Mass Effect: Andromeda -- Opening Sequence

I'll admit the flaw still applies to an extent in Mass Effect 2 but I still consider them more or less a bland race because outside of Kasumi, I felt humanity lost a lot of characterization they'd had in the first game. It began to feel like they expected you to care about Mass Effect's humanity simply because they were humans but that dosen't work for me because they aren't real life humans so I don't care about them simply because they exist.

Earth, I felt, was a pretty egregious example of this. We've only ever seen Mass Effect's Earth from space and we've never been able to set foot on Earth yet it felt like they wanted us to be invested in Earth. Compare Earth to the Citadel: the Citadel was a hub that players could and did visit in each of the games. The players could explore it and they saw it change over time. including from events that had occured. They met people who lived there. It was the stage for important events like meeting companions and Shepard becoming a Spectre to name a few. I was personally invested in the Citadel because of all of that allowed me to built a connection with it.

Example: when I heard that Cerberus (I still wonder how) or the Reapers had taken the Citadel, I was worried about some of the people I'd met there and hoping they had made it to safety. I still wanted to know by the end of the game.  

Sept 11, 2016 19:37:12 GMT Garo said:

You felt like Earth investment was forced? I mean c'mon, what could they do? Show us puppies getting killed by reapers? It's a place all humans come from, it's important on their own.

Why is it important to the player? We know why Shepard and other humans in Mass Effect might consider Earth important and why they might be personally invested in it but why should the player be personally invested in Earth? 

Again, we don't even get to visit it until the beginning and the end of the third and final game. Every important event prior to and during the invasion takes place somewhere else.