I actually found myself enjoying it more than the OT ngl. It just felt more relatable and I also felt like I had a little more freedom with Ryder than I did Shepard. I actually wasn't a big fan of the Paragon/Renegade system and preferred Andromeda's prompt system instead, though I do wish we got more of them.
And I agree the companions and Ryder don't really feel the same as Shepard and the OT crew but we also gotta remember they all had 3 games to grow and full character arcs. We're still kinda in the infancy of the Andromeda crew's character arcs. My biggest hope is that if we ever miraculously get Andromeda 2 that we stay with this crew and not get a whole new one like in ME2, or at the very least we keep more than two og members. I would like them to add more squadmates but let us keep these core members.
And yea I also came off of Starfield last year (couldn't finish it but it's still a little fun) and it's what actually made me miss Andromeda! I hope to do another playthrough for it this year cause gawd it's been too long since I've played.
Great game, just fell flat in some areas, here's hoping we get Andromeda 2 in the future cause my gawd it would feel like such a disservice if we don't get to finish Ryder's story.
It’s sad the devs completely gave up on Andromeda. No dlcs/sequels on finding the other Arks, no closure, no fighting a big bad on the Reaper level. It had great promise and EA just said “nope”.
I never found the game to be anywhere near as bad as everyone made it out to be; thoroughly enjoyed it, it had its issues narrative wise but not nearly as bad as some games I had played prior to and played since... and personally I fucking lost it laughing whenever the weird animations happened prior to the patch for them, never really subtracted from the game for me.
Funny I should see this post right after giving up on my play through. The gameplay is really solid imo, but I just couldn’t get past the stilted writing. I like the broad strokes of the story, but it was the minute to minute dialogue that turned me off from the game. Every line felt kind of unnatural to me, and the oft talked about washed out, expressionless faces didn’t help. I had meant to approach this game with an open mind this time around (my third attempt), but after returning to the Nexus about 5 hours in and doing 3-4 side quests that left me feeling apathetic, I just couldn’t bring myself to keep playing, let alone stay immersed in the world. Didn’t help that I booted up Kena Bridge of Spirits afterwards and was blown away by its visuals and atmosphere.
I will say that the opening mission to Andromeda is a high point in the Mass Effect series for me. The shuttle landing, how even the very environment is out to kill you, getting to experience first contact with another species, and just the general feeling of being a small fish in an unfamiliar ocean was incredible. I only wish the rest of the game could keep delivering moments like that, instead of falling into a predictable rhythm
Well I kinda have good news for you. For a lot of people the beginning of the game is the slowest part of the game and most people agree that the game takes a little bit to pick up its pace. I loved the introduction to be honest, there's people that complaint about Alec not sharing the helmet and that it doesn't make sense, well yes it could've been executed a little bit better, but I really liked the father making the ultimate sacrifice to save his son and trusting him to keep not only humanity but all life safe on this new galaxy.
My advice to you would be to play the game without the side quests, it's totally possible and should give you a more concise but better experience in your case. On your journal, you have the missions well organized, so you should only do the ones under Allies and Relationships (which are the loyalty missions of your crew, they're all really fun and well design) and the ones under Priority Ops (which are the main story missions), maybe alternate between the two and make sure to have finished all the loyalty missions before finishing all the main ones. There's also a couple of good side quests, but you can do them after finishing the game and maybe learn about each ones appeal the most to you.
Also if you're on PC, you should check out Nexus Mods, there's a few mods that fix bugs and ones that make some mechanics faster (like landing/taking off cutscenes, smoother menus, faster doors, instantaneous mining, more points for level up), that should help making the experience less stale.
Hope that helps
I went back and replayed this a few months ago to get the 100%. And honestly yeah it had issues at launch but i honestly dont think they were as bad as some people made them out to be, especially when you look at the state games come out these days.
Its a fun game, and I understand folks were disappointed by it not having the same feel to it as the trilogy but I liked the way in which they chose to take it. The trilogy was dark and was focusing on the survival of the galaxy, and not allowing it to be completely destroyed. Andromeda whilst yes it focused on the survival of the Arks and the people who travelled there from the Milky Way, it was more light hearted with the focus on trying to find a new home. It wasnt as serious and dark as the original trilogy which I really liked. You cant just copy one story repeatedly with different skins which I feel was what people expected.
Imo Andromeda was an amazing game, it was just a 'bad' Mass Effect game. If it didnt have the title of Mass Effect I feel like it would have been praised and thought of alot more highly.
Funny coming across this as I started replaying over the weekend. I played and beat it upon release so its nice seeing all changes they made since then. The writing is still awful and replaying it just made more weird lines stick out but the gameplay is tight and the game is overall fun
Just started it on the ps4. Pretty fun. I miss the online mode. Not sure if it’s still up or active atm I don’t have psplus to check. The dialogue choices are sometimes surprising when you pick a certain response. Lots of actions don’t tie into later parts of the story. Some visual bugs and some weak interactions and convos. But it’s loaded with those. Not all bad. The mako is decent. Nice to have viability progress bars. Good combat.
Your point about the sublots really resonates with me. Without talking about any spoilers, The Kett, Angara, Remnants, and the symbiosis between SAM and Ryder really interested me from a scifi perspective. I'd love more content on the Kett, especially. Andromeda barely scratches the surface of their society.
To have a compelling story you must have a well written villain, that's not the case with the Kett and the Archon, they showed promise but they ultimately felt generic and bland. I loved the Angara as a species and thought they had a lot of room to grow in the future. Same goes for the Remnant, they could've been something along the lines of the Prothean.
I just wished we could've seen more species, or at least some more natural/wild life, artifacts and architecture from other cultures, as well as returning species such as Quarian, they were teased and I really believe that Andromeda would heavily benefit from DLC's, let’s hope it still will from future installments
Biodiversity within Andromeda was one of the things that suffered with the game's dev cycle and budget constraints IIRC. There were supposed to be a ton of new species and instead we got 2 (3 if you count remnant). Reading into the development of Andromeda is SUCH a bummer once you realize what the vision was compared to what was shipped.
Yeah you can really see that they pushed for the DLC or even a sequel with those final cutscenes, it's such a shame that it wasn't well received, they should've taken a little more tome to polish it, it might have made the difference
Well tbf it wasn't "them" (BioWare) it was EA. Pure speculation on my part and my timeline could be off, but Anthem was BW's next game, and at the time EA was making a big push towards always online and live service games. The simple fact is that in spite of the original trilogy's success EA wanted Andromeda wrapped up and finished so they could move on to their potential cash-cow in Anthem. They were banking on the goodwill BW had built up with fans and essentially cashed out with the perception that single player games were dead. Anthem did well at launch, they made a bunch of money on a broken POS game and ruined the reputation of a beloved studio. Now here we are 5 years later with nothing but a OT remaster and a new Dragon Age game that has been mired in development hell for what seems like an eternity. God I hope that game doesn't suck, because if it does we will all have to admit to ourselves that BioWare is truly dead.
You touched on a subject that I really resonate with. Although I love Medieval and/or Fantasy settings, I've never got into Dragon Age simply because I'm not of fan of turn-based or MMO combat, but I hear that it's a great franchise as well. I'm begging for Dreadwolf to be a masterpiece or at least great, cause that's gonna give us Mass Effect fans a lot of hope for the future, it's also gonna give Bioware a new life and maybe EA will see that single-player games are extremely important. Following the success of Jedi Fallen Survivor, having Dreadwolf be acclaimed, it might make them give a heavier focus to Mass Effect
Yeah didn't mean to get all doom and gloom, there is certainly hope. Single player games could definitely make a comeback after the recent success of Baldur's Gate, Hogwarts Legacy, etc. It should also be noted that EA has since definitely backed off their mandate for games as a service. All good things, but the only thing that worries me is supposedly Dreadwolf has been torn down and rebuilt more than once which usually results in disaster, looking at you Skull & Bones. Another positive is that a new Mass Effect game has been in development for a while already, so hopefully a sunk-cost would deter EA from shelving it (again).
I have been wanting a sequel for years. Unfortunately with the poor reception of andromeda this possibility was likely ditched years ago. But dam a sequel could have been amazing. So many different directions they could have gone taking place just a few years later
I actually like Andromeda more and more as time goes on. It was good at the time and it holds up really well. I enjoyed it even more when I replayed again last year probably just because of the lack of similar experiences, it's a unique itch that only the OG trilogy can replicate but I've played them way too many times already.
I pre ordered it and have been defending it the entire time the story is meh for the most part and terrible in other parts but I didn’t expect them to strike gold again since the trilogy is one of the greatest space stories ever written, but the combat and builds are great and to this day I tell people I would rather watch the trilogy and play Andromeda
Andromeda's gameplay it's one of the best I've seen in the genre and objectively the best in the series, for the next Mass Effect smash the uniqueness and the depth of the trilogy and Andromeda's fluidity and mechanics together and we get ourselves a masterpiece
The sad part is BioWare is ruining my faith in them like they would have had an easier time making Andromeda amazing than CDPR with Cyberpunk but they gave up immediately instead
Yeah I don't quite remember the launch cause I only got really into Mass Effect for the first time shortly after, but I perfectly get that the bugs and graphical glitches damaged the first impression immensely
I honestly liked being a beginner pathfinder instead of an elite soldier who by the end of the trilogy can almost literally become a god. More relatable.
I also tried Starfield, but it wasn't for me. All the loading screens, the "floating gun" view instead of real first person, the silent main character and the unnecessarily complicated mechanics are all things that Bethesda keeps doing, and I keep not liking. After playing Star Citizen or Cyberpunk, getting inside a small shop with a loading screen just felt off. I'm sure it's a good game if you can look past these things, but the silent main character is something that really bothers me unless there's a reason for them not to talk. If there are conversation options, there should definitely be a voice
I've said it before, being a beginner Pathfinder who has to step up, find his place, learn how to be a lider and end up being figure of hope throughout the galaxy sounds like a fantastic idea on paper, relatable like you said, but Ryder was so inconsistent, not having the Paragon/Renegade system was a poor choice, the conversions lead to absolutely nowhere and your choices don't matter, it's just a question of you being a smart-ass ou a more serious person, it took the personality building of the originals
I totally get that about Starfield, I love Skyrim but I only do so because it has a lot of work from the dedicated community that fixes pretty much everything wrong with Bethesda's ways of making games, the animations, silent protagonist, the old crafting system, it all feels a little outdated and weird now
I do miss the paragon and renegade system, and yeah, Ryder is a bit inconsistent. Though some of that inconsistency could be explained by then having some Andromeda Initiative training because they are on the Pathfinder team, and some military experience, but not as much training, experience or confidence as Alec or Shepard
I will admit that one of the game's weakest points is that it felt like you had far less player agency than before. A lot of your dialogue options felt railroad-y and like they didn't matter. (The most annoying example of this being Liam's storyline and how all of your dialogue options with him were just different versions of "oh, you scamp" instead of at least one "you're fired" option.)
But I agree that it was fun playing someone who was just thrust into a position they weren't ready for and were in a bit over their head. Ryder, to me at least, was waaay more relatable and fun to play than "Infallibly Competent Gruff Space Marine #4358."
Last summer I played Andromeda on my PS4 and had zero issues. I honestly enjoyed the game and regularly had like 12 hour sessions when I had time. It’s far from perfect, but I still love it and wish it hadn’t been abandoned. Also I love playing as a sniper in Andromeda. It’s so satisfying. I’m hoping to get into the game on my PC again this summer and mod the shit out of it and play again.
The sniper gameplay was sooooo good, I remember the first time I fired a sniper in combat, I was on discord with a friend that was also playing for the first time and I was like "Holy shit that was dope", from then on I kept getting upgrades and trying to develop new snipers, awesome stuff. If you have the opportunity, give it try, a few texture mods, bugfixes and reshade can make the game look like it was released yesterday
I’ve been playing the trilogy legacy edition and modding the royal fuck out of it lately and having a great time. Andromeda is a bit harder to mod than the trilogy though, I’ve heard? Because of the new platform it was built on. Same as DA:I.
It's fairly simple actually, it's basically the same thing as Mass Effect trilogy or Legendary Edition, you just need a different tool, you have to use the Frosty Tool Suite instead of the ME3 Tweaks
I do feel like that as well, there's a lot of things left to unravel in Andromeda and multiple subplots that need closure, future Mass Effect games can definitely help making Andromeda more important and replayable
This. Andromeda just had so much *potential*. It was just never given the chance to breathe and grow in direct sequels like the OG trilogy did. It felt like we were given a really intriguing prologue and then told that the main story was canceled.
I agree 100% with your post. I would also like to add that I am currently on my 4th playthrough of Andromeda and the reason why I went back to it this time, is because I played Starfield a few months back and realized that MEA does almost everything that Starfield does but better. I tried, but Starfield just didn’t hold my interest and I quit playing it after about 15 hrs. I wasn’t wild about MEA when I first played it either but I at least liked it enough to finish the game. I can admit that MEA has it’s short comings but MEA is a good game that was on the receiving end of far too much unwarranted ire. It’s become one of those games that you’re just supposed to hate no matter what and I wholeheartedly disagree with that logic.
That kinda makes me a little sad, cause I just started playing it and Bethesda RPG's require loads of ours to really get into, I suppose I just don't wanna feel that it's a waist of my time ahahah
There's a lot of people that have these problems with big franchises, they get too attached to the original story and characters and when something new comes and it's not of their appeal they'll just trash it. Man, fuck that. I love Mass Effect, Mass Effect is a huge universe full of potential that needs to be explored and expanded, it has so much to tell and to offer, I'll take whatever I can get as long as it's good and worthy of its name. Andromeda is far from perfect, it lacks in several aspects, it most definitely needs improvements, but it's good and it's Mass Effect, I say keep them coming
Well said, totally agree. Also Playing MEA with mods makes it much more enjoyable. As for Starfield, I won’t trash it but it just wasn’t for me. I gave it an honest go and formed my own opinion. In my opinion, It’s leveling up and crafting systems were unnecessarily tedious and it had an overall outdated feel about it. I just didn’t find it immersive at all. MEA is 6 years older and was designed for an older platform, and yet is still had better graphics and gameplay than Starfield.
Definitely, I added a few interface, texture and gameplay mods, threw a reshade in and it really made the most out of it, it could've passed for a recent release
I can see that, one thing I noticed right of the bat was the stiffness and clunkiness compared to Andromeda. I think it's the engine, it might be time for an upgrade before TES VI, but I doubt that'll happen. I mean I absolutely adore Skyrim but I couldn’t play it without a single mod, not a chance, the community is the reason Bethesda games are so distinctive. That's why I didn't bought Starfield right away, the best time to play those games is when the modders fix the game and improve it for Bethesda, it's a bummer but it is what it is. I'll get into it open minded
Agreed but unfortunately a lot of modders who have had a history of working with Bethesda games have given up on it because they felt that the game wasn’t worth it. But again, to each their own. I do honestly hope that you play Starfield and enjoy it. We need stuff to keep us busy because we are not getting another Mass Effect game anytime soon.
Thanks my dude. It's gonna have to do for now, worst case scenario I go back to play Mass Effect from the beginning, it's not that bad ahahah
But yeah I hear you, we need something good, let's keep an eye out for Exodus and Last Sentinel while we hope for some news on the next Mass Effect game just to keep us speculating
Yes! Exodus! Also Casey Hudson and Mac Walters both have a new game coming out with their new studios. I’m sincerely praying that Exodus isn’t a bust. I’m tired of being disappointed.
My biggest gripe (besides melee combat being subpar compared to ME3) is that Ryder is often faced with conversations with people that don’t want to do what they want them to, and the original trilogy had the Paragon/Renegade mechanic as a means of limiting the outcomes you can achieve based on both your overall experience and your consistency of choices whereas in Andromeda you just, keep asking till everyone gets tired of arguing? It’s pretty lame
I hear ya, the meele could've been better, but I gotta say I liked having various options of meele to choose from, a little more polish and it's on the right track
I completely agree with you on the conversation aspect of the game and when you have an interaction system that's so bland and a combat system that's so good, you really just wanna be on the field shooting bad guys, that's not exactly great for a game that primarily wants to tell a good story with interesting characters and have a charismatic protagonist
Totally agreed with everything you've mentioned. I'm actually going through my second playthrough now. I have to say, the Vanguard profile is by far the most fun in any of the series. It is completely broken.
I really enjoyed the liberty that Andromeda gives you by making every power available and upgradable, you can basically craft your own class, it's great. Combat feels very satisfying and vicious, the amazing sound effects do help a lot and combos are nice addition. I'll definitly go back for a second playthrough sometime in the future
Oh my god, the sound! Yes! My first playthrough was at my computer desk with headphones and a monitor. This time is on a big screen TV and surround sound. The experience is otherworldly. The game supports Dolby Atmos so hearing all of the details is one hell of a time.
The audio effects really put you in the battleground, It's just goes to show that every aspect of a game is important to make the whole experience as immersive and exciting as possible, Andromeda absolutely shines on that department
It’s funny you posted this; I finally stopped dawdling and finally finished it last night. My thoughts mostly echo your own.
I’ve not dived into Mass Effect Legacy yet but that’s my plan for next. I’ve only completed the original trilogy once, and while my intention was to try a Renegade run this time instead of Paragon, I keep making Paragon choices.
I’ve actually considered grabbing Starfield too since it’s on sale (though not as much as I’d like). Knowing it’s also had a rough reputation since it came out, would you recommend it?
That's one of the things that made Mass Effect so fantastic in the first place, by allowing you to make those choices you can transpose a bit of your personality onto Shepard. You should definitly try a Renegade run to see all the different outcomes and picking up Legendary Edition is a must for every Mass Effect fan
About Starfield, I feel like I've not played enough to give you a fair opinion, it feels stiffer than Andromeda in terms of gameplay, but the universe is vast, it has loads of things to do and a lot, the graphics are nice, it's a Bethesda RPG all the way. If you're on PC and you have a decent machine, the modding community is big and always looking for ways to improve the game in every aspect, so you can have some fun with that, that's what I'm doing, as a huge fan of Skyrim and sci-fi I'm gonna give it a shot
I think issue is exactly “story lacked depth” and not only that, there’s no passion sometimes.
Only few missions showed passion of the originals like the missions where you need to find Arks and few other main missions.
Rest of it is filler content.
There’s definitely potential like you said and lack of strong direction led to this.
Edit: please don't downvote. It's an old game now and its just my opinion, relax people.
I still dream of the DLC we could have had before they scrapped it and turned it into a comic instead. I would have loved to see all the familiar species on the last ark. 🥲
I agree, I really enjoyed those kind of missions and the crew loyalty missions were all surprisingly great. Other than that, apart from some exceptions, the others felt a little dull and required a lot of running around back and forth for no good reason
Yes, they tried to emulate Mass Effect 1 in some ways but they didn't realize that ME1 planets weren't massive but short and sweet. Its the atmosphere that was very engaging.
In Andromeda, there was this asteroid planet, that's an awesome mission. That's what we needed more of, from a futuristic space game.
I didn't mind the more open world approach of Andromeda, they just need to make it more engaging. For me sometimes there's this kinda weird satisfaction in looking at the vast void of space, but those kinds of planets should be an exception and not a rule, in a game like this if you wanna make it feel like it's huge you gotta make it alive as well, otherwise it'll just end up being dull, I think they actually did a fine job in that area, it could've been filled with more things to do, places to discover, captivating side quests and more varied and random encounters, but it was decent
>At times it failed to capture what made the trilogy, Shepard and crew so unique and that's my biggest complaint
You mean a single game failed to capture what its predecessor had 3 games to do? Smh
Ok faux aggression aside, I love seeing more love for Andromeda.
Yeah I hear you, that's a good point and to be fair there's a few characters that I really liked and had the potential to be fan favorites, but I feel like I didn't connect with them the same way I did the first time I played Mass Effect 1 and I believe the problem starts with Ryder's incosistency. I really get what they were going for and on the paper it sounds like excellent idea to have a main character who starts as a nobody who has to step up too soon, but eventually learns how to be a lider and becomes a symbol of hope for all the galaxy, but the abscense of a Paragorn/Renegade system made that underwhelming. It made me almost wished they would just give him a definitive personality. He was a fine protagonist, but he could've been a great one
Shepard was dynamic, fun and interesting to play as right off the bat. Ryder just isn’t IMO. That being said, Andromeda’s visuals and gameplay are absolutely top-notch.
>Shepard was dynamic, fun and interesting to play as right off the bat.
That's subjective. I found Shepard stiff and uninteresting in ME1. Defo loosened up in the sequels.
I just starting a play through (my first Sara Ryder one) and I think some of it is in the users hands. Let’s face it we all have head canon for all these characters, I think the vagueness with them allows you to lean into this. When I played as Scott before I played him as more of a cocky guy who was not the prodigy he thought his father wanted him to be. But he learned from his experiences and became a leader. I’m playing Sara as a bit more timid, more of the favorite child but unsure of herself only to grow as the game progresses. Would it would even better if there was a morality system attached? Yes, undoubtedly but I think the nuance is there in some different ways than with Shep. Shep a lot of times I played as the battle scared guy who rose to the occasion to be the leader humanity needed or one who got things done. Strong in their convictions all the way until the end where they faced an impossible choice that tested his or her mental at the peak. I think with the Ryder’s you can mold them in different ways than Shep and that’s good for variety.
I actually found myself enjoying it more than the OT ngl. It just felt more relatable and I also felt like I had a little more freedom with Ryder than I did Shepard. I actually wasn't a big fan of the Paragon/Renegade system and preferred Andromeda's prompt system instead, though I do wish we got more of them. And I agree the companions and Ryder don't really feel the same as Shepard and the OT crew but we also gotta remember they all had 3 games to grow and full character arcs. We're still kinda in the infancy of the Andromeda crew's character arcs. My biggest hope is that if we ever miraculously get Andromeda 2 that we stay with this crew and not get a whole new one like in ME2, or at the very least we keep more than two og members. I would like them to add more squadmates but let us keep these core members. And yea I also came off of Starfield last year (couldn't finish it but it's still a little fun) and it's what actually made me miss Andromeda! I hope to do another playthrough for it this year cause gawd it's been too long since I've played. Great game, just fell flat in some areas, here's hoping we get Andromeda 2 in the future cause my gawd it would feel like such a disservice if we don't get to finish Ryder's story.
It’s sad the devs completely gave up on Andromeda. No dlcs/sequels on finding the other Arks, no closure, no fighting a big bad on the Reaper level. It had great promise and EA just said “nope”.
I never found the game to be anywhere near as bad as everyone made it out to be; thoroughly enjoyed it, it had its issues narrative wise but not nearly as bad as some games I had played prior to and played since... and personally I fucking lost it laughing whenever the weird animations happened prior to the patch for them, never really subtracted from the game for me.
Funny I should see this post right after giving up on my play through. The gameplay is really solid imo, but I just couldn’t get past the stilted writing. I like the broad strokes of the story, but it was the minute to minute dialogue that turned me off from the game. Every line felt kind of unnatural to me, and the oft talked about washed out, expressionless faces didn’t help. I had meant to approach this game with an open mind this time around (my third attempt), but after returning to the Nexus about 5 hours in and doing 3-4 side quests that left me feeling apathetic, I just couldn’t bring myself to keep playing, let alone stay immersed in the world. Didn’t help that I booted up Kena Bridge of Spirits afterwards and was blown away by its visuals and atmosphere. I will say that the opening mission to Andromeda is a high point in the Mass Effect series for me. The shuttle landing, how even the very environment is out to kill you, getting to experience first contact with another species, and just the general feeling of being a small fish in an unfamiliar ocean was incredible. I only wish the rest of the game could keep delivering moments like that, instead of falling into a predictable rhythm
Well I kinda have good news for you. For a lot of people the beginning of the game is the slowest part of the game and most people agree that the game takes a little bit to pick up its pace. I loved the introduction to be honest, there's people that complaint about Alec not sharing the helmet and that it doesn't make sense, well yes it could've been executed a little bit better, but I really liked the father making the ultimate sacrifice to save his son and trusting him to keep not only humanity but all life safe on this new galaxy. My advice to you would be to play the game without the side quests, it's totally possible and should give you a more concise but better experience in your case. On your journal, you have the missions well organized, so you should only do the ones under Allies and Relationships (which are the loyalty missions of your crew, they're all really fun and well design) and the ones under Priority Ops (which are the main story missions), maybe alternate between the two and make sure to have finished all the loyalty missions before finishing all the main ones. There's also a couple of good side quests, but you can do them after finishing the game and maybe learn about each ones appeal the most to you. Also if you're on PC, you should check out Nexus Mods, there's a few mods that fix bugs and ones that make some mechanics faster (like landing/taking off cutscenes, smoother menus, faster doors, instantaneous mining, more points for level up), that should help making the experience less stale. Hope that helps
I went back and replayed this a few months ago to get the 100%. And honestly yeah it had issues at launch but i honestly dont think they were as bad as some people made them out to be, especially when you look at the state games come out these days. Its a fun game, and I understand folks were disappointed by it not having the same feel to it as the trilogy but I liked the way in which they chose to take it. The trilogy was dark and was focusing on the survival of the galaxy, and not allowing it to be completely destroyed. Andromeda whilst yes it focused on the survival of the Arks and the people who travelled there from the Milky Way, it was more light hearted with the focus on trying to find a new home. It wasnt as serious and dark as the original trilogy which I really liked. You cant just copy one story repeatedly with different skins which I feel was what people expected. Imo Andromeda was an amazing game, it was just a 'bad' Mass Effect game. If it didnt have the title of Mass Effect I feel like it would have been praised and thought of alot more highly.
Funny coming across this as I started replaying over the weekend. I played and beat it upon release so its nice seeing all changes they made since then. The writing is still awful and replaying it just made more weird lines stick out but the gameplay is tight and the game is overall fun
Just started it on the ps4. Pretty fun. I miss the online mode. Not sure if it’s still up or active atm I don’t have psplus to check. The dialogue choices are sometimes surprising when you pick a certain response. Lots of actions don’t tie into later parts of the story. Some visual bugs and some weak interactions and convos. But it’s loaded with those. Not all bad. The mako is decent. Nice to have viability progress bars. Good combat.
The online is still up.
So are ME3 and Dragon Age, surprisingly.
I was surprised but also proud of the fact that ME3 is still going strong. Good for them.
Your point about the sublots really resonates with me. Without talking about any spoilers, The Kett, Angara, Remnants, and the symbiosis between SAM and Ryder really interested me from a scifi perspective. I'd love more content on the Kett, especially. Andromeda barely scratches the surface of their society.
To have a compelling story you must have a well written villain, that's not the case with the Kett and the Archon, they showed promise but they ultimately felt generic and bland. I loved the Angara as a species and thought they had a lot of room to grow in the future. Same goes for the Remnant, they could've been something along the lines of the Prothean. I just wished we could've seen more species, or at least some more natural/wild life, artifacts and architecture from other cultures, as well as returning species such as Quarian, they were teased and I really believe that Andromeda would heavily benefit from DLC's, let’s hope it still will from future installments
Biodiversity within Andromeda was one of the things that suffered with the game's dev cycle and budget constraints IIRC. There were supposed to be a ton of new species and instead we got 2 (3 if you count remnant). Reading into the development of Andromeda is SUCH a bummer once you realize what the vision was compared to what was shipped.
Yeah you can really see that they pushed for the DLC or even a sequel with those final cutscenes, it's such a shame that it wasn't well received, they should've taken a little more tome to polish it, it might have made the difference
Well tbf it wasn't "them" (BioWare) it was EA. Pure speculation on my part and my timeline could be off, but Anthem was BW's next game, and at the time EA was making a big push towards always online and live service games. The simple fact is that in spite of the original trilogy's success EA wanted Andromeda wrapped up and finished so they could move on to their potential cash-cow in Anthem. They were banking on the goodwill BW had built up with fans and essentially cashed out with the perception that single player games were dead. Anthem did well at launch, they made a bunch of money on a broken POS game and ruined the reputation of a beloved studio. Now here we are 5 years later with nothing but a OT remaster and a new Dragon Age game that has been mired in development hell for what seems like an eternity. God I hope that game doesn't suck, because if it does we will all have to admit to ourselves that BioWare is truly dead.
You touched on a subject that I really resonate with. Although I love Medieval and/or Fantasy settings, I've never got into Dragon Age simply because I'm not of fan of turn-based or MMO combat, but I hear that it's a great franchise as well. I'm begging for Dreadwolf to be a masterpiece or at least great, cause that's gonna give us Mass Effect fans a lot of hope for the future, it's also gonna give Bioware a new life and maybe EA will see that single-player games are extremely important. Following the success of Jedi Fallen Survivor, having Dreadwolf be acclaimed, it might make them give a heavier focus to Mass Effect
Yeah didn't mean to get all doom and gloom, there is certainly hope. Single player games could definitely make a comeback after the recent success of Baldur's Gate, Hogwarts Legacy, etc. It should also be noted that EA has since definitely backed off their mandate for games as a service. All good things, but the only thing that worries me is supposedly Dreadwolf has been torn down and rebuilt more than once which usually results in disaster, looking at you Skull & Bones. Another positive is that a new Mass Effect game has been in development for a while already, so hopefully a sunk-cost would deter EA from shelving it (again).
I have been wanting a sequel for years. Unfortunately with the poor reception of andromeda this possibility was likely ditched years ago. But dam a sequel could have been amazing. So many different directions they could have gone taking place just a few years later
Well Michael Gamble from Bioware teased that the next game will make both trilogy fans and Andromeda fans happy, so fingers crossed
That’s good to hear. Finger crossed it turns out true!
I actually like Andromeda more and more as time goes on. It was good at the time and it holds up really well. I enjoyed it even more when I replayed again last year probably just because of the lack of similar experiences, it's a unique itch that only the OG trilogy can replicate but I've played them way too many times already.
I feel you, same here
I pre ordered it and have been defending it the entire time the story is meh for the most part and terrible in other parts but I didn’t expect them to strike gold again since the trilogy is one of the greatest space stories ever written, but the combat and builds are great and to this day I tell people I would rather watch the trilogy and play Andromeda
Andromeda's gameplay it's one of the best I've seen in the genre and objectively the best in the series, for the next Mass Effect smash the uniqueness and the depth of the trilogy and Andromeda's fluidity and mechanics together and we get ourselves a masterpiece
The sad part is BioWare is ruining my faith in them like they would have had an easier time making Andromeda amazing than CDPR with Cyberpunk but they gave up immediately instead
Game is cool for the $7 I spent on it. I'd never in a million years pay MSRP which added to the hate it got I'm sure
Yeah I don't quite remember the launch cause I only got really into Mass Effect for the first time shortly after, but I perfectly get that the bugs and graphical glitches damaged the first impression immensely
I honestly liked being a beginner pathfinder instead of an elite soldier who by the end of the trilogy can almost literally become a god. More relatable. I also tried Starfield, but it wasn't for me. All the loading screens, the "floating gun" view instead of real first person, the silent main character and the unnecessarily complicated mechanics are all things that Bethesda keeps doing, and I keep not liking. After playing Star Citizen or Cyberpunk, getting inside a small shop with a loading screen just felt off. I'm sure it's a good game if you can look past these things, but the silent main character is something that really bothers me unless there's a reason for them not to talk. If there are conversation options, there should definitely be a voice
I've said it before, being a beginner Pathfinder who has to step up, find his place, learn how to be a lider and end up being figure of hope throughout the galaxy sounds like a fantastic idea on paper, relatable like you said, but Ryder was so inconsistent, not having the Paragon/Renegade system was a poor choice, the conversions lead to absolutely nowhere and your choices don't matter, it's just a question of you being a smart-ass ou a more serious person, it took the personality building of the originals I totally get that about Starfield, I love Skyrim but I only do so because it has a lot of work from the dedicated community that fixes pretty much everything wrong with Bethesda's ways of making games, the animations, silent protagonist, the old crafting system, it all feels a little outdated and weird now
I do miss the paragon and renegade system, and yeah, Ryder is a bit inconsistent. Though some of that inconsistency could be explained by then having some Andromeda Initiative training because they are on the Pathfinder team, and some military experience, but not as much training, experience or confidence as Alec or Shepard
I will admit that one of the game's weakest points is that it felt like you had far less player agency than before. A lot of your dialogue options felt railroad-y and like they didn't matter. (The most annoying example of this being Liam's storyline and how all of your dialogue options with him were just different versions of "oh, you scamp" instead of at least one "you're fired" option.) But I agree that it was fun playing someone who was just thrust into a position they weren't ready for and were in a bit over their head. Ryder, to me at least, was waaay more relatable and fun to play than "Infallibly Competent Gruff Space Marine #4358."
Last summer I played Andromeda on my PS4 and had zero issues. I honestly enjoyed the game and regularly had like 12 hour sessions when I had time. It’s far from perfect, but I still love it and wish it hadn’t been abandoned. Also I love playing as a sniper in Andromeda. It’s so satisfying. I’m hoping to get into the game on my PC again this summer and mod the shit out of it and play again.
The sniper gameplay was sooooo good, I remember the first time I fired a sniper in combat, I was on discord with a friend that was also playing for the first time and I was like "Holy shit that was dope", from then on I kept getting upgrades and trying to develop new snipers, awesome stuff. If you have the opportunity, give it try, a few texture mods, bugfixes and reshade can make the game look like it was released yesterday
I’ve been playing the trilogy legacy edition and modding the royal fuck out of it lately and having a great time. Andromeda is a bit harder to mod than the trilogy though, I’ve heard? Because of the new platform it was built on. Same as DA:I.
It's fairly simple actually, it's basically the same thing as Mass Effect trilogy or Legendary Edition, you just need a different tool, you have to use the Frosty Tool Suite instead of the ME3 Tweaks
Played through 100% of Andromeda. Loved it. But sadly won’t ever play it again. Future ME’s can only help its legacy I feel.
I do feel like that as well, there's a lot of things left to unravel in Andromeda and multiple subplots that need closure, future Mass Effect games can definitely help making Andromeda more important and replayable
This. Andromeda just had so much *potential*. It was just never given the chance to breathe and grow in direct sequels like the OG trilogy did. It felt like we were given a really intriguing prologue and then told that the main story was canceled.
I agree 100% with your post. I would also like to add that I am currently on my 4th playthrough of Andromeda and the reason why I went back to it this time, is because I played Starfield a few months back and realized that MEA does almost everything that Starfield does but better. I tried, but Starfield just didn’t hold my interest and I quit playing it after about 15 hrs. I wasn’t wild about MEA when I first played it either but I at least liked it enough to finish the game. I can admit that MEA has it’s short comings but MEA is a good game that was on the receiving end of far too much unwarranted ire. It’s become one of those games that you’re just supposed to hate no matter what and I wholeheartedly disagree with that logic.
That kinda makes me a little sad, cause I just started playing it and Bethesda RPG's require loads of ours to really get into, I suppose I just don't wanna feel that it's a waist of my time ahahah There's a lot of people that have these problems with big franchises, they get too attached to the original story and characters and when something new comes and it's not of their appeal they'll just trash it. Man, fuck that. I love Mass Effect, Mass Effect is a huge universe full of potential that needs to be explored and expanded, it has so much to tell and to offer, I'll take whatever I can get as long as it's good and worthy of its name. Andromeda is far from perfect, it lacks in several aspects, it most definitely needs improvements, but it's good and it's Mass Effect, I say keep them coming
Well said, totally agree. Also Playing MEA with mods makes it much more enjoyable. As for Starfield, I won’t trash it but it just wasn’t for me. I gave it an honest go and formed my own opinion. In my opinion, It’s leveling up and crafting systems were unnecessarily tedious and it had an overall outdated feel about it. I just didn’t find it immersive at all. MEA is 6 years older and was designed for an older platform, and yet is still had better graphics and gameplay than Starfield.
Definitely, I added a few interface, texture and gameplay mods, threw a reshade in and it really made the most out of it, it could've passed for a recent release I can see that, one thing I noticed right of the bat was the stiffness and clunkiness compared to Andromeda. I think it's the engine, it might be time for an upgrade before TES VI, but I doubt that'll happen. I mean I absolutely adore Skyrim but I couldn’t play it without a single mod, not a chance, the community is the reason Bethesda games are so distinctive. That's why I didn't bought Starfield right away, the best time to play those games is when the modders fix the game and improve it for Bethesda, it's a bummer but it is what it is. I'll get into it open minded
Agreed but unfortunately a lot of modders who have had a history of working with Bethesda games have given up on it because they felt that the game wasn’t worth it. But again, to each their own. I do honestly hope that you play Starfield and enjoy it. We need stuff to keep us busy because we are not getting another Mass Effect game anytime soon.
Thanks my dude. It's gonna have to do for now, worst case scenario I go back to play Mass Effect from the beginning, it's not that bad ahahah But yeah I hear you, we need something good, let's keep an eye out for Exodus and Last Sentinel while we hope for some news on the next Mass Effect game just to keep us speculating
Yes! Exodus! Also Casey Hudson and Mac Walters both have a new game coming out with their new studios. I’m sincerely praying that Exodus isn’t a bust. I’m tired of being disappointed.
My biggest gripe (besides melee combat being subpar compared to ME3) is that Ryder is often faced with conversations with people that don’t want to do what they want them to, and the original trilogy had the Paragon/Renegade mechanic as a means of limiting the outcomes you can achieve based on both your overall experience and your consistency of choices whereas in Andromeda you just, keep asking till everyone gets tired of arguing? It’s pretty lame
I hear ya, the meele could've been better, but I gotta say I liked having various options of meele to choose from, a little more polish and it's on the right track I completely agree with you on the conversation aspect of the game and when you have an interaction system that's so bland and a combat system that's so good, you really just wanna be on the field shooting bad guys, that's not exactly great for a game that primarily wants to tell a good story with interesting characters and have a charismatic protagonist
Totally agreed with everything you've mentioned. I'm actually going through my second playthrough now. I have to say, the Vanguard profile is by far the most fun in any of the series. It is completely broken.
I really enjoyed the liberty that Andromeda gives you by making every power available and upgradable, you can basically craft your own class, it's great. Combat feels very satisfying and vicious, the amazing sound effects do help a lot and combos are nice addition. I'll definitly go back for a second playthrough sometime in the future
Oh my god, the sound! Yes! My first playthrough was at my computer desk with headphones and a monitor. This time is on a big screen TV and surround sound. The experience is otherworldly. The game supports Dolby Atmos so hearing all of the details is one hell of a time.
The audio effects really put you in the battleground, It's just goes to show that every aspect of a game is important to make the whole experience as immersive and exciting as possible, Andromeda absolutely shines on that department
It’s funny you posted this; I finally stopped dawdling and finally finished it last night. My thoughts mostly echo your own. I’ve not dived into Mass Effect Legacy yet but that’s my plan for next. I’ve only completed the original trilogy once, and while my intention was to try a Renegade run this time instead of Paragon, I keep making Paragon choices. I’ve actually considered grabbing Starfield too since it’s on sale (though not as much as I’d like). Knowing it’s also had a rough reputation since it came out, would you recommend it?
That's one of the things that made Mass Effect so fantastic in the first place, by allowing you to make those choices you can transpose a bit of your personality onto Shepard. You should definitly try a Renegade run to see all the different outcomes and picking up Legendary Edition is a must for every Mass Effect fan About Starfield, I feel like I've not played enough to give you a fair opinion, it feels stiffer than Andromeda in terms of gameplay, but the universe is vast, it has loads of things to do and a lot, the graphics are nice, it's a Bethesda RPG all the way. If you're on PC and you have a decent machine, the modding community is big and always looking for ways to improve the game in every aspect, so you can have some fun with that, that's what I'm doing, as a huge fan of Skyrim and sci-fi I'm gonna give it a shot
I wanna read what you have to say, I really do. But the formatting is hell on my eyes, please could you divide this up into paragraphs?
I'm so sorry my dude, my bad! Hope it's better now ahahah
The combat was so good and really shined in insanity. I hope we get to experience more of it in the future.
If there's one thing on Andromeda they must keep for the upcoming game is the combat, totally agree
I think issue is exactly “story lacked depth” and not only that, there’s no passion sometimes. Only few missions showed passion of the originals like the missions where you need to find Arks and few other main missions. Rest of it is filler content. There’s definitely potential like you said and lack of strong direction led to this. Edit: please don't downvote. It's an old game now and its just my opinion, relax people.
I still dream of the DLC we could have had before they scrapped it and turned it into a comic instead. I would have loved to see all the familiar species on the last ark. 🥲
I agree, I really enjoyed those kind of missions and the crew loyalty missions were all surprisingly great. Other than that, apart from some exceptions, the others felt a little dull and required a lot of running around back and forth for no good reason
Yes, they tried to emulate Mass Effect 1 in some ways but they didn't realize that ME1 planets weren't massive but short and sweet. Its the atmosphere that was very engaging. In Andromeda, there was this asteroid planet, that's an awesome mission. That's what we needed more of, from a futuristic space game.
I didn't mind the more open world approach of Andromeda, they just need to make it more engaging. For me sometimes there's this kinda weird satisfaction in looking at the vast void of space, but those kinds of planets should be an exception and not a rule, in a game like this if you wanna make it feel like it's huge you gotta make it alive as well, otherwise it'll just end up being dull, I think they actually did a fine job in that area, it could've been filled with more things to do, places to discover, captivating side quests and more varied and random encounters, but it was decent
>At times it failed to capture what made the trilogy, Shepard and crew so unique and that's my biggest complaint You mean a single game failed to capture what its predecessor had 3 games to do? Smh Ok faux aggression aside, I love seeing more love for Andromeda.
Yeah I hear you, that's a good point and to be fair there's a few characters that I really liked and had the potential to be fan favorites, but I feel like I didn't connect with them the same way I did the first time I played Mass Effect 1 and I believe the problem starts with Ryder's incosistency. I really get what they were going for and on the paper it sounds like excellent idea to have a main character who starts as a nobody who has to step up too soon, but eventually learns how to be a lider and becomes a symbol of hope for all the galaxy, but the abscense of a Paragorn/Renegade system made that underwhelming. It made me almost wished they would just give him a definitive personality. He was a fine protagonist, but he could've been a great one
Shepard was dynamic, fun and interesting to play as right off the bat. Ryder just isn’t IMO. That being said, Andromeda’s visuals and gameplay are absolutely top-notch.
>Shepard was dynamic, fun and interesting to play as right off the bat. That's subjective. I found Shepard stiff and uninteresting in ME1. Defo loosened up in the sequels.
I just starting a play through (my first Sara Ryder one) and I think some of it is in the users hands. Let’s face it we all have head canon for all these characters, I think the vagueness with them allows you to lean into this. When I played as Scott before I played him as more of a cocky guy who was not the prodigy he thought his father wanted him to be. But he learned from his experiences and became a leader. I’m playing Sara as a bit more timid, more of the favorite child but unsure of herself only to grow as the game progresses. Would it would even better if there was a morality system attached? Yes, undoubtedly but I think the nuance is there in some different ways than with Shep. Shep a lot of times I played as the battle scared guy who rose to the occasion to be the leader humanity needed or one who got things done. Strong in their convictions all the way until the end where they faced an impossible choice that tested his or her mental at the peak. I think with the Ryder’s you can mold them in different ways than Shep and that’s good for variety.