Mass Effect: Andromeda

 PC
User Score
5.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 4468 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,749 out of 4468
  2. Mixed: 712 out of 4468
  3. Negative: 2,007 out of 4468
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  1. gypsygib
    Oct 20, 2017
    4
    Starts off pretty interesting but the acting is juvenile and the mission structure and missions are incredibly boring after you get the second planet. Can't believe this is a Mass Effect game, it's so boring. No structure, no pacing, missions are scan-a-thons/collect-a-thons, etc. Haven't found an interesting character yet. Also, main character is like playing as a 15 year kid and theStarts off pretty interesting but the acting is juvenile and the mission structure and missions are incredibly boring after you get the second planet. Can't believe this is a Mass Effect game, it's so boring. No structure, no pacing, missions are scan-a-thons/collect-a-thons, etc. Haven't found an interesting character yet. Also, main character is like playing as a 15 year kid and the plot, oh wait, is there a plot? I've played over 10 hours and there's not a story to be found. Shame when the story writers, gameplay developers, and designers all drop the ball. Additionally, for some reason all the female characters are kinda unattractive both physically and personality wise. Not sure why, but something is very off with them. I don' t really care if they're superhero comic hot but to make them all unappealing is weird.

    It saddens me to give this game a 4/10 but even free, it's not worth your time.

    PROS:

    Graphics are nice at times. But nothing special given the pretty bad character/environment design.    … Expand
  2. Winterpsy
    Sep 7, 2017
    4
    Animations, voice acting and facial graphics would had been good 10 years ago. Sadly, Mass Effect cannot compete with today's most popular games. Even more, new games released in the past couple years raised the expectation so much it hurts to look at Andromeda. Feels like playing with an old-timer game.
    UI: Menus are a maze, no minimap, or quick access to the map. You get a new codex /    Animations, voice acting and facial graphics would had been good 10 years ago. Sadly, Mass Effect cannot compete with today's most popular games. Even more, new games released in the past couple years raised the expectation so much it hurts to look at Andromeda. Feels like playing with an old-timer game.
    UI: Menus are a maze, no minimap, or quick access to the map. You get a new codex / journal entry every second, so it's very easy to get lost in what's going on.

    The game is very unrealistic even for a sci-fi game. Same fauna on every planet, no gravtiation, everyone understands everyone

    Plot and quests are boring: When I was sent on the 10th scan this-scan that type of mission I groaned.

    Cover-system is very unreliable and clunky.    … Expand
  3. Vasot
    Apr 10, 2017
    4
    1) Stupid story feels like it was written by college kids trying to get a job
    2) Shallow and boring characters
    3) More Denuvo anti-consumer DRM trash
    4) Glitches and bugs
    5) User interface is badly designed
    6) Combat and exploration is good
    6) Nice graphics at High/Ultra settings
  4. Jimbob2k666
    Mar 21, 2017
    4
    I'm so happy EA Access gave me a 10 hour trial of this game. It has saved me £50. Maybe worth a sale purchase somewhere down the line if they fix all of the issues, but then again, you can't fix a story and recast and re-record the entire voice acting. I felt like I was playing one of the original ME games the graphics are really bland for the most part. I wasn't expecting much anywayI'm so happy EA Access gave me a 10 hour trial of this game. It has saved me £50. Maybe worth a sale purchase somewhere down the line if they fix all of the issues, but then again, you can't fix a story and recast and re-record the entire voice acting. I felt like I was playing one of the original ME games the graphics are really bland for the most part. I wasn't expecting much anyway so I am not that disheartened by how poor this has turned out to be.… Expand
  5. ravenblade
    Feb 18, 2018
    4
    Brothers and sisters, it is with heavy heart that I must share this ancient message with you. Bear witness to a horrific truth that only has been spawned recently from the depths of the abyss from whence an old comrade has returned and who has left it to me on old charred parchment that I had to rip of his blood-clad hands with an inhumane force that was granted to me eons ago byBrothers and sisters, it is with heavy heart that I must share this ancient message with you. Bear witness to a horrific truth that only has been spawned recently from the depths of the abyss from whence an old comrade has returned and who has left it to me on old charred parchment that I had to rip of his blood-clad hands with an inhumane force that was granted to me eons ago by beautifully sinister forces. However as we all are striving to perfect ourselves and we always see when one of our fails and when that happens we all mourn for eternity. It is therefore with great sorrow that the knowledge of Star Wars: The Old Republic having enjoyed a greater depth and passion in its story than that of Mass Effect: Andromeda must pass onto our next generation and with it our hope that such abomination might never repeat itself for otherwise we might as well be doomed for eternity.… Expand
  6. TwiTu
    Feb 4, 2018
    4
    I loved the trilogy. Sure those games had their flaws too, but all in all I enjoyed them still.

    But this game is not worth a full price. Not by a long shot. It has a MASSIVE SJW undertone, where humans are mostly black or brown, and even the white ones look like black with white skin. That they tried to put SJW propaganda in it becomes very evident when you go into a museum of some    I loved the trilogy. Sure those games had their flaws too, but all in all I enjoyed them still.

    But this game is not worth a full price. Not by a long shot.

    It has a MASSIVE SJW undertone, where humans are mostly black or brown, and even the white ones look like black with white skin.
    That they tried to put SJW propaganda in it becomes very evident when you go into a museum of some sorts where all the species from the Milky Way introduce themselves through VIs. We all know that all the other species have different colors, skin patterns, or even horns, etc. And they dont talk about it in their VIs. But humans do. They proudly say that there are many colors and religions and that they all worked together and overcame their differences. I have never seen a more pathetic and disgusting virtue signalling in a game before.

    Add to that the childish dialogue, often completely irrelevant, which sometimes left me standing there with an open mouth and 3 question marks over my head, bland characters (which often are actually annoying) and the mandatory character with a Scottish accent, bad quality assurance (lots of ridiculous bugs, even with the newest version), bad graphics that stutter a lot and seem to come from the first 2 ME parts, planets that seem to come straight from some MMO RPG (one planet reminded me very much of a zone in Guild Wars 2 for example), bad console controls that are extremely frustrating, a boring character and weapon/armor/equipment advancement system, boring and super easy encounters with enemies (incl. very weak AI), a story that doesnt seem to know what it wants or where to go and MMO-like side quests and you have this disgrace of a game.

    Dont get me wrong, I still played through it, but I often was extremely annoyed by it, so that I often asked myself why I even play this game, for example having to read and listen to all these stupid conversations and dialogue (which is a huge part of the game). Its worth it for $10 to $15. But not a dime more.

    Please, BioWare, dont destroy this IP by continuing like this in the next part. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE replace the development team, especially those who did the story, the characters, the dialogue, the SJW propaganda with people who know what makes good games and the gameplay design. People like those can work at Buzzfeed or CNN and write their propaganda there, but that has no place in a game. Not even Star Trek (except the new series) ever was that audacious with their morality, and I loved Star Trek because of its morality. But it was normal. Nobody ever talked about skin color, because it was normal to have aliens and colored humans around. NOBODY CARED ABOUT THAT! Why do you care all of the sudden???    … Expand
  7. nagi
    Mar 27, 2017
    4
    20 hours in, while in some spots it reignies the ME exploration feeling, in most, it is an unpolished, buggy mess.

    Bad writing, god-awfully done and buggy animations, horrible UI, laughable AI, MMO-style quests, passable, but repetitive combat. It is as if the devs never even played the previous games, or any action-RPG game for that matter, and the writer never even saw a good    20 hours in, while in some spots it reignies the ME exploration feeling, in most, it is an unpolished, buggy mess.

    Bad writing, god-awfully done and buggy animations, horrible UI, laughable AI, MMO-style quests, passable, but repetitive combat.

    It is as if the devs never even played the previous games, or any action-RPG game for that matter, and the writer never even saw a good sci-fi book.

    If you want a good action-RPG, go with Witcher 3, Dishonored 2 or even Witcher 2. If you want a 2017 game with exceptional writing and mechanics, go with Nier. If you want a good RPG, go with Torment. Shooter? Sniper Elite 4, Deus Ex, or even Fallout 4 is better in that regard.    … Expand
  8. Nemo888
    Apr 29, 2017
    4
    It's boring. Don't bother if you liked earlier ME games. Story is on rails and your decisions are irrelevant. Open exploration is gone. So is character development. They don't refund your wasted time.
  9. ShiverinEskimo
    Apr 18, 2017
    4
    Huge fan of the first trilogy which I replayed prior to release to get back in the groove. Probably the worst thing I could have done in hindsight as it only highlighted even more the fall from grace that Bioware have achieved with Andromeda. In the first hour you'll experience the tedium that stays with you for the rest of your experience. The breadcrumb-style fetch quests and totalHuge fan of the first trilogy which I replayed prior to release to get back in the groove. Probably the worst thing I could have done in hindsight as it only highlighted even more the fall from grace that Bioware have achieved with Andromeda. In the first hour you'll experience the tedium that stays with you for the rest of your experience. The breadcrumb-style fetch quests and total over-reliance on scanning ends up turning everything you do into such a chore to the point where even Ryder themselves makes frequent comments about the fact that 'nothing is ever simple'. When loading times and travel times between zones and planets are this long and you're on stage 4 of a 5 or 6 stage fetch quest between planets you start to get pretty frustrated pretty fast. Navpoint after navpoint for simple, non-consequential quests become infuriating and the rewards for completing these quests are minimal.

    The main protaganist is as far away from Shepherd as Andromeda is from the Milky Way in terms of being a character you can invest in and relate to. Where a huge part of Shepherd's character was being a champion of a cause that people could rally to, Ryder comes across throughout as a character out of their depth and painfully cringey in certain conversations. Perhaps having the Andromeda Initiative being a corporate-type project means that it loses that sense of authority or duty and ends up feeling like you're playing as an employee of a company you find hard to care about. Having the military theme in the original trilogy representing the species gave a sense of gravity to your actions. Not so in Andromeda.

    While there are quite a few technical hiccups throughout the game it's not these technical issues that hold the game back. It's a huge, lush canvass that Bioware did a great job in building and decorating but it's the lack of engaging characters, storylines and quests that let the game down. None of the crew of the tempest evoke anything close to what the crew of the Normandy did with ease in the original trilogy and this results in even their personal quests becoming yet another distraction and a further chore on a long list of chores. The enemies you fight aren't nearly varied enough and while there are a few hairy situations thrown at you, overall you'll find a one-fits-all strategy early on and then go through the motions with it throughout. Not having access to your companion's powers in combat only highlights how removed your companions are from the experience. Combat often feels like a lonely affair as a result and the devastating combos you could launch in the original trilogy are underpowered and restricted to your own three powers only. The gun play and cover system is good but the choice to remove control over your companions was a mistake in my opinion as your companions just aren't as valuable to you in combat as they were in the original trilogy.

    Overall a huge disappointment that failed in the writing room long before the artists and designers got to work. Bugs can be patched but there's nothing they can do about childish writing, hammy dialogue and soul-less breadcrumb quests. Swing and a miss from Bioware.    … Expand
  10. Hoot86
    Mar 27, 2017
    4
    Three big problems with the game, one annoyance and one improvement over the previous Mass Effects...where did it all go wrong?

    My biggest complaint of Andromeda is the script and the writing. It sounds like it has been written by an eager 14 year old trying to get into fanfic writing. Some of the dialogue is cringe-worthy and most of it is just bland and uninteresting. After 10 hours I    Three big problems with the game, one annoyance and one improvement over the previous Mass Effects...where did it all go wrong?

    My biggest complaint of Andromeda is the script and the writing. It sounds like it has been written by an eager 14 year old trying to get into fanfic writing. Some of the dialogue is cringe-worthy and most of it is just bland and uninteresting. After 10 hours I couldn't be convinced to care about anyone I'd met and it didn't get any better.

    The animation quality in general is terrible. Living in a post Witcher 3 world you could argue that of many games, but most games manage to make their characters convey some kind of emotion, here pretty much every character is a stone faced mannequin. No facial movement other than lips. Ever. Except the main character. It just feels so stilted.

    The UI is garbage. That a PC title should be released with a UI in this state is just shocking. "Press ESC to Confirm". Really? Everything you want access to is buried under 3 layers of screens and clicking through them is a total clunkfest. They should actually sack the person who designed this UI.

    Most of the game is purely fetch quests (the annoyance) and it just feels grindy as all hell. You can sub/resub to The Old Republic or WoW and have a better experience (and to be fair, a better story) for half the price.

    The combat however is...good. It's a marked improvement and it really did feel pretty awesome even if the death animations were as bad as every other animation in the game and you don't have access to squad powers anymore, it was still pretty fun. Nowhere near enough to redeem the game though.

    In short, this is what happens when you give your untested C-team the task of developing a triple A title under your flagship IP. Disappointing to say the least. I'm just so glad Origin does refunds now.

    4/10 - Bargain Bin Material!    … Expand
  11. meru
    Apr 5, 2023
    4
    The motto for this game is: "Which intern designed X?"
    - The UI is all over the place - literally. Get a quick overview in combat situations, or outside of combat? The UI designers seem to have shouted "Not my job, also: Never heard of that".
    - The map does not help one single bit to do what its task is: Help the user orientate themselves. - Repeat this for each game feature. There    The motto for this game is: "Which intern designed X?"
    - The UI is all over the place - literally. Get a quick overview in combat situations, or outside of combat? The UI designers seem to have shouted "Not my job, also: Never heard of that".
    - The map does not help one single bit to do what its task is: Help the user orientate themselves.
    - Repeat this for each game feature.

    There is one redeeming aspect of the game, though, for game developer professors: If you need to prepare a seminar about some game element done wrong, you can always quote Andromeda as an example.    … Expand
  12. lippmannk1
    Mar 25, 2017
    4
    I'm 100 hours into this game. 100 hours of fetch quests, terrible animation glitches, and trying to find a reason to actually care about the "Andromeda Initiative"...

    It is so boring I want to get high on something. Anything. THAT is how bad this game is.
  13. Ronyo30
    Mar 23, 2017
    4
    I really wanted to like this game, the series only got better after the original Mass Effect, and after a 5 year wait I had high hopes and expectations. I've played about 20 hours now and unfortunately it seems the wind in the sails of the series died out long ago (I'll update the review if any of that changes, but at this point I don't think I can take more punishment from this gameI really wanted to like this game, the series only got better after the original Mass Effect, and after a 5 year wait I had high hopes and expectations. I've played about 20 hours now and unfortunately it seems the wind in the sails of the series died out long ago (I'll update the review if any of that changes, but at this point I don't think I can take more punishment from this game without some major fixes). From funky animations, homely looking uninteresting characters, to a questionable story and boring repetitive gameplay. To make matters worse, the different parts of the game don't even mesh real well with one another; it's like the different teams of people that worked on different parts of the game failed to ever communicate with one another. It has left the game at launch to be one big dysfunctional mess.

    Starting out it goes wrong real quick before you even enter the game. The default characters are certainly nothing to write home about, male Ryder is salvageable, but Female Ryder looks plain bad. Attempting to fix it in the CC is no easy task either. You cannot modify the default faces and the preset CC faces are one step above abominations. Once you decide upon a face, again another challenge presents itself in the form of a very simplistic CC, there aren't many options available and whatever you come up with will always resemble the preset face.

    The poorly implemented animations hit you almost immediately and continue throughout. From odd facial expression to no expression at all, lifeless hands, strange walking behavior, and the biggest offender, poor lip-syncing to the dialogue, it plain out doesn't look good. It fails to suspend disbelief and for a game based on so much dialogue is difficult to get past. Aside from animations, graphically the game holds up, nothing mind-blowing or spectacular, but by no means bad. The landscaping is nice and much of the game looks good enough to immerse yourself in, the problem here is the characters stick out rather badly. They are cartoonish, waxy, and in some cases downright inhumanly ugly. The aliens naturally look better, mostly because there isn't a frame of reference for exactly "how" they should look, the humans are simply ridiculous. Some of them look like they were taken strait out of The Old Republic and just had new textures slapped on them.

    Gameplay is okay at points and boring at others. The combat is familiar and largely unchanged from ME3, aside from the addition of the jet pack. The Nomad is okay to drive for about 10 minutes but quickly starts feeling more like a family van on a road trip than an APC. The lack of weapons was a terrible mistake and after awhile just getting in and out to fight things becomes a chore. The original developers dumped it for a reason; it should have stayed in the garage. The mini-games/puzzles are horrendously boring/frustrating, Sudoku, really? and mining for things, well I'm just not going to mine (really what was wrong with the orbital probe?) Missions are at best mildly entertaining and at worst mindless tedium, too much fetch filler and pointless dead-ends.

    The story, at least to the 20ish hour mark is less than stellar. It takes a long time to get going and once it does, it feels more like the buildup to an aborted launch than an actual liftoff. It doesn't have the urgency or charm of the original series and it doesn't help that it is being played out by largely uninspired characters. The main antagonist seems more like a speed bump instead of that giant imposing stop sign that makes you take pause at what your are up against.

    The developers it seems were out to make a game of a grand scope and scale and in doing so failed to see the little things that passed right by the wide angle lens they were using. Mass Effect was never about having vast landscapes to explore or tons of mindless things to do. It was about the story and characters, and the interaction of those two that made Mass Effect special. By attempting to make such a grand scale game they lost sight of that and ended up with a grand mess. What would have been wrong with simply making a Mass Effect game? Why try to turn it into something it is not, something that other games do so much better?    … Expand
  14. Mitchicon
    Mar 22, 2017
    4
    Pros:
    - combat is more intense
    - easier to switch combat styles through the game - significantly better weapon building and customization - open world format allows for a wider variety of possibilities and replayability value - ship internals on The Tempest are beautiful and well crafted Cons: - Mediocre to terrible voice acting - Face animations that are unforgivably bad -    Pros:
    - combat is more intense
    - easier to switch combat styles through the game
    - significantly better weapon building and customization
    - open world format allows for a wider variety of possibilities and replayability value
    - ship internals on The Tempest are beautiful and well crafted

    Cons:
    - Mediocre to terrible voice acting
    - Face animations that are unforgivably bad
    - Conversations that are awkward and make no sense
    - cover issues in combat
    - Does not feel like an RPG. Can completely reclass and your decisions feel like they carry no weight
    - I found I had no interest in my party characters and I had to force myself to stay pay attention to the storyline

    Neutral:
    - some people may dislike the smaller number of active abilities, despite the lack of a universal cooldown    … Expand
  15. budspencer2012
    Mar 25, 2017
    4
    The problem with this game is that it already looks like a 5 year old plus game which is pretty sad. Poorly done environments with no interactivity, just static meshes that do nothing, poorly done characters. After all this time the look of the game did not evolve one bit. That was a major turn off for me, I played an hour and frankly had no desire to continue playing afterwards. I willThe problem with this game is that it already looks like a 5 year old plus game which is pretty sad. Poorly done environments with no interactivity, just static meshes that do nothing, poorly done characters. After all this time the look of the game did not evolve one bit. That was a major turn off for me, I played an hour and frankly had no desire to continue playing afterwards. I will finish it but begrudgingly. I think Bioware totally goofed. They probably started developing this game at the same time as Mass Effect 3 and took too long to release this and could not get it into a newer engine to make it look relevant to what is being offered now for other games. I am glad that i did not pay full price for this. It's a big let down. Like the assasin's creed unity of Ubisoft for Bioware. I hope EA and Bioware learn a hard lesson from this. I don't blame anyone who are completely crapping on this game as it deserves it. It's a total afront to people who love the franchise.… Expand
  16. chronoT
    Nov 27, 2017
    4
    I've tried several times over the past few months to like Mass Effect Andromeda but have now fully realized this will not happen, and unlike Mass Effect 3 I refuse to stand up for Bioware on this one. I am a slow learner because the Mass Effect series is near and dear to me, but the latest installment is an utter disappointment and I believe a true testament to where we stand in the videoI've tried several times over the past few months to like Mass Effect Andromeda but have now fully realized this will not happen, and unlike Mass Effect 3 I refuse to stand up for Bioware on this one. I am a slow learner because the Mass Effect series is near and dear to me, but the latest installment is an utter disappointment and I believe a true testament to where we stand in the video game industry. There are only a handful of games that I've purchased that I truly regret spending my money on because I tend to do my research and form a usually informative decision but in this case I am painstakingly upset. I feel Andromeda was a complete waste of money and I really don't want to state this but releasing games of this quality actually encourages pirating and I think EA should be ultimately ashamed. Just about every aspect of ME:A is a complete downgrade and a move in the opposite direction. The combat, dialogue, story, characters, and overall RPG elements are lacking tremendously and it shows in every category. The story and questing get boring so fast and almost the entire galaxy feels empty and pointless. We all know how bad the facial animations are even after corrections, but how sad is the directionless plot and meaningless quests? The core game ends rather fast and you are left with about 5 empty planets that are left 90% unexplored because they are left out of this core game. On top of all this is the dreadful galaxy map and travel system that even after a tab skip was implemented the entire system is tedious and a real bore. The final icing on the cake is the less than mediocre multiplayer and in the end you are left with a steaming pile of crap. I think it is also important and humorous to mention that I have a very good rig with an overclocked GTX 1080 and the game with all current updates runs horribly, constantly lagging and stuttering in 4K, which does not occur with any other PC title I run. It is hard to say these things and this is tough love because I have old attachments to the Mass Effect series and Bioware, but the direction their moving in and EA in general feels very easy to criticize. If things continue in this direction I will be forced as a gamer to completely severe my support of EA and never purchase a title again that has their name anywhere near it.… Expand
  17. DebateMe
    Mar 26, 2017
    4
    Others have already pointed out the visual, game play, and bug problems so I'm not going to rehash those. What I'd like to say though is I'm tired of the social justice themes in bioware games. If I'm in the minority in this then fine, keep doing it. But I'm officially done with bioware games. I know I know... don't let the door hit me on the as... behind on my way out.
  18. Gaudd
    May 23, 2017
    4
    What could've been a great game has been crippled by some of the worst incompetence I've ever experienced, baring STALKER: Clear Skies which was so bug-riddled as to be unplayable when it was released. Leaving aside the fact that all everyone in MSA looks as if they're trying to star in a really crap teen movie, including unfortunately the lead, the dialogue is laughable and the plotWhat could've been a great game has been crippled by some of the worst incompetence I've ever experienced, baring STALKER: Clear Skies which was so bug-riddled as to be unplayable when it was released. Leaving aside the fact that all everyone in MSA looks as if they're trying to star in a really crap teen movie, including unfortunately the lead, the dialogue is laughable and the plot compared to the other MS games is Justin Bieber up against the Rolling Stones. All that I could forgive, and there are some real positives hence the score, but not the bugs. Worst of all is the save game bug, and no its not just when you're topped fighting. Having saved the game last night, standing perfectly still on Eos and not looking at anything in a hostile way just in case, today I've gone through the previous 5 saves, including two manual, and can't get any of them to load. This is a total shambles of a game.… Expand
  19. partyintheback
    Mar 21, 2017
    4
    If Gameloft made a Mass Effect title, it'd look a lot like Andromeda. While this game offers more exploration than Mass Effect 2 and 3 - and I welcome that, it also offers some of the lousiest characters ever to appear in a Mass Effect. Both lead characters, the male and female Ryder, are abysmal. From shoddy animation work, to poorly detailed character models, to unacceptably poorIf Gameloft made a Mass Effect title, it'd look a lot like Andromeda. While this game offers more exploration than Mass Effect 2 and 3 - and I welcome that, it also offers some of the lousiest characters ever to appear in a Mass Effect. Both lead characters, the male and female Ryder, are abysmal. From shoddy animation work, to poorly detailed character models, to unacceptably poor dialogue and voice acting, this is a disappointing outing all around. The Bioware of today is not the Bioware we knew and loved - it's merely a shell of its former self. Dragon Age II was the beginning of the end and Andromeda is the end.… Expand
  20. Tecco
    Apr 16, 2017
    4
    Why does everything have to be openworld nowadays, it just waters down everything.
    ME:A is no different.
    They spent so much time making "Open World" and so little making a what made the ME games truly special and lovable. We dont want a billion cubicmeters of coal Bioware! We want a flawless gem!, The size is irellevant!!! Quantity is worthless without quality. To be honest it feels    Why does everything have to be openworld nowadays, it just waters down everything.
    ME:A is no different.
    They spent so much time making "Open World" and so little making a what made the ME games truly special and lovable.
    We dont want a billion cubicmeters of coal Bioware! We want a flawless gem!, The size is irellevant!!!
    Quantity is worthless without quality.
    To be honest it feels like it is made by completely different people. People who dont understand the universe, and just dont really care.    … Expand
  21. Violett
    Mar 21, 2017
    4
    After I saw the news when Bioware are going to be sold to EA - I was like "RIP Mass Effect". This was well expected - everything EA touch starts to rot and stink. This is not the first game they corrupted. It is strange they didnt pervert ME2 and ME3. Companies like EA or Ubisoft must stay in their FIFA NHL field and not to go in area they have no idea what to do. They are able to makeAfter I saw the news when Bioware are going to be sold to EA - I was like "RIP Mass Effect". This was well expected - everything EA touch starts to rot and stink. This is not the first game they corrupted. It is strange they didnt pervert ME2 and ME3. Companies like EA or Ubisoft must stay in their FIFA NHL field and not to go in area they have no idea what to do. They are able to make niche products, this is true, and many people like it - in the nearest future it will be Mass Effect 5, Mass Effect 6, 7 ... bright and colorful games, but totally without soul.

    But lets support what I said above with some analysis. After recent news I released I'm not going to preorder this, not even buying this at all. But my m8 bought it anyway, despite my warnings, so I can write this review.

    - Graphics: Its quite nice. Really, graphics is fine, when you playing ME it is like you are watching blockbuster movie. This is the only reason I put 4 score here.

    - Plot: this is the main reason why we play ME, right? Right? Well, there are none. Where is Miranda? Where is Liara? Where are Reapers? Seriously, plot is dumbed down to some Android game. Please, go repair this module, because I'm technician and have no idea what to do, and dont even have tools o0

    - Gameplay: MMO quest system in single player game is the most absurd thing one can ever done. EA got warned after DA:I - do not do this **** again, but no, why we should listen to players? We are EA, we know better how to feed you.

    - Combat system: Well, it is okay. Honestly I dont remember how complex it was in ME 1-3, but here it is look like some japaneese slash and hack colorfest. Teleportations, explosions. Nothing special actually.

    - Animation: This should be the part of the graphics, probably, but I just had to separate this out. This is TERRIBLE. Face animaion is just abysmal. WHY SHE IS ALWAYS SMILING, like WTF. Like "my father is dead, and this is so funny." Is this some sort or black comedy, no? I even dont mention various graphical bugs and glitches, And have you seen this new azari-Shrek?

    Verdict: If you like WoW-style games - like bring 10 flowers, or kill 20 pigs - you might find this game intresting, if you like games where you need to shoot without thinking - you might find this game intresting, otherwise, especially if you are fan of ME universe - keep out of this, imagine ME3 was the last game, like HL2 and the next part will never come out.

    ...omg EA what have you done...    … Expand
  22. AJCk19
    May 6, 2023
    4
    Really buggy game, that further rolled back on its game design ideologies, instead of improving upon the first 2 mass effects. I can understand giving the story a side step to the main because of the controversies of ME3 and also they are in the midst of making a true ME4.

    But it was a huge let down, and I just hope they learn from their feedback, so ME4 will be a big success.
  23. Wermand
    Mar 25, 2017
    4
    I can understand everything: bland plot, poor dialogue wheel, bland characters (protagonist as well, even Inquisitor was a better written character), **** optimization. But Jesus Christ... I am horrified by thought of all asari in this game having the same face model. Each and everyone of them. Sometimes there are cutscenes in which several asari standing one next to another - it is anI can understand everything: bland plot, poor dialogue wheel, bland characters (protagonist as well, even Inquisitor was a better written character), **** optimization. But Jesus Christ... I am horrified by thought of all asari in this game having the same face model. Each and everyone of them. Sometimes there are cutscenes in which several asari standing one next to another - it is an attack of the clones, god damn it. Not to mention ugly human mugs and facial animations - those are simply abysmal. And i have waited five years for this game. What a shame.
    I liked Vetra though - she is the only reason i am going to rate ME:A with 4.    … Expand
  24. taufirec
    Mar 22, 2017
    4
    If this were a sci fi title put out by a small indie studio as a new IP I would consider it good, but as a AAA title made by a studio known for quality writing, the game is bad. The 3d models and animations make it abundantly obvious that the people working on them are not qualified to be doing that kind of work, the writing is amateurish and often times laughable, the characters areIf this were a sci fi title put out by a small indie studio as a new IP I would consider it good, but as a AAA title made by a studio known for quality writing, the game is bad. The 3d models and animations make it abundantly obvious that the people working on them are not qualified to be doing that kind of work, the writing is amateurish and often times laughable, the characters are shallow and often quite uninteresting, but luckily the core gameplay is good. Content is...lackluster to say the least and the game ends up having a lot of bugs as well as the same issues that ME 1-3 had with conversations that should have been fixed considering they worked on this for 5 years. Honestly, if this is what Bioware puts out, then I can safely say I won't be purchasing another game made by them. As for this game, It's already been approved for a return so I won't be bothering with it again either.… Expand
  25. Skyrant
    Mar 29, 2017
    4
    It is not the very limited character Editor, not the uncanny looks of the characters faces. it's not the amateur animations, not the horrible AI of your companions. It is not the many bugs or the repetitive and boring scanning mechanic.

    It is all the above combine with some of the worst, cringe worthy, worse than fan-fiction writing that makes this 4th incarnation of Mass Effect the    It is not the very limited character Editor, not the uncanny looks of the characters faces. it's not the amateur animations, not the horrible AI of your companions. It is not the many bugs or the repetitive and boring scanning mechanic.

    It is all the above combine with some of the worst, cringe worthy, worse than fan-fiction writing that makes this 4th incarnation of Mass Effect the worst and possible the last of the series.

    If we consider that a 1 means unplayable, 5 would be an average game and 10 a game of the century classic, i think a 4 is well deserved and probably too nice still.

    #BelowAverage #BargainBin #DonNotBuy    … Expand
  26. Thornblade
    Jun 21, 2017
    4
    Yes, it's THAT bad (nevermind the paid reviewers and ea employees who upped the user score....) I really tried, but the butt ugly characters (especially the females, all look like they are some plastic surgeon's failed experiment) and the laughable animations ( the lip sync especially is something from the early 2000s, even half-life 2 had much better lip sync) just destroy all theYes, it's THAT bad (nevermind the paid reviewers and ea employees who upped the user score....) I really tried, but the butt ugly characters (especially the females, all look like they are some plastic surgeon's failed experiment) and the laughable animations ( the lip sync especially is something from the early 2000s, even half-life 2 had much better lip sync) just destroy all the immersion.
    also, gameplay is repetitive, and story is lackluster to say the least.    … Expand
  27. dm04
    Apr 13, 2017
    4
    The game is huge, but still feels empty and shallow. On every step, every corner I got the feeling the game was rushed and released unfinished (after 5 years??) and worse then that, I could literaly see how BW went one step forward, but always two back.

    Character creation is non existant, no point in whining about that. Your options are limited to width, height and depth, but never    The game is huge, but still feels empty and shallow. On every step, every corner I got the feeling the game was rushed and released unfinished (after 5 years??) and worse then that, I could literaly see how BW went one step forward, but always two back.

    Character creation is non existant, no point in whining about that. Your options are limited to width, height and depth, but never shape (brow, eyes, nose, mouth) and because of that, it is an insult to call it CC... with this in mind the lack of "white" skin, haircuts and ugly presets is just not worth thinking about.
    The story is "ok"... it could be better, but it could be worse. What bugged me most was the poor writing and the delivery... no suspension, no climax build up. The story starts "big" and the next step, first revelation is a major leap down, the next is good again, and the next after again major leap down... this constant flow of ups and downs is very annoying. The poor writing dows also effect the dialogues, they feel like interrogations/interviews more then ever. And while we were limited to paragon/renegade/neutral in previous game, it is now limited to emotional, logic, casual and professional... what a huge step forward and a difference. The problem herein is: the few words you see on the wheel often do not match what is delivered afterwards and way too often do not match the situation at all (Many people complain about bad voice acting. Well, the VA is actualy good, it fits the lines, it is not their fault it does not match the situation. Even great voice actors could not deliver specific lines better because of the bad writing.)
    The combat is not as good as people want us to think. Sure it is more fluent and fast (step forward) but on the other hand, when you are on the far right/left of cover, you have to switch shoulder cam MANUAL (huge step back). Truth be told, I would rather have ME3 combat back. The jetpack is fun, but your squadies keep using it all the time out of combat and the constant powerup of the jets gets annoying when the squad tries to catch up with you. Also a little fun: you try some of this "jump'n'run" puzzles and out of a sudden a squadie is there and pushes you down the ledge because there is not enough room...
    The intentory is back, but pointless. You need a loadout station anyway, you can not have the same mod more then once (so equiping more then one gun with the similar mod is not possible), all you do is to open the inv when it is full and deconstruct everything. Oh and you can not customize your squadmates, they are limited to default outfit and weapon, all the time.
    The squadmates are also shallow and uninteresting, sure it is hard to come up with a strong new Garrus or interesting like Joker, Tali or Thane, but hands down, MEA have nothing. The ship is full of Kaidan Alencos or Carths or... pick any other general dude from the other games.
    Ever heard the saying "less is more"? Well, that applies to squad banter when you are out exploring. They talk so much... annoying. On the other hand, Tempest feels more alive then anything before, as your crew is not limited to their space only.
    People also say you have no impact on the game. Actualy you have, it is not much, but you do shape the story a bit. On the other hand, there is no Ryder progression. Sure you start small and are forced into a role you are not trained for, but with what you experience, any normal person would be quite self-confident by the mid of game after all the stuff Ryder accomplishes. And even by the end of game Ryder does not command respect, it is frustrating.
    Exploration does not realy exist, the moment you land somewhere, you see a dozen navpoints and all the points of intereset already. There is realy little to discover. Especialy at the galaxy map. The systems have nothing to offer and the descriptions are blunt. The exploration of new worlds BW promised is not there.
    The research and crafting are lackluster... the tier system from ME is back, but thats all. You want a N7 Valkyrie AR? Well, research the 10 tiers and construct it. New designs? Nada, and with constructiong comes a major ME2 flaw that everyone loved: mining, but it is worse here. You got to drive the Nomad across a mining field and call a mining drone when there are ressources available...
    The fear of failing an outpost, as BW said, does not exist as well. You land and in no tme you got the planet to 100% and your outpost running, failure? No idea how that could be possible.

    I am heavily disappointed with MEA, even more then with DAI.    … Expand
  28. skepticck
    Apr 5, 2017
    4
    The Game is not terrible but it is not really good either, best way i can describe it is "painfully average" even if you forget the really bad animations and the ridiculous character models, the story is generic, the dialogue is laughable, the characters for the most part are forgettable, lots of bugs and glitches.

    Graphics are good, exploration is good and combat is really good BUT    The Game is not terrible but it is not really good either, best way i can describe it is "painfully average" even if you forget the really bad animations and the ridiculous character models, the story is generic, the dialogue is laughable, the characters for the most part are forgettable, lots of bugs and glitches.

    Graphics are good, exploration is good and combat is really good BUT personally i don't buy a Mass Effect game for the combat, good combat is a plus for sure but that's not what i look forward to when i hear there is a new Mass Effect game.

    Fairly this game deserves a 5 or a generous 6 but it is imo inexcusable for a company like Bioware to release a game in this state and while they can patch some of the issues there is no saving the average story and painfully amateurish dialogue.

    You would think that Bioware/EA had learned something from the Mass Effect 3 ending debacle... guess not, i don't expect much from EA, a company that cut part of Mass Effect 3 content so they could sell it as a day one DLC but am really disappointed with Bioware.

    To conclude and while not a terrible game it is without a doubt (imo) the worst Mass Effect in the series.    … Expand
  29. braindamage
    Apr 24, 2017
    4
    a first time comer to mass effect I I was worried the game maybe be reminacant of Dragon age inqustion.. it is. I like the game more then that one but since the structure of the game is reminicent of dragon age inquitions except space porn with some shooting elements, wigth some cool cutscenes and world graphics as bad as something from 2012
  30. 21grams
    Mar 27, 2017
    4
    Based on public reactions I was not gonna buy the game and I still wouldn't. I only got to play the game because a friend who pre-ordered is on delegation and he gave access to his account.

    I knew a lot of what to expect form the game already, but still I was trying to explore basically everything, until the issues got me and I was rushing the main story more and more and more just to    Based on public reactions I was not gonna buy the game and I still wouldn't. I only got to play the game because a friend who pre-ordered is on delegation and he gave access to his account.

    I knew a lot of what to expect form the game already, but still I was trying to explore basically everything, until the issues got me and I was rushing the main story more and more and more just to be done with it. So here we go:

    Pros:
    - Environmental graphics - although there are some issues at times, for the most part it's absolutely stunning. This is the best looking space game to date, and tho there are not that many spaces games out there, believe me, some views will leave your jaw open, it can be really breath taking.
    - Combat - it's just great and dynamic, you have a lot of stuff (guns, powers, skills) to play with and customize your build, I think this is more fun than most shooter games out there. The small criticism I have here is dumb AI of your squad and lack of option to control them better
    - Main story - I wasn't intending to put it under the pros, but the story itself isn't bad all. It's nothing amazing, but it's perfectly alright. I wan't gonna list it under the pros, but I decided to split it from general writing, as such, understand "main story" as the events that happen in the game without its delivery.

    Cons:
    - Facial animations and character looks - this one is obvious one, it sucks, it feels dated, it feels unfinished and unpolished. It's worse than ME1. Facial animations are weird, disturbing and can make you feel uncomfortable. Character looks also has a lot to be desired. The worst part are the eyes - a cold, oversized eyeballs staring at you like the characters wouldn't have eyelids. It can look really scary and awkward. To quickly sum up, human characters (alien ones are much better done) feel more like androids or zombies than people. Character creation is also terrible - it feels like retard factory more than actual character creator.
    - writing - I will split it in few sections here. First, the character writing. I was not expecting this from Bioware, because the absolutely majority of them are basically puddle shallow generic, dull, emotion less characters with boring backgrounds. One the most boring character writing I've seen in video games (especially RPG) in past decade (not counting garbage like steam green light trash). Next is dialogue writing, which also has negative impact on main story delivery, which as already mentioned - is not that bad. To be perfectly honest, at times I would think the dialogues are written by a 10 year old. There are so many overly cheesy and pointless lines for an AAA game. Some of the lines are have even bad sentence structure and for such you would get F (or lowest equivalent degree) even in elementary school. This feels more like initial draft than final writing.
    - voice acting - not all of it is that bad, but overall a lot of voice actors just read the text without any intonation and emotion, just like a student reading of the powerpoint slides show during some presentation nobody has interest in.
    - User Interface (UI) - absolutely disgusting. I feel like it's done on purpose to waste my time with multi-layer sub-menus and overall awkward design.
    - Music - it's just lazy and boring and for most of the time there is no background music. The one is there - doesn't build the moment up at all.
    - Side missions - absolute most of it is boring fetch that has no real effect on your game progression. It's very repetitive structure kill the immersion and I'd rather just free-roam instead of going from point A to B to C and pressing a button, or picking up some irrelevant item.
    - Bug and glitches - there is quite a lot of them, it's various clipping issues, terrible graphical+physics glitches, like falling down thru floors, NPC standing in the air, or sinking in the ground and many more.

    So, it's pretty bad and no doubt a huge disappointment in ME franchise. At this point I strongly recommend not to buy it if you have at least some self-respect. Sure environments look cool and combat is really fun, story itself is also not that bad, but for me these are secondary aspects and the primary aspects (characters, writing, voice acting and overall presentation) are from bad to terrible. So the absolute maximum I can give is 4 out 10 and even with that I kinda feel merciful.    … Expand
  31. KTLeander
    Mar 23, 2017
    4
    Just dont know where to start! So many things wrong with this game. Technology is at best on ME1 level. Politcal correctness shining trought with killing off people of European descent and why the hell they didnt invent some lore reason for aliens in ANOTHER GOD DAMN GALAXY speaking English!?! I really want to like this game, but it just starts to wear me down. Maybe I increase the points if
  32. Hitmanforrent
    Mar 30, 2017
    4
    It's pretty bad. The combat feels okay, but the story and characters are lifeless. The main character is painfully boring. Technical issues don't help the story.
  33. ScienceAdvisor
    Mar 23, 2017
    4
    Thank you EA for finally killing Bioware off. Especially for having the temerity to offer this on a test basis. You openly advertise how bad it is, with issues in graphical optimization, animation, story (or lack thereof), lobotimized AI, and downgraded customization (from prior games made on same engine), while expecting something other than a flogging? Time to check yourselves into rehab.
  34. worksa7
    Mar 22, 2017
    4
    The amount of critical bugs, visual design problems, and so many of the things that made the other Mass Effect games great being left out- causes the game to miss the mark.
  35. Realgigclin
    Jul 24, 2022
    4
    FYI, huge mass effect fan. Ive played the original trilogy for almost 600 hours, read all the books and even some of the **** comics. Love the word an series the old bioware created

    Im at a loss of what to rate this game, at times it can feel like a 7/10 but 80% of the time it feels like a 3/10. This is not mass effect, its a game made by a bunch of people that werent involved in the    FYI, huge mass effect fan. Ive played the original trilogy for almost 600 hours, read all the books and even some of the **** comics. Love the word an series the old bioware created

    Im at a loss of what to rate this game, at times it can feel like a 7/10 but 80% of the time it feels like a 3/10. This is not mass effect, its a game made by a bunch of people that werent involved in the original series trying to make what they think is mass effect. Im still waiting for the story to do something interesting, and im 20 hours in. It plays it incredibly safe, probably because bioware feels like they are being held at gunpoint over ME3s ending when it comes to taking a risk with the story. But even if they did take risks, the writing is laughably bad, and the characters dont take what is happening seriously at all. This completely breaks any immersion. In past mass effect games i would love talking to squad mates on my ship, in this i actually dread talking to anyone except drack and Jaal, they are the only characters that arent constantly making me cringe with horrible jokes and cheesy one liners.

    The combat is great, but when you fight the same camps of kett over and over it becomes extremely repetitive. since mass effect 3 bioware has liked to create these bad guys that are just endless, you'll be killing thousands of the same dudes over and over with no narrative or reason for it. and your squad mates AI is downright brain dead, in past games they wouldn't use throw, pull or any biotic power on enemies that have shields. In this they dont care, ive had peebee use pull on more shielded enemies than health enemies. And you cant command her to do other wise, so shes basically wasting powers the second combat starts. same applies to other squad mates. Not being able to command squad mate powers is a huge downside to gameplay and its great moments, i have no idea why they didnt include it.

    QUESTS; i have encountered maybe 3 interesting side quests, out of the around 30 i have done. Everything is run to this location, place this item and then do that for 4 more locations. Quest ends. Repeat under slightly different conditions, like instead of placing signal towers, your scanning rocks. These side quests are the definition of repetitive. I just think its funny that bioware thought this was acceptable after games like The witcher 3 proved that side quests can have the same quality as main quests, and be just as interesting.

    Im not going to mention facial animations as much, yes they are terrible some of the worst i have seen from a AAA game in years. but since people have been bashing them to death i thought i wouldn't touch on them anymore. Honestly the game could have been good if it had done other things right, like if the game had an interesting story i could look past the facial animations. Its also to bad that bioware continues their same tired tale of you playing as this God character, i thought the pathfinder would be a down to earth normal dude. Nope. All the characters in this game basically suck your dick, nobody stands up to you and when they do its so laughably and cliche.

    To end things, i would like to note my biggest problem. Andromeda never feels alive. Most worlds are completely empty with just more generic enemies to fight, no towns or settlements (besides the ones you create and fill with NPCs that do nothing). with one new friendly race, the angara things feel even more empty. Look at all the races we had in the original trilogy that were working together on the citadel, youll find none of that here. Plus lore inconsistency galore, why do we have jump jets when the milky way doesnt? how are we able to use FTL travel so much, and so fast when in the trilogy the only reason we could get around the galaxy so fast was because of mass relays? FTL has always existed but it in ME but it was much faster to use a mass relay rather than travel for hours to another system on your ships power.

    Edit 2022: funny i just found this account again, funny to see this here. It took me 2 years to finish this game. It didn't take me that long in a good way, i would either forget about the game for long periods or just couldn't stomach it for longer than an hour. I 100% completed the game and absolutely don't recommend it. Its a grind. This was also the last game i ever pre ordered. Still think this review echo's these statements 5 years later, even when i wrote this with 20 hours of playtime... these issues definately dont change by the end.    … Expand
  36. Dannystaples
    Jul 30, 2017
    4
    Yet another game that can't seem to get something as simple as CPU optimisation right. I have a middle of the range CPU, what that USUALLY says to me is that I can run it at max with perhaps a few settings turned down a little. Namely shadows/lighting which are CPU bound.

    What that DOESN'T say is that the game would max out my CPU 100% on every core even when running the game at    Yet another game that can't seem to get something as simple as CPU optimisation right. I have a middle of the range CPU, what that USUALLY says to me is that I can run it at max with perhaps a few settings turned down a little. Namely shadows/lighting which are CPU bound.

    What that DOESN'T say is that the game would max out my CPU 100% on every core even when running the game at absolute minimum settings. Absolute JOKE. With everything on minimum my computer can actually run the game at about 120fps. But the stupid game decides that it is still going to dip into the SUB 20s seemingly at random.

    Pathetic attempt from a pathetic company. Bioware USED to be a great company but the Bioware that once was is dead.

    Now the game itself is actually better than I thought it was going to be. The characters don't annoy me as much as the characters did in previous games. The combat is actually pretty satisfying.

    But my god, this game has some problems even beyond the potato faced character models and the crappy animations. Personally don't really care much for the story. Yet another alien race is there to do alien race stuff and humans are trying to colonise another galaxy.

    Naturally the alien race gets in the way and the only thing our primitive ape brains come up with it to shoot and vaporise them into submission.

    Which I'm actually not even that bothered by. I'll take a crappy story and setting when the gameplay is good and the visuals are good which they definitely are.

    But this game has WAY WAY WAY too many problems to be enjoyable. I mean when you have a GTX 1070 and a game is dipping into sub 20 fps there is a BIG f**king problem!!!!!!    … Expand
  37. Toophat82
    Apr 5, 2017
    4
    Bottomline it's not mass effect we love or wanted instead it's DAI but in space. So think about it they simply recycled and reused the same formula from last RPG they worked on and developed before Andromeda which was Dragon Age inquisition. The Story, characters, dialogue, ui, and etc all sub par to bad. Only improvements was the huge worlds and combat itself which unfortunately isBottomline it's not mass effect we love or wanted instead it's DAI but in space. So think about it they simply recycled and reused the same formula from last RPG they worked on and developed before Andromeda which was Dragon Age inquisition. The Story, characters, dialogue, ui, and etc all sub par to bad. Only improvements was the huge worlds and combat itself which unfortunately is hindered by the bad UI that is limited and tailored for multiplayer period as only allows three abilities are allowed during combat no matter campaign or multiplayer mode. Alot is missing from originals too like races, weapons, having meaningful choices and consequences, squadmate loadouts, and renegade/paragon system and there isn't enough new to make up for it either. They even ruined special anmo along with biotic and armor piercing not even in game too. Game is also very buggy and lacks polish along with alot of what made mass effect and bioware rpgs special in first place.

    In Mass effect Andromeda Good luck finding white males and males period in any powerful or meaningful role in game you quickly find that all mission givers and characters that are in power and meaningful in game are overwhelming female with the lesser being minorities or aliens if male at all. While White males are nowhere to be found in game except as cannon fodder or for mockery. This game not only is too extremely politically correct but ractist against white males and white people in general to the point that its too obvious and sickening to loyal fans who love the franchise and have been loyal since it started.

    There is diversity done right like mass effect 1 through 3 and then there is ME andromeda not the way you want to do diversity in games as people play games to get away from their personal lives and have fun. The designer of game clearly wanted to get political and personal on a level that is bad for business given fact that majority of gamers will be of male gender to begin with and most likely a good amount white too when it comes to the RPG genre too not smart at all for a business.    … Expand
  38. b1gdeano
    Jul 11, 2017
    4
    Now I dont normally write reviews unless its so amazing as I cant help but gush about it, or in the case of Andromeda, so mediocre I just feel the need to vent.

    First - Its so BORING! I literally had to force myself through the game towards the end. Some parts are done very well, and the game could have had so much potential had they just stuck with being more like the original trilogy    Now I dont normally write reviews unless its so amazing as I cant help but gush about it, or in the case of Andromeda, so mediocre I just feel the need to vent.

    First - Its so BORING! I literally had to force myself through the game towards the end. Some parts are done very well, and the game could have had so much potential had they just stuck with being more like the original trilogy than this hash up and awful DA:I inspired game.

    Its not that it was bad per se - just very very mediocre and boring. Full of filler.    … Expand
  39. MaxShine
    Apr 2, 2017
    4
    The review is only concerned with the single player. I liked this game better than DA:I because at least the combat is quite fun. Maybe this is the new Bioware style where there is a quasi open world with huge areas where you can collect stuff that you don't need (really you don't need all this stuff) in a single player MMO fashion.
    Bioware's Mass Effect was known for being a story-driven    The review is only concerned with the single player. I liked this game better than DA:I because at least the combat is quite fun. Maybe this is the new Bioware style where there is a quasi open world with huge areas where you can collect stuff that you don't need (really you don't need all this stuff) in a single player MMO fashion.
    Bioware's Mass Effect was known for being a story-driven action RPG. In this game only the main quest is truly story-driven. Even the companion quests have very few cutscenes and are not nearly as intense and connected to the main quest as in ME2, they are really shallow and I did not even do some of them which seemed to have no consequences.
    This is really a game where I would have wished for less content and smaller worlds, but then let the side or companion quests be more intense and not fetch X from A and bring it to B.
    You can get easily sidetracked by such quests and then get bored to death. I really recommend not doing these quests if you want to enjoy the little parts of this game that are enjoyable.
    If this quasi open world type of game is the new Bioware style, I have to say I don't like it at all. I don't buy Bioware games for fetch quests and grinding. I would really like to see Bioware returning to making less quests and smaller game worlds, but better and more polished quests and places.
    Couple that with the ridiculous SJW agenda, creepy animations and a lot of the humans being some kind of grotesque ethnomix you get a game of which one wants to avoid a lot of the content to not get bored, enraged or repulsed. In previous Mass Effect games the soundtrack contributed a great deal to the epic gaming moments these games delivered. While the main quest of this game has some good moments it never reaches the level of epicness, immersion and intensity of its predecessors.    … Expand
  40. michael__b
    Mar 22, 2017
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. spoilers alert

    really really poor story - in the old mass effect humanity found these gates that can jump travel called the mass relays - ok cool

    in this new game you are suddenly able to mass relay by yourself in a new galaxy that is only 600 Light years away

    if it was so easy , why dint the reapers do that , cleans the other galaxy i mean they did it every 50,000 years

    what the **** is 600 years for them ?

    story is BS from start to finish - huge gaps in story line -

    compared to mass effect 1 where i had tears when i saw shepard becoming the first human specter and going over the galaxy using the mass effect relays to solve the impeding doom - now that was story line.

    this game has nothing close to it .

    plus games is buggy as hell - and not the small type - huge bugs

    i was kicked out of the game a few times for no reason , i need to come within a inch of a object for the vegetation around it to appear , this is on ps4 !!!

    its acting as if it has no ram

    i am a hardcore fan of most rpgs , loved the mass effects and i am from Montreal ( main studio for this game )
    and i cannot give it more then a 5 -

    wait till it drops to 20$ not worth it otherwise    … Expand
  41. Fireantus
    Jul 9, 2017
    4
    I wanted to write a huge rant, but this game is so tiring I just can't. So, TL;DR - This game is work. Boring, crummy, soul-draining and mind-numbing work. It's the most tedious RPG I ever player and it feels outdated on release... As in I didn't expect an AAA game released in this age to have such a terrible approach to a player time. The game is ENDLESS backtracking. In a quest thatI wanted to write a huge rant, but this game is so tiring I just can't. So, TL;DR - This game is work. Boring, crummy, soul-draining and mind-numbing work. It's the most tedious RPG I ever player and it feels outdated on release... As in I didn't expect an AAA game released in this age to have such a terrible approach to a player time. The game is ENDLESS backtracking. In a quest that takes an hour to finish you will literally spend 40 minutes on flying through same planets and watching same 3 cutscenes over and over again only to spend 5 minutes in actual conversations in the quest.

    See this is it. I don't care about enforced SJW agenda. I don't care about uggo-female characters. I don't even care that the graphics and animations are sometimes pretty wonky. What maked me hate this game with a mild passion is how terribly, utterly boring it is. I did ALL the planets and invested quite a lot of time in this barrell of tar just to see if it picks up at any time, but it doesn't. This game hates you and wants you to be bored to death so when something slightly more exciting happens, you say your prayers and thank the gods...

    Avoid this RPG with quests taken from 2001 MMO's.    … Expand
  42. chumpwithnoname
    Dec 26, 2020
    4
    Very boring game. I can enjoy ME1 still, but I can't enjoy this game loaded with non-needed boring stuff that was put into this game just to make fill it with tasteless crap.

    This is Dragon Effect Inqisition.
  43. Turulo
    May 24, 2017
    4
    Having completed the previous titles with every class mostly as paragon male and as renegade girl, I don't think I can finish this game. The main issue is that the story is boring and the main character dialogs are too dumb to immerse in game.

    Pros: - Frostbite engine is a very good, is efficient, I like it. It has improved a lot since DA:I. - All that is not a character looks    Having completed the previous titles with every class mostly as paragon male and as renegade girl, I don't think I can finish this game. The main issue is that the story is boring and the main character dialogs are too dumb to immerse in game.

    Pros:

    - Frostbite engine is a very good, is efficient, I like it. It has improved a lot since DA:I.

    - All that is not a character looks very good.

    - It can be played without being installed an SSD, which is great since it eats a lot of space.

    - Combat mechanics are good, not spectacular, but good.

    - Open world(s) gameplay is a nice change, it has flaws but not because it's open world.

    - Nice weapon building mechanics.

    - Love that the mako is back (even without guns).

    Cons:

    1 - You can only use 3 abilities.

    2 - The story world building does not have the quality of the previous titles.

    3 - The dialogs are childish, they look focused for teenager kids. They don't curse for instance. You will be hitting SPACE a lot even the first time you read the lines.

    4 - No renegade options, the main character cannot be a douche, no matter which option you choose.

    5 - The main character script does not change whether your character is male or female, making it weird because the female character feels like a boy and the male like a sissy.

    6 - The space activities are simplified yet again, no fuel, the scan is even simpler. Basically they removed this part of the game. Pretty similar to ME3.

    7 - Character models are really bad, ME1 was a lot better, in fact is the worst I've seen.

    7a - My Face is Tired syndrome. **Thunderbirds TV series had better face animations**. Eyebrows and eyes are not animated at all, they don't move, never. After a while I developed a constant SPACE hitting rampage because it really annoys a lot.

    7b - The character face editor has very few options to tweak but what is worst is that the face presets are really bad.

    7c - The default male character looks like if it had all the sliders in the middle, it does not have a personality. The Sheppard face comes from a real person and you can feel it or like the Geralt in the Witcher 3. The female has some personality but they didn't do it right and the face proportions are all wrong.

    8 - Some bugs, for instance if you save when enemies are near, the enemies will disappear when you load the game back. You can skip a lot of content that way. Also if you can kill one enemy with a single shot with the sniper rifle the others will not aggro, no matter how close they are.    … Expand
  44. extremext
    May 2, 2017
    4
    Holy **** What the **** is this? This is not mass effect, this is Fail effect. Combat is good. Exploration with Nomad is good. Graphics are cool. Rest of game is all trash.
  45. Piercey
    Jun 5, 2017
    4
    I started playing this at patch 1.06, giving time for the game to have some of the on release bugs ironed out. I didn't wait long enough...the game is a disappointing mess as far as performance goes. I love the series, and the game has promise, but 10 hours in I just can't bear to persevere, the glitches, bugs, frame-drops, crashes, hangs, just make it unbearable. Heartbreaking :/ I mightI started playing this at patch 1.06, giving time for the game to have some of the on release bugs ironed out. I didn't wait long enough...the game is a disappointing mess as far as performance goes. I love the series, and the game has promise, but 10 hours in I just can't bear to persevere, the glitches, bugs, frame-drops, crashes, hangs, just make it unbearable. Heartbreaking :/ I might give it another go in a few months of I hear word of any other patches to improve it, but otherwise this game is a waste of time. Such a shame.… Expand
  46. AbeMC
    Sep 16, 2017
    4
    Mass Effect Andromeda disappoints in almost every major aspect, from lore to story. And the combat, while generally excellent, suffers from repetitive enemies and an annoying “profile” system that restricts how you play instead of providing the freedom that was promised. There are a few good moments (most in the loyalty missions), but they can’t make up for the failures.
    Total size on my    Mass Effect Andromeda disappoints in almost every major aspect, from lore to story. And the combat, while generally excellent, suffers from repetitive enemies and an annoying “profile” system that restricts how you play instead of providing the freedom that was promised. There are a few good moments (most in the loyalty missions), but they can’t make up for the failures.
    Total size on my hard-drive (after Patch 1.10): 47.3 GB

    + Nomad is great. Handles and drives well.
    + The planets’ design is fantastic. Great fun to explore.
    + Some of the most beautiful landscapes you’ll see.
    + Great sound design.
    + The Angara are an interesting new species.
    + The new ship, the Tempest, is filled with atmospheric lighting and cool views of space through the many windows (it’s a recon ship, not a warship like the Normandy).
    + Squad-mate banter while exploring in the Nomad. Funny, a lot of it, and it triggers quickly.
    + Jump jets! The levels make good use of them, adding a verticality to exploration and combat that simply wasn’t there in previous Mass Effect games, and is a welcome addition.

    +/- Enemy AI is quick to flank. Otherwise, dumb as a rock.
    +/- Characters are a mixed bag. Scott / Sara are betas who take make sure everyone is comfortable, and rarely get the chance tell someone to go to hell. Peebee, Vetra, Lexi and Jaal feel genuinely different, and are fun to talk to. Drack is a (mostly) funny old krogan, who was angry that I chose to save the salarian pathfinder instead of saving three krogan scouts (it’s not like the Pathfinder is an avatar of the species or anything). Liam’s annoying but is clearly meant to be funny. And Cora… well, Cora trained with asari commandos. That’s all you need to know.

    - In a game about building colonies and creating a new home, I hoped for a little more than, “Do side missions to accumulate randomly assigned ‘viability’ points, go to a location, hold E to settle.”
    - I have logged over 1k hours in Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer. Andromeda’s is built on many of the same principles, but now with jump-jets! It’d be great if the maps weren’t so small and confined. While jump-jetting, am always worried about running into walls, pipes, boxes, other players... Lack of enemy variety was an issue in the single-player campaign, and multi-player highlights the issue even more. In addition to all of this, the netcode is a buggy, laggy mess.
    - Glitches abound, even after the final patch.
    - Corrupted saves.
    - Frequent crashing on loading.
    - Crafting. Cumbersome number of components, poor interface.
    - Combat “profiles.” You can create and choose from up to 4 “profiles,” each of which contains only three skills (from any skill tree). Switch between profiles to access the different skills. But switching to a different profile immediately puts all your skills on cooldown, largely defeating the purpose of switching profiles in combat. Obvious console-itis.
    - The same enemies on every planet. Kett, human pirates, anti-human angara, and a few monsters / animals. Some have extra health to make them bosses. That’s it.
    - Cannot customize squad-mates’ loadout.
    - No pause screen in combat; no tactical interface.
    - The Paragon / Renegade character system is gone with nothing to take its place. It’s hard to meaningfully role-play – which means there’s little reason to replay.
    - SAM (the AI) never shuts up, and frequently cuts off / interrupts squadmate dialogue.
    - All asari have the same face (except squad-mate Peebee).
    - No quarians. There are turians, asari, humans and salarians on the Nexus, irrespective of the status of their Arks. Krogan are present too. Why no quarians?
    - Awful male turian designs.
    - Facial animations are still bad.
    - Generally sub-par voice acting, with a few exceptions.
    - The music soundtrack is nearly invisible.
    - Childish conversation writing.
    - The story works, but never surprises. Perhaps because so much of it is borrowed or rehashed from the previous Mass Effect games. The Kett threat is a retread of the Reaper threat (exaltation = ascension, conversion = indoctrination). The Archon even sounds like the Reapers when he states, “We have exalted countless species.”
    - The outrage over the lack of Quarian DLC isn’t just fan-manufactured. A story involving the Quarian Ark is teased in the final moments of the main story. **** you, BioWare.
    - Poor treatment of Mass Effect lore. Numerous retcons and alterations for no reason.

    There are more issues that I could bring up, but I’m limited by space. Worth a purchase at $10, because there are a lot of things to do, the planets are vast, and the combat is fun. But don’t expect a Mass Effect game. I was prepared to give it an 8 or a 9, I was pumped and ready to explore a new galaxy with new characters. 4/10 because instead BioWare gave us a plethora of poor design choices coupled with the boring leftovers of last night’s feast - served cold.    … Expand
  47. Neng-
    Mar 27, 2017
    4
    I've played for about 8 hours now and my experience is nothing but a feeling of dizzines from playing it, the main part is there, but everything that should help get the game going is just not at today's standards at all.
    Animations, lipsyncing, voice acting, timing, puzzles, just don't work, and it kills all the fun for me,
    I'm not saying this is a bad game, but everything that    I've played for about 8 hours now and my experience is nothing but a feeling of dizzines from playing it, the main part is there, but everything that should help get the game going is just not at today's standards at all.
    Animations, lipsyncing, voice acting, timing, puzzles, just don't work, and it kills all the fun for me,

    I'm not saying this is a bad game, but everything that revolves around it just doesn't make me even slightly eager to keep playing it, and i find that incredibly frustrating coming from a franchise i loved back in the day.    … Expand
  48. SOLIDSNAKEN64
    May 5, 2017
    4
    I played the first 3 ME games so I am a fan, and I wanted to like this game but just kept getting frustrated with it! I put about 12 hours into this game and I could not find it in me to finish it. The biggest problem I had with MEA was the damn aiming controls were so bad I was shooting everything except the enemies! The character animations are terrible, the team members areI played the first 3 ME games so I am a fan, and I wanted to like this game but just kept getting frustrated with it! I put about 12 hours into this game and I could not find it in me to finish it. The biggest problem I had with MEA was the damn aiming controls were so bad I was shooting everything except the enemies! The character animations are terrible, the team members are uninteresting, and the story was just ok. I did enjoy colonizing the planets and driving the Nomad around, and the environments look nice. In a new universe you would expect to find new alien races not the same old races from milky way. If I were you I would skip this game or wait until all the patches come out and its on sale for $10.… Expand
  49. Merostin
    Mar 21, 2017
    4
    This deserves no Mass Affection.

    I keep it short:

    ME1, ME2, ME3 are about story, characters, species and relations between the latter two.

    ME Andromeda tries to be the same, but it also includes new gameplay layers due to its focus on an outdated openworld concept. The result: It fails at both ME's core elements (see above) and at being a great openworld game.

    Sad, but true.
  50. Wraithe
    Apr 9, 2017
    4
    84 hours for PT1, 14 hours into PT2 and I stopped. The writing is like teen fiction. It's that bad. You are constantly bombarded with stupid dialogue that no adult would say. Humanity if on the Brink, yet everyone is just cracking jokes and say stupid crap all the time. That's not even touching on the technical failures of the game, or the fact, that in an RPG, almost nothing you do84 hours for PT1, 14 hours into PT2 and I stopped. The writing is like teen fiction. It's that bad. You are constantly bombarded with stupid dialogue that no adult would say. Humanity if on the Brink, yet everyone is just cracking jokes and say stupid crap all the time. That's not even touching on the technical failures of the game, or the fact, that in an RPG, almost nothing you do makes a difference in the game. Your choices are meaningless.… Expand
  51. Lisowczyk3P
    Mar 22, 2017
    4
    I will skip the issue of animation because they do not matter much, despite the publicity they caused. Fundamentals of storyline rape universe, only reason for trip to Andromeda may be desire the creators to cut off from mistakes committed in the trilogy. Simplify the game, (probably to be more affordable) use more tactics or manage the team during the battle became superfluous.I will skip the issue of animation because they do not matter much, despite the publicity they caused. Fundamentals of storyline rape universe, only reason for trip to Andromeda may be desire the creators to cut off from mistakes committed in the trilogy. Simplify the game, (probably to be more affordable) use more tactics or manage the team during the battle became superfluous. Scanning planets and side quests, can result in fatigue in its repetitiveness.I was not able get to know the whole story but after ten hours I can say that unfortunately some dialogues are quite naive or even violate the laws of logic. It's discouraging. In my opinion the new Mass Effect takes a step back towards trilogy in every aspect (of course beyond the graphics). So sorry to see such a fan like me on what's going on with the brand, as with the movie SW the Force Awakens movie. Earn as much money how you can without worrying about quality because it sells so much ...… Expand
  52. chrissu
    Mar 24, 2017
    4
    Not a Mass Effect game. I'll put it like this: bad writing, terrible animations, decent game play (that's why it has 4/10) , but this is not Mass Effect. Better find a new brand name for this.
  53. fehish
    Mar 24, 2017
    4
    It seems that Bioware didn't want to acknowledge the horrible aspects of their latest installment of Dragon Age and decided to implement all of them into this game. Besides the horrible animations there's plenty of things wrong with this game. There's a plethora of forgettable quests and just time wasting activities. Many of the characters try to come off as likable, but are insanelyIt seems that Bioware didn't want to acknowledge the horrible aspects of their latest installment of Dragon Age and decided to implement all of them into this game. Besides the horrible animations there's plenty of things wrong with this game. There's a plethora of forgettable quests and just time wasting activities. Many of the characters try to come off as likable, but are insanely obnoxious. All of the playable areas in this game are very dead. There are several things to do such as, mining... over and over and over again, playing logic puzzles over and over again, and then quests that you won't remember by the time you finish the game. The story and open world become tiresome very fast.
    The combat on the other hand feels very fluid and fun. With the ease of access to switch a load out/power set makes combat feel engaging and intense. Enemies can be repetitive, but just making those dumb alien dudes blow up is amazing. The combat is the only saving grace of this game in my opinion. Hopefully Bioware will learn after seeing how this game and Dragon Age Inquisition had done. This game's concept was good, but was just executed awfully.    … Expand
  54. Shad0w
    Mar 24, 2017
    4
    I loved Mass Effect 1 through 3, and my hopes for this one were high. I avoided all spoilers/news/advertising for Andromeda and immediately downloaded the trial. From the beginning things felt off, sort of cheap, lacking the quality and the immersion of the previous games. I was surprised that I couldn't create a character to resemble my Commander Shepard from games past, much lessI loved Mass Effect 1 through 3, and my hopes for this one were high. I avoided all spoilers/news/advertising for Andromeda and immediately downloaded the trial. From the beginning things felt off, sort of cheap, lacking the quality and the immersion of the previous games. I was surprised that I couldn't create a character to resemble my Commander Shepard from games past, much less anything that resembled me. Ryder lacks any sense of presence. He isn't a soldier, he isn't much of anything. Pathfinder? Ryder has no business being a protagonist. At best he is a tutorial npc that hands you a fetch quest. The dialogue is terrible. The decision wheel actually has better responses than what the voice actor elaborates with. Bad writing, bad casting, bad choice of characters for the npcs... apparently there was a cascade failure during development. The entire game and its menus stink of a lazy console port. EA is remaining faithful to its legacy of eventually ruining everything it gets its hands on. I really appreciate that they chose to give us a 10 hour trial instead of having to deal with all the refund requests/extra flak. If this is going to be your first mass effect game, stop. Don't even think about it. Go play through the first through third plus DLC's. You can get them all for cheaper than this steaming pile of mediocre pandering. I truly feel bad for what I'm sure were many people who worked hard on this only to see it turn out so poorly. There were definitely some terrible decisions made, and the people who made them have no business working in the gaming industry. People are comparing the writing to fan-fiction, and it truly is. Possibly not even Mass Effect fan-fiction though, more like EA executives and a bunch of annoying lobbyists had an idea and hired a 15 year old SJW to write it down for them.… Expand
  55. DMSRECON
    Mar 25, 2017
    4
    Mass Effect Andromeda is a lot like a **** relationship. You always wanted to be with someone, and here's that someone, but every time you get together you are disappointed and feel like you had made a huge mistake; but the moment your away you can't help but think things could get better, but deep down, it won't.

    TL;DR- This game is bad, but if you are a fan and don't really care about    Mass Effect Andromeda is a lot like a **** relationship. You always wanted to be with someone, and here's that someone, but every time you get together you are disappointed and feel like you had made a huge mistake; but the moment your away you can't help but think things could get better, but deep down, it won't.

    TL;DR- This game is bad, but if you are a fan and don't really care about problems, you'll probably love this game. Buy Mass Effect 1 instead.

    This game only has one thing going for it, and that's the combat. But even that isn't good enough to hold this game up; with buggy characters and cut scenes, audio problems, multiple crashes, s-s-s-s-stuttering, boring and uninteresting enemies, story, and motivations, barren worlds that hold small boring huts that you can shoot people at, shoe horned in "loyalty missions", a forgetful soundtrack, and conflicts that feel more like a melodramatic play put on my freshman theater kids rather than an epic space opera, this game disappoints at every single turn.

    Oh, and if you are a fan of decisions, this game has none. Or at least, none that matter. Or if you are a fan of making a customized character, good luck with that, as the character creation tools are more limited than Bethesda games are buggy, as well as only having 3 hot-keys for abilities.    … Expand
  56. Zelloswar
    Mar 26, 2017
    4
    Let me begin by saying that i'm a huge fan of the entire Mass Effect franchise, i've re-played the original 3 games more than 50 times combined.
    And let me tell you, i never-mind the bugs and glitches and what not, just don't care.
    Now here is my problem with the Andromeda - the rubber faces, it's like a bunch of sex dolls talking to each other. I've played Mass Effect for incredible    Let me begin by saying that i'm a huge fan of the entire Mass Effect franchise, i've re-played the original 3 games more than 50 times combined.
    And let me tell you, i never-mind the bugs and glitches and what not, just don't care.

    Now here is my problem with the Andromeda - the rubber faces, it's like a bunch of sex dolls talking to each other. I've played Mass Effect for incredible story AND incredible emotions that it brought up, now i look at facial expression of the characters (especially non-human) and i don't see any emotions.
    The wife of a man that pleads for his life shows 0 emotions, the Officer of the Initiative that is supposedly angry and annoyed with the situation shows even less.
    WHAT HAPPENED SINCE ME3 ???
    I used to cry over deaths and suffering, i used to care for every single character, now i just play the game to know the story, because i played other 3.

    Screw that.    … Expand
  57. VaiberHD
    Mar 27, 2017
    4
    if this was a beta indie game i would definitely give it an 8+ out of 10... but a company this big releasing a bug infested game for 60$ while calling it a finished product is just not acceptable, animations are terrible + objects and characters fade in and out of existence... and to top that... story is not that good either... so 4 points for gameplay i guess
  58. Pepsi349
    Mar 27, 2017
    4
    53 hours in.
    It's a disgrace.
    Good: - Combat feels better than ever. - Jumping is the best thing they added. - Background and map design is gorgeous. Bad: - Everything you know about mass effect is dumbed down. (Solarian Biologie, Genophage, dark energy) - ending contains DLC teaser - Animations are a good 2004 standard. - bugs everywhere - fetch quests - the most    53 hours in.
    It's a disgrace.

    Good:
    - Combat feels better than ever.
    - Jumping is the best thing they added.
    - Background and map design is gorgeous.

    Bad:
    - Everything you know about mass effect is dumbed down. (Solarian Biologie, Genophage, dark energy)
    - ending contains DLC teaser
    - Animations are a good 2004 standard.
    - bugs everywhere
    - fetch quests
    - the most disappointing bad writing. (The romance feels sloppy, the story doesn't immerse you)
    - voice acting is bad.
    - loading times are way too long.
    - shallow companions
    -no multiple endings / choices that matter

    It would be a good 6-7/10 for me if it wasn't an AAA title and a Bioware game.
    I can understand problems with bug fixes when you are an indie studio that doesn't have thousands of employees to fix them. But Bioware does have the capability to do so.
    I can overlook sloppy writing when it's your first experience making a game, but I can't understand it from the studio that made Baldurs Gate or Dragon Age origins.
    After the false advertisement from Mass Effect 3's ending. Or the feedback from Dragon age Inquisition i thought that they would have learned.

    I don't support the overall hate of the game, but i don't like the way its presented.

    -------------------------------------------------------
    I really tried to use proper English grammar I may have failed. I'm sorry for that. It's hard learning a new language.    … Expand
  59. TrollYourEnemey
    Mar 28, 2017
    4
    Mess Effect : First of all let me state that I am a huge fan of the Mass Effect Franchise. Mass Effect 2 for me was the pinnacle of the trilogy! Here we are now in 2017 with a new game to kick start a new trilogy..... and i'm absolutely shocked at the quality of this game. There will be no personal attacks towards the employees of BioWare here because I know they are a very hard workingMess Effect : First of all let me state that I am a huge fan of the Mass Effect Franchise. Mass Effect 2 for me was the pinnacle of the trilogy! Here we are now in 2017 with a new game to kick start a new trilogy..... and i'm absolutely shocked at the quality of this game. There will be no personal attacks towards the employees of BioWare here because I know they are a very hard working company. I am not sure wtf happened here tho... First of all Andromeda looks like it had a significant downgrade in the graphical department. Also animations are clearly not up to par with today's standards.. this is rather confusing as this is a huge team of developers with the resources, money and the staff to make this game the AAA title it should have been. There are countless bugs and glitches, poorly written dialogue, frame rate drops, texture problems, lighting problems, shadow problems, even just simply running around looks terrible. Animations: WTF is with the ugly character models? this isn't 2007 anymore... heck The first Mass Effect game actually looks better than this!! This is completely unacceptable at full retail price! here in Canada where the game was made this costs ove $80.. and even $120!!! To put the nail in the coffin the multiplayer is just Horde mode... endless waves of horde mode. Incredibly boring. Oh there is also microtransactions for horde mode.... can you believe it ? I bet you can't.. but stupid people will still buy into it. Gotta get that 10 dollar gun! Anyways I am now just ranting. Hows the story of this game? well its completely forgettable, You really don't care for these characters at all. The sex scenes are extremely awkward and will probably make you burst out laughing. This just doesn't feel like a BioWare game. Lets not forget that in the dialogue options.. It does let you choose but they never say what you want them to say... Its like its on PG mode all the time. Gotta be nice I guess. All in all I'm deeply disappointed in this and I know BioWare tried there damn best to give us a great game, Unfortunately it feels more like they are trying to copy what the first 3 games did ... but the execution of it is sub par. The combat however is tight and fluid when it does not glitch out. There is allot of content in this game, but most of it is rather tedious and boring. It hurts my Mass heart to give this a dislike but it is what it is. In loving memory of Sheppard. This is below Average. 4/10… Expand
  60. Ober
    Mar 28, 2017
    4
    Where do I begin, between the cringe worthy dialogue, crappy main story/villain, forced diversity bs, glitches, lore rape, ugly character design your characters look and feel like they are consistently suffering from Vietnam flashbacks with blank faces and thousand yard stares boring side quests that feel like chores

    There are good things about this game but none of them, let me repeat,    Where do I begin, between the cringe worthy dialogue, crappy main story/villain, forced diversity bs, glitches, lore rape, ugly character design your characters look and feel like they are consistently suffering from Vietnam flashbacks with blank faces and thousand yard stares boring side quests that feel like chores

    There are good things about this game but none of them, let me repeat, NONE OF THEM, make up for it, get it on sale at mcdonalds dollar menu prices if you want to buy it, otherwise it's not worth the money.    … Expand
  61. meskus123
    Mar 30, 2017
    4
    This just isn't a good Mas effect or game in general. As with Dragon Age developer went wrong way and lost it. Technical problems it has are something that AAA game shouldn't have on release, even indie games usually don't have so much of them in early access. So for price they charge those are offending for buyers. I see many people say that bugs and glitches will be correctedThis just isn't a good Mas effect or game in general. As with Dragon Age developer went wrong way and lost it. Technical problems it has are something that AAA game shouldn't have on release, even indie games usually don't have so much of them in early access. So for price they charge those are offending for buyers. I see many people say that bugs and glitches will be corrected later, sure, but right now they are still there and influence what you get out of it so much that it must be shown in scoring. Therefore score of 10 is just impossible, pure fantasy if you played game at all. I really don't think graphics are or should be most important in this kind of games, few glitches or bad animations don't make me hate a game, but also just good graph. doesn't make me love it. There must be at least some level of standard in place. Below standard story, characters and experience sadly can not be fixed so easily. Like in last Dragon Age they made a single player MMORPG 'open world game' with lot of fetch or go there missions and lost a core of Mass Effect universe and feeling. If you wanted to make ME online it would probably be right way to go but even then more would be needed. To be honest its not so bad as to get 0 score outright, that also is mistake. It has good points, some very good even, combat, driving, free exploring, arcade jumping and puzzle solving, but that's not what ME game should be. I mean if you like those things Myst, Truck simulator, Call of duty, Far cry, Horison ND or Tomb rider does it better respectfully. I understand that, maybe, someone wanted to go in new direction, try something new and its OK. Look at original ME or Witcher, every game something new, some better some not. But then you must do much better job and preparations . For me this game go in same basket with likes of X-com and C &C shooters, D&D fighting games Minecraft adventures etc., nice try, fresh ideas and so, but not good enough. It can be done, Star Wars proved it by having good and great games in wide range of genres. When it isn't up to the level better to scrap it or redo it like Blizzard did few times . Of course EA is in it for cash and all other be damned so they will continue to ship half finished, bad games for full AAA price. They tricked me with Dragon Age Inq. , for this game I had my doubts but choose to put my faith in Bioware and reviews saying that its not so bad, my bad as it happens. This game has lots of good ideas, some even work, others don't. I used to respect and trust Bioware , sadly not anymore. EA killed Bioware we loved and left a Zombie in its place moaning "we will improve, just give cash, more cash". Not for me. CD Red proved that you can make evolution/ revolution in a series and genre with Witcher and Gwent even, inXile that you can make good games with old formula and little creativity. EA and Bioware of today have shown us how not to do it and how to kill good ideas and series with bad work and conviction that anything sells with good enough marketing. Funs will by for old glory sake and others will by if you make it simple and just a little more LGBT and creationist "correct". Go with a time man, who needs story, characters and immersion, funny faces, jumping and dirt racing is a must. Next one will probably be ME Andromeda Farmville… Expand
  62. PartidoPopular
    Mar 30, 2017
    4
    I only came here willing to write "Who the hell has written this, a 15yo teenage?!". Saw the first negative posts and felt a sense of hive-mind kicking in.

    Cons. This game is bad, really bad. I don't care much about the animations (which btw are really horrendous) or graphics. I was just looking for a nice fresh softcore sci-fi story. Instead, what I found is an actually simplistic    I only came here willing to write "Who the hell has written this, a 15yo teenage?!". Saw the first negative posts and felt a sense of hive-mind kicking in.

    Cons.
    This game is bad, really bad. I don't care much about the animations (which btw are really horrendous) or graphics. I was just looking for a nice fresh softcore sci-fi story. Instead, what I found is an actually simplistic plot, with ATROCIOUS dialogues, incoherent situations, plain characters, senseless events... summarizing: a stupid, superfluous and bad made childish story.

    Pros.
    The worlds and graphics are alright, nice ambientation there (although the local fauna only experienced a funny chromatic variation depending on the planet). The gameplay is nice and fluid but in my opinion the encounters and fights in me2 & 3 where much more epic.

    Anyway, I just made this metacritic account to complain about wasting money in this precise game.
    Not that I care for paying 50€ for this load of crap but what I regret mostly is contributing to make these kind of "sub"products viable.    … Expand
  63. Jmaconpc
    Apr 15, 2017
    4
    Here's some words to describe this game:
    -G rated
    -Family friendly -Fetch quests -Awkward -Cringey -Unfinished -Lazy I have never cringed so hard and so regularly through a game. Finished the game hoping every hour that it would get better. It doesn't. I spent more time watching my ship take off and land than I did playing the game. The animations are laughable, facial    Here's some words to describe this game:
    -G rated
    -Family friendly
    -Fetch quests
    -Awkward
    -Cringey
    -Unfinished
    -Lazy

    I have never cringed so hard and so regularly through a game.

    Finished the game hoping every hour that it would get better. It doesn't.
    I spent more time watching my ship take off and land than I did playing the game.
    The animations are laughable, facial expressions, zig zag running, clipping, even crossed arms are broken.
    The combat feels good but it is repetitive so you have to change it up a lot. The enemies are all the same and very easy.
    The dialogue options are fallout 4 level bad and decisions mean nothing.

    I bought this game because I read some positive reviews, it appears that those positive reviews were paid or are SJWs or something...    … Expand
  64. tyroneReviews
    Jul 15, 2017
    4
    Would give it a 6/10 but that would raise the average rating and I want to join the protest against BioWare who have been declining recently. In the Mass Effect series you always had great characters who were memorable like Garrus or Tali, even Mordin but in this one I can't even remember the names of the new characters let alone the races they added. Wish I had the time to rant butWould give it a 6/10 but that would raise the average rating and I want to join the protest against BioWare who have been declining recently. In the Mass Effect series you always had great characters who were memorable like Garrus or Tali, even Mordin but in this one I can't even remember the names of the new characters let alone the races they added. Wish I had the time to rant but basically just watch any review and they will tell you how bad BioWare messed up, also DA Inquisition was a bit disappointing to so it just shows how much BioWare has declined since Mass Effect 3.

    I would recommend you buy it if you are a huge ME fan but if you are expecting nothing you will still be disappointed, try expecting a steaming hot pile of garbage that used to be something you loved and you might get through this one.    … Expand
  65. AVProducer
    Apr 3, 2017
    4
    As a Mass Effect lover, I had hundreds of hours spent throughout the initial trilogy. I would always go back to ME:1 and roll a new character with a new alignment over and over again. Then I’d go for as much completion as possible and follow as much diverse choice plans as I could.

    The first Mass Effect had a soul. A strength of characters, dialog and the mystery of the unknown threat.    As a Mass Effect lover, I had hundreds of hours spent throughout the initial trilogy. I would always go back to ME:1 and roll a new character with a new alignment over and over again. Then I’d go for as much completion as possible and follow as much diverse choice plans as I could.

    The first Mass Effect had a soul. A strength of characters, dialog and the mystery of the unknown threat. The second Mass Effect was more tactical, but it tied in the characters a lot better. One would get to really care for them. The third, despite the criticism, which I do accept, build a great emotional atmosphere on how it all ends. Especially with the Citadel DLC.

    I’ve only laid down less than 26 hours on Mass Effect Andromeda (as opposed to over 220 on ME:2 for example). My hardware was not up to par, so I upgraded it. I am happy I did, but not for ME:A.

    As an action, third person shooter, it’s a great game. With very appealing visuals, audio and game-play. However, the ugliness of the female characters especially, the bad dialog, lack of emotion brought in by the really bad facial animations in several key scenes, deters the title from living up to its predecessors. The story is basically Collectors-meet-the-Borg. At least that’s how it is portrayed.

    The female characters are straight out ugly. The dialogues are cheap, cheesy and at times, outright forced. With the first report of a tragic event, Ryder reported it (as it was directly connected with her/him), it was like nothing happened (almost smiled). Then, during another tragic event, Sara was almost laughing and her brother had an expression that revolved somewhere between “why the heck should I care” and “seriously? Can we get this over with?”. Tragic in its execution. Bioware, please study Witcher 3. Gerald, despite his condition, showed a lot more emotion when he saw Ciri after his long journey. Images without words that are heart wrenching. ME:A is not even remotely close. And that’s bad for a story-driven game.

    Bioware, it’s OK to have main characters that look ugly. Just give us the creator option to make something to our liking. Right now, all we have is ugly, uglier and “call the police” types.

    After I upgraded my PC above the recommended settings, I realized that my character looked uglier with the high settings and Bioware left no way for remodeling.

    Conclusively, this is not a bad game. Its just far from what I expected from a Mass Effect title on the story/dialog/immersion part. With so many of the previous team gone, it’s to be expected. Given my work experience, I believe it was not rushed on the art/creation level, but at the executive one. When politics enter the gaming culture, they do serious damage. And for those who noticed, Sara Ryder looked very decent in the pre-release version. After day one patch, her face changed for the worse. That’s an outright deception by whoever enforced this. Without giving us an option.

    If you want a sci-fi third person shooter, that’s a game for you. If you’re looking for a Mass Effect title that stands up to its predecessors, you will be disappointed.

    I would recommend to gamers to not purchase ME:A just yet. Wait for the fixes. Updated and especially non-paid reviews (yes, there are those as well, it’s part of the P&A in the audiovisual industry). Otherwise, we -as consumers- are justifying this kind of behavior from the corporations and we can expect nothing different and no improvement in the future.

    With that being said, Mass Effect Andromeda did not last long on my hard drive. When the initial trilogy has been on my systems (across several PCs) for years (with ME:1 being present for ~10 years) with all DLC, you can get the picture of the game’s shortcomings. Bioware created a beautiful 3rd person shooter. And I would have given it a higher score if it was simply called “Andromeda” and not “Mass Effect”.

    Pros:
    Great shooter
    Beautiful worlds
    Lots to do

    Cons:
    Ugly characters
    Problematic & emotionless facial animations
    Bad and lazy-writing dialog
    An overload of unconnected quest lines
    Lots of reported hiccups and bugs    … Expand
  66. TUmaDO
    Apr 22, 2017
    4
    I Am a hardcore fan of mass effect series ,and some parts of mass 2 and 3 left me in tears,it was a amazing experience!
    So i was so hyped about Andromeda , i could n´t even sleep right , as soon it was out i bought ,even knowing about all the terrible gifs and videos from the beta,and people saying it would get better after 10 hours...
    I finished about a week ago,my view of "the    I Am a hardcore fan of mass effect series ,and some parts of mass 2 and 3 left me in tears,it was a amazing experience!
    So i was so hyped about Andromeda , i could n´t even sleep right , as soon it was out i bought ,even knowing about all the terrible gifs and videos from the beta,and people saying it would get better after 10 hours...

    I finished about a week ago,my view of "the game" is a absolute disappointment,the terrible animation even with (1.5 update) it toke 85 hours to complete everything,the planet scanning is useless , it looks like the game is racist agains withe people because all the human dead bodies are bold and all withe, some upgrades are useless conversations feel like nothing you don´t get " that feeling of immersion",the amount of bugs and glitches reached the " next level"( can check my bug/glitch video).

    All the people who said "gets better within 10 hours" no it doesn´t!,it goes beyond worst,broken quests or stuck,frustration with conversation that trigger the same answer,(basically saying what i dont want or misunderstanding of the question/answer) everyone said "ho its a new galaxy with new planets unexplored" almost all of the useless planets already have information about the *spoiler!* Angara people exploring them or the exile,the arks where very disappointing, i thought it would be epic to find them and free them but no its frustrating.

    who suffer with epilepsy STAY AWAY!)
    there is a glitch that hapends often that flashes in white (check part 2 video)

    graphics are ok,looks clean and sharp ,but it need a lot of optimization(tested on pc)
    game play is great,but if i was you compare Battlefront(third person) vs mass effect, they move and feel practically the same .

    The explorable planets they all have they'r difference but after spending a lot of time doing every single quest/sidequest it begins to feel the same,you will find the same animals in all the planets,some mission are become repetitive,in *spoiler!* Kadar after you save the planet you can walk in the acid pools but there is no interaction so you can stand underwater,there are some unfinished places,you can find one in eos where there is a mountain floating and you can go with nomad just under it.

    Mass effect Andromeda is a mess made by a sub studio with clearly no experience in making story rich games.

    I slash a 4/10
    Don´t buy wait until they partially fix it (because its impossible to fully fix),and get it cheaper,the money they ask for the game is not even close to acceptable.    … Expand
  67. ArgusLVI
    Apr 10, 2017
    4
    Horrible. Absolutely horrible game. Such a amazing concept of heading to a new galaxy and it turns out to be a uncreative piece of waste. Two entirely humanoid races that are completely black and white in morality, no nuance. 4 boring, wild alien species that are spread across 6 planets? WTF???
    Characters are garbage stereotypes and the combat is hit or miss at best (three skill slots?    Horrible. Absolutely horrible game. Such a amazing concept of heading to a new galaxy and it turns out to be a uncreative piece of waste. Two entirely humanoid races that are completely black and white in morality, no nuance. 4 boring, wild alien species that are spread across 6 planets? WTF???
    Characters are garbage stereotypes and the combat is hit or miss at best (three skill slots? Wtf is this?) Facial animations are still horrible despite the patch and the whole mess is still buggy as hell. Unfinished game pushed out to meet a deadline, both the fault of this numale new bioware and EA    … Expand
  68. LegionOne
    Apr 15, 2017
    4
    I like previous Mass Effect games and completed each multiple times, its one of the best sci-fi shooters out there and i was expecting this title to deliver, until the first gameplay trailer was released, this moment i realised it was going to be DAI in space, but i never thought it could be much worse.
    First off, i completed this game and almost every single quest in it, so my opinion is    I like previous Mass Effect games and completed each multiple times, its one of the best sci-fi shooters out there and i was expecting this title to deliver, until the first gameplay trailer was released, this moment i realised it was going to be DAI in space, but i never thought it could be much worse.
    First off, i completed this game and almost every single quest in it, so my opinion is based on actual game experience, not a haters reviews or other cancer. Sorry for my grammar, im not an english native speaker.
    Story itself isn't really terrible how people making it to be, but it's not a good one either, main questions still remains unanswered after 70 hours of the game and means of the story delivery sucks - most of the cutscenes are badly written, terribly animated and making no sence. This game have its moments, where you can almost see the ray of hope but its vanishes as soon as it appears (near the end of the game and some of loyalty missions)
    I won't tell you about facial animations, since you can find all you need to know about them on the internet, they're terrible as people making them to be.
    Combat is the only enjoyable part of this game, its feels much less restricted in comparison to previous games but it still needs some polishing.
    Quests is one of the biggest problems of this game - like 95% of them are fetch quests (i.e go to one point shoot/take/scan something then come back) this already tells a lot about how much devs wanted us to enjoy their game, stuffing it with a bad, low-quality content,
    Things i did not mention would probably will be fixed with patches (maybe), but it still wont fix bad design and writing. I dont even know why i wasted so much time on this game, its really sad seeing developer like this falling so low.    … Expand
  69. benigames
    May 11, 2017
    4
    Excellent: graphic (really impressive surroundings & landscapes)

    Very good: story (+similar to earlier games but it sustains;begins to be really interesting after 50% game completion;-so many social problematics and politics involved;boring at the beginning ) Good: gameplay (+many fighting styles, solid difficulty of the enemies, -fluid action ruined by bugs & fps drop;NOMAD can't    Excellent: graphic (really impressive surroundings & landscapes)

    Very good: story (+similar to earlier games but it sustains;begins to be really interesting after 50% game completion;-so many social problematics and politics involved;boring at the beginning )

    Good: gameplay (+many fighting styles, solid difficulty of the enemies, -fluid action ruined by bugs & fps drop;NOMAD can't fire)

    Bad: characters (+Drack's humour -better animations since game was updated but still emotionless; plain characters)

    Terrible: glitches, bugs, fps drops (even on good configuration)

    Undecided: Multiplayer (tried but uninterested)

    Overview: Buy it on sale & after some updates if you want. For fans score will be 2. For others give it 5 or 6 after several updates.    … Expand
  70. Juan31
    May 1, 2017
    4
    Si este juego se llamase "Aventuras espaciales X", le daría quizá un 6. Pero siendo un Mass Effect, con lo que ese título conlleva, le doy un suspenso. Las expectativas eran altas, y la decepción, también.

    En realidad, la decepción empezó mucho antes de que el juego saliese al mercado, cuando se supo que de la gente que había hecho los ME originales no quedaba nadie en este ME:A. Por    Si este juego se llamase "Aventuras espaciales X", le daría quizá un 6. Pero siendo un Mass Effect, con lo que ese título conlleva, le doy un suspenso. Las expectativas eran altas, y la decepción, también.

    En realidad, la decepción empezó mucho antes de que el juego saliese al mercado, cuando se supo que de la gente que había hecho los ME originales no quedaba nadie en este ME:A. Por supuesto, Drew Karpyshyn ya no estaba en ME3, y se nota para mal, pero es que entre el 2015 y el 16 también fueron desertando, entre otros, sucesivos directores del proyecto y el guionista principal. Y también se nota para mal. Da la impresión de que el juego fue terminado de cualquier manera por gente con mucho menos talento que los que los empezaron, que a su vez tenían menos talento que los que hicieron ME1 y ME2.

    Lo bueno:
    - Las naves y los paisajes de los planetas son bonitos.
    - Los escenarios de los combates en algunas misiones están bien diseñados.
    - Los combates no están mal, aunque se echa de menos un botón para cubrirse.

    Lo malo:
    - El argumento es un refrito de elementos de los ME originales, como el niño que copia la redacción de su amigo y cambia los nombres para que el maestro no lo note. Una extinta raza extraterrestre deja una tecnología avanzadísima que es encontrada y usada por humanos y aliens, pero aparece un enemigo poderosísimo que pretende destruirlo todo y captura a la gente para transformarla en una especie de zombies. La única esperanza es un héroe que al principio del juego recibe en el cerebro una descarga tecnológica... No es el argumento de ME1, sino de ME:A. Solo cambian nombres y localizaciones.
    - Personaje principal sin carisma, ni como hombre ni como mujer. Que lleve casi todo el juego una IA con la voz y la personalidad de loquendo llevándolo de la manita y haciéndole todo el trabajo de pensar, tampoco ayuda.
    - Personajes secundarios con menos carisma todavía. Algunos son francamente irritantes. Muchas conversaciones, pero ninguna interesante. Muchas posibilidades de romance (incluyendo parafilias bizarras como la de enrollarse con extraterrestres simiescos o con aspecto de monstruos prehistóricos), pero ninguna atractiva.
    - Muchísimas misiones de relleno. Las que si tienen argumento, siempre la fastidian con un final de película mala, o demasiado apresurado y facilón, o los dialogos terribles, o lo que sea.
    - Bugs, bugs everywhere, incluyendo el parche 1.05.
    - La tiranía de la corrección política giliprogre no solo se ha extendido por la Via Láctea sino que ha infectado Andrómeda. Los tópicos del pensamiento único están por todas partes, vengan a cuento o no. Más les valdría haber dedicado a hacer un buen argumento el esfuerzo que han dedicado a que el juego les guste a la bloguera feminista X, el activista Y o el colectivo Z. El juego parece escrito a duo por Bibiana Aido y Leire Pajín. Una de las razones por las que los personajes son tan ramplones, las conversaciones son tan genéricas y tópicas y el argumento, un bodrio. Personalmente, no me gusta que un juego de ordenador me suelte mítines sobre unos valores o una visión de la vida con la que quizá no esté de acuerdo.
    - Personajes diseñados feos adrede "para no sexualizarlos". Parece que en los humanos la condición para ir a Andromeda era tener nariz de boniato y el pelo como la peluca de un payaso. Para las asari solo hay dos caras: Pibi, AKA la Shrek asari, y el resto. Ni siquiera se han molestado en hacerle una cara específica a la otra asari de la tripulación, así que tiene la misma cara genérica de Sra. Potato que el resto de las asari. Y encima, están las animaciones faciales terribles.
    - El escalado de dificultad en las misiones no está bien hecho. En nivel "locura", al principio con nivel 1 te matan constantemente, pero al final cuando tienes un nivel 50 el juego se vuelve facilísimo.
    - Sensación general de chapuza. Por ejemplo, los "triggers" de las conversaciones ligadas a misiones se siguen activando aunque la misión ya esté hecha, de modo que cada vez que pasa por el mismo sitio, escuchas la misma conversación ligada a una misión que quizá hiciste hace diez horas.

    En resumen: un juego que no está al nivel de la saga original. Para comprar en alguna rebaja por diez euros máximo si se tiene curiosidad. Para pasar un buen rato con juegos con alma y fundamento está la saga original o, más moderno, The Witcher 3. Por cierto, eso de que se habían inspirado en TW3 para el diseño de las misiones es una burda mentira. En cualquier mision, escena o personaje de TW3 hay más talento, dedicación y amor al producto que en todo el juego de Mass Effect: Andromeda.    … Expand
  71. decastros
    May 4, 2017
    4
    Part 3 of the review:

    If you don't deal with something like that, you are going to react against it! Bioware created a game that was a huge escape from their previous game! Exactly so they didn't have to deal with it! They could have made things right back then! They could have at least acknowledged their mistake and promised to make things right! But they chose the cardboard PR speech:    Part 3 of the review:

    If you don't deal with something like that, you are going to react against it! Bioware created a game that was a huge escape from their previous game! Exactly so they didn't have to deal with it! They could have made things right back then! They could have at least acknowledged their mistake and promised to make things right! But they chose the cardboard PR speech: "we are very proud of what we achieved blablabla". Clearly, they couldn't deal with the cupcakes and the fact that they screwed up, so they went to another galaxy, 600 years in the future, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, they changed the way they make games! They don't deal with dialogue, interactions, relationships like they did! It really feels like Bioware is avoiding that, so in making a less personal experience we (not them) will not ask for meaningful relationships, great dialogue etc. Hey, it's all about "exploration" (scan and gardening) now! Big boring maps (emphasis on the boring), banter, no story whatsoever etc. But... the great part is: they don't have to face what they faced after ME3's ending again! Phew! What a relief! We get boring games, but they can hide on their "safe space" of political correctness and big showy maps and realistic visuals and avoid all that "trauma" of colored cupcakes and criticism. On that front, I'm not sure it worked. They can certainly not care about these criticism, since no one will care that much about these characters to actually criticize. You must care before you criticize, and by disinfecting their games of what is meaningful, people don't care, and they don't get criticized. It's "safe space" in the form of a videogame!

    Now, it's not nice to write a critique and not offer some possible solutions. But "who said they need it?", you will ask! Well, I can only speak for myself, of course, but I think those reviews and scores speak for themselves. And much louder than I possibly can. In terms of a Bioware release, one that follows on the footsteps of the first ME series (at least in the title), the word 'fiasco' comes to mind. Necessarily! And it would be very arrogant to believe that the problem is with us, and not them. It would be, once again, not dealing with a problem. User score (on some 3000 reviews) is around 4 or 5. And critics, who never gave anything less than 9, is around 6 or 7. I would give it a generous 4 for the hundred hours lost running around scanning crap. Very hard not to talk about a fiasco!

    So, what do I think it would be a good future for Bioware and their games. I speak as someone who don't play so many games, and all my life considered myself a Bioware gamer, and not a gamer. I speak as someone who relies on my dose of Bioware to relax. But not this version of Bioware!

    Bioware should OWN THEIR LEGACY! First, own your mistakes, and then your legacy! Go back to the model that made you the Bioware that fans love!

    Go back to 50 hours games that we can't wait to begin again! DAI and MEA? I couldn't wait to finish and delete them from my PC! The KoTOR, Neverwinter Nights, and the first ME trilogy? I played them hundreds of times!

    Go back to dialogues, and not just banter.

    Go back to great meaningful areas, and not stupid huge maps that I have to go 300 times during the same game to scan stuff back and forth.

    Go back to MISSION DRIVEN, STORY DRIVEN games! Not "exploration" and crafting (especially not with that lousy craft system)!

    I know that's a sore spot, but go back to ME3! Besides the ending, that was the perfect blend of gaming, the culmination of all that you did before; the evolution of that action RPG style that everybody loved (and still do)! Just freaking plan ahead a story to avoid that ending (ripping off other game's ending to finish a saga that millions waited for years)! Of course you all can do that! Yes, that was traumatic. But running away (to millions of light-years away) is not the answer!

    Maybe do like the Marvel Universe and make two separate sagas: one back in the Milky Way, and other in Andromeda! But both Bioware games, and not these 'no personality' things you've been releasing since DAI.

    I still love Bioware and your games. I just hope you can deal with what happened and go back to the style that we all love and care about.

    My best wishes and thanks for the decades old run. But I'm done with this kind of game (DAI and MEA) if that's what you will insist on doing.

    Cheers!    … Expand
  72. lokk
    May 5, 2017
    4
    Mass Effect Andromeda is not a bad game. It's good game with many good positive things, but it is not enough to be the awesome, great game like Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for example.

    MEA has strong connection with previous games in ME universe. And this is a main reason why so many people hate MEA and why this game has been forgotten so fast. The trilogy had a really strong characters,    Mass Effect Andromeda is not a bad game. It's good game with many good positive things, but it is not enough to be the awesome, great game like Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for example.

    MEA has strong connection with previous games in ME universe. And this is a main reason why so many people hate MEA and why this game has been forgotten so fast.

    The trilogy had a really strong characters, excellent story, interesting gameplay things like dialogue system, paragon/renegad system and more. All these things made Mass Effect a super action-rpg.

    Unfortunately MEA mostly has bad things like bad animations, bugs, poor story, bad characters including main character which you are playing. Scott/Sara Ryder is nothing more than son/daughter of Alliance hero Alek Ryder without SAM. Without SAM you can't solve about 80% of problems in Andromeda, you just a body who can shooting and killing. On other side shooting part in this game is really cool, nice combinations of skills, jet-pack, profiles which allow you to play so many different roles in combat.

    As a ME fan i am really dissapointed in this game and wouldn't reccomend to buy it to someone.    … Expand
  73. TravisBickle01
    May 28, 2017
    4
    ME:A is a poor addition to the series. I've played the others many times but will stay with my ONE pass through this installment. A number of things are sub-par including:
    - weak, cliched, and utterly boring dialog
    - grotesque looking characters and CC choices - monotonous busywork quests (chores) - cheap, annoying Sudoku puzzles substituted for story and plot elements - forced    ME:A is a poor addition to the series. I've played the others many times but will stay with my ONE pass through this installment. A number of things are sub-par including:
    - weak, cliched, and utterly boring dialog
    - grotesque looking characters and CC choices
    - monotonous busywork quests (chores)
    - cheap, annoying Sudoku puzzles substituted for story and plot elements
    - forced repeat cut-scenes galore - you will spend more time watching the same cut-scenes, like your ship taking off and landing, than actually playing the game
    - dumbed-down combat, squad mechanics largely removed from the series
    - ridiculous looking new species with a main antagonist that looks simian and not scary

    I had think about what went wrong with this installment and wonder if ME has a chance to get back on track with future installments and DLC. There're two root causes to this disaster.

    Root Cause 1: This isn't BioWare anymore.
    We've seen the news articles of the past few years, EA has either chased out or given no good reason for much of the original talent to stay and they have moved on. This game was developed by a group that had never developed a game before, let alone a AAA and an ME installment. Games are art, and good art is greater than the sum of its parts. What EA has done is like if a media giant bought out Harry Potter after the first couple books, fired Rowling, and assumed they could have HR fill in the void with "some writing positions". On this note, I don't see how the ME series will ever be resurrected, we should expect future additions to be the same corporate-form-driven empty shells.

    Root Cause 2: Lack of understanding of the target audience and/or trying to please everyone, leading to so many contradictions, below are some examples:

    The "M" rating. If we forget about the "romance", which I'll discuss in a second, there is no reason this game should have an "M" rating. The G-rated, family friendly dialog and subject matter is clean cut. Characters sound like awkward teenagers rather than mature adults.

    Then there's the awful romance which is a mystery why they even bothered. Due to political correctness pressures they made the characters, and especially the females, plain to grotesque. Asari, long considered in the lore to be "attractive to all species" are horrifically done and all but one of them have the same head! What kind of sense does it make to advertise "sizzling hot romance" but then populate the game with ugly choices! How many romance novels are there that feature ugly people on front cover? How many soap operas deliver up a cast of plain looking fugmos? How many people surf porn looking for unattractive people? On top of all that they made it a hollow "press the heart button/choice for romance" process. I would argue they probably should have just dispensed with the half-azzed romance which would have allowed them to lower the rating from M.

    And this segways into the next mind boggling contradiction, the ugly player character. Apparently they are concerned our self-esteem will suffer if we [shudder] see an attractive person on the screen. How ridiculous is this position? "You will feel awful about yourself if you play as an attractive person, so we made it so you have to play an ugly person/avatar, that will be best for your self-esteem!"

    Open World: They are trying to simultaneously please (and failing) people who prefer open world shooter games with their core fanbase that prioritizes role playing elements and a solid story above all else. The result: crappy story with a huge open, but largely empty and boring world.

    Combat: We now have the freedom to assemble ANY collection of skills and make our own "class", but alas, we can now only use 3 powers at a time. Gone is the power wheel. Gone are squad controls. Since you can only field 3 powers and can no longer control squad-mate power execution, they've transformed it into primarily a shooter as it is now difficult to be a powers-mostly class.

    Yet another contradictory element, the bragged about "15,000 lines of voiced dialog". It didn't occur to them that quality is far more important than quantity. The dialog is so empty, cliched, full of one-liners, and boring that you'll be space-barring through it.

    They tried to appeal to the LBGT community and managed to insult them as well has crush the toes of their more conservative customers. The most egregious example is the checklist in-your-face addition of a transgender individual. This could have been well done e.g. have someone in the crew whose gender is ambiguous, perhaps if the PC earned their trust they would confide some secrets, or perhaps not and leave it a mystery for the forums to discuss. But no, that would be interesting writing. Instead we get: "Hi I'm Hainly, I never met you but I'm a transgender person!"

    There's plenty more but I'll leave it there.

    Overall rating: Not recommended.    … Expand
  74. DanielKing
    Jun 12, 2017
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I enjoyed every other Mass Effect games, even ME3. But Andromeda it's not good at all. I mean, I enjoyed it until the Hunting the Archon mission: I did every sidequest I could, delaying what I thougth will be the best part, and I was very dissapointed. The story it's bland, and bad delivered. My interest faded away almost inmediatly. I finished the game just to see how bad the end story was.… Expand
  75. TheFrog
    Jun 30, 2017
    4
    This is the first ME that I don't complete. I had great expectations, and just before it was released, I replayed through ME3 to get in the right mood. Andromeda started off good, I was impressed by the improved graphics and awed by the number of unlockable skills. Then the very first mission crams really too much up together, and the story only gets worse from there. Where is thatThis is the first ME that I don't complete. I had great expectations, and just before it was released, I replayed through ME3 to get in the right mood. Andromeda started off good, I was impressed by the improved graphics and awed by the number of unlockable skills. Then the very first mission crams really too much up together, and the story only gets worse from there. Where is that "Explore the unknown" feeling, if anywhere you travel, someone already lives there? The characters are so bland and shallow that I can't even say I really disliked them. I just did not care.
    Combat could have been a major improvement, fixing the flaws of the previous chapters, instead it was not realized to its full potential and ended up being worse. I loved the idea to have different power combinations to quickly adapt to different situations, but very quickly realized that everything is so uniform that you have exactly zero incentive to use the feature. Terrible, terrible ammo system. Meh weapons. Bad AI squadmates. And much more, but you get the vibe.
    Last preorder from Bioware from me.    … Expand
  76. rrchiaratt
    Aug 26, 2017
    4
    Seriously, I had hoped someone at Bio ware had the creativity that was so there in mass effect 2. But nope! Boring, lifeless average lacking creativity, lacking expansive thoughts, piss poor game relationships, etc.. etc.. etc.
    Only giving a 4 cause I am generous because the game does not deserve it. I ran out every mission, every opportunity thinking something would be awesome. NOPE!
  77. Zareli
    Sep 18, 2017
    4
    Andromeda is the way to kill a good franchise. Everything that was enjoyable from the ME trilogy was destroyed in this sequel. The graphics are not much better but the animation, models and overall aesthetic design are notably worse. The story is not particularly bad but the forced SJW PC culture characters make it feel less realistic and more like a "we want to be politically correct"Andromeda is the way to kill a good franchise. Everything that was enjoyable from the ME trilogy was destroyed in this sequel. The graphics are not much better but the animation, models and overall aesthetic design are notably worse. The story is not particularly bad but the forced SJW PC culture characters make it feel less realistic and more like a "we want to be politically correct" manifesto. The gameplay is where they really destroyed the game. You don't control teammates, the battles are basically a cover whack-a-mole from easy to hard and the only difference is how many hits the enemies take and how many there are, this makes fights more tedious but not more difficult as you go from easy to hard. There's some stupid additions like platforming segments with unresponsive big clunky 3D characters are just dreadful, the sudoku puzzle mechanic is not terrible but very unoriginal and the vehicle driving through the open world wastelands with nothing of interest in miles and miles are the guidelines on how NOT to make open world games. Instead of embracing what makes Mass Effect good this sequel tried to add more elements with poor taste leaving behind the gameplay elements that made ME an enjoyable game.… Expand
  78. EugeneRider
    Oct 25, 2017
    4
    An utter disgrace to Mass Effect series. This, is an unfinished project that is hurried to the market.

    Into it 5 or 6 hours, quit it indefinitely. After the patches, it's still impeccably bad. The facial expressions, animations, weird control. It doesn't feel ME. And do I need to clarify how bad a client Origin is? No screenshot function, awful transactions. And the game itself,    An utter disgrace to Mass Effect series. This, is an unfinished project that is hurried to the market.

    Into it 5 or 6 hours, quit it indefinitely.

    After the patches, it's still impeccably bad. The facial expressions, animations, weird control. It doesn't feel ME. And do I need to clarify how bad a client Origin is? No screenshot function, awful transactions. And the game itself, sucks so bad gets into Origin Access just 3 or 4 months later. I appreciate the efforts from devs, this game, looks like Mass Effect but doesn't feel like it. The plot is inconsistent, and un-mesmerizing. Side missions are just as pointless as what Dragon Age Inquisition did. They are so pointless that you don't want to accept at all. Gladly they have that "no" option, unlike Fallout 4. The jokes are real, the roasts from Internet.

    I would just like them to have a ME3 game. With the same engine, same structure, new plot new maps. Nothing big has to change, just details.

    This game is so bad in so many levels. I quit the game after 5 or 6 hours. It's unfinished, so obvious. And they dropped the support for this unfinished game. Really? After the Araga encounter, I can feel the utter disrespect from devs, how they delivered this unfinished project. Boom. money grabbed and gone. Ranges from inconsistent plot, weird control, and animations. I'm done with this game.    … Expand
  79. XBliss
    Aug 5, 2021
    4
    We are investigating a new galactic, but there is no serious atmosphere in this. We called as "Pathfinder", but we are not the first to be in these planets. Actually, in this game everything wrong. Characters acting like we are in the comedy movie. Main character dumb as f*ck. Antagonist angry just because he needs to be angry. The story was written by 5 years old kid. Dialogue system is aWe are investigating a new galactic, but there is no serious atmosphere in this. We called as "Pathfinder", but we are not the first to be in these planets. Actually, in this game everything wrong. Characters acting like we are in the comedy movie. Main character dumb as f*ck. Antagonist angry just because he needs to be angry. The story was written by 5 years old kid. Dialogue system is a joke. Human and azari faces looks disgusting. And thats not all, but enough to call this game WRONG.… Expand
  80. gna149
    Jan 30, 2019
    4
    Bought the game late as it was on sale. Loved the story and premise as it expands on the game's universe, but HATE the gameplay. Jetpack/dodge concept seemed like a good idea until you realize how poorly it incorporates due to buggy controls + glitchy edge-grabs (that can kill you).

    I read up on the story behind its development and it kinda made sense. Some good ideas + bad dead-line    Bought the game late as it was on sale. Loved the story and premise as it expands on the game's universe, but HATE the gameplay. Jetpack/dodge concept seemed like a good idea until you realize how poorly it incorporates due to buggy controls + glitchy edge-grabs (that can kill you).

    I read up on the story behind its development and it kinda made sense. Some good ideas + bad dead-line schedules + team quitting on you + bringing in whoever and whatever can help you deliver = awkward product.

    All in all, quit a disappointment for the brand, and one of the few games I'd not consider worth completing.    … Expand
  81. Andizzzzy
    Aug 25, 2021
    4
    Positives:
    - Pretty
    - Open world (kinda)
    - combat is ok

    Negatives:
    - scaled down rpg (sadly)
    - awful characters
    - awful voice acting
    - awful voice lines
    - boring story
  82. JohhnyDepressed
    Feb 5, 2022
    4
    A shame this game was such a disappointment. The writing and gameplay are major downgrade form previous entries on the series. The switch from the Unreal engine to Frostbite was a serious mistake and gave major downgrades to both the flow of gameplay and animation. I don't hold it against the dev team as it was a small team that was downsized halfway through development given an order toA shame this game was such a disappointment. The writing and gameplay are major downgrade form previous entries on the series. The switch from the Unreal engine to Frostbite was a serious mistake and gave major downgrades to both the flow of gameplay and animation. I don't hold it against the dev team as it was a small team that was downsized halfway through development given an order to tall to handle. But it isn't to say there is nothing of value in the game. The new engine makes the driving more fun and the environments are actually quite beautiful. Even though most of the characters are dull at best and aggravating at at worst. But there are some stand outs even if few and far between. Ultimately the game is lacking in most areas but has potential to be the rough beginning of something good. I would not be opposed to a sequel with a larger and more experienced team.… Expand
  83. random123games
    Jan 30, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Mass Effect Andromeda had so much potential and they screw it up. The facial animations is crap, the engine they used is crap for this kind of game, the quests feel repetitive and boring. The world design is boring and feels empty of anything actually interesting. I somehow forced myself to finish this game. I did enjoy the game play somewhat... when it doesn't glitch me into something. I especially love it when the characters just start T-Posing. I had hoped that many things would be rectified in patches and in the quarian ark DLC that was hinted at the end of the game (which was scrapped), but no. I would not buy this, as support for single player has ended a long time ago and it is still trash.

    In summary the game is big, some characters are interesting, and I love the combat system. The new species were also interesting. the combat, i love. However, there are too many cons for me to recommend this game.    … Expand
  84. levitan17
    Oct 14, 2020
    4
    Mass Effect Andromeda was a complete disgrace... The compelling superb story and lovable squad mates from the trilogy were long gone in this instalment... You feel completely detached from the major characters... Bioware is dead.... RIP... (and to think they killed Mass Effect because of Anthem?? is even worse) they killed my most favorite game franchise...
  85. nazarkin123
    Mar 12, 2021
    4
    BOooooring. Who let this story out at all? The usual ME gameplay. A bit buggy and freezing.
  86. SuperCurry30
    Jan 23, 2022
    4
    The banal setting of the world view in the game and the story progression that lack persuasiveness made the story a mess. The story method and companion method used in the past were also used in this game. And the background explanation of the newly added spieces (Remnant, Kat, Angara) in this game is lacking.

    The villain's actions are not convincing and there is no attractive    The banal setting of the world view in the game and the story progression that lack persuasiveness made the story a mess. The story method and companion method used in the past were also used in this game. And the background explanation of the newly added spieces (Remnant, Kat, Angara) in this game is lacking.

    The villain's actions are not convincing and there is no attractive part.(Bioware should’ve watch ‘Inglourious Basterds’) And for the final battle, the difficulty of the battle is not so much fun. It was no different from other boss battles.

    There is no improvement in facial animation since ME1 released in 2007. You can even compare with Fallout 4’s facial animation. Becasue it’s really sucks.

    Consider this game released before AMD Ryzen Processor become a mainstream, multi-core utilize is not sucks, but nothing more, nothing less. And if you are going to play this with maxed out graphics settings with really high framerate in 2022 or later, you better have a GPU more than 8GB of vram like RTX 3080 10GB/RX 6700 XT 12GB or above. Because this game really love video memory.    … Expand
  87. PenetratorGod
    Aug 20, 2023
    4
    It's a shame for the mass effect series. The game I could never finish, no matter how much I wanted to. As someone who has played the trilogy dozens of times, I couldn't stand this game. The people who developed this game should not be given a job in the game industry again.
  88. rodericrinehart
    Jun 24, 2017
    3
    Loved the first 3, would put the trilogy in my top 10 series ever. Mass Effect Andromeda is BORING and POORLY DESIGNED above all else. Poor animations, empty areas, pointless fetch quests, and just no respect for the time of the player. Finished it despite really not liking it. Probably done with the series now. Lost a loyal fan and customer Bioware/EA.
  89. PurpleBix
    Mar 30, 2017
    3
    I wanted to love this game, but Bioware have made it difficult to even like MEA.
    Good:
    Combat setpieces and Jet pack. Bad: Navigation markers on all maps ( in my case they move themselves and I have wasted hours driving in the wrong direction) Horrible confusing time sucking menus Ridiculously complex crafting Bugs - I have the stuck on loading screen problem which means I can spend    I wanted to love this game, but Bioware have made it difficult to even like MEA.
    Good:
    Combat setpieces and Jet pack.
    Bad:
    Navigation markers on all maps ( in my case they move themselves and I have wasted hours driving in the wrong direction)
    Horrible confusing time sucking menus
    Ridiculously complex crafting
    Bugs - I have the stuck on loading screen problem which means I can spend 20 minutes just trying to the game going
    Secondary quests are numerous and uninteresting. The standard pick up 3 caches of something becomes 10 times more frustrating when the map moves the quest markers.

    I have played 40 plus hours and am struggling to find a good reason to keep going. I have just finished Witcher 3 + expansions ( best game I have ever played) . Andromeda is light years behind Witcher in all respects.    … Expand
  90. alilsneaky
    Mar 21, 2017
    3
    Has less of what made mass effect games good, and more of what made them bad

    Negative: The UI is a clunky mess (as happens so often with bioware games), Dialogue's writing is often cringeworthy and fan fiction quality. The delivery of the voice lines shows that the voice actors were clearly forced to record one line at a time without being given any context for the line they were    Has less of what made mass effect games good, and more of what made them bad

    Negative:

    The UI is a clunky mess (as happens so often with bioware games),

    Dialogue's writing is often cringeworthy and fan fiction quality. The delivery of the voice lines shows that the voice actors were clearly forced to record one line at a time without being given any context for the line they were reading. You can hear inflection change several times for no reason within one string of sentences.

    Remember much of the content being fetch quests and chores that made DA:I so much worse than previous bioware games? Those are back again

    Almost none of the characters are likeable or relatable as human beings

    Batman detective mode scanning: who asked for this? really?

    Gameplay: movement is clunky (the jetpack dash is only a bandaid) , hit reactions are mostly absent or just not satisfying (compare andromeda to something like binary domain to see what can be done with enemy hit reactions in a third person shooter). None of the encounters with regular enemies are interestingly designed.

    Body and facial animation quality is all over the place, ranging from kind of poor to making you wonder how it got past QA bad. the lows are REALLY low and there are a lot of them.

    Optimization leaves much to be desired with plenty of framepacing issues. In general the graphics don't feel like they justify the performance I'm seeing. Many modern AAA open world games look better while running MUCH better than this.

    Outside of the 4 explorable planets the rest of them are just another **** scanning "minigame" (if you can call it that) like in ME2

    Story: the whole setup of ryder's story makes no sense. Why are you a 'pathfinder' going down to the surface to see if a planet is inhabitable when the planets themselves already have a bunch of colonies established on them from other arks... You're no pathfinder, you're just some jackass who shows up after people have already started settling. In the end it's just another trite bioware power fantasy, the same exact forumula they've used for every game since KOTOR: you're the chosen one who has to gather a crew from different locations to go meet the big evil and defeat it once you're assembled your power rangers.

    Positive:

    Nice views out in space from your ship

    Some of the weapon models look really cool (shame the gunplay and enemy hit reactions are ass)

    Some decent space theme tunes

    Take a mass effect game that has all the usual flaws (bad ui, subpar combat that wouldn't fly in other 3rd person shooters, some cringeworthy dialogue) but amplified and with additional flaws from DA:I and modern open world game tropes.

    Then remove the things that makes them worth playing (interesting lore, some likeable characters and character arcs, pretty solid delivery of voice acting).

    What are you left with? 3 out of 10 that's what you're left with.    … Expand
  91. GDawgTUK
    Mar 26, 2017
    3
    This isn't Mass Effect. While I play, it feels like a fan made mod that I am just putting up with because I'm desperate for more Mass Effect. If it was free, I wouldn't feel so cheated.
  92. Bl00dyGr0und
    Mar 26, 2017
    3
    As a huge fan of the previous mass effect games I'm sorry to play this wasted potential of a game. Whilst the combat in game is alright (similar to ME3) it doesn't distract you enough from Andromeda's bigger problems. The story concept whilst an interesting one is dull and predictable and side quests are much the same. The emphasis on voice acting is clear yet with dull writing andAs a huge fan of the previous mass effect games I'm sorry to play this wasted potential of a game. Whilst the combat in game is alright (similar to ME3) it doesn't distract you enough from Andromeda's bigger problems. The story concept whilst an interesting one is dull and predictable and side quests are much the same. The emphasis on voice acting is clear yet with dull writing and absolutely disgusting animations Andromeda feels more like a parody/fan-fiction of ME3. As I wrote this review my score changed from a 4 to 3 because this game... even after 5 years of development has some major bugs. As a game designer I understand that there will always be bugs that will always need fixing, however the sheer amount of bugs in this are amazing, from clipping into the floor in a continuous cycle to being stuck in T pose whilst only being able to jump to move, the list goes on. Don't spend your money here, wait until the game is at least $40 or under… Expand
  93. Silverqt
    Apr 15, 2017
    3
    Horrible! Incredibly bad! What the hell? This is not a Bioware game, more like **** that game lame in every aspect except visuals and action, which is ok for some fps about 4-5h long, but for 60$ rpg with MASS EFFECT in the title, are you f...... kidding me?
    1. The dialogs are worst that ever can be, its childish even for 13 old year kid.
    2. Protagonist and antagonist - just no words.    Horrible! Incredibly bad! What the hell? This is not a Bioware game, more like **** that game lame in every aspect except visuals and action, which is ok for some fps about 4-5h long, but for 60$ rpg with MASS EFFECT in the title, are you f...... kidding me?
    1. The dialogs are worst that ever can be, its childish even for 13 old year kid.
    2. Protagonist and antagonist - just no words. Suck! Like every character in the game, except, raider father, that guess what? He dies in the first hour.
    3. Story - there is no story. There is rubbish.
    4. Even music. The credit card of ME completely destroyed. Its souds the same unemotional crap like in inqusition crap.
    5.Another topic are bugs and glitches that infected the game, they are in every corner, everywhere you look at.
    WHYYYYY are you did this? WHYYYY?!?    … Expand
  94. rile
    Mar 21, 2017
    3
    A trainwreck that never ends, the quality of Bioware games continue to plummet just as it has since 2011, where the first big controversial game was released, Dragon Age II. The last title worth its salt released by the company was in 2010, with the release of Dragon Age: Awakening, the expansion to the modern classic Dragon Age: Origins.

    Of course I've still played every game they've    A trainwreck that never ends, the quality of Bioware games continue to plummet just as it has since 2011, where the first big controversial game was released, Dragon Age II. The last title worth its salt released by the company was in 2010, with the release of Dragon Age: Awakening, the expansion to the modern classic Dragon Age: Origins.

    Of course I've still played every game they've released to date, including the infamous money-squandered MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, hoping that one day they may return to form. But that is a distant dream, an impossible reality as they've proven themselves incapable of it. And it's worth noting that Inquisition is the only game to date that I've not finished - as it adhered to an archaic quest design that was mostly found in korean MMORPGS over a decade ago.

    Mass Effect: Andromeda promises a return to the roots, a back to the basics to the much beloved original Mass Effect of 2007 release. It's no wonder why it quickly became a classic, and in many ways it set a new standard for RPGs back then. It does this by giving the series a soft-reboot, away from the repear conflict as well as allowing a much greater customization of Ryder, as well as the return of exploring the surfaces of alien planets. Even introducing new races where as the old had grown too familiar to remain 'alien'.

    It does live up to its promises on a superficial level, only delivering the exposition and mechanical on a barely serviceable level. The mechanical customization of Ryder is the only progress this game makes over any of its predecessors. The level of possible roleplay and directing the character to suit you has been distinctly reduced, even well below Mass Effect 3's standards, that were already treading on a thin ice and barely classified as an RPG.

    The issue that has sparked the controversy that has reached into all crooks and corners of the internet starts with the animations, Models do not interact without severe clipping, lip synchronization is aft to miss the beat and the facial expressions do not match the tone of the voice actors. It's reminiscent of a controversy surrounding Star Wars the Old Republic where it was mocked for months upon months for its jank animations.

    And it's all justified.

    Would it be the only issues, the game would be grand and great, but the exposition and narratives you walk Ryder through are uninspired and you'll find yourself simply going through the motions, without any of the enthusiasm. The companion characters are shells, left without the necessary development and motivations that one would find in other RPGs of today. And there's no friction, the companions dont butt heads with displays or representations of an ideal of theirown to challenge or bolster the players thinking.

    It was a great boast of the developers to claim the game holds the most dialogue they've ever had in a game, but in spite of that the game was remarkably short on exposition. Most of the time you'll be going through objecitves that have been found in open world games in the past six or seven years, exploring derelict ruins and climbing towers to scan with the infamous 'find stuff easier' vision. It's a wonder this has not been rid off with modern gaming, given that even as early as Fable 2 with its glitters that merged the aft-used tab-vision into its aesthetic design, and while it could be argued that the scanner does the same, it's more of an obstruction than anything to have to use it to look at everything in hopes of finding anything.

    The voice acting is bad, and this is in spite of a talented cast of actors. And the only conclusion that can be drawn from this that Bioware themselves did not know the tone or the beats of the game, so you'll find that the emotional performances delivered by the big name VA's is all over a place, as is often the case with games that have a poor director in the booth.

    If not for the added customization of Ryder, the combat would be just on par with the rest. But the procedural cover system leaves much to be wanted, where-as the older games had tight controls in regards to the cover, this one takes the control away from you and tries to detect whether you're in a position to take cover, and if it senses it, it does it. Of course, this leads to many, many situations where you'll shout at the game to take cover in a place where it obviously should be possible, but isn't. And there are other situations where you'll want to remain in cover, but can't, depending on your aim.

    I've been lenient about the games flaws thus far, tried to write my thoughts down without the emotional disappointment and frustration that I felt often while I played it. And I'm running out of available characters. Simply put, Andromeda is nothing short of the worst game Bioware has ever made. Everything that did go wrong, has gone wrong.    … Expand
  95. kamaroff
    May 1, 2017
    3
    That feeling when you bought RPG and got an MMORPG. That feeling when you paid 60$ for the AAA class game, and received B-class game's beta version. That feeling when you have a nightmares after you saw a female character.

    RIP Bioware.
    We remember, we mourn.
  96. J4MESOX4D
    Mar 22, 2017
    3
    Mass Effect Andromeda is an absolute embarrassment not just by the standards set by various games or the level expected in 2017; it is even inferior to all its predecessors. To think this had a $40,000,000 budget and 5 full years of development; it is completely unacceptable and Bioware should be relieved of the brand and disbanded before further damage is done.

    I'll keep it reasonably    Mass Effect Andromeda is an absolute embarrassment not just by the standards set by various games or the level expected in 2017; it is even inferior to all its predecessors. To think this had a $40,000,000 budget and 5 full years of development; it is completely unacceptable and Bioware should be relieved of the brand and disbanded before further damage is done.

    I'll keep it reasonably short as the crippling flaws are rather self-explanatory and well-known;- the story is very underwhelming for starters and is further complimented with some of the most atrocious script writing and voice acting I have seen for years. There may be 1200 voiced characters in this game as proudly stated by the developers but none of the 'actors' are skilled and most sound like they were just reading off a piece of paper instead of delivering compassionate, dramatic and engrossing dialogue. It's an utter shambles.

    The most glaring problem as we are all fully aware of is simply the facial and physical animations of the characters, It is borderline comical at times and with all the remarkable audio/visual motion capture companies in the world today; it is baffling as to why Bioware decided to do this in-house at great expense and with hilariously bad results. The original Mass Effect along with other ageing games like LA Noire put Andromeda to shame in this regard and I'm left scratching my head as to where the $40m budget was allocated.

    In terms of the gameplay; it's absolutely boring and tedious especially when there is no engaging story or characters to become absorbed in. Generic shooting, horrendous AI along with bland and barren worlds just makes you want to accelerate to the end. You can either speed through 20-25 hours or try and get your money's worth of 50+ hours with all the side quests but you'll soon become fed up of the game as a whole. Co-op MP horde mode can be fun but the same experience can be enjoyed in other cheaper games. This one is certainly undeserving of your money especially when so many aspects are unpolished or unacceptably poor.

    I'd wait five years until it's free on the Origin Store and even then it might no be worth your time. Call of Duty overstayed its welcome and declined terribly and so did Assassin's Creed. Mass Effect is teetering on the brink of joining them as its legacy is now in tatters with Andromeda.    … Expand
  97. StevenD
    May 29, 2017
    3
    The single player is a dud, it's boring with an uninteresting story and buggy system. The thing that put the nail in the coffin for me was when I completed some quests in the wrong order and the main quest got bugged as a result. You couldn't pay me to go through the grind of the first hours of the game after that.
    The multiplayer is there to pick up some of the slack, but I didn't really    The single player is a dud, it's boring with an uninteresting story and buggy system. The thing that put the nail in the coffin for me was when I completed some quests in the wrong order and the main quest got bugged as a result. You couldn't pay me to go through the grind of the first hours of the game after that.
    The multiplayer is there to pick up some of the slack, but I didn't really buy a ME game for the MP experience. Went in hoping for a return to the quality of the original 2 games, instead I got a competent shooter with a truly disappointing spiel.    … Expand
  98. Jojo12
    Mar 22, 2017
    3
    Gameplay didn't change much from Me3.
    Animations are bad.
    Character customization lacks polishing.
    very repetitive.
    Dialogues are clichés.
    The mood is more of a basic Action-Comedy movie than an epic game settings.
    The world is very empty.

    I would have preferred to wait another year to have a good game, than receiving this right now.
  99. TheBinarySurfer
    Mar 24, 2017
    3
    I'm being generous with the 3. Weak plot and mediocre writing, godawful animations that are actually worse (in the case of the face) than the ORIGINAL mass effect a game now 10 years old. Frequent massive bugs that break the storyline, NPC's not having death animations just teleporting to a 'dead' state half the time, the female character is so godawfully wooden and robotic (almostI'm being generous with the 3. Weak plot and mediocre writing, godawful animations that are actually worse (in the case of the face) than the ORIGINAL mass effect a game now 10 years old. Frequent massive bugs that break the storyline, NPC's not having death animations just teleporting to a 'dead' state half the time, the female character is so godawfully wooden and robotic (almost inhumanly so) in her facial expression i restarted as a male Ryder within hours. MMO style world = big and empty. A game TWO YEARS old managed to do better in making it feel 'full' than this (Witcher 3). The problems go on; bad driving mechanics, somehow weaker shooting mechanics than the previous game (how the hell did you manage this?

    It's like having designed a sports car and 'the new model' turns out as a horse and cart, horse sold separately!!). None of these flaws are breaking on their own, but a bit like a boxing match it's rarely one blow that puts it down and out for the count, but a succession of relentless failures to match even the standard of the previous mass effect 3, all annoying and some immersion breaking that add up to a weak, even bad game not worth the money. Combine all this with the SJW nonsense (every character almost is bi-trans etc.; i don't mind there being characters that are but come on, every one almost?) and I think we're watching the slow, gradual death of a studio by a thousand cuts.

    What's also fascinating is how the review sites are still scoring it relatively well, whereas the user reviews tell the real story in most cases I suspect. Oh and the multiplayer is ok; mediocre, nothing special but fun for a few hours with friends; really not a significant iteration on ME3's though.

    Also, sadly although the ending is better than ME3's, it's not by much; it's almost as though thousands if not millions of complaints re. ME3's ending somehow resulted in more shallow, callow, weak choices. I wanted to love this game very badly as I did it's younger relatives, sadly what I got was a fantastic PR campaign and little actual substance with almost no quality or love poured into it.

    This will be the last Bioware game I buy after now preodering two mediocre releases in a row (DA:I), I'll save my cash and plough it into a studio that at least takes pride in what they produce (e.g. CD Projekt). I'd like to blame EA, but based on some of the inexperienced, or just plain idiotic (Manveer for example) folks they've hired this one's all on you Bioware.    … Expand
  100. Shelledfade
    Apr 23, 2017
    3
    1. Everything that has to do with writing in this game is appallingly juvenile. The characters are mundane and are easy to dislike. The only character of the entire crew I found appealing and interesting at all was Drack. The writers should absolutely be ashamed of themselves. The game can't be taken seriously when none of the characters themselves appear to be taking anything seriously.1. Everything that has to do with writing in this game is appallingly juvenile. The characters are mundane and are easy to dislike. The only character of the entire crew I found appealing and interesting at all was Drack. The writers should absolutely be ashamed of themselves. The game can't be taken seriously when none of the characters themselves appear to be taking anything seriously. Nearly every aspect of the games writing has this touch of light hearted foolery to it which is incessantly annoying.

    2. They completely removed being able to customize your companions/followers with weapons and armor. It was an aspect that I thoroughly enjoyed (and no one complained about) so I'm not exactly sure what they were thinking by cutting it. Companions skill trees are the only aspect you can customize. The skill tree is so small though, that you're given the illusion of choice here. You may as well put them on auto-level because it makes zero difference due to the skill tree being insignificantly small and insignificant regarding actual decision-making. You can't control the use of your companion abilities. It only allows you basic attack/defend commands, and most of the time its questionable at best if the a.i is actually following your attack commands.

    3. The illusion of choice. The Dragon age inquisition dialogue system was literally pasted into this game, which is to say that you don't really have dialogue interactions at all. Not really. Paragon and Renegade is gone (WHY?). Now are the days where you pick a dialogue option and get the exact same cutscene/outcome as any of the other options. This game is a total downgrade compared to previous mass effect games.

    4. Multiplayer. It's relatively the same as ME3, only its worse. It's a 7 round horde mode and each round is randomized to be different, such as holding a certain position for an amount of time or just simply surviving the round. You get credits for completing it. That itself is a bit mundane, but that isn't its biggest problem. The issue here is that literally nothing here is balanced in terms of characters or rewards. Weapons and characters you start with are quite literally BETTER than any of the ultra-rare classes or weapons you get from opening the 100,000 credit chests (the highest-tier chests). The sense of reward you get from playing the multiplayer does not exist because the reward system here is completely broken. If we're being honest, none of the classes or weapons are balanced for the hardest difficulty either.

    5. The animations. Not much to say that hasn't been said already. A high-school dropout amateur could have done better.

    6. Loot-progression in this game does not exist. Starting from level 1 you're given a fully completed crafting list that has everything already in it. You don't find or buy new recipes for crafting either. You don't find super-unique loot that isn't already in your crafting list. It just makes the whole idea of loot meaningless in the game. At least dragon age inquisition had unique gear you could find, there isn't even that in this game. When you kill the enemies in this game they have a chance to drop loot, that you basically can't do anything with; which you sell to vendors; in order to craft from a crafting list which was handed to you at level 1. Just... WOW.

    7. The side-content that makes up the majority of the gameplay in this game (10 hours of main story compared to 80+ of side content) is just mmo-filler fetch quests, basically dragon age inquisition copied and pasted here almost identically. If you're looking forward to maybe some interesting content on any of these large maps that you can explore, outside of the main story mission, they do not exist.

    8. Abilities. While combat shooting mechanics and snap-to cover was an improvement, they also downgraded combat significantly by only allowing the player to have a maximum of 3 active abilities. So, the game has no level-cap, and you can't manage your companions abilities, and you're only allowed 3 active abilities that you can only swap out at specific locations, and not during combat. This design is completely broken and is way too restrictive. I don't know what the purpose is of allowing the player to select any skill in the entire tree if they're only allowed to have 3 active abilities at max. Not only does this design contradict itself, but it makes for an overall unenjoyable system.

    9. The total obvious lack of any QA testing. The amount of bugs regarding missions and how many graphical anomalies there are in this game is actually ridiculous.

    I could see people reviewing this game as a 5, at MOST. For me, it's a 3. I've played too many games and experienced too many systems/mechanics at this point. Being a programmer myself I just can't believe the lack of creativity or passion here. Nearly every single aspect of the game has been made pointlessly mundane and downgraded compared to previous mass effect titles.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017
1
#1 Most Shared PC Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 37 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 37
  3. Negative: 1 out of 37
  1. Riot Pixels
    Jun 5, 2017
    55
    Postcard-pretty landscapes is pretty much all that there is good about Andromeda. They serve as backdrops for a boring, cliche-ridden, somewhat demented story with forgettable characters and even more forgettable missions.
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  2. PC PowerPlay
    May 11, 2017
    80
    Enough of the classic Mass Effect, with enough new mechanics to keep the game fresh. [Hollingworth; Issue#261, p.55]
    Read full review
  3. Edge Magazine
    Apr 27, 2017
    70
    An earnest attempt has been made to create a new identity for a series here, but the question of how to best frame Mass Effect's narrative strengths is, once again, left open. [June 2017, p.90]
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