Mass Effect™: Andromeda

[Thiamma]

The worlds can feel empty at times but I do feel like they're pretty gigantic and there are lots to do if you keep digging.

I think it's a little too big for my taste? Like, everytime I picked up a new quest and checked the map, I sighed in defeat when I realised it was on the other side of the map...
The plus side of it is, I freakin' love driving the Nomad! I could drive it for hours, taking hills at top speed and imagining my poor teammates clinging to their seat for dear life x)

[Carabas]

I think it's a little too big for my taste? Like, everytime I picked up a new quest and checked the map, I sighed in defeat when I realised it was on the other side of the map...

They did put in fast travel for a reason.

[cc008]

They did put in fast travel for a reason.

Eternally grateful for that.

[Aldoxin]

Just finished the 2 part angarian planet. On my way to the planet where i originally met them. Pretty fun enjoying the game. Better that the reviews that's for sure.

[Coal Tiger]

I've finished my first play through as the Ryder brother and I'm doing a NG+ as the Ryder sister. It's enjoyable but much more flawed than the previous games. I find myself uninterested in the characters for the most part. That's probably an unfair assessment because I had 3 games to decide that Garrus was the coolest Turian ever, but right now I can't even remember what the female Turian's name was and I really hated Peebee and Liam. I find it odd that after the explosion of different races in the previous games, the only sentient race in the Helius cluster was the Angarans. Adding to that, or subtracting, is the loss of several alien races I liked. No Quarians, no Hanar, no Volus, no Elcor, no Batarians, no Geth, no Vorcha, and no Drell. It's a real bummer. At the same time, I like being back in this world. I like the politics of all the races and I like using Shockwave to clear a group of enemies. This is by far the best action the series has ever done, and clearly the most mobility. it reminds me the most of ME1 with the driving and the open spaces on planets. The open areas feel more designed than the areas in ME1 that felt like they came out of a random terrain generator. I'm not crazy about the Kett, but the Archon is a real bastard.

I'll give it one more play through as the female Ryder but I think that'll be it for me. Mass Effect was my favorite video game series ever, and I think that's why I'm being as forgiving as I have been, but this isn't holding my attention like any of the trilogy did.

[Aldoxin]

So far id put this above only 3. I didn't hate 3 for the ending but for how linear it felt. Shoot, cut scene, shoot cut scene. I like the more open world of this. My opinion from worst to best 3,4,1,2.

[TheInvisibleMan]

ME2 is probably the best game of its generation

[cc008]

ME2 is probably the best game of its generation

It's my favorite game of all time. I've put more hours into that game alone than most other things in my life.

Ordering them is really difficult after putting 2 at the top. They all have their great qualities about them.

I'm in my second play through now and enjoying it just as much as the first time. The lack of other alien species doesn't bother me all that much because we're just in one little cluster of Andromeda. Only Heleus... I think a lot of people forget that. Basically, we're in one cluster where in Mass Effect 2 and 3, you had to burn fuel to travel across. THAT'S IT. So for there to only be Kett and Angara (and Remnant I suppose), along with the wildlife, isn't that surprising. The little hint of the Quarian arc with all of the other species at the end of the story is pretty ominous and a little terrifying though. I'm sure we'll get them all eventually.. maybe a DLC about the Quarian arc.

[Supernature]

I've finished all the tasks except the Remnant Core task, which, after much googling, I apparently cannot finish(?).

Thoroughly enjoyed the game though. It set a good base for the future of the franchise while tying it really well to the first trilogy (on that subject, I don't know why it didn't click right away that the Andromeda Initiative was fleeing from the Reapers. I just assumed the starting point of ME:A was after ME3 for some reason). There are several new mysteries to uncover (the Remnant, the Jaardan, the Benefactor, etc...) and so many possibilities! What if the Jaardan come to claim Meridian and find the Milky Way races and the angara there? Are the Reapers exclusive to the Milky Way? Could the Remnant and the Reapers be two sides of the same coin? What is that other Kett commander up to? Etc etc...

I though the writing was weak at first because the elements of the plot seemed really disparate but as the game progressed, everything really came together.

I just wish I'd gotten to shoot the Archon's stupid face.

[cc008]

They weren't necessarily fleeing from the Reapers. I'll put spoiler tags...

spoilers:

Alec Ryder had only tidbits of knowledge about what his fellow N7 (Shepard) was up to... mostly through communication with Liara. By the time the Andromeda Initiative departed the Milky Way, most people still didn't believe Shepard's warnings about the Reapers. SAM makes a comment to Ryder when you listen to all of Alec's log entries that the Milky Way is probably VASTLY different 600 years later.

end of spoilers

The main goal was to establish life in Andromeda and create a passageway from Milky Way to Andromeda.

[Carabas]

They weren't necessarily fleeing from the Reapers. I'll put spoiler tags...

spoilers:

Alec Ryder had only tidbits of knowledge about what his fellow N7 (Shepard) was up to... mostly through communication with Liara. By the time the Andromeda Initiative departed the Milky Way, most people still didn't believe Shepard's warnings about the Reapers. SAM makes a comment to Ryder when you listen to all of Alec's log entries that the Milky Way is probably VASTLY different 600 years later.

end of spoilers

The main goal was to establish life in Andromeda and create a passageway from Milky Way to Andromeda.

spoilers:

Crucially though, he Initiative ran into money problems, and was likely not even getting of the ground for real, or at least in time to escape the Reapers until the secret backer entered the picture with obscene amounts of money, and an insistance that the time table be moved forward. The secret backer had absolute knowledge of the Reapers, and to him/her/them/it the Initiative was nothing else than a lifeboat out of Reaper country. The Initiative was started exactly the way the PR says it did, but it later became something else. Of course, the secret backer didn't share what they knew about the Reapers with even Ryder or Garson. And everybody who knows about this (the Ryders, Jien Garson, SAM) seems fairly sure that things back home aren't different, but that it's just not there anymore, wiped out by the Reapers.

end of spoilers

[cc008]

spoilers:

Crucially though, he Initiative ran into money problems, and was likely not even getting of the ground for real, or at least in time to escape the Reapers until the secret backer entered the picture with obscene amounts of money, and an insistance that the time table be moved forward. The secret backer had absolute knowledge of the Reapers, and to him/her/them/it the Initiative was nothing else than a lifeboat out of Reaper country. The Initiative was started exactly the way the PR says it did, but it later became something else. Of course, the secret backer didn't share what they knew about the Reapers with even Ryder or Garson. And everybody who knows about this (the Ryders, Jien Garson, SAM) seems fairly sure that things back home aren't different, but that it's just not there anymore, wiped out by the Reapers.

end of spoilers

Just got up to this again in my second play through and it's much clearer now that you're correct.

Also read that Mass Effect is being put on the shelf for a while. That's incredible disappointing.

[Coal Tiger]

Just got up to this again in my second play through and it's much clearer now that you're correct.

Also read that Mass Effect is being put on the shelf for a while. That's incredible disappointing.

After the reaction to this game, and given how much of Bioware is working on a new IP, I can't say I blame them.

[TheInvisibleMan]

Andromeda was a long time effort, let it breathe, and go back to it in a few years

[Immortal Weapon]

After the reaction to this game, and given how much of Bioware is working on a new IP, I can't say I blame them.

There's more to it though. Bioware Montreal got demoted to being a support studio and Andromeda didn't do as well as EA wanted. I don't see this game getting any more support with the franchise being put on ice. The new IP is getting delayed.