryder's Sam unit and the other three.
I appreciate a lot that Big Dan realizes that a lot of people don’t have time to play mediocre games. Video games like this are incredibly expensive and take a lot of time. It’s worth it for the OT, because it was so good, but I don’t have the will to, “Give it a try.”
Not for nothing but that's exactly what mass effect 1 was with the Gameplay. You have to slog through the bad combat to experience the awesome world and story. I have multiple friends who never even got into the series because the combat in the 1st game was so bad / boring
@@jacobsampsonis7782Except the combat wasn't bad for an action RPG from 2006/2007. Sure, it's bad by today's standards, but it wasn't bad for the standards of the time. That's the difference between ME1 and Andromeda. ME1 just aged poorly but was still good for it's time, while Andromeda was terrible from the start.
I definitely pushed through campaign as fast as possible. Everything felt very bland and watered down. Some highlights and some decent characters that honestly would've been kinda cool in a better game. What was weird was any time the plot or the scifi got interesting - they just told a less interesting story instead. I just played it the first time this year on sale. I'd definitely only buy it on sale and I'd even say - play this BEFORE you play ME Trilogy. You might like this game and it'd be a decent intro into ME trilogy.
I enjoyed it, but I was a little annoyed that I was forced to use exactly two guns that were capable of removing the sponginess of the enemies. Still captured the feel of the original trilogy for me outside of gunplay.
@@averywhitaker3513 Andromeda's best strength is definitely its squadmates. Jaal is adorable, Peebee is like a weird twisted version of Liara, and Cora's character arc about being your second is really good (kinda in the same way as Miranda). But, at least for me, everything else was kinda lukewarm. The Remnant (or Jardan) are just a less fleshed out version of the Prothans/Leviathans, Tann is the entire council balled up into one person, and the Kett are just the Collectors but with a TINY bit more personality behind them. While I wouldn't call Andromeda a bad game, I think it reused too many plot points to really stand out. (I should note that Andromeda was actually my first ME game, so I'm not super biased when it comes to the original trilogy)
Yeah its definitely a game that doesn't feel as memorable as the trilogy, I played Andromeda for the first time in Jan this year and i completed it and did much of the side quests. And while i remember the plot quite well, it all seems a like a blur. The main trilogy I can remember key details and play key scenes that just get stuck in my mind with how epic it was and how for me it set such a high standard for story telling. I never got that feel from Andromeda and don't feel like its a title that I'd revisit.
I will say this 1) Dad Ryder was my favorite character and he died super early. He was cool. 2) I liked the ability to mix your skills 3) I liked the weapons system 4) Graphics had some +'s but it destroyed by R9 290x8GB. 5) I liked the idea behind your family options, but I wish I had more engagements alongside my sibling in the field. 6) I liked the multiplayer idea with APEX missions, bulwark weapons and synergies. Interesting. 7) I like the idea of the dialogue wheel , but as you said, you "weak willed @5:40" 8) Jaals revelation of his people was awesome, but I wish it was even more devastating. 9) I love Suvi, Grandpa Drakk is a chad, sassy Vetra The music was lackluster, story was meh, and it was just Reaper/Geth/Mercs over again. Punch Liam and PeePee like @ 8:20 cuz holy crap they disrespect Ryder.
If you feel like punching people because they "disrespect" you then you have some issues with aggression that you need to fix. Playing a game is not therapy. "It's just a game!!" Sure. But your emotional response isn't. If someone you like dies in a game then you get sad, no? Is that not a real feeling? Your body doesn't care about the difference, that's what is special about humans and any emotion reflect back on who you are.
@@Fragenzeichenplatte If society were to collapse today, people would resort to violence more often than not to resolve conflicts. It's not because we have problems with aggression, but rather because today's society neuters our inherent aggression. This is both supported by science and thousands of years of bloody histoy. To deny that is either extremely naive or perhaps you really are as uneducated on human psychology as you sound.
@@Fragenzeichenplatteadult humans can differentiate between video games and real life, even if they relate to the story. I play renegade every time, but I don’t go around punching or threatening people in real life.
@@konradcurze8176 Don't be so defensive. I didn't say a word about anyone attacking people. Read my comment again, carefully, and then reply again to what I actually said. Can you tell me what I said in your words?
@@Fragenzeichenplatte I just find your statement absurd and fear mongery. I am saying is that, unless you are too young to differentiate reality from fiction, your actions in video games do not directly impact your actions in the real world. Wanting to run someone over in GTA does not mean you’re going to do that in real life. Same with punching someone. If you cannot tell the difference, you may need to speak with a psychiatrist.
My thing about the whole choice and consequence thing might be a little controversial but here goes. The consequences for these choices aren’t going to be felt in the first game. Just like me1 you save the rachni queen, but don’t get an answer to what that does until me3. You decide to save shai’ra from the thorian and let her go you don’t meet her until me2. You decide to save wrex, you don’t see his main purpose with tuchanka until me3. Mass effect andromeda has only been one game and there are still major choices. Whether or not to blow up the kett research facility, saving the kett admiral or not, the pathfinder’s you choose, whether or not you deliver the anicient AI to the Angara or not. I mean honestly the game has more and it’s more then even me1 had. If they made a sequel I guarantee those choices would be played out just like the other games choices did. It’s always been a ripple effect felt in LATER games. I mean sure some choices you see the end result immediately for (such as rescuing the crew right away in me2 or not) but the vast majority of the quests are resolved in later titles. Anyway. This game gets a lot of flack (deserved in some aspects) but the choice system did not bother me whatsoever because as someone who has played the other games I’m well aware that no big choice is revealed in consequences till later in the series.
Most choice def should have An effect later in the sequals But at least some desicions should have An effect in the game they effect now I do admit that mass effect 1 does not have this But 2 and 3 do as in the choices in 2 and 3 effect their respective games
My only issue with the choice system is they made it a bit to overcomplex with the mentality of Ryder replacing Paragon and Renegade. Then again this games failure came apart due to the developers flopping and having alot of unnecessary drama and nonsense in the middle of development. At this the combat and gameplay was fun and immersive... and if I had to point bugs out I would say ME1 is much much worse for bugs and animation issues. Nothing can top ME1 trapping you in a hack/equipment/dialogue menu until you close out the game, or everyone going cross eyed or having their forehead fuse into their brow line. Even in the Legendary edition its still all there! But hey why fix alot of the game breaking bugs for the remaster of older games when you can make censorship and changing camera angles your number 1 priority rather than a side job for a smaller group? Well the main team focuses on graphical updates and bug fixing. Nope. Bioware don't have time for dat! The character models being ugly I blame more on the updated engine and poor development decisions with experimental design changes. Not the first time a well known game developer made that mistake with a loved and memorable franchise. *looks at 343 and the big controversial changes to the artstyle in Halo 4 and Halo 5*
@@francisharkins Paragon/Renegade is massively overhyped. It worked well, but it was nothing unique or groundbreaking. It was just a repainted Light/Dark side scale that Drew Karpyshyn fell in love with while working on KotOR.
As someone who played mass effect in 2007, I agree. The game at that time, was a bit disappointing, I really loved the story and I wished to see the aftermath of sovereign attacking the citedel, they just made me choose who'll be the human councilor and that's it. I wondered what happened to the rachni or if it's even a big deal. Hell, I even wondered if the people I romanced with are gonna have a baby, and that's before I knew there's gonna be a sequel, and there's still no babies?! I want little blue babies running around. Sorry, I was very simple minded back then.
I feel like if Andromeda succeeded and had gotten a sequel the choices could have had chance to shine more, because all the choices (at least to me) seemed to have more long term consequences
I bought ME:Andromeda last year. I enjoyed the game very much. The game had all of its updates by then, so I didn't experience any significant glitches.
Great video. I recently played the ME trilogy for the first time and fell in love with it (becoming my favorite game series period), despite ME3's many flaws. I *just* finished Andromeda before watching this, and I have a fair bit to say. Character Creation+Combat: I was extremely disappointed by relegated to only presets for character construction, but found the enhanced skill choices through level ups to be satisfying (Though I still think "profiles" are utter garbage and are fairly useless IMO). Jump-jets and evades are odd in a Mass Effect game, almost feeling like there's too much movement, but it's fairly harmless. I was shocked by the lack of tactical-screens. Having to actual aim my skills instead of auto hitting. Ryder as a Character: You hit the nail on the head: Despite "more" responses, they ultimately fell completely the same, and are hindered further by the lack of true choice and impact. I will say though, I like being able to pull up Lexi's profile on you: Effectively a brief document of her analyzing and speculating about your personality. If they had that along with real decisions and choices, that would be amazing. Companions: ME companions have always been hit or miss with me (Don't ask me my opinion on Miranda, James, or Jacob), and while none of the companions here come close to the intrigue or charm of the OGs (Except maybe Drack, Vetra, and Cora), they actually seem to interact more with each other than the OGs ever did. Both on the Tempest and Nomad, companions will chat and fire back at each other a lot. They even had a message board to communicate just everyday stuff, like "Don't touch my roast", "This is the Angaran word for X", and "I stole your soap operas. You can have them back when you stop playing them when I'm trying to sleep". And while the highs were never as good as the OGs, loyalty missions actually made sense for the most part, as you were helping them achieve a goal they'd been struggling with, rather than just "Found this guy. Help me kill him". While the characters could've been better, they have an amazing amount of interaction compared to the OG trilogy. Quests: Tedious. Yep. Personally, I like ME better as a set of linear missions/maps.....and that's a lot coming from someone who loves open worlds. Andromeda's just feel so empty, vapid, and repetitive half the time. Story: It's mediocre at best. The only reason I did as much as I did was to get some good companion interaction, or hear Clancy Brown's sweet-sweet voice again. Poor guy didn't deserve to be put in this game. Was it a waste of time? Ehhhhhh. Not exactly. It wasn't great...but it did show me what ME4 could have in to make it even better.....And now I'm going to worry about ME4 some more.
@@kyrusxi Yeah, but I felt that devalued your "archetype" for lack of a better word. What's the fun in an rpg if you can just swap to whatever you need whenever you want?
What's wrong with you? Actually dashing with jetpacks/biotic abilities is one of the coolest things ever. I played Andromeda first and then I played the trilogy, I miss those beautiful dashes, they make the combat much more dynamic. I feel very restricted in terms of movements. However, the story is much better in the trilogy, no point of comparison.
My biggest gripe in MEA was the lack of imagination in a lot of the design. I played through the story twice, and none of the designs really stood out to me.
Andromeda missed a great opportunity at story telling. You tell me, what seems more plausible: traveling to a distant galaxy to find life at various stages of technological and evolutionary development, OR said galaxy is full of life ALL AT THE EXACT SAME STAGE OF TECHNOLOGY AS YOU. The later works if there is some really cool universally unifying explanation, but there's not. It's just convenient, expedient and devoid of imagination.
It's almost like traveling to another galaxy to get the Lego piece you're missing because the other galaxy WILL have the exact Lego peice you need. Ridiculous. Like, they ALL have the same jet packs that ALL have the same burst, longevity and mechanics as everyone else. What a fkn coincidence! Got a cool explanation for that? Nah...
@@undignified2843 The alternatives are a galaxy devoid of life. That may be great for a simulation but not great for Mass Effect which is about telling a story. Of course, the other alternative is you could tell a story just with the characters that traveled to the new galaxy. Or maybe with life that is just developing and where the protagonists have to be careful about not affecting it. That sounds more like Star Trek.
@@Fragenzeichenplatte I think it's more that it could have been cool to have some more primitive species or ones more advanced, maybe even ones just as unaware of space and aliens as we are but instead the new species are more or less as advanced as the council species, that nothing sets them apart from a specie from the milky way Hell even the original trilogy kinda had coolers idea like the Quarians migrant fleet (and the whole can't leave their suit because germs thing they've got going on) or even the Leviathans and obviously the Reapers, in comparison the Angaras and Kett are a bit tame, generic and...less alien, which is a shame considering they come from a complete new galaxy
You're spot on, though missed a couple of my favorite gripes. For example, politics on the Nexus were supposed to be a huge driver for the story, but they were *yawn* boring. The absolute worst part is the most hateable character is one of the ones that are right. How much better would the game be if Addison was actually in charge, rather than stuck working for an incompetent trying to make the best of the situation? She's totally hatable but also right. You'd be stuck with her, she'd be stuck with you and you could spend the game building up that relationship until you're forced to accept each other or kill her. And riddle my this: Why didn't Adison, Kandros, and Kesh get together and space Tam? Seriously.
well they basicly just got out of one revolt on the nexus and spacing tam, as wonderfull of an Idea as that sound. would throw the nexus and the entire iniciative into further chaos. so they properly decided that letting tam be acting director was less of a problem than what they would cause by spacing him
FYI: in regards to the choices, if you don’t save dracks scouts, you’ll fight the behemoth exalted the rest of the game, if you do save them you won’t. Also if you choose “military” for podromos, you’ll have more reinforcements on the final mission. No, they aren’t big decisions, but it’s something.
Andromeda was the first mass effect game I played and that was this year, I only paid 5 bucks for it and had a blast. I'd never played the originals either despite having the legendary edition in my library for a year. I'm now halfway through the final part of the original trilogy and I'm always gonna have a lot of love for MEA, it opened my eyes to the whole amazing experience and it'll have an equally special place in my heart because of that.
Andromeda is great. I wanted more ME, I got more ME. What else similar has released since Andromeda? For a newcomer I bet it was a very nice experience.
It’s refreshing to see someone love Andromeda as much as I do. I played Andromeda first as well, and found out about the trilogy later. Now that I’m playing the trilogy, I still love Andromeda. Love the plot, characters, and the explorer vibe it had going on
I actually think that Ryder not being assertive makes sense. Guy is like Jenkins and all of a sudden he is expected to be a pathfinder and he wasn’t even supposed to be the next pathfinder if the og pathfinder died, it was supposed to be Cora. Ryder does get more confident as the game advances so that’s that. Andromeda messed up a lot of things but Ryder isn’t one of them in my opinion.
@@adeptdamage3669 in the beginning yes, but as you progress, Ryder grows into the character you want him to be. He received the best character development in the Bioware games I have seen so far.
Shepherd already comes into Mass Effect 1 with a history of either being a war hero or a survivor while Ryder is the child of a respected “pathfinder” who hasn’t done anything him (or her) self. If the main character of Andromeda was Ryder’s dad, then he would’ve been more confident and would’ve garnered more respect from others from the get go. I kinda liked how the MC of Andromeda initially lacked confidence and had to earn the respect of others and grow into being a leader. He or she is young with no real history, as such you get to create the legend of Ryder as opposed to jumping into the character after his (or her) lore has already started to grow. I assume that Ryder’s character would’ve developed further in future games if Andromeda had any sequels.
They have a little history, but yeah they're not Command rank when the game starts and it gets dumped into their lap, and because of SAM's connection LITERALLY NO ONE ELSE can do it.
Well that’s just it - he (or she) doesn’t grow at all. Everything you achieve throughout the game is due to SAM - basically a plot device that solves every problem in the game. Every achievement that happens in this game isn’t there because of your skill or cunning, it’s because of a magical AI inside your brain which by the way you didn’t even deserve and weren’t even supposed to get (mind you Cora was supposed to be a new Pathfinder), you just get it because the plot demands it
Yet things like that happen. I liked how it felt and was interested in seeing Ryder start out as this lackluster leader by chance and grow in both confidence and gain more respect. One of my favorite developments was my DA:I character. He started out barely a leader getting flung from mission to mission and eventually at the end of the DLC he went up to the Chantry and ended the Inquisition with one hand. It felt earned going from scared and half ass to an actual leader. I had a feeling they were gonna try the same thing here, but...you know how that ended.
@@samanthaclyde8688 Different people, COMPLETELY different situations. Only thing similar between them is they were both Alliance Military. Apples to Pears.
And for the weak-willed Ryder, I think that was setting up his character development. This was supposed to be the first game in a new arc, but I think they made too much of a limp first impression... but at the end of the game, he's much more of a presence.
the whole twin thing could have been interesting going fowards with ryder and it woul have been cool to see them grow into this powerful force an this is why i don't like that anromeda got such bad reeption because while i do understand some of it flaws unlike others i didn't compare it to the whole triology and had a lot more fun in fact, i like it better than me1 as a start maybe people would have liked it better if they ddid quicker development because they planned it as ne game but it obviously was supposed to be a series which is why it's only really appropriate to compare it to a start of a series like me1 and not the whole triology
That's still no excuse though. A character isn't better because "they get better later on" especially if they're the protagonist. Additionally, that's completely at odds with the "roleplaying" aspect of the game. If Ryder is meant to have the prepackaged personality of "inexperienced leader" and have a character arc built around it, why in the world is the game treating as if we're meant to roleplay as Ryder? Just remove the choices then, and make Ryder a fully-fleshed out character independent of the player.
@@Birthday888 This exactly. The forced "inexperienced" narrative was in direct contrast to the role playing experience. It didn't matter what choices you made or dialogue options you went with, you were always the dumb noob until the plot demanded otherwise. You hit the nail on the head.
I felt the story was generally okay. My major issue was, as said, the urgency. They play this issue out to be something almost bigger in threat than the Reapers, and EVERYONE knows about it, yet nobody seems even remotely concerned.
That's how all the Mass Effect games are. Look at Mass Effect 3, the galaxy is facing extinction with Earth being in most peril and you are mostly dealing with peoples private issues.
Ryder's farther isn't dead, he was turned into a crab and runs some patty venue in a place called bikini bottom, and at weekends I heard he challenges people to armed combat and chops people's heads off. Apparently there can only be one.
You understand why he’s not dripping with gravitas. His dad was the leader and he was in over his head. I liked that he wasn’t just a chad right out the gate. Shepherd was a hero before the first scene, that’s why he was the chief from the start. Seeing a character grow over the course of the adventure would’ve been cool. We could look back and feel nostalgic of when he was a noob.
@@higueraft571 it’s the first installment of a new story. Ryder had growth, and still has room for more. People unfairly compared this game to the entirety of the original trilogy. Andromeda had some flaws, but it was fun to play, had a lot of things done well, and I would have loved to see the next chapter of it.
@@OnlineKenji "it’s the first installment of a new story. Ryder had growth, and still has room for more." As mentioned in the video, every type of response effectively resulted in the same exact Ryder... Sure, he should grow, but to completely lock him into one "personality"/route for an entire game for growth?
@@higueraft571 I honestly disagree with that assessment. I think by the end, he started to show more command and I felt he had shown a decent amount of growth. To me it was just the right amount of growth given how little time had passed. It would’ve been immersion breaking if he just suddenly became top tier leader in such a short time. I would’ve loved to play that growth over a new trilogy. It would’ve been good to look back over the course and remember when Ryder was just a kid in over their head, and see the difference as I’m sure BioWare intended to do in the second and third act of this new story - but most people just couldn’t stop complaining that Ryder wasn’t Shepard so I never will.
On the topic of non-romancable crew mates never having the option, if you keep bugging Mordin in ME2 there is a dialogue where he calls you out on being attracted to him and shuts you down 😂
I just hate those horrific, mask-like face animations and dead eyes. The game would have gotten so much less hate (even with its weaker plot and lamer companions compared to the ME trilogy), if it hadn't been for those, IMHO.
@@70mavgr I would but I'm not about to subject myself to the pain that is Andromeda a 2nd time. Probably the most cringe boring protagonist I've ever played, and the side content is just as bad as ME1
The faces are indeed very stiff, especially on humans. But this problem also is clearly visible in the trilogy. Miranda her face looks like a potato and the face of Jacob looks like it was a botched botox job so blown up it looks.
@@timdehoog5584 yeah but they’re also from older games. Andromeda had tech to allow them to be way better. Think until dawn faces, as until dawn came out 2 years before andromeda. The trilogy is not perfect but andromeda should have been an improvement on the trilogy. It needed to be better.
They should have stuck with Andromeda and made dlc. I'm playing it again now and it's clear it had great potential and was going to be a game that should have carried on for a couple of years with story content. We still haven't even got closure on what happened to the Quarian Arc and the other milky way species...
So the story of what happened to the Quarian ark was explained via a book instead called Mass Effect Annihilation. Sucks that it's in book form instead of being part of the game but better than nothing I guess...
@Tacitus G. Kilgore Yea I put it down to after I realized it was a chore. Like u said a few things stood out but overall the game was bland and it felt like punches were being pulled on damn near every dialogue option. The characters also were mostly ugly as hell to satisfy the sjw purists.
I think the game is great but it's only playable once because there's way too much shit to do. I went for 100% completion just once and never played again
My canon Ryder is female. The voice actress was just so much better than the male voice actor. The way she delivered the lines just felt like I was nearly playing a different game at times.
This game was doomed from the start. Considering the chaos that was this game’s development, I think what the team pulled off was a miracle. Yea it’s still the worst of the 4, but I don’t think that’s something to be ashamed of considering it’s predecessors. I like it but acknowledge it could have and should have been soo much better.
This game got alot of the residual hate from the Me3 ending thrown at it. I played it a year after launched and was surprised that it was actually fairly decent, there was a lot more heart out into the game than people give it credit for, despite some problems.
They gotta get off this development cycle of starting a game, spending years faffing about and being confused, and frantically wedging it all together in 18 months.
I loved the combat in Andromeda. If they'd been given it the time and resources it could have been a great game. I liked the young, untried hero thrust into responsibility for their entire race, it was let down by atrocious writing.
The biggest reason why nothing in this game mattered, decision-wise, is because Bioware is probably never going to follow-up with it... It's a shame. The combat, open-world maps, and class-building mechanics in this game were the best things the come out of Mass Effect Andromeda. I hope they incorporate them into ME4.
We can be fairly certain that Bioware is going to carry over the combat (and perhaps even evolve it further) to the next game. The graphics should be amazing considering the game will be developed on UE5. It's the writing and role-playing that I'm worried about.
Andromeda didnt have a chance i wouldn't have thought. People are STILL boycotting the series cause of me3's ending. Imagine the pressure trying to redeem the series immediately after it
I got lucky, apparently. My play throughs had almost no glitches or hiccups and I barely noticed the facial animations cause I was too busy asking questions and thinking about other stuff. This is just me, obviously, so it took a while for me to understand all the hate. I personally loved what they setting up and I’m still sad I’ll never get to play the rest of the story out. 🤷🏻♀️
And probably that's why you loved Andromeda. That's completely different experience when you play Andromeda as your first ME game and when you play Andromeda with some expectations after playing beloved ME trilogy and you want more of it. Andromeda is a good game but it's terrible Mass Effect game.
I played through Andromeda again after legendary edition. Like yes Andromeda has its flaws but it's by no means a bad game and in hindsight it's also unfair to compare to the trilogy. Trilogy you play as an elite soldier trying to save the galaxy from an Omega level threat. Andromeda you play as colonists trying to find a new home. Two different atmospheres entirely
You're right. But the trilogy made saving the galaxy feel right In Andromeda its like "trying to find a new home AND save the galaxy" I feel like Metro Exodus did the whole "finding a new home thing WAAAAY more enjoyable"
@@keepiticy That wasnt the feeling I got from the Kett. To me it was less a "Lets save the galaxy" than a "Lets save the small part we want to call home, and our new friends while we are at it"
The ME trilogy felt like you were actually doing something no one else could do in this one it feels like anybody could do it all they need is an AI in their head
That’s… exactly how I felt in ME1. Anyone could have done it as long as they got the magic macguffin Cipher. Sure, it felt like a whole “destined one” deal eventually, but the start was just the result of several coincidences leading to a random soldier becoming a galactic hero.
@@AshtonMonitor I mean literally all the vision and the cipher ever did for Shepard in ME1 is give him the location of Ilos and even then Liara was the one who figured it out. The visions are largely ignored by everyone else throughout the game and even information about the Reapers is given to us by Tali first and then Shepard goes 'ohh so thats what those visions were about'... Shepard was able to do everything he did because he had the strength to do it, not just anyone with the Cypher could have done it.
@@ethansaunders3799 thats because Shepard was already what 34-35 year old career military who had already been thru some shit. Ryder on the other hand was a 23-25 year old who did serve but wasn't career like his father or Shepard and is thrust into a situation where he is ill prepared. Basically Shepard is qui gon jin or mace windu, yoda etc. An established bad ass who just takes his bad ass to the next level. Ryder is a new hope luke Skywalker. Has some skills but is thrust into situations hes ill prepared for. Its the heros journey style protagonist.
@@AshtonMonitor What a dumb shit take. All the cipher did was tell Shepard how to speak Prothean. It didn't magically put a gun in his hands and tell him what to shoot or boosted any of his abilities. Shepard was already an experienced war vet no matter which background you choose. Ashley or Kaidan wouldn't have had the skill or fortitude to do what Shepard did even if they got hit with the beacon instead.
I think the point is that Ryder wasn't as hardcore military special elite as Shepard. And they are explorers not special commando operatives... Even if they endup fighting a lot as the game progresses.
@@evileyevalausif I recall, once you construct the N7 armor; one of the colonists in the first settlement comments about you not fully earning the suit, but being ok with you wearing it due to his father.
@@j.vinton4039 I wouldn't know about that one I don't think I ever made the N7 armor but if it's true that would prove the point that Ryder isn't a N7 they was in the military but not that high up
The problem is that he has no reason to become the comander then. Ok, he gets SAM implant so he's the tech specialist now. Assign him to a real officer and send them on a mission.
I guess I'm just more open minded then some people when it comes to Andromeda. I am currently playing it now and I honestly love it. I have over 70+ hours into because i'm doing all the side quests etc. For some reason I just really enjoy doing the sidequests. Other then that I do really live the story and would give the game a 7.5 out of 10. There are some bugs etc but with mods things are mostly fixed.
I only made it a few hours in after preordering the most expensive edition. Just like Inquisition it felt like a quanity over quality single player mmo. I was extremely turned off. Its the no mans sky effect. A gazillion lackluster planets is way less compelling than one good one. That being said this video makes me want to try it again at least.
Games are subjective. Just likes movies. Some will hate something while others like/love it. A lot of people hate the batmobile in Batman: Arkham Knight and consider Batman: Arkham Knight to be the second worst Batman: Arkham game (the worst goes to Batman: Arkham Origins) because of the batmobile. I enjoy the batmobile though and I enjoy Arkham Knight as much as I enjoy the other Arkham games. I've played Arkham Asylum and Arkham City so much, that I liked how the batmobile changed up the gameplay and combat. And it gives me another option to get around the city/map than just gliding or walking/running. So it's fine to like Andromeda.
When I bought the game on sale for the PS4, I really went in expecting the worst that Mass Effect had to offer. Mind you, I never really liked Mass Effect that much. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of Andromeda and it is by far my favorite game in the series.
@@trompell0 I guess it depends on your limit. Inquisition bored me almost instantly. I honestly haven't been able to play for long enough without quitting Inquisition during the Hinterlands. Andromeda kept me engaged till the end and I have no regrets with the amount of time I put into it.
That's good and all that just means You hate mass effect , if you like Andromeda that means you wanted a game that wasn't mass effect so that's fine just don't Be apart of the crowd that says this was good game bc You will literally give these people reason To ruin the actual mass effect even more
What impressed me, when I played for the first time ME1 and ME2 was the bond you can make with awesome characters. Samara, Jack, Thane, Tali, Liara and Mordin were beautiful characters and interaction with those characters was interesting. The story was interesting, not so much with the ending of ME3. I played Andromeda quite some time ago and I can't remember any of its characters or main story. Nothing to be remembered. Fighting was more fun and that's not enough.
And there is the problem. you are comparing two games (ME1 + ME2) to one game (MEA). If you want a fair comparison you can only compare ME1 to MEA (ME2 has too much characters from ME1 in it). in my opinion the characters (just companions to shorten it) i liked in ME1: Garrus and Tali. (Wrex and Liara grew on me in the later games) in MEA: Peebee, Drax and Vetra. I remember more game breaking bugs in ME1 (multiple weapons not cooling down) and ME2 (1 non functioning mission trigger) each than in MEA (1 non functioning mission trigger) even MEAs (in)famous glitchy faces did NOT happen to me, so its hard for me to understand how so many can call MEA as full of bugs. The story of MEA had some hiccups where it was hard to keep up and get over with it, but so did ME1 and ME2 (Even The Witcher 3 lost my interest at some point for some time) so that is from my point of view not a real dealbreaker.I havent finished MEA (life happened: had a nasty breakup and shortly afterwards my dad died) but still liked the story so far (standing right in front of the point of no return but never got to finish it properly, because of time and other games and I want to start a new game to freshen up my memory). Storywise the Archon and the Kett dont feel like a real threat to me. But so didnt Saren with the Geth. The things is disliked the most about MEA are: 1. The outpostsystem is lacking some meaning and has a lot of wasted potential 2. What happened to the Quarians or to the Drell? All in all i think MEA is a solid 7/10 maybe even a 7.5/10 a good game with a lot of potential to be expanded in the once planned sequels. about the same rating as I would have given to ME1 (7/10)
I agree, they should've just compared ME2 to MEA. The writing, characters and overall story was leagues ahead of MEA. Comparing ME1, it's a little clunky and that shows in the game-play and those damned elevators and other level designs, but I guess that was a product of its time and a smaller team and budget. The story in ME1 and characters are still far more interesting I feel, and whilst looking like plastic they don't feel like plastic, unlike MEA's characters.
The only fun I genuinely had with ME:A was the multiplayer. Was legitimately fun. Everything else... Trash Effect: Blandromeda seems incredibly applicable.
Couldn't agree more with your review! I finished my 1st playthrough last month, pouring in 117 hours & completing every side mission (minus two which were hopelessly bugged). The game's combat, class customizations, weapons, a few characters, and driving the Nomad were the biggest positive highlights! Even exploring / terraforming planets as Pathfinder had its appeal as the hours went by. But one can definitely see where Bioware took the path of least resistance regarding its overall story-telling, the majority of its characters, illusion of choice, weak-willed protagonist, and horrific amount of bugs that have **STILL** yet to be patched. Calling Andromeda the worst RPG or game of all-time would be a monumental exaggeration, but it's certainly the worst of the series. Here's hoping Bioware doesn't fuck up the next title and takes its time getting it right.
Looking at it nearly 5 years later, it’s not a bad game. It needed more polish and writing for the main quest but in general it’s not horrible. Every world was unique, a decent portion of the NPCs I did like (all the Angarans, Kadara Port, and a few Nexus were all enjoyable) and I thought they really accomplished putting together a squad that felt different and not just a rehash of the main trilogy. Jaal, Vetra, Drack, and Peebee specifically get top marks from me. I do think that there should have been a sequel because this game was meant to be a beginning and it is, so that means most of the choices weren’t meant to fully come to fruition until later
I couldn't go past Eos. Once I set an outpost, I realized that I despise pretty much every little thing the game had shown me so far. Even getting to this point felt arduous. I never played a game that felt like an absolute chore. ME: A was the first and only.
@@Rapunzel879 I can understand that especially if you’re not used to what RPGs have been doing recently and just prolonging the hell out of important story quests. I feel like the Witcher, Dragon Age Inquisition, and Cyberpunk are kinda the epitome of these. Albeit they are better written but my first play of the Witcher 3 was so slow
@@tnm1697 : Witcher 3 indeed starts slow, I'll give you both that. But after about 20 hours in and then eventually crafting that "Feline" armor & weapon set, things reeeeeally began to open up and it got fun wrecking enemies with little trouble. Also, the story was far more engrossing and had me hooked. You actually had to make decisions, some of which presented interesting moral dilemmas & could result in drastic consequences that altered NPC's perception of you, altering the political landscape, etc. I dunno, to me that game was way more polished, enjoyable, and got me into both the books and TV show.
@@Survivor_of_DMVdrivers absolutely, it for sure is a better game! I was just using it as an example as to why I enjoy Andromeda. The writing might not be up to BioWare par but if you’re open to it and willing to have some fun you absolutely can in this game. Some of the most fun I had was playing it on Insanity and bouncing and flying all over the place during gunfights. Made me feel like a sci-fi badass
Yea man, combat / movement was about the only thing I truly remember. Mixing firearms with a little biotic and a little engineering skills. Some really great synergy could be made.
I think Ryder should have had wayyyy more of an edge but…it’s kind of weird to want a copy and paste of Shepherd. I don’t want unending sequels of the same archetype.
I just replayed the game for the first time in about 3 years after playing through the Legendary Edition and it was honestly not nearly as bad as I recalled. I see some people saying that the story feels incomplete but it really doesn't feel any more incomplete than ME3 did after the original ending before they added DLC and patches to the game. The Legendary Edition incorporated all the DLC and patches to tie up loose ends and so ME3 didn't feel nearly as incomplete in the Legendary Edition. ME: Andromeda didn't really feel so incomplete to me simply because it did have a story arc that made sense: Rider and his/her crew make it to a new galaxy, they find out that things aren't what they should be, they identify the bad guys, they beat the bad guys, happy ending. There's also the setup for a sequel as you see the Archon's superior scowling as he walks away after the victory on Meridian. I do think that DLC and patches could have improved the game just like they did with ME3 but the fan backlash caused BioWare to scrap them.
Honestly, I always play an emotional Ryder, how also can be a bit care free at times. I feel it fits the character as they are struggling to live up to expectations, but can, in the moment, just wing it as they are in the zone before someone reminds them of their responsibilities. Ryder wasn't a leader to start, so it makes sense they'd be a bit too casual as well.
I feel alot of people forget Ryder and most of the crew aren't soliders, were explorers first, explorers in a shitty situation with a new young inexperienced "leader" who's dad just died and thrusted that role on them, yeah there gonna be unsure of themselves and yeah they aren't gonna get the same respect as someone like shepherd, before me1 even starts shepherd has a known history, Ryder is basically nobody and I enjoy that about them, we get to build them up into a respected hero
@@glowhoo9226 I meant mentality wise, yes he did join the alliance but it was essentially out of obligation, having an N7 as a father but Scott's always been the adventurer type and aside from the Andromeda initiative how else would you really get that in the milky way? It's also telling that as soon had his father got discharged Scott's military career instantly crumbled as well, my point is basically is that he is not Shepard
@@glowhoo9226 Both Scott and Sara were fired from the Alliance military and their family blacklisted before either one of them finished their first assignments or achieved any rank. They have basic training and maybe some combat experience, but for the most part they are nobodies in their early 20's. Neither one of them has any reputation like "Butcher of Torfan" of "Sole survivor of Akuze" and neither one of them made Gunnery Chief, let alone Commander. Neither of them got N7 training either. Shepard had way more going for him before Mass Effect 1 even starts than either Ryder has. Shepard is also 10 years older than them at the start of Mass Effect 1 than they are at the start of Andromeda. He's got more training, more experience, a built-in reputation that is discussed by people in power before Joker makes his first joke about Nihlus, and respect is shown to Shepard through that reputation and rank via Joker/Kaiden and Jenkins before Shepard fights his first enemy. I know people will always compare the two, but Ryder is not a bad protagonist, nor a weak one. All of Andromeda is effectively Ryder's version of Torfan, Elysium or Akuze, where Ryder is building that reputation and learning how to step up to be a leader.
@@OscarSanchez-vo9dx Sara's military career also was destroyed when their father got discharged. Their family name was blacklisted, much like Ashley Williams was. She was part of the Mars garrison.
For myself I liked that the Ryder Twins are the opposite of Shepard in how they feel about themselves, and how others treat them. Though I would have enjoyed some Renegade interacts with certain people in my way, (especially when Drack bitched about his scouts when I've done everything else right by the Krogan up to that point) I feel like by noticing progression, Ryder becomes the hero and leader with all the respect they deserve.
exactly why this game failed, everyone wanted to simp on female shepard..... idk what's with you gamers and attachments, stop getting attached to fiction characters and grow up
@@adeptdamage3669 sam doesn't cheapen the development more than the beacon on eden prime, or the cypher from feos does. there are 2 time in the game where sam is carying ryder, hell for ALL of the final battle you are on your own, interfacing with the remnant tech and beating the archon
umm I understand why drack bitched about his scouts, drack was startng to see ryder as a trusted ally, and then ryder decideds to save a fool who was told to not get herself in harms way but does so anyways. kinda like how in ME 2 where tali gets pissed off at Shepard if you chose to expose that tali's father rebuild a ton of geth in the floatilla. she stops being loyal to shepard but stays to finish the mission cause it's more important that her feelings.
I like this game alot. I especially like that you can change your class not just say in your ship, but anytime you want. This means you can use all types of weapons and try all the powers, too. Attacking the Kett main base is a blast as the battle goes on nearly continuesly for 30+ minutes. Downside is some of the vault puzzles are very hard because they aren't logical at all. Still play the game every now and then.
you missed one thing, that made Andromeda great for me. Designing, testing and improving weapons. A sniper rifle that shoots electric beams? Can be done. A heavy pistol that shoots homing plasma grenades? Check! Not everything works out. It is even possible to create weapons that don't work out at all! Which can be fun, if you haven't equipped any other weapon and you have to rely on your abilities. And you missed one thing on the decision if you save the salarian pathfinder or the krogan scouts. You'll get some trouble dealing with the modified Krogan Khett Brutes on insanity mode which you won't encounter if you save the scouts
I had a similar experience to you the first time i played this game and chose mostly logic and professional dialog. Just this weekend i finished my second play-through (first time in years) I played as a female ryder and chose mostly emotional dialog. not sure if it was mostly the different voice actor or the followers responding differently to my dialog, but ryder came across as a much more likeable confident and fun character, even kinda witty and sarcastic sometimes. I defiantly enjoyed it quite a bit more this second play-through.
I definitely prefer playing as female Ryder. Male Ryder just isn't very charismatic. Maybe it's the way the actor delivers his lines? I don't know, but I just wasn't a fan.
I honestly think that the actuall gameplay/combat Was the gem of andromeda, it was such fun to play/Experiment. The worst part was the presentation. The camera is almost always static, characters barely move etc. In the Shep Trilogy characters moved around, sat down, gesticulate and more. In andromeda somtimes the only part of the character that is moving is their mouth and its really off putting for a dialouge heavy game
I think you nailed the game pretty good. The only thing I'd say you didn't really cover was that all the planets give you big open worlds to do more exploring compared to some previous games but nothing in them to actually find. so they are pretty empty and just serve as a drive here for this fetch quest and also the mine here which leads me to the second thing was mining in this game was just annoying to have to do. One last issue I had came in multi player where they drastically reduced the amount of characters that can perform biotic or other combos by them selves, as a fan of biotic comboing dudes I hated this a lot.
This game was almost never going to live up to the original trilogy but it was a underrated good game. The problem is if it’s not as good as the original trilogy people will view it harshly as trash. In the end it had major flaws but that doesn’t mean it was a good game. Not great, not exceptional but good.
Honestly Andromeda's combat system is the best out of all the games. The original trilogy was just hella stiff. Plus didn't realize it until the legendary edition and playing ME1 again... but man ME1 is bad so many game breaking bugs and glitches with both gameplay and graphics that it made Andromeda look like a decently polished game. The story definitely needed work, but it wasn't the worst writing ever. Cheesy, but not as bad as some other games out there. What I personally think killed Andromeda was the development nightmare the game went through and the massive PR Drama bomb they had going on a few months before release that kept getting worse the longer it went on until the game finally came out crashing and burning. Still alot better than ME1 if comparing it to a first in the line of a would be franchise. Since ME1 only follows the formula of good guy discovers bad guy. Fails to prove bad guy is bad, gets proof, gets support and backing and is sent on a quest to stop the bad guy before its too late. Bonus: Sidequest Purgatory! Alot of Andromeda's issues can all be attributed to poor development choices and handling in the end.
there is no way one game an live up to story an development of three plus dlcs when i compare it to me1 and realize it was suposed to be a series and not standalone it makes more sense because i'm not peronsally a big fan of me1 like i am me2 and 3
I poured 70 hours into Andromeda back in 2017. I am about to finish my MELE playthrough which would be my 3rd total playthrough of mass effect trilogy. I plan to replay Andromeda next. Before this video starts here is what I remember of Andromeda: Lore - pretty good Story - okay-ish Characters - 50/50 Gameplay - excellent They really dropped the ball with all the glitches and character models (those faces will haunt me forever lol), the lore was pretty interesting and the story was alright at best but the characters were hit and miss and generally didn't live up to the trilogy. Combat is where it shined. Especially now that I've refreshed my memory of how the original trilogy is. I had to mod it a fair bit to get the combat to where liked it while in Andromda it was perfectly fine as is, from what I remember.
I never touched andromeda and probably spent 300-500+ hours in the original trilogy as it was released over the years. Andromeda always smelled fishy to me, glad i put it off.
@@Midgert89 I just replayed it, here's the review i left on steam: "Cons - Bad character model design and facial design (everyone looks like a toddler with heads too big, and asari have round bloated faces and all look identical) - Poor facial animation and cutscene animation (have you seen that krogan "fistfight", video is going around youtube) - Bad writing (both characters and story, just poorly written to the point where bad cringy dialogue ruins great quest design) - Story is incomplete (a lot of thing are unexplained due to a mix of poor writing and future plans that fell through) - Less character choices (most of it is just flavours of response, with some yes or no choices for accepting quests or quest resolutions; no reputation system of charisma checks so most of it doesn't matter) Pros - Great gameplay: - Exploration is fun (several varied environments with lots of things to do and fight) - Open ended character skill system (doesn't lock you in to one class which allows for very varied characters) - Great combat (its just fun, I finished legendary edition of the trilogy just now and i can say with honesty that andromeda combat is better; just make sure to mod out the different x and y sensitivity bs) - Took me over 60 hours to complete almost fully (ignoring some minor tasks) and I had fun the entire time Final Recommendation: - Buy on sale - Mod - Enjoy the gameplay - Don't think too much about the story (not that hard tbf) This is not a worthy successor to Mass Effect, the writing doesn't stand up to the challenge. But. it is still a fun game. If they make a sequel, I'll prolly play it, the writing just got to be better though." For context its full price is 30 euro on steam (not 50 as it used to be on release)
@@master_ace Fair enought, but I don't play mass effect games for combat and exploration. Those are secondary to a solid narrative, good art direction, writing and overall presentation.
@@Midgert89 the overall outtake is that its a fun game. Just not a mass effect game. It doesnt really share any of original trilogy mechanics, as I describes in the cons section. Honestly the whole mass effect thing is just a surface level decoration. Replace the mass effect races with the star wars races, biotics with the force and say they didn't leave the milky way but they left the "galaxy far far away" and literally nothing will change about the story. It doesn't carry the mass effect spirit or its level of writing. But if you have nothing better to do its an acceptable game to play. Hell, it was on sale for €7.50 (-75% off) recently
The level up system, powers evolution and weapon customization is the best in the series, and the combat is incredibly dynamic and smooth. And for the first ~20 or so hours the combat was so good I kept playing. But eventually realizing I had no connection to my character or investment in the story took its toll and I never finished the game.
Got bored on my legendary run. The combat changing specs system fell flat for me. I already tuned up the best of the best from my first run and no practical benefit came from changing mid combat. Perhaps if I couldn't become so speced out in my first run the plus run wouldn't have been such a snore.
If I'm being honest - I actually preferred playing as Ryder compared to Shepard. Even though you said that Ryder feels like you can't alter their mentality in any way, no matter which way I swung - Commander Shepard felt like a demigod of a human being. He had an insane amount of plot armor and charisma to match it. It felt like I was playing as a living legend. Playing as Ryder feels like I'm more of a cog in a much bigger machine. If I died as Ryder, I'd be mourned but the entire initiative wouldn't be crippled by my loss. Compared to Shepard, whose death would've resulted in the Reapers absolutely curbstomping the galaxy no matter what. I guess from a roleplaying perspective, I really like the feeling of earning the title of Pathfinder. I wasn't a god. I wasn't protected by N7 training. I was just someone trying to do their best.
same thoughts! playing as Shepard was sometimes like reading someone's powerfantasy fanfiction, while Ryder's struggles seemed much more grounded. yeah director Tann or Addison or these random people assigned to Tempest were all kind of disrespectful to Ryder at first, but they were prepared to be guided by old, seasoned pathfinder, not his child who barely holds a gun and was given such an important role 20 mins ago. I really enjoyed everyone's frustration with the turn of pathfinder-related events
In regards to Andromeda I always like to compare it to Mass Effect 1. For squad mates, let’s be honest, the squad mates in the original trilogy weren’t great until ME2. Sure they have info they can add to the universe in regards to lore building but outside of that there’s not much until ME2. If they were to hash out with a second Andromeda game I think they would definitely get better. For choices and consequences, you didn’t feel any consequences of your choices in ME1 until ME2. The only exceptions to this being Virmire survivor and choosing what to do with the council, live or die. The biggest travesty for ME:A was that they dropped support.
What have you been smoking ? ME1 had best squadmates in the trilogy, introduced an entire new universe with factions, alien cultures, politics, history, and villains. It has Liara, Wrex, Tali, Garrus, Joker, Ashley, Saren and Sovreign. It gives us the Citadel, Ilos, the Spectres, Reapers, Geth, Council, Cerberus, Shadow Broker, STG's, Genophage - there's lore everywhere you turn. It sets up everything further installments build upon and sets the tone for the entire trilogy with a perfectly arranged story arc. Andromeda has one new race of aliensc (less developed than background race like Volus, Hanar or Elcor in ME1 and evel less interesting), a couple of generic enemies and a galaxy that's emptier than a shopping mall mid-Covid. It has good graphics and some nice locations but that's about it.
The problem is not enough people treated the game like a blank slate. They treated it like the OT and THAT is why they were disappointed. I mean it was RIGHT THERE in the name 'Andromeda' You cannot GET much further from the original storyline than that.
I just finished ME: Andromeda for the first time, having played the first trilogy a dozen times. The game isn't a waste of time, to be sure, and as you highlighted there are some real bright spots. Some of the characters are great, a lot of the game looks fantastic, and the vaults were typically pretty cool levels. The mysterious Scourge is an interesting looming threat to the galaxy that had good potential to replace the Reapers as the thing hanging in the background being slowly revealed while you were focusing on all these other problems. Perhaps that's where they would have gone if it had become the trilogy they clearly hoped it would, but even with a little more lore found on the Meridian Base (Fake Meridian), they never gave us any a reason to be intrigued. It's not that they didn't answer any questions about the Scourge; they didn't even frame the questions we would WANT to be answered. And that speaks to the much, much broader problem with Andromeda that poisons the well. The original Mass Effect is a hugely flawed game. Most of the dialogue is rigid, driving the Mako stops being cool about the second time you encounter a big hill, and even the squad mates that we all love so much are shallow exposition dumps more than actual characters (the change from 1 to 2 in this regard is staggering). What made that game so immediately gripping was the world building. Right from the start, the galaxy felt alive, and complete. There were politics, and history of wars, ancient grudges and current events. There were lots of different flavours. It was all so rich. And that's the promise that Andromega had - that's even how it was marketed - as an opportunity to explore a whole new galaxy. What wonders will it hold? What interesting new species will we meet? What strange landscapes will we encounter, with ecosystems we don't understand, with flora and fauna that will seem monstrous to us at the beginning, but may turn out to be complex and loveable once we get to know them? The answer: None of that. There are two species, precisely two, and we will encounter them all every world. Of those worlds, there's the hot desert, the dry desert (which is a different thing, apparently), the ice planet, and the cool jungle planet - but oh wait, that's the one planet you don't actually get to colonize. Oh, but this galaxy has a history! What is that history? Literally nobody knows. Ooo... does that mean there's a mystery to unravel, like with the Protheans? Nope. Go fuck yourself. The only bit of real intrigue that exists in the whole game is from unlocking Daddy Ryder's memories, where we discover that there's a mysterious Benefactor, and the person leading this whole expedition was murdered upon arrival, possibly as a cover-up. Did she know too much about what we would find here? Is there a sinister purpose behind this Andromeda Initiative that we will have to root out and eliminate, or else doom these colonists to some terrible fate? Goodness, was the timeline for departure moved up because the Benefactor was at risk of being discovered? I was genuinely interested in this, to the point where I told a friend that this should have been the main storyline in place of the Kett invasion, and then I made it to the end to learn that... GASP! There were REAPERS invading the Milky Way!!!! ... ... ... Fucking seriously?! I went through all that for a 30 second audio clip from Liara giving the juicy lore drop that... the events of the last game happened? Like, I know Bioware. I was there! So that's the major failing of this game. They completely missed on absolutely everything that made the prospect of this game interesting, from the moment it was announced. There were exactly two races introduced in this vast new galaxy, and I know less about them at the end of the game than I knew about the Elcor and Hanar by the time I became a Spectre in ME1. I didn't hate this game, but when I got to the end, I was happy it was over.
the stop in production for the DLCs with the other arcs left me feeling the game was incomplete and left the game feeling lacking and unfulfilling (of course this is my opinion) I also feel alot of the criticisms were very deserving , especially coming from the original trilogy to this game and how bad alot of the animation was and how flat some of the story fell due to bad voice acting in quite a few interactions , but the combat was phenomenal feeling in Andromeda I had alot of fun with that part of the game .
To be fair though people also forget just how bad ME1 was and still is. Even with the legendary edition out ME1 has more gamebreaking bugs and glitches and major constant graphical problems and bugs than Andromeda has now. And ME1 got a remastering so it shouldn't be as bad still.... then again Biowares focus for the Legendary edition was to change and censor suggestive camera angles and just do the bare minimum to upgrade the graphics.
@@francisharkins What? ME1 is an excellent game the most RPG tittle out of the trilogy,honestly it had so many thought put behind missions and exploration that truly if ME2 was actually the first game of the saga I would have likely not played through the original trilogy.
in regards to the dialogue changes i do like the idea personally. Moving away from the black and white is honestly better i´d argue, the main problem though being that the execution isn´t up to task in this area
Renegade and paragon was good tho… people tend to do either evil or good in every rpg, the main problem was everything was locked behind either super bad or super good shep
@@Xerczar true i guess i still like the idea from andromeda a lot. Since again a lot of times humans are more neuansed then either hug it out or throw out window
This video perfectly sums up my issues with Andromeda. The game despite all the glitches and "tired faces" didn't tank the game for me. The original trilogy had it's issues. But Ryder being an inexperienced goober with no real plan who gets walked over for 99.967% of the game continuously rubbed me the wrong way. The combat and customizations were the only saving grace that got me through the game. But the story and main character tanked the trilogy for me. We need renegade/ paragon back, maybe with some inbetween in there.
I just recently played Andromeda the first time, but I played as Sara. Just comparing the voice acting of the siblings made it a very contrasting experience to what you show in the video. I know that the story is of course the same, but the journey feels different. I enjoyed developing from a no clue teen to a respected leader in the course of the game. I played all side quests except for the collect tasks without map markers and even they were fun because of the chatting during the drives. And making the krogan the ambassador actually felt like the only real option for me to take. I am now on a second playthrough of LE and damn, that silence in the Mako is killing me now.
I recently finished the game and I pleyed as male Ryder. I finally liked him but it was hard earned love. When I had the moment playing Sara when my character (and her brother obviously) was struggling on Meridian, I immediatelly regretted that Sara isn't my main character, I found her more interesting than her brother. If I'll ever replay ME:A, I want to play as Sara this time, maybe I'll like the game better too because of that.
"She also shares the last name as the Illusive Man"
Cora Man?
Jack Harper
it was a joke
Now I'm worried about He-Man 😉
The fact, that they share the last name, is not a solid proof, that Cora is the daughter of the Illusive Man.
Cora man away!!!!!
Did you know that Cora used to be an Asari Commando? Apparently she has some really rare dialogue where she tells you that she used to live and train with the Asari. Supposedly only happens in like 90% of the conversations you have with her.
It's really amazing how they put these little sprinkles of added info in, right? The game also lets you find out that Vetra has a younger sister she raised pretty much on her own, but you have to really dig for that one.
I just finished the asari ark rescue and Jesus Christ, Cora frothing at the mouth everytime she talks about Sarissa is crazy
@@minenhledlamini334 Tbh I always found Cora, of all people, idolizing someone to this extent just ridiculous. Hero worship is something children or the generally naive do. The fact that Cora, a pragmatic spec ops officer respected for her professional and calculating nature, worships someone to this degree and then stays salty about having her bubble burst for almost the rest of the game makes me think the writing department probably had a "bring your kids to work" day at some point...
@@Catras_unfairly_gorgeous_smirk the game is written by children.
I love this 😂 also accurate
"All the great Bioware villains like Saren, the Illusive Man, Loghain, Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2, and Mac Walter, lead writer of Mass Effect 3."
I died here hahaha
me too
Timestamp? I skipped a lot of the video to avoid spoilers
@@sim2er 23:18 bud
No, it sucked then and it still sucks. Lipstick on a pig is still lipstick on a pig.
@@kwells2593 you think you’re being edgy, but your opinion is just trash
"Life is too short to play mediocre games when you don't have a lot of time to play games. " Story of my life!
The only thing is that games are subjective. One person might hate a game, but another person loves it. Or a game that is considered mediocre by many could be a masterpiece to someone else or another group of people, or a game that is considered a masterpiece, others will think is overrated/overhyped or terrible. I can use Batman: Arkham Knight as an example. A lot of people hate the batmobile stuff in Arkham Knight and think it's overused. But then there is me. I played Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City so much that I loved the batmobile parts. It's a nice change to the gameplay/combat. Then throw in that a lot of people kept thinking that the batmobile was the only kind of transportation and were trying to twist stuff like the game was forcing you to drive the batmobile everywhere and you couldn't glide. But I mostly stuck to gliding around the city/map instead of using the batmobile as often as others. My first playthrough (and I've played Arkham Knight a whole bunch of times), I only ever used the batmobile during main story missions where you HAD to use it, or for Riddler trophies, or a couple side missions. Other than that, I barely used it. Once in a while I did use the batmobile as transportation to get around the city/map. But from the sounds of it, everyone is making it seem like the game made you use the batmobile for EVERYTHING. But a lot of people consider Arkham Knight to be the second worst Batman: Arkham game (the worst is Batman: Arkham Origins). But for me, I love Arkham Knight and enjoy it as much as the other Arkham games. There is other reasons too that people dislike Arkham Knight, although I'm fine with everything else they complain about. So games are subjective. Any/every game can be considered mediocre. And I'm not factoring in the trolls or haters/those that hate on something to be cool. I'm just looking at honest opinions. With honest opinions alone, ALL games are fair to be called mediocre.
@@projectpat8807 "Any/every game can be considered mediocre."
I believe you missed the obvious implication that kind of renders that entire monster wall irrelevant...
Someone who's a fan of Mass Effect, will expect a Mass Effect game.
It's a ""Mass Effect"" game. Pretty much THE worst writing in the entire series, bland characters, bland story, bland protagonist, no impact of note, packed full of dull sidequests.
It's decent in combat/builds, and it's got some fun concepts and decent moments.
But overall as a game it's "ok" to pretty decent, and as a Mass Effect game it's a disaster.
@@higueraft571 it was a “mass effect” game but it was its own mass effect game. Not mass effect 4. When not comparing it to three of the best rpgs ever made in video games i think it was pretty good. I played it as its own game seated in the lore of the ME universe and I think because of that I highly enjoyed it. Also because the combat was on point and not many deny it that.
@@projectpat8807 exactly games and even movies are subjective it goes back to the old expression one man's trash is another man's treasure. You can't please everyone all the time
@@MrMonro27 It was a mass effect game but following a different storyline than the first three of course it will have it's hard difficulties the only thing that concerned me about the entire mass effect franchise was if going to the Andromeda Galaxy was even a possibility and they left during the adventures of ME2 than why not have all the humans,turians, Assari,salarians, and all other races just do that leaving the reapers with an empty galaxy when they got there it would have still given Comander Shepard a good story where he or she could have help the ryder characters including Alec to get all the races settled in Andromeda. Quite plainly to me the third game was not really necessary but then again I am not really fond of closed world games Andromeda had a very open world for players to explore and even write their own stories based on what they chose to do when dealing with the krogans on eledaan (sorry if I spelled that wrong)
My biggest problem with Andromeda was the promise of being the first to explore or make contact or whatever and instead you spend the whole game cleaning up other people's messes.
Isn’t that all mass effect games. Cleaning up other people’s messes
Tbh most sci-fi plots with Andromeda galaxy tends to be exactly that, cleaning after other people messes. MEA did it especially poorly though.
@@JA9339 Pretty much, but on the original trilogy your choices matter and even Paragon Shepard doesn't get pushed around by everyone
@Ihsan ryder did not make first contact with the Kett, they were attacking the Nexus people for months before she arrives. The angara also encountered the exiles of the nexus first, though ryder was the first milky way person to go to Aya.
@@roguegn Shepard was already a renowned war hero by the time you "take control", as well as an N7 Special forces officer. Ryder is just some kid thrown into boots bigger than their feet and they have to learn to grow into them as well as prove themselves to everyone who expected someone greater (Their dad).
Watching this video makes me realize how much it was painful seeing that every Asari except for PB looked the same.
Oh my God I know it's one of the things that pissed me off so much because every fucking asari
had the exact same goddamn face besides PB hell if you look at the original trilogy even asari characters that aren't really important to the main story or or that are just sidecares had a different look to them making them unique and different like look at Aria or Samara or liara they all are different from each other.
@@raywalker8367 Aria, Samara and Liara (I think also Tela Vasir and Tevos) all had a special face model. The rest had stock variations, probably based on female human faces. But they looked different. In Andromeda every Asari is Lexi (except for PB).
And salarians became dumb slow-talking creatures.
Pb was ugly as hell too
@@KrutoiPersonazh All looks the same except the humans lol the female salarians the only difference is the voice, damn, the rest of the species has the same model, it just varies only tatoos or colours sadly, even the Angaras.
The one thing ME:A did for me was show how good the combat could have been in the original trilogy. The abilities really highlighted how pigeon-holed the first games were in combat.
The Legendary Edition drives that point home even further when you play the games back to back. ME1 and 2 combat feels so clunky by comparison. I just made it to ME3 and the combat feels like a breath of fresh air by comparison, and it's still not near the level of combat in ME:A. Andromeda did in fact have some things going for it that sadly got overlooked due to its other lackluster elements.
@@V4EVega ya I'm currently in ME:A after playing ME2 and 3 and I just feel everything all over again. Being super excited by the combat but really not wanting anything to do with the writing or choices. The story has so much potential but between dialogue and a lack of choices, it doesn't feel right. But the only reason I stopped being a soldier for my ME2 and 3 play through was because ME:A was so good.
IIRC only the 3rd game was done in the Frostbite engine (the one used for Battlefield as well) which is why it's game play is miles above the 2, however, this meant that you lost a lot of "RPG"-ness in the last game. Honestly, if the characters and the world of ME were not top notch, I think the inconsistent game play of the trilogy would turn people away.
@@NewbOoyNS Frostbite only came into play for Andromeda. The trilogy actually ran on Unreal Engine 3, which honestly makes the vast difference in gameplay between them that more jarring in a lot of ways. I 100% agree with you that if it wasn't for the characters and world being so great, players would have revolted at how inconsistent the gameplay was as a whole. But I suppose that's one of the benefits with working with a particular engine for so long, you end up with time to learn it well.
I actually finished up the LE and did decide to pick up Andromeda again and something about Frostbite feels..... hollow? I can't really think of a better way to describe if. It's almost like the characters lack a sense of weight. It's somehow less noticeable to me with my own party because you have the jumpjet as an excuse as to why you can zip around. But when you see the Kett executing similar moves in combat without jets it's a bit jarring to me. Obviously it's because it's all part of the animations and combat mechanics implemented, but its throwing me off and I honestly didn't really pay attention to it the first time around.
@@NewbOoyNS LOL what kinda hot take is this? Good combat Loss of RPGness. Plenty of gamers have associated jank with RPGs because a lot of early RPGs had nothing but jank. But 3 wasn't any less of an RPG than 1. You still had plenty of dialogue options, 3's skill trees were even bigger than 2's and harkened back to 1's. You even had really deep weapon and loadout customization in 3 that allowed you to either be a biotic god or a walking tank, or something in between.
You can tell the writers wanted a sitcom, not a space opera
They were all blue haired Marvel fans.
You mean... like every other Bioware game?
You can tell they grew up watching Marvel movies, not Star Trek.
They wrote YA, not sci-fi.
@@darkbeach72YA is just a target audience. it can be sci-fi. most YA is fantasy or sci-fi.
My biggest beef with the story was you arrive in a brand new galaxy...and there's already people waiting for you at the non-citadel. Killed the frontier spirit for me. Then we meet a brand new alien race...that are 2-eyed bipedal humanoids. Was hoping for something wild similar Hanar or Elcor.
I definitely approve of more tentacle and non-humanoid aliens. Although apparently the skeleton rigging of hanar is a lot more "expensive" or taxing on gameplay systems than simple bipeds. Unless I made it up in my mind a long time ago, I think there's video out there somewhere of a dev playing around with a hanar model while testing MP stuff. A hanar being able to hold like 4 pistols simultaneously or something would be badass. Honestly don't know why Blasto in the Citadel dlc is the only time we see a hanar dual wielding pistols, and its during a cutscene on a movie set. An unfortunate belief among certain writers/devs is that players can't connect with or relate to non-humanoid characters so that's another reason we see so few non-humanoids.
@@BradTheAmerican isn’t that a psychological thing? lol i swear i read a study on this and it pointed that we’re more sympathetic towards humans or some can’t remember since it was years ago
@@ij7697 It is. Humanoid Aliens are so prevalent, because we can connect and empathize with them easier. You go for Hanar-like aliens if you need a mysterious villain or just some background species. Having a tentacle blob as one of the major companion races would be incredibly difficult to pull off
@@ij7697 Yea I've heard it a lot but I just don't buy that is has any sort of significant validity. If people in general had trouble sympathizing with non-humans or non-humanoids, then a large chunk of children's fiction would be dead on arrival, yet it's some of the most financially successful stuff on the market. Finding Nemo is a story about a dad and his kid, it doesn't matter that they're fish. How many Disney films alone have some form of sentient household items, toys, cars, animals, etc. I doubt anyone's complaints about those movies are ever about a character's lack of human-ness.
@@wickiei4556 Looks like you are now my superhero arch nemesis. I for one eagerly await for our tentacle blob overlords.
7:00 "If I wanted to experience lack of confidence, I could just go about my daily life in the real world." LOL! Same here, Dan. Same.
Ryder at the end-game is very confident though. Ryder also starts Andromeda 10 years younger than Shepard was at the start of Mass Effect 1.
We watch Ryder grow in confidence in the game.
@@Dragon_Lair I liked that too.
They were expecting to patch everything together with DLC. What they didn't expect was the... reaction.
You mean the orchestrated fanboi hatchet job? There were three triple A games that year that were TOTAL DIARRHOEA and were given more chance than Andromeda. It was a deliberate attempt to destroy the game, cleverly done and all the idiots just followed on. Most of them never even played Andromeda.
I would say the DLC probably would have just tied up a lot of loose ends and answered a bunch of questions.
Unfortunantly EA decided that despite the game selling fairly well but not making all the money on earth, and receiving harsh criticism that it was better to just scrap all future DLC.
All we got was a mega content drop for the multiplayer that was generic as generic can be. Here guys 16000 new cards 95% of it are just extra levels for characters and 3 identical variants of the same guns already in the game, enjoy...
If thats true no wonder the game had so many issues lol release the game broken and fix it later with dlc.🤣
@@SvenTviking I've just done another playthrough of Andromeda and while a have a better appreciation for it the second time around a lot of the criticism was well deserved.
@@SvenTviking good
9:28 I love how Commander Shepard approaches situations with tact, understanding, and speaking in a very relatable and easy to follow way.
Gameplay feels nice, worlds look amazing. Everyone is ugly, and the story....
Dragon Age 2 had a better story.
@@frankieseward8667 Yeah well. Game had flaws. Characters were sadly bland(and this is why bioware got into a decline- used to make amazing characters) Gameplay was nice too, if a bit buggy. Story....was well....abysmal. Overal it wasnt a bad game.....but when a AAA dev (even if offshoot) makes a mediocre game it doesnt bode too well for the firm. You could tell this though- ME andromeda was a test for the engine for anthem....And anthem turned out to be gobshite. That is the problem though- when a dev looses their defining quality, their shtick, their gimmick they loose themselves.
@@cactusmann5542 Some of the same issues were part of this and Anthem (and some in DA:I). Being forced to use a brand new graphics engine that wasn't really designed for this type of game, EXCESSIVE Over-hyping, and locking themselves into an iron-clad release date so theycouldn't say "We found some problems and need to work them out" The facial animations were a problem that could be seen in the release announcement, but they'd already announced the release date so EA went "It'll be fine!" It wasn't fine. And instead of buckling down, explaining things and fixing it they acted like "You don't like it? Fine we'll not going to do anything else with it then!"
You can easily make a good looking Ryder but you may need mods (hairstyle f ex) and persistence.
Cora isn't bad looking, i don't call people ugly in general, but i do think they did better on her than they did sarah ryder. Ryder's oufits are better, but cora's outfit is cool too and her physical build is better than ryder's too. If modding was a thing on console, i actually would have model swapped (if that kind of mod exists) ryder for hers.
I remember having a conversation with Cora and she was pissed that Ryder was chosen as the Pathfinder instead of her. And I remember Ryder's ultimate response was, "Well my dad picked me." And her response? "You're absolutely right. Totally my b." And that was the end of the discussion. It reminded me of the time I told Ashley I didn't want her on the Normandy, and she fired back with a defense. We had an actual disagreement, and continued to butt heads throughout her time aboard. But she always followed orders. That was so much more satisfying then the way, most of the "disagreements" were handled in Andromeda. There was a snarky remark made by Ryder, or an npc, and then a handwave response from either Ryder or an npc, and it was over. To be clear, I didn't want constant hostility or negativity, but I wanted conversations and relationships that felt, at the least, realistic. There's none of that in Andromeda. It all just feels like the barest of gameplay mechanics; these conversations and relationships are there, because they're part of the game, and that's all. I had a real friendship with Chakwas, Joker, Garrus, Liara and Kaidan. Wrex and I had mutual respect, that turned into a friendship. I didn't agree with Ashley, probably didn't even like her, nor she me, but we worked together and got shit done. I took a tough love approach with Jack, like she was my bratty teen daughter, and it paid off. I fought with Mordin all the time over the ethics of the genophage, and in the end, I hope I was his friend. Andromeda had none of these complex, realistic interactions.
I think the fact that when I talk about playing as Ryder I refer to him as Ryder, but when I talk about playing Shepard I use "I" or "Me/My," speaks volumes about the different characters. One is someone you play, the other is one you identify with. Meaningful conversations and actions go a long way.
Exactlyyyy. I remember playing ME3 for the very first time, and in ME2 I had romanced Thane. I remember crying when Thane ended up dying on the third one. Literally sitting there with my tears welding. And Mass effect 2 and 1 were literally apart of me, since my dad had played it, and then my sister did, and then eventually I did, and it was so good. Every single game was so good.
The fact every single choice you made MATTERED. If you managed to destroy the batarians homeworld in ME2 ALL THE BATARIANS WOULD HATE YOU IN ME3. Certain people, places and things follow you throughout every game and import. The way that ME3 has literally FIVE ENDINGS. So much about that game was brilliant, perfect, just the right amount of combat, action, and even romance and friendship and comradery. A perfect mix for me and will always be a masterpiece.
And then there's... "Trash Effect Blandromeda"... LOL
What I have confusion with is why ask in the beginning of the same what gender was Commander Shepard only for there to be no traces of them, not even a small amount? Just small Easter eggs here and there and Dr. Liara T'Soni's logs.
I don't have a problem with me no longer being able to play with commander Shepard, but the fact that the storyline of the game was so basic and terrible, and that the gameplay was repetitive (the only good thing about ME:A was it's combat variety except for me hating certain controls)
Ryder has the potential to be their own character, but enough of that wasn't well shown throughout the game. The fact that some of the characters are literally a snore fest and you barely interact with them well enough just drains me of energy. A game should keep me engaged not put me to sleep.
I was hoping to find this comment. I really, really liked Andromeda for a lot of reasons, but the forced friendship with everyone honestly pissed me off the most. For me, it was Liam and Peebee. They both went way too far on their loyalty missions (Liam even before and after it, but different story) and I desperately wanted Ryder to grow a pair and be an actual officer in charge. Of course you get the option to reprimand them for their actions right after their missions are over, but after that... nothing changed. Literally every character becomes your bestie even if you strictly choose to be professional only/distant with them. It's infuriating tbh.
You can't lose anyone's loyalty either. Help Drack with his loyalty mission and you're set. You can leave his scouts behind on the Salarian ark and make every decision from here on against the Krogan and their, _HIS_, colony. He'll still treat you like the best thing since omni gel. Same with Jaal. The game gives you the option to treat him, his people and his opinions like absolute crap, but once you finish his loyalty mission he literally doesn't care anymore. Remember when loyalty was a fragile thing you could actually lose if you made one bad move too many? When your literal second in command could choose to no longer be loyal to you because you decided to side with someone she utterly despises in a conflict? That's how it should have been. They really should have kept it like that and the fact that they didn't will never sit well with me.
ME:A was written by kids, and also rushed.
That's what you get.
@@antediluvianatheist5262 All of them were "rushed" tho. That's not an excuse. Look up the developers (some have channels on very UA-cam), where they share the horror stories that was development at BioWare. BioWare was a talented team of devs, but not a good company from a business perspective. Literally after the first ME launched, the company imploded. Merging with another studio. A lot of the original team then left. The drama continued into ME2 and onward, and the eventual EA acquisition was the cherry on that cake.
Andromeda was bad for other reasons.
The WTF moment for me was when I was talking with Addison, and he congratulated me on the Eos mission. He then plastered my achievement all over the Nexus. Then the Krogan and Turian (Khan? See I can't even remember their names. That never happens in the other games) crashed our conversation, and accused Addison of favoring humans, and cutting them out of the greater plans. I tried both dialog approaches but the result is always the same. They magically chill out and wait and see. 🤷♂️
I initially didn’t do a complete playthrough, when Andromeda first came out because I got bored after Eos, but decided to go back and finish it when the Legendary Edition was announced and set to release. I have to say, a lot of the criticism was justified but I wouldn’t necessarily call the game “trash”, there were some great ideas put into the game in terms of combat, exploration, class system, etc. One particular thing I liked about the game was that they made both the male and female characters related to each other, which was something that BioWare never did with the previous Mass Effect games. While I didn’t like the fact that the Nomad has no weapons on it, it definitely handled so much better than the Mako. It would have been nice to see some sort of a follow up to Andromeda, to allow BioWare to kind of improve many things that were wrong with Andromeda but I wonder how Mass Effect 4 will integrate elements and story from both the trilogy and Andromeda together.
Andromeda was kind of a struggle, game is like 80+ hours long if you try to 100% it.
Which by comparison that's about how long it takes to 100% the entire original trilogy.
@@Shishomuru which would be difficult to do because it’s not that side missions were hard, to me, a decent amount of the side missions came off as just tedious. One thing that was kind of interesting was that you couldn’t complete certain side missions until you progressed through a certain portion of the main story.
In my opinion Andromeda is kind of a shitty Mass Effect game but is a good game on it's own.
@@D-Skotes you do make a fair point, but it still maintains that Mass Effect element and Lorre, I’m more curious how BioWare is going to implement areas of Andromeda into Mass Effect 4.
@@D-Skotes storywise and lore are the real problem, but the premise is really good.
Different from the og trilogy this game has more in common with Lost in Space and Stargate, than with the Star Wars / Star Trek from the previous.
I love the whole exploration and the side quests are a bit tedious after while but, they do connect with the main plot.
This isn't a bad game, it just isn't Mass Effect.
I actually really loved the fact that my crew had no confidence in Ryder, because it was so realistic. They were following your parent, and not you. You were given your incredibly important job just because you were related to the person in charge, who was now dead. Shepard had been serving in the alliance for many years. However... that sort of conflict usually is concluded with a huge redemption arc of people telling you that they were wrong, and/or treating you in a more diplomatic fashion. That didn't seem to happen, as far as I can recall (I only played through it once at 100% years ago).
With that said, just let me romance a salarian for once and I'll be good 🤣
Dude thats not the problem. The problem is ryders dialogue itself. There just isnt any real choice on how he will act. He always acts like a fking pus*y no matter what you do
Yea but we weren’t given option to be a prick at them as a mainly renegade shep this had me fuming as I wanted to let my crew know I don’t give a shot about them or there opinions
Well that and lets be real, disrespect Shepard whether you have a reason or not would result in your ass being beaten straight
@@lilzeddy lmao
This remembers me a sega game, Valkyria Chronicles, where you are given command in a similar way , being a young boy the veterans don't respect you, but challenge them , if they win the battle with your crazy plan, they will get in line, and they come to accept you because you showed competence to command.
Interesting enough all soldiers have some perks and quircks, some can play better or worse with teamates, or in certain terrains/circunstances. But is a tactical game anyway.
With the "Big" choices, They were probably going to have the consequences in the (Now trashed) sequel. But with no sequel to show what how what we did affected anybody, they feel empty.
While this is true, the first ME still had consequences. Kaiden or Ashley died, for example. I always felt bad about that. There aren’t any equivalent gut-wrenching choices in ME:A
They hinted that the next game is sequel to both ME3 and MEA, no idea how but that "Ark 6" might have something to do with it. So there is a chance we'll get to see those consequences.
@@RaRmAn I really hope you're right. Andromeda had issues but I felt like it was easily good enough to warrant the sequels. If it was a new franchise I suspect people would have raved about it, expectation killed it off...
@@ApothecaryTerry Nah a post war Milky Way has far more potential.
@@adeptdamage3669 Not disagreeing with that, but Andromeda had plenty of potential.
Series like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed get new releases most months it seems and very few of their games are half as good as Andromeda. I mean...Star Wars Battlefront got a sequel and that barely even qualifies as a game.
Imagine this.
You step onto Eden Prime for the first time, with Kaiden and Jenkins, minutes into the game Shepard tackles Jenkins to the ground and gets shredded by the geth drones instead.
Jenkins ends up seeing the Prothean's vision and for some reason he ends up in charge of the Normandy
This is the situation Ryder finds himself in,
Unprepared, untested and with great expectations suddenly dropped on his shoulders.
It makes sense in my opinion that Ryder doesn't get the same respect as Shepard
exactly. at the start of ME1, shepard has years of combat experience and has at least one great feat attributed to them by the start of the game. meanwhile, Ryder is just a recon specialist with the bare minimum of combat experience who happens to have a cool dad. Ryder isn't the Shepard- Alec is. and ryder wasn't even SUPPOUSED to be Alec's replacement. they literally did not ask for this job.
That was roughly my opinion of Ryder as well. He had to fight for every scrap of respect because he is untested. It made enough sense I never had to question it.
@@spacezombie13 That's one of the reasons I actually really liked Ryder. Shepard in the first game had already been in the Alliance Navy for 11 years. They're an enlisted officer and due to their "great feat" in the earlier years they were invited to and graduated from the N7 program, which is something deemed exceptionally difficult. Their skills are precisely why they're considered for SPECTRE status.
So we have this big, elite, highly trained "best of the best" special forces type versus a 22 year old with experience as either an archaeologist or....A security guard on a Mass Relay.
The twins still do have a bit of N7 training from their dad, but that's about it.
@@N7SpecialForces Except SAM really cheapens what development Ryder could of have.
It's called roleplaying I wanna be a badass Ryder tht even if he lacks experience he will not be stepped over by his squadmates and other ppl. But you can't roleplay which is an issue unlike in the original.
It would’ve nice if there was a respect meter that changes how your crew treats you.
That would have been a very clever idea. It makes sense that (as Big Dan shows) your team don't take the Ryder kid seriously at the start, but if you step up and get stuff done/make hard choices then you should get more respect and more flexibility, similar to earlier loyalty mechanics. Irrespective of *what* you chose. That would contrast with Shepherd who starts ME as a respected and experienced Commando and is instead more affected by the content/morality of their choices.
My problem with Adromeda is the fact that you're not only "finding a new home" but "saving the galaxy" They made all the planets somehow lived in AND new. The game couldn't find the right atmosphere. What If instead, they made it where things get worse and worse and worse. Maybe one of the "hubs" got destroyed, then a massive famine and you're running out of food each day, then a new lifeform gets a taste of flesh and decides to actively hunt the races, Then ammo becomes short and you have to really conserve ammo, All those things can then impact your companions, maybe choose who to feed, choose who to do loyalty missions for, really make choices with urgency. Maybe you find the Golden world but all the other things have to be taken care of. then the end game is you fighting the New lifeform who wants to eat you.
@@keepiticy it has been said that good criticism is improving the idea of the creators image for a concept, rather than making it into what you would want from that concept
@@averywhitaker3513 well I think the creators idea was flawed from the start.
Their character build section was pretty similar to KOTOR's. They could probably incorporate a respect or influence meter like the one in KOTOR 2. It would be interesting seeing how my actions influenced my comrades.
The one thing I’ll forever be thankful for when it comes to andromeda is that it taught me to never pre order a game ever again
Smart strategy.
Same here. It was the last pre order I ever made, not that I had ever made that many anyway.
Mass Effect 4 seems to be a lesson learned from bioware it seems. They went back on their statement that shepards story was done and the trailer shows liara looking for shepard. Still wont pre order it but i will buy it day one tho
@@wargames43 Assume nothing.
@@wargames43 I feel EA is the true problem with bioware and not bioware itself, since ea cause 3 developers to go bankrupt and had their change around in the early 2010 it hasn't been the same. And I don't think they learned from me:A otherwise they would have put more effort into anthem. They dropped to failures back to back. It was tough fr.
I believe that the lack of impact from your choices is due to the game being cut short. This is clearly the opening game in a trilogy or series of games, where the choices made in Andromeda 1 would have had an impact. Since the series was canceled and no more Andromeda games produced, we'll never know where the story was headed or what impact your choices would have had.
This, just played mass effect 1 again and i realized most of the choices have an impact on the later games. the feros colony has a mission on 2 and is an asset on 3, the rachni queen is an asset in 3, and the human councilor Anderson gets you specter status in mass effect 2. A lot of other mission have impact on the rest of the series, people just expected far too much for a single video game.
@@lphphd5298 But it's not just how those choices play out in later games that matter. The difficult, on the spot, "right now" decisions and the immediate effects they had on you, your crew, and the game world is what made this series great. ME:A lost a lot of that. Once you earn your squad members loyalty, it doesn't matter what choices you make. They are loyal forever.
The game world and their input is somewhat non existent since you left to an alien galaxy, and 3/4 of those that followed were lost in space and not available most of the game to judge your actions. Those that are around to judge you, only voice their opinions, but it has no bearing on their loyalty or commitment to you. 🤷♂️
When you play a story driven game, you play for the moment. Not what those actions will do in future titles. Mass Effect released in 2007, and Mass Effect 2 released in 2010. None of us played ME and wondered *how will this play out in ME 2 or 3* ?!?!? We didn't even know how many sequels there would be. Hell by the time ME2 released, most of us needed a refresher on the first game so much time had passed. Mass Effect was great because it really made you make some tough decisions. Ashley or Kaiden? Wrex and the genohage cure? Or no cure keep Wrex. No cure, kill Wrex? I can go on and on.
Good
@@LynxStarAuto Of course the" right know" choices matters . If you don't help the mission with the hacking stuff the Nexus's captain dies not matter what. If you didn't help with the electricity problems the nexus will not longer enough to the other pathfinders to survive the last attack ( they will all die) . If you let die the matriarch of the Angara is too much difficult to the Angara to gain trust to humans and you will not be able to build a proper embassy at the Nexus. On the other hand if you save her, it will be more easier and the embassy will be enable to the nexus. If don't find the others pathfinders, they will not help you against The Archon.
Also, the Loyalty mission is based on a mission related to them to gain their " friendship" look at the codex my friend. You will not have the final movie theater scene and most of them will not refer to you as a friend. As a difference from ME trilogy this crew are not only your comrades, they are your friends. Lexi will left the crew, Vetra will travel to another planets, Cora will stay and Liam will start with the milicia. They all are supposed to have long roles during a, supposedly, second game.
You also can tell that ME1 choices, most of them are irrelevant to the next games as only mentions or even not that. The major choices matter to the next game , ME2 and ME3, hell , ME3 depends so much on M2 choices.
There are many moments in MEA that are right now consequences: choosing matriarch or the people, let Jaal get shoot, saving Peebe's friend Or shoot her, helping Knight's son, saving Sloane or not, etc..
Those are choices that you have to live with all the game. So, I need to correct you about it : MEA didn't lost that not even close.
I'm with California Sniper...yeah, don't care as the first story failed to grab me (enough that I did one play-through and every time I even consider a second, that lasts for about eight seconds before I realize what a chore it'll be)
If you choose the salarians you end up having to fight converted krogan in the end fight, whereas choosing the scouts means you fight easier enemies instead. I am sure the whole military or science question was meant to have meaning with the sequel. And that is probably what's wrong with a lot of the choices in Andromeda. Most of them were meant for the sequel which is probably not going to be made now.
Exactly, I think it's not very fair to say choices in the trilogy games had more consequences when even supposedly big ones like saving or sacrificing the council only ever changed a couple lines of dialogue and altered the numbers of some ME3 war assets.
Dont get me wrong, the trilogy games reacted to your choices amazingly, but let's not kid ourselves , you could never drastically alter the trajectory of the story with your choices or anything.
@@mattd5857 Most of what he called filler isn't. That's the problem. Andromeda is almost entirely setup. It pre-assumes a sequel, and as anyone who knows entertainment can attest, that is always a bad assumption to make. The STAR WARS sequels being a perfect example. Now, even if there is a sequel to Andromeda it will almost certainly be written by a different team and nothing from Andromeda will play any role in it.
@@mattd5857 Oh the was games are all about the illusion of choice. It just depends on how well the illusion is deleviered.
@@williamst.romain7393 while there’s probably not going to be a direct sequel to Andromeda, I don’t think BioWare is going to completely drop it off the map. I genuinely do think that the story of this game while be a major factor on what BioWare decides to do with ME4, at least story wise
@@williamst.romain7393 You dont know that and development was such a shitshow that the story most def is full of fillers. Reading how bad things were makes me appreciate that the game is in this state at all.
I kinda liked how your crew was there and had their input. It’s what I liked about ME1. In ME2 it was like only Miranda and a few others knew what was going on. Then in ME3 you had to weigh everyone’s feeling individually after each mission.
That was a great element in ME1, I loved the post-mission meetings and Council reports. Who doesn’t have fond memories of telling the Council to go fuck themselves?
@@xenon8117 I just never called them😂
@@route77productions Ohh you missed out on great council fun then.
This video made me realize how badass Shepard is, even the paragon one
Shepard in modern culture is the embodiment of toxic masculinity, which is why even female Shepard is a great character and not just the male one. The definition of "toxic masculinity" has been distorted so much that you can't have a badass war hero who is willing to make hard decisions without being apologetic about it anymore. A true war hero who commanded respect from everyone, even his enemies. Ryder is just your average no spine zoomer that copes through every situation using le sarcastic xDDDD zoomer humor. Even forcing Ryder through dialogue choices to threaten someone is laughable as it feels like he/she is just making empty threats. Compare Ryder telling the Cardinal "I will fuck your shit up" like a cringe kid to Shepard threatening the Illusive man or the Fake Shepard where you can literally feel his rage and can tell that when he is telling them that he will rip their head off he really means it because they dared to put his crew's life in danger.
@nigelnarinx6679 Ryder is pushover imagine dock guy trying to stop shepherd from taking off he would get knocked out
you could understand all this just by a single look at this soy zero testosterone bi***, and every other character who looked like sh** just because of the agenda and no one in computer games can look great anymore (at least korean and some japanese studios are not infected with the virus)@@demetst760
The main issue I had with this game was the fact that the dialogue choices were AWFUL. The Paragon/Renegade choices are gone. Instead, you are given 4 choices of dialogue that are pretty much the same and all serve the same purpose:
-Say Hello
-Say Hi
-Talk to them
-Greet the person
Ruined it for me completely.
Yeah, that was some Fallout 4 level dialogue wheeling.
Dragon Age: Inquisition uses the same system of four choices based on heart, strength, mind/logic, etc. I just began replaying it recently.
@@justaguy8218 Yeah that's why the dialogue wheel itself isn't really the issue, DAI was great at making you feel like a completely different character depending on your choices, an emotional response could be completely different to a strong one (and the reputation system helped a lot) it's not as RP friendly as DAO but it was good enough
Ryder's choices are different flavours of the exact same person, a few choices are really different but overall you won't change too much,
@@Igneeka I’d agree. I see quite a few options to differentiate characters in DA:I based on gender/sex and race. A female elf is a whole other ballgame than a human male, and class also makes a big difference, especially a mage, but even a warrior.
I think that possibly there are fewer differences in ME:A because you’re just playing the brother or the sister, both of which are Ryder and both are human with the same overall background and family. Still, they could have given us a few more options.
@@justaguy8218 dragon age dialogue wheel has thought and effort and blended 100s of ways Andromeda is a smack in the face , like they just didn't even try on this one .
Was it on purpose that you made Rider look like Fry from Futurama or is that the actual default?
No, default is a brown haired guy, with his hair combed to the side.
It's not the default.
Jesus christ, you're right. This Ryder does indeed look like Fry.
I don't blame you for thinking those goofy-ass outfit colors are the default
Nah the default looks like a pasty skinned teenager. That's definitely fry😂
My main issue with Andromeda was that I didn't feel like the hero of the story, I felt like I was carrying the hero around with me (even when getting the Tempest Suvi greats SAM first and then quickly greets you as a quick aside and that carries through the game). SAM also got really annoying telling you what to do and how to play not even giving you a chance to solve a puzzle or problem, the one scene at the endgame just felt like it was thrown in to appease people catching on to this. Without SAM the Pathfinder had nothing to stand out where other games the MC's were normally given a chance to stand out on there own.
Yeah, that was exactly my issue with the Andromeda. While playing it I basically felt like a some sort of walking and breathing meat avatar helping SAM to do stuff it physically can't do. And to make it even worse SAM is just utterly fucking boring. Unlike EDI or Legion, SAM has absolutely no personality at all. It is just a bland and monotone chat bot constantly pestering you with "temperature is low" or "temperature is high" nonsence.
I know what you mean SAM just made me feel like a child who was just doing whatever my parent was telling me. Though in this case the "parent" is a bland monotone AI.
also SAM sounded genderless and weird
How is that any different to Shepard? Shepard was literally just a soldier. A very good soldier, but a soldier nonetheless. Shepard didn't kill Sovereign, s/he just took down his shields. JOKER delivered the killing blow with the Normandy. Every time Shepard's on a mission, s/he defers to his/her squadmates or EDI. Without Shepard's team, s/he is nothing. This is exemplified by the fact Shepard dies at the end of ME2 if everyone on his/her team is dead. Shepard is nothing without his/her team. Shepard was also limited to one class.
Ryder by comparison can multiclass, thanks to they symbiotic relationship s/he has with SAM. FemRyder was a civilian as well (not a soldier), as was the majority of the Tempest screw. The Tempest crew was literally a ragtag band of misfits who not only accomplished the impossible task of traveling to an entirely new galaxy, but managed to settle there despite a hostile alien species. For as much credit as you give to SAM, he could do nothing without Ryder and vice versa. That is no different to Shepard, who relied on a team of specialists and an AI.
@@TheFuronMothership Shepard disabled sovereign completely and if Shepard hadn’t dealt with Saren the reapers would have come through. Shepard is a commander any commander worth their salt will listen to those who follow them. The team is nothing without Shepard. Shepard can fight perfectly fine without them they just allow Shepard to be better.
I think the air on habitat 7 was poisonous. Not just unbreathable. Young Ryder almost died even with the helmet the whole time. And probably would have if they shared it.
Yea I thought they made that pretty clear as bad as a story choice as it was. There are thousands of cooler ways to sacrifice yourself
Not being able to romance Dr. Lexi (Nathalie Dormer) is the biggest regret
I was more disappointed by the restrictions to any Suvi romances.
@@mckrackin5324 I nearly barfed at the “darkly beautiful” bs. Don’t want to imagine how much more cringe it would have been with her if you could romance her.
@@Blobby192 I believe you're talking about Suvi (with the Scottish accent).
Well she wants that Krogan dong, what are ya gonna do
Minor point, but I hear the "why don't they share the helmet and take turns?" idea while ignoring that ryder already hyperventilated and inhaled a lot of the toxic atmosphere and promptly passes out even with the helmet on, it would be pretty hard to co-ordinate while unconscious. That said, Alec had far more going to make him a more interesting protagonist than the kid and killing him off for a "big shoes to fill" type story doesn't really work when Ryder never really comes into their own as a leader, just as someone who happens to have special AI powers nobody else gets.
Ryder DOES come into their own as a leader though. By the end of the game literally everyone on the Tempest follows Ryder without question, refuse to leave a meeting until Ryder dismisses them, and all the Nexus leaders and other pathfinders (if you find them) all follow Ryder's orders against the Archon.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is a coming of age story. Ryder is going through his/her Elysium, Akuze or Torfan. Shepard had a built-in reputation and the respect that comes with rank. Ryder has neither rank nor reputation when they become Pathfinder.
"Ryder never really comes into their own as a leader"
??? She has changed more than Shepard.
Imagine if you played Alec and depending on your 'choice' of character (brother or sister), the one you pick dies, or at least goes into a Coma or some such. Maybe have an alien race in this new sector have a medical knowledge of how to reconnect a 'soul' to a deal body (essentially what Project Lazarus in part did for Shepard, beyond of course rebuilding his body).
That way you play a driven character trying to seek a way to save your son/daughter with the help of your other child.
Did you just not play through the game? By the end, you’re a renowned and lauded hero and leader by the entirety of the Nexus. You start as a nobody, because Ryder (Sara and Scott) are nobodies, and have to learn how to go from there the hard way.
Honestly liked the ME:A combat way more than the original trilogy games but that’s about it
It is one of its only redeeming, if you can call it that, features.
Combat and customization
I thought the exploration was cool too and I liked the banter and dynamics with your crew. I also think the story, though underwhelming, was not horrible like so many people say.
It's its only redeeming quality, tbh.
@@lhays117 It belongs with Halo 5’s and Anthem.
I think the character arc is fitting in the sense that Ryder is learning on the job. They were never meant to be Pathfinder and everyone knows it should've been Cora, and likely would've been, had Alec not had to sacrifice himself to save his kid. Ryder is figuring it out as they go so a sense of uncertainty is a welcome approach and more in line with feeling relatable because we as players have about as much info as the character.
This. I actually really enjoyed that part. Made me feel like I really had to earn it.
Exactly. It would have been massively weird if the "new Pathfinder" casually aced his new job.
Cora even mentions how she trained for years to follow in Alec's footsteps, yet he overrules that "decision" by promoting his own kid.
That is still kind of green behind the ears and needs to learn/grow on the tasks.
Andromenda's biggest fault (and one of many) is that it was set up for a sequel(s) which will very likely never materialise.
Consequences don't materialise either and tbh how many choices actually did in mass effect 1? You lost one 1 squadmate regardless of who you choose on virmire, and then assuming you don't pass the speech check another one with wrex.
Aside from that I don't remember much, killing the rachni queen? Like 1 line of dialogue from the turian councilor before I hung up on him. Killing/not killing the colonists on feros? Like 1 line from one of the colonists, in fact I forgot what choice I even made on feros until tali mentioned it too me in mass effect 2. Shit even letting the council live or die has literally no consequences in ME1 (which, tbf is because of where the choice is placed in the game)
Now of course that doesn't excuse Andromenda's lack of morally complex choices and ruder being a bitch for the entire game (makes sense at the start but as the game goes on ryder should get more confident and assertive)
Learning on the job is one thing, constantly sounding weak and unsure got on my nerves... he might be new at it but he's meant to be leading a crew and inspiring confidence, which he clearly did not.
Andromeda was doomed to fail from get go. Resources for development were diverted to Anthem (Want to talk about a trash game, there it is) and the deadline for development of Andromeda forced it to be rushed. While not the best game in the trilogy, it was entertaining in its own right. Also Drax is the best companion in the whole game. "I hate you all, just let me be old and cranky in peace".
It also had the issue of stopping development, scrapping the entire thing, and restarting the damn thing from scratch, multiple times over the course of the 4 or 5 years it was in development hell. Not even in the first few months, more like they'd go for a year, toss it, restart, 6 months later restart, rinse and repeat until they had to rush it.
MEA was also written by racist sexist SJW's. They're actually the reason the female characters are purposefully ugly -- sorry, "realistic." And why you can't put the kibosh on Liam -- would be racist to portray a black character as dumb or inept, let alone getting shut down by a most likely white player's white avatar.
@@Mortablunt You can call Liam out on his shit after the loyalty mission, though.
ua-cam.com/video/Qz_rRlNjUW0/v-deo.html
@@Mortablunt I would have no problems there...through a hundred ME series playthroughs, Paragon and Renegade, male and female, my Shepards and Ryders are always black!
In sum, a very good game in spite of circumstances.
The thing with Ryder not being super assertive I found to be very intentional by the story. Ryder isn't a seasoned badass like Shepard was at the beginning of ME1, so the story is about Ryder rising to meet the challenges thrown at him/her and become the kind of character Shepard was at the start of ME1. And it shows imo, by the end of the story Ryder is issuing orders and pursuing goals with a lot more confidence than at the beginning of the game. The real shame of Andromeda being cut off is that we will never get to really see the payoff of Ryder's character arc.
Yeah, the Shepherd stand in was the Father. Ryder was never supposed to be the leader at the beginning and I think a bulk of the arc was showing them try to step up to the plate and learn on the job. Which I suppose is a harder adjustment to make for fans expecting a straight up power fulfilment fantasy as you would in the ME trilogy.
Ultimately, making a reskinned Shepherd would've been a bigger problem, because the shadow Shep left would be more obvious. Taking a new direction allowed them to try new things, with varying success.
If you want to sell inexperienced, let the player be more assertive anyways, but make Ryder more cocky and arrogant. The position goes to his head, and he gives orders easily, but also just makes an ass of himself.
Paragon and Renegade Shepard were two very different things, but still filled the same role.
Both over and under confidence can fill the same role of inexperienced, too.
@@YourCrazyDolphin Why though? A cocky, arrogant PC probably wouldn't have been given this burden, because a person like that wouldn't be up to it. A Pathfinder is not a Spectre... their job is to _find a save haven for humanity_, not protect an existing galactic order at any cost. The nature of the mission lends itself to a more observant, less reactive person. I really enjoyed the feeling of EARNING my confidence in Andromeda.
@@MICjordanTPR Cool, in the series about choice you should, well, have choice. Have an influence in your character's personality.
You want unconfidant Ryder, play that Ryder.
You want something different? Should be able to play the other way, too.
And from what I understand, Ryder got his position from chain of command, not choice, and was doubted to begin with either way, and growing into the role is part of his arc either way. Learning to slow down is just as much a character arc as learning confidence.
Ryder is incompetent, not just inexperienced.
Actually, while hunting the archon, choosing the pathfinder or the scouts does affect your game. Not majorly, but it changes one of the enemies you'll fight. Saving the pathfinder results in Krogan Kett. Saving the scouts results in salarian Kett. The Salarian Kett are much easier to kill.
While I knew about the Krogan Kett's appearance hinging on whether or not you chose to save the Salarian Pathfinder, I did not know/realize there were Salarian Kett if you saved the scouts. They really must have been that much easier to kill lol.
There were no salarian kett
The one major gripe I do have is Ryder being able to wear N7 anything. In the originals, the N7 status was something to be achieved through near suicidal fights or situations few could come out sain from. Even though Shepherd starts out as an N7, we chose what terrible day got him that rank plus the nomination for Spectre. That's how the originals showed respect. The only reason Vega is allowed to even get an N7 tattoo is because he's been all but actually inducted into the ranks as such. He needs to survive the last push with the crucible. Shepherd okays it to give him hope. I feel like Shepherd would have ripped Ryder's dad's suit right off of him. He didn't actually earn it. Yet.
The combat I liked. The characters intrigued me. They weren't trilogy besties like Tali or Garrus.
But they had... something.
I wanted more varied enemies.
I wanted to be forced to fall back...not constantly. But frequently.
I wanted to feel desperate. As in. Everyone is a long way from home.
We're either winning this fight. Or we're dead.
The only thing that really really really really grinding my nerves to shit
Was when I realized they took the mini games you do in the trilogy to get extra... everything.
Now those games weren't necessary to beat the campaign.
In Andromeda you have to do them allllll the fucking time to progress.
This game was made for you to NOT be "mean" to other people.
Which is bizarre because some of the funniest moments in both the original trilogy and in the dragon age series are when you be an absolute twat to someone 😂
@@ducky36F But NPCs, in Andromeda, have feelings 😆😆
Its not that Ryder cannot be mean, but Ryder is gutless and a shit leader
@@Nemesis_T-Type I think it’s more that Ryder doesn’t have the credibility to be mean and have people be okay with it.
Shepard can be mean to people because Shepard can back up everything he/she says, and is generally highly respected due to his/her experience (i.e. being an N7 and a spectre). Ryder is nearly 10 years younger, and doesn’t have the same level of experience, so people just wouldn’t put up with it in the same way that they did with Shepard.
I agree that it’s annoying from our perspective, but it does kinda make sense from a story perspective.
@@MrBobthened That's probably what Andromeda's inept writers had in mind, but its not how it came across and it makes no sense.
A good example of a sci-fi story about an inexperienced person being suddenly put in charge and challenged about it is TNG'S Arsenal of Freedom episode.
In Andromeda, Ryder just comes off as being incompetent and gutless, his/her own crewmates frequently disregard his/her orders and break the chain of command, show a lack of basic military discipline (even walking out before Ryder dismisses them from briefings), actively endanger the life of their superior with little to no consequence (Peebee's loyalty anyone?) and many more.
Its not that Ryder "can't be mean", but he/she can't be the least assertive to save his/her own life and that's never treated as a flaw or comes to haunt them later (in fact its played for laughs most of the time), and anything only gets done simply because the writers want it so, if the story had the least semblance of verisimilitude, the entire operation would have quickly gone down the shitter.
Ryder might not be an N7 and young, but he/she has at least a bit of combat experience and military training, the fact that even civies can shit on the Pathfinder is not only annoying, but completely breaks the immersion. Besides, who likes to roleplay as a pussy that lacks leadership skills anyways?
I like Ryder being more awkward.
And I have noticed that Ryder does get more confident as the game goes on.
Every game has you as the confident, in charge guy that everyone listens to.
As Ryder, you earn it
Didn’t want a carbon copy of shep (who admittedly was less sure in me1 compared to the rest). They are thrust into the leader/saviour role with no prep overseeing a disaster. Of course it takes time to adapt.
Although the dialogue option were a bit too contrasting between a total goody and asshole as far as I remember, Ryder was a young unexperienced dude with somewhat of a military background. And his job was to make a home for the human race, not prevent the end of the world. Even if the Kett were a threat. He was just what he needed to be but fans are idiots.
While a lot of people, with good reason, bash the writing, at the very least Ryder is something that I think they nailed
I agree that I think Ryder is actually a character they did well. Alec was just like Cmd. Shepard, so losing him and having to try and the void he left behind is a huge task. Enter the player character. Your Ryder is completely unprepared for what they need to do, have to absolutely learn on the fly in a situation they are at a huge disadvantage in, and deal with a beaurocracy that doesnt believe in them or outright tries to manipulate them. Shepard was a hero and n outright living legend BEFORE the start of ME 1. Ryder is a nobody.
I liked that too. It's a different tone and it's intentional.
Andromeda had enough things it did right that make me feel the next Mass Effect (given time and direction from the onset) can be good. The combat is universally seen as the best in the series to date, the alien worlds looked and felt actually alien (Havarl in particular), and the exploration aspect was a fairly good approach to take but suffered from typical open-world blandness in terms of quests. Had they not wasted so much time chasing down the procedural generated worlds aspect in the beginning, they could have made this game amazing.
I didn't even mind the revamped dialogue system itself, but the available options were overshadowed by the narrative direction being imposed. No matter what you chose, Ryder was always going to be depicted as an inexperienced rookie because that's what the story demanded, whether you played it professional, casual, or anything in between. I personally liked making Ryder sarcastic in my play through, more of a Han Solo swashbuckler type rather than stoic soldier. But that's ultimately lost when the game makes it mandatory for all the cast to see you as a stupid noob regardless of your choices until plot demanded otherwise.
And SAM. Good lord, way too much reliance on SAM for EVERYTHING. Not to mention SAM's voice was so grating compared to EDI
What I would have given to have a mute button whenever he announced a goddamn temperature change.
I totally get what you mean by the noob Ryder, but doesn't it make perfect sense? I can't get behind people comparing Ryder to Shepard - consciously or not - because they are two different characters. The character creation already gives you the background so Shep has experience and respect at the start of the game. Ryder is a total noob with nothing to their name so the lack of respect is understandable. Also, Ryder is visibly younger than Shep (visually and voice, at least the female) so she feels like a 20 something y/o trying to fill in big shoes.
100% agree with way too much reliance on SAM, feels like Ryder is just a vessel and SAM does all the hard work.
@@kujda22 Ryder being a noob did indeed make sense. I think the approach made sense, it's the execution that fell flat for me. You're not respected until the plot says you're respected; there's no actual building of that respect for yourself via choices and quest completion. If anything, ME3's reputation system would have been perfect for this in conjunction with the revamped dialogue options. Let you build up your reputation scores in each of the categories. If I play largely as a sarcastic Ryder, let that influence how others interact with me. Maybe some characters are more willing to work with you, maybe others outright refuse because they see you as too unprofessional. Not only would it add replayability by giving you missions, interactions, and side quests you might not be able to access on the first run, but it also makes it feel like your actions have a direct impact on the world around you.
Make good choices, be treated with admiration. Make bad choices, be treated with skepticism and even disdain. But ultimately, let the player craft that. I don't want another Shepard, but I think what made Mass Effect so popular with fans was how you ultimately felt connected to the protagonist via the choices you made. ME:A felt like a step backward in that particular role playing aspect. It probably wouldn't have been quite as noticeable had it not been in the same series that had done that aspect of it so well before.
@@floriantinschert5542 on PC There ist a Mod, shut Up Sam
I feel with Sam it was a missed opportunity to have character development. As Ryder grows as a pathfinder, Sam should grow into a proper individual. We see the three other Pathfinders and it would have been good to see a juxtaposition between Ryder's Sam unit and the other three.
I appreciate a lot that Big Dan realizes that a lot of people don’t have time to play mediocre games. Video games like this are incredibly expensive and take a lot of time. It’s worth it for the OT, because it was so good, but I don’t have the will to, “Give it a try.”
Not for nothing but that's exactly what mass effect 1 was with the Gameplay. You have to slog through the bad combat to experience the awesome world and story. I have multiple friends who never even got into the series because the combat in the 1st game was so bad / boring
@@jacobsampsonis7782Except the combat wasn't bad for an action RPG from 2006/2007. Sure, it's bad by today's standards, but it wasn't bad for the standards of the time. That's the difference between ME1 and Andromeda. ME1 just aged poorly but was still good for it's time, while Andromeda was terrible from the start.
Andromeda is the embodiment of: "Eh, it was alright."
I love Mass Effect and despite trying 3 times to play MEA I still haven’t so I’d say it’s less than alright.
I definitely pushed through campaign as fast as possible. Everything felt very bland and watered down. Some highlights and some decent characters that honestly would've been kinda cool in a better game. What was weird was any time the plot or the scifi got interesting - they just told a less interesting story instead. I just played it the first time this year on sale. I'd definitely only buy it on sale and I'd even say - play this BEFORE you play ME Trilogy. You might like this game and it'd be a decent intro into ME trilogy.
I enjoyed it, but I was a little annoyed that I was forced to use exactly two guns that were capable of removing the sponginess of the enemies. Still captured the feel of the original trilogy for me outside of gunplay.
@@averywhitaker3513 Andromeda's best strength is definitely its squadmates. Jaal is adorable, Peebee is like a weird twisted version of Liara, and Cora's character arc about being your second is really good (kinda in the same way as Miranda). But, at least for me, everything else was kinda lukewarm. The Remnant (or Jardan) are just a less fleshed out version of the Prothans/Leviathans, Tann is the entire council balled up into one person, and the Kett are just the Collectors but with a TINY bit more personality behind them. While I wouldn't call Andromeda a bad game, I think it reused too many plot points to really stand out. (I should note that Andromeda was actually my first ME game, so I'm not super biased when it comes to the original trilogy)
Yeah its definitely a game that doesn't feel as memorable as the trilogy, I played Andromeda for the first time in Jan this year and i completed it and did much of the side quests. And while i remember the plot quite well, it all seems a like a blur. The main trilogy I can remember key details and play key scenes that just get stuck in my mind with how epic it was and how for me it set such a high standard for story telling. I never got that feel from Andromeda and don't feel like its a title that I'd revisit.
0:11 "Addison's face is STILL tired."
Also why are the Kett named after horse tranquiliser?
where I come from, Kett is a light insult and Officer Kaas translates to Officer Cheese
@@spikey556 You dutch i presume?
If so, then what kind of insult is Kett?
Never heard of that before.
@@spikey556
I'm Dutch and I've NEVER heard Kett be used as an insult 😂
@@MrNicoJac Im dutch to😂😂
Kett is a name for sweets where I'm from. 'Garn to the shop for some kett' (going to the shop for some sweets) kett where I am now means ketamine
I like how you include Mack Walter as one of the greatest bioware villains ever.
I will say this
1) Dad Ryder was my favorite character and he died super early. He was cool.
2) I liked the ability to mix your skills
3) I liked the weapons system
4) Graphics had some +'s but it destroyed by R9 290x8GB.
5) I liked the idea behind your family options, but I wish I had more engagements alongside my sibling in the field.
6) I liked the multiplayer idea with APEX missions, bulwark weapons and synergies. Interesting.
7) I like the idea of the dialogue wheel , but as you said, you "weak willed @5:40"
8) Jaals revelation of his people was awesome, but I wish it was even more devastating.
9) I love Suvi, Grandpa Drakk is a chad, sassy Vetra
The music was lackluster, story was meh, and it was just Reaper/Geth/Mercs over again. Punch Liam and PeePee like @ 8:20 cuz holy crap they disrespect Ryder.
If you feel like punching people because they "disrespect" you then you have some issues with aggression that you need to fix. Playing a game is not therapy.
"It's just a game!!" Sure. But your emotional response isn't. If someone you like dies in a game then you get sad, no? Is that not a real feeling? Your body doesn't care about the difference, that's what is special about humans and any emotion reflect back on who you are.
@@Fragenzeichenplatte If society were to collapse today, people would resort to violence more often than not to resolve conflicts. It's not because we have problems with aggression, but rather because today's society neuters our inherent aggression. This is both supported by science and thousands of years of bloody histoy. To deny that is either extremely naive or perhaps you really are as uneducated on human psychology as you sound.
@@Fragenzeichenplatteadult humans can differentiate between video games and real life, even if they relate to the story. I play renegade every time, but I don’t go around punching or threatening people in real life.
@@konradcurze8176 Don't be so defensive. I didn't say a word about anyone attacking people.
Read my comment again, carefully, and then reply again to what I actually said. Can you tell me what I said in your words?
@@Fragenzeichenplatte I just find your statement absurd and fear mongery. I am saying is that, unless you are too young to differentiate reality from fiction, your actions in video games do not directly impact your actions in the real world.
Wanting to run someone over in GTA does not mean you’re going to do that in real life. Same with punching someone. If you cannot tell the difference, you may need to speak with a psychiatrist.
My thing about the whole choice and consequence thing might be a little controversial but here goes. The consequences for these choices aren’t going to be felt in the first game. Just like me1 you save the rachni queen, but don’t get an answer to what that does until me3. You decide to save shai’ra from the thorian and let her go you don’t meet her until me2. You decide to save wrex, you don’t see his main purpose with tuchanka until me3.
Mass effect andromeda has only been one game and there are still major choices. Whether or not to blow up the kett research facility, saving the kett admiral or not, the pathfinder’s you choose, whether or not you deliver the anicient AI to the Angara or not. I mean honestly the game has more and it’s more then even me1 had.
If they made a sequel I guarantee those choices would be played out just like the other games choices did. It’s always been a ripple effect felt in LATER games. I mean sure some choices you see the end result immediately for (such as rescuing the crew right away in me2 or not) but the vast majority of the quests are resolved in later titles.
Anyway. This game gets a lot of flack (deserved in some aspects) but the choice system did not bother me whatsoever because as someone who has played the other games I’m well aware that no big choice is revealed in consequences till later in the series.
Most choice def should have An effect later in the sequals But at least some desicions should have An effect in the game they effect now I do admit that mass effect 1 does not have this But 2 and 3 do as in the choices in 2 and 3 effect their respective games
My only issue with the choice system is they made it a bit to overcomplex with the mentality of Ryder replacing Paragon and Renegade. Then again this games failure came apart due to the developers flopping and having alot of unnecessary drama and nonsense in the middle of development. At this the combat and gameplay was fun and immersive... and if I had to point bugs out I would say ME1 is much much worse for bugs and animation issues. Nothing can top ME1 trapping you in a hack/equipment/dialogue menu until you close out the game, or everyone going cross eyed or having their forehead fuse into their brow line. Even in the Legendary edition its still all there! But hey why fix alot of the game breaking bugs for the remaster of older games when you can make censorship and changing camera angles your number 1 priority rather than a side job for a smaller group? Well the main team focuses on graphical updates and bug fixing. Nope. Bioware don't have time for dat!
The character models being ugly I blame more on the updated engine and poor development decisions with experimental design changes. Not the first time a well known game developer made that mistake with a loved and memorable franchise. *looks at 343 and the big controversial changes to the artstyle in Halo 4 and Halo 5*
@@francisharkins Paragon/Renegade is massively overhyped. It worked well, but it was nothing unique or groundbreaking. It was just a repainted Light/Dark side scale that Drew Karpyshyn fell in love with while working on KotOR.
This is exactly what I said in my comment. It is (maybe) the first game of its series, so whe have to see what is to come and judge then.
As someone who played mass effect in 2007, I agree. The game at that time, was a bit disappointing, I really loved the story and I wished to see the aftermath of sovereign attacking the citedel, they just made me choose who'll be the human councilor and that's it. I wondered what happened to the rachni or if it's even a big deal. Hell, I even wondered if the people I romanced with are gonna have a baby, and that's before I knew there's gonna be a sequel, and there's still no babies?! I want little blue babies running around.
Sorry, I was very simple minded back then.
I feel like if Andromeda succeeded and had gotten a sequel the choices could have had chance to shine more, because all the choices (at least to me) seemed to have more long term consequences
I bought ME:Andromeda last year. I enjoyed the game very much. The game had all of its updates by then, so I didn't experience any significant glitches.
Well that's because they fixed most of the bugs
The bugs are not the only issue. Animations still look bad, the characters are boring, the story isn't interesting. It's not a good game
Alien fricken sudoku
It was still awful in comparison to the original trilogy
@@dr.science_0177 In the first three weeks after launch. But that was too late for the fanboi idiots.
Great video. I recently played the ME trilogy for the first time and fell in love with it (becoming my favorite game series period), despite ME3's many flaws. I *just* finished Andromeda before watching this, and I have a fair bit to say.
Character Creation+Combat: I was extremely disappointed by relegated to only presets for character construction, but found the enhanced skill choices through level ups to be satisfying (Though I still think "profiles" are utter garbage and are fairly useless IMO). Jump-jets and evades are odd in a Mass Effect game, almost feeling like there's too much movement, but it's fairly harmless. I was shocked by the lack of tactical-screens. Having to actual aim my skills instead of auto hitting.
Ryder as a Character: You hit the nail on the head: Despite "more" responses, they ultimately fell completely the same, and are hindered further by the lack of true choice and impact. I will say though, I like being able to pull up Lexi's profile on you: Effectively a brief document of her analyzing and speculating about your personality. If they had that along with real decisions and choices, that would be amazing.
Companions: ME companions have always been hit or miss with me (Don't ask me my opinion on Miranda, James, or Jacob), and while none of the companions here come close to the intrigue or charm of the OGs (Except maybe Drack, Vetra, and Cora), they actually seem to interact more with each other than the OGs ever did. Both on the Tempest and Nomad, companions will chat and fire back at each other a lot. They even had a message board to communicate just everyday stuff, like "Don't touch my roast", "This is the Angaran word for X", and "I stole your soap operas. You can have them back when you stop playing them when I'm trying to sleep". And while the highs were never as good as the OGs, loyalty missions actually made sense for the most part, as you were helping them achieve a goal they'd been struggling with, rather than just "Found this guy. Help me kill him". While the characters could've been better, they have an amazing amount of interaction compared to the OG trilogy.
Quests: Tedious. Yep. Personally, I like ME better as a set of linear missions/maps.....and that's a lot coming from someone who loves open worlds. Andromeda's just feel so empty, vapid, and repetitive half the time.
Story: It's mediocre at best. The only reason I did as much as I did was to get some good companion interaction, or hear Clancy Brown's sweet-sweet voice again. Poor guy didn't deserve to be put in this game.
Was it a waste of time? Ehhhhhh. Not exactly. It wasn't great...but it did show me what ME4 could have in to make it even better.....And now I'm going to worry about ME4 some more.
Profiles were actually great imo, you could switch build in the middle of a fight allowing for a lot more options in the way you fight.
@@kyrusxi Yeah, but I felt that devalued your "archetype" for lack of a better word. What's the fun in an rpg if you can just swap to whatever you need whenever you want?
Don't you dare speak ill of Miranda. She's my baby.
What's wrong with you? Actually dashing with jetpacks/biotic abilities is one of the coolest things ever. I played Andromeda first and then I played the trilogy, I miss those beautiful dashes, they make the combat much more dynamic. I feel very restricted in terms of movements. However, the story is much better in the trilogy, no point of comparison.
Those 10 Preset faces (all can be customised) do give you way more choice and variety than any of the Trilogy though. Shepherd always looks the same.
My biggest gripe in MEA was the lack of imagination in a lot of the design. I played through the story twice, and none of the designs really stood out to me.
I have to agree. The new aliens were bland. I don't mind the Nexus and Milky Way tech being bland because we are used to it by now and it's not new.
Andromeda missed a great opportunity at story telling. You tell me, what seems more plausible: traveling to a distant galaxy to find life at various stages of technological and evolutionary development, OR said galaxy is full of life ALL AT THE EXACT SAME STAGE OF TECHNOLOGY AS YOU. The later works if there is some really cool universally unifying explanation, but there's not. It's just convenient, expedient and devoid of imagination.
It's almost like traveling to another galaxy to get the Lego piece you're missing because the other galaxy WILL have the exact Lego peice you need. Ridiculous. Like, they ALL have the same jet packs that ALL have the same burst, longevity and mechanics as everyone else. What a fkn coincidence! Got a cool explanation for that? Nah...
@@undignified2843 The alternatives are a galaxy devoid of life. That may be great for a simulation but not great for Mass Effect which is about telling a story.
Of course, the other alternative is you could tell a story just with the characters that traveled to the new galaxy. Or maybe with life that is just developing and where the protagonists have to be careful about not affecting it. That sounds more like Star Trek.
@@Fragenzeichenplatte I think it's more that it could have been cool to have some more primitive species or ones more advanced, maybe even ones just as unaware of space and aliens as we are but instead the new species are more or less as advanced as the council species, that nothing sets them apart from a specie from the milky way
Hell even the original trilogy kinda had coolers idea like the Quarians migrant fleet (and the whole can't leave their suit because germs thing they've got going on) or even the Leviathans and obviously the Reapers, in comparison the Angaras and Kett are a bit tame, generic and...less alien, which is a shame considering they come from a complete new galaxy
You're spot on, though missed a couple of my favorite gripes.
For example, politics on the Nexus were supposed to be a huge driver for the story, but they were *yawn* boring. The absolute worst part is the most hateable character is one of the ones that are right.
How much better would the game be if Addison was actually in charge, rather than stuck working for an incompetent trying to make the best of the situation? She's totally hatable but also right. You'd be stuck with her, she'd be stuck with you and you could spend the game building up that relationship until you're forced to accept each other or kill her.
And riddle my this: Why didn't Adison, Kandros, and Kesh get together and space Tam? Seriously.
well they basicly just got out of one revolt on the nexus and spacing tam, as wonderfull of an Idea as that sound. would throw the nexus and the entire iniciative into further chaos. so they properly decided that letting tam be acting director was less of a problem than what they would cause by spacing him
FYI: in regards to the choices, if you don’t save dracks scouts, you’ll fight the behemoth exalted the rest of the game, if you do save them you won’t. Also if you choose “military” for podromos, you’ll have more reinforcements on the final mission. No, they aren’t big decisions, but it’s something.
Choose to make Podromos a scientific outpost and you earn research points at an increased rate.
These choices are obviously meant to play out in a sequel. Most of them anyway.
Andromeda was the first mass effect game I played and that was this year, I only paid 5 bucks for it and had a blast. I'd never played the originals either despite having the legendary edition in my library for a year. I'm now halfway through the final part of the original trilogy and I'm always gonna have a lot of love for MEA, it opened my eyes to the whole amazing experience and it'll have an equally special place in my heart because of that.
Andromeda is great. I wanted more ME, I got more ME. What else similar has released since Andromeda?
For a newcomer I bet it was a very nice experience.
It’s refreshing to see someone love Andromeda as much as I do. I played Andromeda first as well, and found out about the trilogy later. Now that I’m playing the trilogy, I still love Andromeda. Love the plot, characters, and the explorer vibe it had going on
I actually think that Ryder not being assertive makes sense. Guy is like Jenkins and all of a sudden he is expected to be a pathfinder and he wasn’t even supposed to be the next pathfinder if the og pathfinder died, it was supposed to be Cora. Ryder does get more confident as the game advances so that’s that.
Andromeda messed up a lot of things but Ryder isn’t one of them in my opinion.
Nah Ryder was an awful protagonist SAM really crippled their development.
@@adeptdamage3669 Not really sure what you mean by that. SAM was fine.
@@Doctor_D0M3 Not really all of Ryder's responces were variatiatons of the same character.
@@adeptdamage3669 in the beginning yes, but as you progress, Ryder grows into the character you want him to be. He received the best character development in the Bioware games I have seen so far.
@@jinx5005 Then you clearly never played any of the older Bioware games (KOTOR games still have the best main character development from them)
Shepherd already comes into Mass Effect 1 with a history of either being a war hero or a survivor while Ryder is the child of a respected “pathfinder” who hasn’t done anything him (or her) self. If the main character of Andromeda was Ryder’s dad, then he would’ve been more confident and would’ve garnered more respect from others from the get go. I kinda liked how the MC of Andromeda initially lacked confidence and had to earn the respect of others and grow into being a leader. He or she is young with no real history, as such you get to create the legend of Ryder as opposed to jumping into the character after his (or her) lore has already started to grow. I assume that Ryder’s character would’ve developed further in future games if Andromeda had any sequels.
They have a little history, but yeah they're not Command rank when the game starts and it gets dumped into their lap, and because of SAM's connection LITERALLY NO ONE ELSE can do it.
Well that’s just it - he (or she) doesn’t grow at all. Everything you achieve throughout the game is due to SAM - basically a plot device that solves every problem in the game. Every achievement that happens in this game isn’t there because of your skill or cunning, it’s because of a magical AI inside your brain which by the way you didn’t even deserve and weren’t even supposed to get (mind you Cora was supposed to be a new Pathfinder), you just get it because the plot demands it
Yet things like that happen. I liked how it felt and was interested in seeing Ryder start out as this lackluster leader by chance and grow in both confidence and gain more respect. One of my favorite developments was my DA:I character. He started out barely a leader getting flung from mission to mission and eventually at the end of the DLC he went up to the Chantry and ended the Inquisition with one hand. It felt earned going from scared and half ass to an actual leader. I had a feeling they were gonna try the same thing here, but...you know how that ended.
Thank you!
Sometimes it seems that people don’t understand Ryder’s character. Plus comparing Ryder to Shepard gets really old 😩
@@samanthaclyde8688 Different people, COMPLETELY different situations. Only thing similar between them is they were both Alliance Military. Apples to Pears.
And for the weak-willed Ryder, I think that was setting up his character development. This was supposed to be the first game in a new arc, but I think they made too much of a limp first impression... but at the end of the game, he's much more of a presence.
Except they ruined it with SAM.
That is pretty much the point of Ryder's character 22 years old kid with almost zero experience growing into a leader.
the whole twin thing could have been interesting going fowards with ryder and it woul have been cool to see them grow into this powerful force an this is why i don't like that anromeda got such bad reeption because while i do understand some of it flaws unlike others i didn't compare it to the whole triology and had a lot more fun
in fact, i like it better than me1 as a start
maybe people would have liked it better if they ddid quicker development because they planned it as ne game but it obviously was supposed to be a series which is why it's only really appropriate to compare it to a start of a series like me1 and not the whole triology
That's still no excuse though. A character isn't better because "they get better later on" especially if they're the protagonist. Additionally, that's completely at odds with the "roleplaying" aspect of the game. If Ryder is meant to have the prepackaged personality of "inexperienced leader" and have a character arc built around it, why in the world is the game treating as if we're meant to roleplay as Ryder? Just remove the choices then, and make Ryder a fully-fleshed out character independent of the player.
@@Birthday888 This exactly. The forced "inexperienced" narrative was in direct contrast to the role playing experience. It didn't matter what choices you made or dialogue options you went with, you were always the dumb noob until the plot demanded otherwise. You hit the nail on the head.
Why is this titled as a "2023 review" of the game when the video was uploaded 2 years ago?
I felt the story was generally okay. My major issue was, as said, the urgency. They play this issue out to be something almost bigger in threat than the Reapers, and EVERYONE knows about it, yet nobody seems even remotely concerned.
"Ye, we may just landed in one giant galactic war.... but hey, adventure ~!"
Aah yes, "Reapers".
That's how all the Mass Effect games are. Look at Mass Effect 3, the galaxy is facing extinction with Earth being in most peril and you are mostly dealing with peoples private issues.
I always wished they just used Ryder’s dad as the main character. He’s badass, looks and sounds cool and is N7.
Then just play the OT. You are asking for a Sheppard clone. Hmm maybe they should have sent the clone from citadel dlc to andromeda, haha.
Ryder's farther isn't dead, he was turned into a crab and runs some patty venue in a place called bikini bottom, and at weekends I heard he challenges people to armed combat and chops people's heads off. Apparently there can only be one.
I just wish he was a alive for more than 30min
They ran out of money, can't keep Clancy around for long enough. Had to spend all that moolah on tired facial animations.
@@Pull_a_Bharv I can’t believe it took this comment for me to realize that Alec Ryder was Clancy Brown. That blows my mind lol
You understand why he’s not dripping with gravitas. His dad was the leader and he was in over his head. I liked that he wasn’t just a chad right out the gate.
Shepherd was a hero before the first scene, that’s why he was the chief from the start. Seeing a character grow over the course of the adventure would’ve been cool. We could look back and feel nostalgic of when he was a noob.
Except in this case... you dont have the option to be anything BUT that, at all.
@@higueraft571 it’s the first installment of a new story. Ryder had growth, and still has room for more.
People unfairly compared this game to the entirety of the original trilogy.
Andromeda had some flaws, but it was fun to play, had a lot of things done well, and I would have loved to see the next chapter of it.
@@OnlineKenji "it’s the first installment of a new story. Ryder had growth, and still has room for more."
As mentioned in the video, every type of response effectively resulted in the same exact Ryder...
Sure, he should grow, but to completely lock him into one "personality"/route for an entire game for growth?
@@higueraft571 I honestly disagree with that assessment. I think by the end, he started to show more command and I felt he had shown a decent amount of growth.
To me it was just the right amount of growth given how little time had passed. It would’ve been immersion breaking if he just suddenly became top tier leader in such a short time.
I would’ve loved to play that growth over a new trilogy. It would’ve been good to look back over the course and remember when Ryder was just a kid in over their head, and see the difference as I’m sure BioWare intended to do in the second and third act of this new story - but most people just couldn’t stop complaining that Ryder wasn’t Shepard so I never will.
@@OnlineKenji There isn't going to be a sequel because Andromeda was so badly received.
On the topic of non-romancable crew mates never having the option, if you keep bugging Mordin in ME2 there is a dialogue where he calls you out on being attracted to him and shuts you down 😂
I just hate those horrific, mask-like face animations and dead eyes. The game would have gotten so much less hate (even with its weaker plot and lamer companions compared to the ME trilogy), if it hadn't been for those, IMHO.
moders did a good job rectifying these shortcomings. Go over to nexus mods and grab some.
@@70mavgr I would but I'm not about to subject myself to the pain that is Andromeda a 2nd time. Probably the most cringe boring protagonist I've ever played, and the side content is just as bad as ME1
@@70mavgr a lot of players like myself are on consoles. So we are just stuck with lifeless faces
The faces are indeed very stiff, especially on humans. But this problem also is clearly visible in the trilogy. Miranda her face looks like a potato and the face of Jacob looks like it was a botched botox job so blown up it looks.
@@timdehoog5584 yeah but they’re also from older games. Andromeda had tech to allow them to be way better. Think until dawn faces, as until dawn came out 2 years before andromeda. The trilogy is not perfect but andromeda should have been an improvement on the trilogy. It needed to be better.
They should have stuck with Andromeda and made dlc. I'm playing it again now and it's clear it had great potential and was going to be a game that should have carried on for a couple of years with story content. We still haven't even got closure on what happened to the Quarian Arc and the other milky way species...
I agree. It had a rough start, but it had potential to be great. I'm ever hopeful someone gives it a chance down the road
You have to read the novels to know what happened to that Arc.
So the story of what happened to the Quarian ark was explained via a book instead called Mass Effect Annihilation. Sucks that it's in book form instead of being part of the game but better than nothing I guess...
@@TheRayRayRawr could have been a nice DLC...
@@karlabravo8351 Reading is against my video game centered religion
This game felt like a chore to finish
Agreed.
@Tacitus G. Kilgore Yea I put it down to after I realized it was a chore. Like u said a few things stood out but overall the game was bland and it felt like punches were being pulled on damn near every dialogue option. The characters also were mostly ugly as hell to satisfy the sjw purists.
It was though
Because you waiting for something exciting to happen but nothing happened
I think the game is great but it's only playable once because there's way too much shit to do. I went for 100% completion just once and never played again
My canon Ryder is female. The voice actress was just so much better than the male voice actor. The way she delivered the lines just felt like I was nearly playing a different game at times.
I wouldn't mind seeing some videos on Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Ohh I agree!!!
Same here,
I don’t have the heart to break Basts heart or go dark side…
@@Elloraxian1396 especially since it's been confirmed that there is going to be a remake
Dear dog I love this game.
I played KOTOR after I finished ME2. It really feels like a good Mass Effect prototype.
This game was doomed from the start.
Considering the chaos that was this game’s development, I think what the team pulled off was a miracle. Yea it’s still the worst of the 4, but I don’t think that’s something to be ashamed of considering it’s predecessors. I like it but acknowledge it could have and should have been soo much better.
This game got alot of the residual hate from the Me3 ending thrown at it. I played it a year after launched and was surprised that it was actually fairly decent, there was a lot more heart out into the game than people give it credit for, despite some problems.
They gotta get off this development cycle of starting a game, spending years faffing about and being confused, and frantically wedging it all together in 18 months.
It's a decent game, but you can't call yourself Mass Effect with what is essentially a 6.5/10.
They took the lazy option at every turn.
@@johntaylor7029 That and the devs attacking anyone who didn’t like it as racist and bigots.
I loved the combat in Andromeda. If they'd been given it the time and resources it could have been a great game. I liked the young, untried hero thrust into responsibility for their entire race, it was let down by atrocious writing.
The biggest reason why nothing in this game mattered, decision-wise, is because Bioware is probably never going to follow-up with it... It's a shame. The combat, open-world maps, and class-building mechanics in this game were the best things the come out of Mass Effect Andromeda.
I hope they incorporate them into ME4.
We can be fairly certain that Bioware is going to carry over the combat (and perhaps even evolve it further) to the next game. The graphics should be amazing considering the game will be developed on UE5. It's the writing and role-playing that I'm worried about.
Andromeda was developed by Bioware’s B team. You can definitely see a difference.
Although they did lay some interesting groundwork.
I liked the combat, skill system was great. Banter while driving as you said, very good. I really enjoyed the jetpack, or better, using biotics.
Andromeda didnt have a chance i wouldn't have thought. People are STILL boycotting the series cause of me3's ending. Imagine the pressure trying to redeem the series immediately after it
I got lucky, apparently. My play throughs had almost no glitches or hiccups and I barely noticed the facial animations cause I was too busy asking questions and thinking about other stuff. This is just me, obviously, so it took a while for me to understand all the hate. I personally loved what they setting up and I’m still sad I’ll never get to play the rest of the story out. 🤷🏻♀️
And probably that's why you loved Andromeda. That's completely different experience when you play Andromeda as your first ME game and when you play Andromeda with some expectations after playing beloved ME trilogy and you want more of it. Andromeda is a good game but it's terrible Mass Effect game.
I played through Andromeda again after legendary edition.
Like yes Andromeda has its flaws but it's by no means a bad game and in hindsight it's also unfair to compare to the trilogy.
Trilogy you play as an elite soldier trying to save the galaxy from an Omega level threat.
Andromeda you play as colonists trying to find a new home.
Two different atmospheres entirely
You're right. But the trilogy made saving the galaxy feel right
In Andromeda its like "trying to find a new home AND save the galaxy" I feel like Metro Exodus did the whole "finding a new home thing WAAAAY more enjoyable"
It's all right the issues with the game are there but the lunch state of the game did not help it
@@keepiticy That wasnt the feeling I got from the Kett.
To me it was less a "Lets save the galaxy" than a "Lets save the small part we want to call home, and our new friends while we are at it"
@@MrKolaros even then it was executed awfully.
The ME trilogy felt like you were actually doing something no one else could do in this one it feels like anybody could do it all they need is an AI in their head
That’s… exactly how I felt in ME1. Anyone could have done it as long as they got the magic macguffin Cipher. Sure, it felt like a whole “destined one” deal eventually, but the start was just the result of several coincidences leading to a random soldier becoming a galactic hero.
@@AshtonMonitor I mean literally all the vision and the cipher ever did for Shepard in ME1 is give him the location of Ilos and even then Liara was the one who figured it out. The visions are largely ignored by everyone else throughout the game and even information about the Reapers is given to us by Tali first and then Shepard goes 'ohh so thats what those visions were about'... Shepard was able to do everything he did because he had the strength to do it, not just anyone with the Cypher could have done it.
@@ethansaunders3799 thats because Shepard was already what 34-35 year old career military who had already been thru some shit.
Ryder on the other hand was a 23-25 year old who did serve but wasn't career like his father or Shepard and is thrust into a situation where he is ill prepared.
Basically Shepard is qui gon jin or mace windu, yoda etc. An established bad ass who just takes his bad ass to the next level.
Ryder is a new hope luke Skywalker. Has some skills but is thrust into situations hes ill prepared for. Its the heros journey style protagonist.
That's a good way to put it.
@@AshtonMonitor What a dumb shit take. All the cipher did was tell Shepard how to speak Prothean. It didn't magically put a gun in his hands and tell him what to shoot or boosted any of his abilities. Shepard was already an experienced war vet no matter which background you choose. Ashley or Kaidan wouldn't have had the skill or fortitude to do what Shepard did even if they got hit with the beacon instead.
I think the point is that Ryder wasn't as hardcore military special elite as Shepard. And they are explorers not special commando operatives... Even if they endup fighting a lot as the game progresses.
He's supposed to be an N7 operative. He SHOULD be hardcore military, that's part or the deal.
No they father is the N7 not your player character so no hardcore military wouldnt be apart of the deal @@Cancoillotteman
@@evileyevalausif I recall, once you construct the N7 armor; one of the colonists in the first settlement comments about you not fully earning the suit, but being ok with you wearing it due to his father.
@@j.vinton4039 I wouldn't know about that one I don't think I ever made the N7 armor but if it's true that would prove the point that Ryder isn't a N7 they was in the military but not that high up
The problem is that he has no reason to become the comander then. Ok, he gets SAM implant so he's the tech specialist now. Assign him to a real officer and send them on a mission.
I guess I'm just more open minded then some people when it comes to Andromeda. I am currently playing it now and I honestly love it. I have over 70+ hours into because i'm doing all the side quests etc. For some reason I just really enjoy doing the sidequests. Other then that I do really live the story and would give the game a 7.5 out of 10. There are some bugs etc but with mods things are mostly fixed.
I only made it a few hours in after preordering the most expensive edition. Just like Inquisition it felt like a quanity over quality single player mmo. I was extremely turned off. Its the no mans sky effect. A gazillion lackluster planets is way less compelling than one good one. That being said this video makes me want to try it again at least.
Games are subjective. Just likes movies. Some will hate something while others like/love it. A lot of people hate the batmobile in Batman: Arkham Knight and consider Batman: Arkham Knight to be the second worst Batman: Arkham game (the worst goes to Batman: Arkham Origins) because of the batmobile. I enjoy the batmobile though and I enjoy Arkham Knight as much as I enjoy the other Arkham games. I've played Arkham Asylum and Arkham City so much, that I liked how the batmobile changed up the gameplay and combat. And it gives me another option to get around the city/map than just gliding or walking/running. So it's fine to like Andromeda.
When I bought the game on sale for the PS4, I really went in expecting the worst that Mass Effect had to offer. Mind you, I never really liked Mass Effect that much. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of Andromeda and it is by far my favorite game in the series.
@@trompell0 I guess it depends on your limit. Inquisition bored me almost instantly. I honestly haven't been able to play for long enough without quitting Inquisition during the Hinterlands. Andromeda kept me engaged till the end and I have no regrets with the amount of time I put into it.
That's good and all that just means You hate mass effect , if you like Andromeda that means you wanted a game that wasn't mass effect so that's fine just don't Be apart of the crowd that says this was good game bc You will literally give these people reason To ruin the actual mass effect even more
What impressed me, when I played for the first time ME1 and ME2 was the bond you can make with awesome characters. Samara, Jack, Thane, Tali, Liara and Mordin were beautiful characters and interaction with those characters was interesting. The story was interesting, not so much with the ending of ME3. I played Andromeda quite some time ago and I can't remember any of its characters or main story. Nothing to be remembered. Fighting was more fun and that's not enough.
And there is the problem. you are comparing two games (ME1 + ME2) to one game (MEA). If you want a fair comparison you can only compare ME1 to MEA (ME2 has too much characters from ME1 in it). in my opinion the characters (just companions to shorten it) i liked in ME1: Garrus and Tali. (Wrex and Liara grew on me in the later games) in MEA: Peebee, Drax and Vetra.
I remember more game breaking bugs in ME1 (multiple weapons not cooling down) and ME2 (1 non functioning mission trigger) each than in MEA (1 non functioning mission trigger) even MEAs (in)famous glitchy faces did NOT happen to me, so its hard for me to understand how so many can call MEA as full of bugs.
The story of MEA had some hiccups where it was hard to keep up and get over with it, but so did ME1 and ME2 (Even The Witcher 3 lost my interest at some point for some time) so that is from my point of view not a real dealbreaker.I havent finished MEA (life happened: had a nasty breakup and shortly afterwards my dad died) but still liked the story so far (standing right in front of the point of no return but never got to finish it properly, because of time and other games and I want to start a new game to freshen up my memory).
Storywise the Archon and the Kett dont feel like a real threat to me. But so didnt Saren with the Geth.
The things is disliked the most about MEA are: 1. The outpostsystem is lacking some meaning and has a lot of wasted potential 2. What happened to the Quarians or to the Drell?
All in all i think MEA is a solid 7/10 maybe even a 7.5/10 a good game with a lot of potential to be expanded in the once planned sequels. about the same rating as I would have given to ME1 (7/10)
I agree, they should've just compared ME2 to MEA. The writing, characters and overall story was leagues ahead of MEA. Comparing ME1, it's a little clunky and that shows in the game-play and those damned elevators and other level designs, but I guess that was a product of its time and a smaller team and budget. The story in ME1 and characters are still far more interesting I feel, and whilst looking like plastic they don't feel like plastic, unlike MEA's characters.
Vetra is pretty good among others… but you’re right there’s no competing with the characters from mass effect one and two
I loved Vetra and Drack. The others weren't too bad in my opinion. One thing MEA did really well was banter between party members in the field
The only fun I genuinely had with ME:A was the multiplayer. Was legitimately fun. Everything else... Trash Effect: Blandromeda seems incredibly applicable.
Couldn't agree more with your review! I finished my 1st playthrough last month, pouring in 117 hours & completing every side mission (minus two which were hopelessly bugged). The game's combat, class customizations, weapons, a few characters, and driving the Nomad were the biggest positive highlights! Even exploring / terraforming planets as Pathfinder had its appeal as the hours went by. But one can definitely see where Bioware took the path of least resistance regarding its overall story-telling, the majority of its characters, illusion of choice, weak-willed protagonist, and horrific amount of bugs that have **STILL** yet to be patched. Calling Andromeda the worst RPG or game of all-time would be a monumental exaggeration, but it's certainly the worst of the series. Here's hoping Bioware doesn't fuck up the next title and takes its time getting it right.
Looking at it nearly 5 years later, it’s not a bad game. It needed more polish and writing for the main quest but in general it’s not horrible.
Every world was unique, a decent portion of the NPCs I did like (all the Angarans, Kadara Port, and a few Nexus were all enjoyable) and I thought they really accomplished putting together a squad that felt different and not just a rehash of the main trilogy. Jaal, Vetra, Drack, and Peebee specifically get top marks from me.
I do think that there should have been a sequel because this game was meant to be a beginning and it is, so that means most of the choices weren’t meant to fully come to fruition until later
I couldn't go past Eos. Once I set an outpost, I realized that I despise pretty much every little thing the game had shown me so far. Even getting to this point felt arduous. I never played a game that felt like an absolute chore. ME: A was the first and only.
@@Rapunzel879 I can understand that especially if you’re not used to what RPGs have been doing recently and just prolonging the hell out of important story quests.
I feel like the Witcher, Dragon Age Inquisition, and Cyberpunk are kinda the epitome of these. Albeit they are better written but my first play of the Witcher 3 was so slow
@@tnm1697 : Witcher 3 indeed starts slow, I'll give you both that. But after about 20 hours in and then eventually crafting that "Feline" armor & weapon set, things reeeeeally began to open up and it got fun wrecking enemies with little trouble. Also, the story was far more engrossing and had me hooked. You actually had to make decisions, some of which presented interesting moral dilemmas & could result in drastic consequences that altered NPC's perception of you, altering the political landscape, etc. I dunno, to me that game was way more polished, enjoyable, and got me into both the books and TV show.
@@Survivor_of_DMVdrivers absolutely, it for sure is a better game! I was just using it as an example as to why I enjoy Andromeda. The writing might not be up to BioWare par but if you’re open to it and willing to have some fun you absolutely can in this game. Some of the most fun I had was playing it on Insanity and bouncing and flying all over the place during gunfights. Made me feel like a sci-fi badass
I got to fly around with a cloak, a flamethrower and a LMG that shoots sticky grenades.
This concludes the things I remember about the game.
Pretty bad right? I only remembered peebee because i have a degenerate asari fetish.
Yea man, combat / movement was about the only thing I truly remember. Mixing firearms with a little biotic and a little engineering skills. Some really great synergy could be made.
I think Ryder should have had wayyyy more of an edge but…it’s kind of weird to want a copy and paste of Shepherd. I don’t want unending sequels of the same archetype.
I just replayed the game for the first time in about 3 years after playing through the Legendary Edition and it was honestly not nearly as bad as I recalled. I see some people saying that the story feels incomplete but it really doesn't feel any more incomplete than ME3 did after the original ending before they added DLC and patches to the game. The Legendary Edition incorporated all the DLC and patches to tie up loose ends and so ME3 didn't feel nearly as incomplete in the Legendary Edition. ME: Andromeda didn't really feel so incomplete to me simply because it did have a story arc that made sense: Rider and his/her crew make it to a new galaxy, they find out that things aren't what they should be, they identify the bad guys, they beat the bad guys, happy ending. There's also the setup for a sequel as you see the Archon's superior scowling as he walks away after the victory on Meridian. I do think that DLC and patches could have improved the game just like they did with ME3 but the fan backlash caused BioWare to scrap them.
Honestly, I always play an emotional Ryder, how also can be a bit care free at times. I feel it fits the character as they are struggling to live up to expectations, but can, in the moment, just wing it as they are in the zone before someone reminds them of their responsibilities. Ryder wasn't a leader to start, so it makes sense they'd be a bit too casual as well.
I feel alot of people forget Ryder and most of the crew aren't soliders, were explorers first, explorers in a shitty situation with a new young inexperienced "leader" who's dad just died and thrusted that role on them, yeah there gonna be unsure of themselves and yeah they aren't gonna get the same respect as someone like shepherd, before me1 even starts shepherd has a known history, Ryder is basically nobody and I enjoy that about them, we get to build them up into a respected hero
@@OscarSanchez-vo9dx Ryder is literally a soldier. They joined the alliance and went through training. That’s literally a soldier
@@glowhoo9226 I meant mentality wise, yes he did join the alliance but it was essentially out of obligation, having an N7 as a father but Scott's always been the adventurer type and aside from the Andromeda initiative how else would you really get that in the milky way? It's also telling that as soon had his father got discharged Scott's military career instantly crumbled as well, my point is basically is that he is not Shepard
@@glowhoo9226 Both Scott and Sara were fired from the Alliance military and their family blacklisted before either one of them finished their first assignments or achieved any rank.
They have basic training and maybe some combat experience, but for the most part they are nobodies in their early 20's. Neither one of them has any reputation like "Butcher of Torfan" of "Sole survivor of Akuze" and neither one of them made Gunnery Chief, let alone Commander. Neither of them got N7 training either.
Shepard had way more going for him before Mass Effect 1 even starts than either Ryder has. Shepard is also 10 years older than them at the start of Mass Effect 1 than they are at the start of Andromeda. He's got more training, more experience, a built-in reputation that is discussed by people in power before Joker makes his first joke about Nihlus, and respect is shown to Shepard through that reputation and rank via Joker/Kaiden and Jenkins before Shepard fights his first enemy.
I know people will always compare the two, but Ryder is not a bad protagonist, nor a weak one. All of Andromeda is effectively Ryder's version of Torfan, Elysium or Akuze, where Ryder is building that reputation and learning how to step up to be a leader.
@@OscarSanchez-vo9dx Sara's military career also was destroyed when their father got discharged. Their family name was blacklisted, much like Ashley Williams was. She was part of the Mars garrison.
For myself I liked that the Ryder Twins are the opposite of Shepard in how they feel about themselves, and how others treat them. Though I would have enjoyed some Renegade interacts with certain people in my way, (especially when Drack bitched about his scouts when I've done everything else right by the Krogan up to that point) I feel like by noticing progression, Ryder becomes the hero and leader with all the respect they deserve.
exactly why this game failed, everyone wanted to simp on female shepard..... idk what's with you gamers and attachments, stop getting attached to fiction characters and grow up
Except SAM really cheapens that development.
@@adeptdamage3669 sam doesn't cheapen the development more than the beacon on eden prime, or the cypher from feos does. there are 2 time in the game where sam is carying ryder, hell for ALL of the final battle you are on your own, interfacing with the remnant tech and beating the archon
umm I understand why drack bitched about his scouts, drack was startng to see ryder as a trusted ally, and then ryder decideds to save a fool who was told to not get herself in harms way but does so anyways. kinda like how in ME 2 where tali gets pissed off at Shepard if you chose to expose that tali's father rebuild a ton of geth in the floatilla. she stops being loyal to shepard but stays to finish the mission cause it's more important that her feelings.
I like this game alot. I especially like that you can change your class not just say in your ship, but anytime you want. This means you can use all types of weapons and try all the powers, too. Attacking the Kett main base is a blast as the battle goes on nearly continuesly for 30+ minutes. Downside is some of the vault puzzles are very hard because they aren't logical at all. Still play the game every now and then.
you missed one thing, that made Andromeda great for me. Designing, testing and improving weapons. A sniper rifle that shoots electric beams? Can be done. A heavy pistol that shoots homing plasma grenades? Check! Not everything works out. It is even possible to create weapons that don't work out at all! Which can be fun, if you haven't equipped any other weapon and you have to rely on your abilities.
And you missed one thing on the decision if you save the salarian pathfinder or the krogan scouts. You'll get some trouble dealing with the modified Krogan Khett Brutes on insanity mode which you won't encounter if you save the scouts
I had a similar experience to you the first time i played this game and chose mostly logic and professional dialog.
Just this weekend i finished my second play-through (first time in years) I played as a female ryder and chose mostly emotional dialog.
not sure if it was mostly the different voice actor or the followers responding differently to my dialog, but ryder came across as a much more likeable confident and fun character, even kinda witty and sarcastic sometimes. I defiantly enjoyed it quite a bit more this second play-through.
I definitely prefer playing as female Ryder. Male Ryder just isn't very charismatic. Maybe it's the way the actor delivers his lines? I don't know, but I just wasn't a fan.
Defiantly?
I honestly think that the actuall gameplay/combat Was the gem of andromeda, it was such fun to play/Experiment.
The worst part was the presentation. The camera is almost always static, characters barely move etc. In the Shep Trilogy characters moved around, sat down, gesticulate and more. In andromeda somtimes the only part of the character that is moving is their mouth and its really off putting for a dialouge heavy game
I think you nailed the game pretty good. The only thing I'd say you didn't really cover was that all the planets give you big open worlds to do more exploring compared to some previous games but nothing in them to actually find. so they are pretty empty and just serve as a drive here for this fetch quest and also the mine here which leads me to the second thing was mining in this game was just annoying to have to do. One last issue I had came in multi player where they drastically reduced the amount of characters that can perform biotic or other combos by them selves, as a fan of biotic comboing dudes I hated this a lot.
This game was almost never going to live up to the original trilogy but it was a underrated good game. The problem is if it’s not as good as the original trilogy people will view it harshly as trash. In the end it had major flaws but that doesn’t mean it was a good game. Not great, not exceptional but good.
The me label really held it down, especially if you didn’t need a lot of the me elements to begin with.
Yep, I call this The Godfather Part III Effect.
Honestly Andromeda's combat system is the best out of all the games. The original trilogy was just hella stiff. Plus didn't realize it until the legendary edition and playing ME1 again... but man ME1 is bad so many game breaking bugs and glitches with both gameplay and graphics that it made Andromeda look like a decently polished game.
The story definitely needed work, but it wasn't the worst writing ever. Cheesy, but not as bad as some other games out there.
What I personally think killed Andromeda was the development nightmare the game went through and the massive PR Drama bomb they had going on a few months before release that kept getting worse the longer it went on until the game finally came out crashing and burning.
Still alot better than ME1 if comparing it to a first in the line of a would be franchise. Since ME1 only follows the formula of good guy discovers bad guy. Fails to prove bad guy is bad, gets proof, gets support and backing and is sent on a quest to stop the bad guy before its too late. Bonus: Sidequest Purgatory!
Alot of Andromeda's issues can all be attributed to poor development choices and handling in the end.
The boring story is bad regardless of whatever franchise it was part of.
there is no way one game an live up to story an development of three plus dlcs
when i compare it to me1 and realize it was suposed to be a series and not standalone it makes more sense because i'm not peronsally a big fan of me1 like i am me2 and 3
i would love they would finish the story so we could find the Quarian Ark .......but nope
When he was listing great bioware villains, he forgot Malak.
He also forgot Casey Hudson and EA.
I poured 70 hours into Andromeda back in 2017. I am about to finish my MELE playthrough which would be my 3rd total playthrough of mass effect trilogy. I plan to replay Andromeda next.
Before this video starts here is what I remember of Andromeda:
Lore - pretty good
Story - okay-ish
Characters - 50/50
Gameplay - excellent
They really dropped the ball with all the glitches and character models (those faces will haunt me forever lol), the lore was pretty interesting and the story was alright at best but the characters were hit and miss and generally didn't live up to the trilogy. Combat is where it shined. Especially now that I've refreshed my memory of how the original trilogy is. I had to mod it a fair bit to get the combat to where liked it while in Andromda it was perfectly fine as is, from what I remember.
I never touched andromeda and probably spent 300-500+ hours in the original trilogy as it was released over the years. Andromeda always smelled fishy to me, glad i put it off.
@@Midgert89 I just replayed it, here's the review i left on steam:
"Cons
- Bad character model design and facial design (everyone looks like a toddler with heads too big, and asari have round bloated faces and all look identical)
- Poor facial animation and cutscene animation (have you seen that krogan "fistfight", video is going around youtube)
- Bad writing (both characters and story, just poorly written to the point where bad cringy dialogue ruins great quest design)
- Story is incomplete (a lot of thing are unexplained due to a mix of poor writing and future plans that fell through)
- Less character choices (most of it is just flavours of response, with some yes or no choices for accepting quests or quest resolutions; no reputation system of charisma checks so most of it doesn't matter)
Pros
- Great gameplay:
- Exploration is fun (several varied environments with lots of things to do and fight)
- Open ended character skill system (doesn't lock you in to one class which allows for very varied characters)
- Great combat (its just fun, I finished legendary edition of the trilogy just now and i can say with honesty that andromeda combat is better; just make sure to mod out the different x and y sensitivity bs)
- Took me over 60 hours to complete almost fully (ignoring some minor tasks) and I had fun the entire time
Final Recommendation:
- Buy on sale
- Mod
- Enjoy the gameplay
- Don't think too much about the story (not that hard tbf)
This is not a worthy successor to Mass Effect, the writing doesn't stand up to the challenge. But. it is still a fun game. If they make a sequel, I'll prolly play it, the writing just got to be better though."
For context its full price is 30 euro on steam (not 50 as it used to be on release)
@@master_ace Fair enought, but I don't play mass effect games for combat and exploration. Those are secondary to a solid narrative, good art direction, writing and overall presentation.
@@Midgert89 the overall outtake is that its a fun game. Just not a mass effect game. It doesnt really share any of original trilogy mechanics, as I describes in the cons section.
Honestly the whole mass effect thing is just a surface level decoration. Replace the mass effect races with the star wars races, biotics with the force and say they didn't leave the milky way but they left the "galaxy far far away" and literally nothing will change about the story.
It doesn't carry the mass effect spirit or its level of writing. But if you have nothing better to do its an acceptable game to play. Hell, it was on sale for €7.50 (-75% off) recently
The level up system, powers evolution and weapon customization is the best in the series, and the combat is incredibly dynamic and smooth. And for the first ~20 or so hours the combat was so good I kept playing. But eventually realizing I had no connection to my character or investment in the story took its toll and I never finished the game.
And the enemy AI was dumb af. In harder mass effect 1-3 runs I was fighting for my life every mission but andromeda was just so damn easy
Got bored on my legendary run. The combat changing specs system fell flat for me. I already tuned up the best of the best from my first run and no practical benefit came from changing mid combat. Perhaps if I couldn't become so speced out in my first run the plus run wouldn't have been such a snore.
It helps to put in some work customizing the look of the character, using mods you can change it a lot
Don't bother. They kill the Archon & find the planet, the end.
@@Sure0Foot oh, the ending isnt much. Just a game.
If I'm being honest - I actually preferred playing as Ryder compared to Shepard.
Even though you said that Ryder feels like you can't alter their mentality in any way, no matter which way I swung - Commander Shepard felt like a demigod of a human being. He had an insane amount of plot armor and charisma to match it. It felt like I was playing as a living legend. Playing as Ryder feels like I'm more of a cog in a much bigger machine. If I died as Ryder, I'd be mourned but the entire initiative wouldn't be crippled by my loss. Compared to Shepard, whose death would've resulted in the Reapers absolutely curbstomping the galaxy no matter what. I guess from a roleplaying perspective, I really like the feeling of earning the title of Pathfinder. I wasn't a god. I wasn't protected by N7 training. I was just someone trying to do their best.
same thoughts! playing as Shepard was sometimes like reading someone's powerfantasy fanfiction, while Ryder's struggles seemed much more grounded. yeah director Tann or Addison or these random people assigned to Tempest were all kind of disrespectful to Ryder at first, but they were prepared to be guided by old, seasoned pathfinder, not his child who barely holds a gun and was given such an important role 20 mins ago. I really enjoyed everyone's frustration with the turn of pathfinder-related events
In regards to Andromeda I always like to compare it to Mass Effect 1.
For squad mates, let’s be honest, the squad mates in the original trilogy weren’t great until ME2. Sure they have info they can add to the universe in regards to lore building but outside of that there’s not much until ME2. If they were to hash out with a second Andromeda game I think they would definitely get better.
For choices and consequences, you didn’t feel any consequences of your choices in ME1 until ME2. The only exceptions to this being Virmire survivor and choosing what to do with the council, live or die.
The biggest travesty for ME:A was that they dropped support.
What have you been smoking ? ME1 had best squadmates in the trilogy, introduced an entire new universe with factions, alien cultures, politics, history, and villains. It has Liara, Wrex, Tali, Garrus, Joker, Ashley, Saren and Sovreign. It gives us the Citadel, Ilos, the Spectres, Reapers, Geth, Council, Cerberus, Shadow Broker, STG's, Genophage - there's lore everywhere you turn. It sets up everything further installments build upon and sets the tone for the entire trilogy with a perfectly arranged story arc.
Andromeda has one new race of aliensc (less developed than background race like Volus, Hanar or Elcor in ME1 and evel less interesting), a couple of generic enemies and a galaxy that's emptier than a shopping mall mid-Covid. It has good graphics and some nice locations but that's about it.
The problem is not enough people treated the game like a blank slate. They treated it like the OT and THAT is why they were disappointed. I mean it was RIGHT THERE in the name 'Andromeda' You cannot GET much further from the original storyline than that.
You have a really good point! If support continued perhaps it could have been a lot better. Really sucks that they left us hanging
@@PurrfectMedia The only thing additional support from that team would do is add more substandard content to an already substandard game.
I just finished ME: Andromeda for the first time, having played the first trilogy a dozen times. The game isn't a waste of time, to be sure, and as you highlighted there are some real bright spots. Some of the characters are great, a lot of the game looks fantastic, and the vaults were typically pretty cool levels. The mysterious Scourge is an interesting looming threat to the galaxy that had good potential to replace the Reapers as the thing hanging in the background being slowly revealed while you were focusing on all these other problems. Perhaps that's where they would have gone if it had become the trilogy they clearly hoped it would, but even with a little more lore found on the Meridian Base (Fake Meridian), they never gave us any a reason to be intrigued. It's not that they didn't answer any questions about the Scourge; they didn't even frame the questions we would WANT to be answered.
And that speaks to the much, much broader problem with Andromeda that poisons the well. The original Mass Effect is a hugely flawed game. Most of the dialogue is rigid, driving the Mako stops being cool about the second time you encounter a big hill, and even the squad mates that we all love so much are shallow exposition dumps more than actual characters (the change from 1 to 2 in this regard is staggering). What made that game so immediately gripping was the world building. Right from the start, the galaxy felt alive, and complete. There were politics, and history of wars, ancient grudges and current events. There were lots of different flavours. It was all so rich. And that's the promise that Andromega had - that's even how it was marketed - as an opportunity to explore a whole new galaxy. What wonders will it hold? What interesting new species will we meet? What strange landscapes will we encounter, with ecosystems we don't understand, with flora and fauna that will seem monstrous to us at the beginning, but may turn out to be complex and loveable once we get to know them?
The answer: None of that. There are two species, precisely two, and we will encounter them all every world. Of those worlds, there's the hot desert, the dry desert (which is a different thing, apparently), the ice planet, and the cool jungle planet - but oh wait, that's the one planet you don't actually get to colonize. Oh, but this galaxy has a history! What is that history? Literally nobody knows. Ooo... does that mean there's a mystery to unravel, like with the Protheans? Nope. Go fuck yourself.
The only bit of real intrigue that exists in the whole game is from unlocking Daddy Ryder's memories, where we discover that there's a mysterious Benefactor, and the person leading this whole expedition was murdered upon arrival, possibly as a cover-up. Did she know too much about what we would find here? Is there a sinister purpose behind this Andromeda Initiative that we will have to root out and eliminate, or else doom these colonists to some terrible fate? Goodness, was the timeline for departure moved up because the Benefactor was at risk of being discovered? I was genuinely interested in this, to the point where I told a friend that this should have been the main storyline in place of the Kett invasion, and then I made it to the end to learn that... GASP! There were REAPERS invading the Milky Way!!!! ... ... ... Fucking seriously?! I went through all that for a 30 second audio clip from Liara giving the juicy lore drop that... the events of the last game happened? Like, I know Bioware. I was there!
So that's the major failing of this game. They completely missed on absolutely everything that made the prospect of this game interesting, from the moment it was announced. There were exactly two races introduced in this vast new galaxy, and I know less about them at the end of the game than I knew about the Elcor and Hanar by the time I became a Spectre in ME1.
I didn't hate this game, but when I got to the end, I was happy it was over.
the stop in production for the DLCs with the other arcs left me feeling the game was incomplete and left the game feeling lacking and unfulfilling (of course this is my opinion) I also feel alot of the criticisms were very deserving , especially coming from the original trilogy to this game and how bad alot of the animation was and how flat some of the story fell due to bad voice acting in quite a few interactions , but the combat was phenomenal feeling in Andromeda I had alot of fun with that part of the game .
To be fair though people also forget just how bad ME1 was and still is. Even with the legendary edition out ME1 has more gamebreaking bugs and glitches and major constant graphical problems and bugs than Andromeda has now. And ME1 got a remastering so it shouldn't be as bad still.... then again Biowares focus for the Legendary edition was to change and censor suggestive camera angles and just do the bare minimum to upgrade the graphics.
If finishing a game makes you feel like it was unfinished, then the game was crap, DLCs are there to add to the finished game...
@@francisharkins
What?
ME1 is an excellent game the most RPG tittle out of the trilogy,honestly it had so many thought put behind missions and exploration that truly if ME2 was actually the first game of the saga I would have likely not played through the original trilogy.
in regards to the dialogue changes i do like the idea personally. Moving away from the black and white is honestly better i´d argue, the main problem though being that the execution isn´t up to task in this area
Renegade and paragon was good tho… people tend to do either evil or good in every rpg, the main problem was everything was locked behind either super bad or super good shep
@@Xerczar true i guess i still like the idea from andromeda a lot. Since again a lot of times humans are more neuansed then either hug it out or throw out window
Ok, but that may leave more room for playing 'against the game'..
This video perfectly sums up my issues with Andromeda. The game despite all the glitches and "tired faces" didn't tank the game for me. The original trilogy had it's issues. But Ryder being an inexperienced goober with no real plan who gets walked over for 99.967% of the game continuously rubbed me the wrong way. The combat and customizations were the only saving grace that got me through the game. But the story and main character tanked the trilogy for me. We need renegade/ paragon back, maybe with some inbetween in there.
I just recently played Andromeda the first time, but I played as Sara. Just comparing the voice acting of the siblings made it a very contrasting experience to what you show in the video. I know that the story is of course the same, but the journey feels different. I enjoyed developing from a no clue teen to a respected leader in the course of the game. I played all side quests except for the collect tasks without map markers and even they were fun because of the chatting during the drives. And making the krogan the ambassador actually felt like the only real option for me to take. I am now on a second playthrough of LE and damn, that silence in the Mako is killing me now.
I recently finished the game and I pleyed as male Ryder. I finally liked him but it was hard earned love. When I had the moment playing Sara when my character (and her brother obviously) was struggling on Meridian, I immediatelly regretted that Sara isn't my main character, I found her more interesting than her brother. If I'll ever replay ME:A, I want to play as Sara this time, maybe I'll like the game better too because of that.
@@AleksNeve To help your immersion, keep Sara's default name. It's the only way NPC's wil use a first name referring to Ryder. And it helps a LOT.
Yeah this male voice actor sounds.. challenged