I remember that email bit - having to leave the planet, fly into space just to check your email - is the worst. Especially when you have an AI in your brain.
the sad thing is, ME biggest problem was the lack of polish due to EA giving up early on. so many small nitpicks that drag the experience down for no good reason. still, my favorite ME game, i would even say my favorite bioware game hands down.
@@carson8905 too many factors, for one, i found the beginging of the first ME dreadfull, the story was very cliche western sci-fi and i hated the combat, so no matter how many times i tried, i could not get far(as in got bored beyond insanity). 2 was far better, and 3 had the best combat of the trio. andromeda did it for me, it had the best combat in the series, being 3 but better in ALMOST every way. the exploration was much more fun, since it wasnt just corridor after corridor. i liked the characters, the fact there was borderline no consequence, actually made me lose time choosing what to pick, since i wanst trying to min max(but i would love more consequences). and overall, it was a much more interesting story as we played an explorer, it was the most star trek in the franchise, which is hilarious since im not a fan of star trek to begin with. TLDR, had more fun than any other ME.
Mod it, if you're on PC it's way better. But even on console Andromeda doesn't deserve a lot of the crap it gets. It's still a good game, it just doesn't live up to the trilogy.
@@shiningdragon8737 It's a game. It may even be a good game...but that's not what a Mass Effect game should be...just good. It was just good, and not epic, for many reasons. But here's the bottom line...when your friend keeps inviting you over, and says that he is going to cook a ribeye steak for you, and knock it out of the park it will be so good, and you show up to be served a "good" chopped steak...yeah sorry, but no. And that's a generous comparison. ME1 starts right off with an explanation as to why Shepard is to be respected...and yet not everybody does...even when he/she is made a Spectre. Throughout the series, the writing was phenomenal, and the voice acting was epic. The story was believable. Andromeda, the story was dull, and not at all believable. The entire premise of the Pathfinder was fucked. Is the job important or not? If not, why are we playing it? If so, why the hell is there only one, for 10,000 people? In an unknown, and potentially hostile, dangerous environment, you have just one? And oh crap...look...he goes missing? So then what is the answer? Wake up his completely unaccomplished child to fill in for him...and nobody has a problem with this. Ummm...yeah...OK. This is just one example of how bad the story, and writing were. And so many awkward, cringe inducing moments...especially in the romancing. And let's not forget that not one of the females actually inspired me to want to romance them. ALL of the females were superior in this respect, in the OT. Even the short romance you can do with the Matriarch Samara, is superior to any romance option in Andromeda. Andromeda has some strong points, but those are things we expected in any new Mass Effect game, since technology had progressed in the real world. 1. Better combat. Combat improved with each Mass Effect. It was expected that it would continue to do so. 2. Better environments...more diversity in those environments. Each location feeling unique. To be fair, Mass Effect was never actually bad at this. But tech has advanced, and so we expected beautiful environments. That's about the end of what Andromeda did better. The OT was better at: 1. Story...Plot...Writing 2. Voice acting. 3. Immersion 4. Making us want to play the game over and over and over. 5. Music. Andromeda has one truly great song. The OT has many. 6. Weight of decisions. 7. Not being hand-holdy. Sorry but that scanning was too much. Give us some clues, and then let us figure it out. Playing MELE right now, and I just finished Noveria. I loved that you had to go back and forth to different locations, and it only gave you signs over doors. You still needed to know where you are supposed to go, and then use those signs to get there. Need to go talk to that doctor again? Well, go find him. If you can remember where he's at...Bonus! 8. Less Grind. I can only remember on thing being kind of grindy in ME2, and that was the scanning for mineral deposits on planets. A simple mod fixed that. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with MELE. The mod maker tried, but can't get it to work. So he just sped up the process of scanning and probing. 9. The characters were way more likeable in the OT. I seriously want them to do a Game of Thrones quality series for Mass Effect. Though, I know that HBO or any other Network will ruin it. First, BioWare stated that BroShep was preferred in play throughs, 80% to 20%, but they would make the character female for a series...because Hollywood now prefers female leads. Second, they would play up the sex and sexuality, making that one of the main focuses, where in the game it was simply a small side thing...and the sex wasn't gratuitous...but it would be in an HBO series...just like it was in GoT, and like the other Channel did with Black Sails. In fact, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a Mass Effect series didn't have as much or more sex and sexuality in it as Black Sails did. They would shove every letter in the LGBTQAlphabet, down our throat...making this the main focus of the series...or at least a very prominent aspect of it...instead of just giving us good SciFi. 10. Which leads me to this...the WOKE agendas were at a minimum in the OT. This made it way more enjoyable.
Yeah honestly i've been watching several clips and i've been remembering some good moments i had, it really deserves better, its not perfect, but its no cyberpunk 2077
@@leroyrussell8766 They got rid of the damn tactical combat and put in some typical 3rd person shooter Micheal Bay shit. Andromeda gameplay felt like you’ve played this before. Why can’t I command my squad use a particular ability? That is dumb. Shit game all around.
I always was one of the people who really enjoyed this game. Sure, it wasn’t up to par with the OG trilogy, but the combat was fantastic, the exploration was cool, and graphics are beautiful
I think a lot of people just have sentiment towards the og trilogy. So do i and i am playing the Legendary Edition as we speak. I have also enjoyed Andromeda when i played it and loved the fast paced combat and exploration. I think after the originals i will replay andromeda. The worst were the bugs at launch. I know a lot was fixed. The game was busted technicaly because EA made Bioware port it from Unreal Engine 4 (Which at the time was best suited for it) to frostbite. In the process making it look worse and have a bunch of glitches.
@@Farat9622 I am playing the legendary edition currently and am nearly finished, and bought Andromeda yesterday because it's on sale for 7 bucks. I played it before on PS4 and enjoyed it really much. I just love the fast combat, the ability spamming, you feel badass. Let's see how it plays on pc. I'm pretty hyped for replaying it.
4 years and I've uninstalled and reinstalled numerous times, and I still haven't beaten it. I loved the art direction and the gunplay/action, but what the game was lacking was the WHY behind all the action taking place. With the Legendary Edition im currently on my 6th playthrough of the series because no matter how dated some mechanics or visuals have become, the writing is what keeps me coming back and staying invested for dozens of hours, thats what Andromeda didn't nail for me. Hopefully ME4 doesn't fall apart in the same way. We'll see how they do without Casey Hudson and Drew Karpyshyn.
... because humanity (and others) are in a foreign galaxy, running low on supplies and hope, and they need someone to bring them stability and resources. The vibe reminded me a lot of Stargate Universe and, to a lesser extent, Stargate Atlantis.
In terms of story, the trilogy never gets old. Just finished mashing through legendary edition. Haven't finished Andromeda ever because a real story is nowhere to be found. Now I just play it for the action and imagine I bring good old fashioned democracy to all these savages.
God, seeing that clip of Mordin singing hit me hard. I just got done playing ME Legendary Edition, and after I threw my party on the Citadel I found a datapad on the floor next to bed containing recordings of Mordin singing and trying to teach a class of students. I started tearing up just listening to it. There are so many moments like that for me in the original trilogy, where I was either moved to tears or laughing and grinning from ear to ear. I don't think any game will ever impact me the same way the original Mass Effect trilogy has.
Agreed. May be its the love for the original games talking, but it feels like Vanguard, aspecially in ME3, is more fun than ME:A. Just turn off half a brain, jump in, lose ur shields to do a ground smash attack, jump to get the shields back, repeat. Looks cool, plays fun
My last playthrough of me3 was as a vanguard. I did all I could to lower my cooldowns and put all my skills on my mouse and just smashed the jump-face-first-on-the-enemy button until everyone was dead. I just used the keyboard to aim and move between fights. Totally worth it.
My big beef with the game were the collection quests. There were far too many of them, some of them used random spawns with no reference points on the map, so they never got completed, and that's just infuriating. Honestly, on my second playthrough two years ago, that wound up being my only beef. EA/Bioware overreacted to the fan response, and that was a huge loss for us. There was a lot of places they could have gone with DLC that got left hanging.
the combat is def the best part of the game. no other ME game give so much freedom to customize your playstyle. if it didnt have the expectations the ME name holds, it would be a good game by itself
@@olliered9924 MEA is a better game over DAI. because exploring is not only more rewarding, but also more fun to do, collecting stuff is less of a hasle and the base building is far more fun. DAI failed at making the whole "leading the inquisition" feel good, while MEA delivers the experience.
@@marcosdheleno I never felt like a leader in MEA. I always felt like a goof, even when I tried to be a badass. I felt like a goof in DAI too, but at least it had a wide cast of characters that I liked.
@@SteelSpurs i do agree that ryder doesnt feel like a lider, at least in the beginning, but later on he does rise, specially around the late game. it ended up working for me.
My most memorable mission was following some sort of side questline on the desert world, I think something about investigating seismic activity, and I arrive to a giant robotic worm fight. Jesus f christ my heart but it was sooo much fun
my biggest problem with the worlds is how eladeen and eos felt too mundane, i would love if they were more otherworldly, imagine if eos had black sand, and purple sky, or if eladeen's sand was grey with a slight green tinted air.
Same here. I did not try it when it came out because of all negative comments about the game; but last November while having covid i play it. And i was happy that i did; i really enyojed it, 7/10 for me.
@@superwhiteboy619 As a sound guy, I can't agree. It feels pretty good at first, until you notice all the gun sounds are identical sounding and feeling.
It’s a fine “product” of a game. Smooth gunplay, things to do, pretty sights to see… but people fell in love with mass effect’s incredible writing and sense of purpose; completely absent in Andromeda.
I think players would have been more forgiving if the combat was garbage the but the writing and character animations were excellent. Instead we got the inverse.
@@Edax_Royeaux I remember the story being "ok", the combat being great but the glitches and bugs were just awful. The game was kinda broken (which a few patches and mods fixed) then it got abandoned entirely and lots of staff quit. Kinda sounds like everything DICE touches from battlefront, to medal of honor and even Battlefield (looking at the 2042 launch)
i loved mass effect but when i replayed it in the legendary edition, i realized that the writing isn't really aging well. I still like the games, but it's not as good as everyone remembers.
it almost hurts to catch glimpses of the great game Andromeda could have been, hidden beneath fetch quests, audiologs, bad dialogues and mcguffin after mcguffin plot.
But at least the characters were shallow, the writing sucked, the world was empty, the bad guys were generic, the facial animations haunt your dreams, squadmates are dullards, most of the worlds are forgettable, the crafting system is garbage, and it’s a soulless, lifeless, bloated experience
Want a real one? Make a list of things you have liked, write how long ago you think they were made and then google it. Jesus does that prime you for a heart attack.
One thing I’ve learned is that RPG and open world genres don’t need to go hand in hand. It’s not the gear/loot that matters in the end. It is the characters and the story.
while that may be true I dont think the open world-ness is where the problem is. Also I dont get what gear or loot has to do with open world-ness those seem like completely unrelated features to me.
@@lenkagamine4145 these days all those features seemed to be mistaken as integral parts of an rpg. Which I believe is untrue and is in actuality a trend in gaming that diminishes the quality of storytelling and role playing in the RPGs, diluting the genre as a whole.
@@Veritas_Vincit Well, RPG as a genre is rather odd now, since I think most RPG's are not role-playing games in the slightest. Perhaps they should split the category into two. Regardless I personally dont care much for linear level design and am quite happy to take my open-world or at least branching-world games. If I wanted a linear storyline I would watch a movie. Though, being an open world game doesnt actually prevent you from having a linear storyline and some of my favorite game stories did come from open world games.
For someone who considers themselves a completionist, ME: Andromeda felt like a personal purgatory So many side missions. Relay signals that bounce to 5 areas of the map. So the fetch quest evolves into 5
@@willkadel4686 All of them! They're literally triggered by Shepard eavesdropping on conversations in the Citadel, then the game tasks you with going and retrieving some item. Since the game doesn't even separate main quests from side quests, your log quickly becomes a mess as a result.
I didn't mind the fetch quests in Andromeda the first time around (a few of them are definitely awful), but on subsequent playthroughs I 100% agree on that purgatory comment. I think it took me 110 hours to fully complete Andromeda which is way too long. That's about the amount of time it takes me to get through the entire trilogy 100% and by that I mean doing two playthroughs of me1 (I haven't bought legendary so I can't get to level 60 in one playthrough) and also two playthroughs of me2 as that's my favorite game in the trilogy so I play it twice. The subsequent playthroughs in Andromeda are too much of a time commitment for completing everything and certain points in the game just feel like a chore to get through especially when there isn't a sequel where these bland menial side quests will make some sort of cameo in the next game even if it's only in the form of an email or war asset.
@@GTAVictor9128 And let's not forget about the damn Journal of ME3. I always liked the journal of ME1 because it separates side quests from the main one and updates every time you finish one part, for example, get this thing for this guy, after you complete that it blurrs out, then add a new one like, go to this place. But ME3 just tells you who you're doing the quest for, where they are, and what to get. They only sometimes add the location of the place where you go to. I had to use the Wiki multiple times in my ME3 playthrough. God, that journal was annoying
Mass Effect Andromeda did not meet the “Mass Effect standard” for story telling. That being said, it’s still leaps and bounds above the average RPG story. It’s still significantly better than say, Skyrim or the newer Bethesda Fallout games. On top of that, the improvements to gameplay and the minute to minute fun more than make Andromeda a game worthy of your time. For my Ryder, I played an unstoppable tactical vanguard. I used flamethrower, lance, and biotic charge for create a loop of strong offensive powers with great mob combat sustain but had to rely on squad mates, the robust cover system, and the wonderfully designed weapons to finish boss fights. This helped inform my decisions playing Ryder in the role playing and downtime segments and it was great. Instead of being the stoic commander, my Ryder was the brash, sarcastic, and secure hotshot that’s out to prove herself in her spot, but who knows she can absolutely walk the walk and IS the Pathfinder. And the game answered that. Her sarcasm didn’t sit well with the conservative Angara but the Krogan LOVED her. Drack rightfully calls her out on being reckless, and other characters criticized her bravado as masking cowardice. Problem for them way that she could absolutely murderize an entire room full of enemies in a few seconds, and she knew it. So she’d meet the criticism head on and prove them wrong. But underneath all that hot headedness, there was a genuinely good person out to help as many people as she could, and who would do anything in her power to secure their little spot in Andromeda from any and all threats, and create a safe and free environment for folks of all races and creeds to survive. Especially after learning of the Reaper War from her father’s logs and knowing that the Nexus might be the last remaining bastion of the people’s of the Milky Way. Her biggest goal after defeating the current Kett threat was finding the Quarian ark, but sadly we never got that DLC and probably never will.
Having a better story than Skyrim isn't exactly an impressive feat, nor any of the recent bethesda games. I also wouldn't say andromeda was leaps and bounds above the average RPG story, in fact, it was actually safely put in the average category. The characters had nothing special about them, but they weren't so dull that it harmed the game overall, and the plot itself was pretty barebones. The gameplay was fun though, but that's not story.
Skyrim was never about the story though. It is so open-ended that you get to make your own story and in doing so, it was never going to have a focused narrative at all.
@@junkheadrooster I feel like they kind of fell flat in that regard though. Being open ended and making your own story only really feels good if your choices actively change the world around you. iirc the most skyrim does in terms of world change is making whiterun look destroyed and changing a few guards to look imperial (been a while tho so correct me if I’m wrong). Dawnguard and Dragonborn did pretty well with that from what I remember however. EDIT: don’t most of the main quest lines end the same way as well? Like they all end with your character becoming the ‘chosen one’ leader who everyone loves, yet guards somehow still think you’re the one who fetches the companion’s mead.
I played the Andromada game two years ago. It was my first Mass Effect and I REALLY enjoyed! Then A year later ....I played the Mass Effect Trilogy. And I UNDERSTOOD! Honestly, in hindsight, I played it the best way. XD It made me think each game is great at that specific time.
I jumped back in ME:A after the void left from ME legendary edition. I'm kinda enjoying it tbh; it got a lot of things right. Sadly it just had too big of shoes to fill.
I wouldn't really say that I love the original trilogy but I don't think filling those shoes was the problem I think the biggest problem that was had was using the frost bite engine it's not made for rpgs what so ever it's made for fps games and that's it I'm pretty sure someone at bioware said it was like putting a bunch of Band-Aids on something that's why the characters faces were really wonkey and weird and bioware really had to make a bunch of new tools for it as they went
And there was a LOT of hate left over from how ME3 ended the trilogy, a lot of hate towards EA in general, and people already had the knives out. It became a feeeding frenzy, where every internet pundit was fighting to get clicks by being even more hyperbolic in their hatred.
@@paulgibbon5991 There were also a lot of Mass Effect fans burned out from ME3 that wanted to move on with this new edition, only to be bitterly disappointed. I count myself as one of them, I still bought ME merchandise despite hating ME3 and only really replaying ME 1 and 2 a bunch. I was ready to move on and explore more of the universe, but the whole "My face is tired" fiasco showed me that this game's quality couldn't even match up with a 2007 game on release. That the animations, writing and voice acting was so superior a decade ago showed me this wasn't an outing I would be interested in. It was clear their focus was the combat, which shouldn't be the focus for the ME franchise.
I actually thought she looked mostly fine. Not every swashbuckling game character has to look like a barbie. The facial expressions engine makes it look a little potatoey and i think going without makeup would have served her better, but from all the things to criticize in Andromeda, hanging yourself up on Ryders face, while you can indeed change it at any point during the game is a bit useless. I am actually a bit annoyed that every movie or videogame character has to look like a covergirl/boy of Mens Health or Playboy. Why should i expect the seasoned veteran of many a battle to look like Scarlet Johanson? Or the Batman to look like Ben Affleck? Unlike those actors, neither of those characters got where they are for their looks. One of my favourite game characters is Mors Westford from the, sadly not so great, Game of Thrones (2012). He is simply not the kind of person you'd expect as the protagonist. Not because he is so "edgy" or "gritty", but because he is simply something you'd imagine from a side quest NPC that sends you killing Wildlings or the Captain of a marauding Militia that whips your ass around in an intermediate bossfight during the mid-game. And he still proved to be one of my favourite ever protagonists, even though the game he is in doesn't do him justice gameplay-wise. Or maybe the mediocre game is adding to the poetry of him basically being the unimportant NPC turned protagonist.
@@tomitiustritus6672 the point I was getting at was how she was the definition of "uncanny valley". Human characters in that game 'appear' to look human but something is off. Its like how haunted mansions can look gorgeous but creepy. Or when you look at those wax dolls of celebrities. They look pretty but something is off. Like your instincts are telling you something isn't right. I get your point though. but video games and movies are fantasies. Personally, I think if you want to see realistic depictions of people, you can..... just go outside (no disrespect). It's the entertainment industry and looks get people coming through the door. However I do believe that story and characters keep them coming back.
@@tomitiustritus6672 I think the difference is that those characters were meant to look ugly or unremarkable. MEA had a lot of characters who were meant to be good-looking, but the engine tripped over its own shoelaces.
I found the "My face is tired" face to be more disturbing. She looked like a earlier model Terminator incapable of human expression, trying to pass off as human.
The one thing i remember from that game surprisingly was Liam's loyalty mission. I remember it being halarious and i remember fun combat... thats about it
@@xxticxxtocxx7909 To be fair, I've played the trilogy many times yet I still like Andromeda, don't get me wrong it's not an amazing game but I loved DA:I and Andromeda was just a sci-fi version of that. Andromeda itself is enjoyable if you go into wanting a similar game to DA:I. A good mass effect game? No, an enjoyable sci-fi game about exploring a new galaxy? In my opinion, yes. Think of it like this. Assassins Creed: Black Flag is one of my favourite games of all time yet it was one of the worst (Before the newest assassins creed games anyway) assassins creed games ever made because it's nothing like an assassins creed game should be. I think the same of andromeda, except I don't like it as much
No Javob was even more meh. I'd have willingly sacrificed all three in a blood ritual to a cosmic horror just to have any one of the ME2 squad mates or side characters return for the ME3 as a regular squad mate.
Am i the only one that actually likes Kaidan? He might be a bit bland, but he’s miles better than Jacob or Ashley. And unlike Ash, He has the most scenes in Me3.
@@antiochus87 I didnt like Jacob at first, but no that I've been in the military, I like him alot more. No nonsense kinda guy. Way better than liam. Hes fucking annoying, acting like hes my bestie. It was so forced.
Honestly, I like Andromeda because it was less stressful than Mass Effect. Andromeda was more like an adventure, new worlds, and discovering their secrets as you made them habitable was way more stress-reliving than trying to save the galaxy. Also, the tone was lighter; when you played Shepard, the fate of the universe was on your shoulders. Ryder has way more fun moments. The crew had a movie night, for God's sake! Now do I prefer it over Mass Effect? No cause, Mass Effect started it all, and I enjoyed playing it. But if someone asked me what game didn't make me lose my mind because I kept overthinking things, I would say Andromeda.
This Mass effect was my entry point and I really had fun playing it. Going back and playing the more rpg centric Mass effect games was a struggle at times. I can understand why people who wanted a rpg but instead received a action game were upset.
It's pretty apparent that Andromeda's Biggest crime was being only "decent" while bearing the name of a franchise that had become synonymous with "Amazing".
@@dustinvance243 Exactly what you say and also: You can fight like a krogan, run like a lepard, but you will never be better than commander Shepard. Ryder just couldn't compete.
It was much more than that tho. Like Dustin said below, when it first game out it was very buggy and damn near unplayable for some. For me, it was the fact that it was just a low effort copy/paste of elements from the original trilogy. Pathfinder instead of Shepard. Remnant instead of Prothean. Peebee instead of Liara. The Archon's motivation was essentially the same as Saren's from ME1. Jaal instead of Jaavik. The combat was fun, and the exploration was good but the story, the benchmark by which ME games are truly judged, felt like poor ME Trilogy fan fiction.
@@captiosus9753 and in some aspects it was outright sabotaged. Apparently the person in charge of the character creator purposely left fair skin out of the game because he hated white people. They had to add it in via patch.
I can get past the wonky animations and minor mechanics quirks. What's really missing for me is the heart. The story doesn't have a "Kaiden or Ashley" choice.
i love the combat in MEA but this was my biggest gripe with the combat. there are so many good tactical abilities the companions have, but because you have no control over them, it diminishes how much you can customize. and there's no good reason why they couldnt give us that. all they needed was to make 2 buttons work as companion menu buttons,
@@marcosdheleno Agreed, setting up primes and detonates essentially with three skill bars (9 skills) would have been such an awesome boon in Andromeda.
It's a bummer that there are so few, if any, mods for Andromeda. I feel like adding robust mod support really adds to the life-span and quality of the game, even if the original release might not be a master piece, the community still gets a shot at making it one.
The shadows and animations making the faces look as they did just completely threw me off the game until a couple weeks ago I started again and it actually feels nice now. Makes me depressed because it turned me off the awesome multiplayer and now very few folks play and its hard to get a game.
The game was never that bad. It had some launch issues and everybody went fucking crazy and lost their minds. People were so negative about it that it drove further negativity about it. No it is not as good as Mass Effect 2 but I would say it is still pretty fucking good and a lot of fun.
I feel it suffering from Trilogy-Burnout Syndrome is exactly what fueled so much negative feedback in the game. People wanted their Shepards back but they saw the Ryders as discounts, me - I approached the game at launch objectively and I actually enjoyed it.
@@pocketheart1450 Exactly. That entire community cannibalized any bit of content they could get their hands on just to spin it around and shit out negativity. It's a shame because Cyberpunk 2077 is going through this... and after titles like 76 or Anthem, they forget Andromeda existed and they paint 2077 with the same brush. Negativity is the new comedy in this post-Andromeda generation and it's a real shame people forgot how to be objective. I loved Andromeda merely because the skill customization was so awesome, I just wish they did allow us to control at least 1 if not 2 skills per squad mate.
@@FatalFist Ever since Halo 4 there seems to be this almost ridiculous wave of negativity around gaming in general. No game is good enough, everything is a broken mess, I miss the good ol' days, etc.
@@Largentina. clearly you've not played ME1 in quite a while because LMFAO the exploration LMFAO, ME1 is the most linear of the original 3...Unless your talking about the god awful clustefuck of the Citadel.
I played it a month after release, after a couple of patches. I finished habitat 7 and never picked it up again. The glitches were still extremely noticeable, graphics and faces laughable, and writing just depressing. The complete lack of choices was oblivious from the start. 1. Yes and be nice, 2. Yes and be neutral, 3. Yes and be a dick. Like there was just no impact. The death of dad Ryder was so bad and painfully transparent it ended any interest I had left in the story.
This game had the same issue Skyrim had for me. In ME trilogy and Oblivion, conversations felt up close and personal. Whereas in Andromeda and Skyrim the camera is further back and you feel more like you're a bystander than someone involved in the conversation.
I've said it back in the days, and I say it now. Andromeda was a great game. Maybe not a worthy successor after the trilogy, but still a great addition to the mass effect universe itself. It's basicly an exploration spin off with a cheesy story and the best game play me ever had.
Naw it was mediocre. The story is what made ME special. They slowly got away from that after every iteration. Hence why I still find the original ME1 as the best of the series, but ME:A was just your run of the mill shooter blow em up. Had no identity.
@Transcendant Teratoma well they wanted to give free dlcs, about the loose ends btw. The community was just so toxic, that they abandoned everything that had to do with it. Second of all, the next mass effect game, will focus on Andromeda and the milky way. You see a pretty big hint in the trailer already. So bear in mind, that the next me is a sequel to both!
Correction; you don't need to pause to swap profile load outfits. You can use hotkeys set to F# keys or rebind. Also swapping profiles can give you the different bonus stats, so you can swap from a melee weapon damage profile with shields, versus a ranged profile or tactical profile with aim targetting etc So abilities are not the only thing to consider for profile swapping Also the new direction with Emotional, Logical, Casual, Professional is preferred over the Paragon / Renegade
I am a huge mass effect fan. After the bad reviews, I waited a year to play Mass Effect Andromeda. basically waiting for discounts and bug fixes. I believe the game got more hate than it deserved. People loved ME2 so they expected something like that, while ME:A reminds more of ME1. A new galaxy to explore, planets to land on and explore, a beginning of a new story. If you compare it to ME1, it is an improvement on every gameplay aspect, from scanning, to combat, to driving. Where it fell short is in the story aspect. ME1 had a lot of problems but I think what made ME1 so special was Virmire. the choice of sacrificing Kaiden/Ashely, choice of killing/saving Wrex, seeing that Saren isn't just a generic villain, and most importantly the shilling conversation with Sovereign. Ilos was also great
i beat the trilogy for the first time with the legendary edition and i’m itching for more mass effect so idk if i should get this game, kinda sad it doesn’t have the characters from the original games
@@thatsreallyam5758 If I am remembering correctly if you finish the main family quest line you get audio logs from liara talking to your characters dad
@@thatsreallyam5758 there are a few callbacks as well like a sibling of a certain shepard fan. They bring back the shepard shuffle. Liara has audio logs on the ark but her voice sounds weird like the VA was phoning it in.
A large part on why I never bought into this game's story was the concept behind the Andromeda Initiative itself. From the First Contact War to the initial launch of the Andromeda Initiative Arcs, only 28 years have passed. Humanity has just now become part of a galactic society where there is so much to explore and learn. The idea that a sizable portion of humans now want to venture out on a one way trip to Andromeda rather than explore the remaining unexplored parts of the Milky Way Galaxy just doesn't fit. It also doesn't help that tens of thousands of Asari, Turians, Salarians, Quarians, Drell and other races also joined this initiative even though it's a 'Human' lead endeavor. The original trilogy was always quick to remind Shepard that alien races, whether part of the council or not, didn't fully trust them. So having all these alien races from the Milky Way Galaxy join a 'Human' project on a one way trip to another galaxy was too much. I just can't see this happening in Mass Effect, not at this point in Humanity's role in the overall story.
Exactly. I touched on similar points in my wall of text. In terms of in universe story telling from what we know about the races and the issues in the milky way, the entire premise of the Andromeda Initiative falls on its face. Quarians would have never left. They revered their fleet and their homeworld too much. Krogan were on the precipice of a Genophage cure. An entire clan wouldn't have signed up to dash off to Andromeda where they would have faced certain doom from sterility issues. The premise is broken from the start and it makes everything else suspect from the beginning.
As a veteran of the original ME trilogy, I didn´t love Andromeda but I didn´t hate it neither. In most areas it falls behind the original games (RPG elements, quest design, story. etc) but you can tell the developers were tying to make a great game, even if they, for the most part, failed to meet the standards of the consumers. At the end what you have with Andromeda is the same story you can see on games such as Days Gone, Cyberpunk 2077 or, to some extent, Gears 4, people jumping in the hate bandwagon just because it´s the trend at the moment among clickbait youtubers only to go back to these games months or years later with an open mind and find a great experience.
This video right here is exactly what my opinion has been on Mass Effect Andromeda since I first played it about 6 months after it's release. It's good, not great, and still fun. No one is ever gonna say it's a good Mass Effect game, but it's a good game overall.
"good game" is a very subjective thing to say. Sure, the gameplay and combat system is good, great customization menu and stuff, but it is supposed to be an action-rpg game, and it fails at that, because the story is flat without any depth at all, the characters are stupid and sometimes annoying, the dialogues are empty...etc If it was an "normal" action game like crysis or something then yeah, cool game I guess. But it's advertised as something completely different.
I picked it up for $5 and I'm wondering if I should play it before legendary edition, or after. Before would probably be better, but legendary edition will be on my doorstep Friday, and I know I won't be able to wait to play it, so I guess I'll play after I beat ME 1,2, and 3
@@baronnuuke7821 I don't agree with the combat. To me the enemies are too tanky and assault rifles got ruined to the point of being unusable. Even though I completed ME 2 and 3 on the hardest difficulty before Andromeda came out, I ended up lowering the difficulty because I couldn't stand the combat and how long it took to kill anything. Losing control of your party also didn't help. In 2 and 3 I would often build my party so they could take out what I couldn't (either shield or armor) and that made combat fun even on higher difficulties where enemies always have multiple layers of protection.
@@johnnyflannigan136 I say play them in order. Going from Andromeda's fast 2017-era gameplay to Mass Effect 1's 2007-era gameplay might give you whiplash. Regarding Andromeda's story... well, there's some lore to be unlocked that acknowledges the events of the original trilogy, but Andromeda is generally self-contained. From ME:As perspective, the original trilogy ended 630-something years ago.
Every time I try and play the game I get Ryder-ed and Liam-ed and Cora-d in the face and I just can't go on. I need my main characters in a sci-fi epic to at least have something vaguely cool about them.
I actually like Cora her loyalty mission was fun and her backstory of asari huntress was also interesting Liam is kinda boring but his mission was funny as hell either way all 3 are more interesting characters than Ashley, Jacob, or Kaiden ever were.
@@tano7275 atleast Ashley, Jacob and Kaidan didnt make me wish for the ability to kick them off the ship or made me wish for the option of letting them die permanently
this was my first mass effect game and i genuinely enjoyed it. i’m excited to try the remasters, but i can’t help but feel some type of way leaving the fun combat behind.
The trilogy's combat does not feel as good and free-form as andromeda's but you can do fun combos with your squad since you can command them. The combat is still pretty good though it may feel a bit dated of course. The trilogy is better at pretty much every other aspect so it very much recommended.
This legendary edition is my first experience with mass effect. I’d say when you get past ME1 the combat is very good for the time it came out and still holds up to this day
The game was totally fine. 7/10. The biggest problem is that everyone was expecting Mass Effect 4, but it was never going to be that. It was Mass Effect Andromeda. Kind of like the Teen Titans to the Justice League. It was made with it's own tone, pace, feeling, everything, separate from the original trilogy, but people weren't expecting that. Pile that on top of the initial technical issues (which were all fixed), and everyone just took one spoonful at the beginning and spit it out. But it was actually a good game.
This review hones in on one of Andromeda's reception problems: the reviewer is comparing it largely to ME2 and ME3 -- sequels. A proper comparison in terms of character development would be against ME1 and ME1 alone. Can you honestly say Garrus, Tali, et al. were hugely memorable ONLY from ME1? Na. It was the multi-game journey the characters had. Andromeda never had that opportunity.
Spot on comment...and also in ME1 there were not decisions that had inmediate consecuences, you saw them in further installments. As Drack says: "Parents are not the goal, are the beginning" . Shepard arc finished. Assume it. Things change. Move on. Mature. Drack for best sidekick in ME:A 😎
Just started Andromeda. I like it so far. Definitely doesn't feel or look like the previous ME games though. I'da been fine if they'd just called it Andromeda and not made any connection to ME. (And for me, I didn't find Tali all that memorable, even after ME3. I found Zaeed, Aria and Jack way more amusing, and I was way more attached to Liara throughout the series)
As with other established IPs that get a new and innovative sequel, there is a lot of room for error and risks that don't pay off. Certain aspects of the mass effect lore are relatively concrete, especially when it comes to alien personality types and cultures. One of Andromeda's stupidest ideas was to try and turn all of it on its head in one game. Why is there some annoyingly spunky Asari that defies everything we know about how they act? Why is a krogan in charge of finances? Etc. They took a gamble on some characters that didn't pan out and despite great combat and graphics the story and characters suck which makes the game largely a chore
@@terminatorgir The only part that I felt kind of became a chore was the 3 games worth of side quests in one single game. The main story wasn't bad. And remember ME2 had Krogan scientists. Mordin even scoffed at it.
I love ME Andromeda's gameplay, I played my favorite class: Vanguard and it was extremely fast paced and smooth. My main issues with Andromeda was the story and writing seemed amateurish and there was no need for the bloated open world, sometimes less is more.
I played ME: Andromeda before ever going to the trilogy. Now I have the Legendary Edition of the trilogy, and I'm having a hard time adjusting to the lack of mobility, requirement to hide behind stuff all the time, stopping and starting the gameplay to select abilities, and having to micromanage my squad. Sure the story and missions are deeper and better written in the trilogy, but I do prefer the basic gameplay of Andromeda!
I appreciate this second look at Andromeda. One minor critique I would levy is that there's a lot of comparison to Mass Effect 2. I feel Andromeda was more akin to Mass Effect 1. It was the start of a story. You didn't have any ties to any of the characters yet. You were still getting to know your tiny squad of crewmates. I think when we compare Andromeda more to a beginning of a story instead of the middle of a story like ME2, we find Andromeda stands up a lot better story-wise and character-wise. Remember all those boring fetch quests in ME1? ME:A did that significantly better. We were encouraged to explore a galaxy and build up to... something else. If I compare Peebee, Jaal, Vetra, and Drack to their ME1 equivalents of Liara, Tali, Garrus, and Wrex, then ignore the character growth we get throughout ME2 or ME3, I find I like ME:A's cast as much or better. There was very little character growth in ME1 for most of these characters (although some like Wrex got some really great moments). Most of their growth happened in ME2 or ME3. When you compare the human characters Cora and Liam to Ashley and Kaiden, I think a similar pattern shows. A lot of people simply dislike both Kaiden and Ashley in ME1 for one reason or another. They feel boring and bland with minimal growth, and their only interesting bit happens in Virmire. In ME:A, you don't have Virmire, but I would say both Cora and Liam are slightly better than their counterparts in ME1, although nowhere near as good as characters like Jack, Kasumi, Zaeed, or even Miranda. It's important to remember that we're looking at 3 games worth of characterization with characters like Liara, Tali, Garrus, and Wrex. We only got one game for Andromeda's cast. Finally, I think it's important to compare the characterizations of Ryder and Shepard. It's hard to beat Shep, but Ryder feels a lot more dynamic, as if they're growing throughout the story. I personally really appreciated that. Although I agree with the majority of what you say about the overarching story, it's important to remember that Andromeda was a beginning. ME2 was a continuation. If Andromeda got a sequel, I'd like to think we'd see ME2 levels of story and intrigue. But we never reached that point, so everything in ME:A simply feels... pointless. Combined with how much we condemned an "above average" game to its doom, and I think that's the real tragedy of Andromeda. I don't think Bioware failed us with Andromeda. I think we failed Andromeda by trying to make it live up to ME2 and 3 when it was still on the level as ME1.
The thing I'll always remember about the game is that shortly before its launch EA announced that they were willing to push it back up to five months for more polish, and then didn't and it was a ****ing meme circus at launch. And when Shreier's report came out about how many times its development was restarted and the game we got was slapped together in 18 months I'll always wonder what could have been. The combat was the best in the series, the story was sufficient, and the MP was still hella fun even if you couldn't name the characters.
Since Andromeda was the first mass effect game for me I absolutely loved it. I could overlook the shit writing or bad face animations because I genuinely had fun discovering new planets and what not. The gameplay was also absolutely amazing, it felt so fun and it was good at making you feel powerful. I'm halfway through the second game now with legendary and honestly can't wait to jump back into Andromeda once I 100% the triolgy
I'm about 40 hours into this game right now and I honestly don't understand why people hate it. It's not a perfect game but it's good and, most importantly, fun.
Like the video says, it suffers from following after the main trilogy. Personally, I would have been way more interested if they'd kept the upgrades to the mechanics, but had kept the story contained within the Milky Way Galaxy. I had grown to know and love all the alien races that Shepard interacts with in the trilogy, and then suddenly you're expected to mostly forget those stories and start immersing yourself in the history of a whole new galaxy.
It suffers because it's just not a good game. The first ME game drew me in instantly and kept me captivated and invested in the world throughout. The sequels only improved on the experience. The story and character development are second to none. Conversely, playing through ME: A felt like a chore. I couldn't believe it's from the same developer. I wish it were a better a game, but it isn't. So I'm happy BioWare abandoned this game. No amount of DLC's and sequels will make the game that we got "good".
I'll offer one rebuttal about the Profile system - it's actually more critical than you say, and it's *because* you have less control of your teammates. In the OT, most classes will put you at a disadvantage against a particular enemy type. As an Adept, for example, shields and armor can make half your powers useless, so picking squadmates who are good against those (Tali/Garrus) is part of the strategy of the game. In Andromeda, though, the intent is for you to change your _own_ powerset for that purpose, instead of that of your squad. It was fun to come across a mass of Kett and rip them apart with a custom-made Vanguard powerset, and then switching to a Sentinel profile for a Remnant Vault and ripping everything to shreds with lightning. I still think it's underdeveloped - the powers aren't well balanced enough that you could make more than two or three genuinely fun and useful loadouts, nor are enemies so diverse in nature that you'd need them. In my case, my last two profile slots were just very slight variations of my first two. But it's one of the things I enjoyed, specially coming from the ME3 multiplayer where a lot of the fun factor was trying out all the different combinations of powers between different characters. Aside from that, I think you outlined my precise thoughts about this game better than I ever could.
I love mass effect and I love andromeda… definitely is deserving to be a mass effect game to me. I don’t care what anyone says… I’ve replayed it often over the years between big-ticket games that I was waiting for to drop….
Same. I've always said that if it was released without "Mass Effect" in the title, it would be remembered as a great game. Andromeda is a case of different, but not worse. Many fans wanted more of Shepard's gruff military personality, so when they got Ryder's softer personality, they immediately felt it was worse. When in actuality, it was just different. Then once that hate bandwagon got some steam, there was no stopping it. I only wish EA would have continued to support it with updates and DLC. I'm convinced it could have had a total turn-around with more updates/DLC, and once the hate bandwagon died down a bit.
It got backlash because of the buggy mess it was at launch , and it was deserved … It’s easy to say that the game was wonderful for you when you played it after numerous patch , but the day one Mass effect fans felt betrayed and disrespected . Go watch crowbcat video about this game , and tell me that it was not a disgrace .
i really liked andromeda, the gameplay was the best of the series, worlds looked amazing, graphics great, the squadmates stories and getting to know them, the angara. I felt like I had landed in this new galaxy and was free to explore at my own pace, I like open world games and will finish every sidequest. ultimately i don't think i need to compare it to previous ME games, this wasn't about shepherd, it was a different character in a different galaxy, i did a few playthroughs of andromeda and to me it will always be a good addition to the ME series.
the game has an awful dialogue. It's like the writers were using disney channel or nickelodeon teen comedy series as an example. It was so cringy trying to see these group of characters as soldiers or badass people when all of them talks like immature teens.
I think you nailed it with the "stuttery step". Having finished it only a few months ago, it's still kinda fresh and I recall the movement always had me second guessing the timing and I could never quite figure out why.
The biggest issue with Andromeda was that I didn’t care about any of the characters. At the end of ME3 I really thought that Garrus, Tali and Liara were your friends. They had grown and changed and were fully realized characters who’s personalities were shaped by the events of the game. Nothing like that in Andromeda.
Part of that, I think, is that we tend to remember the attachments we have with the original trilogy characters that we built up over three games, while we forget that Andromeda only had one game to win us over (so far). I enjoyed all of the ME1 characters, for sure, but I don't think I really fell in love with them until ME2 and ME3. Like, I think that Jaal is at least as endearing as any of the original trilogy characters, but he can't compare to three games of my bromance with Garrus.
I mean, you're kinda comparing 3 games worth of story arcs to the story arcs in a single game. I don't think that's the best comparison honestly. Don't get me wrong, I do think the writing is better in ME2 and ME3, but still, it's not really fair to compare one game to an entire trilogy.
@@nickwebster1297 not true, we cared about those characters in the first game because they were well written. Andromeda characters were paper thin, you don't need a trilogy to make you care about characters.
@@bastinelli443 I wouldn't use the term "we". I stopped playing ME1. I never finished it until ME3 was announced. I couldn't get through the game until the trilogy came out and ai had no attachments to the character excluding Garrus. I definitely felt attached to Jaal with what was given. So I think comparing Andromeda to a 3 game trilogy is not a fair comparison. I think Andromeda had a lot of potential
The BIGGEST problem with Andromeda is that although you have dialogue 'choices', you don't get to influence the outcome of anything that happens in the game In the og trilogy, Shepard could say something (e.g. paragon or renegade) and characters would give vastly different reactions, or even possibly die (e.g. Wrex, Mordin) It's the opposite in Andromeda. Ryder has essentially no choice over anything happening in the game, except one time where you get a binary 'save Krogan or Salarians' Ryder's dialogue 'choices' don't even influence how other characters see her. She doesn't have the option to be good or bad, just 'logical' or 'casual'. It's so unfulfilling
Andromeda is probably my second favorite Mass Effect game after ME2. I agree that it suffered from a lot of bias because of the original trilogy, plus a rocky launch and some of the writing could definitely have been better, but overall I thought it was a great game and a great change of pace from the original trilogy. I'm currently playing through the Legendary Edition and have already decided on playing through Adromeda again after I finish the MELE.
I thought it was cool you could switch to any class and play any class build anytime in the andromeda game. The other 3 didn't let you do that.. If the first 3 let you do that they would've been much better.
@regi grenski I liked to switch between all the classes in andromeda for a few reasons. One, andromeda is extremely long, way longer than all the other 3. Part 2 is the shortest. Two, Andromeda is more difficult, I only play on insanity. So I think that's why they made it where you can switch between all classes . you need them all in that game.
@regi grenski Soldier and vanguard are the funnest classes to me. You get all cool weapons and adrenaline rush which is a cool power as a soldier. Vanguard I just rush everybody with charge, then hit them the piranha shotgun or nova. That's really all you need if you have strong armor. Nova and charge seem even more deadly in andromeda
@regi grenski Soldier is good in all games if you like weapons. Soldiers carry all the weapons and are the only ones that use the special heavy weapons. Plus they have adrenaline rush or matrix mode and each shot does more damage in adrenaline rush. It's a cool effect. In mass effect 3 I always pick Liara. Her singularity basically has no cool down you can literally use it like every 2 seconds. Upgrade it to even make her singularity bigger. Everyone is just floating around and I explode them with flare or concussion shot
yeah i'm playing through it now and the game play is great. The weapons and abilties are all great. But the RPG elements are just bad besides the progression sutff. Still worth playing because it's fun but it's like had this just been an action game it would have been 9 out of 10 lol
Andromeda was my intro into Mass Effect just last year, and I loved it from the get go. Its what made me interested in playing the original trilogy, which I did with the LE. Loved them too. Andromeda specifically really has a special place in my heart for me.
Your way of combat looks awesome. I didn't know you could play it that way. I think I played it like the Trilogy by using peek & shoot mechanics with cover. >_>
that's part of the beauty of the combat system in andromeda, you have so many options. even close combat. weapon customization makes guns really fun to use. and many options as well. specially after the last update. as it made some of the lesser mods far more usable. the game is still easy, and there really is good and bad setups. but overall, its a really fun system.
I still play it like that being an engineer. Haha. But I feel braver moving and dashing now than before. Especially since the Remnant Destroyers force you to come out of hiding.
My first build was an assassins melee shotgun build, where when you dash you turn invisible for the dash and when you get a melee kill you turn invisible for a little while, and the main power was invisibility. Very fun.
@@butterflymage5623 there are so many fun builds that play completely diferent, specially when you add the diferent weapons. the now famous seeking pyranha, or the auto carnifex. even melee have diferent styles, as some have special effects. overall, the only weapon type that is weak is the rifles, but even those can be made awersome if you tweak them enough.
You can play mobile like that in Mass Effect 2 as well (and I'm assuming 3). Vanguard lets you slam into an enemy and recover some shield when doing it. When maxed out the CD is low enough that you can mostly do it as long as the enemy you slam into has no shield/armor. If they have shields or armor up they don't get staggered so they keep shooting you and you can't survive if they have friends nearby but otherwise it's a great way to reposition and flank enemies. Sure you don't have a jetpack but also enemies in the trilogy aren't so stupidly tanky as in Andromeda.
I just finished the game, after playing Legendary Edition Trilogy, which was my first time ever with the series. And to me all of those games r great, but also all have flaws. But my enjoyment was rather equal in all those games. I heard a lot of bad opinions about Andromeda but honestly i have no idea from where did they come from. Its VERY Mass Effect, story is good and touching, characters r great, combat feels alot better, and its open-world. Tbh i enjoyed every damn minute that i spent in this game, and all previous either. How it's like to be introduced to Mass Effect in 2021? BRILLIANT!
I realize how strangely connected the characters of Andromeda and the Trilogy are in terms of their presentation Vetra/Garrus: Easy going turian meant to act as your best buddy Wrex/Grack: Hard ass old Krogan who act as muscle Liam/Kaiden: With you from the start, meant to also be your buddy Ashley/Cora: Again, with you from the start, both have a distrust or disliking of other alien species Peedee/Liara: Both asari fascinated by ancient technology Tali/That twi’lek alien whose name I forgot: The mysterious or unknown species that do not understand the world around them (maybe Javik also fits here) Kirkland/Jenkins: New Recruits who both die immediately after touchdown Obviously there are some major discrepancies with how Andromeda’s characters were handled, and some major personality differences, but their introductions seem like a weird rehash of ME1. Just something I noticed when playing Andromeda.
Atleast it wasn't like Dragon Age II... Imagine, the prolouge is you leaving the nexus as an outcast with no voice until you meet a very handsome Reyes, and a very alluring Varri.. Imean Vetra who get you adjusted to the criminal underground.. if expanding on Kadara was the whole point of Act 2 with side quests, Act 1 doesn't have any main missions just side missions that make you be Sloane Kelly's goon just for enough money to buy a house, after you meet Jaal who is like an alien confident between milky way species and thecAngaran but he slowly detests humans, the final mission in Act 1 will be finding a secret lair under the abandoned house you buy full of Kett objects, the Kett themselves won't be explained until the games sequel. (there will be a cool mission at the end where you find Archons device in your house by its last owner) so ACT 2 has to pick up the slack and sets you up with Reyes and all his missions, you can romance him as well even though he isn't a follower, which is pointless because Act 3 has a different storyline as well, the side missions for Act 2 would be a bit more creative, as you interact with all the citizens of Kadara port and be known as the good side of Sloanes bad. (This will mostly be wasted potential as this could feed way more into the stories main plot and setting) and the disease from the "Contagion" SIDE quest "would kill your mom" basically infects someone with a huge character role in a MAIN mission in Act 3. Like sure there were a few side quests about poisons, and viruses all the way back, but for the outcome is to off (or not) a main follower near the end of Act 3? And just so happens when the Roekar plot kicks in, (if I remember right they had copies of the virus from the Contagion side quest) And Act 3 would be steadily building your own outpost on Kadara with Sloane Kelly's help while Jaal fights his own internal reincarnated soul, the Roekar come in and try to null your civilization, but during this act you will play as the person who is finding new people for your outpost, finding people and doing their side missions is how you gain them in your outpost, Jaal detests the slums of Kadara More and more, silently in the background where nobody can see and in a way where there's minimal foreshadowing like it's nothing major, and tries to blow up Kadara port because he was a terrorist in the past life.. Oh and the Finale being against Sloane Kelly in your own outpost, because she suddenly goes 180 on you after a hard earned alliance... and brings creatures from the mountain boulders alive to fight with her. With an "Archon Device" that was only referenced twice since Act 1. And Reyes takes Kelly's place on the throne Damn imagine if Andromeda was just Kadara and the surrounding hills. Where there is only one cave, dungeon and cellar each where all the quests take you over and over, Each follower would have their own house and they are all bisexual not for being pro LGBT but because of programming time constraints. Jeez. Bioware can't get worse than DAII. Even Anthem was open and looked pretty. And this games Side quests are stellar.
I'm so happy this guy actually goes deep in to the story to determine what was good and bad about the game. Most people I see that talk crap about this game never play much of it. They play like 1 hour of the game and the spout out 1 or 2 things they didn't like and then never play it again. They say like " Oh it's too futuristic, I don't wanna be boost jumping around everywhere." Then don't play it ever again not considering the entire time that it's a futuristic game not something based in ww2. What most people don't know about this when comparing it to the trilogy is that this game when being developed didn't have the support from bioware that the trilogy did. About halfway through developing the game they took a major hit. They lost loads of their personnel. Some leaving to other branches of bioware or just plain leaving. With lack of personnel and support they were struggling to progress anyway fast as they wanted to. By the time the release date was upon them they were nowhere near done and they had to cut a lot of content, gameplay, as well as dialogue that what wanted to be in there. No one takes this into consideration because it's not that well known and you have to search pretty hard to find the info due to how little it's mentioned. Maybe if it was given more time to develop and more instead of being pushed for the deadline it would've been a truly great game instead of just a good game. I hope people put this into thought the next time they are talking about what they think about Mass Effect Andromeda.
It’s important to recognize that this game was meant to be the first of a trilogy, and I think personally it sets up its characters and the new galaxy very well maybe even better than the first mass effect game did back in 2007.
@@dunrossb Yes. Compare Vetra to Garrus only from Mass Effect 1. Completely forget and leave out ME2 and 3. Compare Jaal to Tali only from ME1. The difference is is that the trilogy characters had multiple games to develop but the Andromeda characters have not had that. Stick only to the game that the trilogy characters were introduced in and leave out the moments and development they had later and you’ll have a more accurate comparison list.
@@Dragon_Lair Mass Effect 1 was made in 2007, Andromeda 10 years later. That's 10 years. Andromea had a decade worth of material to work with more than Mass Effect 1 and Andromeda was still ass.
“Andromeda is much less tactical, it’s about keeping on the move and blowing shit up, moving on then doing it again, Less planning and more reacting” And that’s why it’s nowhere near as good as the real mass effects.
Yeah and thats why games like remake of doom are universally considered shitty. Moving and shooting just isn't viable for videogames. Not sure who actually played mass effects for the gameplay. I mean it was decent at best but the entire game works because of the story.
Ill agree to this, having to plan an attack even in so little as positioning you party for an ambush is a million times better than just spamming dodge over and over.
ME:A has such a beautiful atmosphere in my eyes. It was so full of hope, good vibes and it really felt like a new beginning. Its not perfect (the main-story was a too generic), but Andromeda was still a really good game.
[Warning: Long, and I don't write TLDRs] If anything, I find the release of the ME: Legendary Edition really puts the mediocrity of Andromeda in sharp contrast. It's easy to be hyper critical so let me start by what I feel Andromeda did very well. With exception to the reversion of the cover mechanics, combat is probably the best in the series. Weapons feel more tightly tuned and the way they iterated on the biotic/tech combo system was fantastic (and later was iterated upon again for Anthem's core combat). The class skills system change is also best in the series. Rather than being put in a box based on whatever class you chose at launch, those classes became profiles and you could build however you wanted. That increased build diversity made for much more enjoyable moment to moment gameplay. Graphically, with exception to character models, it looked fantastic -- although it took a couple patches to get there. The vistas, the planets, the locations, even the Tempest were all amazing. That's where my praise ends. The game brought back several of Mass Effect 1's bad design decisions in an attempt to appeal to the vocal minority screaming for the ME franchise to 'return to its roots'. Things like the 'automatic' cover system that was wonky at best, the endless looting of crates for crap that had to be broken down, and exploring wide but ultimately empty terrains for little to no gain. These were all things that were acceptable in 2007 as the franchise was new but by 2017 felt dated and simply unenjoyable. Graphically the character models, even after patching, just never seemed right. Two prime examples that I can think of off the top of my head. Compare the Asari models from ME3 to MEA. In MEA, they're shorter, squatter, and look like they have a layer of baby fat. Likewise, compare Turian male models frm ME2, ME3 and MEA. From the waist down in MEA, they look compressed and deformed. They just look "off". This happens to a similar degree with many human models as well. I chalk this one up to the change in game engines but it's still jarring to anyone who played the original trilogy. [Addendum: Also, character model clothing was a bit off as well. Too many solid whites or solid primary colors that highlighted many of the character model flaws. Turian faces were also far less detailed and ended up looking flat.] Now the big one: Story. For better or worse this is the benchmark set by the original trilogy and therefore the benchmark all "Mass Effect" titled games will be judged against. To anyone who had played the original trilogy, it was blatently obvious that MEA was a hodgepodge of copy/pasted plot beats from the trilogy distilled into a brown paste. The similiarities are too numerous to compare without turning this into an even bigger novel, but some examples are Peebee as Liara-lite, Remnant as Protheans 2.0, Cora as a mashup of Ashley and Kaiden, the Archon was essentially Saren, the exiles as ME1 Cerberus-esque, and so on. In addition, if we follow the timeline of events -- the Andromeda Initiative departs after the events of ME2 and just before the events of ME3 -- the decisions made by certain races don't even fit with what we know IN UNIVERSE at that time. With multiple incidents of the genophage nearly being cured and Urdnot Wrex making a concerted effort to unify the clans, it makes no sense that Krogan would abandon the Milky Way for an expedition to another galaxy where they'd be all but doomed. At the time the Ark launches, the Quarians were all being recalled to the Migrant Fleet in preparation for war against the Geth -- an enemy they (with exception to Tali) thought was bigger than the Reapers until the events of ME3. Given the reverence with which the Quarians treat their homeworld and their fleet, the idea that several thousand Quarians would have joined the AI on an Ark to another galaxy is thematically inconsistent with the rest of the universe. The game throws in some dialog blurbs about these things throughout but none of them address the inconsistencies. The story feels like fan fiction more than something new. It feels like someone taking beloved characters from the trilogy and slightly changing names and dates to make it seem more original than it is. But instead it's just a pale imitation. And this is evident in the lack of chemistry between the characters and the way it throws in Liara's recap of events in Alec Ryder's office later in the game, as if to say: "See guys, we're Mass Effect too!". At least the game didn't launch with a bunch of awful microtransactions and a roadmap. So there's that. I called it a 7/10 game when it came out and I stand by that. It's got enough to be worth playing at least once but the number of backwards steps and missteps mean this is just not the future of Mass Effect. It's best remaining a side story, and I hope like hell any future ME game doesn't time jump Liara far enough into the future where they try to mesh the two together somehow.
So before the Legendary Edition Trilogy remake I never played the first title. Anyway I played Andromeda before, but after playing 2 and 3. So after playing ME1 I feel like Andromeda gets more flak than it should since it kind of revisited the planetary exploration from 1 and also introduced a much more detailed power control and set up. Honestly the power set ups and ability to combine any powers you want is amazing and the jump addition was well needed, and even though it’s a title that was pushed out faster than it should I would say that Andromeda is one of the better games to play for the gameplay. Outside of gameplay the story is a little cliche and the conversations seem forced and awkward. Still love playing Andromeda.
I gotta say, for my money, Liam's loyalty mission "All In" was one of the most fun missions in all the ME games. It had good writing, the level design was well done and the Star Wars references were a good touch. And personally, Saren was just as one dimensional and boring as the Archon in terms of villains and motivations
Honestly andromeda has 2(+) major storylines. Each planet has its own story And the main story itself. So the planets storylines make some of the best moves But honestly the main storyline is WAY more powerful than I initially gave it credit for. It’s deep, just not what people expected.
I bought it 1 year after release for $3 bucks and fully patched. Yes the game isn’t as epic as the first three but I had quite some fun for over 30 hours.
I really liked how Andromeda went back somewhat to the RPG roots of ME 1; really loved that part of the game. Everything else was just mediocre though. That being said, Bioware just needs to bring back their writing for the next ME because they just need to build on top of Andromeda's great gameplay so that shouldn't be too hard. But the writing is what I'm scared for, knowing that pretty much everyone who worked on ME 1 and 2 have moved on. But we'll see.
Agreed on many fronts except dialogue. You have four options, and they're usually all saying the same thing contextually. Paragon and Renegade had vastly different contexts, so you have two co-existent Sheperds... but Ryder is always the same Ryder with different responses based on her mood. It's not Paragon/Renegade... it's Paragon/Paragon/Paragon/Paragon. They should have created more variability, and instead, they got much less of it and only surface-level differences. One of the reasons the side missions were so dull is BECAUSE your character is one of four different types of paragons with zero variability in philosophy. Mass Effect 1: you show up to a hostage situation and you can either shoot the hostage or shoot the negotiator or flesh the conversation out or what not... ME:A: you show up somewhere and they ask you to scan something... or find something... just be a gofer. I don't want to be a gofer unless I inflect on the situation with my own choices. RPGs are supposed to be a playground, but in this one, they turned it into a Cult Marxist indoctrination session and you're pretty much just taking what they give you.
Totally agreed...most of the time it didn't matter what u selected. After awhile i didn't care anymore, just clicked whatever and space-bar skipped the dialogue
Tone, I just want to say that I’m so proud of how much you’re content has improved over the years. Keep up the good work, and you NEED to make more cooking videos
Here’s a novel idea why didn’t they just continue with further adventures after Mass Effect three with commander Shepard again? Show what he was doing after the third game come to some kind of resolution where no matter which choice you pick somehow it could tie into the storyline for the fourth game and show commander Shepherd moving forward
I remember that email bit - having to leave the planet, fly into space just to check your email - is the worst. Especially when you have an AI in your brain.
the sad thing is, ME biggest problem was the lack of polish due to EA giving up early on. so many small nitpicks that drag the experience down for no good reason. still, my favorite ME game, i would even say my favorite bioware game hands down.
@@marcosdheleno Andromeda is your best ME and BioWare game?????
@@marcosdheleno what, Andromeda is the best for you? Why
@@carson8905 too many factors, for one, i found the beginging of the first ME dreadfull, the story was very cliche western sci-fi and i hated the combat, so no matter how many times i tried, i could not get far(as in got bored beyond insanity).
2 was far better, and 3 had the best combat of the trio.
andromeda did it for me, it had the best combat in the series, being 3 but better in ALMOST every way. the exploration was much more fun, since it wasnt just corridor after corridor.
i liked the characters, the fact there was borderline no consequence, actually made me lose time choosing what to pick, since i wanst trying to min max(but i would love more consequences).
and overall, it was a much more interesting story as we played an explorer, it was the most star trek in the franchise, which is hilarious since im not a fan of star trek to begin with.
TLDR, had more fun than any other ME.
@@marcosdheleno TLDR: all of the things wrong with Andromeda had no effect on your brain. Thats impressive.
After I'm done with a Legendary Edition playthrough or two, I can see myself giving Andromeda yet another chance.
Mod it, if you're on PC it's way better. But even on console Andromeda doesn't deserve a lot of the crap it gets. It's still a good game, it just doesn't live up to the trilogy.
@@shiningdragon8737 It's a game. It may even be a good game...but that's not what a Mass Effect game should be...just good. It was just good, and not epic, for many reasons. But here's the bottom line...when your friend keeps inviting you over, and says that he is going to cook a ribeye steak for you, and knock it out of the park it will be so good, and you show up to be served a "good" chopped steak...yeah sorry, but no. And that's a generous comparison.
ME1 starts right off with an explanation as to why Shepard is to be respected...and yet not everybody does...even when he/she is made a Spectre. Throughout the series, the writing was phenomenal, and the voice acting was epic. The story was believable.
Andromeda, the story was dull, and not at all believable. The entire premise of the Pathfinder was fucked. Is the job important or not? If not, why are we playing it? If so, why the hell is there only one, for 10,000 people? In an unknown, and potentially hostile, dangerous environment, you have just one? And oh crap...look...he goes missing? So then what is the answer? Wake up his completely unaccomplished child to fill in for him...and nobody has a problem with this. Ummm...yeah...OK. This is just one example of how bad the story, and writing were. And so many awkward, cringe inducing moments...especially in the romancing. And let's not forget that not one of the females actually inspired me to want to romance them. ALL of the females were superior in this respect, in the OT. Even the short romance you can do with the Matriarch Samara, is superior to any romance option in Andromeda.
Andromeda has some strong points, but those are things we expected in any new Mass Effect game, since technology had progressed in the real world.
1. Better combat. Combat improved with each Mass Effect. It was expected that it would continue to do so.
2. Better environments...more diversity in those environments. Each location feeling unique. To be fair, Mass Effect was never actually bad at this. But tech has advanced, and so we expected beautiful environments.
That's about the end of what Andromeda did better. The OT was better at:
1. Story...Plot...Writing
2. Voice acting.
3. Immersion
4. Making us want to play the game over and over and over.
5. Music. Andromeda has one truly great song. The OT has many.
6. Weight of decisions.
7. Not being hand-holdy. Sorry but that scanning was too much. Give us some clues, and then let us figure it out. Playing MELE right now, and I just finished Noveria. I loved that you had to go back and forth to different locations, and it only gave you signs over doors. You still needed to know where you are supposed to go, and then use those signs to get there. Need to go talk to that doctor again? Well, go find him. If you can remember where he's at...Bonus!
8. Less Grind. I can only remember on thing being kind of grindy in ME2, and that was the scanning for mineral deposits on planets. A simple mod fixed that. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with MELE. The mod maker tried, but can't get it to work. So he just sped up the process of scanning and probing.
9. The characters were way more likeable in the OT. I seriously want them to do a Game of Thrones quality series for Mass Effect. Though, I know that HBO or any other Network will ruin it. First, BioWare stated that BroShep was preferred in play throughs, 80% to 20%, but they would make the character female for a series...because Hollywood now prefers female leads. Second, they would play up the sex and sexuality, making that one of the main focuses, where in the game it was simply a small side thing...and the sex wasn't gratuitous...but it would be in an HBO series...just like it was in GoT, and like the other Channel did with Black Sails. In fact, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a Mass Effect series didn't have as much or more sex and sexuality in it as Black Sails did. They would shove every letter in the LGBTQAlphabet, down our throat...making this the main focus of the series...or at least a very prominent aspect of it...instead of just giving us good SciFi.
10. Which leads me to this...the WOKE agendas were at a minimum in the OT. This made it way more enjoyable.
@@shiningdragon8737 I wanna try it out what mods should I consider in ur opinion?
Yeah honestly i've been watching several clips and i've been remembering some good moments i had, it really deserves better, its not perfect, but its no cyberpunk 2077
@@leroyrussell8766 They got rid of the damn tactical combat and put in some typical 3rd person shooter Micheal Bay shit. Andromeda gameplay felt like you’ve played this before. Why can’t I command my squad use a particular ability? That is dumb. Shit game all around.
"Trying to 100% the Hinterlands in DA: Inquisition, without leaving it which is an act of madness."
I feel attacked.
Same
I wish this was true for all levels like not having to go back to Storm Coast cause I hate it, lol. I call it "rock obstacle"
@@herpderp9430it’s the Hissing Wastes for me. It’s a pain to find everything
@@herpderp9430 at least the mounts can slightly climb hills lol we need skyrim horses tbh
Is DAI really that bad game? I try to play it for several times and its like made for infants.
I always was one of the people who really enjoyed this game. Sure, it wasn’t up to par with the OG trilogy, but the combat was fantastic, the exploration was cool, and graphics are beautiful
I think a lot of people just have sentiment towards the og trilogy. So do i and i am playing the Legendary Edition as we speak. I have also enjoyed Andromeda when i played it and loved the fast paced combat and exploration. I think after the originals i will replay andromeda. The worst were the bugs at launch. I know a lot was fixed. The game was busted technicaly because EA made Bioware port it from Unreal Engine 4 (Which at the time was best suited for it) to frostbite. In the process making it look worse and have a bunch of glitches.
@@Farat9622 I am playing the legendary edition currently and am nearly finished, and bought Andromeda yesterday because it's on sale for 7 bucks. I played it before on PS4 and enjoyed it really much. I just love the fast combat, the ability spamming, you feel badass. Let's see how it plays on pc. I'm pretty hyped for replaying it.
Yeah I fucking loved the game a lot, it’s one of my favourite games. I wish we got dlc for it. :’(
MEA is one of those games I really want to like, but the writing is such a massive turn off for me that I am unable to play it again after 4 years
Agree with every word
4 years and I've uninstalled and reinstalled numerous times, and I still haven't beaten it. I loved the art direction and the gunplay/action, but what the game was lacking was the WHY behind all the action taking place. With the Legendary Edition im currently on my 6th playthrough of the series because no matter how dated some mechanics or visuals have become, the writing is what keeps me coming back and staying invested for dozens of hours, thats what Andromeda didn't nail for me. Hopefully ME4 doesn't fall apart in the same way. We'll see how they do without Casey Hudson and Drew Karpyshyn.
Agreed ...you just don't care ...and its doesn't pull you in
someone hire this man
... because humanity (and others) are in a foreign galaxy, running low on supplies and hope, and they need someone to bring them stability and resources.
The vibe reminded me a lot of Stargate Universe and, to a lesser extent, Stargate Atlantis.
In terms of story, the trilogy never gets old. Just finished mashing through legendary edition. Haven't finished Andromeda ever because a real story is nowhere to be found. Now I just play it for the action and imagine I bring good old fashioned democracy to all these savages.
@@187roel I bought it played for 20 Mins and cut it off and never went back to it...the characters don't pull you in
God, seeing that clip of Mordin singing hit me hard. I just got done playing ME Legendary Edition, and after I threw my party on the Citadel I found a datapad on the floor next to bed containing recordings of Mordin singing and trying to teach a class of students. I started tearing up just listening to it. There are so many moments like that for me in the original trilogy, where I was either moved to tears or laughing and grinning from ear to ear. I don't think any game will ever impact me the same way the original Mass Effect trilogy has.
wait, it's not Raycevick? never mind... welcome back Downward Thrust!
Yeah I thought this was a Raycevick video to
I thought the same thing because of the thumbnail. But once it started I realized that it's nowhere near the quality level of a Raycevick video.
@@Largentina. hey.....he still did a good job lol. just like andromeda
Can't wait for "CyberPunk 2077 - 4 Years Later"
Same lol
Soon
"CyberPunk 2077 - 4 Years Later - the game is finally finished!"
CyberPunk 2081
cyberpunk 2081 ?
"Mass effect utilized cover based system" laughs in vanguard
Agreed. May be its the love for the original games talking, but it feels like Vanguard, aspecially in ME3, is more fun than ME:A. Just turn off half a brain, jump in, lose ur shields to do a ground smash attack, jump to get the shields back, repeat. Looks cool, plays fun
My last playthrough of me3 was as a vanguard. I did all I could to lower my cooldowns and put all my skills on my mouse and just smashed the jump-face-first-on-the-enemy button until everyone was dead. I just used the keyboard to aim and move between fights. Totally worth it.
Charge cover! Punch face! Eat purple crayon!
Vanguard was my favorite class when I played Mass Effect 3 :D Cool and badass charge.
My immediate thought 😂
My big beef with the game were the collection quests. There were far too many of them, some of them used random spawns with no reference points on the map, so they never got completed, and that's just infuriating. Honestly, on my second playthrough two years ago, that wound up being my only beef. EA/Bioware overreacted to the fan response, and that was a huge loss for us. There was a lot of places they could have gone with DLC that got left hanging.
the combat is def the best part of the game. no other ME game give so much freedom to customize your playstyle. if it didnt have the expectations the ME name holds, it would be a good game by itself
Exactly. If you don't compare it to the Mass Effect games, there isn't another game like it for the whole console generation.
@@Suisai13 Dragon age inquisition is similar
@@olliered9924 MEA is a better game over DAI. because exploring is not only more rewarding, but also more fun to do, collecting stuff is less of a hasle and the base building is far more fun. DAI failed at making the whole "leading the inquisition" feel good, while MEA delivers the experience.
@@marcosdheleno I never felt like a leader in MEA. I always felt like a goof, even when I tried to be a badass. I felt like a goof in DAI too, but at least it had a wide cast of characters that I liked.
@@SteelSpurs i do agree that ryder doesnt feel like a lider, at least in the beginning, but later on he does rise, specially around the late game. it ended up working for me.
I'll never forget the first time I saw the Abyssal surfing the dunes of Elaaden. That was so cool.
My most memorable mission was following some sort of side questline on the desert world, I think something about investigating seismic activity, and I arrive to a giant robotic worm fight. Jesus f christ my heart but it was sooo much fun
"I watched the Abyssal surfing the dunes of Elaaden.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die."
my biggest problem with the worlds is how eladeen and eos felt too mundane, i would love if they were more otherworldly, imagine if eos had black sand, and purple sky, or if eladeen's sand was grey with a slight green tinted air.
@@ievaday yes the remnant architects were so damn cool.
@@fastica the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long
I played this game while I had covid, was a good experience, the game had some really beautiful landscapes
Yeah, I enjoyed it. Not as good as the trilogy but it had a lot of great cinematic and immersive moments.
The combat was also excellent
For me the whole thing is boring as hell.
Same here. I did not try it when it came out because of all negative comments about the game; but last November while having covid i play it. And i was happy that i did; i really enyojed it, 7/10 for me.
@@superwhiteboy619 As a sound guy, I can't agree. It feels pretty good at first, until you notice all the gun sounds are identical sounding and feeling.
I'm gonna give it a go. Thanks for the analysis.
No comments yet lol
Damn, didn't think you were a mass effect fan, love your videos
Chahiye ji
I just watched your videos man awesome
What platform do you play on?
It’s a fine “product” of a game. Smooth gunplay, things to do, pretty sights to see… but people fell in love with mass effect’s incredible writing and sense of purpose; completely absent in Andromeda.
I think players would have been more forgiving if the combat was garbage the but the writing and character animations were excellent. Instead we got the inverse.
@@Edax_Royeaux I remember the story being "ok", the combat being great but the glitches and bugs were just awful. The game was kinda broken (which a few patches and mods fixed) then it got abandoned entirely and lots of staff quit. Kinda sounds like everything DICE touches from battlefront, to medal of honor and even Battlefield (looking at the 2042 launch)
i loved mass effect but when i replayed it in the legendary edition, i realized that the writing isn't really aging well. I still like the games, but it's not as good as everyone remembers.
Understatement.
I completely disagree- I'm really enjoying the story and the writing of Andromeda 😂
it almost hurts to catch glimpses of the great game Andromeda could have been, hidden beneath fetch quests, audiologs, bad dialogues and mcguffin after mcguffin plot.
But at least the characters were shallow, the writing sucked, the world was empty, the bad guys were generic, the facial animations haunt your dreams, squadmates are dullards, most of the worlds are forgettable, the crafting system is garbage, and it’s a soulless, lifeless, bloated experience
Shit 4 years ago? Crap didn’t realise it had been so long
Want a real one? Make a list of things you have liked, write how long ago you think they were made and then google it. Jesus does that prime you for a heart attack.
@@joeavreg2254 Doesn't apply if you remember the launch years for most of them.
Still crazy to think that Andromeda is 4 years old.
Lmao exactly, that hit me so hard.
One thing I’ve learned is that RPG and open world genres don’t need to go hand in hand. It’s not the gear/loot that matters in the end. It is the characters and the story.
Actually the Witcher it's a nice Open World Rpg game, the problem is when the looting matters more than the story and characters
while that may be true I dont think the open world-ness is where the problem is.
Also I dont get what gear or loot has to do with open world-ness those seem like completely unrelated features to me.
@@lenkagamine4145 these days all those features seemed to be mistaken as integral parts of an rpg. Which I believe is untrue and is in actuality a trend in gaming that diminishes the quality of storytelling and role playing in the RPGs, diluting the genre as a whole.
@@Veritas_Vincit Well, RPG as a genre is rather odd now, since I think most RPG's are not role-playing games in the slightest. Perhaps they should split the category into two.
Regardless I personally dont care much for linear level design and am quite happy to take my open-world or at least branching-world games. If I wanted a linear storyline I would watch a movie. Though, being an open world game doesnt actually prevent you from having a linear storyline and some of my favorite game stories did come from open world games.
For someone who considers themselves a completionist, ME: Andromeda felt like a personal purgatory
So many side missions. Relay signals that bounce to 5 areas of the map. So the fetch quest evolves into 5
To be honest, the fetch-quests in ME3 are pretty exhausting as well.
@@willkadel4686
All of them! They're literally triggered by Shepard eavesdropping on conversations in the Citadel, then the game tasks you with going and retrieving some item. Since the game doesn't even separate main quests from side quests, your log quickly becomes a mess as a result.
I didn't mind the fetch quests in Andromeda the first time around (a few of them are definitely awful), but on subsequent playthroughs I 100% agree on that purgatory comment.
I think it took me 110 hours to fully complete Andromeda which is way too long. That's about the amount of time it takes me to get through the entire trilogy 100% and by that I mean doing two playthroughs of me1 (I haven't bought legendary so I can't get to level 60 in one playthrough) and also two playthroughs of me2 as that's my favorite game in the trilogy so I play it twice.
The subsequent playthroughs in Andromeda are too much of a time commitment for completing everything and certain points in the game just feel like a chore to get through especially when there isn't a sequel where these bland menial side quests will make some sort of cameo in the next game even if it's only in the form of an email or war asset.
@@GTAVictor9128 And let's not forget about the damn Journal of ME3. I always liked the journal of ME1 because it separates side quests from the main one and updates every time you finish one part, for example, get this thing for this guy, after you complete that it blurrs out, then add a new one like, go to this place. But ME3 just tells you who you're doing the quest for, where they are, and what to get. They only sometimes add the location of the place where you go to. I had to use the Wiki multiple times in my ME3 playthrough. God, that journal was annoying
I just finished ME3, and I strongly disagree. It never boring or bloated to me.
4 Arks were sent out. Asari. Human. Salarian. Turian.
& a 5th Ark Quarian that was meant to arrive later
Mass Effect Andromeda did not meet the “Mass Effect standard” for story telling. That being said, it’s still leaps and bounds above the average RPG story. It’s still significantly better than say, Skyrim or the newer Bethesda Fallout games. On top of that, the improvements to gameplay and the minute to minute fun more than make Andromeda a game worthy of your time. For my Ryder, I played an unstoppable tactical vanguard. I used flamethrower, lance, and biotic charge for create a loop of strong offensive powers with great mob combat sustain but had to rely on squad mates, the robust cover system, and the wonderfully designed weapons to finish boss fights. This helped inform my decisions playing Ryder in the role playing and downtime segments and it was great. Instead of being the stoic commander, my Ryder was the brash, sarcastic, and secure hotshot that’s out to prove herself in her spot, but who knows she can absolutely walk the walk and IS the Pathfinder. And the game answered that. Her sarcasm didn’t sit well with the conservative Angara but the Krogan LOVED her. Drack rightfully calls her out on being reckless, and other characters criticized her bravado as masking cowardice. Problem for them way that she could absolutely murderize an entire room full of enemies in a few seconds, and she knew it. So she’d meet the criticism head on and prove them wrong. But underneath all that hot headedness, there was a genuinely good person out to help as many people as she could, and who would do anything in her power to secure their little spot in Andromeda from any and all threats, and create a safe and free environment for folks of all races and creeds to survive. Especially after learning of the Reaper War from her father’s logs and knowing that the Nexus might be the last remaining bastion of the people’s of the Milky Way. Her biggest goal after defeating the current Kett threat was finding the Quarian ark, but sadly we never got that DLC and probably never will.
Having a better story than Skyrim isn't exactly an impressive feat, nor any of the recent bethesda games. I also wouldn't say andromeda was leaps and bounds above the average RPG story, in fact, it was actually safely put in the average category. The characters had nothing special about them, but they weren't so dull that it harmed the game overall, and the plot itself was pretty barebones. The gameplay was fun though, but that's not story.
Skyrim was never about the story though. It is so open-ended that you get to make your own story and in doing so, it was never going to have a focused narrative at all.
@@junkheadrooster I feel like they kind of fell flat in that regard though. Being open ended and making your own story only really feels good if your choices actively change the world around you. iirc the most skyrim does in terms of world change is making whiterun look destroyed and changing a few guards to look imperial (been a while tho so correct me if I’m wrong). Dawnguard and Dragonborn did pretty well with that from what I remember however.
EDIT: don’t most of the main quest lines end the same way as well? Like they all end with your character becoming the ‘chosen one’ leader who everyone loves, yet guards somehow still think you’re the one who fetches the companion’s mead.
@Kaine Peterson I threw up in mouth a little while reading that.
#MEAndromedaWasNotBad
I played the Andromada game two years ago. It was my first Mass Effect and I REALLY enjoyed!
Then A year later ....I played the Mass Effect Trilogy. And I UNDERSTOOD!
Honestly, in hindsight, I played it the best way. XD
It made me think each game is great at that specific time.
I jumped back in ME:A after the void left from ME legendary edition. I'm kinda enjoying it tbh; it got a lot of things right. Sadly it just had too big of shoes to fill.
I wouldn't really say that I love the original trilogy but I don't think filling those shoes was the problem I think the biggest problem that was had was using the frost bite engine it's not made for rpgs what so ever it's made for fps games and that's it I'm pretty sure someone at bioware said it was like putting a bunch of Band-Aids on something that's why the characters faces were really wonkey and weird and bioware really had to make a bunch of new tools for it as they went
They also scraped the game once I'm pretty sure and started over completely
And there was a LOT of hate left over from how ME3 ended the trilogy, a lot of hate towards EA in general, and people already had the knives out. It became a feeeding frenzy, where every internet pundit was fighting to get clicks by being even more hyperbolic in their hatred.
@@paulgibbon5991 There were also a lot of Mass Effect fans burned out from ME3 that wanted to move on with this new edition, only to be bitterly disappointed. I count myself as one of them, I still bought ME merchandise despite hating ME3 and only really replaying ME 1 and 2 a bunch. I was ready to move on and explore more of the universe, but the whole "My face is tired" fiasco showed me that this game's quality couldn't even match up with a 2007 game on release. That the animations, writing and voice acting was so superior a decade ago showed me this wasn't an outing I would be interested in. It was clear their focus was the combat, which shouldn't be the focus for the ME franchise.
There’s no ideology or creature in mass effect that disturbs me more than Riders face. That grin is nightmare fuel.
She's hot
I actually thought she looked mostly fine. Not every swashbuckling game character has to look like a barbie. The facial expressions engine makes it look a little potatoey and i think going without makeup would have served her better, but from all the things to criticize in Andromeda, hanging yourself up on Ryders face, while you can indeed change it at any point during the game is a bit useless.
I am actually a bit annoyed that every movie or videogame character has to look like a covergirl/boy of Mens Health or Playboy. Why should i expect the seasoned veteran of many a battle to look like Scarlet Johanson? Or the Batman to look like Ben Affleck? Unlike those actors, neither of those characters got where they are for their looks.
One of my favourite game characters is Mors Westford from the, sadly not so great, Game of Thrones (2012). He is simply not the kind of person you'd expect as the protagonist. Not because he is so "edgy" or "gritty", but because he is simply something you'd imagine from a side quest NPC that sends you killing Wildlings or the Captain of a marauding Militia that whips your ass around in an intermediate bossfight during the mid-game. And he still proved to be one of my favourite ever protagonists, even though the game he is in doesn't do him justice gameplay-wise. Or maybe the mediocre game is adding to the poetry of him basically being the unimportant NPC turned protagonist.
@@tomitiustritus6672 the point I was getting at was how she was the definition of "uncanny valley". Human characters in that game 'appear' to look human but something is off. Its like how haunted mansions can look gorgeous but creepy. Or when you look at those wax dolls of celebrities. They look pretty but something is off. Like your instincts are telling you something isn't right.
I get your point though. but video games and movies are fantasies. Personally, I think if you want to see realistic depictions of people, you can..... just go outside (no disrespect). It's the entertainment industry and looks get people coming through the door. However I do believe that story and characters keep them coming back.
@@tomitiustritus6672 I think the difference is that those characters were meant to look ugly or unremarkable. MEA had a lot of characters who were meant to be good-looking, but the engine tripped over its own shoelaces.
I found the "My face is tired" face to be more disturbing. She looked like a earlier model Terminator incapable of human expression, trying to pass off as human.
The one thing i remember from that game surprisingly was Liam's loyalty mission. I remember it being halarious and i remember fun combat... thats about it
“Playing whack a mole waiting for your health to charge” just.. perfect
I mean, vanguard from ME3 is mobile and constantly recharging after every hop.
That's why I hate games with rechargable health.
If you play on a real difficulty, thatll be the least of your issues.
Play on insanity
I actually really enjoyed myself playing this game
Did you play the trilogy?
I didn't.
@@xxticxxtocxx7909 To be fair, I've played the trilogy many times yet I still like Andromeda, don't get me wrong it's not an amazing game but I loved DA:I and Andromeda was just a sci-fi version of that. Andromeda itself is enjoyable if you go into wanting a similar game to DA:I. A good mass effect game? No, an enjoyable sci-fi game about exploring a new galaxy? In my opinion, yes.
Think of it like this. Assassins Creed: Black Flag is one of my favourite games of all time yet it was one of the worst (Before the newest assassins creed games anyway) assassins creed games ever made because it's nothing like an assassins creed game should be. I think the same of andromeda, except I don't like it as much
@@xxticxxtocxx7909 I played it all with dlcs in a row.
@@LH-eu8yf sorry to hear that, buddy.
"They're basically the equivalent of Jacob and Ashley from Mass Effect 3" If you meant Kaidan and Ashley this is such an unintentional serve lmao
Jacob was equally meh
No Javob was even more meh. I'd have willingly sacrificed all three in a blood ritual to a cosmic horror just to have any one of the ME2 squad mates or side characters return for the ME3 as a regular squad mate.
Am i the only one that actually likes Kaidan? He might be a bit bland, but he’s miles better than Jacob or Ashley. And unlike Ash, He has the most scenes in Me3.
@@lucianwong420 Agree....but we are in the minority. Kaidan skill set in 3 is dope. He's still boring though.
@@antiochus87 I didnt like Jacob at first, but no that I've been in the military, I like him alot more.
No nonsense kinda guy.
Way better than liam.
Hes fucking annoying, acting like hes my bestie. It was so forced.
Honestly, I like Andromeda because it was less stressful than Mass Effect. Andromeda was more like an adventure, new worlds, and discovering their secrets as you made them habitable was way more stress-reliving than trying to save the galaxy. Also, the tone was lighter; when you played Shepard, the fate of the universe was on your shoulders. Ryder has way more fun moments. The crew had a movie night, for God's sake! Now do I prefer it over Mass Effect? No cause, Mass Effect started it all, and I enjoyed playing it. But if someone asked me what game didn't make me lose my mind because I kept overthinking things, I would say Andromeda.
This Mass effect was my entry point and I really had fun playing it. Going back and playing the more rpg centric Mass effect games was a struggle at times. I can understand why people who wanted a rpg but instead received a action game were upset.
It's pretty apparent that Andromeda's Biggest crime was being only "decent" while bearing the name of a franchise that had become synonymous with "Amazing".
Not even close. The biggest crime was that at launch it was a buggy unplayable mess.
@@dustinvance243 Exactly what you say and also: You can fight like a krogan, run like a lepard, but you will never be better than commander Shepard. Ryder just couldn't compete.
It was much more than that tho. Like Dustin said below, when it first game out it was very buggy and damn near unplayable for some. For me, it was the fact that it was just a low effort copy/paste of elements from the original trilogy. Pathfinder instead of Shepard. Remnant instead of Prothean. Peebee instead of Liara. The Archon's motivation was essentially the same as Saren's from ME1. Jaal instead of Jaavik. The combat was fun, and the exploration was good but the story, the benchmark by which ME games are truly judged, felt like poor ME Trilogy fan fiction.
@@captiosus9753 and in some aspects it was outright sabotaged. Apparently the person in charge of the character creator purposely left fair skin out of the game because he hated white people. They had to add it in via patch.
When you drew the parallel with The Hinderlands, I felt that.
I can get past the wonky animations and minor mechanics quirks. What's really missing for me is the heart. The story doesn't have a "Kaiden or Ashley" choice.
@John Wick I never said it was boring. It's just missing big moral choices.
@John Wick dawg if you have to compare a game from like, 2016 to a game from 01 then you already have an answer lol
Just finished my first playthrough on the remaster trilogy, so I'll probably hit Andromeda again while it's still fresh and compare.
I tried three times to play this game and just couldn't stay with it.
I didn’t really like any character enough to care about them i guess that’s the main reason i couldn’t stick with it
On my 10th try after a legendary trilogy playthrough. I just can't. It's so boring.
That's because it ends up being a pretty mediocre game full of both potential and terrible design decisions.
@@spork8655 Facts.
@@l3gion755 that is not true
There really should be a mod that gives you actual control over squadmate abilities
i love the combat in MEA but this was my biggest gripe with the combat. there are so many good tactical abilities the companions have, but because you have no control over them, it diminishes how much you can customize. and there's no good reason why they couldnt give us that. all they needed was to make 2 buttons work as companion menu buttons,
@@marcosdheleno Agreed, setting up primes and detonates essentially with three skill bars (9 skills) would have been such an awesome boon in Andromeda.
It's a bummer that there are so few, if any, mods for Andromeda.
I feel like adding robust mod support really adds to the life-span and quality of the game, even if the original release might not be a master piece, the community still gets a shot at making it one.
I’ve been playing through Andromeda again over the past couple of weeks.. It is not as bad as I remember from when it first released
The shadows and animations making the faces look as they did just completely threw me off the game until a couple weeks ago I started again and it actually feels nice now. Makes me depressed because it turned me off the awesome multiplayer and now very few folks play and its hard to get a game.
The game was never that bad. It had some launch issues and everybody went fucking crazy and lost their minds. People were so negative about it that it drove further negativity about it. No it is not as good as Mass Effect 2 but I would say it is still pretty fucking good and a lot of fun.
I feel it suffering from Trilogy-Burnout Syndrome is exactly what fueled so much negative feedback in the game. People wanted their Shepards back but they saw the Ryders as discounts, me - I approached the game at launch objectively and I actually enjoyed it.
@@pocketheart1450 Exactly. That entire community cannibalized any bit of content they could get their hands on just to spin it around and shit out negativity. It's a shame because Cyberpunk 2077 is going through this... and after titles like 76 or Anthem, they forget Andromeda existed and they paint 2077 with the same brush.
Negativity is the new comedy in this post-Andromeda generation and it's a real shame people forgot how to be objective. I loved Andromeda merely because the skill customization was so awesome, I just wish they did allow us to control at least 1 if not 2 skills per squad mate.
@@FatalFist Ever since Halo 4 there seems to be this almost ridiculous wave of negativity around gaming in general. No game is good enough, everything is a broken mess, I miss the good ol' days, etc.
Watch the video normally because we love Tonald, then rewatch it at the slowest speed for Slownald....you’re welcome
Good to see someone with an open mind about this game. It has flaws but there is still a pretty good game in there.
... struggling to get out. You can almost see that good game if you squint.
I enjoyed Andromeda a lot; the sense of exploration gave me such Mass Effect 1 vibes!
even Blue Shrek?
It's exactly like ME1 except it has a terrible story.
@@Largentina. and terrible characters and worse facial animation than ME1 and fucking blue Shrek.
@@Largentina. clearly you've not played ME1 in quite a while because LMFAO the exploration LMFAO, ME1 is the most linear of the original 3...Unless your talking about the god awful clustefuck of the Citadel.
@@lutherheggs451 When did I say anything about the exploration in ME1? I only gave my opinion on the stories in these two games. Try again.
I played it a month after release, after a couple of patches.
I finished habitat 7 and never picked it up again. The glitches were still extremely noticeable, graphics and faces laughable, and writing just depressing. The complete lack of choices was oblivious from the start. 1. Yes and be nice, 2. Yes and be neutral, 3. Yes and be a dick.
Like there was just no impact. The death of dad Ryder was so bad and painfully transparent it ended any interest I had left in the story.
And honestly, are there any consequences?
Like in ME1 you can lose Wrex. If I remember right, theres nothing like that here.
Story: Whack
Side quests: Whack
Squadmates (Except Drack and Vetra): Whack
Gameplay: Tight as heck boi
I'd also add dialogue/choice system: Whack
This game had the same issue Skyrim had for me. In ME trilogy and Oblivion, conversations felt up close and personal. Whereas in Andromeda and Skyrim the camera is further back and you feel more like you're a bystander than someone involved in the conversation.
Not to mention the terrible writing.
I've said it back in the days, and I say it now. Andromeda was a great game. Maybe not a worthy successor after the trilogy, but still a great addition to the mass effect universe itself. It's basicly an exploration spin off with a cheesy story and the best game play me ever had.
Naw it was mediocre. The story is what made ME special. They slowly got away from that after every iteration. Hence why I still find the original ME1 as the best of the series, but ME:A was just your run of the mill shooter blow em up. Had no identity.
@Transcendant Teratoma well they wanted to give free dlcs, about the loose ends btw. The community was just so toxic, that they abandoned everything that had to do with it. Second of all, the next mass effect game, will focus on Andromeda and the milky way. You see a pretty big hint in the trailer already. So bear in mind, that the next me is a sequel to both!
Back in the day? The game came out in 2017. 4 years ago is back in the day for you? Are you 5 years old?
@@Largentina. I guess you are not really big brained, don't you?
#MEAndromedaWasNotBad
Correction; you don't need to pause to swap profile load outfits. You can use hotkeys set to F# keys or rebind. Also swapping profiles can give you the different bonus stats, so you can swap from a melee weapon damage profile with shields, versus a ranged profile or tactical profile with aim targetting etc
So abilities are not the only thing to consider for profile swapping
Also the new direction with Emotional, Logical, Casual, Professional is preferred over the Paragon / Renegade
I am a huge mass effect fan. After the bad reviews, I waited a year to play Mass Effect Andromeda. basically waiting for discounts and bug fixes. I believe the game got more hate than it deserved. People loved ME2 so they expected something like that, while ME:A reminds more of ME1. A new galaxy to explore, planets to land on and explore, a beginning of a new story. If you compare it to ME1, it is an improvement on every gameplay aspect, from scanning, to combat, to driving. Where it fell short is in the story aspect. ME1 had a lot of problems but I think what made ME1 so special was Virmire. the choice of sacrificing Kaiden/Ashely, choice of killing/saving Wrex, seeing that Saren isn't just a generic villain, and most importantly the shilling conversation with Sovereign. Ilos was also great
This kinda makes me want to play andromeda again
I really enjoy Andromeda. I started replaying the trilogy with the Legendary Edition, and started playing Andromeda again about halfway through ME2.
i beat the trilogy for the first time with the legendary edition and i’m itching for more mass effect so idk if i should get this game, kinda sad it doesn’t have the characters from the original games
@@thatsreallyam5758 If I am remembering correctly if you finish the main family quest line you get audio logs from liara talking to your characters dad
@@thatsreallyam5758 there are a few callbacks as well like a sibling of a certain shepard fan. They bring back the shepard shuffle. Liara has audio logs on the ark but her voice sounds weird like the VA was phoning it in.
A good day to you, White Samauri Tonald! Hope you are having a wonderful day ❤
A large part on why I never bought into this game's story was the concept behind the Andromeda Initiative itself. From the First Contact War to the initial launch of the Andromeda Initiative Arcs, only 28 years have passed. Humanity has just now become part of a galactic society where there is so much to explore and learn. The idea that a sizable portion of humans now want to venture out on a one way trip to Andromeda rather than explore the remaining unexplored parts of the Milky Way Galaxy just doesn't fit.
It also doesn't help that tens of thousands of Asari, Turians, Salarians, Quarians, Drell and other races also joined this initiative even though it's a 'Human' lead endeavor. The original trilogy was always quick to remind Shepard that alien races, whether part of the council or not, didn't fully trust them. So having all these alien races from the Milky Way Galaxy join a 'Human' project on a one way trip to another galaxy was too much. I just can't see this happening in Mass Effect, not at this point in Humanity's role in the overall story.
Exactly. I touched on similar points in my wall of text. In terms of in universe story telling from what we know about the races and the issues in the milky way, the entire premise of the Andromeda Initiative falls on its face. Quarians would have never left. They revered their fleet and their homeworld too much. Krogan were on the precipice of a Genophage cure. An entire clan wouldn't have signed up to dash off to Andromeda where they would have faced certain doom from sterility issues. The premise is broken from the start and it makes everything else suspect from the beginning.
As a veteran of the original ME trilogy, I didn´t love Andromeda but I didn´t hate it neither. In most areas it falls behind the original games (RPG elements, quest design, story. etc) but you can tell the developers were tying to make a great game, even if they, for the most part, failed to meet the standards of the consumers.
At the end what you have with Andromeda is the same story you can see on games such as Days Gone, Cyberpunk 2077 or, to some extent, Gears 4, people jumping in the hate bandwagon just because it´s the trend at the moment among clickbait youtubers only to go back to these games months or years later with an open mind and find a great experience.
This video right here is exactly what my opinion has been on Mass Effect Andromeda since I first played it about 6 months after it's release. It's good, not great, and still fun. No one is ever gonna say it's a good Mass Effect game, but it's a good game overall.
"good game" is a very subjective thing to say. Sure, the gameplay and combat system is good, great customization menu and stuff, but it is supposed to be an action-rpg game, and it fails at that, because the story is flat without any depth at all, the characters are stupid and sometimes annoying, the dialogues are empty...etc
If it was an "normal" action game like crysis or something then yeah, cool game I guess. But it's advertised as something completely different.
I picked it up for $5 and I'm wondering if I should play it before legendary edition, or after. Before would probably be better, but legendary edition will be on my doorstep Friday, and I know I won't be able to wait to play it, so I guess I'll play after I beat ME 1,2, and 3
@@johnnyflannigan136 After, because it's literally the sequel to them all.
@@baronnuuke7821 I don't agree with the combat. To me the enemies are too tanky and assault rifles got ruined to the point of being unusable. Even though I completed ME 2 and 3 on the hardest difficulty before Andromeda came out, I ended up lowering the difficulty because I couldn't stand the combat and how long it took to kill anything. Losing control of your party also didn't help. In 2 and 3 I would often build my party so they could take out what I couldn't (either shield or armor) and that made combat fun even on higher difficulties where enemies always have multiple layers of protection.
@@johnnyflannigan136 I say play them in order. Going from Andromeda's fast 2017-era gameplay to Mass Effect 1's 2007-era gameplay might give you whiplash. Regarding Andromeda's story... well, there's some lore to be unlocked that acknowledges the events of the original trilogy, but Andromeda is generally self-contained. From ME:As perspective, the original trilogy ended 630-something years ago.
Every time I try and play the game I get Ryder-ed and Liam-ed and Cora-d in the face and I just can't go on. I need my main characters in a sci-fi epic to at least have something vaguely cool about them.
"Yeah, y'know my dad..."
"Hey, can you help me reminisce on my couch?"
"Have I told you about my time with the asari huntresses?"
True. Especially Liam. His fucking stupid side quest made me quit both times I tried to play this game...
I actually like Cora her loyalty mission was fun and her backstory of asari huntress was also interesting Liam is kinda boring but his mission was funny as hell either way all 3 are more interesting characters than Ashley, Jacob, or Kaiden ever were.
@@tano7275 atleast Ashley, Jacob and Kaidan didnt make me wish for the ability to kick them off the ship or made me wish for the option of letting them die permanently
this was my first mass effect game and i genuinely enjoyed it. i’m excited to try the remasters, but i can’t help but feel some type of way leaving the fun combat behind.
The trilogy's combat does not feel as good and free-form as andromeda's but you can do fun combos with your squad since you can command them. The combat is still pretty good though it may feel a bit dated of course. The trilogy is better at pretty much every other aspect so it very much recommended.
This legendary edition is my first experience with mass effect. I’d say when you get past ME1 the combat is very good for the time it came out and still holds up to this day
Just play vanguard, aspecially in the third game, u wont regret it. Google urself a vanguard build, it plays really fun
The game was totally fine. 7/10. The biggest problem is that everyone was expecting Mass Effect 4, but it was never going to be that. It was Mass Effect Andromeda. Kind of like the Teen Titans to the Justice League. It was made with it's own tone, pace, feeling, everything, separate from the original trilogy, but people weren't expecting that. Pile that on top of the initial technical issues (which were all fixed), and everyone just took one spoonful at the beginning and spit it out. But it was actually a good game.
This review hones in on one of Andromeda's reception problems: the reviewer is comparing it largely to ME2 and ME3 -- sequels. A proper comparison in terms of character development would be against ME1 and ME1 alone. Can you honestly say Garrus, Tali, et al. were hugely memorable ONLY from ME1? Na. It was the multi-game journey the characters had. Andromeda never had that opportunity.
Spot on comment...and also in ME1 there were not decisions that had inmediate consecuences, you saw them in further installments.
As Drack says: "Parents are not the goal, are the beginning" . Shepard arc finished. Assume it. Things change. Move on. Mature.
Drack for best sidekick in ME:A 😎
Just started Andromeda. I like it so far. Definitely doesn't feel or look like the previous ME games though. I'da been fine if they'd just called it Andromeda and not made any connection to ME. (And for me, I didn't find Tali all that memorable, even after ME3. I found Zaeed, Aria and Jack way more amusing, and I was way more attached to Liara throughout the series)
Great point. Wrex was the only companion that made a real impression on me in M E 1. Garrus, Tali and even Liara really started coming alive in 2.
As with other established IPs that get a new and innovative sequel, there is a lot of room for error and risks that don't pay off. Certain aspects of the mass effect lore are relatively concrete, especially when it comes to alien personality types and cultures. One of Andromeda's stupidest ideas was to try and turn all of it on its head in one game. Why is there some annoyingly spunky Asari that defies everything we know about how they act? Why is a krogan in charge of finances? Etc. They took a gamble on some characters that didn't pan out and despite great combat and graphics the story and characters suck which makes the game largely a chore
@@terminatorgir The only part that I felt kind of became a chore was the 3 games worth of side quests in one single game. The main story wasn't bad. And remember ME2 had Krogan scientists. Mordin even scoffed at it.
I liked the mission where I had to fight through a giant spaceship which was upside down. I always wanted to do that.
I love ME Andromeda's gameplay, I played my favorite class: Vanguard and it was extremely fast paced and smooth. My main issues with Andromeda was the story and writing seemed amateurish and there was no need for the bloated open world, sometimes less is more.
I played ME: Andromeda before ever going to the trilogy. Now I have the Legendary Edition of the trilogy, and I'm having a hard time adjusting to the lack of mobility, requirement to hide behind stuff all the time, stopping and starting the gameplay to select abilities, and having to micromanage my squad. Sure the story and missions are deeper and better written in the trilogy, but I do prefer the basic gameplay of Andromeda!
Ppl keep forgetting, it’s NOT mass effect 4 it’s a whole new story give it a chance it’s actually interesting
I appreciate this second look at Andromeda. One minor critique I would levy is that there's a lot of comparison to Mass Effect 2. I feel Andromeda was more akin to Mass Effect 1. It was the start of a story. You didn't have any ties to any of the characters yet. You were still getting to know your tiny squad of crewmates. I think when we compare Andromeda more to a beginning of a story instead of the middle of a story like ME2, we find Andromeda stands up a lot better story-wise and character-wise. Remember all those boring fetch quests in ME1? ME:A did that significantly better. We were encouraged to explore a galaxy and build up to... something else.
If I compare Peebee, Jaal, Vetra, and Drack to their ME1 equivalents of Liara, Tali, Garrus, and Wrex, then ignore the character growth we get throughout ME2 or ME3, I find I like ME:A's cast as much or better. There was very little character growth in ME1 for most of these characters (although some like Wrex got some really great moments). Most of their growth happened in ME2 or ME3. When you compare the human characters Cora and Liam to Ashley and Kaiden, I think a similar pattern shows. A lot of people simply dislike both Kaiden and Ashley in ME1 for one reason or another. They feel boring and bland with minimal growth, and their only interesting bit happens in Virmire. In ME:A, you don't have Virmire, but I would say both Cora and Liam are slightly better than their counterparts in ME1, although nowhere near as good as characters like Jack, Kasumi, Zaeed, or even Miranda. It's important to remember that we're looking at 3 games worth of characterization with characters like Liara, Tali, Garrus, and Wrex. We only got one game for Andromeda's cast. Finally, I think it's important to compare the characterizations of Ryder and Shepard. It's hard to beat Shep, but Ryder feels a lot more dynamic, as if they're growing throughout the story. I personally really appreciated that.
Although I agree with the majority of what you say about the overarching story, it's important to remember that Andromeda was a beginning. ME2 was a continuation. If Andromeda got a sequel, I'd like to think we'd see ME2 levels of story and intrigue. But we never reached that point, so everything in ME:A simply feels... pointless. Combined with how much we condemned an "above average" game to its doom, and I think that's the real tragedy of Andromeda. I don't think Bioware failed us with Andromeda. I think we failed Andromeda by trying to make it live up to ME2 and 3 when it was still on the level as ME1.
The thing I'll always remember about the game is that shortly before its launch EA announced that they were willing to push it back up to five months for more polish, and then didn't and it was a ****ing meme circus at launch. And when Shreier's report came out about how many times its development was restarted and the game we got was slapped together in 18 months I'll always wonder what could have been.
The combat was the best in the series, the story was sufficient, and the MP was still hella fun even if you couldn't name the characters.
Since Andromeda was the first mass effect game for me I absolutely loved it. I could overlook the shit writing or bad face animations because I genuinely had fun discovering new planets and what not. The gameplay was also absolutely amazing, it felt so fun and it was good at making you feel powerful.
I'm halfway through the second game now with legendary and honestly can't wait to jump back into Andromeda once I 100% the triolgy
I'm about 40 hours into this game right now and I honestly don't understand why people hate it. It's not a perfect game but it's good and, most importantly, fun.
YES
Exactly you know we would have tons of story dlcs if the people who did not like the game didnt whine like babies
Like the video says, it suffers from following after the main trilogy. Personally, I would have been way more interested if they'd kept the upgrades to the mechanics, but had kept the story contained within the Milky Way Galaxy. I had grown to know and love all the alien races that Shepard interacts with in the trilogy, and then suddenly you're expected to mostly forget those stories and start immersing yourself in the history of a whole new galaxy.
It suffers because it's just not a good game. The first ME game drew me in instantly and kept me captivated and invested in the world throughout. The sequels only improved on the experience. The story and character development are second to none. Conversely, playing through ME: A felt like a chore. I couldn't believe it's from the same developer.
I wish it were a better a game, but it isn't. So I'm happy BioWare abandoned this game. No amount of DLC's and sequels will make the game that we got "good".
Because the writing is ass, bro. You're fine with games insulting your intelligence but I'm not. Couldn't sit through it after 3 tries.
I'll offer one rebuttal about the Profile system - it's actually more critical than you say, and it's *because* you have less control of your teammates. In the OT, most classes will put you at a disadvantage against a particular enemy type. As an Adept, for example, shields and armor can make half your powers useless, so picking squadmates who are good against those (Tali/Garrus) is part of the strategy of the game.
In Andromeda, though, the intent is for you to change your _own_ powerset for that purpose, instead of that of your squad. It was fun to come across a mass of Kett and rip them apart with a custom-made Vanguard powerset, and then switching to a Sentinel profile for a Remnant Vault and ripping everything to shreds with lightning.
I still think it's underdeveloped - the powers aren't well balanced enough that you could make more than two or three genuinely fun and useful loadouts, nor are enemies so diverse in nature that you'd need them. In my case, my last two profile slots were just very slight variations of my first two. But it's one of the things I enjoyed, specially coming from the ME3 multiplayer where a lot of the fun factor was trying out all the different combinations of powers between different characters.
Aside from that, I think you outlined my precise thoughts about this game better than I ever could.
I love mass effect and I love andromeda… definitely is deserving to be a mass effect game to me. I don’t care what anyone says… I’ve replayed it often over the years between big-ticket games that I was waiting for to drop….
Same. I've always said that if it was released without "Mass Effect" in the title, it would be remembered as a great game.
Andromeda is a case of different, but not worse. Many fans wanted more of Shepard's gruff military personality, so when they got Ryder's softer personality, they immediately felt it was worse. When in actuality, it was just different. Then once that hate bandwagon got some steam, there was no stopping it.
I only wish EA would have continued to support it with updates and DLC. I'm convinced it could have had a total turn-around with more updates/DLC, and once the hate bandwagon died down a bit.
Me too! Such an amazing game.
It got backlash because of the buggy mess it was at launch , and it was deserved … It’s easy to say that the game was wonderful for you when you played it after numerous patch , but the day one Mass effect fans felt betrayed and disrespected . Go watch crowbcat video about this game , and tell me that it was not a disgrace .
@@rossandy4407 I did play it day one… it was irritating but like you said.. patch after patch got better and I’ve continued to play it.
I played it day one, actually enjoyed it. But it'll forever be a spin-off to me.
Love Andromeda. Played it again 3 months ago. Too bad we did not get the quarin ark expansion.
Honestly, I would give it another shot if they gave me the Quarian ark...
It's been 4 years? Holy crap
i really liked andromeda, the gameplay was the best of the series, worlds looked amazing, graphics great, the squadmates stories and getting to know them, the angara. I felt like I had landed in this new galaxy and was free to explore at my own pace, I like open world games and will finish every sidequest. ultimately i don't think i need to compare it to previous ME games, this wasn't about shepherd, it was a different character in a different galaxy, i did a few playthroughs of andromeda and to me it will always be a good addition to the ME series.
I think one of Andromedas biggest problems was/is people accapting that Shepard isn´t the main character anymore
the game has an awful dialogue. It's like the writers were using disney channel or nickelodeon teen comedy series as an example. It was so cringy trying to see these group of characters as soldiers or badass people when all of them talks like immature teens.
I think you nailed it with the "stuttery step". Having finished it only a few months ago, it's still kinda fresh and I recall the movement always had me second guessing the timing and I could never quite figure out why.
The biggest issue with Andromeda was that I didn’t care about any of the characters. At the end of ME3 I really thought that Garrus, Tali and Liara were your friends. They had grown and changed and were fully realized characters who’s personalities were shaped by the events of the game. Nothing like that in Andromeda.
Part of that, I think, is that we tend to remember the attachments we have with the original trilogy characters that we built up over three games, while we forget that Andromeda only had one game to win us over (so far). I enjoyed all of the ME1 characters, for sure, but I don't think I really fell in love with them until ME2 and ME3.
Like, I think that Jaal is at least as endearing as any of the original trilogy characters, but he can't compare to three games of my bromance with Garrus.
I mean, you're kinda comparing 3 games worth of story arcs to the story arcs in a single game. I don't think that's the best comparison honestly. Don't get me wrong, I do think the writing is better in ME2 and ME3, but still, it's not really fair to compare one game to an entire trilogy.
@@nickwebster1297 not true, we cared about those characters in the first game because they were well written. Andromeda characters were paper thin, you don't need a trilogy to make you care about characters.
@@bastinelli443 I wouldn't use the term "we". I stopped playing ME1. I never finished it until ME3 was announced. I couldn't get through the game until the trilogy came out and ai had no attachments to the character excluding Garrus. I definitely felt attached to Jaal with what was given. So I think comparing Andromeda to a 3 game trilogy is not a fair comparison. I think Andromeda had a lot of potential
@@Radiogirl1931 you not finishing ME1 originally disqualifies you from having an unbiased view
The best thing to come out of ME:A is the Annihilation book. Damn that was a great book.
I love Tonald unironicly...... that is all
Tonald is love, Tonald is life.
I re-downloaded the game as well gave it around 20 minutes before deleting again
I forgot I even owned it myself.
Same
I just landed on Eos and im ready to delete again. Its like a family member you just want to forget.....
The BIGGEST problem with Andromeda is that although you have dialogue 'choices', you don't get to influence the outcome of anything that happens in the game
In the og trilogy, Shepard could say something (e.g. paragon or renegade) and characters would give vastly different reactions, or even possibly die (e.g. Wrex, Mordin)
It's the opposite in Andromeda. Ryder has essentially no choice over anything happening in the game, except one time where you get a binary 'save Krogan or Salarians'
Ryder's dialogue 'choices' don't even influence how other characters see her. She doesn't have the option to be good or bad, just 'logical' or 'casual'. It's so unfulfilling
Andromeda is probably my second favorite Mass Effect game after ME2. I agree that it suffered from a lot of bias because of the original trilogy, plus a rocky launch and some of the writing could definitely have been better, but overall I thought it was a great game and a great change of pace from the original trilogy. I'm currently playing through the Legendary Edition and have already decided on playing through Adromeda again after I finish the MELE.
#MEAndromedaWasNotBad
Best gameplay out of all mass effect games,too bad about basically everything else though.
I thought it was cool you could switch to any class and play any class build anytime in the andromeda game. The other 3 didn't let you do that.. If the first 3 let you do that they would've been much better.
@regi grenski I liked to switch between all the classes in andromeda for a few reasons. One, andromeda is extremely long, way longer than all the other 3. Part 2 is the shortest. Two, Andromeda is more difficult, I only play on insanity. So I think that's why they made it where you can switch between all classes . you need them all in that game.
@regi grenski Soldier and vanguard are the funnest classes to me. You get all cool weapons and adrenaline rush which is a cool power as a soldier. Vanguard I just rush everybody with charge, then hit them the piranha shotgun or nova. That's really all you need if you have strong armor. Nova and charge seem even more deadly in andromeda
@regi grenski Soldier is good in all games if you like weapons. Soldiers carry all the weapons and are the only ones that use the special heavy weapons. Plus they have adrenaline rush or matrix mode and each shot does more damage in adrenaline rush. It's a cool effect. In mass effect 3 I always pick Liara. Her singularity basically has no cool down you can literally use it like every 2 seconds. Upgrade it to even make her singularity bigger. Everyone is just floating around and I explode them with flare or concussion shot
yeah i'm playing through it now and the game play is great. The weapons and abilties are all great. But the RPG elements are just bad besides the progression sutff. Still worth playing because it's fun but it's like had this just been an action game it would have been 9 out of 10 lol
Andromeda was my intro into Mass Effect just last year, and I loved it from the get go. Its what made me interested in playing the original trilogy, which I did with the LE. Loved them too. Andromeda specifically really has a special place in my heart for me.
Your way of combat looks awesome. I didn't know you could play it that way.
I think I played it like the Trilogy by using peek & shoot mechanics with cover. >_>
that's part of the beauty of the combat system in andromeda, you have so many options. even close combat. weapon customization makes guns really fun to use. and many options as well. specially after the last update. as it made some of the lesser mods far more usable.
the game is still easy, and there really is good and bad setups. but overall, its a really fun system.
I still play it like that being an engineer. Haha. But I feel braver moving and dashing now than before. Especially since the Remnant Destroyers force you to come out of hiding.
My first build was an assassins melee shotgun build, where when you dash you turn invisible for the dash and when you get a melee kill you turn invisible for a little while, and the main power was invisibility.
Very fun.
@@butterflymage5623 there are so many fun builds that play completely diferent, specially when you add the diferent weapons.
the now famous seeking pyranha, or the auto carnifex. even melee have diferent styles, as some have special effects.
overall, the only weapon type that is weak is the rifles, but even those can be made awersome if you tweak them enough.
You can play mobile like that in Mass Effect 2 as well (and I'm assuming 3). Vanguard lets you slam into an enemy and recover some shield when doing it. When maxed out the CD is low enough that you can mostly do it as long as the enemy you slam into has no shield/armor. If they have shields or armor up they don't get staggered so they keep shooting you and you can't survive if they have friends nearby but otherwise it's a great way to reposition and flank enemies. Sure you don't have a jetpack but also enemies in the trilogy aren't so stupidly tanky as in Andromeda.
I just finished the game, after playing Legendary Edition Trilogy, which was my first time ever with the series. And to me all of those games r great, but also all have flaws. But my enjoyment was rather equal in all those games. I heard a lot of bad opinions about Andromeda but honestly i have no idea from where did they come from. Its VERY Mass Effect, story is good and touching, characters r great, combat feels alot better, and its open-world. Tbh i enjoyed every damn minute that i spent in this game, and all previous either. How it's like to be introduced to Mass Effect in 2021? BRILLIANT!
I realize how strangely connected the characters of Andromeda and the Trilogy are in terms of their presentation
Vetra/Garrus: Easy going turian meant to act as your best buddy
Wrex/Grack: Hard ass old Krogan who act as muscle
Liam/Kaiden: With you from the start, meant to also be your buddy
Ashley/Cora: Again, with you from the start, both have a distrust or disliking of other alien species
Peedee/Liara: Both asari fascinated by ancient technology
Tali/That twi’lek alien whose name I forgot: The mysterious or unknown species that do not understand the world around them (maybe Javik also fits here)
Kirkland/Jenkins: New Recruits who both die immediately after touchdown
Obviously there are some major discrepancies with how Andromeda’s characters were handled, and some major personality differences, but their introductions seem like a weird rehash of ME1. Just something I noticed when playing Andromeda.
Praise Lord Tonald!
I absolutely loved Andromeda. Period!
SAME
Same!
The story really left me wanting more, I might try to play it again as I just finished the legendary edition
Atleast it wasn't like Dragon Age II...
Imagine, the prolouge is you leaving the nexus as an outcast with no voice until you meet a very handsome Reyes, and a very alluring Varri.. Imean Vetra who get you adjusted to the criminal underground.. if expanding on Kadara was the whole point of Act 2 with side quests, Act 1 doesn't have any main missions just side missions that make you be Sloane Kelly's goon just for enough money to buy a house, after you meet Jaal who is like an alien confident between milky way species and thecAngaran but he slowly detests humans, the final mission in Act 1 will be finding a secret lair under the abandoned house you buy full of Kett objects, the Kett themselves won't be explained until the games sequel. (there will be a cool mission at the end where you find Archons device in your house by its last owner) so ACT 2 has to pick up the slack and sets you up with Reyes and all his missions, you can romance him as well even though he isn't a follower, which is pointless because Act 3 has a different storyline as well, the side missions for Act 2 would be a bit more creative, as you interact with all the citizens of Kadara port and be known as the good side of Sloanes bad. (This will mostly be wasted potential as this could feed way more into the stories main plot and setting) and the disease from the "Contagion" SIDE quest "would kill your mom" basically infects someone with a huge character role in a MAIN mission in Act 3. Like sure there were a few side quests about poisons, and viruses all the way back, but for the outcome is to off (or not) a main follower near the end of Act 3? And just so happens when the Roekar plot kicks in, (if I remember right they had copies of the virus from the Contagion side quest) And Act 3 would be steadily building your own outpost on Kadara with Sloane Kelly's help while Jaal fights his own internal reincarnated soul, the Roekar come in and try to null your civilization, but during this act you will play as the person who is finding new people for your outpost, finding people and doing their side missions is how you gain them in your outpost, Jaal detests the slums of Kadara More and more, silently in the background where nobody can see and in a way where there's minimal foreshadowing like it's nothing major, and tries to blow up Kadara port because he was a terrorist in the past life.. Oh and the Finale being against Sloane Kelly in your own outpost, because she suddenly goes 180 on you after a hard earned alliance... and brings creatures from the mountain boulders alive to fight with her. With an "Archon Device" that was only referenced twice since Act 1. And Reyes takes Kelly's place on the throne
Damn imagine if Andromeda was just Kadara and the surrounding hills. Where there is only one cave, dungeon and cellar each where all the quests take you over and over, Each follower would have their own house and they are all bisexual not for being pro LGBT but because of programming time constraints. Jeez. Bioware can't get worse than DAII. Even Anthem was open and looked pretty. And this games Side quests are stellar.
I'm so happy this guy actually goes deep in to the story to determine what was good and bad about the game. Most people I see that talk crap about this game never play much of it. They play like 1 hour of the game and the spout out 1 or 2 things they didn't like and then never play it again. They say like " Oh it's too futuristic, I don't wanna be boost jumping around everywhere." Then don't play it ever again not considering the entire time that it's a futuristic game not something based in ww2.
What most people don't know about this when comparing it to the trilogy is that this game when being developed didn't have the support from bioware that the trilogy did. About halfway through developing the game they took a major hit. They lost loads of their personnel. Some leaving to other branches of bioware or just plain leaving. With lack of personnel and support they were struggling to progress anyway fast as they wanted to. By the time the release date was upon them they were nowhere near done and they had to cut a lot of content, gameplay, as well as dialogue that what wanted to be in there. No one takes this into consideration because it's not that well known and you have to search pretty hard to find the info due to how little it's mentioned. Maybe if it was given more time to develop and more instead of being pushed for the deadline it would've been a truly great game instead of just a good game. I hope people put this into thought the next time they are talking about what they think about Mass Effect Andromeda.
It’s important to recognize that this game was meant to be the first of a trilogy, and I think personally it sets up its characters and the new galaxy very well maybe even better than the first mass effect game did back in 2007.
No
@@dunrossb Yes.
Compare Vetra to Garrus only from Mass Effect 1. Completely forget and leave out ME2 and 3. Compare Jaal to Tali only from ME1.
The difference is is that the trilogy characters had multiple games to develop but the Andromeda characters have not had that.
Stick only to the game that the trilogy characters were introduced in and leave out the moments and development they had later and you’ll have a more accurate comparison list.
@@Dragon_Lair Mass Effect 1 was made in 2007, Andromeda 10 years later. That's 10 years. Andromea had a decade worth of material to work with more than Mass Effect 1 and Andromeda was still ass.
@@dunrossb At least that’s your opinion.
Nothing touches the worldbuilding of the first ME and I disagree with this sentiment wholeheartedly
“Andromeda is much less tactical, it’s about keeping on the move and blowing shit up, moving on then doing it again, Less planning and more reacting” And that’s why it’s nowhere near as good as the real mass effects.
Yeah and thats why games like remake of doom are universally considered shitty. Moving and shooting just isn't viable for videogames. Not sure who actually played mass effects for the gameplay. I mean it was decent at best but the entire game works because of the story.
Ill agree to this, having to plan an attack even in so little as positioning you party for an ambush is a million times better than just spamming dodge over and over.
ME:A has such a beautiful atmosphere in my eyes. It was so full of hope, good vibes and it really felt like a new beginning. Its not perfect (the main-story was a too generic), but Andromeda was still a really good game.
[Warning: Long, and I don't write TLDRs]
If anything, I find the release of the ME: Legendary Edition really puts the mediocrity of Andromeda in sharp contrast.
It's easy to be hyper critical so let me start by what I feel Andromeda did very well. With exception to the reversion of the cover mechanics, combat is probably the best in the series. Weapons feel more tightly tuned and the way they iterated on the biotic/tech combo system was fantastic (and later was iterated upon again for Anthem's core combat). The class skills system change is also best in the series. Rather than being put in a box based on whatever class you chose at launch, those classes became profiles and you could build however you wanted. That increased build diversity made for much more enjoyable moment to moment gameplay. Graphically, with exception to character models, it looked fantastic -- although it took a couple patches to get there. The vistas, the planets, the locations, even the Tempest were all amazing.
That's where my praise ends.
The game brought back several of Mass Effect 1's bad design decisions in an attempt to appeal to the vocal minority screaming for the ME franchise to 'return to its roots'. Things like the 'automatic' cover system that was wonky at best, the endless looting of crates for crap that had to be broken down, and exploring wide but ultimately empty terrains for little to no gain. These were all things that were acceptable in 2007 as the franchise was new but by 2017 felt dated and simply unenjoyable.
Graphically the character models, even after patching, just never seemed right. Two prime examples that I can think of off the top of my head. Compare the Asari models from ME3 to MEA. In MEA, they're shorter, squatter, and look like they have a layer of baby fat. Likewise, compare Turian male models frm ME2, ME3 and MEA. From the waist down in MEA, they look compressed and deformed. They just look "off". This happens to a similar degree with many human models as well. I chalk this one up to the change in game engines but it's still jarring to anyone who played the original trilogy. [Addendum: Also, character model clothing was a bit off as well. Too many solid whites or solid primary colors that highlighted many of the character model flaws. Turian faces were also far less detailed and ended up looking flat.]
Now the big one: Story. For better or worse this is the benchmark set by the original trilogy and therefore the benchmark all "Mass Effect" titled games will be judged against. To anyone who had played the original trilogy, it was blatently obvious that MEA was a hodgepodge of copy/pasted plot beats from the trilogy distilled into a brown paste. The similiarities are too numerous to compare without turning this into an even bigger novel, but some examples are Peebee as Liara-lite, Remnant as Protheans 2.0, Cora as a mashup of Ashley and Kaiden, the Archon was essentially Saren, the exiles as ME1 Cerberus-esque, and so on. In addition, if we follow the timeline of events -- the Andromeda Initiative departs after the events of ME2 and just before the events of ME3 -- the decisions made by certain races don't even fit with what we know IN UNIVERSE at that time. With multiple incidents of the genophage nearly being cured and Urdnot Wrex making a concerted effort to unify the clans, it makes no sense that Krogan would abandon the Milky Way for an expedition to another galaxy where they'd be all but doomed. At the time the Ark launches, the Quarians were all being recalled to the Migrant Fleet in preparation for war against the Geth -- an enemy they (with exception to Tali) thought was bigger than the Reapers until the events of ME3. Given the reverence with which the Quarians treat their homeworld and their fleet, the idea that several thousand Quarians would have joined the AI on an Ark to another galaxy is thematically inconsistent with the rest of the universe. The game throws in some dialog blurbs about these things throughout but none of them address the inconsistencies.
The story feels like fan fiction more than something new. It feels like someone taking beloved characters from the trilogy and slightly changing names and dates to make it seem more original than it is. But instead it's just a pale imitation. And this is evident in the lack of chemistry between the characters and the way it throws in Liara's recap of events in Alec Ryder's office later in the game, as if to say: "See guys, we're Mass Effect too!".
At least the game didn't launch with a bunch of awful microtransactions and a roadmap. So there's that. I called it a 7/10 game when it came out and I stand by that. It's got enough to be worth playing at least once but the number of backwards steps and missteps mean this is just not the future of Mass Effect. It's best remaining a side story, and I hope like hell any future ME game doesn't time jump Liara far enough into the future where they try to mesh the two together somehow.
17:41 *Instant smile*
*currently crying in corner now*
So before the Legendary Edition Trilogy remake I never played the first title. Anyway I played Andromeda before, but after playing 2 and 3. So after playing ME1 I feel like Andromeda gets more flak than it should since it kind of revisited the planetary exploration from 1 and also introduced a much more detailed power control and set up. Honestly the power set ups and ability to combine any powers you want is amazing and the jump addition was well needed, and even though it’s a title that was pushed out faster than it should I would say that Andromeda is one of the better games to play for the gameplay. Outside of gameplay the story is a little cliche and the conversations seem forced and awkward. Still love playing Andromeda.
I gotta say, for my money, Liam's loyalty mission "All In" was one of the most fun missions in all the ME games. It had good writing, the level design was well done and the Star Wars references were a good touch.
And personally, Saren was just as one dimensional and boring as the Archon in terms of villains and motivations
This was the best loyalty mission hands down. Had some of the best comedic moments the series has seen while keeping with the urgency.
Mission was good, but the character was more bland than Saren was.
The combat in MEA is so much fun. I played a second play through just to try out a melee build.
Honestly andromeda has 2(+) major storylines.
Each planet has its own story
And the main story itself.
So the planets storylines make some of the best moves
But honestly the main storyline is WAY more powerful than I initially gave it credit for. It’s deep, just not what people expected.
HOLY SHIT Mass Effect: Andromeda came out FOUR YEARS AGO?
It feels like it was last year maybe two.
For all it's shortcomings, I really enjoyed Andromeda. They nailed the gameplay it's just perfect.
I bought it 1 year after release for $3 bucks and fully patched. Yes the game isn’t as epic as the first three but I had quite some fun for over 30 hours.
I really liked how Andromeda went back somewhat to the RPG roots of ME 1; really loved that part of the game. Everything else was just mediocre though. That being said, Bioware just needs to bring back their writing for the next ME because they just need to build on top of Andromeda's great gameplay so that shouldn't be too hard. But the writing is what I'm scared for, knowing that pretty much everyone who worked on ME 1 and 2 have moved on. But we'll see.
#MEAndromedaWasNotBad
Very comfortabel voice to hear speaking, ontopic i cant wait for the ME legendary edition
Agreed on many fronts except dialogue. You have four options, and they're usually all saying the same thing contextually. Paragon and Renegade had vastly different contexts, so you have two co-existent Sheperds... but Ryder is always the same Ryder with different responses based on her mood. It's not Paragon/Renegade... it's Paragon/Paragon/Paragon/Paragon.
They should have created more variability, and instead, they got much less of it and only surface-level differences. One of the reasons the side missions were so dull is BECAUSE your character is one of four different types of paragons with zero variability in philosophy. Mass Effect 1: you show up to a hostage situation and you can either shoot the hostage or shoot the negotiator or flesh the conversation out or what not... ME:A: you show up somewhere and they ask you to scan something... or find something... just be a gofer. I don't want to be a gofer unless I inflect on the situation with my own choices. RPGs are supposed to be a playground, but in this one, they turned it into a Cult Marxist indoctrination session and you're pretty much just taking what they give you.
Totally agreed...most of the time it didn't matter what u selected. After awhile i didn't care anymore, just clicked whatever and space-bar skipped the dialogue
Tone, I just want to say that I’m so proud of how much you’re content has improved over the years. Keep up the good work, and you NEED to make more cooking videos
Here’s a novel idea why didn’t they just continue with further adventures after Mass Effect three with commander Shepard again? Show what he was doing after the third game come to some kind of resolution where no matter which choice you pick somehow it could tie into the storyline for the fourth game and show commander Shepherd moving forward
Beside the fact that Shepard die in 3 out of 4 endings?