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. pdaz
    Apr 15, 2017
    0
    I find it incomprehensible that anyone but a paid employee of Bioware gave this game more than 4/10. Personally I am giving it 0/10 because as far as a game goes the things it gets wrong are fundamentally indefensible.

    If you are the kind of gamer who plays and enjoys games like Mass Effect 1-3, this game will be an astonishing disappointment. If you believe a good RPG game of this    I find it incomprehensible that anyone but a paid employee of Bioware gave this game more than 4/10. Personally I am giving it 0/10 because as far as a game goes the things it gets wrong are fundamentally indefensible.

    If you are the kind of gamer who plays and enjoys games like Mass Effect 1-3, this game will be an astonishing disappointment. If you believe a good RPG game of this scale should have: good dialogue, good visual design and aesthetics, immersive atmosphere, a high level of polish, interesting plotlines, you will be sorely disappointed in Andromeda.

    As it stands this is the equivalent of a carnival shooting range, lots of things to shoot and lots of different backgrounds to shoot them in, but what is the point without good context? People play games like Andromeda to fantasize about living in the world of the game, to imagine being the protagonist, to feel truly immersed in the elaborate worlds these games build. This is literally impossible to achieve when your cross-eyed character constantly clips, when glitches happen frequently and completely shatter any suspension of disbelief you could build up. This game rapidly becomes a chore, the only person I can imagine enjoying this game is someone who has been in a coma for the last decade and this game was the first thing they played after waking up. Even then they'd become sorely dispirited after discovering that in ten years games had improved so little.

    But above all else Andromeda's greatest sin is it's scale. Considering that this game is so lacking in quality playing it would be a waste of time, the amount of hours one would sink in to beating this game could better be spent playing literally dozens of other far more immersive games. It is ironic that apologists for this game reference it's scale and scope as positives, which is like shouting about what a great deal an all you can eat buffet of diarrhoea.    … Expand
  2. TravisBickle01
    May 28, 2017
    4
    ME:A is a poor addition to the series. I've played the others many times but will stay with my ONE pass through this installment. A number of things are sub-par including:
    - weak, cliched, and utterly boring dialog
    - grotesque looking characters and CC choices - monotonous busywork quests (chores) - cheap, annoying Sudoku puzzles substituted for story and plot elements - forced    ME:A is a poor addition to the series. I've played the others many times but will stay with my ONE pass through this installment. A number of things are sub-par including:
    - weak, cliched, and utterly boring dialog
    - grotesque looking characters and CC choices
    - monotonous busywork quests (chores)
    - cheap, annoying Sudoku puzzles substituted for story and plot elements
    - forced repeat cut-scenes galore - you will spend more time watching the same cut-scenes, like your ship taking off and landing, than actually playing the game
    - dumbed-down combat, squad mechanics largely removed from the series
    - ridiculous looking new species with a main antagonist that looks simian and not scary

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Overall rating: Not recommended.    … Expand
  3. killrog_deadeye
    Apr 5, 2017
    0
    +4 large open worlds

    +2 when locations are found combat is fun -3 things in open worlds are too far apart +4 all lines are voiced -2 character animations need QA testing. should have not left alpha in this state -6 crash to desktop bugs are present in launch state game. -2 campaign progress hauting bugs are present in launch game. +6 multiplayer connects and has    +4 large open worlds

    +2 when locations are found combat is fun

    -3 things in open worlds are too far apart

    +4 all lines are voiced

    -2 character animations need QA testing. should have not left alpha in this state

    -6 crash to desktop bugs are present in launch state game.

    -2 campaign progress hauting bugs are present in launch game.

    +6 multiplayer connects and has matchmaking

    -4 multiplayer has crash to desktop in launch state

    -2 multiplayer d-sync is present in launch state.

    -2 multiplayer lag spikes disconnect entire party, no bandwidth fluctuation notifications.

    +4 crafting system combines resources gathered to improve combat system guns, armor and vehicle.

    +2 scan data ties into crafting system

    -2 crafting system only has 1 level of augments to modify blueprints.

    -2 research points require dedication to unlock all tiers of a single weapon or armor type. "lock in"
    effect of research requires save scumming to "test" other weapons or armors to not waste points.    … Expand
  4. Xiehu
    Apr 2, 2017
    1
    this game is such a disappointment.
    The game is boring and ugly.
    The story is so disengaging I did NOT want to know what would come next.
    Characters are flat and dull.
    Any choice you make is an illusion.
    Looks more like fan mode than 60 $ game.
    Stay away.
  5. TUmaDO
    Apr 22, 2017
    4
    I Am a hardcore fan of mass effect series ,and some parts of mass 2 and 3 left me in tears,it was a amazing experience!
    So i was so hyped about Andromeda , i could n´t even sleep right , as soon it was out i bought ,even knowing about all the terrible gifs and videos from the beta,and people saying it would get better after 10 hours...
    I finished about a week ago,my view of "the    I Am a hardcore fan of mass effect series ,and some parts of mass 2 and 3 left me in tears,it was a amazing experience!
    So i was so hyped about Andromeda , i could n´t even sleep right , as soon it was out i bought ,even knowing about all the terrible gifs and videos from the beta,and people saying it would get better after 10 hours...

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

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

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

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

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

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

    I slash a 4/10
    Don´t buy wait until they partially fix it (because its impossible to fully fix),and get it cheaper,the money they ask for the game is not even close to acceptable.    … Expand
  6. AberrantResolve
    Apr 21, 2017
    2
    The Mass Effect Trilogy is my favorite game series of all time, and this latest installment fails to measure up. I've been patiently waiting for nearly five years for it and it is a huge disappointment. Forget about the facial expressions, animations, menus, bugs, etc. I could live with those or wait for them to be patched. What they can't fix is the story and writing. It just isn'tThe Mass Effect Trilogy is my favorite game series of all time, and this latest installment fails to measure up. I've been patiently waiting for nearly five years for it and it is a huge disappointment. Forget about the facial expressions, animations, menus, bugs, etc. I could live with those or wait for them to be patched. What they can't fix is the story and writing. It just isn't engaging like the previous titles. Having spent about 40 hours grinding through this game the first few weeks, I have no desire to even finish it.… Expand
  7. rkraiem100
    May 4, 2017
    0
    This game does not exist.

    The mass effect series died a glorious (although controversial) death with the end of mass effect 3. Was it a good ending, eh if you go by the indoctrination theory i guess but it was good for what it was. THEN COMES ALONG MASS EFFECT ****ING ANDROMEDA TO RUIN THE GREATNESS OF THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY!!! While the original trilogy was known for its amazing story,    This game does not exist.

    The mass effect series died a glorious (although controversial) death with the end of mass effect 3. Was it a good ending, eh if you go by the indoctrination theory i guess but it was good for what it was. THEN COMES ALONG MASS EFFECT ****ING ANDROMEDA TO RUIN THE GREATNESS OF THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY!!! While the original trilogy was known for its amazing story, great writing, unforgettable squad mates, and more, Andromeda takes all that and throws it out the air lock.

    I think I now understand how star wars fans felt when the prequels came out cus this game is so ****ing terrible that if Bioware literally released a game where you play as Jar-Jar ****ing Binks and you just run around the citidel running errands, THAT would be a better game, in fact that would be such a good game by comparison I wouldnt even hesitate to give it game of the ****ing century when compared to this turd.

    Here are a list of complaints I personally have with the game:

    - The writing comes across as bad fan fiction AT BEST. All the characters are bland and boring, uninspired, etc. I've played indie games with a fraction of the budget that have better writing. When games like Hyperdimension Neptunia, a meta joke of a franchise literally with 1/1000th of the budget specifically made to make fun of the video game industry have better writing than your AAA multi-million dollar game, you know you ****ed up (and I'm not saying Neptunia is bad (its actually super underrated), I'm saying that its sad that such a tiny game has better writing than a game with some of the best writers in video games)

    - THERE IS SJW PANDERING EVERY 2 ****ING SECONDS!!! I WANTED TO ENJOY THIS GAME, I REALLY DID BUT THERE IS SO MUCH PANDERING I LITERALLY CANT PLAY IT WITHOUT PUKING!!! HOW THE FLYING **** DO U GO FROM GEMS LIKE MASS EFFECT 2 AND ARGUABLY 3 (except the ending), WITH SMART AND UNBIAS POLITICAL COMMENTARY, WHERE YOU DECIDE WHATS RIGHT, TO SOMETHING THAT IS SO BIAS AND PANDERING TO SJWS THAT ITS UNPLAYABLE??

    - THE GLITCHES!!! Keep in mind that i generally dont care if a game is buggy as long as its good. For example, Xcom 2 is broken on PC to this day but it is so fun I can look past the bugs and give it a 10/10. When the story is bad, the writing is bad, the game is boring, AND THEN U ADD ON A TON OF GLITCHES, thats when I care about glitches

    - THERE IS NOT A SINGLE INTERESTING CHARACTER IN THE ENTIRE GAME!!! FOR ****S SAKE KHALISAH AL-JILANI (The reporter that gets punched a lot from the original trilogy) HAD MORE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT THAN ANY CHARACTERS IN THIS ENTIRE ****ING GAME!!!

    - SQUADMATES ARE USELESS

    - SQUADMATES ARE BORING, ALSO PEEBEE HAS THE VERY DEFINITION OF A STEREOTYPICAL SJW VOICE!!! I WANTED TO ROMANCE HER BUT I CANT GET PAST HOW MUCH OF A ****ING PSYCOTIC SJW SHE SOUNDS LIKE... Ok fine Drax is a ok character but thats it. I WISH HE WAS IN THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY THO, A 1500 YEAR OLD KROGAN, HOW LEGEND!!!

    - EXPLORING IS BORING

    - THEY ****ED UP MULTIPLAYER, ME3 multiplayer was good, they ****ed up the balance and now its really really bad.

    - CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY THERE ARE LITERALLY ONLY 2 ALIENS IN THE ENTIRE GALAXY??

    - The game doesnt even respect its own lore let alone previously established lore. Pay attention while playing, soooo many inconsistencies. Also why the **** would they not bring omni-gel, this stuff literally heals any life threatening wound in seconds and works on most species yet you chose not to bring this amazing invention?

    - I couldnt care less about the bad guys

    - The menus are worse than vanilla skyrim

    - No paragon/renegade.

    - it does not feel like a mass effect game.

    - I CANT RUN THE GAME WITH MY GRAPHICS CARD OVERCLOCKED SINCE IT THINKS I REMOVED IT IF I RUN OVERCLOCK, IF THAT WERE THE CASE I WOULD GET A BLUE SCREEN.

    - I was hyped for 5 ****ing years for this turd. 5... *****ING... YEARS... This game is the most blatant cash grab I've ever seen

    - I would list more... but my face is tired

    Anyways. I will never, EVER, be buying a bioware game ever again. This is the worst game I've ever played NO QUESTIONS ASKED, and no i'm not exaggerating. Now if you will excuse me I'm going to go play big rigs since that is a FAR superior game    … Expand
  8. ShiverinEskimo
    Apr 18, 2017
    4
    Huge fan of the first trilogy which I replayed prior to release to get back in the groove. Probably the worst thing I could have done in hindsight as it only highlighted even more the fall from grace that Bioware have achieved with Andromeda. In the first hour you'll experience the tedium that stays with you for the rest of your experience. The breadcrumb-style fetch quests and totalHuge fan of the first trilogy which I replayed prior to release to get back in the groove. Probably the worst thing I could have done in hindsight as it only highlighted even more the fall from grace that Bioware have achieved with Andromeda. In the first hour you'll experience the tedium that stays with you for the rest of your experience. The breadcrumb-style fetch quests and total over-reliance on scanning ends up turning everything you do into such a chore to the point where even Ryder themselves makes frequent comments about the fact that 'nothing is ever simple'. When loading times and travel times between zones and planets are this long and you're on stage 4 of a 5 or 6 stage fetch quest between planets you start to get pretty frustrated pretty fast. Navpoint after navpoint for simple, non-consequential quests become infuriating and the rewards for completing these quests are minimal.

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

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

    Overall a huge disappointment that failed in the writing room long before the artists and designers got to work. Bugs can be patched but there's nothing they can do about childish writing, hammy dialogue and soul-less breadcrumb quests. Swing and a miss from Bioware.    … Expand
  9. dukaduka12
    Apr 25, 2017
    3
    I was so hyped for this game a year ago, now because of that my disappointment is even greater.
    I couldn't believe that was even possible for a Bio-ware game, such an amazing studio once, to fall in every aspect of this game so deep that it looks like it was made ten years ago by some indie studio.
    Now i tried to play this game, even made like half way through and it wasn't the    I was so hyped for this game a year ago, now because of that my disappointment is even greater.
    I couldn't believe that was even possible for a Bio-ware game, such an amazing studio once, to fall in every aspect of this game so deep that it looks like it was made ten years ago by some indie studio.

    Now i tried to play this game, even made like half way through and it wasn't the horrible animations or the terrible looking characters that were the worst part of it. Oh no. The writing and the voice acting in this game are absolutely the worst i have seen in a triple AAA game in my life. And I've been playing games for 20 years now almost.

    The writing is so bad, uninteresting, boring, stupid, the stuff that's coming out of their mouth looks like it was written by a 13 year old, and combined with hideous voice acting makes the whole game looking like a joke, like couple of kids went to space to have fun.
    Characters laughing in death threatening situations, making stupid jokes all the time, saying sentences that would never be used in real life by humans, main character with a voice actor so bad, that it's a chore to play. There is basically no any kind of emotion shown by any of the characters, the whole thing looks terrible.

    Graphics are nothing special, combat is interesting but far less then previous Mass Effect games in my opinion, personally i didn't like the new automatic cover system but that's subjective.

    The whole exploration thing just doesn't suite to a Mass Effect game. Quests are boring and annoying most of them is just killing enemies and fetching some thing over and over and over again.
    The interface options, weapon crafting and menus in general are a complete mess. Map is also bad looks really poor.
    Every aspect and game component of this game is so downgraded and so bad, except maybe the combat, that i think it deserves the user rating it received.    … Expand
  10. Winterpsy
    Sep 7, 2017
    4
    Animations, voice acting and facial graphics would had been good 10 years ago. Sadly, Mass Effect cannot compete with today's most popular games. Even more, new games released in the past couple years raised the expectation so much it hurts to look at Andromeda. Feels like playing with an old-timer game.
    UI: Menus are a maze, no minimap, or quick access to the map. You get a new codex /    Animations, voice acting and facial graphics would had been good 10 years ago. Sadly, Mass Effect cannot compete with today's most popular games. Even more, new games released in the past couple years raised the expectation so much it hurts to look at Andromeda. Feels like playing with an old-timer game.
    UI: Menus are a maze, no minimap, or quick access to the map. You get a new codex / journal entry every second, so it's very easy to get lost in what's going on.

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

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

    Cover-system is very unreliable and clunky.    … Expand
  11. DarknesShade
    Aug 30, 2017
    10
    Amazing Story, Amazing Characters, Amazing Gameplay and Amazing Soundtrack
    why people choose this game to hate on? i have no idea, the graphics? really? is so weird seeing people dissing the graphics, they are fine! and bugs on launch day? like with most games?
    the only negative thing in this entire game will be the lack of DLC
  12. Merithyn
    Apr 17, 2017
    5
    Music: What happened? Composer change? They supposedly (as they put it) "modernized" already established music from the original trilogy. But in reality If you ask me they cut the good parts out and what was left is pitiful.

    Combat: Great actually. Exploring space: Please no more zooming in and zooming out. I got a headache after 3 planets! And guess what it cannot be skipped.    Music: What happened? Composer change? They supposedly (as they put it) "modernized" already established music from the original trilogy. But in reality If you ask me they cut the good parts out and what was left is pitiful.

    Combat: Great actually.

    Exploring space: Please no more zooming in and zooming out. I got a headache after 3 planets! And guess what it cannot be skipped.

    Story: There is a ton of MMO style side quest which make playing the game feel like a chore. The main story is not actually that bad but could be much, much better. Weak start, weak middle and then at the end there is a ton of action, revelations, emotions and dialogues all packed into maybe 2 hours?
    As it is the epilogue just painfully points out all the lacking things leading to it.

    Dialogues: Didn't feel like there was any choices at all. And jokes... so many jokes. Why put in so many jokes in the space opera? It felt dumbed down. If the target audience is young children I understand otherwise...    … Expand
  13. HeadyWook
    Aug 27, 2017
    6
    Finally got around to playing it. It was fun but it got pretty boring after the initial 2-3 planet terraforming completions. It was an entertaining game while the moment lasted but I wasn't even inspired enough to finish the main story line.
  14. Hirdannen
    Apr 9, 2017
    7
    This second review is based upon completion of the Game on a lower-end PC. It includes some of the modifications from patch 1.05. I sold my PS4 game, bought at discount the PC version in English. I played the PS4 version in french, where voiceover was just tragical... In English it's slightly better. Game is more playable thanks to the controls. On a Asus G75VW with a GTX660M, MEA runsThis second review is based upon completion of the Game on a lower-end PC. It includes some of the modifications from patch 1.05. I sold my PS4 game, bought at discount the PC version in English. I played the PS4 version in french, where voiceover was just tragical... In English it's slightly better. Game is more playable thanks to the controls. On a Asus G75VW with a GTX660M, MEA runs fairly well I must say and I'm astonished to see very few difference with the PS4 version in terms of graphics. Facial animation is equal to my graphic quality, so i'm less shocked by it now.

    Mass Effect Andromeda has shocked upon its release because it couldn't be compared to older brothers ME2 & ME3. And it is the case, if you remove the Mass Effect Unvierse, it has very few similarities with its ancestors. However, it is still a game worth of your time if you like Science-Fiction or Action-TPS. And if you really like Mass Effect, it is still a pleasing experience given time.

    My first review on PS4 was based on the beginning of the game which was poorly written. Also I had much more trouble playing MEA with a gamepad than with the keyboard + mouse. Some of the defaults I pointed out are still there, but you can adapt to most of them.

    Characters don't start as intereseting but their interactions and loyalty sidequests make them more interesting with time. The interactions between your companions in the Nomad Buggy are better than the rest, and some puns are actually funny. I began to interest myself in them because of these moments. Also in the end of the game, they become useful despite their poor AI (the Krogan ressurects itself, Cora regenerates your shield constantly, that kind of things...).

    The planets are bigger once you've "unlocked" them and in the latter game. I find the first 3 planets to be boring compared to the last ones, which is why I found exploration to be useless at first. But you will spend a lot of time in your buggy just rolling around, mining and fighting to get some loot. There is a lot of little sidequests everywhere which feel exactly like ME1, but with a lot more content.

    Crafting is difficult to understand at first and very costly in terms of materials, which makes experimentation very difficult. It's very easy to make a completely useless weapon with this system. However when you know what you do, you can make some weird but enjoyable weapon combinations (a continuous laser blaster whose ammunitions bounce everywhere, a sniper rifle transformed in some sorts of overpowered cluster grenade launcher or a rifle which uses your health to fire without ammunition or reloading) which make it worthwhile to scout the galaxy in search of precious materials.

    Combat favorites are unintuitive when you come from ME2 and ME3. You can really enjoy them when you've got a lot of experience points to spare to make builds for each type of encounter. For example my Ryder is a Adept/Engineer with pure biotic builds, sentinel builds and engineer builds depending if I fight humans, robots or armored enemies.

    Game is still mostly buggy, but at least it never crashed on my pc. Bugs can be overlooked when it doesn't stop you from playing 11 hours straight.

    In the end, I raised the note to a 7, because I still enjoyed the game. The combat is the best part for sure, the universe and social interaction are less than ME2 or ME3 but still better than competition. And frankly I don't know many better sci-fi games than this one actually.    … Expand
  15. miraneitan
    Jun 20, 2017
    3
    I've only returned two games in my "Career" as a gamer. I've been playing space simulators and science fiction games since the atari, and I have to say, I'm actually impressed at how poorly executed this game was. I hate to throw rocks at game makers, as I know it's not an easy job, but come on. You're a multimillion dollar company, how about putting some of that into your product ratherI've only returned two games in my "Career" as a gamer. I've been playing space simulators and science fiction games since the atari, and I have to say, I'm actually impressed at how poorly executed this game was. I hate to throw rocks at game makers, as I know it's not an easy job, but come on. You're a multimillion dollar company, how about putting some of that into your product rather than advertising. Riding the wave of three previous best sellers should give you some umph behind your product.

    The Good:
    Gunplay is fast. Combat is simple, effective enough I suppose.
    Magicka style combos I guess?...weird.
    It runs well. Not the most beautiful thing out there, but its not bad for a bioware title

    The Bad:
    The writing reminds me of something I'd find in the Juvie Adult section of the book store. Ham fisted, over acted [voice actors/resses try...] and just plain BAD. The first mission was pretty much a long series of "Huh. I didn't expect THAT to happen. Not."
    The graphics feel like they belong on a X360, and I'm playing on high-ultra.
    The inventory menu has enough sub menus to start selling 5 dollar foot-longs. [Classic Mass Effect]
    Bugs? Second Cutscene I had on the first planet, there was a body stretched across the entire screen, even though the camera changed three times.

    It didn't hook me in the slightest. I played it for about eight hours and was still able to return it. Might return in a year or so when it drops to the bargain bin.    … Expand
  16. GullsFan
    Jul 15, 2017
    10
    I have played the campaign numerous times and enjoyed the content and story very much. I ignored all the negative press and played it and loved it! There are so many quests and missions and some of your crew are so well written ... notice I said some. I am an avid Mass Effect series fan this has to played as a separate story. If you go into it as a continuation than you will have somethingI have played the campaign numerous times and enjoyed the content and story very much. I ignored all the negative press and played it and loved it! There are so many quests and missions and some of your crew are so well written ... notice I said some. I am an avid Mass Effect series fan this has to played as a separate story. If you go into it as a continuation than you will have something to complain about. You shouldn't... but people do.… Expand
  17. VashTheStampede
    Aug 7, 2017
    10
    Fantastic game! First Mass Effect game for me and I loved it! Graphics are awesome, quests are deep and driven, characters are intriguing and unique, open space exploration is just phenomenal. Overall, awesome game takes you for a great ride! Would recommend to any gamer!
  18. Szandos
    Sep 11, 2017
    9
    Much better than I was lead to believe from the internet. The game has taken a huge bashing, which is not fair.

    I'm a huge fan of the Mass Effect series and I hope they continue with more games. It's not as good as ME2 or ME3, but still worth playing if you like the previous ones or Dragon Age: Inquisition. Actually, it is a lot like DA:I, but with more action in the fights. I do    Much better than I was lead to believe from the internet. The game has taken a huge bashing, which is not fair.

    I'm a huge fan of the Mass Effect series and I hope they continue with more games. It's not as good as ME2 or ME3, but still worth playing if you like the previous ones or Dragon Age: Inquisition. Actually, it is a lot like DA:I, but with more action in the fights.

    I do believe they would have been better off pruning a lot of the side missions and making a more Theme Park game like the previous ME games were instead of this "your quest log is full with a gazillion quests all over the place". It does make the game lose a lot of tempo and it is hard to keep focus on the main story.

    However, it is a beautiful game, the fighting is awesome and the companions are fun. Even if it's not the best in the seriies, it is still well worth getting and much much better than the critics on the internet might have lead you to believe.    … Expand
  19. Sitropy
    Jun 26, 2019
    10
    Waaaay underrated.

    I have played all mass effect games and Andromeda is a great game, with new characters and story.
    Give it a try, just don't expect Shepard.
  20. Vulf
    Mar 26, 2017
    1
    Bioware games until now have always made me care about my companions. And this game breaks it. Taking away the option to control their powers in combat is a stupid decision. WTF bioware. Why are they even in my squad when I cant even control them? All I can ask them to do is - go here, go there. The joy of working together with your companions to bring down an enemy was awesome in theBioware games until now have always made me care about my companions. And this game breaks it. Taking away the option to control their powers in combat is a stupid decision. WTF bioware. Why are they even in my squad when I cant even control them? All I can ask them to do is - go here, go there. The joy of working together with your companions to bring down an enemy was awesome in the trilogy. This game offers none of it. Wish I never pre-ordered it.… Expand
  21. Skyrant
    Mar 29, 2017
    4
    It is not the very limited character Editor, not the uncanny looks of the characters faces. it's not the amateur animations, not the horrible AI of your companions. It is not the many bugs or the repetitive and boring scanning mechanic.

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

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

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

    #BelowAverage #BargainBin #DonNotBuy    … Expand
  22. gimus
    Apr 22, 2017
    0
    Thanks to a bug (one of millions) I can not end the game and load it from last save point, I must play again from the beginning, frustrating! And no response from Origin or EA. Thank you, very big pitty of money. I love ME 1-3, but this is not mass effect, this is **** Be carefull on your wallets.
  23. Noalan
    Apr 1, 2017
    0
    As it stands now this game should not have been released. It's buggy and ugly. Bioware has promised to update it, I'll revisit this score after that happens. For now, do not buy, wait for a big price drop (Maybe even humble bundle), patches, and/or for the modding community to fix it.
  24. icedog
    Apr 21, 2017
    1
    I loved the other Mass Effect games in the series but this one has been poorly made .Story line has been done before and the fighting mechanics is slow and difficult . Graphic is average but there are odd times when your legs dont move but you are walking around .The game was should be properly fixed before releasing the game with all these bugs .
  25. ShaneHido
    Jun 11, 2017
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Andromeda is another reminder why not to pre-order games. I have lost all faith in Bioware after this title. Just such a shame, it could have been so great! The god-awful characters/dialogue/storyline make this a waste of time. The story was remarkably annoying and lets just say the wrong character dies at the start of the game.… Expand
  26. lokk
    May 5, 2017
    4
    Mass Effect Andromeda is not a bad game. It's good game with many good positive things, but it is not enough to be the awesome, great game like Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for example.

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

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

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

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

    As a ME fan i am really dissapointed in this game and wouldn't reccomend to buy it to someone.    … Expand
  27. Galarto
    Jul 11, 2017
    8
    I start playing the game after release of the 1.08 patch. Despite of many bad reviews from here, i was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the content. The experience of exploration is amazing with very good SF details, the graphics is high level and i love the main theme music. The storyline become solid only if your involvement is deeper, reading of the scrip from reports, emails orI start playing the game after release of the 1.08 patch. Despite of many bad reviews from here, i was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the content. The experience of exploration is amazing with very good SF details, the graphics is high level and i love the main theme music. The storyline become solid only if your involvement is deeper, reading of the scrip from reports, emails or codex is a part of RPG style. The gameplay is very exciting and entertaining. What i have to reproach, is the poor optimisation, low level of cast & crew, and some animations. This game is massive underrated, but i don't surprise me, especially when I see so many maincraft players.… Expand
  28. Tecco
    Apr 16, 2017
    4
    Why does everything have to be openworld nowadays, it just waters down everything.
    ME:A is no different.
    They spent so much time making "Open World" and so little making a what made the ME games truly special and lovable. We dont want a billion cubicmeters of coal Bioware! We want a flawless gem!, The size is irellevant!!! Quantity is worthless without quality. To be honest it feels    Why does everything have to be openworld nowadays, it just waters down everything.
    ME:A is no different.
    They spent so much time making "Open World" and so little making a what made the ME games truly special and lovable.
    We dont want a billion cubicmeters of coal Bioware! We want a flawless gem!, The size is irellevant!!!
    Quantity is worthless without quality.
    To be honest it feels like it is made by completely different people. People who dont understand the universe, and just dont really care.    … Expand
  29. Hitmanforrent
    Mar 30, 2017
    4
    It's pretty bad. The combat feels okay, but the story and characters are lifeless. The main character is painfully boring. Technical issues don't help the story.
  30. Deliverance91
    Apr 1, 2017
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Its like bioware is really trying hard to make their games **** on every iteration. Like inquisition, andromeda lacks soul. Its just an insane timesink, walking through emtpy worlds killing of enemies that will respawn 2 moments later. Companions are stereotypes and boring. No plottwists, no interesting stories to them. Main story line is just another version of biowares 'evil race comes from nowhere and mutates other races' as already seen with the darkspawn and the reapers. The combat is entertaining for some time but thats all this game has. Biowares trademark was in developing sophisticated characters and after this mess im inclined to say, they have lost the people who could create them.… 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.
    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]
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