It's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. A lot of criticism the game faced was for technical aspects that have been patched and now vary between "acceptable" to "completely fine". The game itself feels pretty good to play and might be the best feeling game in the franchise in terms of combat and movement. The writing is all over the place, though. Something like 30-40% of the writing is actually any good and the rest can go in the bin. The biggest, glaring issue with it is the colonialism is off the charts. "Oh, we're going somewhere no one is so we can settle new homes! Oh wait, there's an alien species here already? That's okay, shoot half of them, befriend the other half, and continue our settling plans without any change!" fuck off

There was enough good stuff in it that I wish they'd do another one but with how poorly it was received I doubt they'll take another crack at it.