Was Mass Effect: Andromeda really that bad?

[Abomination]

Then there was the whole brownie points trans character thrown in your face. Could not have been more blatant, felt like a corporate social awareness moment.

That's so weird, I just finished playing the game a third time, and I never met this character, or if I have, I didn't know because they didn't throw any life story in my face. I think I heard that they patched the person's conversation tree to not be so forthcoming, but I was actually looking for them and still missed it.

If I recall they did patch it out because of the negative feedback it received from the LGBT community. The character was essentially a Final Fantasy NPC that spurted out a completely inane bit of information. Something along the lines of "This planet is difficult to live on and I'm trans!"

All I could think was "Okay, thanks for sharing? I do not see how that pertains in any way to our earlier discussion or why I am talking to you."

 

[Ryotknife]

I played it a few months ago when it was on sale for 15 dollars. It was....okay. Enjoyable even. The characters were mediocre, the overall plot was mediocre. The interactions between characters were pretty good. Gameplay-wise it was better than the trilogy. The bosses are actually hard. My first architect took me hours to beat, although once you figure out how to beat one you know how to beat all of them.

One of the better final chapters from a Bioware game though. I could see myself dusting it off again a few years down the road.

 

[Elijin]

I got it at release and my only major regret was the MP didnt recapture the lightning in a bottle which ME3MP was.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It's worse than that bad. At least in my opinion. To me a game is definitely bad when I feel like I'm working instead of playing. And that's how it made me feel. I couldn't wait to be done with it. The game is a complete travesty. Even the very idea of it is insanely stupid.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Even without its own flaws, Andromeda was in the highly unfortunate position of having to not only carry on from a much beloved original trilogy, but deal with the aftermath of said trilogy's, shall we say, contentious ending. In a way, it was pretty much a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't: rabid ME fanboys like myself were going to be nitpicking every single inch of this game no matter what it provided, and even if it had been an emotional blockbuster, I know I would have been grumbling "Yeah yeah, but these characters sure as hell aren't Garrus and Tali!". So when it very much failed to be a emotional blockbuster, due to naff writing/dialogue, much weaker combat, boring exploration/colonisation gameplay mechanics and generally poorer characters, it seemed like even more of a letdown (and I was trying my hardest to put aside my personal bias and try to enjoy it for its own worth). Without the ME tag, I'd say its an enjoyably average space sci-fi RPG that you could have fun with at the time, then put aside forever: as a Mass Effect game, its just tragically disappointing on so many levels.

To elaborate somewhat, it's like Andromeda had a rough idea of what the original games were all about, but failed to bring all the ingredients together:

- ME games are famous for having a Renegade/Paragon system in place of traditional moral meters, allowing players to customise their Commander Shepards through dialogue and in-game actions into anything between ultra-cynical human supremacist warmongers who will throw anyone to the wolves for the Greater Good, and altruistic idealists who will march through Hell itself to help someone and preach a message of tolerance and interspecies co-operation, but certainly don't suffer fools at all, let alone lightly. Pathfinder Ryder on the other hand can only always agree to do whatever the aliens talking to them at the time want them to do, usually with a hefty amount of submissive sarcasm (Fallout 4 had this problem as well, but at least your character in that could tell people to fuck off when you wanted).

- ME games are famous for having a well fleshed out cast of supporting characters to assist Commander Shepard on and off the bedroom battlefield, with lots of pithy banter between themselves and the world environment, yet without ever sacrificing their emotional weight at the same time. Andromeda's characters on the other hand just snark, and snark, and snark, and snark, and... until you want to jam a thermal clip down their fucking throats. True, they have some serious moments here and there, but they always felt like they were in a very significant minority and are sorted in a single conversation: Liam Kosta is bummed out that his family is back in the Milky Way (I think, its been a while since I played) for all of five minutes, then its back to moving sofas whilst shirtless and quipping with the Angara sniper dude.

- ME games have evolved their gameplay from the first baby steps into a firefight of the first game, to what I think is the perfect ME combat system in the third, finding a strong middle ground between cover based shooting, superpowered support abilities and rushing across the battlefield to find a new advantage. Personally, I felt Andromeda tossed all that out of the window to try and sell its new jetpack gimmicks as a unique feature and the game seems very weighted in favour of "Charge the enemy, guns blazing, then biotic blast them", which I imagine is great if you played a Vanguard in ME3's surprisingly fun multiplayer, but really didn't gel for me. Added to this were the lacklustre exploration elements: driving about in the unarmed Nomad across vast empty plains, or vast empty caves, or vast empty snowfields was boring - and when you did find something, nothing killed the flow like having to drive up, stop, get out, fight the enemy, loot the enemy, scan the minerals, press the switch, get in, crash, reverse and then start driving again.

 

[Casual Shinji]

But I think the biggest sin of the game is that it's effectively trying to replace the first three games, the games we all grew attached to and never got a real proper conclusion to.

This was honestly the part that had me most excited, but then...

Andromeda basically said "forget all of it, brand new galaxy with the same thing we more or less did last time except nowhere near as interesting and a lot more watered down. What's that? Quarians and Geth? Never heard of them, we've got a brand new alien race that hates lying no matter the circumstance because we watched Galaxy Quest once."

...Yeah.


There was little to do with the state the third game left the Milky Way in, and going to Andromeda was Bioware's chance to really turn this franchise on its head, or you know, atleast have some aliens that aren't generic humanoids. But instead we get the same shit from the previous games, but way worse.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I only got about an hour or so into it but I didn't feel terribly attached to any of the squad mates I met in the meantime. That said what truly, TRULY pissed me off was that Ammo powers were consumables rather than an activated passive (per ME2/ME3) or a weapon mod (per ME1) and the combat managed to feel janky when ME3's combat was butter smooth.

I do however accept that it might be better now its had the ever loving shit patched out of it.

 

[Hawki]

But I think the biggest sin of the game is that it's effectively trying to replace the first three games, the games we all grew attached to and never got a real proper conclusion to. Andromeda basically said "forget all of it, brand new galaxy with the same thing we more or less did last time except nowhere near as interesting and a lot more watered down. What's that? Quarians and Geth? Never heard of them, we've got a brand new alien race that hates lying no matter the circumstance because we watched Galaxy Quest once."

Okay, but how would you continue from Mass Effect 3 in the Milky Way without pissing off two thirds of the fanbase (or three quarters if we treat the "refuse" ending as having an equal share of the pie)?

Not that ME3 needed continuation, but I figure that if Mass Effect absolutely needed continuation, something like Andromeda (least in principle) seems the best way to go.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

The whole series is just bad. mediocre third person cover shooter with RPG elements. waste of time.

 

[sXeth]

But I think the biggest sin of the game is that it's effectively trying to replace the first three games, the games we all grew attached to and never got a real proper conclusion to. Andromeda basically said "forget all of it, brand new galaxy with the same thing we more or less did last time except nowhere near as interesting and a lot more watered down. What's that? Quarians and Geth? Never heard of them, we've got a brand new alien race that hates lying no matter the circumstance because we watched Galaxy Quest once."

Okay, but how would you continue from Mass Effect 3 in the Milky Way without pissing off two thirds of the fanbase (or three quarters if we treat the "refuse" ending as having an equal share of the pie)?

Not that ME3 needed continuation, but I figure that if Mass Effect absolutely needed continuation, something like Andromeda (least in principle) seems the best way to go.

The same way every game with a binary moral system and sequels (including previous MAss Effects) carried on without pissing off 50% of the player base, I'd assume.

Honestly, I think Andromeda could've worked out, but they were really slapdash. Only the two new races and one may as well have been orcs for all the dynamic they possessed. They just magically work out the genophage in transit which both makes your efforts to do so (if you did) look ridiculous and took out some of the Krogans dynamic. Ignoring the Quarians, a spacefaring race looking specifically for new planets to colonize as home in your game about looking for planets to colonize as a home seems like the weirdest most inane logic to exclude.

 

[Hawki]

The same way every game with a binary moral system and sequels (including previous MAss Effects) carried on without pissing off 50% of the player base, I'd assume.

How could a ME4 account for such choices though? This isn't choosing who lives or dies (e.g. Wrex or the rachni queen), this is the state of the entire galaxy.

I mean, suppose I had three save files for ME3. An ME4 would have to present scenarios where:

a) Synethics and Reapers are completely absent.

b) Reapers and synethetics are present, with the Reapers being a slave race

c) Every being in the galaxy is a machine-organic hybrid with free will (Reapers included)

d) Everyone's dead (least in this cycle)

So, either BioWare makes the biggest game ever, or they make four different games (or three I guess). Someone's already pointed out that the three core endings wouldn't be just different games, they'd be different genres.

 

[stroopwafel]

ME2 was the only actually good one. True, kind of a mediocre TPS but the story was awesome and had a lot of intrigue in it. I wasn't really attached to any of the characters or the series as a whole so I couldn't care less about the weak ending but the entirety of ME3 suffered from overexposition in a similar manner as MGS4. Absolutely everything must be explained and accounted for and you end up with a carcass for storyline. They also butchered some of the characters, like Mordin who suddenly turned into a crybaby. I was interested in ME1 for the story but couldn't really be bothered to get into the tedious RPG mechanics and these kind of games age horribly.

ME:A is on sale every other week or so for chump change. But there is no way I'm gonna spend even one minute on that steaming pile of garbage. Even EA, their shitty lootbox games not exactly known for much creative merit, seems embarrassed by trying to pretend it doesn't exist. xD

 

[sXeth]

The same way every game with a binary moral system and sequels (including previous MAss Effects) carried on without pissing off 50% of the player base, I'd assume.

How could a ME4 account for such choices though? This isn't choosing who lives or dies (e.g. Wrex or the rachni queen), this is the state of the entire galaxy.

I mean, suppose I had three save files for ME3. An ME4 would have to present scenarios where:

a) Synethics and Reapers are completely absent.

b) Reapers and synethetics are present, with the Reapers being a slave race

c) Every being in the galaxy is a machine-organic hybrid with free will (Reapers included)

d) Everyone's dead (least in this cycle)

So, either BioWare makes the biggest game ever, or they make four different games (or three I guess). Someone's already pointed out that the three core endings wouldn't be just different games, they'd be different genres.

Exactly the way I said already in what you quoted.

The popular one is just taking whichever the majority picked.

Or if they wanted to be really off cuff, Shepherd was indoctrinated to crap at the end and completely bonkers but the humans set off the superweapon while they were having crazy hallucinations anyways and they died when it fired.

 

[Erttheking]

But I think the biggest sin of the game is that it's effectively trying to replace the first three games, the games we all grew attached to and never got a real proper conclusion to. Andromeda basically said "forget all of it, brand new galaxy with the same thing we more or less did last time except nowhere near as interesting and a lot more watered down. What's that? Quarians and Geth? Never heard of them, we've got a brand new alien race that hates lying no matter the circumstance because we watched Galaxy Quest once."

Okay, but how would you continue from Mass Effect 3 in the Milky Way without pissing off two thirds of the fanbase (or three quarters if we treat the "refuse" ending as having an equal share of the pie)?

Not that ME3 needed continuation, but I figure that if Mass Effect absolutely needed continuation, something like Andromeda (least in principle) seems the best way to go.

Honestly I couldn't, because Bioware thought it would be a good idea to have the dumbest fucking ending I've ever seen in gaming. We had to leave the galaxy for the sequel because Bioware pretty thoroughly salted the Earth with the ending to ME3, and really that's no one's fault but their own.

And if they really, really had to go to another galaxy, they could do something a bit more than rehash the plot beats and characters we had seen in previous games, except with less wit, charm, and depth. And not cut out the Quarians and Geth.

 

[tippy2k2]

I also just started the game as well (I have gone to two planets and am on my third planet right now so I'm likely a good dozen or so hours into it).

It reminds me a lot of the reception that Dragon Age 2 got and I have the same exact opinion on it that I do on this one (now granted, this is now with all the bug fixes and whatnot; if what I heard about the game in pre-patched state, I can see why people were so mad):

If the game would have been given a different title, it would have been seen as a good game (or at least an OK game).

The game got saddled with so much history that it was doomed to failure. While I personally liked the Mass Effect 3 ending (yeah, pre-patched version; come at me bro), I understand that a lot of people absolutely despised it and that hatred was going to bleed into Mass Effect Andromeda no matter what it did.

Right now, I am greatly enjoying it. I like the planet exploration stuff and seeing the other worlds and kind of stumbling into situations (I thought that was going to be an easy mission until the giant fucking monster showed up!). It's not as good as the original trilogy and it has a lot of blemishes that really shouldn't be there for a huge AAA studio but I am enjoying it well enough that I'm fine with the issues I've ran into.

 

[Mikejames]

If the game would have been given a different title, it would have been seen as a good game (or at least an OK game).

The game got saddled with so much history that it was doomed to failure.

Yeah, I went in with incredibly low expectations and only played it post-patch so I didn't see it at its worst, but I think it's just kind of, average... Not the triumphant creative return of the franchise I hoped for, but not the broken irredeemable garbage fire people had me expecting either.

The combat's generally good, the environments are nice, and some of the characters are okay, even if the overarching story isn't amazing. I genuinely liked Jaal and how his character arc tied into the main plot for example, even if I thought the big first contact with the Angara was lackluster. But the game as a whole has the same problem that I had with Inquisition, where so many of the side-missions and interactions boiled down to a forgettable series of fetch quests that I could have gotten in any standard MMO. Go to planet, clear out the Kett base, clear out the dungeon, collect samples, make deliveries, etc.

So yeah, it's middle of the road for me. I do think the hate for it was over-exaggerated because of the sloppy animations and the legacy that it had to live up to, but I'm still disappointed that it continued the trend of quantity over quality that so many open-world RPGs seem to strive for in recent years. Big open world games aren't inherently bad, but I feel like they're not playing to Bioware's strengths.

 

[Abomination]

The whole thing was still impossibly embarrassing...for transphobes, who tried to act like the information was shoved in their face when you had to ask for it.

Some did, but that did not hide the issue of the person just essentially blurting out that information as part of greeting someone.

For a deadname they sure did like to bring it up. The entire conversation could have been conducted in a way where their trans status was never mentioned and it would have been perfectly fine that they were trans - like how trans people prefer to be treated, but then EA/Bioware would not get to humblebrag about how progressive they are for including a trans character.

Like the game as a whole, it had corporate meddling painted all over it. It was a trans character written by a person who never interacts with trans people.

 

[meiam]

Mediocre with a side dish of wasted potential I guess.

Gameplay was a regression from previous entry, removing class made power generic and unimportant (especially since you could only have 3 at a time), because of this limitation they couldn't really know what the player would have access to, so they were forced to build for the lowest common denominator (i.e. moron who pick 3 overlapping power), so the enemy are boring and un varied as a results. The environment being open also let to problem with the AI not figuring out where you were or bathing properly to your location, so they could easily be exploited. The system also tried to be liberating but was at the same time constrained, since you still had class, they were just granted after you picked your power rather than before. So you'd pick a set of power and the game would just assume you wanted to play a certain way and if that wasn't the case, well too bad for you (I wanted to make a vanguard, well apparently that meant I wanted to use the boring melee system). Weapon also felt really restrictive since you had to go trough a tons of hop to get a new one, first you needed to research it (currency 1), then needed to build it (currency 2), then equip accessory on them (currency 3). So if you'd find a new weapon you couldn't just pick it up and test it, you had to invest in it which would stop you from getting another one. But anyway, every special ability of weapons were all modable on any weapon, so they all felt the same anyway.

Story was just a mess, we really shouldn't have been "the one", that was completely unnecessary and done in such an arbitrary and stupid way. The new setting is completely wasted, most of the character you interact with are from the old setting anyway, with only 2 new species introduced (ME1 had more species in it) and anyway it's not very interesting, with a mostly unexplored conflict whose explored part don't make much sense anyway. I wouldn't say NPC were terrible, but they were clearly inferior to previous bioware entry. The writing was poor, trying to go for both the action movie one liner and the more deep conversation style of ME1 and failing at both.