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. jartb47
    Sep 15, 2018
    3
    I waited for EA to patch this thing and for the price to go down, didn't expect much.
    The general complaints about graphics and some other minor things have been done to death and don't need to be repeated. They really aren't that bad, nothing you can't live with.
    The story is hard to care about. Most of the time things happen that should be developed, but aren't. More like an outline of    I waited for EA to patch this thing and for the price to go down, didn't expect much.
    The general complaints about graphics and some other minor things have been done to death and don't need to be repeated. They really aren't that bad, nothing you can't live with.
    The story is hard to care about. Most of the time things happen that should be developed, but aren't. More like an outline of a story, no depth. But long and boring.
    At this date, 9/15/2018, the damn thing is STILL buggy and crashes multiple times a day. I'm about a third of the way (at most) thru this and will quit, which I hate to do. If I don't change my mind, I'll delete it.
    Anybody who pre-orders an EA game is just nuts.
    This one is not worth $20.    … Expand
  2. jayman419
    Dec 24, 2018
    3
    Some games you want to explore every nook and cranny inch by inch. They encourage you to scan every piece of lore, and to go looking for hidden quests and treasures. This game forces you do to all of this as the core gameplay, none of it is optional. And there's nothing of merit behind it to make it interesting.

    In order to unlock the story-quest dungeons you have to find glyphs hidden    Some games you want to explore every nook and cranny inch by inch. They encourage you to scan every piece of lore, and to go looking for hidden quests and treasures. This game forces you do to all of this as the core gameplay, none of it is optional. And there's nothing of merit behind it to make it interesting.

    In order to unlock the story-quest dungeons you have to find glyphs hidden behind the environment. You do this by activating your scanner (which slows your walking speed) and pointing it at every polygon in the area. They outsourced huge chunks of content to different teams, so there's no rhyme or reason to where these glyphs may be hidden. Once you find all of the glyphs in an area, you have to play sudoku with them to advance.

    The scanner is also how you uncover codex entries, this game's version of lore. If you walk very close to an object, it will vibrate your controller (if you're using one) to tell you to scan something nearby. Or you can slowly walk around with the scanner up looking at everything. You must do this to earn research points. You need research points to develop the blueprints for your armor and equipment.

    As you drive around the worlds, a thing will pop up on your screen and tell you that you can mine resources. You must drive back and forth very slowly, watching a little meter, until you can fire off a mining probe. Then you have to do it again until the region is fully exploited. You need to harvest these resources to build your blueprints.

    Every time you want to move around the map between planets, you have to leave and arrive three times, each one a different version of an unskippable cut scene.

    Say you're on Base X, and you have a quest to run and talk to someone on Planet Yawn. You dutifully walk to your ship. It asks if you want to leave, you say yes. You watch an unskippable cut scene of your ship leaving, that takes about 30 seconds. Then you see Base X in the close up view on the galaxy map.

    You back out of that to the system view. It shows you an unskippable cutscene of your view zooming out. Not like "woosh you're zoomed out now". Like "wooshsweermubububub", ten seconds of movement. Then you zoom out again (several more seconds of wooshing views) to the sector map and pick a new area.

    Then when you click the "let's gooo already" button, it zooms all the way back into the close-up view of the planet your at and shows a wooshing first person cinematic of zooming out all over again. Next is about ten seconds of seizure inducing "warp" travel (or whatever they call it, I couldn't be bothered with reading any of the lore) before you arrive at the next system.

    Then more wooshing and zooming when you arrive, before you get the new system view. Click and woosh zoom again and you can finally select the planet you want to go to. Then it takes you back to the maxed out system view and wooshes you back into the planet view.

    Except it doesn't just go to the planet. It zooms waaay into the planet, to mimic the image from the opening splash screen. Then zooms back out a little bit. Then you have to scan around the planet to find a landing spot, then you watch a cutscene of your ship flying down to the planet.

    Moving from one planet to another takes about three minutes, with maybe ten seconds of button pressing. Almost all of it waiting and watching these three separate attempts at leaving and arriving.

    Every. Single. Time.

    And there are a lot of quests that are just "Hey, you. Run and talk to this person and come back here real quick." And honestly, those are better than the actual quests.

    So many quests have no icons on the map. Find all of this certain type of thing, find these random hickeys at static camps, locate all of the computers, the usual filler that dozens of games manage to make somewhat interesting this game makes boring and vaguely irritating. Like a relative who won't take your hints about how little you want to hear their story.

    None of the boxes you can open are visible on the map until you buy an upgrade to your character later in the game. (And even then, only a few special chests show up.) And the worst part is that the containers can be any object in the game. That rock you didn't bother to walk up to and inspect? That was your boss reward treasure. That box-looking thing that had loot in it the last time you saw it? Not a box this time, it's in the potted plant.

    And the whole time your party members are telling you how awesome the whole experience is. Shouting encouragement to remind you that yes, this is the game and you are enjoying it. A classic case of tell, don't show.

    Because, some games are hard to like. You have to struggle past the flaws to the hidden qualities beneath that. This game doesn't like the people who play it. It's not even worthy of hating, because that would require a level of engagement and an emotional response that it's simply too tedious and bland to generate.    … Expand
  3. RGiggslegend
    Apr 18, 2019
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Pros:
    - huge new galaxy with generally improved graphics;
    - enhanced combat (best of the four games thus far in action)

    Cons:
    - bland protagonist with basically no angle or trait in character (particularly comparing to Shepard);
    - stale facial expressions (subpar even comparing to the very first game--which is 11 years old);
    - too much filler content for quests (like a few fellow reviewers said, DAI in space, which basically takes up 2/3 of the actual playtime, and that's with guide. Without guide...it may take up to 4/5 of the playtime)
    - political correctness all over the place (many decisions are forced with compromises, and quite a number of them don't even make sense)
    - lack of choice (it is understandable that the Pathfinder needs to be diplomatic and this half is written well, but there is basically no counterpart...no choice of showing even the slightest bit of aggression)

    Basically, the combat deserves a score of 85+ as it is entertaining and exciting, although the auto cover system makes the control lacking at times, but it is definitely better than the OT.

    The story, however, deserves no more than 40, and that's being generous.

    For a space opera, conflicts need to be present all over the place, particularly given that the original trilogy has established that the Milky Way Council species have internal conflicts themselves. While it is possible to explain that the selection process of the Initiative eliminates most of that, it is logically highly unlikely for the Initiative to truly devoid them of their individuality, which in ME Andromeda appears all but eliminated. So, the Asari are no longer diplomatic, the Turians are not disciplined, the Salarians not hyperactive and pressing, and the Krogans no longer rough around the edges. That's already failing the OT world view.

    And there's the problem with conflicts. The exiles are established "right out of the gate" with almost minimal background stories to how and why they are expunged. The story provided by the Nexus doesn't cover enough, and there's basically no polarity displayed between the two. Decisions are mostly middle-ground, and they differentiate little even if displayed as polarized. The decisions, while they can be understood to have long term influences, the Initiative is set up over the course of around a year, and some decisions should have effects by the end of the game, such as setting up the outpost for military purposes, or having the exiles ruled by different leaders, yet none of them has any impact whatsoever in game.

    Then there's the problem with the protagonist and his crew. The Ryders are established to be competitive and good-humoured, and not much else is present up to the point when Alec dies. The side of competition, however, is never displayed properly. With competitiveness usually comes with a natural display of discipline and authority, particularly given that the twins are military in background, yet both Ryders displayed a complete lack of assertion when it comes to both. Liam and Peebee falling out of order in both of their loyalty missions, yet they get to stick around due to a lack of choice, and the Ryders are written too accepting to realise that there is a line never to be crossed, and the choice of displaying anger at both companions---just gets Ryder condescended in reverse. Basically, every companion gets to act like a Spectre while the Ryders are less condescending than the Council. There is no accountability in the Pathfinder team and the leader doesn't act like one.

    In general, if you've played the original trilogy, ME Andromeda just feels wrong. There's almost no complexity, no friction, no conflict, no moral dilemma, no consequences.

    There is a possible way to save this game however, which is for ME Andromeda to have a sequel on part with Mass Effect 2, since a lot of the plot holes and personality absences can be filled and explained in its sequel. For instance, building up a background for Jaardan, Angaran, Kett and Remnant, giving more choice over team selection, linking decisions with consequences reflected in MEA 2, et cetera. After all, the background in Andromeda is roughly set, and the world is definitely expandable.

    Basically:
    If you want to hitch a joyride of action, this game is playable and rightly so, and even replayable.
    If you want to see a space opera BioWare delivered with SWKOTOR and Mass Effect 1-3, this game is a bare pass.
    If you want to enjoy an odyssey-style story like Mass Effect 2 exploded (which this game actually sets its main storyline in similar fashion), this game fails pathetically both in the countdown and in the climax.

    It succeeds to deliver in action, but fails pathetically in story, particularly by RPG standards, even more so by BioWare RPG standards.    … Expand
  4. Rockemup
    Jul 31, 2019
    3
    I never bothered to review this game. Seeing as how most people shared the same opinion as me. But I just read about The Glaad game nominees. While reading i thought. "surely they Will nominate andromeda" considering that EA chose to sacrifice The ME IP story in favor of pandering to the smalledt gamling minority. The all inclusive andso diverse snowflake lgbtqhdmi feminist community. ButI never bothered to review this game. Seeing as how most people shared the same opinion as me. But I just read about The Glaad game nominees. While reading i thought. "surely they Will nominate andromeda" considering that EA chose to sacrifice The ME IP story in favor of pandering to the smalledt gamling minority. The all inclusive andso diverse snowflake lgbtqhdmi feminist community. But no. Glaad, The biggest snowflake advocates didnt give 2 **** about andromeda. And its realy funny now to see that their gamble is still not paying off. TLDR not even The ones EA panders to even considered this game for a progressive award. Hope it was worth it EA.… Expand
  5. Sandre
    Sep 26, 2019
    3
    I will not spoil anything even the game get almost 2 years now.
    I try to say to myself, It's time to play this new mass effect after 2 years of updates.
    But i just can't for 2 points : 1) I do not feel anything -_- i barely pass the first 2h of gameplay and it is so flat, i am bored out of my skull! Combats are cool but empty, you do not feel the impact. Story is here but pfff. And    I will not spoil anything even the game get almost 2 years now.
    I try to say to myself, It's time to play this new mass effect after 2 years of updates.
    But i just can't for 2 points :

    1) I do not feel anything -_- i barely pass the first 2h of gameplay and it is so flat, i am bored out of my skull! Combats are cool but empty, you do not feel the impact. Story is here but pfff. And i do not get anything who push me forward. I remember the fantastic ME3 intro, at the start of ME3 i was in WOOOWWW mode but there, i am just surprisely totally bored.

    2) I can't playing more than 40 minutes or i get a very VERY hard headaches
    I reach 45 years old, i play video games all my life and i NEVER get this.
    The fact you get Zoom, zoom, unzoom, zoom, unzoom each time you are targeting , scanning, changing weapons or fire at something is simply WAY WAY to hard and the FOV change each time you are targeting, changing weapon, or scan and the FOV depend on what weapons you are using ...

    i do not even imagine playing like that in gow or any other tps i will be sick like hell in a middle of any horde or any raid. Then i just look into the internet but BIOWARE do not add any options in 2 years to separate the FOVs or even any options to DO NOT zoom.

    so to be clear:
    you are walking with a very large FOV,
    you take your weapon you are zooming,
    you are aiming more zoom atm you see nothing and you already get 3 zooms.
    You want to scan something unzoom,
    you are not getting any more weapons unzoom again.

    In less than 30 seconds you get 5 to 6 zoom and 3 unzoom Wowww -_0
    and becasue you have no minimap you need to open the map often what gives you more zoom and more animations for noting. sorry but my head can't !!!
    i just get the will to kill myself, puke and get the worst headaches of history playing any video games.

    Imagine something like that happen when you take a pen, drop the pen, write 1 letter with the pen, change the pen, retake another pen ... you will become crazy. so i will not play this game anymore because after 3 monstruous headheach i understand the devs are totaly stupids and do not even bother what are correct HUDs and UIs and want to kill us all by headaches ... i think. (That's a new one)

    i am desapointed, i never quit a game for something like that, i try every solution i can find
    it is very simple there is no options to avoid 200 zoom / unzoom in 1h
    then ... mass effect andromeda thx but > go to trashcan after 1h36 minutes and 3 headaches.
    What a waste.    … Expand
  6. Filuyezz
    Jul 21, 2020
    3
    When comparing Mass Effect: Andromeda to its predecessors it's a boring and weak substitute. Story-blank, nothing new. Characters- Blank, forgettable, and you just not identify with them. Gameplay- repetitive, nothing new, similar to previous games or even worse. Same pattern with every new planet. I really do not recommend this title to anyone. It is better to stick to Mass Effect trilogyWhen comparing Mass Effect: Andromeda to its predecessors it's a boring and weak substitute. Story-blank, nothing new. Characters- Blank, forgettable, and you just not identify with them. Gameplay- repetitive, nothing new, similar to previous games or even worse. Same pattern with every new planet. I really do not recommend this title to anyone. It is better to stick to Mass Effect trilogy and forget about this miserable offspring.… Expand
  7. Mattios
    Jul 28, 2021
    3
    Boring and repetitive, this seems to have lost all the things that made the original series great. The story is boring, the levels bland and the character interactions poor. I've never seen so much copy paste in a AAA title. e.g. every asari has the same face except the one on your squad. All the missions and conversations are very samey
  8. realWhiteMan
    Apr 9, 2023
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. My rating is based on my impressions of the game. This is not an objective review. I play quite a big number of titles per year and decided to review them as a peace of art and not as a product.… Expand
  9. tar73
    May 27, 2017
    2
    The characters, the story and the gameplay can't compare to earlier games in the series. The game is also negatively influenced by the racist Manveer Heir, and I personally will boycott Bioware for hiring such a jackass.
  10. dzapan
    Jan 20, 2019
    2
    No content, silly boring story, bland unintresting characters, game full of SJW and leftist propaganda, tragic models of characters and animations, copy paste locations, idiotic antagonist, lack of alien races, dialogs written by sjw 10 y.o. If you are a fan of original trilogy, please dont touch it.
  11. ENAK
    Mar 22, 2017
    2
    The downfall of Mass Effect and Bioware it seems. What happened to this company. It seems that everything they make these day is the same stream-lined, no brain, repetitive garbage that we got to enjoy in Dragon Age Inquisition. The difference is, it somehow worked in that game. Perhaps the characters were more interesting, perhaps the main story was just a little bit better. Here -The downfall of Mass Effect and Bioware it seems. What happened to this company. It seems that everything they make these day is the same stream-lined, no brain, repetitive garbage that we got to enjoy in Dragon Age Inquisition. The difference is, it somehow worked in that game. Perhaps the characters were more interesting, perhaps the main story was just a little bit better. Here - everything just falls flat. And I mean everything.

    I don't understand why people got so obsessed with some graphics issues like the animations etc. This is just a minor annoyance. As a whole, this thing just screams sub-par. NPCs have absolutely zero interesting things to say, companions are incredibly boring, the "planet restoration" quests are just repetitive sudoku-like puzzles, that you'll be begging to skip and the main antagonist is the same bunch of angry, misguided aliens that we already got to defeat in a 1000 different games.

    I don't know what's going on in that company, but there's serious management issues here and I don't think they'll be able to recover from this disaster. Oh well, goodbye Bio, you made some of the best games in the world, and now it's time to wrap it up.    … Expand
  12. Tweete
    May 6, 2017
    2
    Fire everyone involved in making this game. Hire a whole new staff based on talent. Don't release the game until obvious bugs are fixed. Ensure that they are making a game that doesn't pander to certain groups and excludes the larger customer base. You're selling entertainment...I don't want or need a class on sjw views/politics/environment in a product I paid for. I can turn on the news for that.
  13. inverted720
    Mar 22, 2017
    2
    The critics and early reviewers were focused on the wrong problems with this game. The facial modelling, animations and expressions are really not the problem here, it's a minor-minor forgivable problem really. They really are adequate, not good, but the characters get the job done. The real problem with this game is death by a thousand cuts. Any one of them would be forgivable by itself.The critics and early reviewers were focused on the wrong problems with this game. The facial modelling, animations and expressions are really not the problem here, it's a minor-minor forgivable problem really. They really are adequate, not good, but the characters get the job done. The real problem with this game is death by a thousand cuts. Any one of them would be forgivable by itself. But there are dozens of minor problems all the way from every single aspect of design to outright bugs. There are so many annoyances, i'll list several below. I accidentally wrote this review in the PS4 section, so I'll add to it this time around. And before I poop on the game further I'll say one nice thing.. The galactic nav-system from a graphical point of view is probably the best in the series.
    Combat:
    The combat is super weak and totally unsatisfying. The cover system is a major step-down from it's predecessors, and doesn't viscerally lock you in place. Compared to other cover based shooters, this game is sub-par by far. On harder difficulties the enemies can melt you whenever you accidentally break cover, which is super easy to do for a plethora of reasons. Your NPC companions are best used as distracting meat shields while you dish all the damage. Combat is by the numbers with cover playing more as an annoyance than anything else. Encounters usually boil down to dying once or twice until it randomly plays better. The player just doesn't have firm control over the battles. Cheese tactics reign supreme here. Just hide and force the AI to chase you down a corridor. The combat is just horsesh**. Coupled with inexplicably abysmal frame rates in combat I'm just not sure what EA intended to push out the door. (I'm running a GTX 1070) Saving and loading stabs me in the gut constantly, because the game is constantly killing me and erroding my progress. If you create a game that is constantly wiping your players due to unpredictable behavior, you should include a quick save/load. This leaves you having to reloot everything you just did from 5 minutes ago. The unpredictable behavior that is causing these deaths comes in the form of input/graphical lag, an inability to know when enemies have flanked you due to not having a proper 2d radar minimap, and weapons missing targets at critical moments because even fast guns have slow projectiles.
    Level design:
    If you are going to encourage people to explore your maps don't create death traps and ledges that look like they need to be explored. I'm constantly annoyed rooting around for loot. Half the time I'm rewarded, half the time I die or relize a ledge or platform which should be clearly out of reach that I just got to goes nowhere or can be accessed later. It's a waste of time, but I'd rather not have to ever come back and explore the terrible levels for something I missed. They are so bad I never want to come back. I NEVER had that feeling in ME 1&2. Along with level design is the god-awful vehicle. Just give me 4 tires, is slowing to a stop like a tank every time I need to turn a feature!? There is a reason we use vehicles with 4 wheels NOT 6. The reason this is in the level design section is that there is clutter everywhere, so turning as it turns out is VERY important. Essentially your average speed could be 70k/ph in practice it's probably 35k/ph.
    I have to stop this rant, it could literally never end. There are problems EVERYWHERE. This is a game in early beta. It was never polished. The best thing I can say about it, is that it never crashed one time. Which is pretty awesome, as for the rest of it....
    Conclusion:
    This game amounts to nothing more than minimum viable fan service. ALL you have to do to make a successful ME game is take the best parts of ME 1&2 and turn that into an exploration game. Stop trying to make this an epic cinematic experience. These story lines are all used up. I don't need a super villain, I don't need to bang all my crew mates, just create a survival type game where I get to explore space, uncover mysteries, and upgrade my gear, base, ships etc.. Just use the ME universe, reference what you already made, and boom happy gamer (assuming you actually play test it). Please make Bioware great again. I never thought I would say this but Trump you're the only one who can save the franchise.    … Expand
  14. Shermos
    Mar 21, 2017
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Quick recommendation: Don't buy. Not worthwhile for new players, and an insult to the original Mass Effect trilogy, even with its flaws.

    Firstly, I want to disclose that I am a long time fan of the Mass Effect universe. I was not happy with the idea of moving the setting to the Andromeda galaxy, throwing away a rich setting and wonderful characters which had been built up over years. A good justification was needed to win me over. I couldn't see it.

    Mass Effect Andromeda had five years of development time. The resulting game is something I would be embarrassed to sell with my name attached to it. Most people by now will be aware with the problems with facial and general animation. The game also appears to have a lot of other bugs at the time of release. It is not clear how many will be fixed by patches. This is only the beginning of the game's problems.

    The premise for Andromeda does not make sense. We are told the trip from the Milky Way took over 600 years. This is too long even when using cryo sleep. People who stayed at home would continue to advance technologically and develop faster, more efficient faster than light travel. They could make the trip in a fraction of the time, and have already set up a new civilisation by the time the original expedition arrives. This isn't a good start for a game in the sci-fi genre, and the failures of logic and reason get worse.

    Bioware is known for telling good stories and creating excellent characters. It failed considerably on both counts. The main storyline is extremely generic. It adds to a feeling that the game is based on badly thought up and written fan fiction. Worse, we are not given enough reason to care about the characters at our sides. The worst examples being the protagonist's father and main antagonist. We meet the father at the start of the game knowing nothing about him. He dies in the very first mission without the game giving us any reason to care about his loss. He had the protagonists job of "pathfinder" already occupied, and he had to be removed. Why not make his death occur later in the game, or else make the protagonist be in charge in the first place? You don't make someone so important die until the character has had enough time to develop. That brings me to the antagonist. He is the big bad, with no depth whatsoever. He only seems to exist to be in the player's way, and we can't reason with him. Not even an alien from another galaxy should be evil for the sake of being evil and incapable of reaching an accommodation with the protagonist. The first time we meet his people, shooting begins immediately, and the player is not even given the choice to try to negotiate.

    The dialogue is awful to the point of being unintentionally funny. Voice acting is not much better, although I don't fault the voice actors for this. They had to work with terrible writing, and it seems as though they aren't able to get a feel for the setting and context their dialogue was being delivered in.

    Combat is the game's only redeeming feature. People who enjoy shoot 'em up games will probably enjoy this component and the multiplayer section. That said, it is not ground breaking, and the AI enemy is average at best. Squad mate AI in the single player section is terrible. The developers somehow managed to make it worse than it was in the original trilogy. I wanted to shoot one of my "Companions" to save the enemy the trouble, but the game wouldn't let me do so.

    The following point will matter to long time fans of the Mass Effect series. Andromeda gives the big FU to the established lore from the original trilogy. The trip to a new galaxy should not be possible with the technology available at the time the sleeper ships are supposed to have been built. Only a hand wavy explanation is provided. The expedition members seem have access to technology which didn't exist in the original games. This wouldn't be an issue if the expedition left after the events of Mass Effect 3, where we could expect technical advancements to have taken place, even in the aftermath of the Reaper war.

    Bioware wanted to move the setting to Andromeda, and have the expedition leave before ME3 to avoid dealing with the consequences of the ending choice of the trilogy. We were told they especially didn't want to choose a canon decision. The new game renders this change of setting pointless. One of the choices was synthesis between organic beings and artificial intelligence, a choice which was very unpopular with the vast majority of the fan base. We learn that everyone in the Andromeda expedition has been physically linked to an AI called SAM. Nevermind that AI research was considered highly illegal in the original trilogy. This is a huge slap in the face to the fan base. A canon choice appears to have been chosen anyway, so why bother with the setting change? Why throw away so many characters and places we love?    … Expand
  15. jameshowlett89
    Mar 23, 2017
    2
    Lotta bad things, from the story, and the animation, and the character design, and the awkward dialogue and horrible voice acting, what else...hmmm, oh and **** fetch quests, and going to an entire new galaxy only to be greeted with just two new humanoid looking races and an entire mainly empty galaxy to explore...probably a lot more problems if I think about them all but I just don'tLotta bad things, from the story, and the animation, and the character design, and the awkward dialogue and horrible voice acting, what else...hmmm, oh and **** fetch quests, and going to an entire new galaxy only to be greeted with just two new humanoid looking races and an entire mainly empty galaxy to explore...probably a lot more problems if I think about them all but I just don't wanna be bothered by this game anymore.… Expand
  16. tremault
    Jun 3, 2017
    2
    I had previously given this game a 5, but I'm revising it.
    I just completed a mission and in the cutscene, a character mentioned a character by name that I've never heard of and mentioned things that I had no idea what they were talking about. literally. BECAUSE IT HADN'T @&$%ING HAPPENED YET. I was so confused, I did a search for the named character and discovered that this character    I had previously given this game a 5, but I'm revising it.
    I just completed a mission and in the cutscene, a character mentioned a character by name that I've never heard of and mentioned things that I had no idea what they were talking about. literally. BECAUSE IT HADN'T @&$%ING HAPPENED YET. I was so confused, I did a search for the named character and discovered that this character was supposed to be introduced mid way through a quest I had pretty much just picked up. after just sitting and staring at the screen for a minute or so, and thinking "WTF"... just totally incredulous, I had no recourse but to just ALT+F4 because the game has made me so angry. I honestly am not sure if I can continue with this trash. I knew this game was a mess but at least it was playable. at least the stories were somewhat entertaining. but when things are accidentally put in the WRONG ORDER, how am I supposed to enjoy that??    … Expand
  17. Dokkodo
    May 14, 2017
    2
    A short list of bugs I've encountered...

    2 different missions I can't complete because of bugged doors that didn't open when they were supposed to. 1 mission I couldn't complete because I used a sniper rifle and killed the enemies before I got close, a mission that is a companion quest that unlocks the final tier of skills for Cora. Lose progress or lose Cora's abilities, good times.    A short list of bugs I've encountered...

    2 different missions I can't complete because of bugged doors that didn't open when they were supposed to.
    1 mission I couldn't complete because I used a sniper rifle and killed the enemies before I got close, a mission that is a companion quest that unlocks the final tier of skills for Cora. Lose progress or lose Cora's abilities, good times.
    A half dozen or so missions I had to reload my game because NPCs wouldn't talk to me until I did.
    Try to talk to a merchant and just stand there infinitely, unable to move, access menus or do anything but alt+F4 and lose my progress. That only happened to meonce, once is one too many times.
    Got stuck in a death loop (because I fell into water because of the awful movement mechanics) that wiped all my autosaves inside of a vault, had to use my last manual save and lost hours of progress.
    Merchants had no items when I hit Tier VII. No items at all, none.
    And my absolute favorite bug...sometimes the game decides there's too many effects and now every time you kill something the game should freeze for 20 or so seconds. Of course this happens mid-combat and on missions where you can't save so you have to endure the freezing til you get to a save point, or restart and lose progress.

    Now add all these bugs to the uninteresting gunplay and the average storyline and you get...garbage. I've been forcing myself to play the game because I hate having things unfinished, but I've been tempted to just uninstall this game since the first planet.    … Expand
  18. wawekar
    Mar 30, 2017
    2
    I won't list all the bad about the game. You can read other reviews
    and everyone is saying the same thing. This is nothing but DA:I in space.
    Same thing every planet. I think the thing that really got me was EA having to make a political statement in this game. I am so tired of politics, I play games to forget them, not have it stuffed down my throat. The game gets a 2 for world    I won't list all the bad about the game. You can read other reviews
    and everyone is saying the same thing. This is nothing but DA:I in space.
    Same thing every planet. I think the thing that really got me was EA
    having to make a political statement in this game. I am so tired of politics,
    I play games to forget them, not have it stuffed down my throat.
    The game gets a 2 for world design. No amount of patching can fix everything.    … Expand
  19. btbrotherton
    Mar 21, 2017
    2
    A heart breaking dumpster fire of a game. Maybe if it had a different name I'd be able to get some joy out of the combat and overlook the total lack of a quality RPG experience, but being that this is supposed to take place in the same Universe of my favorite RPG of all time I think a 2 might actually be a bit generous.
  20. SRKNZ
    Jul 5, 2021
    2
    Dreadful. Confusing game design, bloated tedious story lines, interspersed by excessive cut scenes that made me feel like the game was playing me not the other way around. Only upside was the eye candy but on its own that's nowhere near enough.
  21. fsdgf
    Mar 21, 2017
    2
    Terrible writing, terrible story, terrible animations, terrible characters, terrible voice acting and bland, boring combat.

    I'd love to mention a positive about the game, but there really isn't one. Don't get this game.
  22. theSectClown
    Feb 19, 2021
    2
    Я так и не понял, как можно было сделать таких внешне отталкивающих персонажей. Как будто в редакторе онлайн игрушки школьники лепили их. Даже ни с кем романтических отношений заводить не хочется. Если ты мужчина гетеро.Я так и не понял, как можно было сделать таких внешне отталкивающих персонажей. Как будто в редакторе онлайн игрушки школьники лепили их. Даже ни с кем романтических отношений заводить не хочется. Если ты мужчина гетеро.
  23. Possemaster2
    Mar 23, 2017
    2
    That they dared to release this game. Bioware was pioneer in animation and story telling. What happened? Mass Effect 2 was a brilliant piece of entertainment. Perfect narratives, perfect cut scenes. That is all gone. The animation are really bad. Story is inconsistent. Side quests are dull. The world feels empty. If you get the the first planet and establish the first outpost and it getThat they dared to release this game. Bioware was pioneer in animation and story telling. What happened? Mass Effect 2 was a brilliant piece of entertainment. Perfect narratives, perfect cut scenes. That is all gone. The animation are really bad. Story is inconsistent. Side quests are dull. The world feels empty. If you get the the first planet and establish the first outpost and it get filled with useless props you will see what i mean. Just take some time and take a look at the characters that are placed in this setting. They are doing nothing . Animation do not fit in the place they are put, a lot of copied characters that you can even see three times in the same place. Just standing there staring in the sky or distance doing absolutely nothing. These animations are the ones you can buy for 2 euro at a 3D online store made by a beginner 3D artist. This shows again that EA can destroy a good company into delivering **** software to the mass public that will buy it anyway. Shame on the Bioware developers that you let your die hard fans down, and that you have made your jewel into a piece of **** moneygrabbing EA software.… Expand
  24. Vidicus
    Mar 21, 2017
    2
    When a company forgets why people play games, and instead pushes social agendas, they make games like Mass Effect Andromeda. Look elsewhere for Sci-Fi gaming goodness. The combat is fine but the exploration is only on a few planets out of a hundred. The rest are simply a click to finish exploring. Add bad animations, bad voice acting, remove emotions, lower companion customization andWhen a company forgets why people play games, and instead pushes social agendas, they make games like Mass Effect Andromeda. Look elsewhere for Sci-Fi gaming goodness. The combat is fine but the exploration is only on a few planets out of a hundred. The rest are simply a click to finish exploring. Add bad animations, bad voice acting, remove emotions, lower companion customization and controls, and you have Mess Effect: Andromeda. I also missed the awesome soundtrack of the first game. Overall a missed opportunity for Bioware. I believe they have now destroyed their name and reputation to the point it will hit their profits.… Expand
  25. Aralia
    Mar 25, 2017
    2
    OK, I really tried hard to like this game. I played it now for several days, since I am a hardcore ME fan.

    I have to differentiate here a bit, since I DO like the multiplayer since it is fun action. However, a minority of us bought ME4 for the multiplayer part !!! So basically I would give the Multiplayer part an 8. But this is an addon for people and we bought an RPG !!! Lets begin    OK, I really tried hard to like this game. I played it now for several days, since I am a hardcore ME fan.

    I have to differentiate here a bit, since I DO like the multiplayer since it is fun action. However, a minority of us bought ME4 for the multiplayer part !!! So basically I would give the Multiplayer part an 8. But this is an addon for people and we bought an RPG !!!

    Lets begin with the Fighting engine. Yes I know, not the core thing in an RPG, but I think I owe an explanation here, since it seems paradox that I like the fighting engine in the Multiplayer, but hate it in the RPG. I find the 3rd dimension a challenge and fun in multiplayer. But lets face it, is it realistic ? Even with a jetpack ? No it is not, you would probably kill yourself in the first 5 seconds if you used a jetpack like you do in the hardcore combat scenes. So yes it is an RPG and it really makes me feel not being in the game to fight like that. So as a fighting engine for an RPG I have to give it 0 points. It disrupts immersion totally. I can't feel I am Ryder with this, it feels so unreal. That is why it is OK for multiplayer, but not for the RPG, the single player campaign. In multiplayer I don't play a role, I am there for the challenge and the fun. And jump flying around is REAL fun. But if you have to sink yourself in an RPG and BE Ryder .... well it breaks it. In the ME3 series I felt like I WAS commander Sheperd, The missions were tough, but it felt like doable with normal human assets.

    So since it is a fighting oriented RPG the fighting engine makes 3 of 10 points. So 0 of 3 points from me here.

    Now the story. I am really disappointed. It really looks like a group of raw recruits. I mean Sheperd was a mature person in their very late twenties or perhaps early thirty. Plus they had a full Intelligence Service behind them. Here ? some people who just grew out their teen years jump in and do something. OK, there is the AI, but well, it is secret on top. Would you really trust a teen your precious ship ? juest because they claim to be the pathfinder ? Hey the middle ages have passed where a noble just anointed their child as successor !!!! and especially that other people just ate it. Remember that even warhero Sheperd had to fight for their place hard ? The spectre rank came not immediately.

    An RPG lives from the stories, so that is 4 points for me. I give it 1 of 4 points.

    The models, voicing and interface: The faces are really unacceptably bad for an RPG, there is no talking out of this. The game itself has pretty nice graphics. maybe not Witcher 3 quality, but it would be good enough to draw me in and make the RPG believable if the rest of the game was OK.

    The characters are flat, I just can't get into the game. The quests are boring. I agree that ME3 often was also some fetch questing, but the stories were built better. there was a briefing before. The missions felt important and it was clear what I have to do. Also I am stuck on the first mainquest on EOS. I know exactly that I have to scan the glyphs, but where are they ???? There is sometimes a good joke, but somehow all sounds so rehearsed. The flat expressions in the faces do not really help along with the somehow flat voicing. It is hard to catch, but somehow the old ME voicing had a bit more of spice.

    The faces DO matter for an RPG. The faces look especially weird around the eyes and that is where conversation lives. I think 50% of the not coming over of the story is due to the bad face expressions and the eyes. ME was never great in that, however, it is somehow a joke that ME4 beats all its predecessors in bad expressions. And no it is not that hard as some defenders try to say. Fallout 4 did an ok job for example and had much more believable jokes. Fallout 4 is more of an openworld game and such not the best RPG setup, So if they did better as an RPG than ME4, it is a poor result.

    Also, do we really need idle games (strike teams) in an RPG.

    The faces add a lot to the quality of an RPG … or take it like in ME4. So the models, voicing and interface make 3 of 10 points for me. I can only give 1 point here.

    Basically we have to say that this game was not made for the old fans. I am sure there are a lot of people out there who like it. If you are not a SciFi and hardcore RPG (DAO style) fan, it might be ok. So if for you it is not understandable why there are so many outcries, it is NOT the game the ME fans expected and I am sure that all the negative votes are from old fans. This is NOT our series, it feels like they got permissions to use races and characters from the ME franchise, but NOT like an ME game.

    BTW, the story would have had potential for sure, but they really botched it.    … Expand
  26. Sirus
    Mar 28, 2017
    2
    This is not the Mass Effect we were promised in E3. This is a hot mess full of bugs, awful voice acting, and terrible face animation. You can't emotionally connect with any character as their facial expressions seem like they're oblivious to their situation and surroundings. I often found bugs during combat, and the story is not as significant as the original Mass Effect series was. ThisThis is not the Mass Effect we were promised in E3. This is a hot mess full of bugs, awful voice acting, and terrible face animation. You can't emotionally connect with any character as their facial expressions seem like they're oblivious to their situation and surroundings. I often found bugs during combat, and the story is not as significant as the original Mass Effect series was. This game seemed to be made just as a cash cow by using the ME name instead of an actual entry into the ME series.… Expand
  27. inkblowout
    Mar 21, 2017
    2
    I cannot believe I waited 5 years for this pile of garbage to be released.

    It's just a big mess overall, animations are the least of their problems. Story is lacking compared with mass effect 1 and 2. And character development is just bland, it feels like I'm talking to cardboard cutouts. They characters don't feel like actual people, they are just there to take up extra space.    I cannot believe I waited 5 years for this pile of garbage to be released.

    It's just a big mess overall, animations are the least of their problems. Story is lacking compared with mass effect 1 and 2. And character development is just bland, it feels like I'm talking to cardboard cutouts. They characters don't feel like actual people, they are just there to take up extra space. Squadmates aren't even comparable to the amazing squadmates we had in the previous games. Hell, even JACOB from mass effect 2-3 is more interesting than these guys. The only thing that is great is the exploration and the gameplay but that's it. Even the RPG elements are trash.... allowing everyone to spec into everything!? Seriously! That's not a good RPG, if you spec. into biotics, you'd ONLY have biotic powers.... but nope in Andromeda, you wanna have biotic, tech and explorer powers... no problem you can do that with no limitations and no negatives, just wow bioware.... way to really dumb it down for everyone. After 15 hours. I stopped played because I was just damn bored, never felt like that during a Mass Effect game which is a damn shame.

    It's shocking how Bioware went from the masterpiece of "Baldur's Gate" to this piece of ****

    Rip Bioware 1998-2017    … Expand
  28. madmats
    Apr 11, 2017
    2
    I would start with saying that I'm writing the review just after I just got stuck on a loading screen.

    I'll use 5 as a base value for a review. +2 for being a rpg +1 for being a sci fi game +/- 0 for graphics, I don't mind the "tired face" +/- 0 for story, nothing special at all but nothing really bad either -1 for unoptimized game -2 for forcing me to change windows settings (ie    I would start with saying that I'm writing the review just after I just got stuck on a loading screen.

    I'll use 5 as a base value for a review.
    +2 for being a rpg
    +1 for being a sci fi game
    +/- 0 for graphics, I don't mind the "tired face"
    +/- 0 for story, nothing special at all but nothing really bad either
    -1 for unoptimized game
    -2 for forcing me to change windows settings (ie needed virtual memory to play)
    -2 for a lot of bugs and errors forcing me to shut down the game and losing played unsaved game
    -1 for the decision that you can't save the game during some missions on PC

    If they had released a finished and polished game it would have gotten a 7.
    But since they decided that the buying players also should be beta testers I can only give it a 2.
    A 2 for a triple A title is an embarrasement for both EA and Bioware and I will be really careful before buying a title from them!    … Expand
  29. thorin_bane
    Mar 21, 2017
    2
    Wow thought the critics were harsh? Not enough in my books. I played 2 hours of frustrating ugliness and quit. Sorry I may not be giving it enough time, but everything I liked about ME1 is crushed down and thrown away and all the things I disliked on ME2 are heightened and amplified. I know the parcour fans will love this crap, but I don't want games with jetpacks. They spent more time onWow thought the critics were harsh? Not enough in my books. I played 2 hours of frustrating ugliness and quit. Sorry I may not be giving it enough time, but everything I liked about ME1 is crushed down and thrown away and all the things I disliked on ME2 are heightened and amplified. I know the parcour fans will love this crap, but I don't want games with jetpacks. They spent more time on this garbage gameplay than RPG elements or proper animation. Seriously looks like crap. I can't give it a one because i didn't truly give it a try, but its so ugly I just don't want to play this near platformer. So disappointed in this mess. I will play some more with friends on multi to see if its ANY better and maybe change my review, but as of now its terrible.… Expand
  30. StarScream2092
    Apr 3, 2017
    2
    Andromeda is another reminder why not to pre-order games. Honestly anybody who thought that this can live up to the trilogy was instane. People should stop defending this game because it have great combat and above average graphics.

    1. Writing is childish, like really boring. Here and there it made you smile but it was far less than in trilogy. 2. Story is just a place holder,    Andromeda is another reminder why not to pre-order games. Honestly anybody who thought that this can live up to the trilogy was instane. People should stop defending this game because it have great combat and above average graphics.

    1. Writing is childish, like really boring. Here and there it made you smile but it was far less than in trilogy.

    2. Story is just a place holder, nothing epic. Feels like they wanted it to be just average.

    3. Animations, are are a HUGE disaster. If EA will be happy with sales of Andromeda they will create another mess like this and sell it. So be prepared.

    They treat it like any another company, -make the game at lowest cost possible, sell as AAA game.
    Witcher 3 is an exception.    … Expand
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 »