rolls up sleeves @OneBadMutha
OK so I voted for “Its purged and should be excised from memory” but that’s as much for comic effect (she lied).
I think if you feel you would like it then you should try it, if…If you have plenty of time and nothing else pressing to play.
I hate Andromeda, not because it is awful, because truthfully in many ways its rather good, the battles are pretty fun and combos satisfying to hit, likewise the movement is fun too.
I hate it because what matters most to me in a Mass Effect game was so god awful. The story, the cinematography, the emotion and the care taken in what draws me to Bioware games. Its so odd as I rather like the team dynamic, its a little less stoic a little more “fun” and leaving Shepard and the milky way behind was a good idea.
The actors all have great voices, yet for some reason are just directed so oddly, their lines edited so badly. The cinematography is mostly shot/reverse shot, which could be OK if UI didnt cover close ups or characters cover each other, that wouldn’t be bad if the animation wasn’t so lifeless, and that in itself wouldn’t be so bad if the script was good. I find the reason people mocked the animation as much as they did was because there was nothing better to counter it, and its easier to point at “my face is tired” then try and explain why it feels so “off”.
I would say that the gameplay loop, exploring, fighting, puzzles (not great but fine) and gathering to craft is by and large fine, but its in service only to itself not to the narrative which is just wall to wall cliché and mind bogglingly iditotic character motivations.
Add to that a story based on colonialism which says nothing about colonialism (Greedfall doesnt do this particularly well either for example but it at least has a stab at the conversation, and isn’t Bioware).
Also a Bioware so far removed from the usual care Bioware has towards embracing diversity in its players. A trans character who deadnames herself to someone she just met for no reason (the reason being for some reason she could only feel “herself” in a new Galaxy as presumably the Milky way has become anti trans(?). At launch no thought had been given to a Gay squad mate, an achievement made impossible to get for anyone playing as a gay Ryder, several months later Jall was patched in as the games sole gay squadmate but without any significant effort made to the romance. And then the romances, Cora had the most time effort and animation put into her romance scenes versus others, so that anyone other than Male Heterosexual Ryder has a lesser experience.
Possibly not important to most but again I stress this is from Bioware who have never seemed to shy so far from the high bar that they set themselves regarding role playing “your” character.
Clearly its not a “dreadful” game like any number of assest flip Steam Greenlight trash.
It is a terrible mass effect game and after being moved to tears just playing through the original game recently just from musical leitmotifs and the quality of the story and scenes, it comes nowhere close to the original trilogy.
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