My Review - Disappointing, but good.

So after 75 hours of play (94% completion), and 3 weeks of distance from the game, I'm ready to score it.  Here's how it fits in my ME rankings:

Gameplay:
ME:A - 92
ME3 - 88
ME2 - 80
ME1 - 68

No surprise that ME:A's gameplay is its best feature.  Bioware has continually improved the combat and other gameplay mechanics since the first installment.  ME:A is the culmination of those efforts.  Combat is incredibly fun and far more fast-paced than I was accustomed to from the original trilogy.  Removing class restraints allowed a great deal of experimentation, and I'm a big fan of that.  While I at first was unimpressed with the Nomad, I grew to love that machine, far more than its predecessors.  Even weaponless.  The only thing that annoyed me was interplanetary travel, which they improved in the 1.05 patch.

Graphics:
ME2 - 95
ME3 - 91
ME1 - 65
ME:A - 48

I remember my dad walking in on me when I was playing ME2 for the first time back in my teens.  He was astonished at how lifelike the characters were, especially Shepard.  I doubt he'd say the same thing if he saw Andromeda, 7 years later.  The character models were worse than the original trilogy for almost all species.  I think the one original species I liked better was the Salarians.  Everyone else just looked more cartoonish, like Bioware purposely stepped away from the realism of the original trilogy.

Add to that the really shitty animations, especially facial animations, and a huge swath of graphical bugs.  Not only does this hurt the graphics score, but also the story score, as poor facial animations hinder the ability to convey important emotions during dialogue scenes.

This score would honestly be lower if not for the fantastic environments.

Story:
ME1 - 97
ME2 - 95
ME3 - 92
ME:A - 75

Honestly, all three of the original trilogy games hit extremely high, emotional notes.  From seeing the Citadel or encountering Sovereign for the first time in ME1, to TIM's story and the spectacular suicide mission in ME2, to the high stakes and gut wrenching decisions of ME3, it was all so great.  ME:A brushes that greatness at times, but ultimately falls far short.  Much of this has to do with lacking momentum; which is a direct result of focusing on exploration rather than story.  But even if the game was more streamlined, I don't think it would have hit the same highs, mostly because the direction of the cutscenes was lacking, plus the aforementioned crappy facial animations.

When it comes to the dialogue wheel and the removal of the paragon/renegade system, I'm conflicted.  On one hand, I enjoyed the freedom of ACTUALLY being able to make varied choices.  The old system almost forces you to go 100% paragon or 100% renegade.  But in ME:A, choice was actually available to you.  Unfortunately, those choices almost never mattered.  If the choices aren't going to matter, I'd rather they just allow us to be complete heroes or evil dickwads. 

Characters:
ME2 - 100
ME3 - 98
ME1 - 90
ME:A - 78

The reason I play Mass Effect games: the memorable characters.  ME2 still has the greatest character writing I've ever experienced in a game (TW3 comes close).  When it comes to my favourite Mass Effect characters, I don't think ME:A even cracks the top dozen!  And even then I think my favs from ME:A are support crew, not the main squadmates!  That's a big problem.  Liam's uber-enthusiasm, yet incessant criticisms of our pace, drove me up the wall!  Cora is uninteresting.  Gil I would have spaced if I had the option.  Vetra wasn't nearly as great as I originally thought she would be; her whole story is basically about her sister and so she doesn't have a lot of depth besides.  Jaal, Peebee, Suvi and Drack are all okay, I guess.  SAM was no Legion.  I did like Kallo, and I really liked Lexi.  So 2/11.  None of the supporting cast on the Nexus or on any of the planets were all that interesting.  The other pathfinders are decent.

The villain was pretty run-of-the-mill, and unfortunately one-dimensional.  He had none of TIM's complexity, nor the awesome intimidation of the Reapers.  Too bad.

I was happy with them adding depth to the romances and sex scenes.  But unfortunately I didn't give a damn about my love interest, so that improvement didn't really impact me.

Soundtrack:
ME2 - 98
ME1 - 96
ME3 - 96
ME:A - 55

That tells you all you need to know, really.  The original trilogy is so full of memorable tracks.  I can recall several from each of the first three games, at will.  I can't recall a single theme from Andromeda, even though I just played 75 hours of it!

Overall Impression:
ME2 - 98
ME3 - 94
ME1 - 85
ME:A - 76

Ultimately, I played through the entire game.  That's not something I do unless the game is great, because I don't have time to play anything less.  ME:A falls far short of expectations, and makes the ME3 debacle look like a minor misstep.  But is it deserving of the hate?  No.  It's a good game at the least.  A great one if it wasn't for the pedigree behind it.  But unfortunately, we may not see a true, original trilogy caliber Mass Effect for many years, if ever.

The Future of Mass Effect
What I'd like to see is a wrap-up of cliffhangers for ME:A via DLC.  I won't go into spoilers, but there's at least 3 that need attention.
After that, and after Bioware's new IP launches, I'd like to see Mass Effect handed back to Edmonton.  Mass Effect 4.  Choose Destroy as canon (even though it wasn't my pick), have Shepard live, and introduce a new threat as the Milky Way galaxy is picking up the pieces.  I'd suggest using the Kett as that threat, but even if they could make that work lore-wise, I'm honestly not sure I want to see the Kett again....

What will we get?  I don't know.  I mean, I thought ME3 left Bioware in a bind.  This is worse.  We may not even get another Mass Effect.  Despite its popularity, EA might not see a viable path.