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
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Voltron89
    Mar 21, 2017
    6
    Big game, but sadly empty and without good quality content. Quantity over quality... The game is one huge waste potential. There are some extremely good features but also some extremely bad. Let's get to it.

    GOOD: - Vast, new Galaxy to explore with aswesome new planets and places to see. - Some interesting side-characters and team mates (sadly, not level of trilogy crew). -    Big game, but sadly empty and without good quality content. Quantity over quality... The game is one huge waste potential. There are some extremely good features but also some extremely bad. Let's get to it.

    GOOD:
    - Vast, new Galaxy to explore with aswesome new planets and places to see.
    - Some interesting side-characters and team mates (sadly, not level of trilogy crew).
    - Absolutely great combat system, dynamic, fluid, smooth. Good balance between risk and cover combat at higher difficulties.
    - 3 new interesting spieces.
    - Exploration is done much better than in DA:I
    - A lot of dialogues and side quest
    - Quite long game
    - Very good overall visuals of everything but character faces.

    BAD:
    - Generic, boring story. Same scheme for everything. There is nothing deep or ambitious here. Bioware played it 100% safe, no controversy, no emotions, nothing memorable.
    - Many sides quests, but quality is low. Many quests are simple "track, kill, pick up, deliver" or "scan the hell out of this area". More story side-quests are also mostly generic and boring, not even one memorable quest with some sort of plot twist. BioWare should learn from Witcher 3 story quests.
    - Your team mates are shallow, cliche and many times irritating (PeeBee...god...). I din't want to romance anyone in the end, since your right hand seems more interesting and sexy than any of NPCs.
    - Animations are tragedy. This could be forgiven 5 years ago. But we have 2017 and animations are immersion-breaking. Dialogues which suppose to sound tough, emotional, serious are being destroyed by stupid eye rolls, creepy facial espressions and smiles that arre totally oposite to the voice and scene tone. Absolutely garbage. This is RPG game and belive me- you will spend A HELL LOT OF TIME speaking with many different NPCs. Animations will make you skip and speed trough them just to not see this crap.
    - Character Creation is easy the worst in any AAA RPG I have ever played. Why did BioWare just not include DA:I CC? I have no idea. It's like they want to force you to play their "child faces" twins...
    - Faces are awufull. Textures are low res even on 2K on Ultra, lightning is tragedy, as characters many times look like plastic dolls, not living beings.
    - Exploration, while better than in DA:I is till just a time waste and it just try to force you into beliving that game is longer and has more content than it really has. Jumping puzzles, scanning everything is boring, boring, boring. And why our new car does not have Cannon like Mako had? I have no idea....
    - Combat- ther variety of skills is great but you can only equip 3...that is a joke, especially on PC, where you could easy have 5-6 of them. 3 makes combat not as complex as it could be with more active skills.
    - Crafting is useless feature, again it is just to force you to play longer (grind for materials).
    - Music is just average. Not as good as in ME1 or ME2 by a long shot.
    - Game just feels rushed, unpolished, unfinished. If you focus while you play you can see that many thing were not finished.
    - Last but not least- main protagonists are absolutely joke and in many situations they seem like sort of "space teens power rangers" that try hard to be serious and mature. You can't even compare them to Shepard.

    Overall, let me sum this up:
    Game is big, but this is illusion, like DA:I was. Empty maps with useless activities, improved exploration which sadly gets boring after first 10-15 hours. Everything feels unfinished, rushed, beta stage. Story is cliche, boring and without any good plot-twists. Honestly - I can hardly remember it after beating it. Nothing memorable really happened. Combat is great but why so limited with active skills? Animations are great in combat and absolutely garbage B-grade outside of it- expresions, walking, lipsync- just bleh.

    Very average game, but touching a little "good game" territory. As a great ME fan (over 1000h in trilogy and 450h in ME3 MP) I am very dissapointed what has become of my favourite RPG universe.

    6/10, for combat mostly and planets/areas.

    BioWare- you should be ashamed. But you won't since it's all about money. There is not good people left there and no passion for gaming.

    Try to be like CD Project Red Please. Try again to create game with love.    … Expand
  2. gobhoblin
    Mar 21, 2017
    5
    I don't understand how people are giving this a 10 on here and posting that it has lag and animation problems in the same review. What does 10 mean to you?

    Bad animations
    Bad character models
    Bad scaling
    Weak dialog
    Terrible voice acting
    Decent combat
    Boring scan ability that pads game time
  3. Thylbanus
    Mar 21, 2017
    5
    Take this for what it is worth, but I cannot finish this game. It's not engaging enough. Take anything I say with a grain of salt. You have a pretty shallow story that is interspersed with nothing but mission grinds. The voice acting is 75% bad and there is absolutely no reason to find any relation with your companions. The later ones are a bit more interesting, but you don't have anyTake this for what it is worth, but I cannot finish this game. It's not engaging enough. Take anything I say with a grain of salt. You have a pretty shallow story that is interspersed with nothing but mission grinds. The voice acting is 75% bad and there is absolutely no reason to find any relation with your companions. The later ones are a bit more interesting, but you don't have any Morden's sings moments. You can't have any agonizing decisions to make. DUDE, your decisions have as much meaning as the RGB ending of ME3! (*flashback eyetwitch*) You don't have... FUN!

    I shouldn't go off about the negative without some positives. Other than the horrible human wax dolls, the rest of the environment is QUITE pretty. The worlds, while limited in quantity, are still large enough to be interesting, but small enough to remember where you are going, as long as the mission doesn't unknowingly update. (Sorry, I said I'd try to be positive).

    The scope is quite nice for a game of this age. The crafting is lackluster, but having the modding back is nice. The combat is SUPER fun, but I'd rather have them spent the energy in the story and deal with the old system if there were a trade off. Has many hours of content.

    All in all, this probably would have been a higher score if this didn't have the Mass Effect label, but as it does it loses points for not living up to the legacy.    … Expand
  4. SpecH82
    Mar 27, 2017
    5
    Simply not worth full price.
    Partly bad animations. Bad graphics on characters (npc's) in-game while you walk around the nexus. Haircuts and hair colours on said npc's look like s**t.
    Lipsync is bad Npc's look almost the same in high. Looks, sizes and so forth. Side-content are lackluster and boring. Mostly fetch quests (wow 3.0). Orchestra isn't good. Voice acting is    Simply not worth full price.
    Partly bad animations. Bad graphics on characters (npc's) in-game while you walk around the nexus. Haircuts and hair colours on said npc's look like s**t.

    Lipsync is bad

    Npc's look almost the same in high. Looks, sizes and so forth.

    Side-content are lackluster and boring. Mostly fetch quests (wow 3.0).

    Orchestra isn't good. Voice acting is bad/boring, without any feeling/emotion in parts where there should be some.

    The characters don't stand still when you speak with them. Had a chat with the team's krogan. His arms are jumping everywhere.

    To name a few bad things with this game. Frankly bioware go play witcher 3. Perhaps you'll learn something. And stop catering to sjw/feminists. Perhaps if you do that. You'll be able to make good games again.

    Now to something positive. The landscapes/environments are beautiful.    … Expand
  5. psomaster437
    Mar 21, 2017
    5
    The multiplayer is/was fun sure, but the single-player is FAR more like dragon age inq in the terms of open world and story, and that kind of story telling is fine, but having to gather 5k resources ON FOOT is not my thing and then having a finite amount of them so you can't craft all the things or experiment without TONS of farming. I did not get through the 2nd mission at nearly 7 hoursThe multiplayer is/was fun sure, but the single-player is FAR more like dragon age inq in the terms of open world and story, and that kind of story telling is fine, but having to gather 5k resources ON FOOT is not my thing and then having a finite amount of them so you can't craft all the things or experiment without TONS of farming. I did not get through the 2nd mission at nearly 7 hours into the story!

    That is what made me quit playing the dragon age INQ, it just kept GOING with VERY little story progression, and if you did a side mission/quest it would rope you into side dungeons/events you COULD NOT LEAVE without spending another hour or something in them. Sure ME1-2-3 did that kind of thing, but it was FAR more linear with FAR more choices and impacts while this style of open world only results in a FEW choices mattering and any of those choices only effect what a few chars say to you not their entire character. IE in ME1-2-3 and dragon age 1-2 you could make someone hate you or disrespect them and it would effect their combat skills or unlock/lock skills, in this, just, nothing, they change a few key words of dialog.

    They also severally limited gameplay in terms of combat this time. No letting you use health-kits like in ME1-2-3, having to find ammo from crates in preset spots with only 4 ammo reloads, each gun takes up a refill so if you restock 2 guns with ammo 2 of the 4 refills are used, instead of dropped ammo from enemies.

    Limited use of abilities by saying it uses a power cell, weapons start out SUPER weak unless you have difficulty set down, you can't rez a teammate from a distance because you have to run up to them out of cover and hold to rez, your limited to ONLY 3 ABILITIES unless you hot-swap to another PRESET set of abilities which then sets those new abilities on a COOL-DOWN when swapped to even if your abilities were fully ready. IE see dropship dropping tons of grunts, swap to AOE power set as you enter combat, OOOPS to bad, you now have to wait 30-40 seconds to use your abilities now....

    And don't get me started on the animations. I just replayed through the series and watched others stream it on twitch A LOT recently. The fact they could not import/adapt even just the facial motions etc from the first 3 games is VERY sad. I mean wasn't Dragon Age INQ using the same engine? Could they not use the same assets/code for facial animations? Those were at-least far better and it was in the same engine with likely only SOME code needing to be redone to get it to fit on the models right.

    Overall I am giving it a lower score of 5 until the issues are fixed. As which point I will redo my review.    … Expand
  6. mike299
    Mar 22, 2017
    5
    nice combat system, buggy and unpolished, kinda repetitive, dialog wheel not representative of what the character says, soundtrack is average, all and all a typical Bioware game. Nothing Memorable about the characters or story. Haven't try multiplayer yet
  7. Solitary_Freedo
    Mar 21, 2017
    5
    Such a dissapointing game :/ Alot crucial for a fan of the series flaws, its really like inqusition in space. But with more time requirement and worse quality.
  8. DeltaXi65
    Mar 26, 2017
    5
    It truly pains me to write a negative review for Mass Effect:Andromeda, as the Mass Effect series is my favorite RPG series. The characters, the plot, the pacing, the voice work - it was all superb in past games, and I can even forgive Bioware for the botched ending to ME3.

    This game, however, has serious flaws, right from the beginning. First, the animations on faces are just not    It truly pains me to write a negative review for Mass Effect:Andromeda, as the Mass Effect series is my favorite RPG series. The characters, the plot, the pacing, the voice work - it was all superb in past games, and I can even forgive Bioware for the botched ending to ME3.

    This game, however, has serious flaws, right from the beginning. First, the animations on faces are just not believable. They seem to have taken a step backwards, even if the facial textures were excellent. The character creation process was stilted and difficult to understand - it took a while to figure out how to use a different default custom designed face. The voice over for Scott is just not up to the standards we've grown accustomed to.

    The decision to set the Initiative's departure date before Shepard's heroics in the rest of the series destroyed most chances for connections to the other games. The links to Liara - the young, naive Liara, not the hard nosed Shadow Broker that we all came to love - felt contrived. The relative lack of ties and easter eggs to the first games, in and of itself, was a major let down. In a series where the story is so key, this story has so many plot holes that go unexplained that it's hard to accept it at face value. Ryder makes first contact with an alien species that suddenly speaks English without a single explanation in game as to how he can understand them or they can understand him? Seriously? How many first contact scenarios have sci-fi fans seen over the years, from Star Trek to every aliens-visit-earth movie? This killed whatever suspension of disbelief I had and magnified the other deficiencies in the game for me.

    It's not all bad. What keeps the game out of the 1 or 2 score area is combat - this is as good as it has been in any of the games. It was nice to get a rover back, ala Mass Effect 1, although the mining/scanning device could use some work. It's just not that intuitive or fun.

    Overall, the game just didn't live up to my expectations, which were high - but that was because all of the other games in the series delivered. I'm still going to play the game and will probably finish it just to say that I did, but I don't feel the burning desire to complete the story, nor do I feel the same personal bond with these characters that I did with Garrus, Liara, Shephard and others in the first trilogy.

    This was a disappointing game that didn't live up to my expectations.    … Expand
  9. Ansatsu83
    Mar 23, 2017
    7
    Visual bugs aside, I hate the core aspects of the combat. Weapons dont do enough damage, feels like the damage system from dragon age inquisition meets me3. Voice actors do NOT match their races. The krogans feel like slightly more auto-tuned versions of and do not have enough of a gruff/grizzly voice. The salarian's voice actors/actresses pitch is way off compared to the other games. TheVisual bugs aside, I hate the core aspects of the combat. Weapons dont do enough damage, feels like the damage system from dragon age inquisition meets me3. Voice actors do NOT match their races. The krogans feel like slightly more auto-tuned versions of and do not have enough of a gruff/grizzly voice. The salarian's voice actors/actresses pitch is way off compared to the other games. The Turian voice acting... is ok. The story doesnt hit me as well as the old series did, nor does the overall concept of it. Very few enemy types leads to repetitive combat. They took some of the better elements that mass effect 1 had, and tried to combine it with the elements that mass effect 2 did right... And for some reason, they failed at all attempts.

    The nice thing is it is more open world, the movement is very nice and well tuned (least on the player side, animations are still hilarious at best), and the research system feels worthwhile... downside is everything is repetitive, very few enemy types, weapons feel completely useless, etc. I would say it has potential to be good... but right now, the damage system is my biggest complaint.. IT FEELS LIKE DRAGON AGE INQUISITION, WHICH I DISLIKED ALL TOGETHER!!!!!    … Expand
  10. UglyGod
    Mar 21, 2017
    7
    The bandwagon of hate is real with this one. Yes the dialogue animations are terrible. But it's not a reason to go out of your way to harass the people who worked on the game for so much time. It does not deserve all of these negative reviews here's why :

    Graphics : 5/10 I just had to took away 5 points because of the horrendous animations in dialogue(and other bugs), the eyes are just    The bandwagon of hate is real with this one. Yes the dialogue animations are terrible. But it's not a reason to go out of your way to harass the people who worked on the game for so much time. It does not deserve all of these negative reviews here's why :

    Graphics : 5/10
    I just had to took away 5 points because of the horrendous animations in dialogue(and other bugs), the eyes are just so lifeless it's scary. lip syncing is nonexistent and there are no shadows on faces. But the rest of the game looks GREAT, kudos to the Frostbite engine. The environment, armor, weapons and other alien races are just spot on ! ( just some weird texture popping and low draw distance when driving)

    Sound : 7/10
    I am not a music connoisseur but from what I heard so far in this game there isn't a memorable score expect from when you are on the galaxy map, the calm music is just so relaxing I had to mention it. Guns sound loud and have a great kick to them, so does melee attacks and ambient music. Voice acting isn't terrible but isn't great either some lines are just so damn cringy I had to look away.

    Gameplay : 8/10
    This is where the game truly shines. The gameplay is really good and far better than previous Mass Effect games. You are not bound to a single class and can choose to upgrade a way array of powers from simple ones like tossing grenades to sick ones like freezing your enemy before making him explode with a biotic lance. The cover system works well but isn't very intuitive, Ryder automatically snaps onto cover if his weapon is drawn behind a structure. You can now jump evade and teleport adding some verticality to the combat. Sadly ordering your teammates in combat is very basic but still work very well since the IA friendly or not is not stupid.
    On the other hand this is still an RPG which means base building and other goodies. With your scanning tool you can now earn research point to craft some new items, Your duty as pathfinder means that you are responsible of finding new world for your colony to settle in. By progressing in the game you will make the hostile planets somewhat viable allowing your fellow colonists to seize the planet ! You can also wake up citizen from cryo sleep and build up the nexus. It really is something that you need to experience for yourself to truly understand it. You really feel like you are part of something greater.

    Conclusion : This game does not deserve all the hate that it gets because despite the bad graphics at some points the core of the game is really good and will entertain you for a certain amount of time. You know what they say: don't judge a book by it's cover. This game is a Buy if you like RPGs and space operas.

    (There was an error while I was writing the first half of the review I had to complete it and submit another one since i cant edit what was already submitted.)    … Expand
  11. Rikalonius
    Mar 21, 2017
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I have to be fair, there were some well done portions of this game, but I cannot, in good conscience give it a good score. I can sum it up in one word. Derivative.

    Spoilers:

    To start with, we have to accept a huge amount of retcon in this game. A human lead initiative to go to another Galaxy started barely a decade after the first contact war? This would be like Columbus saying, "I've found a new land, now I'm going to go to Mars." I won't bother getting into all that, because retcon aside, the game still stinks.

    As everyone has rightly pointed out, the animations and character textures are sub par. Double Bogey sub-par. So, strike one. The dialog is juvenile. It just reeks of dialog of that was quickly written out and never spoken aloud and refined to see if this is how intelligent beings speak to each other. Strike 2. The characters are awful, and one dimensional cutouts. They each have "their" role to the game and they don't stray from it. And more often than not, they are annoying, especially the support crew members. Strike 3.

    While the environments are beautiful, and a lot of work went into the aesthetics of the planets, it can only do so much to distract you from the poor story and the hackneyed characters. New batter, strike 1. The story is, as I said, derivative. The original story may have been a Lovecraft esque Eldritch horror in which the hero almost literally punches Cthulhu, but its execution was so good you barely noticed. But at last ME1 was different. ME:A is an attempt to reboot the franchise away from the large looming shadow of Commander Shepard, and they don't succeed. You can go to another galaxy, but you'll never be better than Commander Shepard. Strike 2 again. So, lastly, the final out, is the Ryder twins. They exude zero credibility, and zero gravitas. Alec Ryder, for his very short existence, could have been a great character, but's like a Green Beret dies and his teenage son and daughter join the squad. They tell me with their badly animated mouths that they received training, but they act like they are in the cast of some prime drama for women.

    Sorry, but this feels like a poorly executed attempt to overwrite the franchise, and it fell flat on its face in my opinion.    … Expand
  12. Joote
    Apr 25, 2017
    7
    Played 115 hours.

    Not a bad game. Could have been a great game if not for... - Bad animation and facual expresions. - Strange distorted faces. - Really bad immature dialog in a most of conversations. - The few choices you have do not have any consequence. - Forgettable characters. - Once played, most will never play it again. (Very little reason for replay) - Bad story pacing.    Played 115 hours.

    Not a bad game. Could have been a great game if not for...

    - Bad animation and facual expresions.
    - Strange distorted faces.
    - Really bad immature dialog in a most of conversations.
    - The few choices you have do not have any consequence.
    - Forgettable characters.
    - Once played, most will never play it again. (Very little reason for replay)
    - Bad story pacing. ( you go through hours of boredom , then all of a sudden you are swamped with quests.)    … Expand
  13. Motoko_Kusanagi
    Mar 26, 2017
    7
    Excellent game, and tatikoma funny, I approve. + Great Graphics, good story.
    Excellent compared to the trilogy gameplay. Good Music. -
    A lot of masturbation on the planets. Technical problems, like bad animation.
    The fanatics of the original trilogy are too angry, for this I put 10, so the game is 7 points out of 10. P.s
    It's funny that in 3 parts, the score is only 1 ball higher.
  14. whatever523
    Apr 16, 2017
    7
    ME:A could be a potential game of the year if it wasn't for some bad flaws.

    + Technically, the game is very good (single player). Graphics, performance, configuration options. + Great fluid gameplay and combat. + Good progression system with skill points, classes and gear upgrades. + Good exploration mechanics on the planets and the Mako is back. + About 90 hours of mostly good    ME:A could be a potential game of the year if it wasn't for some bad flaws.

    + Technically, the game is very good (single player). Graphics, performance, configuration options.
    + Great fluid gameplay and combat.
    + Good progression system with skill points, classes and gear upgrades.
    + Good exploration mechanics on the planets and the Mako is back.
    + About 90 hours of mostly good content.
    + The animations are great, with a few exceptions.

    - The game tries to convey a message of inclusiveness and political correctness whenever possible and in a very blatant and childish way. Made me cringe during many dialogues. This is a big deal in a game that relies on dialogue so much and a huge step back compared to previous ME games that treated the player like an adult.
    - Many of the main characters are average and forgettable (Suvi, Vectra, Liam, Addison, ...). The female Ryder also has some weird dialogue and a strange grin on her face that mostly doesn't fit the situation.
    - Stupid sudoku style puzzles. They're not smart, just boring.
    - Travelling the space looks great, but a few hours in you wish you could instantly move to locations and skip all travel animations, especially when exploring. It doesn't help that scanning planets isn't very fun or rewarding.
    - Multiplayer could be fun, but it's plagued by lag, disconnects and crashes. The progression system is even worse than in ME3. The whole game mode is designed so players spend money on the store. They cancelled the beta test saying the game mode is polished and doesn't need more testing, which was clearly a lie. It's also very easy to cheat, as MP is peer to peer based. I don't think I've ever had such a bad multiplayer experience in any game.

    The game is good, but could have been great. Which is sad, as they clearly put a lot of effort into it and the mistakes were very avoidable. Keep your political opinion out of games, don't lie to your customers and finish the game before you release it.    … Expand
  15. Notarzt
    Dec 19, 2017
    7
    Are the Animations bad? Yes, human faces are straight horrifying at times. Does that impact the game experience? Again, yes it does and I wish they would've done better. But does that mean the game in general is bad? No, definitely not. The World look gorges, the story doesn't start off as bad as some people claim and if you like the old Mass Effect, there is enjoyment in this game.
  16. PathFinder
    Apr 6, 2022
    7
    The game is another great Mass Effect entry. We all know well that the game is good and the bad yet funny animations were only an opportunity to hate on Bioware.

    Okay so now the game which has made many good improvements the most visible is the combat which now is more engaging and challenging it is certainly more fast paced than before and expanded on. With the great addition of the    The game is another great Mass Effect entry. We all know well that the game is good and the bad yet funny animations were only an opportunity to hate on Bioware.

    Okay so now the game which has made many good improvements the most visible is the combat which now is more engaging and challenging it is certainly more fast paced than before and expanded on. With the great addition of the jump/jet pack the combat has really evolved. The jump pack is also a great addition to the overall game as now you can easily get to places that would be unthinkable in the first three Mass Effects.

    The introduction to the Nomad, new mining system and largely open world has also improved gameplay and immersion in the game. As an addition to this statement the graphics are absolutely amazing even on low settings. Bioware did a great job in producing an immersing set of planets which are all unique in their own way.

    Now an important part, the conversations and dialogue. Although the animations tend to be annoying and even funny many times they certainly do not ruin the gameplay. The dialogue is well delivered and enjoyable. The characters have great backstories which are always great to listen too. Even with great backstories the characters do not form a bond as some of the characters from the previous entries such as Garrus. The Good / Bad guy system was removed to ensure that you are making your own unique Ryder with a unique personality. Your dialogue options are now labelled clearly with a clear indication to when you can romance. Some of the dialogue of characters may seem cringy and forced sometimes but that fells normal to nearly every game I played.

    The game largely reduces loading time throughout the game and there are no loading screens while on the Tempest which is great. The animations when moving from planet to planet are great and the sound effects are often helping to immerse into the universe.

    Overall the game feels definitely like another Mass Effect game but different than the other. People are certainly hating too much on Bioware instead of focusing on the gorgeous gameplay of Andromeda. After playing 20 hours of the game it seems clear to me that the game is nothing as bad as some people say. A nice 9/10 is a fair representation of what the game has to offer. If you are a Mass Effect fan you should certainly pick it up as many reviews discourage fans to buy this great game with their stupid arguments of bad facial animations and poorly delivered dialogue which is not true. As i progress through the game my opinion on the game may change slightly but probably not for the worse but rather the better. The game is not the best in the Mass Effect series but it is another good game developed by Bioware. 9/10

    EDIT: Yea that was quite dumb 7/10    … Expand
  17. muertefx
    Jun 27, 2017
    5
    I wrote few reviews for past months, refunded the game even, but week ago bought it with big discount and spent already 90 hours in it. My opinion didn't change. This is very unpolished game with tons of bugs and glitches, starting from simple textures and ending at quests.

    On patch 1.08 still weak character creation window with a lot of ugly presets without allowing us to change any    I wrote few reviews for past months, refunded the game even, but week ago bought it with big discount and spent already 90 hours in it. My opinion didn't change. This is very unpolished game with tons of bugs and glitches, starting from simple textures and ending at quests.

    On patch 1.08 still weak character creation window with a lot of ugly presets without allowing us to change any face detail including eyebrows, lips type or eyes type (asian, europe etc), just the ugly presets. Still can't see my crew inside of Nomad, it's just empty! And don't even want to say about many texture bugs and quest glitches, up to broken quest which cannot be finished. With some weapons (as Valkyrie) wrong change weapon speed and still "something" pushing us in left or right side while falling down. And, still...a lot of glitches with hero legs animations...

    Almost all side quest are boring, point A point B. Multiplayer practically didn't change, boring co-op against stupid AI (in ME3 AI was better, to be honest, while in ME:A enemies just rushing us and do nothing, just dying, very smart).

    Many achievements cannot be achieved, some sort of bugs I think. For example 2000 kills Terminator - even if you have enough kills you probably will get it in next playthrough, if you didn't get it already. Same story with many other "kill score" achievements.

    And, finally, the game do not see my current equipped weapons in cat scenes, it uses pre-made weapons in - attention! - cat-scenes made with game engine. The engine must understand what is equipped right now, instead giving us random guns we don't have. Same problem was with ME1-3, but...really? Still can't fix this? Why Witcher never had this problem?

    I can see that there was made a great job, a lot of planets, space, all that stuff, but not professional job, it can be compared with the newbies learning Frostbite and trying to make something unique, but they can't. I think that because they didn't have time for this.

    I respect BioWare, I love BioWare, and that is why it is too difficult for me to understand and realize, that you guys just screwed this up. I know about many difficulties which you faced, but still the game could be polished and release date could be changed. Instead, we got different story.

    I really liked voiced, its good, great job. But, the storyline is awful, many quests or dialogs could be extended, a lot of animations could be added to it instead stupid JetPack and OmniTool, we got just 0 hand animations, no interactions with the objects.

    5/10 from me for trying, at least.    … Expand
  18. Trenos
    Nov 29, 2017
    7
    Andromeda would be a weak game if not for the combat system, combat system is amazing. This is one of the best system on the game of all time, now I can't wait for Anthem! Andromeda has some pros, some characters are good and music isn't that bad. If you aren't fan of Mass Effect franchise than I think(ironically,) you should play this game.
  19. prossnip42
    Aug 2, 2018
    5
    What the hell happened here. How did we go from Mass Effect 3 to this? What were you thinking Bioware? Actually that's a bit harsh because the real culprit here is EA. That big company sucking Leviathan is trying its best to completely destroy Bioware like they did with Visceral games. So why is Andromeda such a painfully average game? Well many reasons actually but let's do this one at aWhat the hell happened here. How did we go from Mass Effect 3 to this? What were you thinking Bioware? Actually that's a bit harsh because the real culprit here is EA. That big company sucking Leviathan is trying its best to completely destroy Bioware like they did with Visceral games. So why is Andromeda such a painfully average game? Well many reasons actually but let's do this one at a time.

    Pros:
    -Give credit where it's due, the graphics are pretty damn great. I was fortunate enough to purchase this game very late so all the hilarious bugs and glitches that i saw on the internet were thankfully non present throughout most of my experience and the game looked pretty appealing
    -Driving the Mako actually feels nice for once and the whole planet traversing and exploration thing from Mass Effect 1 was brought back only this time so much more polished and satisfying
    -The combat (while it's the most simplistic of the entire franchise) is pretty fluid and fun. Everything feels satisfying to shoot and the guns pack a good impact.

    Cons:
    -This is my biggest problem with the game. The story. Needless to say the story in Andromeda is boring and cliche beyond all belief. It really is terrible. The Kett are the most generic type of grunts you'll ever see and the Archon is a budget version of Saren, only less interesting, less compelling and doesn't have a cool voice.
    -The characters are also terrible. I mean nothing will ever really come close to the Normandy crew but the companions that you're given are beyond boring and uninteresting. Nothing feels urgent, nothing feels like an impending doom is coming, it's just a slog, a 20 hour boring slog.

    In conclusion, Andromeda's gameplay isn't that bad but the gameplay isn't why people played Mass Effect. It was for the story, the interesting characters, the plot twists, the larger than life conflict. Because if you take all of those elements out you're left with a basic third person cover shooter and nowhere is this more obvious than in Andromeda    … Expand
  20. ComandanteCobra
    May 7, 2020
    6
    Really average...worst than Mass Effect 1, 2 or 3.
    Worst part is , sadly, gameplay....story progression require heavy grinding and very repetitive missions (side missions and main quests both).
    Boss fight are all the same , planets (Ice, Arid, Jungle..) feel exactly the same, exploration is there but you just wander around to one-click some minerals or scan plants over and over again.    Really average...worst than Mass Effect 1, 2 or 3.
    Worst part is , sadly, gameplay....story progression require heavy grinding and very repetitive missions (side missions and main quests both).
    Boss fight are all the same , planets (Ice, Arid, Jungle..) feel exactly the same, exploration is there but you just wander around to one-click some minerals or scan plants over and over again.
    Research for guns and armours upgrade is repetitive (and pointless in some cases), recycled enemy type , NPCS look all the same.
    Combat also it's repetitive...more action and less tactical play (control your squadmates is complicated)...so you will just use the same three powers for the entire game.
    Rpg (or morals) aspects of the game is , also, reducted ...and most of your choices during missions or dialogues have little to no conseguences.
    Good thing about this game are Krogans that have an important part of the plot and an important companion that shred some light on this race    … Expand
  21. IntotheCosmo
    Nov 27, 2018
    6
    A now common "miss" from studio that was beloved not too long ago. Mass Effect: Andromeda is Bioware's reboot of the Mass Effect franchise, and a rather half-baked attempt at trying to forge new frontiers in an already adored franchise. Much like Dragon Age: Inquisition, however, this entry fails to recapture the brilliance that Bioware became famous for.

    Absent is the immersive writing    A now common "miss" from studio that was beloved not too long ago. Mass Effect: Andromeda is Bioware's reboot of the Mass Effect franchise, and a rather half-baked attempt at trying to forge new frontiers in an already adored franchise. Much like Dragon Age: Inquisition, however, this entry fails to recapture the brilliance that Bioware became famous for.

    Absent is the immersive writing and lovable characters. Gone are the moments that make your heart pound and your eyes water. Forgotten are memorable questlines and the general sense of tension and danger when trying to complete a task. Andromeda offers little in terms of gripping world-building, having to, instead, lean heavily on its predecessors. Which is shame considering that its setting had so much potential for new and exciting lore to be explored.

    Moving past the most critical features of storytelling, one runs into the general signs of lack of polish: models that are copy-pasted and overall horrendous looking, animations that are memeable in their faulty mechanics, and dialogue lines that are both poorly thought-out and poorly delivered.

    That said, there is some good. The environments are beautiful, if a bit badly optimized. Driving is 100% better than any Mako or Hammerhead. The combat is a bit too fast to be my cup of tea, but there are some interesting features such as new powers, combos, and the profile system which allows for a wide range of playstyles to approach every situation from.

    The development of Mass Effect: Andromeda is a sad story of trying to do too much with too little (a very well written article from Kotaku describes the hardships of the dev team), and unfortunately, it shows. Andromeda may bring more to the table in terms of graphics and combat, but it fails at what everyone wanted it to be most: a engaging story that has you hooked from the get-go and leaves you salivating for more by the time the credits play.

    One can only hope that Bioware's next foray into the Mass Effect universe will see a return to a world that not only looks and plays nice but feels rich and alive as well.    … Expand
  22. tagort
    Mar 22, 2020
    6
    I am finally payed and finished this game and now I can say that it was not as bad as everyone says but it definetly was dissapointing. I know that most bugs and animation issues was fixed at this moment (though not all for sure) but pointless grind, booring sidequests and lame script is still here. That game have good shooter mechanic, bunch of inteesting characters and sometiemes evenI am finally payed and finished this game and now I can say that it was not as bad as everyone says but it definetly was dissapointing. I know that most bugs and animation issues was fixed at this moment (though not all for sure) but pointless grind, booring sidequests and lame script is still here. That game have good shooter mechanic, bunch of inteesting characters and sometiemes even exelent atmospheric moments. But it sucks 80% time you playing it. Still other 20% gave me positive emotions. So I am not give up on Bioware and hope that they continue Rider's story but do it right negt time.… Expand
  23. snake_arcos
    May 24, 2020
    5
    Olviden la tontería esa de las animaciones faciales, vengo directamente de jugar la trilogía, ya que no la había jugado, maravillosa, emocionadísimo recién terminando el 3 abrí el andromeda, vaya decepción, lo terminé a la fuerza esperando algo bueno, la historia no te motiva a descubrir nada, haces el juego como el que hace la tarea del colegio, no hay misterio, no hay aquella sensaciónOlviden la tontería esa de las animaciones faciales, vengo directamente de jugar la trilogía, ya que no la había jugado, maravillosa, emocionadísimo recién terminando el 3 abrí el andromeda, vaya decepción, lo terminé a la fuerza esperando algo bueno, la historia no te motiva a descubrir nada, haces el juego como el que hace la tarea del colegio, no hay misterio, no hay aquella sensación que te da la trilogía de estar viendo como sería el viaje interestelar y tener todo por descubrir, cosa que tenía tanto potencial al viajar a la galaxia de andromeda, era la idea perfecta para crear algo épico de nuevo, y para los que pasan de la historia y quieren mecánicas, tampoco tiene mucho en mi opinión.… Expand
  24. Kluco
    Jun 21, 2020
    7
    For a fan of the Mass Effect ME:A might be a disappointment. There are still many improvements, combat feels better than ever and the exploration of an unkown galaxy felt great. The game has quite a few plot holes however the thing i think was the biggest stepback from the previous games were the Squadmates. Not only did the previous games offer more character but i felt more attached toFor a fan of the Mass Effect ME:A might be a disappointment. There are still many improvements, combat feels better than ever and the exploration of an unkown galaxy felt great. The game has quite a few plot holes however the thing i think was the biggest stepback from the previous games were the Squadmates. Not only did the previous games offer more character but i felt more attached to most of them, not to say than there are not any interesting characters in ME.A, i still found many great characters but none came close to my favorite character from the previous games… Expand
  25. birdman3
    May 11, 2018
    7
    I don't believe this game to be the franchise killer that many make it out to be, but while there are many steps forward in this game, there are plenty of steps back. The changes to combat are great, in that you feel more versatile, agile, and height adds a third dimension to combat that was mostly missing in previous games. However, while the combat is a step forward, I see the skillI don't believe this game to be the franchise killer that many make it out to be, but while there are many steps forward in this game, there are plenty of steps back. The changes to combat are great, in that you feel more versatile, agile, and height adds a third dimension to combat that was mostly missing in previous games. However, while the combat is a step forward, I see the skill system as a step back. Only three active abilities at a time? I don't find myself switching profiles that often during combat, so I'm frequently stuck with the same three abilities on repeat for most of the game. I found that to be a frustrating downgrade from the previous series. Not to mention that you're no longer in control of your allies abilities - who should I take into battle with me? It doesn't matter in the slightest!

    The universe that's presented is large and varied, but it's also quite empty. Traveling from system to system is more of a chore than anything else because you can only land on a few planets to begin with (not that I would want to land on all of them anyways). Once you start on each planet, you have your typical quest hubs that send you out into the unknown to do the same old things over and over again - go out to a navigation point, fight a few guys, scan a thing, follow a trail of bread crumbs to another point, do the same thing, etc. The quests were so repetitive that it got on my nerves and I wished for the more linear style that we got in the previous games. That's where Mass Effect shined the best in the previous games and in this one, in my opinion. Send me on a mission, give me a beginning and an endpoint, and put some bad guys for me to shoot in between. Make me feel like I'm doing something. Too many quests result in simple skirmishes that are ended easily, not to mention the frequent respawns of enemies that pop out of nowhere like "Oh my gosh! I have to kill these guys!", except that you can just keep driving in your car and you can avoid them entirely.

    In the year since release, I can say that the animations have been improved - I didn't see much of the laughable bad facial animations that were such a joke early on, but there were many bugs that caused me to either have to reload a save or wait for something to trigger on the computer's end. It made it frustrating because sometimes when I couldn't advance in a level I wasn't sure if it was me or the computer.

    Ugh- so many things I want to say about this game, but it's really not worth it to put it all into words - basically, they made some things more complex than they needed to be, and should have done a better job.    … Expand
  26. twobadcrew
    Oct 29, 2020
    6
    So much potential wasted, EA's idiotic decision to take resources from this development team to feed Anthem. This is mass effect by numbers, the graphics are great but the content and story is Sci-Fi channel level bad. My only hope is that a Mass Effect remaster will be made in this same engine.
  27. CallenAmakuni
    Apr 3, 2018
    7
    This game saddens me not because of what it is, but because of what it could have been. I have 40 hours in so far, I've cleared the storyline, and the only thing I have in mind for sure is a single question: Why waste so much potential?

    This game could have been much more than a not-exceptional-but-pretty-good one. It could have been a masterpiece given the appropriate time and    This game saddens me not because of what it is, but because of what it could have been. I have 40 hours in so far, I've cleared the storyline, and the only thing I have in mind for sure is a single question: Why waste so much potential?

    This game could have been much more than a not-exceptional-but-pretty-good one. It could have been a masterpiece given the appropriate time and resources.

    But let's start with giving credit where it's due.

    - I waited a year to get the most optimized version possible (which shouldn't happen in the first place), and the technical difficulties that everyone has been complaining about are pretty much non-existent now, or at least I didn't experience them. Sure, some faces are frankly ugly and all Asari look the freakin' same except for Peebee, but animations are not bad. They're not good either but hey, Mass Effect was never known for its animations. The game is very pretty, and while it's not the technical breakthrough some people expected with Frostbite, it still does visual justice to the universe we're exploring (and a few sceneries are honestly gorgeous).
    - The actual gameplay is fantastic; gunfights are nervous, dynamic and the weapons have a very good feeling at usage (My sniper rifle's shot echoing through a valley is the most satisfying thing I've experienced in this game). The Nomad also handles pretty well (especially when comparing it to the Mako).
    - SOME quests are very good. For example, Cora's Loyalty Mission genuinely felt like I was back playing a ME3 mission all over again. It's a shame only a handful of other quests made me feel that way.
    - The profiles system is a good idea, even though it could have been pushed further with more specialized trees.
    - The companions are interesting to an extent (but the ability to roleplay is severely lacking compared to the OT).
    - The mystery surrounding a certain ancient species looks very promising for future installments (and their tech looks badass).

    Now onto the fun part:

    - The writing, for the most part, is atrociously cringey. Some lines of dialogue honestly felt like they were taken straight out of a bad Fanfiction.
    - I feel like the general tone is a lot lighter than the OT's, in a bad way. There are basically no stakes. No danger. The main enemy faction is a joke, a bad copy paste from the Trilogy's Reapers. The final mission started pretty awesome and ended in the most anticlimactic way possible. The only thing that kept me going, for the most part, is a completely optional side of the main quest.
    - While this is more of a personal grief, I don't understand why they felt that adding a single new species was a good idea. We mostly just see the OT's species in Andromeda.
    - Most of the quests are boring as heck. Their structure mostly consists of the talk-to-this-guy-go-there-talk-to-that-guy-come-back-fight-some-guys-yay-you-won thingy. MMO style fetch quests are not what Mass Effect is about. More quests like the Loyalty missions would have been appreciated. Those had stakes and genuinely made me worry about the characters and their motivations.

    I'd give this game a 7.5/10 if that was possible, but that leans more toward 7 than 8. As a Mass Effect fan, I think, it loses a significant chunk of its charm, and I'd probably give it a solid 8/10 if I hadn't gone through Shepard's trilogy 15 times.

    Again, what I see is so much burned potential. Even the animations look amazing in some scenes (no, I'm not joking, check Cora's intimate scene or the last mission's cutscenes), but they're below average most of the time. I'm not hating Bioware for this, but I'm definitely calling it a disappointment.

    I bought it for 10 dollars, and I don't regret doing so. Some moments were genuinely fun. It's just that this game does not meet what we have come to expect from a Bioware game.    … Expand
  28. DillDoughNut
    May 18, 2018
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. (Note: This game is only worth ~ $10). While Andromeda is not close to comparing to the original trilogy, it sloppily delivered a game that was very enjoyable at face value. I only paid $5 (EA Origin Access), and I found it to be fun. The premise had such a great potential, exploring a new galaxy and finding habitable places for colonization while fighting a hostile alien species. But, this game didn't really follow through with any of its content. Also, character customization was, well, super lame. Every human looked similar because there is like 6 hairstyles per gender . I would of rather waited for EA and Bioware to wait another 3-4 years and had a legendary game similar to Witcher 3 or even previous Mass Effects.

    The game felt rushed, even after a years worth of patches to fix it. Human faces looked lifeless most of the time, like talking to androids. Asari for some reason looked like chubby little kids, not how they used to in the PAST THREE GAMES, which doesnt make sense. Some of the voice actors were great, others sounded like they were picked up for $5 and a lollipop. More than half of the side quests and "tasks" were boring and lacked any depth. I ended up not even completing 20+ side quests just because it was the same three steps: Travel, Kill and Scan. But to be honest, it is hard to live up to the previous ME games.

    (On a side note, many people complain about the SJW undertones, and while I understand, I don't think it affected the game to the point where it was something to dock points for. )

    I completed all of the loyalty missions, a good chunk of side quests and then finihsed the story and it took 40+ hours to complete. It kept me hooked for the most part, and like I said earlier, it was a good game, not great or amazing. Members of the team you eventually pick up were here and there, two in particular I hated Liam and PeeBee. They were a good assembly of squad mates with fun personalities, but none compared to the previous games' squadmates. None of their backstories were expanded upon unfortunately.

    The settings were cool for the most part, beautiful looking planets and hostile wild life was pretty entertaining at first, but got boring after playing for longer periods of time. Driving the Nomad was also incredibly satisfying. Combat was probably the best in the series in terms of shooting and fluid movement. I had a lot of fun with the combat, easily the best pro of the game.

    To wrap up, I believe any Mass Effect fan should give this game a chance for a sale price of 5-10 dollars. While the game isn't great, its good, good enough to at least give a chance. I didn't experience to many glitches in my 40+ hours of playing. I think if EA and BioWare took more time to refine this game and add more "flavor" to certain areas, it would easily be comparable to the others in the series.

    Next time, try not to be selfish EA, I find it hard to comprehend that rather than making an excellent game and putting the time and resources into it, they would rather make a average game at best and spending as little money as possible to rake in a larger profit. Please, for the love of god, take example from CD Projekt Red or even your other previous installments.    … Expand
  29. toxyk
    Jun 3, 2019
    6
    La decepción hecha videojuego, un mal sueño para cualquier fan de la saga, vaya cagadón de Bioware
  30. QuatokyTonberry
    Jan 23, 2019
    6
    Gameplay: - Good
    Story: - Normal
    Visual: - Good
    Music and sound: - Good
    *Microtransaction in multiplayer
    *Lots of grinding
    Average time: - 84h
    Score: - 6 (Normal)
prev
Page:

Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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.
    Read full review
  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]
See all critic reviews »