Good game, GREAT gameplay, story pales in comparison to original trilogy by light years, but it has it’s moments. Worth playing, just think of it more like a spin off than a true sequel.

Story is garbage in comparison to the original trilogy but the mechanics and gameplay are pretty solid. Probably not possible in your situation but I think it’s better if you play ME: A before you play the original trilogy

Andromeda, is a -good- game. It's got more than a few flaws, but it was never, is not, and will probably never be as bad as the internet razed it to the ground for.

It's a little lighter in tone than the trilogy because it's shifted focus from impending doom (Reapers) to earth-shattering discovery (Jardaan/Remnant). And surprise surprise, that's not automatically a terrible thing.

I WILL say that the writing isn't what you may have grown to expect from an ME title, and imo, it completely lacks replayability (marolf, how on EARTH do you have 8 playthroughs??). Which, I will continue, makes me wonder what the teaser released back in December will do for the franchise.

If you know anything about it, Trilogy-Andromeda comparisons have turned into A:tLA-TLoK comparison fights, where one side gives it fair praise or criticism, while the other defers to auto-hating it because of entirely arbitrary BS or simply because it's new.

If you already have it, you’ll lose nothing by trying it except time. And if you find yourself bored or mad or anything else, you do not have to finish it.

I gave it a fair shake. Took my time, making sure to do it “right” by seeking out side quests, optional little bits, and tackling as much content as I could. Something like a total of 60 hours in game, with maybe 15 (ish) or more in multiplayer.

Honest conclusion? It was pretty trash. BioWare did eventually come in and smooth out some of the launch issues related to objective quality, things like glitching faces and bugs. But the content when functioning as intended? Very lackluster, largely due to some weird design decisions.

Where the action is, the trilogy was largely a corridor shooter with a handful of combat arenas around the map. Andromeda is a fully open world game, and while the natural environments are actually beautiful, there’s nothing of substance to do in them. Most of the map is devoid of interactions, and much of what you are asked to do is repeat fighting these copy pasted groups of enemies, with no dialogue or unique interactions. It’s clearing out generic hostiles from generic camps with little to no real reward. Even the vaults, which might have seemed interesting the first time through get to be a little boring revisiting them over and over.

If there was more story upfront or the narrative had gripped me, I would be more forgiving of the game reusing assets. I love Dragon Age 2, and it’s a game with something like 6 locations revisited over and over as it’s repopulated for both generic enemies and important quests. But the ratio of story to faffing about is more solidly planted around story, and generic enemies are placed as little bits of action in between quests and interactions. Because of Andromeda’s large open world sections, the focus on story is lost. There’s far too much “nothing” content on planets. The game would have been far better if it trimmed off a significant portion of the open world, and let a narrative drive the plot.

Also, not to be a loot whore, but there was almost no exciting gear in game. In terms of variety, both visually and functionally, it felt like a leap back. Armor especially felt lacking in diversity, though I don’t remember guns having much going for them either.

It was interesting in that biotic powers felt extremely fluid and took advantage of the much more open environments in ways that the gunplay never did. Multiplayer was decent, and the combat was competing with ME3’s but the characters felt lacking in both power sets and customization.

Yes, play it.

It is a great game, but don't go into it thinking it will be a continuation of the original ME trilogy. The character interactions didn't draw me in as much as the original, but one thing I loved of ME was the combat system, gun play and powers and all that. Definitely worth it in you loved those elements of the series.

Plus...if you paid for it, might was well play it haha

I played it and enjoyed it. I liked most of what they did with the scope of the game, changesnin controls and skills and the new aliens were cool. I also enjoyed the callbacks/references to ME1-3.

What lost me was the characters. Ryder's lack of confidence and the nepotism in getting them to their role bugged me. You go from Commander Effing Shepard to I Don't Know What to Do. I get they tried to make a fresh perspective, but it felt like setting the protagonist up to fail rather than grow from a struggle.

I really loked most of the supporting cast, voice actors did a solid job, but the ones I didn't like I REEEEEEEEEALLY didn't like. There was no middle ground there.

Some missed opportunities, but I'm also not surprised since Bioware was more focused on Anthem at the time of development and it's hard to catch lightening in a bottle a second time after the OG trilogy.

People should not try to compare Ryder to Shepard. Ryder wasn't a N7 marine, so their lack of confidence and weakness is fitting and actually more of a breath of air and more human to me. I liked that change, we also have no idea how they would of developed Ryder, since they got shut down. Not every protagonist can just grit, eat rocks and "get over" the death of their father and only remaining family at the time.

@Igneous0Aves you make a fair point. It is unfair to try to make apples to apples comparison and when I played ME-A I really tried give it a fair chance and let the character stand in their own spotlight. It is more realistic and I definitely didn't expect Ryder to eat rocks and just get over losing their family early on and suddenly be some badass without context given their background.

I'm genuinely glad you enjoyed the character's inexperience. For me, the writing for expressing said inexperience was pretty heavy handed. It put me off when you're well into the game and still getting the "You're not the Pathfinder." dialogue. It took longer for the character to find their stride and gain some confidence than I expected, which is why it felt to me like Ryder was set up to fail rather than just challenged under tragic circumstances. I dunno, just my perspective.

With everything I liked and enjoyed about the game, I am disappointed it's been shelved. There was a lot of potential in the story that I wanted to see fleshed out.

Playing Ryder professionally helps with him/her actually becoming a Pathfinder following Alec's footsteps although unfortunately some of the humorous lines Ryder says are still there and not all that funny.... I mean shit, some of those casual lines are just.... gun to my head kind of bad.

Side note: Not all the casual lines tho, also the empathetic responses are pretty mixed for me and logical is the only option for a somewhat "cold" response but most are similar to the professional dialogue.

@BrooklynSwagg17 that better encapsulates my issue with the character. Thank you for finding the right words. It wasn't the basis or the voice acting. The writing really missed the mark at times.