Look, Mass Effect: Andromeda isn't terrible, but it's a major letdown after the original trilogy. Exploring new planets is cool, and the combat system is actually a lot of fun. But the facial animations are wonky, the writing is weak compared to those first three games, and it's pretty buggy, even after all these years. If you're desperate for more Mass Effect, it'll scratch that itch. But if you expect the same level of quality and emotional storytelling as the Shepard era, you'll be disappointed.

Let me get this out of the way first - the open world SUCKS. Barren and boring. Animations could be a little better esp for a 2017 game, but I'm not really one to care about that sort of stuff in my game anyways so eh.

But I think most the characters and story really outshine that part of the game. The combat is improved from any of the other games in the series. The new alien species they introduced was refreshing and a good fit for the world of ME.

10/10 bc of Vetra my beloved...

The black sheep of the series. This one is, definitely something. This was unfortunately a broken mess at launch, it’s definitely better now, but the facial animations still aren’t all that great. Some positives I do have is they did what I always wished for and make exploring planets not terrible like the first game. That’s honestly the best part of the game for me, driving around the new planets and doing side stuff. Some of the party members are interesting, but most are just eh. The combat is very fun, it’s much more fluid and flashy. It’s definitely a faster paced fighting than the og trilogy. Ryder, he main character, holds nothing to Shepard, they do an alright job, but you can definitely feel the hole that is felt without them. This was gonna get a sequel, which I would’ve bought and probably enjoyed a bit, but it got scrapped since this game did so poorly. So we’ll never see the end to this story, ah well, MASS EFFECT 4 HERE WE COME BABYYYYY.

I wanted to love this game so very badly. When the visuals work, the game looks great. The world-building intrigue about the project and its purpose are interesting. But as a game, this is just an absolute flop. The map doesn't work. The characters are dull and their animations are either lifeless or have WAAAAY too much life. They brought back the car, no one wanted the car. Transitioning to an open world only hurt the gameplay because now there were massive areas full of Ubisoft Open World bloat.

I say with a heavy heart: avoid this game

This game left me torn.
On one side, I really like the whole sci-fi/space exploration setting. The game does a decent job on this point.
The whole "new galaxy" thing is exciting and allows the developers to separate themselves from the original trilogy.
The combat and class/talent system is also on point.
However, the story is so dull that I found it very difficult to stay engaged during my first playthrough.
On top of that, the supporting characters are unbearable. And I mean it. From Cora's jealousy, Peebee's hyperactivity, or whatever the fuck that was, to how every single individual in Hyperion treats you, I don't think there's a single character that can redeem this game (except your twin).
Also, the game tries to emulate the past ME's choice system, but don't get fooled: it's only an illusion. Your dialogue/action choices mean nothing, 0, nada.

Andromeda boasts some of the best gameplay in any RPG I've played. The rest of the game is a complete and utter mess of inconsistency. Some moments are really good. Most are painfully mediocre. Some are really, really bad. Even as a huge Mass Effect fan, I cannot in good faith call this game good. It's a functional game at best that has its moments. Considering the quality of the rest of the Mass Effect games, this is a complete pariah for a good reason even if I don't believe the game is utter trash. The fact I've been able to have fun with this game is evidence of that, but the moments of fun are punctuated by moments of boredom. This isn't a game I can recommend unless you are, like me, a die-hard Mass Effect fan.

An absolute disaster, genuinely.

Why would you want to play this. It has nothing, and I mean nothing, from the original games that you love. It doesn't do enough to stand on it own. The characters are dull and forgettable, the story is dull and forgettable, the gameplay is dull and forgettable. The game tries so hard to take itself seriously and sell its player on its world and its characters and its charm but it completely falls flat at every single turn.

An astonishingly bad game.

A solidly mediocre game. The character animations - even with any "updates" are still worse than Mass Effect 1. It's also graphically glitchy as hell, and there are game breaking bugs still in the game that I first encounted back in 2017 when the game launched. Do like the changes to combat though which drags it up to 3 stars. While I usually have a specific play style with the ME trilogy, I actually enjoyed being able to swap up the skills, and doing it for trophies let me try out things I mightn't have normally. I'm sure I'll come back to finish it eventually and to get the platinum, but for now I think I'm done.

This game saddens me not because of what it is, but because of what it could have been. I have 40 hours in so far, I've cleared the storyline, and the only thing I have in mind for sure is a single question: Why waste so much potential? This game could have been much more than a not-exceptional-but-pretty-good one. It could have been a masterpiece given the appropriate time and resources. But let's start with giving credit where it's due. - I waited a year to get the most optimized version possible (which shouldn't happen in the first place), and the technical difficulties that everyone has been complaining about are pretty much non-existent now, or at least I didn't experience them. Sure, some faces are frankly ugly and all Asari look the freakin' same except for Peebee, but animations are not bad. They're not good either but hey, Mass Effect was never known for its animations. The game is very pretty, and while it's not the technical breakthrough some people expected with Frostbite, it still does visual justice to the universe we're exploring (and a few sceneries are honestly gorgeous). - The actual gameplay is fantastic; gunfights are nervous, dynamic and the weapons have a very good feeling at usage (My sniper rifle's shot echoing through a valley is the most satisfying thing I've experienced in this game). The Nomad also handles pretty well (especially when comparing it to the Mako). - SOME quests are very good. For example, Cora's Loyalty Mission genuinely felt like I was back playing a ME3 mission all over again. It's a shame only a handful of other quests made me feel that way. - The profiles system is a good idea, even though it could have been pushed further with more specialized trees. - The companions are interesting to an extent (but the ability to roleplay is severely lacking compared to the OT). - The mystery surrounding a certain ancient species looks very promising for future installments (and their tech looks badass). Now onto the fun part: - The writing, for the most part, is atrociously cringey. Some lines of dialogue honestly felt like they were taken straight out of a bad Fanfiction. - I feel like the general tone is a lot lighter than the OT's, in a bad way. There are basically no stakes. No danger. The main enemy faction is a joke, a bad copy paste from the Trilogy's Reapers. The final mission started pretty awesome and ended in the most anticlimactic way possible. The only thing that kept me going, for the most part, is a completely optional side of the main quest. - While this is more of a personal grief, I don't understand why they felt that adding a single new species was a good idea. We mostly just see the OT's species in Andromeda. - Most of the quests are boring as heck. Their structure mostly consists of the talk-to-this-guy-go-there-talk-to-that-guy-come-back-fight-some-guys-yay-you-won thingy. MMO style fetch quests are not what Mass Effect is about. More quests like the Loyalty missions would have been appreciated. Those had stakes and genuinely made me worry about the characters and their motivations. I'd give this game a 7.5/10 if that was possible, but that leans more toward 7 than 8. As a Mass Effect fan, I think, it loses a significant chunk of its charm, and I'd probably give it a solid 8/10 if I hadn't gone through Shepard's trilogy 15 times. Again, what I see is so much burned potential. Even the animations look amazing in some scenes (no, I'm not joking, check Cora's intimate scene or the last mission's cutscenes), but they're below average most of the time. I'm not hating Bioware for this, but I'm definitely calling it a disappointment. I bought it for 10 dollars, and I don't regret doing so. Some moments were genuinely fun. It's just that this game does not meet what we have come to expect from a Bioware game.