I am... Very conflicted
I really adore the idea of the game. Going to new galaxy with everything left to explore excites the imagination, some of the side-plots are also fairly intersting, but there are awful flaws in the execution.
When you already start to explore Andromeda, the further you go the more bland everything seems. It feels like it's all one small country problems rather than something galaxy-scale massive. Everything seems similar and repetitive. The same species on each planet, the same structures, the same ruins.
Gameplay-wise it's also repetitive to a tiring point. Each time you want to reach some place you must go across the same exact puzzle, most likely activate 10 consoles to open gates and create bridges. By the end of the game I couldn't even look at them anymore. In more important side quest you do small parts in 10 different places, sometimes divided onto different planets, so traveling to quest locations takes 80% of the time of actual quest realization.
Lore-wise its promising when it starts, but the ideas seems to be taken from the original trilogy, but with less care to make them seem incomprehensible and intimidating. Like the long-gone ancient race and enemies with unclear motives are never really explained in a way that felt meaningful. Some of the plot-lines feels very underexplained and unfinished when you finish the game.
I also dislike how the decisions seem pretty important the moment you make them, but it's hard to tell if they really impact anything in the long run or are they just details. Another problem with quests is that they can start in a very interesting way but they suddenly rush on a finish line and some of its' aspects are left behind not to be mentioned ever again.
I kinda liked the crew though, especially the alien members. There are much less pissibilities of what can happen to them than in trilogy (no one can die I guess?) and most of them feel quite insignificant to the plot, but their personalities were enterntaining and all of them felt alive. I adored how they interacted with eachother and Ryder way more often than the Normady's crew. Riding long miles in the car also felt much more bearable with them talking in their seats most of the time. Romances are also quite well done, although the early-game flirting is awfully awkward.
I liked Jaal the most, he's really my highlight of the game with a lot of details put into his personality. The whole Angara race is not that bad too, I'm just conflicted about the way they got introduced and how they're the only civilized alien species in the whole Galaxy.
I don't think I need to talk much about the animation. Lots of technical and some design problems here. Faces stuck in the same expression the whole conversation, plastic humans, lack of texture on white-washed Turian faces, the Asari being Smurf-like faced copies of each other [*]
Personally I consider Andromeda to be the worst Mass Effect game and also somehow still a step down from Dragon Age inquisition with simillar issues BUT i also don't think it's a complete failure, there is something enterntaining here, something that can make you want to finish the game and tell your friends about it. I think it's worth a try as a guilty pleasure game and a undemanding spin-off to the main trilogy. It's entirely possible to like it even with the acknowledge of it's flaws and consider it a fun journey.
I really adore the idea of the game. Going to new galaxy with everything left to explore excites the imagination, some of the side-plots are also fairly intersting, but there are awful flaws in the execution.
When you already start to explore Andromeda, the further you go the more bland everything seems. It feels like it's all one small country problems rather than something galaxy-scale massive. Everything seems similar and repetitive. The same species on each planet, the same structures, the same ruins.
Gameplay-wise it's also repetitive to a tiring point. Each time you want to reach some place you must go across the same exact puzzle, most likely activate 10 consoles to open gates and create bridges. By the end of the game I couldn't even look at them anymore. In more important side quest you do small parts in 10 different places, sometimes divided onto different planets, so traveling to quest locations takes 80% of the time of actual quest realization.
Lore-wise its promising when it starts, but the ideas seems to be taken from the original trilogy, but with less care to make them seem incomprehensible and intimidating. Like the long-gone ancient race and enemies with unclear motives are never really explained in a way that felt meaningful. Some of the plot-lines feels very underexplained and unfinished when you finish the game.
I also dislike how the decisions seem pretty important the moment you make them, but it's hard to tell if they really impact anything in the long run or are they just details. Another problem with quests is that they can start in a very interesting way but they suddenly rush on a finish line and some of its' aspects are left behind not to be mentioned ever again.
I kinda liked the crew though, especially the alien members. There are much less pissibilities of what can happen to them than in trilogy (no one can die I guess?) and most of them feel quite insignificant to the plot, but their personalities were enterntaining and all of them felt alive. I adored how they interacted with eachother and Ryder way more often than the Normady's crew. Riding long miles in the car also felt much more bearable with them talking in their seats most of the time. Romances are also quite well done, although the early-game flirting is awfully awkward.
I liked Jaal the most, he's really my highlight of the game with a lot of details put into his personality. The whole Angara race is not that bad too, I'm just conflicted about the way they got introduced and how they're the only civilized alien species in the whole Galaxy.
I don't think I need to talk much about the animation. Lots of technical and some design problems here. Faces stuck in the same expression the whole conversation, plastic humans, lack of texture on white-washed Turian faces, the Asari being Smurf-like faced copies of each other [*]
Personally I consider Andromeda to be the worst Mass Effect game and also somehow still a step down from Dragon Age inquisition with simillar issues BUT i also don't think it's a complete failure, there is something enterntaining here, something that can make you want to finish the game and tell your friends about it. I think it's worth a try as a guilty pleasure game and a undemanding spin-off to the main trilogy. It's entirely possible to like it even with the acknowledge of it's flaws and consider it a fun journey.