Positives you found in the game

in my 10 hours i was enjoying the story, constantly was looking forward to see what was next. Enjoyed character interactions / dialogue. Lots and lots of banter everywhere you go, vastly more so than any other bioware game. The mood / feel of the setting is great, feel like an explorer or settler out to make a new home for humanity. Likeable protagonist, I appreciate that Ryder isn't an elite soldier but instead more of a classical explorer from days of old. While there is plenty of conflict, I greatly enjoy that this doesn't feel like a war story like the trilogy did.. much more pleasant mood to it all. (This is not a complaint against the trilogy.. just that I am relieved it feels considerably different and new over the original series).

And the gameplay is very fun, my favourite of the series.

Technicial / graphical issues aside, I very much look forward to resuming playing on the 21st. 10 hours of playing and I still feel as I did when I was a wee lass waiting for Christmas to roll up so I could open my presents.

I like the Nomad.

Huh... positives, let's see.

- The combat is quite ok... definitely harder - for me - then in the trilogy. I also think the cover system works, even though other people said it doesn't.
- I like Vetra... she is not quite a Garrus, but she can talk the smuggler talk.
- I like the research and crafting - although I don't get where some of the stuff comes from (Cerberus and N7 gear!?), the game at least tries to explain it, though.
- on that note: I like the weapons and armors... visually. Pity we can't equip our squad, though.
- The environments look nice.
- The music is quite ok... they actually try to establish a new theme by riffing of the original, which works for the most part.
- I like the Nomad as a concept... we'll see what we can do with it later in game...
- I like the space flight... however cumbersome and ultimately useless it is, it at least looks nice.
- I probably will like watching the Nexus grow and get more populated as the game progresses...

Still quite a list, but sadly, much of it is superficial...

Here is what I enjoyed:

- The combat is really fun. I like the verticality of the jet pack and the weapons feel good
- Driving the Nomad and exploring is also really fun
- The environment look fantastic
- I like the characters a lot so far, especially Vetra, Drack, Liam and the Salarian pilot
- I also really enjoy the Tempest in general
- The story is interesting so far. Lots of open questions that I want to get answered
- I prefer the new dialogue system over the paragon/renegade system because you can actually answer what you personally would answer without missing out on paragon/renegade points
- There seems to be a lot of depth in collecting stuff and crafting materials and the size of the game with all the side-quests seems huge based on my first 7 hours
- I haven't played multiplayer yet, but from what I have seen on Twitch it looks great

It feels like Mass Effect 1 and the environments feel more reactive and filled with interactive stuff as opposed to depressing window-dressing a la Inquisition.

In general, the 3D environment reignite the ME1 spark because of how much I feel like I'm inside of them and not just looking at 3D models in a 3D map with a basic movement function. I like how many characters you can just randomly press "talk" to to hear some comments and how people that move around don't seem totally broken like the guards in DA:I and there's even consoles and machinery here and there, or things I can scan that makes it feel like actually exploring the 3D spaces is a key feature. Mass Effect 1 also had more of a sense of being in the game-world than ME2 or ME3 did because the two latter entires often felt very isolated and empty despite how many NPCs or pretty environments they had been placed in.

Combat is also real good but I've heard some concerns over saving that makes me think my positive reaction may eventually turn sour because I died 4 or 5 times in the first mission in one part and I liked replaying it but if I was in an open-world zone and had to drive all the way to a combat-encounter and then die again and then go there again, I would be really fucking tired of playing on Hardcore difficulty and not because the game is hard but because it would be poorly designed. That aside, I have thus far loved the combat on Hardcore. Kett take a lot of bullets to kill but there's a constant rhythym to taking cover - and you have to do this actively and move around from cover to cover as they try to flank you - and to eventually charge, shoot the most exposed guy as you run towards him and melee him, then use his flanking cover position to take on his friends etc. and i love how desperate it feels when you have to revive a team member because their suppressing fire actually matters in this game.

I love the little scene you get moving from planet to planet. Some complained about it but for me, it really increased immersion.

I was having fun with the game. The quests I did up to were we were gated, it reminded me of ME1 which was the first RPG I ever played and I loved it to bits. Some people think it is too slow. I think they never played ME1 or probably forgot what ME1 was like or didn't like it at all. I feel like by making this choice, BW took to heart all the things said about how it had gone too far from ME1 and that people missed that and they were trying to show them some respect by getting back to those roots.

MP is still fun. More challenging than ME3MP was, but still fun.

Love that they kept the normady look. It's nostalgic.

I like that Eros felt like it had some stories woven into what was happening. It was kind of an empty planet and I was trying to stay to the main quest so I am sure I missed stuff there, but what I did there was fun so far. Hopefully we have some interesting quests on all the planets aside from just the main ones.

I like scanning. I think it's an interesting tool to add.

Combat seems great and I love the new system.

I love the jet pack in SP. Not sure in MP but I can avoid using it there. In SP I am hoping on so many things looking for treasure and zipping around with jumps rather than running.

I like the characters I have seen so far.

Overall, I feel like this is going to be a great game. I'm gnawing at the bit to start playing it or at least start reading my prima guide but those punks are making me wait for access.

Well there are a lot of complain about the game because that is what people do when the game is hyped. Not that the game should not be criticized on its flaws but it seems there is only what flaw that is big but the only subject of discussion. That is as pertinent as saying Zelda games have bad graphics => bad game.

So the good points.

Combat. I'm not into shooting games, I don't mind them but I don't really play them. Mass Effect Andromeda's combat is fun and I'm going to insist on that a bit. ME always had 2 major flaws, the gameplay and the animation. The experience was pleasant because of the universe, the story, the soundtrack and the character but I always saw combat as a chore. A shooter game is something very hard to master, there are a lot of clones but most of the time it feel wrong somehow. That is why CoD, GoW or Doom are praised, because they actually nailed the gameplay part. ME 1 was lame and ME2 and ME3 felt like GoW wannabe (not that their were bad, just not great.
ME:A as a great combat system. In the demo I actually looked forward to combat phase to test my new abilities when I used to see it as a mandatory chore to make a big enough game.
That Jet Pack is the best thing that happened to combat.

Visual and level design
If the animation is (still) bad, the visuals of the game are really cool and once again it was not a good point of the previous ME. Of course ME had great design : the citadel, Reapers, the normandy. However the world felt flat, of course there were the ugly desert planet#298 from ME 1 and 2 but every level was design...like a video game level, it was generic and pretty obvious "Oh covers everywhere, I wonder what will happen, oh a fight scene". In a game so focused on the universe it created it was always weird to do something very generic for level design when it is something players will have to experience most of the time.

Story element
We don't know much about the story, but in the demo we saw some clue to the story. There are plot and sub-plot : what happen in the prologue, the arks, the nexus, individual planets, the kett, the scourge, the remnants, the ryders. The setting is solid and I am intrigued on what will happen next. Maybe it will fall flat, who knows ? But for now I think the game is on the right rails.

Protagonist
I was never a fan of the "emotionless" protagonist, that voice acting should be neutral for giving the player the liberty to choose the tone. And that is why i was never of male shepard (until ME3), it was pretty robotic and the story is so engaging i wanted to play a real character, not me trying to choose the tone of shepard. That is why I prefered Jennifer Hale or even better her french version which was...well...engaged in the role. Sometime it was cheesy but it was one of the flaw that made my shepard a human being.
Ryders are good in that sense, I understand why people don't like being stuck with one personnality or regretting the lost of the douchebag renegade playstyle. The Ryders are exited to be in a new galaxy, and should act like according to that...maybe sometimes they are too excited tbh. The characters talk a lot in the game, commenting every thing and in videos I thought that irritating. However there is a difference between watching and playing. I do mind when people comment when I try to watch something, but I don't mind commenting with them when I am "engaged" to do it.

Nomad.
I hate driving. I really do. I'm not a good real life driver and I suck even more in game. The true challenge for me in LA noire was going to the crime scene. The Nomad however is fun to drive, I had nothing more to do in the preview so I drove a bit to explore the radiation 3 areas I shouldn't explore at that time. It took some time to appreciate the driving but in the end I liked it.
But I do hate that mining drone thing, so much hate.

Multiplayer
I liked the ME3 multiplayer but did not play to it much. Those were long session and I have a shit connection. However it was enjoyable. ME:A is the same for most part, except it is more intense. Maybe I am biased but it felt shorter with more opponent. Not a great fan of some enemies being spongebullet so I might stick to medium difficulties.

I could talk about the soundtrack, characters and voice acting in general but they have always been ME strong point and it is still the same with Andromeda, I wanted to point out the difference and the concern. I am still on the fence on ME:A being an open-world-but-not-really has it add little things to the experience and those are not necessary good. I am not fond of scanning, mining, extensive crafting with sub-categories everywhere.

Finally the animation and stupid AI is still a problem. Those are medium to major flaws in the game but can be overlooked because of the major good thing the game had. They never stopped me from enjoying a ME game and it will probably be the same with ME:A. I finish my 10 hours trial and my first thought was that I wanted to continue the game.
Maybe it will be disappointing in the end but for now it is promising. Blowing things out of proportion can only have negative effect on the experience.

So are all the planets we can visit going to be 'dead no man wastelands" or have you guys come across others who were more filled?

Pretty much everything. Except some facial animation and cant quick save/load.

I want to play more than 10 hours right now!!!

it does fit with the Character. Sort of.

Almost everything I experienced (aside from well documented issues, mostly of a technical nature) were positive for me. Here's one positive in particular that deserves more highlighting:

- Dialogue later in the game seems to reference dialogue choices you made earlier. I don't know how important this will end up being, but the cases I encountered so far were pretty neat.