This isn't Mass Effect 4 -- remember that

I see a lot of bellyaching here and on reddit, and on a couple of facebook groups I'm in, and on twitter, and a lot of it is super-hostile. Funnily enough, in these same spaces I always see a lot of complaints about the original trilogy. But when it comes to Andromeda, the original trilogy is some perfect ideal held up with reverence, and where Andromeda strays from its formula is nothing but folly.

(nevermind that in the case of both the Mass Effect and Dragon Age trilogies, Bioware's comparable big game series of the last decade, all three games are different beasts from one another, and the very same people who say they changed for the worse as the series went on also seem to agree that the first entries are clunky messes)

Andromeda isn't ME4.

Andromeda is like a soft reboot. It's a new game, potentially a new series, that leverages lore and design decisions made and learned from in the last one in order to revamp things for the future. Think of it not as a sequel that must build off the back of its predecessors but more as a newly designed IP, which has been built from the ground up to be better and more fun. It is inspired by Mass Effect in much the same way as it can also take gameplay or even lore inspiration from other successful franchises -- Destiny, Warframe, Witcher, etc.

You think tech armor should be an identical power in this game, like they owe it to you somehow? The tactical pause wheel is vital to this game? Every biotic power, pull, lift, throw, should return, exactly the same? The running and jumping (or lack thereof) and cover should be the same?

Incorrect.

This is a new game, and they're not constrained by the same design decisions. They can redesign old ideas to be better. They have decided that a faster-paced game with only three active powers at a time is objectively more enjoyable and fits better with the kind of game they want this to be -- and there is nothing wrong with that.

That's why powers are being revamped and certain things are being folded into one another. That's why Warp is now being remade into something better. Why barrier is now a passive boost. Why there are no strict classes. They're taking another crack at old ideas, free from old shackles that they were stuck with through the whole trilogy -- and that's incredibly exciting.

If you're upset that it's not the same, well, yeah. It's not supposed to be the same. They owe us nothing, certainly not adherence to old, dated design decisions that are arguably poorer than the new alternatives we're seeing here.

I think we should all keep that in mind.