It was.. okay. Previous Mass Effect games incorporated your team's abilities into combat way better; and this felt like a step back. "Streamlined" is rarely a good thing in video games, because it typically means cool features are removed.
The combat is very shallow, just a re-hash of the simple prime-detonate system of ME2/3. The killer is the lacklustre combat encounter design, probably because they had to merge it into the janky open-world.
That team that did the combat also did the MP, and the patches for the MP (which consequently were also converted to the actual game). That team was the game post launch. Then EA/Bioware killed the game after a few months.
I played the trilogy and andromeda on the hardest difficulty back to back. Pure sniper was not viable for this game and I can’t enjoy the combat until I gave up using sniper rifle.
Yeah, skippable cutsecenes would have been nice. But it's not just about quality if life for me rather about immersion. I really miss the old days where in ME1 you could board the Normandy while docked to the Citadel without the ship undocking and starting eveytime. All that with this cool transition (and disguised loading screen) by actually entering the airlock.
Absolutely! Cant even skip the damn cut scene when you land on or exit the planet. It really grinds my gears! Other than that , the game overall is ok.
I think another great thing in Andromeda is the Tempest. Don't get me wrong, I love Normandy, especially SR-1, but having a smaller ship felt great. Finally, as the captain you get to know all of your crew, none of them are silent extras. Plus, I loved the evolution of dynamic character positioning they first tried in ME3.
Plus the way the Tempest was introduced was way cooler than the Normandy...I had forgotten how in Mass Effect 1, the game literally *starts* on the Normandy and you go through a Mass Gate within like 90 seconds of the game starting. The Tempest is introduced much more dramatically and you really get a feel for how unique and awesome the ship is.
Meh, I was the opposite. For some reason felt lifeless to me even with the Mass Effect ship being a bit generic in and of it self. But all in all by the end it felt like home.
@@Sleepless4Life While I don't share that opinion, I understand how it can feel that way. There's a lot of space that Normandy would fill up with silent NPCs but NPCs nonetheless, like hallways. Maybe Tempest would feel even better if it actually was smaller and ditched all of that useless space
Tough, but fair. I have a soft spot for this game. I'll never say it was great, but I felt like it had a lot of unrealized potential. The exploration and combat were fantastic, it just needed some of the old talent from the previous games on story and characters. I actually always have it installed on Origin because there are times I like booting it up and running around some of those worlds; I think the designs for the gear you can wear look fantastic, the animations for running, jumping, and fighting are really smooth, and I love the theme song from the game, "A Better Beginning." But every criticism you aimed at the game is right on the money.
Yeah, I think the games that get the most backlash are the ones where there was clearly a lot of potential that was unrealized. Like, with another 6-12 months of development to polish animation, fill out content, and bug fix or whatever the issue the game has, there would have been an incredible game. Instead of appreciating what IS there, like you would with a low-budget indie game, all you can see is what's missing. Nobody complains about the terrible sprites and lack of animation in Thomas Was Alone, for example, but Cyberpunk and Andromeda were excoriated. And understandably so. "Almost" is worse than "didn't try".
I can get down with this big time. It's the weakest story wise in my opinion as there were a lot of narrative choices were a bit...eh....but that's a byproduct of them not going to work on it anymore. Combat was stellar. I enjoyed researching and customising my own weapons to make some real broken ones. the full auto remenant assault rifle is a memorable one. it absolutely shreds when you make it full auto.
@@SoftExo really, the real time combat in Mass Effect 3 was atrocious compared to Andromedas combat, it was laggy, the movement speed was atrocious, the aiming was terrible, it was janky, the combat in Mass Effect Andromeda was almost buttery smooth, and the jumping and the mele charges were top notch for any third person shooter game in the industry, it was so good, I wished that the Division 2 had similar combat mechanics. Now as far as rpg elements like assigning moves to teammates you might have a point , the earlier games may have had a few more options but how well executed were the options, and would those earlier Mass Effect games pass muster for a quality shooter with great combat mechanics and experience compared or stacked up next to modern day third person shooter titles like the Division 2, I think not, it was janky and last gen
Thanks to the fun combat, Andromeda multiplayer was a fun space for a while, but the last time I tried to join a match a couple years ago, the servers were ghost towns. Mass Effect 3 multiplayer still has a player base, though.
i never found it bad. i recognize the issues, but they strangely add to the charm for me, like one of those movies that are bad but can't help but enjoy them
Among all the shortcomings of Andromeda, I always thought its combat just felt great. I loved it. But I hated the limitation to 3 abilities. There was no reason for the limitation other than that they couldn't figure out how to map the abilities to a controller. And of course I played on keyboard and mouse, so you can imagine how much I love to be kneecapped because of controllers.
@@chuckles9767 The funny thing is Doomguy is much less tanky on higher difficulty, which force you to jump and move around. These GO EVERYWHERE DO EVERYTHING games no doubt allow you to make a tanky build that also deal huge dps. People just get basic shooter features to feel powerful in a franchise not known for it and it magically become good. Who give a shit about balancing, teamwork, strategy, builds and different experience from different setups....
You have more than 3. You can have up to 12 abilities and switch between them with different “favorites” using your weapon wheel. All you have to do is wait for the cool downs after switching profiles/favorites.
Few random thoughts: - The game is set only in a small cluster within Andromeda (The Heleus Cluster), hence its not so unreasonable to have only one kind of intelligent life. - The quest structure is not only bad in itself, it also encourages a terrible play style that I try to get away from myself in most games - Because its so tedious to get on and off planets, rather than take up one quest and follow through the story to conclusion, you land on a planet with a dozen quest markers and just mindlessly tick them off. - There are two desert planets I think because the graphical optimization was hitting a wall and it encouraged environments with less dense assets. I remember having 60fps consistently in the four barren worlds (ice and badlands included) but dropping to 40 or thereabouts in the one small jungle planet and the richly detailed prologue world. - One thing about the crafting that infuriated me was how you never knew what you were building. The system heavily incentivized beelining, you needed to research for example Spectre SMG 1, then 2, and so on up to 8 or 9. But there was no way to switch or even test out what you researched, so if you found you didn't like it, or wanted to try something else, tough luck, you already poured your entire games-worth of research points into working up the chain.
The quest structure felt very MMOish, like in Dragon Age Inquisition. Including in how it encourages you to grab all the quests in a quest hub, do them all at once and then turn them all in at once, just like in MMOs. The maps felt too big and unnatural with enemy camp and POI placement, again, a lot like MMO zones and in Dragon Age Inquisition. I am a bit worried in seeing what the upcoming Dragon Age 4 will be like. Hopefully it's scope will be more focused.
@@jepeman Yup I agree, Inquisition had a lot of bad ideas but was more or less saved for me by just enough quality in the companions, main quests and Solas reveal to get by. Andromeda felt like a weird exercise in trimming out all the good and building around the bad.
With the weapons testing, it was something I never had trouble with. I'd either try guns I'd pick up in the wild and if they felt good I'd invest in them, or I'd invest in a low level gun I was curious about, build 3-4 versions and test them all out, usually on jungle world or criminal world where you could get a variety of enemies to spawn often, and it usually gave me something rewarding for the effort. I do wish they'd included a simulation firing range on the ship though so you didn't have to jump on and off worlds to try out the guns
i've always seen desert and snow environments as a technical or financial copout myself, to make 2 planets the same desert is just, taking that to the extreme
omg that's such a good point about testing weapons!! Game so badly wanted a "gun range" area or several. Place where you can try out stuff before having to commit to it.
When I first picked up this game I fell absolutely in love with the sound design and the combat. But man the more you play the more you're reminded how good the original story was.
@@mlg5had0w34 worse? how? sure the ai companions get less choice, but the amount of stuff you can do, and how it plays is the best in the franchise hands down. me3's combat is basically "do this from the start to the end". if you are a vanguard all you do is charge-shotgun-charge, every fight. and for other classes its the same but using their own combo. andromeda allows you to pick and choose and find your style, as well as change it at any point. the weapon variety is also far superior, in how customizable they are.
@@mlg5had0w34 The combat is not only the single best thing in the game, it is the best it has ever been in Mass Effect. Fluid, impactful and the amount of stuff you can do is so fun. Mass Effect 3 combat is good, certainly better then 1 or 2 but it has nothing on Andromeda.
This game was obviously meant to be the beginning of a trilogy and so a lot of things just feel unexplored and it's kind of sad. Also pretty sure one of the sidequests alludes to other alien species existing in the galaxy just not in that specific cluster. The side-plot with The Benefactor was actually really good and it sucks that we'll never know the end of it.
There was also the murder on the ship, the angry AI, your mother being alive in the fridge, the Quarian ark, the Archon's boss and so many other obvious threads for DLC and the rest of the trilogy. I was really looking forward to those but the backlash was so massively vitriolic that EA took their ball and went home rather than fix the issues and improve. It's a shame, the game is a flawed gem. I deeply loved the combat and the exploration, the story had interesting elements and could have polished up to be a great little trilogy, if the time had been spent on it.
Yeah the premise was fine and interesting, but it seemed like half way through the game they stopped giving a shit and it felt rushed. Lotta loose ends and stuck with more questions than answers in the end. Wish they finished the trilogy properly.
@@AnonEyeMouse Its even more disappointing as they left Andromeda to fix Anthem and then that wasn't given the time to be the best version of itself. Just makes me think that Bioware don't take the time to commit to what they have started.
This was my first ME game. Loved it. Till this day, eh yesterday, I complain to my friends that the story was left unfinished. I complained that there are choices in this game that don’t effect this game, but feel like they were meant to effect a future game. Examples, leaving the bad guy facility standing or destroying it, and who you left in charge of Kadara.
The combat is addicting in this game. The game was at its best, ironically, when you were fighting in corridors or invading a base, and doing character-focused missions. The open world part though is just so dreadful to go through.
I wish I could replay the original Trilogy with Andromeda's combat. I got roughly 7 hours into that game. I really tried to care about the story and characters but i Just couldn't. If the combat wasnt as decent I dont think I would have made passed my first hour.
Pretty much in agreement with most of what you pointed out! I know you mentioned the bad writing, but I’d specifically call out the overall weird tone of much of the dialog. I think the writers were going for “irreverent and funny,” but that more often came off as “cringey and inappropriately flip.” On the other hand, I’d mention the jump jets as bringing a welcome sense of speed, flow and verticality to the combat. Oh, another negative: you can’t control your companions’ powers, you can only tell them where to go and which enemy to target, which is a step backwards from the OT. On Insanity, with an appropriate build, even the bullet-spongy bosses become a joke, but that requires a certain level of dedication to researching the best powers and weapons that a newbie to the game might not want to invest in. If a person came away from their first playthrough with a sufficiently negative impression, they might not want to invest further time into replaying and theorycrafting builds. Another way the game shoots itself in the foot.
I was fine with the 'become us or die' plot idea. It's very in keeping with the theme that species survival amongst the stars is a primal directive and letting any technologically advanced competition survive can spell the doom of your own species.
The reapers absorbed species too though husks were former humans and banshees were former asari etc. The Kett were just doing the same thing with the krogan from what I remember
@@infamous6283 Not quiet the same. For the Kett it was about adding to their own DNA. Reapers were making huge ship out of well the flesh of species. To save them from creating AI and being destroyed. 🤦, I'm sorry it's so dumb.
The thing I've always said about Mass Effect Andromeda is that it would have been much more well received if it wasn't attached to Bioware and the Mass Effect Franchise. It's not a great game, some stuff is good, some stuff is terrible, but I've played worse. It's greatest shortcoming though was that it failed spectacularly to live up to the, well-earned IMO, reputation and expectations of the original Mass Effect Trilogy.
If they just called it Andromeda it would have did so much better. Combat wise it was amazing and even it's haters will admit that. The story was just god awful and for a mass effect game that's a death sentence. The crappy animations didn't help.
Agreed. 'Mass Effect' promises story-rich choice and consequence. Andromeda has a terrible story, few choices, and no significant consequences. I feel like if people were only expecting 'typical action game' levels of plot, their view of the story would be a lot more positive, as it would be much more in line with that. I do remember enjoying the final mission (at least the bit in the vehicle) - clearly a lot of work had gone into that, and it's a shame so few people who played the game would see it.
locke03 - I was just going to ask if this game was good, but because it wasn't as good as ME trilogy, that it made it seem worse than what it was. Off topic - I'm asking because for some reason I could never get into ME. I have nothing bad to say about the games. They are the types of games I should love but everytime I tried to play ME1 I don't know. Sorry to ramble.
@@williamgregg6339 I know people who didn't play the original ME trilogy that did play Andromeda and they really liked it. If you don't have any attachment to the universe and don't care about the questionably written story with unlikeable characters, and instead just want a sci-fi action game to shoot things up while jumping around with a jetpack, it's not bad and is probably worth picking up sometime when it goes on sale.
@@locke03 I was going to try it since it's so cheap now. I still want to retry the original games since they remastered them. The thing is I never tried ME 2 or 3 since it wouldn't make sense, to me, to not start from ME1 since it's a trilogy. And it's not like I disliked anything about ME. I would start a game, play for awhile, but never go back.
I don't mind spoilers, especially about older games. Have at it! It feels like "The B team" worked on this. I Love the visuals for the most part, Kudos to the artists. The ME experience I fell in love with had little to do with combat (I gladly tolerated "ok" combat systems to put hundreds of hours into the OG trilogy), and more with the characters, relationships, NPCs, their interactions and the consequences, and effect on the game world. Thats what made me invested and kept me engaged. I hope they get that back for the next one.
I respect him for no spoilers. Most watching these on the older games have yet to play them. And there is also a lot of spoiler/story content on tube so he doesn’t really have to go into if he does not need to. I do love the separate lore vids where he does just talk about the story.
@@shawngillogly6873 to be fair tho, for a game put together in 1 and a half years, that's quite amazing what they did with anthem lol. It's a pity they didn't have a proper direction prior to that.
As you said, the game had a good foundation. But as a 4th game in a series this well known, it should not just be a foundation. It was a very soulless game to a great franchise.
The game is also available on Game Pass so if you have that - give it a try. I did and it was a pleasant surprise. Was expecting a complete trash but it turned out to be decent 30-40h of sci fi infused gaming.
Yeah, I can see why the quests can be quite tedious. It's the same situation with DAI I feel where you will probably only want to do a lot of the smaller side mission/map completion if you are enjoying the rest of the game enough and wanting spend more time in the world. The human companions in the mass effect games I also agree are on the weaker side overall but I feel they don't have to be. It seems that Bioware put more effort into making the alien companions more interesting but Cora and Liam could have been great and them being human shouldn't be a huge limiting factor. I liked hanging out with the others and actually enjoyed Pebee quite a bit (also romance choice) but the Keth just fall flat for me at least with how they were portrayed in this game. Still had a lot of fun with 70 hrs and all labled side quests done. Environments were the standout for me overall though.
Drack is actually my favorite krogan in the entire series, he just feels like he's actually lived in the universe and feels so grounded in his choices and quotes. I know people love wrex and grunt but Drack is extremely memorable imo.
Every character in Andromeda has a lot more dialogue and banter than any of the Trilogy characters. I'd wager even a side character like Kallo has more lines of dialogue than Garrus in all 3 games combined. They all are more colorful and fleshed out characters than the trilogy characters. The trilogy characters are still more beloved because the player takes them through hell and back. Especially things like the attack on the citadel, the suicide mission and the entirety of ME3 are an experience that would make you even hold dear a dog without any dialogue, if that dog was a companion through all that shit. If the Andromeda crew would get two more games with higher stakes story etc., people would love them just as much.
I loved Drack too, he's definitely one of my favorites out of the entire series. They nailed the krogan when they made him. I thought grunt was lame, didn't like him at all. And Wrexham was forgettable. I actually killed him during my first playthrough of me1 haha. Drack is a badass though!
@@purpleltv3817 People forget that their favorite ME characters had a lot more time to develop them, just look at Garrus (who I personally thought was as bland as Kaiden) would develop to become so awesome in ME2. Or Tali who literally was only there to give lore dumps on Quarians.
Lack of animators and a terrible writer. The designers could have save the side quests or the talking of the NPC's if they realize early that the story makes you go to planet to planet just to talk for a minute.
I had no problem doing a dozen separate quest points in an area and moving on to do half a dozen of the next points and half a dozen new quest points in another area. It's a bit weird to me doing just one quest across a few planets at a time when you're surrounded by things to interact with on each planet. I remember very few times being forced to move on rather than just go to the next blip on the map on my way. Maybe my memory is clouded by the fact I was defiantly enjoying the game. 🤣
Yeah, same here. If you're going to travel to a whole different planet, you don't just talk to one person and then leave. You do all the things you have to do on that planet before moving on, since you're there anyway. Of course you're going to spend a lot of time traveling from place to place if you're that afraid of multitasking! 😛 Not to say that I don't also think that there were a few too many loading screens...
its called not liking to have any loose ends, so you finish what you start. sure you can load up on quests/missions, but there's many of us that don't like to have to juggle all these individual things and make sure they get completed. if the UI wasn't such a pain about tracking the quests as he mentioned, this wouldn't be an issue, along with the loading screens.
i always felt the kett were a last minute addition cause someone high up felt the story needed an antagonist, maybe the story initially was just about the growing pains and drama of settling in and figuring out the mystery of the scourge a lot of the story issues seem to go away if you just, delete the kett.
@@SoftExo I actually disagree with the Kett being Reaper copies. They have an actual empire, with many civilizations under their rule. Unfortunately you only hear about the rest of the galaxy and their empire at the very end of the game, in a single data pad. That was the one point where I suddenly got interested in the Kett. Unfortunately, you see none of that.
Oh the Reapers sucked and you know it. What a stupid enemy. What a disappointing trilogy. We make ships out of sentient beings to save them. So stupid.
There are 3 prequel novels that are suprisingly excellent (also available as audiobooks) they really add to the story and world building. The game gets a lot of hate, some of it is valid, but if you are a Mass Effect fan you need to give it a chance. It's a shame we probably won't get a chance to see more of this branch of the ME universe but hopefully EA/Bioware will learn from the mistakes and we will get something great in whatever comes next in the ME Universe.
i love those novels, even more than the 4 novels set in the original trilogy that invovle Anderson and Sanders. these andromeda novels really flesh out characters, and even go into the scrapped dlc plot!
@@glennjanot8128 I'd also love to see the Andromeda franchise continue, but unfortunately that's never going to happen. That's because 99% of those who hate Mass Effect Andromeda are PRIMARILY upset that Commander Shepherd isn't in it. They treat Commander Shepherd as if Shepherd was a real living person instead of nothing more than simply a game character, and STILL haven't gotten their diapers unbunched from having Shepherd die at the end of Mass Effect 3. Yes, Mass Effect Andromeda did have some bugs and issues, but overall it was a good and fun game. Many of the crybabies that killed any possible chance of future games in the Mass Effect Andromeda series also complained about the lack of history/backstory about the Kett, Angara, the Helios Cluster, and Andromeda Galaxy itself. My response to them is: "DUUHHH!!!" The game takes place in a completely DIFFERENT Galaxy, and yet they STILL expect the Milky Way Races to know as much about the history of a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Galaxy. What, were they expecting Q to appear and 'snap his fingers' giving the Milky Way Races the knowledge of the history of a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Galaxy? Why don't those same crybabies complain about OTHER games that are first of a new Trilogy/Series that don't have as much history/backstory as later games is the franchise? I can tell you why: because the Original Mass Effect Trilogy had their beloved Commander Shepherd in it, that's why. Get a clue people. Shepherd is...how shall I put this...pushing up daisies, whacked, kacked, terminated, eliminated, wiped out, snuffed, kicked the bucked, killed, taking a dirt nap, feeding the worms, six feet under, bought the farm, dead. D.-E.-D. DEAD. Get over it and MOVE ON!!! But they won't, and so thanks to them we won't ever get any further games in the Mass Effect Andromeda franchise. I personally think that those whiny crybabies need their diapers changed. Just my own personal opinion anyway.
@@glennjanot8128 that would put the game at around roughly the same time period/century as Andromeda then, so that's definitely a good start since it means Shepherd is long long dead and gone. The possible bad news is that the game will most likely be back in the Milky Way Galaxy unfortunately. But still, taking place centuries after Shepherd kicked the bucket is...again...a good start. At least that's my opinion
Honestly I enjoy that your reviews are not just 5 minutes of preview. I can usually find if a game is good or bad easy enough, I want to know the why is it good or bad.
The comparisons to ME 1 are a good point. ME:A is really a sequel to the first game which is by far my favorite, because of the open areas and freedom of travel, even though those open areas were mostly empty hills. If you think it about it kinda makes sense regardless of how fun that is in a video game.
The fact this game is five years old and so inexpensive especially when on sale makes it easier to tolerate the game's defects, especially when the game has so many fun parts. I wonder how Andromeda's half-dozen hand-crafted worlds will compare with Starfield's procedurally-generated worlds, especially when Andromeda was originally based on procedural worlds like Starfield, but then all that programming got mothballed in favor of a hand-crafted worlds approach. I wonder which approach Mass Effect 4 will use? I love the Nomad and bringing back that Mass Effect 1 vibe.
This is a very fair review and I agree with everything you said. It’s funny you posted this because I was thinking about playing this again but I don’t think I’m going to unless I really want my biotic itch scratched. I actually didn’t really remember the loading screens until you brought it up and it’s so true. I wonder if this wasn’t slapped with a “Mass Effect” title if it would’ve had the same negative reception. Probably tho…
Props for not resorting to "Mass Effect is Shepard's story", which one particular reviewer did, 45 minutes into an hour and a half long video, 45 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. I played at launch and didn't think it was as bad as the press it was getting. I had the facial animation thing, which was very definitely cringe worthy, but some of the more notorious bugs, like the duck walking and the head spinning around like the Exorcist, only vertically instead of horizontally I could never get, even when I was trying to get them. I think my biggest disappointment was that we're left with a lot of threads that may never get sewn up, like the Quarian Ark. It got the "Dragon Age II treatment", as I like to call it, where the player base was so vocal about it that it got canned. I didn't run into the resource problem, but I scanned everything, and used the Apex mission terminal, sending teams out, to get more resources. I finished the game, and have several in progress save files. It wasn't as good as it could have been, but it was ok. It's a fun little romp, especially in small bites. I did, however, find that it was much easier to do all the quests I could while I was in a single location, instead of doing one, then leaving, and coming back later for other stuff that could be done while I was there the first time.
Hey MG, enjoyed the video, thanks for putting up your impressions. You pointed out how poor you found the quest structure to be, and I found it interesting how this didn't bother me nearly as much, which I think comes down to how we approached things. I gather that you were following each quest by quest individually, following each through to completion before moving on the next, where I tended to look at each planet as an exploration opportunity, fulfilling quests as I came across them. If one should lead to another planet, I'd note that I'll probably have to go to that other planet for other reasons at some point and pick up that thread later. This doesn't make me right and you wrong of course, just a situation where a different approach may have affected your enjoyment. But I'm one of those odd folks who really enjoyed Andromeda (I've played it through 4 times!) despite its deficiencies, which I found minor in the face of the enjoyment I derived from it. Regardless, I discovered your channel a little while back and have been enjoying going through your reviews. Nice work!
I’ve said it before . The open world added nothing to the game other than the 2 seconds of “oh that looks cool” This game would’ve been great if the missions were more linear like the previous games
Completely agree - when they said they wanted to do things more like the ME1 planet exploration my interest plummeted. And whaddya know, we got Inquisition in space
The writing was okay at times, the combat was pretty good overall, the presentation was servicable with some good planents and characters, but the open world quest design really killed it for me more then anything else.
mass effect 3 multiplayer was very successful with many free dlcs thats probably why they hoped andromeda multiplayer would be as successful i think it was still getting updates after the single player dlc got canned
Great review, in depth as expected but you brought up a bunch of things I'd completely spaced. I'd completely forgotten about the quest structure, loading screens, and crafting. A couple more abilities would have nice. I also forgot about some of the insta kill abilities and random spawns. I see you missed Cora's love of the Asari though, I wish she'd mentioned that once or twice. I gave this game a: Turian made me a steak/10.
I too agree that granpa Drack is the best companion for Andromeda. I really like listening to many of his stories, the one you talk to for 'been there, done that' advice. There's also great Krogan characters, like Kesh, who is really blunt and loves talking shit about her colleagues and Vorn, innocent for a Krogan and goofy at romance(still succeeds lol). In my opinion, companion banter is one of the best Bioware has done for their games, as long as you have one good companion with you.
I got this on sale for $10 and feel it was a good price for the content. Had I paid a full $60, I may have been more soured on my experience. Plus, I got it post-patch, and after all the negative hype. The story is really forgettable as it's a bunch of retreading from ME1 and 2, especially with the Collectors and the Prothean being taken and made the Kett and Remnant, respectively. So, unknown alien threat, old tech can save you, and I'll avoid spoilers on how much more they're alike.
@@RatusMaxI just checked, looks like there's a "deluxe" version, but I think it only came with a few bonus items, nothing I recall even using. Sadly, the DLC for this got canned.
Its not that good of a deal seeing that this games bad to the point I would need to be paid to actually play it and even then it's hard to stomach this game. Idk it's just missing that magic ME trilogy had.
I got it for $10 on sale too and had a lot of fun playing it. Not as good as the original trilogy but a good game overall. I didn't have a problem with the mission structure except for the missions that incorporated an element of randomness to them, for example "Watchers" on Eos. These missions almost ruined the game for me, and there are some on every planet, but I managed to finish them all anyway. Also, the optional Progenitor boss is frustratingly tough without using cobra rpgs.
I just started andromeda, but I thought the start wasnt too bad actually. I did read the Andromeda books, and it is really cool to meet those characters ingame.
This is such a great review! You honestly nailed all of the good, bad and ok aspects of this game. I was so bummed with this game after the first three ME games. Your comments on the unusually long loading screens was spot on along with the “quest” aspects. I really wanted to give this game a fair shot like you did. Cheers!
I just finished the game last night, and this video popped up in my recommended. Well put together review! I agree with everything you said. Combat did get repetitive with the repeating enemies. Liam was also my least favorite companion, and also feel the story could of been more. Seemed also convenient that every settlement you landed at happened to also be near the Remnant technology you needed to work with. I do wish they did more with the worms on the desert planet, as well as many other things they only just reference.
Came across this after all the ME '4' talk, and a lot of what you say were the issues I felt the same. Though they definitely did not fix all but the insignificant bugs, after finally forcing myself to actually play it through (I quit before even doing the Nexus prologue when I got it). First, if you take a faraway general view, MEA was retelling ME1-3, with added plot threads that are never explored b/c the game got abandoned by Bioware/EA. The 'kett' are the 'reapers', they want to exalt ('harvest') sentient races. The Archon is their 'Saren/Sovereign', and their overall leader is not addressed (MEA2 or MEA3 would do that). That still leaves the threads of the Jardaan, their Revenant, and the 'scourge' - which was the REAL endgame desire of Bioware IMO. You would need to find its history, then the 'cure', to fix the Andromeda galaxy. All of which meant far more than 3 games to resolve. AFA the bugs, Voeld does not improve - ever - even though your AI says it did. I have fallen through the map multiple times and the game even damages the character/vehicle when it resets that 'fall'. Multiple quests could not be finished b/c the last enem(y/ies) either flew off the map or fused into a structure. And that tape-measure 'radar' was abysmal. No concept of distance, or 'behind'. Which would be easily solvable with gradient intensity and alternate colors. It had the potential of being good, but their EA ownership meant timelines were more important than quality
I will be honest, after it had 6 months of patching (which it should never have needed, but that's a different issue relating to bioware's relationship to EA) I quite liked it. It definitely had a very different feel to the original trilogy and I think comparing it to that entire trilogy is unfair. It feels like the "colonising new space" vibe, which I think it does well. It's not dealing with massive galactic threat the same way the original trilogy did, it's more "how to I help the colonists survive and thrive", which I found to be a nice change. It's not like it doesn't have any issues, but I think it's good enough to be a part of the Mass Effect universe.
My biggest gripe with this game is the movement. It's so sluggish. It feels like I'm maneuvering a ferry around and not a human. Sailing all over the place.
there are touches i love in this game. such as certain points people left on the ship can comment on the situation via comm link. like when you first go to kadara port, ryder comments that the lake is on fire. if you take Drack, he says "bet i could drink it." and Dr. Lexi will chime in " Drack, NO!!!" just stuff like that kills me :P
The most annoying thing to me was running around between the quest points in those typical tasks like crime investigation or talking to different characters
This is bringing back a flood of memories. I remember putting in 70+ hours thinking it surely has to get better. I was in denial of this game. I found it repetitive, go to a different planet, do the same thing and fight the same enemies. Companion wise not sure if it was some were lacking or just some were forced onto you, it felt like certain companions had more attention romance or not. Romance wise I remember going Vetra and the pacing of it was horrible. I remember questioning if I was still in romance with her because other companions were still offering and some repeatedly. UI was horrible back in the day, it actually looks better from what I remember. Bug wise I got off easy, only main one I had is building the colony and the building structure loaded in on top of the nomad, you could see it just twitching under the structure. All in all this is the game that broke me. No longer do I pre-purchase, which for me has worked out better, I dodged the Cyberpunk early game bullet. I don't trust developers not anymore and this is the game that opened my eyes to that. Sorry for the novel comment but damn this game.
I would like to point out the last mission of the game. It's made really interesting, the world is beautiful, and most importantly, it gathers almost all the characters whose trust you've earned during the game. Which satisfied me, as did the ending with a very fitting song. I'd say the game is really not bad at this point. Yeah, I can't say it's great, I'd say it's good enough. The exploration, the battles were able to keep me engrossed for a hundred hours. So did some of the characters, and yes, I like Peebee. I'd also like to mention that although Liam is rather faded, his loyalty mission is not only interesting gameplay-wise, but also very funny in its story. The non-serious mood suits this mission very well. All in all, I wish the story had gotten a sequel, at least DLC. In fact, you can see the potential in the game. If you work on the quests and story, close some plot holes and the sequel would have been a great game. I appreciate that the developers tried to do something new and I think that this part is not that much worse than the first Mass Effect. After it too there were a lot of questions, unclear moments, the secondary quests were quite controversial and monotonous, as was the exploration of rather empty planets, in my opinion. But the story and characters were better than in Andromeda. And the sequel took all aspects of the game to the next level. I think the Andromeda sequel could repeat the fate of the original series in this regard. But it didn't work out, and that's a shame.
If this game was called anything but Mass Effect I think it would be praised. You could almost put the game in the Star Trek universe, and it would work alright. People just really wanted another high action Sheppard adventure and instead got a slower paced explorer story.
Imho, encountering only two species makes sense in the ME universe. Without Mass Relays interstellar travel in the Andromeda galaxy is very limited. You actually explore only a very small part of it. In the Milky Way species pretty much only met thenks to the relay network. With only regular FTL you are very unlikely to cross the mean distance between different orign worlds of civilized species. It's even factored into the story with the Kett coming from very far away and operating more like a nomadic invader (same for the milky way people) as they have no contact with the center of their empire. Yeah, it's ME's restrictions without relays.
Exactly, it's strange how so many people miss this fact, but there is also another aspect to this. If there were more species in Andromeda, it would quickly become very confusing and hard to differentiate them from the already large group of Milky Way species, especially for new players.
Great stuff, your opinion reflects many of my own impressions of the game when I played through about half of it. The only thing I'd personally add is that I remember missing something about controlling ally abilities, which if my memory was right on that would be the big thing I would change if they were dead set on giving you three abilities. And actually the multiplayer was pretty rad, a bit scuffed on the monetization side but it felt great!.
This game presents itself as a single player game but in reality functions like an mmo, and it just never kind of sticks to one thing trying to be multiple things at the same time. All the quests except the main ones are filler quests that you see in mmo's and the areas are locked until you do this special thing (like the tower thing in Assassins Creed). The only saving grace of this game is the combat, how you can build your own Rayder (with the skills mixing) and the multiplayer, that's it. Probably my most disappointed game I've bought along side Dragon Age 2. Edit: Oh and then they cut the support of the game before we could see the Quarian Ark, just to piss everyone off even more.
I would rate this as a solid 7/10 game. If it had just been a new IP with no relation to Mass Effect I think it probably would have been forgotten rather than receiving the hatred it did. After the backlash to ME3s ending though, Bioware needed better than a broken launch and a 7/10 product once it was fixed
I was a major ME nerd, and when I got this, I wrote a letter to EA explaining that they really let me down and I was upset. I was like 10 hours in on launch day or day after. EA Origin was notoriously unfriendly when I did this so I expected to be ignored - but to their credit they refunded me immediately. I have thought better of EA since then. But still - this game is terrible. I have a funny ranking I give games - I will say "This game loves its players!" or "This game hates its players..." This game? Hates its players.
I liked it. It was my first Mass Effect. The vision of what the game was suppose to be is a far cry from what we got sadly. Still gave me the feels for a few days after beating it. Drack and Vetra are my homies.
It would've been so cool honestly if you had three abilities, but your two companions had an ability each to give you a total of five, and then you'd be able to make biotic combos off them by giving them primers and yourself all these fun detonator abilities to work with. Not letting you properly control your companions is the biggest flaw with the combat, honestly.
Liam deserved two in the head just to prevent further dangers to the rest of the crew. Andromeda HR obviously had a very low bar for recruitment to the program.
i cant really pinpoint why i stopped playing andromeda because i didnt really dislike it in some points specifically. but it wasnt enough enticement for me to play through and i basically played through all the other bioware rpgs.
When I got it on day one I played it all in like 3 days. 60 hours absolutely loved it and didn't get any gamebreaking bugs. But last time I started it up I started noticing flaws here and there. Still like it. The gameplay is the best of all the ME games. But seen as the Devs only got like 2 years to make it. On an engine that apparently is really hard to work with. I say not bad at all.
I've now played through it 3 times, and I can confidently say that I really enjoyed Andromeda. The Story's actually somewhat interesting, the Squadmates are great and very well-written, and the game is very fun. Vetra is bae, and Drack is the best space grandpa. Though the game does have its flaws. The Character Creation, how Powers/Abilities are mapped out, a few story beats, and I hate the Tempests cockpit, among other things. Choices weren't great, but I think that's mostly because we never got a sequel to flesh them out and offer some explanations. I even avoided it for a few years 'cause of its reputation.
The Exiles make no sense whatsoever. During the "first contact" mission when we first visit the Angara main planet they make it a big deal that this is the real thing, the first time the Milky Way races meet with these strange aliens and vice versa. The translator was not really working, people were pointing fingers at us on the streets, making comments of our alien looks etc. However, it turns out that other than Eos, in every other planet the Milky Way races of the exiles are already co-existing with the local Angara for a year at least. Like in Kadara or even in Elaaden or the exploded planet, you can see outcasts (Milky Way races) living together with the Angara ot fighting them, the first scene when you arrive to Kadara port is a bunch of human guards beating up an Angara. People from the Nexus make regular visits to Kadara, so apparently they are aware of them too but still act like we just met a new race ... Makes no sense. Graphically, my biggest issue was the fact the all Asari, other than Peebee look the same. I mean, they are the same model, they might have a different face paint but the character models are identical, like they were all twin sisters. This was not the case in the main trilogy and just feels lazy.
I agree with most of what you said. However this is my favourite Mass Effect game. The gameplay is just fun. I enjoyed the story. The companion quests were all great (even those for the less interesting companions - Hello Liam!). I got around the less than ideal quest structure just by doing as much as I could on each planet when I was there. Once I'd progressed as far as I could I'd hop over to another planet and continue the quests there. It was not great for a narrative standpoint, but it worked for me.
My playthrough of MEA was 118 hours, and I got it with DA: Inquisition (160 hours) for 14 euros in a bundle sometime ago. Speaking of value for money, it couldn't be better than this lol. Your review couldn't be more accurate of what I think of the characters, gameplay and the story. What I wanted to add is what annoyed the shit out of me is the landing/taking off animation which you could never skip. I spear it added a few hours of gametime over the while playthrough. As always, nice video.
I agree with most of what you say in your interview, but I still found myself replaying this game more than any other Mass Effect game because the combat was so much more fun. Granted, I play with mods which rebalance the combat and reduce some of the lag time on unlocking skills and crafting, not to mention restoring some cut content and fixing some bugs, so my experience isn't the same as someone playing it 'out of the box.' I would love for a sequel to give us a new character where we could choose their species and basic combat class from the multiplayer class options, where Ryder acts as a mentor figure (set it, say, 10 years in the future) and you get to lead missions to open up new sections of the galaxy and encounter new species and such. The section of the galaxy you explore in Andromeda is small enough that there is a huge amount of potential for setting up a richer and more interconnected sociaety in Andromeda, like in the Milky Way, to give it the depth and complexity you would expect from a Mass Effect game.
So when I played DAI, there were aspects of the combat that felt like they may have borrowed some "cheap" tricks from ME to make battles last longer. ME 2 had two types of shields, one was the basic type that gets depleted taking damage and has to be recharged and then there was somethin called Barrier, which was like a super shield that can absorb a lot of damage and were primarily used by enemy bosses in ME 2 and mechs. It was a surprise to see this "barrier" spell make its way over to DAI where it made some of the fights unfairly challenging, providing immunity to elemental damage as well as virtually make mages into bullet sponges. Right there I could see what the eventual ME game was going to be like and I was right, but the larger offense was the writing relied on the same outline as DAI, where the focus is on your character relationships more so than the overall threat. So the bad guy is merely a generic cookie cutter boss to fight at the end . The characters in DAI were also not evenly created. Most of them were dull and the one stand out was obviously tied to the greater plot of the game (Solus) so like a generic sequel you can pretty much tell how the plot is going to go forward.
24:10 I know I'm a little late. But the decision to be three skills is usually tied to the console audience, since there we have reduced numbers of keybinds. Usually skills being linked to RB (R1), LB (L1) and the combination of RB+LB (R1+L1)
I enjoyed this game, I played it at launch and again when the mass effect remaster came out. The combat was the best in the series. One thing that bothered me is how close the Krogan colony was to the black hole
A very good and fair review of the game. The patches and fixes brought the game from D grade to C+/B-. Maybe had they released the DLCs they had planned, that might have pulled it up to an A- or even A grade. We'll never know. I do have to disagree on $30.00 as a fair price for the game--I'd say $20.00 is much more reasonable or waiting until a sale and getting it for less.
Now that it’s been 6 years since Andromeda came out, we would have gotten the rest of the andromeda trilogy by now. Sadly it’s something we will never see. Based on the original trilogy releasing in 2007, 2010, and 2012. That would’ve put the andromeda games releasing in 2017, 2020, and 2022. Wish EA/Bioware would’ve just stuck with Andromeda. Andromeda 1 could’ve been fixed with dlc and refined in andromeda 2. Andromeda 1 was just a starting point, look at how much better mass effect 2 improved upon mass effect 1. Andromeda is probably my most disappointing game of all time with how it was just completely abandoned… Also: it felt like this game had the frame work to be a 10/10 game but just flopped in several areas. Seems like a whoever was in charge of this game could’ve identified these flaws in testing and corrected them.
Frostbite engine has ruined many devs teams in EA. I am still so butthurt how EA basically ruined C&C franchise & failed to revive the franchise because of (once again) technical problems with frostbite engine.
Love your channel. And for this game i really enjoyed playing it. The exploration was nice and meeting the i guess he was named architect for the first time was amazing. So gameplay and the unknown of what to find was my big plus in this game.
REALLY interested in you making an hour long video about ME:A story and its faults. edit: And I think it was explained that kett can't procreate. So they use this exaltation to create more kett. There is something beyond all that.
Great review. While I don’t disagree with anything you said, in fact I think you nailed this review. I still loved this game. I played it with a bunch of mods though that made the action even faster paced but also cheated on materials so crafting was very viable, which kind of broke the game. Did this because I was looking for a relaxing action game at the time vs a challenge. I think if people go in to this game in the right frame of mind, they could have a ton of fun with it. But definitely a flawed game. Thanks for the video!!!
I really liked most of this game, I like where they took the combat and exploration, but I think it was just a little too different for fans to let all the negatives slide like they usually do
As far as plot holes go, when the big bad evil ket guy said he wanted to blackmail the galaxy with the remnant terraformer into accepting exaltation, I was shocked. The man had access to tech that could remotely manipulate DNA, and instead of instantaneous galaxy wide exaltation, his plan.....was blackmail. Horrible writing is horrible.
@@Fragenzeichenplatte Its not their tech, of course its gonna take time to reconfigure the terraformers. You are defending a bad position. Your logic is poor. Yield.
Actually played this recently for the same reason you did and very much agree with you. The game itself for me felt like they took the uncharted world/mako missions and tried their hardest too make them work and it did in many ways but they invested so much in doing so, the rest of the game suffered.
I didn't personally have that much issue with the quest structure. I just finished one planet at a time, and then I usually had few quests where I had to go back to an old planet, I did those and moved on to a next planet. Also I think that worked well for world building, because it made it feel that the whole galaxy was connected and people actually moved between planets, not just Ryder or Shephard in the trilogy. I personally hated fighing the Remnant architechs. You just did same thing for 15 minutes over and over again. All architects were the same.
It would've been really neat if there was some variation to architects. They are giant terraforming robots, tie their actions to their environment! Ah, what could've been were this a game with a more focused development.
I agree. Actually surprised about bashing it. I mean take ME1 side quests. To me no one can say there were any good. Just couple level iterations spawned all over again with essentially completely meaningless plot.
Game had a lot of issues, but honestly I was really interested in the setting and I enjoyed playing it through even though playing it at launch. I wish they had continued this part of the franchise. I wanted to learn more about the Ark ships and the Andromeda galaxy.
Pretty spot on. To preface, i got this almost a year and a half after release. Started the game and quit for under a year due to the beginning then returned. I loved the exploration, combat (besides only the 3 abilities), general mobility, and some interesting stuff to do and learn. To me most of the rest was just okay if a bit bland and forgettable but there was definitely a bit of some pretty glaringly poor stuff. And now that you point it out I'm remembering that quest structure absolutely as being absolutely horrid. But man, to go back to my positives, exploration, combat and mobility just felt so damn fluid to me. Such a shame that such a forgettable game felt so good to move around in. I'm also a little bit of a weirdo and actually kinda grew to like Peebee and ended up doing her romance for that first playthrough. I remember not liking her at all before I initially quit. During those months, however, I started playing dungeons and dragons so I actually really appreciate her chaotic but well meaning energy in contrast to this terrible player we had who used his chaotic alignment to essentially be an awful party member, make things extremely difficult and ultimately derail my first campaign. She definitely had a habit of getting us into trouble, but unlike that player it wasn't trouble I couldn't handle. I found myself shaking my head and chuckling at her pretty often and she kind of saved chaotic characters for me so I've got a little soft spot for her.
I think objectively, Andromeda isn't a "BAD" game, but its undoubtedly disappointing, if it wasn't a Mass effect game it'd be a so so scifi game, but after the Mass Effect trilogy, they really needed to step it up😒
Great review! This game was such a letdown for me, the combat is really good but the characters, the story and the open world structure of the game are so boring. Fingers crossed for the next Mass Effect.
I think there are other species in the Andromeda galaxy just not in the star cluster where the game takes place. I got this at launch and had a lot of fun with it. I didn't like many of the gameplay changes between the first two Mass Effect games like the switch to ammo dependent weapons and the gutting of planetary exploration so having a decent selection of overheat guns and the return to vehicle exploration made me very happy. While I didn't like the characters and story as much as the earlier games in the series there were some questions I was hoping would be answered by DLC or a sequel that now will probably never be answered.
The biggest plot hole I found in the game was how the Angara managed to Keep their Planet Aya hidden. I would think that the first exalted Angara with knowledge of its location would say something. Also, did you know Cora used to be an Asari huntress? I don't think she mentioned that very often. 😉
Good review man. Very knowledgeable. Gameplay was amazing. I thought the addition of the jump jet was a better inclusion in the series more than the combat roll from ME3. Story……it felt like a straight to DVD story that I would find in a rest stop DVD bargain bin.
"This game is not as bad as people say" I wanted to tell you that I admire you, I love your videos and I hope you continue like this, I just wanted to extrapolate this sentence to remind that people bought this game at Day One after 5 years of production , trailer, hype and received... This... A game in a new galaxy with practically only one alien race and a script from disneychunnel + series. And nobody had prepared them for this, with facial animations that you didn't have. And then Anthem came out, another demonstration that good writers have left Bioware... What bad memories...
I know it's not part of either of your usual channel contents but I would love to listen to you and WolfheartFPS talk RPGs. Especially CRPGs. That would be such an interesting and fun potential conversation.
I'd like to see, rather than the spinoff being dropped, getting a sequel that retcons and fixes everything we can clearly tell is a problem with the game. Proper budget, team given as much time as needed to get it right... actual writers. This felt like an intro cut short.
It says a lot that over the years they only fixed the graphics a bit because the were so heavily memed and embarrassed EA to the point that they told the people working on Anthem to make sure it was "unmemeable". The rest of it, the UI, crafting, all the stuff they COULD fix without having to rip the games' guts out they never bothered with
i think for me the sad part of andromeda at the end of the day was that it was forgettable. ive played games ive loved and then replayed them again and again, and ive played games i disliked so much that i couldnt even finish them. but in both cases they left enough of a mark for me to form a distinct memorable opinion of them. personally i think one of the worst things a game can be for me, is so mediocre that it is just forgettable and then i end up with zero desire to even pick it up again. to me that is almost worse than being an outright bad game.
@@truthseeker6532 your screen name tells me all i need to know, it has nothing to do with me being "controlled by the media" its just an opinion i have that is different from yours. im not gonna argue with you over an opinion. i felt like the game was forgettable and you obviously didnt. both opinions can be true at the same time and i dont have to justify my thoughts about the game to anyone.
Decided to give it a shot after playing legendary edition. I'm actually really loving the open world exploring/story and peebee is actually a qt3.14. Sidequests are also a pleasant surprise
I feel bad for the people that did the combat in this game, they did a good job
It was.. okay. Previous Mass Effect games incorporated your team's abilities into combat way better; and this felt like a step back. "Streamlined" is rarely a good thing in video games, because it typically means cool features are removed.
The combat is very shallow, just a re-hash of the simple prime-detonate system of ME2/3.
The killer is the lacklustre combat encounter design, probably because they had to merge it into the janky open-world.
That team that did the combat also did the MP, and the patches for the MP (which consequently were also converted to the actual game). That team was the game post launch. Then EA/Bioware killed the game after a few months.
I played the trilogy and andromeda on the hardest difficulty back to back. Pure sniper was not viable for this game and I can’t enjoy the combat until I gave up using sniper rifle.
@@Aggrofool Not really a rehash, because of Ryder's multiclass nature.
I really liked this game but one thing I hated with a passion was how the tempest left the planet every time I boarded it.
This
Yes... putting skippable cutscenes in this game would improve it by a full point for me...
Yeah, skippable cutsecenes would have been nice.
But it's not just about quality if life for me rather about immersion. I really miss the old days where in ME1 you could board the Normandy while docked to the Citadel without the ship undocking and starting eveytime. All that with this cool transition (and disguised loading screen) by actually entering the airlock.
Replaying it rn and I still feel your pain
Absolutely! Cant even skip the damn cut scene when you land on or exit the planet. It really grinds my gears! Other than that , the game overall is ok.
I think another great thing in Andromeda is the Tempest. Don't get me wrong, I love Normandy, especially SR-1, but having a smaller ship felt great. Finally, as the captain you get to know all of your crew, none of them are silent extras. Plus, I loved the evolution of dynamic character positioning they first tried in ME3.
I wish the ladders took less time to climb, but otherwise I liked the Tempest more as well
@@MortismalGaming to many "soft" loading screens for such a small ship imo
Plus the way the Tempest was introduced was way cooler than the Normandy...I had forgotten how in Mass Effect 1, the game literally *starts* on the Normandy and you go through a Mass Gate within like 90 seconds of the game starting. The Tempest is introduced much more dramatically and you really get a feel for how unique and awesome the ship is.
Meh, I was the opposite. For some reason felt lifeless to me even with the Mass Effect ship being a bit generic in and of it self. But all in all by the end it felt like home.
@@Sleepless4Life While I don't share that opinion, I understand how it can feel that way. There's a lot of space that Normandy would fill up with silent NPCs but NPCs nonetheless, like hallways. Maybe Tempest would feel even better if it actually was smaller and ditched all of that useless space
Tough, but fair. I have a soft spot for this game. I'll never say it was great, but I felt like it had a lot of unrealized potential. The exploration and combat were fantastic, it just needed some of the old talent from the previous games on story and characters. I actually always have it installed on Origin because there are times I like booting it up and running around some of those worlds; I think the designs for the gear you can wear look fantastic, the animations for running, jumping, and fighting are really smooth, and I love the theme song from the game, "A Better Beginning." But every criticism you aimed at the game is right on the money.
Yeah, I think the games that get the most backlash are the ones where there was clearly a lot of potential that was unrealized. Like, with another 6-12 months of development to polish animation, fill out content, and bug fix or whatever the issue the game has, there would have been an incredible game. Instead of appreciating what IS there, like you would with a low-budget indie game, all you can see is what's missing.
Nobody complains about the terrible sprites and lack of animation in Thomas Was Alone, for example, but Cyberpunk and Andromeda were excoriated. And understandably so. "Almost" is worse than "didn't try".
I can get down with this big time. It's the weakest story wise in my opinion as there were a lot of narrative choices were a bit...eh....but that's a byproduct of them not going to work on it anymore. Combat was stellar. I enjoyed researching and customising my own weapons to make some real broken ones. the full auto remenant assault rifle is a memorable one. it absolutely shreds when you make it full auto.
@@SoftExo really, the real time combat in Mass Effect 3 was atrocious compared to Andromedas combat, it was laggy, the movement speed was atrocious, the aiming was terrible, it was janky, the combat in Mass Effect Andromeda was almost buttery smooth, and the jumping and the mele charges were top notch for any third person shooter game in the industry, it was so good, I wished that the Division 2 had similar combat mechanics. Now as far as rpg elements like assigning moves to teammates you might have a point , the earlier games may have had a few more options but how well executed were the options, and would those earlier Mass Effect games pass muster for a quality shooter with great combat mechanics and experience compared or stacked up next to modern day third person shooter titles like the Division 2, I think not, it was janky and last gen
Thanks to the fun combat, Andromeda multiplayer was a fun space for a while, but the last time I tried to join a match a couple years ago, the servers were ghost towns. Mass Effect 3 multiplayer still has a player base, though.
i never found it bad. i recognize the issues, but they strangely add to the charm for me, like one of those movies that are bad but can't help but enjoy them
Among all the shortcomings of Andromeda, I always thought its combat just felt great. I loved it. But I hated the limitation to 3 abilities. There was no reason for the limitation other than that they couldn't figure out how to map the abilities to a controller. And of course I played on keyboard and mouse, so you can imagine how much I love to be kneecapped because of controllers.
Didnt they get rid of tactical pause from previous games? One of the more idiotic decision for sure.
@@chuckles9767 The funny thing is Doomguy is much less tanky on higher difficulty, which force you to jump and move around. These GO EVERYWHERE DO EVERYTHING games no doubt allow you to make a tanky build that also deal huge dps.
People just get basic shooter features to feel powerful in a franchise not known for it and it magically become good. Who give a shit about balancing, teamwork, strategy, builds and different experience from different setups....
You have more than 3. You can have up to 12 abilities and switch between them with different “favorites” using your weapon wheel. All you have to do is wait for the cool downs after switching profiles/favorites.
@@AdamDG88 And there is a mod which removes the CDs in combat so you can actually use all 12 skills with shared CDs.
The abilities are really cool especially because Ryder is a hybrid Class, that' s really a waste, so many cool habilities but just 3 slots
Few random thoughts:
- The game is set only in a small cluster within Andromeda (The Heleus Cluster), hence its not so unreasonable to have only one kind of intelligent life.
- The quest structure is not only bad in itself, it also encourages a terrible play style that I try to get away from myself in most games - Because its so tedious to get on and off planets, rather than take up one quest and follow through the story to conclusion, you land on a planet with a dozen quest markers and just mindlessly tick them off.
- There are two desert planets I think because the graphical optimization was hitting a wall and it encouraged environments with less dense assets. I remember having 60fps consistently in the four barren worlds (ice and badlands included) but dropping to 40 or thereabouts in the one small jungle planet and the richly detailed prologue world.
- One thing about the crafting that infuriated me was how you never knew what you were building. The system heavily incentivized beelining, you needed to research for example Spectre SMG 1, then 2, and so on up to 8 or 9. But there was no way to switch or even test out what you researched, so if you found you didn't like it, or wanted to try something else, tough luck, you already poured your entire games-worth of research points into working up the chain.
The quest structure felt very MMOish, like in Dragon Age Inquisition. Including in how it encourages you to grab all the quests in a quest hub, do them all at once and then turn them all in at once, just like in MMOs.
The maps felt too big and unnatural with enemy camp and POI placement, again, a lot like MMO zones and in Dragon Age Inquisition.
I am a bit worried in seeing what the upcoming Dragon Age 4 will be like. Hopefully it's scope will be more focused.
@@jepeman Yup I agree, Inquisition had a lot of bad ideas but was more or less saved for me by just enough quality in the companions, main quests and Solas reveal to get by. Andromeda felt like a weird exercise in trimming out all the good and building around the bad.
With the weapons testing, it was something I never had trouble with. I'd either try guns I'd pick up in the wild and if they felt good I'd invest in them, or I'd invest in a low level gun I was curious about, build 3-4 versions and test them all out, usually on jungle world or criminal world where you could get a variety of enemies to spawn often, and it usually gave me something rewarding for the effort.
I do wish they'd included a simulation firing range on the ship though so you didn't have to jump on and off worlds to try out the guns
i've always seen desert and snow environments as a technical or financial copout myself, to make 2 planets the same desert is just, taking that to the extreme
omg that's such a good point about testing weapons!! Game so badly wanted a "gun range" area or several. Place where you can try out stuff before having to commit to it.
When I first picked up this game I fell absolutely in love with the sound design and the combat. But man the more you play the more you're reminded how good the original story was.
Combat is literally just a worse version of me3
@@mlg5had0w34 worse? how? sure the ai companions get less choice, but the amount of stuff you can do, and how it plays is the best in the franchise hands down.
me3's combat is basically "do this from the start to the end". if you are a vanguard all you do is charge-shotgun-charge, every fight. and for other classes its the same but using their own combo.
andromeda allows you to pick and choose and find your style, as well as change it at any point. the weapon variety is also far superior, in how customizable they are.
@@mlg5had0w34 worse? its far superior in every way but the story sucks
@@mlg5had0w34 bad take my guy the combat in Andromeda ways miles ahead of the original trilogy
@@mlg5had0w34 The combat is not only the single best thing in the game, it is the best it has ever been in Mass Effect. Fluid, impactful and the amount of stuff you can do is so fun. Mass Effect 3 combat is good, certainly better then 1 or 2 but it has nothing on Andromeda.
This game was obviously meant to be the beginning of a trilogy and so a lot of things just feel unexplored and it's kind of sad. Also pretty sure one of the sidequests alludes to other alien species existing in the galaxy just not in that specific cluster. The side-plot with The Benefactor was actually really good and it sucks that we'll never know the end of it.
There was also the murder on the ship, the angry AI, your mother being alive in the fridge, the Quarian ark, the Archon's boss and so many other obvious threads for DLC and the rest of the trilogy. I was really looking forward to those but the backlash was so massively vitriolic that EA took their ball and went home rather than fix the issues and improve.
It's a shame, the game is a flawed gem. I deeply loved the combat and the exploration, the story had interesting elements and could have polished up to be a great little trilogy, if the time had been spent on it.
Yeah the premise was fine and interesting, but it seemed like half way through the game they stopped giving a shit and it felt rushed. Lotta loose ends and stuck with more questions than answers in the end. Wish they finished the trilogy properly.
@@AnonEyeMouse Its even more disappointing as they left Andromeda to fix Anthem and then that wasn't given the time to be the best version of itself. Just makes me think that Bioware don't take the time to commit to what they have started.
This was my first ME game. Loved it. Till this day, eh yesterday, I complain to my friends that the story was left unfinished. I complained that there are choices in this game that don’t effect this game, but feel like they were meant to effect a future game. Examples, leaving the bad guy facility standing or destroying it, and who you left in charge of Kadara.
The combat is addicting in this game. The game was at its best, ironically, when you were fighting in corridors or invading a base, and doing character-focused missions. The open world part though is just so dreadful to go through.
I wish I could replay the original Trilogy with Andromeda's combat. I got roughly 7 hours into that game. I really tried to care about the story and characters but i Just couldn't. If the combat wasnt as decent I dont think I would have made passed my first hour.
Exactly. Combat is perfect but the areas are just too big
Pretty much in agreement with most of what you pointed out! I know you mentioned the bad writing, but I’d specifically call out the overall weird tone of much of the dialog. I think the writers were going for “irreverent and funny,” but that more often came off as “cringey and inappropriately flip.” On the other hand, I’d mention the jump jets as bringing a welcome sense of speed, flow and verticality to the combat. Oh, another negative: you can’t control your companions’ powers, you can only tell them where to go and which enemy to target, which is a step backwards from the OT.
On Insanity, with an appropriate build, even the bullet-spongy bosses become a joke, but that requires a certain level of dedication to researching the best powers and weapons that a newbie to the game might not want to invest in. If a person came away from their first playthrough with a sufficiently negative impression, they might not want to invest further time into replaying and theorycrafting builds. Another way the game shoots itself in the foot.
It's like everything has to be Guardians of the Galaxy now.
I love those movies, but I dont want it everywhere.
I was fine with the 'become us or die' plot idea. It's very in keeping with the theme that species survival amongst the stars is a primal directive and letting any technologically advanced competition survive can spell the doom of your own species.
Well said
They were reverse Reapers. Instead of wiping out. They absorbed.
The reapers absorbed species too though husks were former humans and banshees were former asari etc. The Kett were just doing the same thing with the krogan from what I remember
@@infamous6283 Not quiet the same. For the Kett it was about adding to their own DNA. Reapers were making huge ship out of well the flesh of species. To save them from creating AI and being destroyed. 🤦, I'm sorry it's so dumb.
The thing I've always said about Mass Effect Andromeda is that it would have been much more well received if it wasn't attached to Bioware and the Mass Effect Franchise. It's not a great game, some stuff is good, some stuff is terrible, but I've played worse. It's greatest shortcoming though was that it failed spectacularly to live up to the, well-earned IMO, reputation and expectations of the original Mass Effect Trilogy.
If they just called it Andromeda it would have did so much better. Combat wise it was amazing and even it's haters will admit that. The story was just god awful and for a mass effect game that's a death sentence. The crappy animations didn't help.
Agreed. 'Mass Effect' promises story-rich choice and consequence. Andromeda has a terrible story, few choices, and no significant consequences. I feel like if people were only expecting 'typical action game' levels of plot, their view of the story would be a lot more positive, as it would be much more in line with that. I do remember enjoying the final mission (at least the bit in the vehicle) - clearly a lot of work had gone into that, and it's a shame so few people who played the game would see it.
locke03 - I was just going to ask if this game was good, but because it wasn't as good as ME trilogy, that it made it seem worse than what it was. Off topic - I'm asking because for some reason I could never get into ME. I have nothing bad to say about the games. They are the types of games I should love but everytime I tried to play ME1 I don't know. Sorry to ramble.
@@williamgregg6339 I know people who didn't play the original ME trilogy that did play Andromeda and they really liked it. If you don't have any attachment to the universe and don't care about the questionably written story with unlikeable characters, and instead just want a sci-fi action game to shoot things up while jumping around with a jetpack, it's not bad and is probably worth picking up sometime when it goes on sale.
@@locke03 I was going to try it since it's so cheap now. I still want to retry the original games since they remastered them. The thing is I never tried ME 2 or 3 since it wouldn't make sense, to me, to not start from ME1 since it's a trilogy. And it's not like I disliked anything about ME. I would start a game, play for awhile, but never go back.
I don't mind spoilers, especially about older games. Have at it!
It feels like "The B team" worked on this.
I Love the visuals for the most part, Kudos to the artists.
The ME experience I fell in love with had little to do with combat (I gladly tolerated "ok" combat systems to put hundreds of hours into the OG trilogy), and more with the characters, relationships, NPCs, their interactions and the consequences, and effect on the game world. Thats what made me invested and kept me engaged. I hope they get that back for the next one.
I respect him for no spoilers. Most watching these on the older games have yet to play them. And there is also a lot of spoiler/story content on tube so he doesn’t really have to go into if he does not need to.
I do love the separate lore vids where he does just talk about the story.
Yeah, but the "A-Team" made Anthem...so....
@@shawngillogly6873 to be fair tho, for a game put together in 1 and a half years, that's quite amazing what they did with anthem lol. It's a pity they didn't have a proper direction prior to that.
Yes it is absolutely the B-team that made this, since this game was developed by an entirely new studio in Montreal.
More like Z team if you ask me. But this game had its charm. Hope Bioware goes back and reworks this game. It had so much potential.
As you said, the game had a good foundation. But as a 4th game in a series this well known, it should not just be a foundation. It was a very soulless game to a great franchise.
The game is also available on Game Pass so if you have that - give it a try. I did and it was a pleasant surprise. Was expecting a complete trash but it turned out to be decent 30-40h of sci fi infused gaming.
I just played it on gamepass. It was mediocre. Not bad, not good, just okay.
this was some of the politics and a lot of the bugs were fixed.
Did just this after finishing the Remastered ME trilogy. Actually enjoyed my time especially since I was dying for more ME.
Yeah, I can see why the quests can be quite tedious. It's the same situation with DAI I feel where you will probably only want to do a lot of the smaller side mission/map completion if you are enjoying the rest of the game enough and wanting spend more time in the world. The human companions in the mass effect games I also agree are on the weaker side overall but I feel they don't have to be. It seems that Bioware put more effort into making the alien companions more interesting but Cora and Liam could have been great and them being human shouldn't be a huge limiting factor. I liked hanging out with the others and actually enjoyed Pebee quite a bit (also romance choice) but the Keth just fall flat for me at least with how they were portrayed in this game. Still had a lot of fun with 70 hrs and all labled side quests done. Environments were the standout for me overall though.
Drack is actually my favorite krogan in the entire series, he just feels like he's actually lived in the universe and feels so grounded in his choices and quotes. I know people love wrex and grunt but Drack is extremely memorable imo.
Agreed. That old man is one of my favorite ME characters, period.
Every character in Andromeda has a lot more dialogue and banter than any of the Trilogy characters. I'd wager even a side character like Kallo has more lines of dialogue than Garrus in all 3 games combined. They all are more colorful and fleshed out characters than the trilogy characters. The trilogy characters are still more beloved because the player takes them through hell and back. Especially things like the attack on the citadel, the suicide mission and the entirety of ME3 are an experience that would make you even hold dear a dog without any dialogue, if that dog was a companion through all that shit.
If the Andromeda crew would get two more games with higher stakes story etc., people would love them just as much.
I loved Drack too, he's definitely one of my favorites out of the entire series. They nailed the krogan when they made him. I thought grunt was lame, didn't like him at all. And Wrexham was forgettable. I actually killed him during my first playthrough of me1 haha. Drack is a badass though!
@@purpleltv3817 People forget that their favorite ME characters had a lot more time to develop them, just look at Garrus (who I personally thought was as bland as Kaiden) would develop to become so awesome in ME2. Or Tali who literally was only there to give lore dumps on Quarians.
Lack of animators and a terrible writer. The designers could have save the side quests or the talking of the NPC's if they realize early that the story makes you go to planet to planet just to talk for a minute.
I had no problem doing a dozen separate quest points in an area and moving on to do half a dozen of the next points and half a dozen new quest points in another area. It's a bit weird to me doing just one quest across a few planets at a time when you're surrounded by things to interact with on each planet. I remember very few times being forced to move on rather than just go to the next blip on the map on my way.
Maybe my memory is clouded by the fact I was defiantly enjoying the game. 🤣
No wonder the games industry sucks
Yeah, same here. If you're going to travel to a whole different planet, you don't just talk to one person and then leave. You do all the things you have to do on that planet before moving on, since you're there anyway. Of course you're going to spend a lot of time traveling from place to place if you're that afraid of multitasking! 😛
Not to say that I don't also think that there were a few too many loading screens...
its called not liking to have any loose ends, so you finish what you start. sure you can load up on quests/missions, but there's many of us that don't like to have to juggle all these individual things and make sure they get completed. if the UI wasn't such a pain about tracking the quests as he mentioned, this wouldn't be an issue, along with the loading screens.
i always felt the kett were a last minute addition cause someone high up felt the story needed an antagonist, maybe the story initially was just about the growing pains and drama of settling in and figuring out the mystery of the scourge
a lot of the story issues seem to go away if you just, delete the kett.
@@SoftExo I actually disagree with the Kett being Reaper copies. They have an actual empire, with many civilizations under their rule. Unfortunately you only hear about the rest of the galaxy and their empire at the very end of the game, in a single data pad. That was the one point where I suddenly got interested in the Kett. Unfortunately, you see none of that.
Oh the Reapers sucked and you know it. What a stupid enemy. What a disappointing trilogy.
We make ships out of sentient beings to save them. So stupid.
@@meoff7602 baiting hard
There are 3 prequel novels that are suprisingly excellent (also available as audiobooks) they really add to the story and world building. The game gets a lot of hate, some of it is valid, but if you are a Mass Effect fan you need to give it a chance. It's a shame we probably won't get a chance to see more of this branch of the ME universe but hopefully EA/Bioware will learn from the mistakes and we will get something great in whatever comes next in the ME Universe.
i love those novels, even more than the 4 novels set in the original trilogy that invovle Anderson and Sanders. these andromeda novels really flesh out characters, and even go into the scrapped dlc plot!
Given that Andromeda was supposed to be the first game of a new trilogy, I do hope they continue the series.
@@glennjanot8128 I'd also love to see the Andromeda franchise continue, but unfortunately that's never going to happen.
That's because 99% of those who hate Mass Effect Andromeda are PRIMARILY upset that Commander Shepherd isn't in it. They treat Commander Shepherd as if Shepherd was a real living person instead of nothing more than simply a game character, and STILL haven't gotten their diapers unbunched from having Shepherd die at the end of Mass Effect 3.
Yes, Mass Effect Andromeda did have some bugs and issues, but overall it was a good and fun game.
Many of the crybabies that killed any possible chance of future games in the Mass Effect Andromeda series also complained about the lack of history/backstory about the Kett, Angara, the Helios Cluster, and Andromeda Galaxy itself.
My response to them is: "DUUHHH!!!" The game takes place in a completely DIFFERENT Galaxy, and yet they STILL expect the Milky Way Races to know as much about the history of a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Galaxy. What, were they expecting Q to appear and 'snap his fingers' giving the Milky Way Races the knowledge of the history of a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Galaxy?
Why don't those same crybabies complain about OTHER games that are first of a new Trilogy/Series that don't have as much history/backstory as later games is the franchise? I can tell you why: because the Original Mass Effect Trilogy had their beloved Commander Shepherd in it, that's why.
Get a clue people. Shepherd is...how shall I put this...pushing up daisies, whacked, kacked, terminated, eliminated, wiped out, snuffed, kicked the bucked, killed, taking a dirt nap, feeding the worms, six feet under, bought the farm, dead. D.-E.-D. DEAD.
Get over it and MOVE ON!!!
But they won't, and so thanks to them we won't ever get any further games in the Mass Effect Andromeda franchise. I personally think that those whiny crybabies need their diapers changed.
Just my own personal opinion anyway.
@@reedallen4613 Not to mention that in the upcoming game, Shepard also won't be there, given that it's placed about 600 years after ME3
@@glennjanot8128 that would put the game at around roughly the same time period/century as Andromeda then, so that's definitely a good start since it means Shepherd is long long dead and gone.
The possible bad news is that the game will most likely be back in the Milky Way Galaxy unfortunately.
But still, taking place centuries after Shepherd kicked the bucket is...again...a good start.
At least that's my opinion
Honestly I enjoy that your reviews are not just 5 minutes of preview. I can usually find if a game is good or bad easy enough, I want to know the why is it good or bad.
The comparisons to ME 1 are a good point. ME:A is really a sequel to the first game which is by far my favorite, because of the open areas and freedom of travel, even though those open areas were mostly empty hills. If you think it about it kinda makes sense regardless of how fun that is in a video game.
The fact this game is five years old and so inexpensive especially when on sale makes it easier to tolerate the game's defects, especially when the game has so many fun parts. I wonder how Andromeda's half-dozen hand-crafted worlds will compare with Starfield's procedurally-generated worlds, especially when Andromeda was originally based on procedural worlds like Starfield, but then all that programming got mothballed in favor of a hand-crafted worlds approach. I wonder which approach Mass Effect 4 will use? I love the Nomad and bringing back that Mass Effect 1 vibe.
This is a very fair review and I agree with everything you said. It’s funny you posted this because I was thinking about playing this again but I don’t think I’m going to unless I really want my biotic itch scratched. I actually didn’t really remember the loading screens until you brought it up and it’s so true. I wonder if this wasn’t slapped with a “Mass Effect” title if it would’ve had the same negative reception. Probably tho…
The story and the characters are the points I really cared about, so them being bad did make the game bad for me. I didn't care about the combat.
Yeah you don’t really play a ME game for its combat. That shouldn’t be its selling point.
Same
Props for not resorting to "Mass Effect is Shepard's story", which one particular reviewer did, 45 minutes into an hour and a half long video, 45 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. I played at launch and didn't think it was as bad as the press it was getting. I had the facial animation thing, which was very definitely cringe worthy, but some of the more notorious bugs, like the duck walking and the head spinning around like the Exorcist, only vertically instead of horizontally I could never get, even when I was trying to get them.
I think my biggest disappointment was that we're left with a lot of threads that may never get sewn up, like the Quarian Ark. It got the "Dragon Age II treatment", as I like to call it, where the player base was so vocal about it that it got canned. I didn't run into the resource problem, but I scanned everything, and used the Apex mission terminal, sending teams out, to get more resources. I finished the game, and have several in progress save files. It wasn't as good as it could have been, but it was ok. It's a fun little romp, especially in small bites. I did, however, find that it was much easier to do all the quests I could while I was in a single location, instead of doing one, then leaving, and coming back later for other stuff that could be done while I was there the first time.
Hey MG, enjoyed the video, thanks for putting up your impressions. You pointed out how poor you found the quest structure to be, and I found it interesting how this didn't bother me nearly as much, which I think comes down to how we approached things. I gather that you were following each quest by quest individually, following each through to completion before moving on the next, where I tended to look at each planet as an exploration opportunity, fulfilling quests as I came across them. If one should lead to another planet, I'd note that I'll probably have to go to that other planet for other reasons at some point and pick up that thread later. This doesn't make me right and you wrong of course, just a situation where a different approach may have affected your enjoyment. But I'm one of those odd folks who really enjoyed Andromeda (I've played it through 4 times!) despite its deficiencies, which I found minor in the face of the enjoyment I derived from it. Regardless, I discovered your channel a little while back and have been enjoying going through your reviews. Nice work!
I’ve said it before . The open world added nothing to the game other than the 2 seconds of “oh that looks cool”
This game would’ve been great if the missions were more linear like the previous games
I totally agree. This "open world" trend needs to stop !
Completely agree - when they said they wanted to do things more like the ME1 planet exploration my interest plummeted. And whaddya know, we got Inquisition in space
The writing was okay at times, the combat was pretty good overall, the presentation was servicable with some good planents and characters, but the open world quest design really killed it for me more then anything else.
Sorry, I disagree because my face is tired
The writing was NEVER ok. It was cringe, amateurish, and mindless though the entire game.
@@fatbroccoli8OMG a facial bug in a day one patch my God how horrible no game has ever done it before or after.
@@nathanpapp432"ah yes reapers, we have dismissed those claims"
@@BigFootTheRealOne that's not a facial bug, it's the pathetic writing
Haven't watched video yet.
THIS is one of the reviews I've been waiting for.
This video was very in depth and informative, my first video I have seen of yours and I will definitely be back for more. Good job!!
mass effect 3 multiplayer was very successful with many free dlcs
thats probably why they hoped andromeda multiplayer would be as successful
i think it was still getting updates after the single player dlc got canned
Great review, in depth as expected but you brought up a bunch of things I'd completely spaced.
I'd completely forgotten about the quest structure, loading screens, and crafting. A couple more abilities would have nice. I also forgot about some of the insta kill abilities and random spawns. I see you missed Cora's love of the Asari though, I wish she'd mentioned that once or twice.
I gave this game a: Turian made me a steak/10.
Cora liked the Asari?!?! I never noticed. The writing was too layered😂
The combat was the silver lining for Andromeda. I hope it carries over and is expanded with the next Mass Effect game.
I too agree that granpa Drack is the best companion for Andromeda. I really like listening to many of his stories, the one you talk to for 'been there, done that' advice.
There's also great Krogan characters, like Kesh, who is really blunt and loves talking shit about her colleagues and Vorn, innocent for a Krogan and goofy at romance(still succeeds lol).
In my opinion, companion banter is one of the best Bioware has done for their games, as long as you have one good companion with you.
Hell yeah!
God bless your heart for putting up with this game. I normally finish games, but I couldn't make it pass the first 3 or 4 hours.
The combat was my favorite part of the game. Looking forward to seeing your thoughts brought to life in this review
Mass Effect Andromeda was a fun experience, I enjoyed the game 👏👏👏
I got this on sale for $10 and feel it was a good price for the content. Had I paid a full $60, I may have been more soured on my experience. Plus, I got it post-patch, and after all the negative hype.
The story is really forgettable as it's a bunch of retreading from ME1 and 2, especially with the Collectors and the Prothean being taken and made the Kett and Remnant, respectively.
So, unknown alien threat, old tech can save you, and I'll avoid spoilers on how much more they're alike.
I got it for like 2.50 dollars from origin themselves on a super sale! (base game...don't think there was DLC anyways)
@@RatusMaxI just checked, looks like there's a "deluxe" version, but I think it only came with a few bonus items, nothing I recall even using.
Sadly, the DLC for this got canned.
Its not that good of a deal seeing that this games bad to the point I would need to be paid to actually play it and even then it's hard to stomach this game. Idk it's just missing that magic ME trilogy had.
I got it for 8 and felt it was crap anyways
I got it for $10 on sale too and had a lot of fun playing it. Not as good as the original trilogy but a good game overall. I didn't have a problem with the mission structure except for the missions that incorporated an element of randomness to them, for example "Watchers" on Eos. These missions almost ruined the game for me, and there are some on every planet, but I managed to finish them all anyway. Also, the optional Progenitor boss is frustratingly tough without using cobra rpgs.
I just started andromeda, but I thought the start wasnt too bad actually. I did read the Andromeda books, and it is really cool to meet those characters ingame.
I’m about to try Andromeda for the first time. Would you recommend the novels first?
EA ditching support for Andromeda was a travesty
This is such a great review! You honestly nailed all of the good, bad and ok aspects of this game. I was so bummed with this game after the first three ME games. Your comments on the unusually long loading screens was spot on along with the “quest” aspects. I really wanted to give this game a fair shot like you did. Cheers!
I just finished the game last night, and this video popped up in my recommended. Well put together review! I agree with everything you said. Combat did get repetitive with the repeating enemies. Liam was also my least favorite companion, and also feel the story could of been more. Seemed also convenient that every settlement you landed at happened to also be near the Remnant technology you needed to work with. I do wish they did more with the worms on the desert planet, as well as many other things they only just reference.
Came across this after all the ME '4' talk, and a lot of what you say were the issues I felt the same. Though they definitely did not fix all but the insignificant bugs, after finally forcing myself to actually play it through (I quit before even doing the Nexus prologue when I got it).
First, if you take a faraway general view, MEA was retelling ME1-3, with added plot threads that are never explored b/c the game got abandoned by Bioware/EA. The 'kett' are the 'reapers', they want to exalt ('harvest') sentient races. The Archon is their 'Saren/Sovereign', and their overall leader is not addressed (MEA2 or MEA3 would do that).
That still leaves the threads of the Jardaan, their Revenant, and the 'scourge' - which was the REAL endgame desire of Bioware IMO. You would need to find its history, then the 'cure', to fix the Andromeda galaxy. All of which meant far more than 3 games to resolve.
AFA the bugs, Voeld does not improve - ever - even though your AI says it did. I have fallen through the map multiple times and the game even damages the character/vehicle when it resets that 'fall'. Multiple quests could not be finished b/c the last enem(y/ies) either flew off the map or fused into a structure.
And that tape-measure 'radar' was abysmal. No concept of distance, or 'behind'. Which would be easily solvable with gradient intensity and alternate colors.
It had the potential of being good, but their EA ownership meant timelines were more important than quality
I will be honest, after it had 6 months of patching (which it should never have needed, but that's a different issue relating to bioware's relationship to EA) I quite liked it. It definitely had a very different feel to the original trilogy and I think comparing it to that entire trilogy is unfair. It feels like the "colonising new space" vibe, which I think it does well. It's not dealing with massive galactic threat the same way the original trilogy did, it's more "how to I help the colonists survive and thrive", which I found to be a nice change. It's not like it doesn't have any issues, but I think it's good enough to be a part of the Mass Effect universe.
00:30 (thirty seconds in) It is testimony to how good the Mass Effect Trilogy was that basically everyone just "had to know" about Andromeda.
My biggest gripe with this game is the movement. It's so sluggish. It feels like I'm maneuvering a ferry around and not a human. Sailing all over the place.
there are touches i love in this game. such as certain points people left on the ship can comment on the situation via comm link. like when you first go to kadara port, ryder comments that the lake is on fire. if you take Drack, he says "bet i could drink it." and Dr. Lexi will chime in " Drack, NO!!!" just stuff like that kills me :P
The most annoying thing to me was running around between the quest points in those typical tasks like crime investigation or talking to different characters
I love that it will still rain inside my helmet, and stay dry on the outside
This is bringing back a flood of memories. I remember putting in 70+ hours thinking it surely has to get better. I was in denial of this game. I found it repetitive, go to a different planet, do the same thing and fight the same enemies. Companion wise not sure if it was some were lacking or just some were forced onto you, it felt like certain companions had more attention romance or not. Romance wise I remember going Vetra and the pacing of it was horrible. I remember questioning if I was still in romance with her because other companions were still offering and some repeatedly. UI was horrible back in the day, it actually looks better from what I remember. Bug wise I got off easy, only main one I had is building the colony and the building structure loaded in on top of the nomad, you could see it just twitching under the structure. All in all this is the game that broke me. No longer do I pre-purchase, which for me has worked out better, I dodged the Cyberpunk early game bullet. I don't trust developers not anymore and this is the game that opened my eyes to that. Sorry for the novel comment but damn this game.
I would like to point out the last mission of the game. It's made really interesting, the world is beautiful, and most importantly, it gathers almost all the characters whose trust you've earned during the game. Which satisfied me, as did the ending with a very fitting song. I'd say the game is really not bad at this point. Yeah, I can't say it's great, I'd say it's good enough. The exploration, the battles were able to keep me engrossed for a hundred hours. So did some of the characters, and yes, I like Peebee. I'd also like to mention that although Liam is rather faded, his loyalty mission is not only interesting gameplay-wise, but also very funny in its story. The non-serious mood suits this mission very well.
All in all, I wish the story had gotten a sequel, at least DLC. In fact, you can see the potential in the game. If you work on the quests and story, close some plot holes and the sequel would have been a great game.
I appreciate that the developers tried to do something new and I think that this part is not that much worse than the first Mass Effect. After it too there were a lot of questions, unclear moments, the secondary quests were quite controversial and monotonous, as was the exploration of rather empty planets, in my opinion. But the story and characters were better than in Andromeda. And the sequel took all aspects of the game to the next level. I think the Andromeda sequel could repeat the fate of the original series in this regard. But it didn't work out, and that's a shame.
Your last paragraph is spot on!
It’s much better than it was at the very beginning. Decent story and better gameplay. Excited for the next mass effect
If this game was called anything but Mass Effect I think it would be praised. You could almost put the game in the Star Trek universe, and it would work alright. People just really wanted another high action Sheppard adventure and instead got a slower paced explorer story.
Imho, encountering only two species makes sense in the ME universe. Without Mass Relays interstellar travel in the Andromeda galaxy is very limited. You actually explore only a very small part of it. In the Milky Way species pretty much only met thenks to the relay network. With only regular FTL you are very unlikely to cross the mean distance between different orign worlds of civilized species. It's even factored into the story with the Kett coming from very far away and operating more like a nomadic invader (same for the milky way people) as they have no contact with the center of their empire.
Yeah, it's ME's restrictions without relays.
Exactly, it's strange how so many people miss this fact, but there is also another aspect to this. If there were more species in Andromeda, it would quickly become very confusing and hard to differentiate them from the already large group of Milky Way species, especially for new players.
Great stuff, your opinion reflects many of my own impressions of the game when I played through about half of it. The only thing I'd personally add is that I remember missing something about controlling ally abilities, which if my memory was right on that would be the big thing I would change if they were dead set on giving you three abilities.
And actually the multiplayer was pretty rad, a bit scuffed on the monetization side but it felt great!.
This game presents itself as a single player game but in reality functions like an mmo, and it just never kind of sticks to one thing trying to be multiple things at the same time. All the quests except the main ones are filler quests that you see in mmo's and the areas are locked until you do this special thing (like the tower thing in Assassins Creed). The only saving grace of this game is the combat, how you can build your own Rayder (with the skills mixing) and the multiplayer, that's it. Probably my most disappointed game I've bought along side Dragon Age 2.
Edit: Oh and then they cut the support of the game before we could see the Quarian Ark, just to piss everyone off even more.
I would rate this as a solid 7/10 game. If it had just been a new IP with no relation to Mass Effect I think it probably would have been forgotten rather than receiving the hatred it did. After the backlash to ME3s ending though, Bioware needed better than a broken launch and a 7/10 product once it was fixed
I was a major ME nerd, and when I got this, I wrote a letter to EA explaining that they really let me down and I was upset. I was like 10 hours in on launch day or day after. EA Origin was notoriously unfriendly when I did this so I expected to be ignored - but to their credit they refunded me immediately. I have thought better of EA since then. But still - this game is terrible. I have a funny ranking I give games - I will say "This game loves its players!" or "This game hates its players..." This game? Hates its players.
Oh man, I forgot about Loyalty missions. I have to say, man, your review is VERY accurate. Much respect!
I liked it. It was my first Mass Effect. The vision of what the game was suppose to be is a far cry from what we got sadly. Still gave me the feels for a few days after beating it. Drack and Vetra are my homies.
@@BossKillRatio You would recommened playing Mass Effect 2 and 3? even without playing 1? is it not good or something?
@@whytry4682 I know you commented a year ago but I'll answer. mass effect 1 is very dated. It's good, but it's 2007 good, not timeless good.
@@TheJonesdude haha i played 1 and 2 now, loved them. just cant bring myself to play 3 for some reason. ill get to it some day!
It would've been so cool honestly if you had three abilities, but your two companions had an ability each to give you a total of five, and then you'd be able to make biotic combos off them by giving them primers and yourself all these fun detonator abilities to work with. Not letting you properly control your companions is the biggest flaw with the combat, honestly.
Enjoyed the combat, nearly quit halfway through Liam's loyalty mission.
Lol I haven’t played in years and all I remember is thinking he was a dumbass
Liam deserved two in the head just to prevent further dangers to the rest of the crew. Andromeda HR obviously had a very low bar for recruitment to the program.
i cant really pinpoint why i stopped playing andromeda because i didnt really dislike it in some points specifically. but it wasnt enough enticement for me to play through and i basically played through all the other bioware rpgs.
When I got it on day one I played it all in like 3 days. 60 hours absolutely loved it and didn't get any gamebreaking bugs. But last time I started it up I started noticing flaws here and there. Still like it. The gameplay is the best of all the ME games. But seen as the Devs only got like 2 years to make it. On an engine that apparently is really hard to work with. I say not bad at all.
Gameplay is literally just a worse version of me3
@@mlg5had0w34 no it's not. The cover system in 3 sucks russian dick.
I've now played through it 3 times, and I can confidently say that I really enjoyed Andromeda. The Story's actually somewhat interesting, the Squadmates are great and very well-written, and the game is very fun. Vetra is bae, and Drack is the best space grandpa.
Though the game does have its flaws. The Character Creation, how Powers/Abilities are mapped out, a few story beats, and I hate the Tempests cockpit, among other things. Choices weren't great, but I think that's mostly because we never got a sequel to flesh them out and offer some explanations. I even avoided it for a few years 'cause of its reputation.
The Exiles make no sense whatsoever. During the "first contact" mission when we first visit the Angara main planet they make it a big deal that this is the real thing, the first time the Milky Way races meet with these strange aliens and vice versa. The translator was not really working, people were pointing fingers at us on the streets, making comments of our alien looks etc. However, it turns out that other than Eos, in every other planet the Milky Way races of the exiles are already co-existing with the local Angara for a year at least. Like in Kadara or even in Elaaden or the exploded planet, you can see outcasts (Milky Way races) living together with the Angara ot fighting them, the first scene when you arrive to Kadara port is a bunch of human guards beating up an Angara. People from the Nexus make regular visits to Kadara, so apparently they are aware of them too but still act like we just met a new race ... Makes no sense.
Graphically, my biggest issue was the fact the all Asari, other than Peebee look the same. I mean, they are the same model, they might have a different face paint but the character models are identical, like they were all twin sisters. This was not the case in the main trilogy and just feels lazy.
I agree with most of what you said. However this is my favourite Mass Effect game. The gameplay is just fun. I enjoyed the story. The companion quests were all great (even those for the less interesting companions - Hello Liam!). I got around the less than ideal quest structure just by doing as much as I could on each planet when I was there. Once I'd progressed as far as I could I'd hop over to another planet and continue the quests there. It was not great for a narrative standpoint, but it worked for me.
Another outstanding review..concur 100 % . Like I mentioned in your previous Andromeda vid it's not terrible 6 out of 10 if I had to give it a number.
My playthrough of MEA was 118 hours, and I got it with DA: Inquisition (160 hours) for 14 euros in a bundle sometime ago. Speaking of value for money, it couldn't be better than this lol.
Your review couldn't be more accurate of what I think of the characters, gameplay and the story. What I wanted to add is what annoyed the shit out of me is the landing/taking off animation which you could never skip. I spear it added a few hours of gametime over the while playthrough. As always, nice video.
I agree with most of what you say in your interview, but I still found myself replaying this game more than any other Mass Effect game because the combat was so much more fun. Granted, I play with mods which rebalance the combat and reduce some of the lag time on unlocking skills and crafting, not to mention restoring some cut content and fixing some bugs, so my experience isn't the same as someone playing it 'out of the box.'
I would love for a sequel to give us a new character where we could choose their species and basic combat class from the multiplayer class options, where Ryder acts as a mentor figure (set it, say, 10 years in the future) and you get to lead missions to open up new sections of the galaxy and encounter new species and such. The section of the galaxy you explore in Andromeda is small enough that there is a huge amount of potential for setting up a richer and more interconnected sociaety in Andromeda, like in the Milky Way, to give it the depth and complexity you would expect from a Mass Effect game.
No one wants a sequel to this. Glad its forgotten forever
So when I played DAI, there were aspects of the combat that felt like they may have borrowed some "cheap" tricks from ME to make battles last longer. ME 2 had two types of shields, one was the basic type that gets depleted taking damage and has to be recharged and then there was somethin called Barrier, which was like a super shield that can absorb a lot of damage and were primarily used by enemy bosses in ME 2 and mechs. It was a surprise to see this "barrier" spell make its way over to DAI where it made some of the fights unfairly challenging, providing immunity to elemental damage as well as virtually make mages into bullet sponges. Right there I could see what the eventual ME game was going to be like and I was right, but the larger offense was the writing relied on the same outline as DAI, where the focus is on your character relationships more so than the overall threat. So the bad guy is merely a generic cookie cutter boss to fight at the end . The characters in DAI were also not evenly created. Most of them were dull and the one stand out was obviously tied to the greater plot of the game (Solus) so like a generic sequel you can pretty much tell how the plot is going to go forward.
24:10
I know I'm a little late.
But the decision to be three skills is usually tied to the console audience, since there we have reduced numbers of keybinds. Usually skills being linked to RB (R1), LB (L1) and the combination of RB+LB (R1+L1)
I enjoyed this game, I played it at launch and again when the mass effect remaster came out. The combat was the best in the series. One thing that bothered me is how close the Krogan colony was to the black hole
A very good and fair review of the game. The patches and fixes brought the game from D grade to C+/B-. Maybe had they released the DLCs they had planned, that might have pulled it up to an A- or even A grade. We'll never know. I do have to disagree on $30.00 as a fair price for the game--I'd say $20.00 is much more reasonable or waiting until a sale and getting it for less.
Now that it’s been 6 years since Andromeda came out, we would have gotten the rest of the andromeda trilogy by now. Sadly it’s something we will never see. Based on the original trilogy releasing in 2007, 2010, and 2012. That would’ve put the andromeda games releasing in 2017, 2020, and 2022. Wish EA/Bioware would’ve just stuck with Andromeda. Andromeda 1 could’ve been fixed with dlc and refined in andromeda 2. Andromeda 1 was just a starting point, look at how much better mass effect 2 improved upon mass effect 1. Andromeda is probably my most disappointing game of all time with how it was just completely abandoned…
Also: it felt like this game had the frame work to be a 10/10 game but just flopped in several areas. Seems like a whoever was in charge of this game could’ve identified these flaws in testing and corrected them.
Frostbite engine has ruined many devs teams in EA. I am still so butthurt how EA basically ruined C&C franchise & failed to revive the franchise because of (once again) technical problems with frostbite engine.
Dont blame the engine, blame the decision makers who force it on the devs and not allow them enough time to familiarise themselves with it.
Love your channel.
And for this game i really enjoyed playing it. The exploration was nice and meeting the i guess he was named architect for the first time was amazing.
So gameplay and the unknown of what to find was my big plus in this game.
REALLY interested in you making an hour long video about ME:A story and its faults.
edit: And I think it was explained that kett can't procreate. So they use this exaltation to create more kett. There is something beyond all that.
Thanks for this more long-form content. 37 minutes I can tune in and listen to, when I’m in bed or in the car. Thanks for this!
Great review. While I don’t disagree with anything you said, in fact I think you nailed this review. I still loved this game. I played it with a bunch of mods though that made the action even faster paced but also cheated on materials so crafting was very viable, which kind of broke the game. Did this because I was looking for a relaxing action game at the time vs a challenge. I think if people go in to this game in the right frame of mind, they could have a ton of fun with it. But definitely a flawed game. Thanks for the video!!!
I really liked most of this game, I like where they took the combat and exploration, but I think it was just a little too different for fans to let all the negatives slide like they usually do
As far as plot holes go, when the big bad evil ket guy said he wanted to blackmail the galaxy with the remnant terraformer into accepting exaltation, I was shocked.
The man had access to tech that could remotely manipulate DNA, and instead of instantaneous galaxy wide exaltation, his plan.....was blackmail.
Horrible writing is horrible.
@@Fragenzeichenplatte Yes.
@@Fragenzeichenplatte Its a logical failing. Simply have it be that he needs time to get the machine going, and bamm, its fine.
@@Fragenzeichenplatte Its not their tech, of course its gonna take time to reconfigure the terraformers. You are defending a bad position. Your logic is poor. Yield.
Actually played this recently for the same reason you did and very much agree with you. The game itself for me felt like they took the uncharted world/mako missions and tried their hardest too make them work and it did in many ways but they invested so much in doing so, the rest of the game suffered.
I didn't personally have that much issue with the quest structure. I just finished one planet at a time, and then I usually had few quests where I had to go back to an old planet, I did those and moved on to a next planet. Also I think that worked well for world building, because it made it feel that the whole galaxy was connected and people actually moved between planets, not just Ryder or Shephard in the trilogy.
I personally hated fighing the Remnant architechs. You just did same thing for 15 minutes over and over again. All architects were the same.
It would've been really neat if there was some variation to architects. They are giant terraforming robots, tie their actions to their environment!
Ah, what could've been were this a game with a more focused development.
I agree. Actually surprised about bashing it. I mean take ME1 side quests. To me no one can say there were any good. Just couple level iterations spawned all over again with essentially completely meaningless plot.
Game had a lot of issues, but honestly I was really interested in the setting and I enjoyed playing it through even though playing it at launch.
I wish they had continued this part of the franchise. I wanted to learn more about the Ark ships and the Andromeda galaxy.
Combat was the only best thing about this game in the series
Pretty spot on. To preface, i got this almost a year and a half after release. Started the game and quit for under a year due to the beginning then returned. I loved the exploration, combat (besides only the 3 abilities), general mobility, and some interesting stuff to do and learn. To me most of the rest was just okay if a bit bland and forgettable but there was definitely a bit of some pretty glaringly poor stuff. And now that you point it out I'm remembering that quest structure absolutely as being absolutely horrid. But man, to go back to my positives, exploration, combat and mobility just felt so damn fluid to me. Such a shame that such a forgettable game felt so good to move around in.
I'm also a little bit of a weirdo and actually kinda grew to like Peebee and ended up doing her romance for that first playthrough. I remember not liking her at all before I initially quit. During those months, however, I started playing dungeons and dragons so I actually really appreciate her chaotic but well meaning energy in contrast to this terrible player we had who used his chaotic alignment to essentially be an awful party member, make things extremely difficult and ultimately derail my first campaign. She definitely had a habit of getting us into trouble, but unlike that player it wasn't trouble I couldn't handle. I found myself shaking my head and chuckling at her pretty often and she kind of saved chaotic characters for me so I've got a little soft spot for her.
I think objectively, Andromeda isn't a "BAD" game, but its undoubtedly disappointing, if it wasn't a Mass effect game it'd be a so so scifi game, but after the Mass Effect trilogy, they really needed to step it up😒
Stop being apologetic to garbage, no wonder the games industry f'n sucks..
I couldnt drag myself to the finish on this one ..
Edit-the game not the video, video is great
Great review! This game was such a letdown for me, the combat is really good but the characters, the story and the open world structure of the game are so boring. Fingers crossed for the next Mass Effect.
I think there are other species in the Andromeda galaxy just not in the star cluster where the game takes place.
I got this at launch and had a lot of fun with it. I didn't like many of the gameplay changes between the first two Mass Effect games like the switch to ammo dependent weapons and the gutting of planetary exploration so having a decent selection of overheat guns and the return to vehicle exploration made me very happy. While I didn't like the characters and story as much as the earlier games in the series there were some questions I was hoping would be answered by DLC or a sequel that now will probably never be answered.
The biggest plot hole I found in the game was how the Angara managed to Keep their Planet Aya hidden. I would think that the first exalted Angara with knowledge of its location would say something. Also, did you know Cora used to be an Asari huntress? I don't think she mentioned that very often. 😉
Good review man. Very knowledgeable. Gameplay was amazing. I thought the addition of the jump jet was a better inclusion in the series more than the combat roll from ME3. Story……it felt like a straight to DVD story that I would find in a rest stop DVD bargain bin.
"This game is not as bad as people say" I wanted to tell you that I admire you, I love your videos and I hope you continue like this, I just wanted to extrapolate this sentence to remind that people bought this game at Day One after 5 years of production , trailer, hype and received... This... A game in a new galaxy with practically only one alien race and a script from disneychunnel + series. And nobody had prepared them for this, with facial animations that you didn't have. And then Anthem came out, another demonstration that good writers have left Bioware... What bad memories...
Yeah I talked about all that towards the end as well
I know it's not part of either of your usual channel contents but I would love to listen to you and WolfheartFPS talk RPGs. Especially CRPGs. That would be such an interesting and fun potential conversation.
I'd like to see, rather than the spinoff being dropped, getting a sequel that retcons and fixes everything we can clearly tell is a problem with the game.
Proper budget, team given as much time as needed to get it right... actual writers.
This felt like an intro cut short.
It says a lot that over the years they only fixed the graphics a bit because the were so heavily memed and embarrassed EA to the point that they told the people working on Anthem to make sure it was "unmemeable". The rest of it, the UI, crafting, all the stuff they COULD fix without having to rip the games' guts out they never bothered with
i think for me the sad part of andromeda at the end of the day was that it was forgettable. ive played games ive loved and then replayed them again and again, and ive played games i disliked so much that i couldnt even finish them. but in both cases they left enough of a mark for me to form a distinct memorable opinion of them. personally i think one of the worst things a game can be for me, is so mediocre that it is just forgettable and then i end up with zero desire to even pick it up again. to me that is almost worse than being an outright bad game.
@@truthseeker6532 your screen name tells me all i need to know, it has nothing to do with me being "controlled by the media" its just an opinion i have that is different from yours. im not gonna argue with you over an opinion. i felt like the game was forgettable and you obviously didnt. both opinions can be true at the same time and i dont have to justify my thoughts about the game to anyone.
Decided to give it a shot after playing legendary edition. I'm actually really loving the open world exploring/story and peebee is actually a qt3.14. Sidequests are also a pleasant surprise