Mass Effect Andromeda - A Galactic Dissapointment (Review)

Hello there, Shepherd Commander, it has been too long so shall we see what i thought of your so called spiritual successor. 

I was sceptical of this game after Mass Effect 3 and the reveal of Andromeda. It's definitely not a 0/10 game like a lot of people are giving it in their tantrums of it failing to live up to their expectations.

UPDATE THIS REVIEW WAS ALSO POSTED INSIDE GAMESMASTER MAGAZINE LATEST ISSUE SEPTEMBER 2017!

WARNING THERE WILL BE SPOILS!

Drack getting uncomfortably close to me.

What's it about?

Long story short, the plot is finding a new home for humanity but there is a hostile new alien race that play as the villains. That's pretty much it, no plot twists, just forgettable moments till the credits roll. Your in a WHOLE new galaxy (not planet) but there are only 2 (TWO!!) new races for some reason. I guess they didn't bother to create more models.

Problems?

As I explored, I encountered the same building/structure as I previous did somewhere else in the map. The filler, fetch quests make a return, romance is just like the rest of the games from Bioware, squad mates can be romanced and to my knowledge all 'romance' scenes feature the iconic lazy fade-to-black transition. The game just feels forced in all areas. If we bypass the horrid animations, which is kind of hard to do in an RPG, it still feels like they only thought of the number of hours people would have to spend on getting through this game as a quality assurance. I would've been fine with a much more compact game if it was full of meaningful characters, events and the like. The whole twin thing was a huge waste and a lie to what they promoted.

It's a huge shame that a AAA studio with a large budget and 5-8 years of development time could not address this obvious flaw. It does have bad writing, there's not a lot of memorable moments there, It's more of a shooter than RPG, Skills are a joke i stuck with same 3 all game the system just does not feel as immersive or important, Narrative choices in the wheel often only fall to two choices. The logical choice doesn't always sound logical its as though someone with little understanding of the rules of logic designed this.

The emotional options give little to emotion. There was nothing inspiring when there was need for inspiration. Soundtrack was unnoticeable for me and that's a mark down because a good game is nothing without a soundtrack and this did not have a good memorable soundtrack. Quest Design this game made side quests feel boring. You go to each planet in which you have to change the atmosphere by going to each Tower solve a puzzle which lights a beam then go to the next site, rinse, wash, repeat until it points you to the final location then your done. No creativity just the same old trudge. Character designs were piss poor, it feels like every character had some type of skin and bone defect. Hell it feels like the reasons they left the milky way was because they were too ugly to look at so they were banished to the far corners of Andromeda. Ryder, whether you play as female or male is completely unlikable.

The story is uninspiring but not terrible, i mean it's not great either, nothing complicated but some parts have you questioning the plot. Voice acting is all over the place, i don't know what the hell was going on but sometimes this game felt like it was built by multiple studios instead of just one. The game is basically a lot of "meh" and a lot of "wtf is this", unless you really love running around different worlds and third person action "RPG" games a lot, like A LOT then don't bother with this one.

Did I like anything about it?

What i liked was driving the Nomad was not as bad as i expected, the crew you do grow on and it's what made me finish it, i wanted to see what happens next for them not for my unlike-able Ryder. The worlds were pretty neat so was flying about probing planets for resources. I liked the weapons, powers, skills and armour on offer. The Angaran's i liked.

Overtime the crew became likeable and i cared for them. 

Final Bit!

My initial hate for this game stemmed from it's reveal for me it did not look like a mass effect game rather a Star Trek rip off to be honest and i said "this looks rubbish" and i was correct it's bad but it's not good either its just OK. I was bored had no games to play so i borrowed the game off my friend James and 53 hours over a two week period later, i completed the game with 94% completion. My hate for the game also was strong because i compare all the Mass games to my fave and best in the series which is Mass Effect 2. I did realise i got to stop comparing ME:A to ME2 and i did you know start to get into it a bit more like i cared about my crew more so. So are you wondering what Ryder i played as? Female Ryder....and are you wondering who i banged? Ok so i banged Peebee (non relationship) and then i banged the reporter on Nexus (non relationship) , Kissed Suvi (non relationship) and then i got together and fully banged Jaal. He was so sweet in the game you know the most likeable easy.

The customisation is weak. The gun play is not very good nor is the cover system i found it annoying to try and get into cover and other times i'd just be in cover and it would annoy me as when i did not need it boom i had cover when i needed it half the time it did not work, it lagged on planets also which got annoying and lastly load times were too long and the repetitive cut scenes and planet visits you had to do were so tedious i groaned each time i had to go back to one place.

Ok that's all i will divulge from this disappointing game that drags on for too long with not much excitement it's a roller coaster with no turns and no steep bits to go up or down just a straight ride.

Mass Effect Andromeda

5/10

#FreeTheNipples but seriously i love Jaal and this scene and their relationship was a beautiful flower just loved seeing it blossom.

Besides Mass Effect 1-3 easter eggs there are these PLANTS V ZOMBIE easter eggs.