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. mvrd
    Mar 22, 2017
    10
    I don't really understand the negativity for this game.
    It may have its flaws but there's a ton of fun under the surface.
    Personally I'm really intrigued with the story, I guess it's just my cup of tea. I like the feeling of being an alien, an outsider, in a completely new galaxy. The combat feels very satisfying and rewarding. I also like the characters, especially the Tempest crew.    I don't really understand the negativity for this game.
    It may have its flaws but there's a ton of fun under the surface.
    Personally I'm really intrigued with the story, I guess it's just my cup of tea.
    I like the feeling of being an alien, an outsider, in a completely new galaxy.
    The combat feels very satisfying and rewarding.
    I also like the characters, especially the Tempest crew.

    I didn't have that much fun in a game for a long time.    … Expand
  2. markzaku
    Mar 22, 2017
    0
    Let me preface this by saying that I've owned and played every CRPG that Bioware has ever made (minus SWTOR). Mass Effect 2 is probably my favorite game of all time.

    Mass Effect: Andromeda couldn't be more of a disappointment if it tried. Bioware learned nothing from Dragon Age: Inquisition, and ME:A "borrows" all of its terrible aspects, while retaining very little of the few things    Let me preface this by saying that I've owned and played every CRPG that Bioware has ever made (minus SWTOR). Mass Effect 2 is probably my favorite game of all time.

    Mass Effect: Andromeda couldn't be more of a disappointment if it tried. Bioware learned nothing from Dragon Age: Inquisition, and ME:A "borrows" all of its terrible aspects, while retaining very little of the few things that were decent in DA:I.    … Expand
  3. borovnica88
    Mar 22, 2017
    10
    Just wanted to offset the idiots who give 0, because this game isn't 0 but is neither 0.
    I recommend it anyway. It's a fun game and that is what matters to me.
  4. stevegroundhog
    Mar 22, 2017
    0
    Since Metacritic found it suitable to delete my previous review I'll write another one. This is in no way shape or form like any of the other Mass Effect games. It's only Mass Effect in name only. Absolutely ruined a great franchise and made it into a buggy, horrible acting, 2005 style graphical piece of crap.
  5. jlug
    Mar 22, 2017
    0
    After Inquisition the next disaster from Bioware.
    The key element of the Mass Effect series is linear gameplay with focus on story, companions, engaging quests and cinematics and NOT on exploration and open worlds!
  6. shlammer
    Mar 22, 2017
    3
    + Pretty colors! Shiny things!
    +/- This game may 'work' for you, or you may feel like you are working for it.
    +/- Mild excitement, like playing with a new toy, until it breaks. - Petty industry BS resorts to a 'divide and conquer' mentality for publicity, insulting the end user. Thankfully, for multi-billion dollar monsters such as EA, people with skills can be bought and sold and    + Pretty colors! Shiny things!
    +/- This game may 'work' for you, or you may feel like you are working for it.
    +/- Mild excitement, like playing with a new toy, until it breaks.
    - Petty industry BS resorts to a 'divide and conquer' mentality for publicity, insulting the end user.

    Thankfully, for multi-billion dollar monsters such as EA, people with skills can be bought and sold and put to work for whatever the corporate design demands, in order to influence the masses away from being effective.

    The real-world wonder and discovery of extra-terrestrial life and technology is, most likely, filtered and manipulated by government and the aptly named "elite". In which case, Mass Effect: Andromeda does a great job as it mirrors the constant watering-down of our potential, for temporary monetary gain.

    The question remains, why do key elements suffer on a $40 million blockbuster???
    Wise consumers see through the hype and cheap tricks, sooner or later.    … Expand
  7. LeoEspada
    Mar 22, 2017
    9
    Hi! Come on up here sit next to me *points to chair* I see you made it past the troll fields, and cynical castles. Good. Let's real talk for a moment.

    Mass Effect Andromeda is a very good Mass Effect game. It is more akin to Mass Effect 1 with its rover exploration but sans the boring hours of just rolling over cliffs and rocks. In fact the rolling open world exploration actually has    Hi! Come on up here sit next to me *points to chair* I see you made it past the troll fields, and cynical castles. Good. Let's real talk for a moment.

    Mass Effect Andromeda is a very good Mass Effect game. It is more akin to Mass Effect 1 with its rover exploration but sans the boring hours of just rolling over cliffs and rocks. In fact the rolling open world exploration actually has purpose and sense, you're job as Pathfinder is to overcome multiple obstacles to deploy an outpost on a planet. Dispose of a band of Kett, activate an atmospheric filter, deploy a station there and before you know it you'll see a living colony appear on this previously alien and barren planet.

    Like Mass Effect 1, there is a constant suspicion this is leading to something bigger but you wouldn't know it in the opening 10 hours. There is minor build up in plot, instead there is heavy exposition and explanations for what the Andromeda Initiative is. Further, there is a ton of new character introductions that slow the pace down. However, Mass Effect 1 was in its day a near perfect game, brilliant in so many aspects especially the middle to end game. So why the Andromeda hate?

    Completely unfounded.

    Yes SOME facial animations are bad (especially Standard FemShep and Director Addison holy moly those are bad). However its not game breaking, watch the scenes and move on. There are also some goofy sequences that seem unpolished and rough but again not game breaking just a little jarring. These are far and few between. And highly overshadowed by Andromeda's much improved combat. Grenades, biotics, bullets, energy beams, everything sizzles and just comes to life in a smooth and visceral way. It is by far the best executed ME combat ever done, which is far more important than a perfect digital smile.

    Art design, solar system layouts, costumes, aliens, are just GORGEOUS to behold. As far as the writing goes, I am not sure where the complaint comes from with this. Its just like every other Mass Effect game, except I like most of the companion AIs and love interacting with them. There are several laugh out loud moments, not tongue in cheek, I mean HARR HARR out loud soda coming out of my nose moments, which is rare for a game.

    Is it perfect? No. Does it feel like an amazing first chapter? Absolutely! If you liked Mass Effect this is a must purchase, and if you love listening to trolls that repeat the same thing the last guy said and rate 0 then don't check this out. However if you have any inkling towards action rpgs, a good sci fi game, superb combat, and gorgeous landscapes/visuals, then don't hesitate to try ME: Andromeda!    … Expand
  8. JackyRocks
    Mar 22, 2017
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Honestly this game is just weird in too many ways. Bioware claimed they learned from the complaints about DA:I yet they included more fetch and go there quests than ever. Now if this is your thing, you can probably look at it as a positive because there are really loads of them, dozens upon dozens. Yet in the age of Witcher 3 in which even the smallest quest had a good story and often times good and satisfying mechanics this is just outdated and this style of MMO quests is what a lot of people complained about with DA:I so:

    - loads of fetch quests
    + loads of fetch quests

    Weirdly enough the game looks very much worse in many ways than DA:I, especially when it comes to facial animations, environment, movement etc. It also performs much less well even though EA has loads of experience with the Frostbite Engine (DA:I, FIFA 17) and all those games look quite good and perform very well even on low end systems. On the flipside, if you do have a really good system this game can and will look absolutely stunning HOWEVER most people simply don't own a system like that and it is inconceiveable to me why a game that uses an engine that generally performs well on PS4 and XBOX One as well as older systems all the while giving you really nice graphics suddenly is so bad on the technical side (animations, loads of glitching and even some getting stuck, massive frame drops)

    - a lot of technical issues which seriously impact the whole game experience
    + can look stunning if you can afford a system priced around 4.000 Euro

    A major problem, also to some degree criticised in DA:I is the very immature and corny writing. A lot of the dialogue is aimed at people aged 21 and younger, Loads of superficial babbling about nothing at all and just in general very much below the Bioware Standard of even DA:I. They also abolished the Renegade and Paragon system in dialogues and replaced it with professional, optimistic, realistic and funny comments from which to pick. Unfortunately they just trashed the original system and did not actually replace it with anything. Most of your choices will still lead to the same outcome. I had that happen several times. Yes you are given the chance to respond in the tone you want but you won't be able to say no or yes if the quests demands you accept or refuse. Also noticeable is that in a lot of dialogues with teammates and others you are limited to realistic or optimistic approaches. One example would be a discussion with a crewmember about her faith. You can either say: yes I also believe in a higher power or absolutely rebuke her and say: nah there is nothing like that. It feels forced and really rude especially given that: I don't know but I keep an open mind on all possibilities or I do not believe in a higher power, but I won't look down on you for believing would be viable options here that a normal human being might choose. The real problem is though that unlike Paragon or Renegade your Ryder doesn't actually form a personality which leads to different answers or a different general behaviour. You can answer professional all the time but your character will still act quirky and youthish which simply means that you can not really form him or her. Furthermore a lot of the voice acting is just plain bad. Not in low quality or what not but a lot of the voice actors simply sound bored and are just rattling off text.

    - corny and bad writing
    - limited choices in dialogues
    - bad voice acting on a lot of important characters
    - no personality system

    The companions aren't bad. If you are looking for a new Garrus or Wrex/Grunt or Tali or even a new Joker... no luck here. Like I said they aren't bad but this is a serious step down from DA:I especially given that Freddie Prince Jr. absolutely killed it as Bull. He was incredibly good and so were the guys who did Dorian, Varric and the gals who did Sera and Cassandra... there is nothing of that quality here.

    - mediocre companions

    A lot of core mechanics are just plain bad and or boring. The User Interface (to assign skills, research, find your journal etc.) is unorganized and a mess even for a console optimized UI. It's hard to find stuff, to organize or to even remember where stuff was. The scanning mechanic is very tedious and boring after a while and is basically just some padding to hide the fact that you are on yet another fetch quest. You can not check your mails via your omnitool, you always have to get back to your ship which not only means entering the ship but also means taking off with it and watching an unskippable cutscene. Planetmining is back and it is as boring as in ME2 and gets more tedious by the fact that every time you want to check a planet it zooms in too far as a graphic effect and then zooms out again, every time.

    - the core mechanics of the game are flawed

    I would advise waiting for the game to drop to maybe 20 Euro/Dollar before buying it, it's simply not worth 60 bucks.    … Expand
  9. angrymax
    Mar 22, 2017
    1
    This is not Mass Effect, this is crap! I got stuck in a wall, TWICE, and so does the NPC. The control is horrible, and there is no story.

    Trying to refund my ps4 copy now!
  10. 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
  11. Exterium
    Mar 22, 2017
    10
    Yeah... so... I know the meme is cool and all that but... do you all know (the people reading this, and not the douches writing reviews) that all those negative reviews are based on the meme, and, at best, the 10 hour demo origin access offers right?

    I mean, yeah, you can trashtalk animations, they are bad (facial animations, I don't have any problem with body animations, and I have yet    Yeah... so... I know the meme is cool and all that but... do you all know (the people reading this, and not the douches writing reviews) that all those negative reviews are based on the meme, and, at best, the 10 hour demo origin access offers right?

    I mean, yeah, you can trashtalk animations, they are bad (facial animations, I don't have any problem with body animations, and I have yet to encounter one of those gamebraking bugs seen on gifs), but to trashtalk the story, based on a 10 hour demo...

    Also, I don't know if people has bad memory or something, I replayed all 3 mass effect on february, and the AI of the companions... well... you can send them to a position... make them use a skill... and that's pretty much it, yeah, just like andromeda.

    The nostalgia pink glasses are SO strong with this game, replay the old mass effects, and, aside of the facial animations (again, they are atrocious in andromeda), there's a lot of aspects that people seems to have forgoten, or they just don't remmember how they were made in other Mass Effects.

    The one thing that I hate, is the feminist agenda, that's laughable, every single girl on the game is a "normal girl" a.k.a absolutely horrible so feminist don't get triggered. Beyond that, you can;t even make a white character in the game besides the default one.

    Gameplay wise, is miles ahead of the rest.

    Giving a 10 to compensate the nonsense 0 reviews, I'd give it a 7 or 8.    … Expand
  12. Amadeo220
    Mar 22, 2017
    10
    About 10 hours in. Game is pretty great. Writing is on par with the rest of the series. Some odd VO delivery and lip sync issues every now and then. The animations are not top notch but certainly not the end of the world others are treating it as (it is comparable to the rest of the series, which is all any fan really wants at the end of the day). I did not mess with the character creatorAbout 10 hours in. Game is pretty great. Writing is on par with the rest of the series. Some odd VO delivery and lip sync issues every now and then. The animations are not top notch but certainly not the end of the world others are treating it as (it is comparable to the rest of the series, which is all any fan really wants at the end of the day). I did not mess with the character creator so can't comment on that, as the series has a habit of animating the default characters better.
    Combat is massively improved and much more engaging despite losing some of the tactical nature of previous entries.
    World design is superb.
    I'm loving scanning all the things for lore.
    As always, their alien design is top notch and the new entries are just as breathtaking as our old favorites.
    I would give it 8, but will be leaving a 10 because a glance at the bad user reviews shows the Gamergate wackjobs are out in force against Bioware (par for the course).    … Expand
  13. cz
    Mar 22, 2017
    9
    I've seen the issues in the beta preview and I agree, it still needs some work. Then again, you play this game for the story, the artwork and for the world you've spent hours in the past 3 games. At least, I do.
    Come on, all the issues that were mentioned can be easily fixed in an update. Don't kill the game before it is officially released.
    I think it's a great game so far and can;t    I've seen the issues in the beta preview and I agree, it still needs some work. Then again, you play this game for the story, the artwork and for the world you've spent hours in the past 3 games. At least, I do.
    Come on, all the issues that were mentioned can be easily fixed in an update. Don't kill the game before it is officially released.
    I think it's a great game so far and can;t wait to play it in full tomorrow.    … Expand
  14. Redcon605
    Mar 22, 2017
    1
    Ugh.. If you can get past the first 2 hours running around.. lost.. boring... then this game is for you. O wait then you get on a ship and need to talk to every fing thing alive. While running around. I feel like Tom Hanks in Forest Gump.
  15. hphakosodl
    Mar 22, 2017
    10
    Sad, for 2 years witcher bots grew up a little and **** the internet with new strength, sending reviews without playing, witcher 3 may be good in some moments, but no compare to ME:A, wake up kids.
  16. GuerrerosdelPc
    Mar 22, 2017
    6
    Hi,first I have ME Trilogy and I dislike,That : animations fos this specs lack work, more when I played many time in conversations that's annyoning. My partners,I can't customize and I can't do it combined attacks. The menus to works may be can confused.The multi player The multiplayer are poor performance.I like the combat mode are fine except bugs in animations.The story don't wantHi,first I have ME Trilogy and I dislike,That : animations fos this specs lack work, more when I played many time in conversations that's annyoning. My partners,I can't customize and I can't do it combined attacks. The menus to works may be can confused.The multi player The multiplayer are poor performance.I like the combat mode are fine except bugs in animations.The story don't want sympathy with player. My score 6/10 for Bioware ,they run for launch without finished job.Sad… Expand
  17. 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
  18. 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.
  19. KaniNa
    Mar 22, 2017
    0
    I did not want to believe the stories that were floating around the interweb, but alas, I'm a victim of my optimism toward an EA run Bioware. . .I get what I deserve. As it is, the death-touch of EA claims Bioware, for good this time. This game is an absolute bloody mess from the start. Poor animation, laughable dialogue, the same tired combat system(Oh look, in all the years of theI did not want to believe the stories that were floating around the interweb, but alas, I'm a victim of my optimism toward an EA run Bioware. . .I get what I deserve. As it is, the death-touch of EA claims Bioware, for good this time. This game is an absolute bloody mess from the start. Poor animation, laughable dialogue, the same tired combat system(Oh look, in all the years of the same combat, we now have bloody jump jets, haha-hehe), and a story that would make Ed Wood beam with pride. This is the very essence of a B-Movie turned into a game, and it's not funny.

    :sigh: Do yourselves a favor, watch the gameplay vids before you buy this "game." This is one of those games where you want spoilers.    … Expand
  20. Korisana
    Mar 22, 2017
    10
    An admirable addition to the Mass Effect universe. A mistake many are making is considering this story as Mass Effect 4; it isn't. The game emphasizes exploration and story and does both very well. The combat is fast paced and harder than in ME 1-3. There is a heavy emphasis on making Ryder YOUR character. Instead of the black and white (or rather, red and Blue) Paragon/Renegade choicesAn admirable addition to the Mass Effect universe. A mistake many are making is considering this story as Mass Effect 4; it isn't. The game emphasizes exploration and story and does both very well. The combat is fast paced and harder than in ME 1-3. There is a heavy emphasis on making Ryder YOUR character. Instead of the black and white (or rather, red and Blue) Paragon/Renegade choices from the first three games, your dialog choices are based on response type, e.g. snarky, professional, etc and are more grey. This allows you to decide how YOUR Ryder acts in a given situation. The writing isn't on par with Mass Effect 2 by any stretch, and let's face it, Mac Walters is a decent writer but can't compare to Drew Karpyshyn. Still, the story makes sense and fits the theme of the game and the individual character developments are well-done. There are, however, some characters that don't sound right. Director Tann is voice by Kumail Nanjiani who was very good in Silicon Valley. His voice just did not fit as a Salarian. There are others but overall the acting and writing is done fairly well.

    People complain about the animations and while there are some noticeable animation failures, Andromeda still has much better animations than any of the previous games.

    Ultimately, this game is focused on exploration of both a new Galaxy and new characters. It does both well, though there is room for improvement. The game is worth playing, very much so,    … Expand
  21. elrofrost
    Mar 22, 2017
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Ok, just a short note. this game is not a 2, But it's not a 10 either. I'd say 6 or 7 depending on how BW responds to fixing the bugs..

    The story is comparable to the usual Hollywood blockbuster crap disaster film we see every summer. So don't expect serious drama. But it does have it's moments. Some touching. And some funny.

    The game is beautiful. The planets, space, your ship - just beautiful. The human NPC, are not. Sadly, BW seemed to focus on the aliens and not humans.

    I'm not gonna go over the animation issue - that's been hashed out everywhere. But I will say this: do not play the default female character - Sara. She's just bad. If you want to play default, choose the brother, Scott. He's much better. Or run your own.

    There other issues, none of them game breaking. But some are just damn annoying . like no Quick Save.

    The romances are meh. If you want to play a gay character (male) good luck. There are two and both are crap. The best I've hear so far are lesbian and straight Ryder (of course). BW took a step back in this regard. If you played DAI, you'll remember Dorian. One of the best and beloved characters from that game. Do not expect any characters like that in this game. The companions can not compare to any previous ME game. They aren't bad. But they just can't compare.

    There's in no Garrus, or Kaidan, or Wrex in this game. BW tries, but like I said, it mostly falls flat.

    The combat is fun. And if you've never played ME before you probably won't be too upset about the characters. But if you have, you will miss the older characters.

    Maybe as i play more they will get flushed out    … Expand
  22. Allmass
    Mar 22, 2017
    1
    Bioware is dead, time to admit it. All last members of senior creative staff left early 2016, and this abortion of a game was made by interns and students.

    - zero creativity and reused story concepts: remnants/protheans studied by Liara/PB, badass krogan Wrex/Drack, evil antagonist Saren/Archon, generic evil cannon fodder geth/kett and so on - writing looks like it was done by 15 year    Bioware is dead, time to admit it. All last members of senior creative staff left early 2016, and this abortion of a game was made by interns and students.

    - zero creativity and reused story concepts: remnants/protheans studied by Liara/PB, badass krogan Wrex/Drack, evil antagonist Saren/Archon, generic evil cannon fodder geth/kett and so on
    - writing looks like it was done by 15 year old fangirl, and is downright retarded in some places
    - mindnumblingly boring and repetitive open world activities look like they were ripped from generic ubisoft game
    - do I even need to beat a dead horse of horrible facial animations and Sara's atrocious face? Holy **** I honestly feel bad for Jayde Rossi

    EA just decided to cash in on diehard fans of a dead franchise before the end of 2016 fiscal year and call it a day.
    Bioware will be dissolved shortly after they push couple of crappy DLCs for this monstrosity.
    Fifth fleet out.    … Expand
  23. ilovegames15
    Mar 22, 2017
    0
    absolutely bad animatiion, can't play a game like that, pls do something better next time bioware. I already sold my game it was disappointing. !!!!!!!
  24. ihavacoolname
    Mar 22, 2017
    6
    I started playing at launch, and I was bored within 30 minutes of character creation.

    I was disappointed 28 minutes before that. The writing is bad. I will break the game's pros and cons down so that you can get a feel for it and for the lens that I'm using to make my statements about this game, but that's the short version of why this game is borderline unplayable. Here is the    I started playing at launch, and I was bored within 30 minutes of character creation.

    I was disappointed 28 minutes before that.

    The writing is bad. I will break the game's pros and cons down so that you can get a feel for it and for the lens that I'm using to make my statements about this game, but that's the short version of why this game is borderline unplayable.

    Here is the long version, starting with the writing's issues.

    There are too few pieces to the plot and too little depth to those pieces, so the game doesn't impart any particular feeling of grandiosity or mystery. This is partly because of how the game paces its reveal of the plot elements, giving too much away and expecting the player to immerse themself with minimal assistance from the game. This is to say that immersion feels more like an exercise in role-playing than a rewarding dive into an living narrative.

    In other Mass Effect games, the rich and varied perspectives that characters shared with you engage you emotionally and get you thinking about what is happening in the game for reasons other than your first-hand experience of the story. You had a character interaction for its own sake; you gained an incisive perspective on the narrative as a side effect, which gave your enjoyment of the game new layers. In this game, however, there isn't a single character that a reasonable person above the age of fifteen would find compelling. Without exaggerating, I can say that they all come across as unintelligent and, in some cases, affected to the point that they are not believable as characters. This includes the protagonist, Ryder.

    That is the main issue with the game. Everything that follows could have been overlooked if the writing was good. I'll even say some nice things below; almost tragically, there are a lot of good things about this game that hardly matter because of the writing and the pointless mess of a UI. These things are so good that, if the UI were good, too, I would play this game for the action and non-story RPG elements.

    Alright. You have probably heard that the game's facial animation is bad. It's true; the animation is worse than it was in the first Mass Effect. The conversations are about halfway between interactive movie and visual novel because of it. As you might guess based on that, facial animations often sync up especially poorly with player-designed faces. This effectively limits your options for appearance-customization. That's nothing new to Mass Effect, but if, like me, you are profoundly unimpressed with the default appearances for Ryder, you're not going to be satisfied with how your character looks at any time that you can see their face.

    When the face is out of view, safely enshrouded in the 'helmet always on' setting or whatever your solution is, the armor's pretty good. In fact, the game is visually stunning overall if you can disregard its hitches. On my high-end build, the only graphical issues I have are choppy cuts between shots and a strangely flat look to the world, the latter of which I am now realizing is partly a projection of my lack of desire to move forward in this game's 3D space.

    For others, the game has serious performance issues that I won't go into here. Just sniff around for a few minutes; you'll find them, especially for console (even though you're in the wrong review section for that, you hasty clicker you).

    Combat is decent for three main reasons. The first is the graphics, the second is Ryder's maneuverability, which includes vertical movement, and the third is Ryder's leveling and ability progression. You don't select a class; you choose from all of the game's available powers when spending points gained from level-up. This means that you can approach combat the way that you want; Ryder almost feels like he/she is yours in combat because of just how much you can personalize your combat style. Almost every time you use your powers looks and feels special because of the graphical quality and the ways that enemies are affected by your attacks; those animations and effects are interesting and believable. Together with fairly good hitboxes, this means that intense observation of and adjustment to your enemy mid-firefight is more rewarding. Knowing that paying attention to the details in the beautiful graphics yields rewards in gameplay enhances my enjoyment both in combat and in exploration.

    If you want to know about exploration and side quests, just look up Dragon Age: Inquisition. Essentially, side-quests are too random to care about and exploration is too time-consuming to be worth it, even though you gather resources for weapons and armor by exploring. The successful integration of the side content into the game only injects dead periods into the already questionably paced main story.

    BioWare, if you've suffered through this, just get your gameplay elements into a tighter flow and smack whomever was in charge of your writers' direction. By the way, 5k.    … Expand
  25. phillyguy
    Mar 22, 2017
    0
    I'm not sure what I just experienced. The writing seems like it came out of a fanfic competition. The characters were either annoying or bland. Do you like to scan things? You get to scan all the things. Would you like to scan some more things?

    Hey, at least you get to cover up your character's stroke mangled face with a helmet while you scan. The writing was so bad that I was    I'm not sure what I just experienced. The writing seems like it came out of a fanfic competition. The characters were either annoying or bland. Do you like to scan things? You get to scan all the things. Would you like to scan some more things?

    Hey, at least you get to cover up your character's stroke mangled face with a helmet while you scan.

    The writing was so bad that I was laughing half the time at the unintended humor. Once the dialogue makes you really cringe you can always go scan something. I thought the DA: Inquisition dialogue was shallow and plastic, but they managed to make things worse.

    The voice acting was milquetoast, but I really can't blame the actors considering the content they had to work with.

    On the plus side, it installed without destroying my hard drive and only ctd's once or twice.    … Expand
  26. rustyfeeder
    Mar 22, 2017
    3
    I never understood people liking Mass Effect series. I've always seen it as talkie-talkie-shotie-shotie-bangie-bangie experience. You know like a B-movie you watch eating popcorn on the couch when there's nothing better to watch. You finish the game and forget about it the next day. With linear boring story, shallow RPG elements, corridor based shooting gameplay and clichés all around II never understood people liking Mass Effect series. I've always seen it as talkie-talkie-shotie-shotie-bangie-bangie experience. You know like a B-movie you watch eating popcorn on the couch when there's nothing better to watch. You finish the game and forget about it the next day. With linear boring story, shallow RPG elements, corridor based shooting gameplay and clichés all around I consider this series one of the most overrated in video game history. Mass Effect Andromeda is no exception.… Expand
  27. tomasfran
    Mar 22, 2017
    9
    I love the game, i like graphics, ost, i find it very funny and deep, dialogues are fine, animations are not the best but doesnt make it unplayable, i find this better than expected after read reviews
  28. BPoole
    Mar 22, 2017
    1
    Dragon Age: Inquisition 2.0, now with space travel!

    Such bad animations

    Really poor dialog

    Lots of fetch quests, without meaningful choices & consequences.

    AI gets in the way. How did AI get this bad?

    Only good thing from the game is the feel of the combat.
  29. PhilGPT
    Mar 22, 2017
    1
    This has got to be the most shallowest game I've ever played. It's even shallower than Dragon Age: Inquisition. There is just a lot of lack of content on the worlds you explore, the animations are poor, the story doesn't feel right.

    This is a AAA game? It feels more like a budget indie game. EA would do right if they get Bioware to just release dlcs for free and make up for this    This has got to be the most shallowest game I've ever played. It's even shallower than Dragon Age: Inquisition. There is just a lot of lack of content on the worlds you explore, the animations are poor, the story doesn't feel right.

    This is a AAA game? It feels more like a budget indie game. EA would do right if they get Bioware to just release dlcs for free and make up for this mistake.

    I think I'm done buying games from Bioware/EA. I'll just have to look around and find another AAA dev who can make better RPG games.    … Expand
  30. Suplexer
    Mar 22, 2017
    1
    Absolutely terrible game. Terrible writing, terrible animations, terrible dialog, buggy AI, Multi-Player uses P2P instead of Dedicated Servers.

    DICE do a fine job with the Battlefield games on PC using Dedicated Servers, but EA allowed Bioware to use P2P? Shame on you EA, I pray that you will come to you're senses and have Bioware introduce Dedicated Servers and replace P2P and add a    Absolutely terrible game. Terrible writing, terrible animations, terrible dialog, buggy AI, Multi-Player uses P2P instead of Dedicated Servers.

    DICE do a fine job with the Battlefield games on PC using Dedicated Servers, but EA allowed Bioware to use P2P?

    Shame on you EA, I pray that you will come to you're senses and have Bioware introduce Dedicated Servers and replace P2P and add a server browser list for Mass Effect Andromeda on PC.    … 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

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.
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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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