Mass Effect: Andromeda

Ok, I will admit my first play through was a shambles. Half of what makes up the Mass Effect universe was missing. I needed my dose of the Quarians I tell you!

However, on a second playthrough, a colleague convinced me to go in with fresh eyes, just Andromeda no Mass Effect. So I did.....

And my god this game is good. Some obvious ploys and deliberate plot holes ready for the next instalment. Which sadly looks like won't come to fruition. :( But I could have lived with story holes, knowing it will be revealed eventually in further games or DLC.

The combat is fun and worked well, the characters where a little similar to the DA:I group but hey, if it ain't broke why fix it. The voice acting was good and the story kept me interested.

It's a real shame we won't see anymore of Andromeda.

Having just finished the game for the first time. I can't see why this game was dumped on so much. While it is different from the first 3 Mass Effect games, that was its point. It was meant to be in the same universe as the first 3 games but have a storyline not dependent on those games. Liked the story and hope someday BioWare and EA games decide to continue it as originally planned. Would have given it a 10/10 if not for: 1.taking over three weeks to complete 2.made some of the controls easier 3. Not ending in a cliffhanger (although this is entirely due to the real world issue of the sequel game(s) not moving forward)

I don't know why All the hate for this game I still think bioware are doing a good job on the mass effect people have got to understand that Andromeda is not the same as the frist 3 mass effect games for 1. It's a next gen game soo overall it's gonna bed different as they did the same for the dragon ages games and that turned out well.2 there's much more things to do on it and better open world with freedom of a rpg.3 yes it's got bugs but what games don't as anything else it will be fixed.it don't have to feel like the other 3 but it don't have to to injoy it hopefully people will stop comparing to the frist 3 and just see what else there is to come

Like the previous games of the Mass Effect franchise, the design of Andromeda's protagonist characters are based upon real life models, both of which, as you would assume, are good looking people. The male Ryder appears as handsome as his real life counterpart, Steven Brewis, while the female Ryder is quite ugly and nothing like her real life counterpart, Jayde Rossi. Additionally, the female Ryder suffers from very strange facial animations which are often highly inappropriate considering the situations she is in, an example of this would be smiling while talking about the recent death of someone she cared deeply for.

Dialogue options in Mass Effect:Andromeda are very lacklustre with most situations only allowing 2 choices, either casual or professional. Almost all the casual responses result in cheesy one-liners and the professional choices are very similar in their intent, just without the 'humor'. When you are presented with a choice to do one thing or another, almost every single time this results in no difference whatsoever and will not affect the ending of the game or even the immediate circumstances after the choice has been made. This in my opinion means the player is without control and his or her decisions are rather meaningless.

Facial animations are terrible, example: Director Addison, an important character who the protagonist comes into contact with in the beginning of the game. When you first meet Addison she has wide open eyes that don't even blink and has no facial expression whatsoever. Addison proceeds to utter the line "my face is tired". Gamers realised that this line of dialogue was created in an attempt to somehow explain the missing facial animation for this character!

Summary. Mass Effect:Andromeda has many bugs. Enemies can and do frequently spawn up in the air and get stuck there, side tasks remain incomplete and weird NPC animations which make no sense whatsoever are quite frequent throughout the game. The characters of Mass Effect:Andromeda are uninteresting, quite ugly, badly animated and sometimes annoying. Since Mass Effect games are supposed to be role playing and team building games, this means the game loses all credibility as a role-playing game.

Notes: 2 patches have been released which (attempt) to rectify some of the animation issues and bugs but not all of the issues mentioned, however, this does not in any way excuse the state that this game was released in.

Final thoughts. It's a real shame that this game was released in such an unfinished and tarnished state. No one in their right mind would ever consider Mass Effect:Andromeda to be a triple A title like it's predecessors and as a huge fan of Mass Effect 1,2 and 3 I'm left feeling empty and cheated.

Don't jump on the bandwagon that some harsh critics started. This game is actually very good! It's only real flaw is that it had to follow one of the greatest trilogies ever. Yes, people wanted insane graphics and they wanted mind blowing gameplay, but realistically, how likely was it that this game was going to be everything that everyone wanted it to be??

I played through this game after completing the first three and I really enjoyed it. I loved the sense of being in an unknown galaxy, where nothing is known and everything is being experienced for the first time.

Yes, there are some flaws with graphics (in very few places if at all now that BioWare have patched them). And the lack of alien species encountered in this new galaxy can be a bit frustrating. But overall I thought this was a brilliant game, and a very good follow up to the original trilogy with a very good storyline and characters that have serious potential if this new series of games is allowed to unfold without everyone hating on it.

I encourage you, ignore the original hate, start playing with an open mind and you will honestly enjoy this game for what it has to offer!