Open world kills replay...

The open world design felt real and organic for me. I will have no issues with the side-quests if they made them interesting. Get rid of the boring filler side-quests and replace them with interesting side-quests and i will explore those open worlds EVERY single time.

Even if it means the result would be fewer side-quests, i'd be ok with that...quality over quantity. Those small side missions in ME2 in the form of those "SOS" missions? They wasn't that big, but they added to the game and what you was doing. Dead Space 3 (i know linear game) had a few side-missions in that game too, but every time i play that game i will ALWAYS do those side missions because they have you walking through dark tight corridors and you get information relating to the story AND there was always a huge reward at the end in the form of weapons or equipment.

A few side missions in Andromeda had you finishing side missions with nothing more than a mission completed or you have the NPC just saying to you afterwards "thank you..i will never forget this"..lol wut?.. ....i just traveled across the cosmos to place some braclet on top of a mountain getting my a$$ waxed by Brute Fiends, Kett and Remnants and that is all you have to say???!!..... ......

A completed critical path playthrough of MEA to enjoy a specific romance took me 11 hours.
(a 98% playthrough took me 90 hours).

So the decision to not pursue additional content is largely in the players' control.

1. If you like to be stuck in a class just don't swithch profiles. Easy fix.
2. When you put it that way unique dialogue and interrupts encourage at least four PT in MEA.
3. Rana, Council, Rachni Queen, Udian vs Andersson etc. Just how are any of those more meaningful than killing Kalinda or not? Choosing interim ambassador? Stopping Sloanes drug business or letting it continue? Slaughtering all the firefighters or ending it peacefully? Giving the Krogans the drive core? Nilken murder charge? Contrary to ME1 here we get to see the consequences in game instead of having to wait another game (and they were ultimately pointless most of the time in MET). Furthermore choosing between Raeka and Dracks scouts is anything BUT superficial. Same for making  Avitus be pathfinder or not or killing Akksul or not etc etc. Those choices have "real" in game consequences. We don't get to kill anyone of the Tempest crew. That is true. But I do have Drack hanging by a thread in one  PT. He really despises me now and it wil be interesting to see what that will amount to in the future. There is nothing like the Virmire sacrifice - yet.


4. You can of course just go with looted or bought like in the olden days. It's not like anyone is forcing you to do any crafting. They have actually given us a choice. Those that like crafting can do it and those that don't can just shop till they drop or go with finders keepers. How is that bad for replay? For anything?

But my OCD.  :rage:

Honestly, I have an obscene amount of ME2 playthroughs and after the first playthrough I just edited the savegames to give me maximum ressources so I could check out all additional dialogues, all the romances and play every class.
There is absolutely no need for an 100% playthrough everytime, not even in linear game like ME2. I even make disaster playthroughs were I just do the minimum required to see what happens in Sequels.

You get some interesting results in ME3 and dialogues you can't see otherwise. I just do one 100% playthrough as my canon Ryder at some point.

For me combining Bioware's strengths with Bethesdas would make for a near perfect game. An open world that comes alive and a real story. Most of all interesting companions. One, the open world part, is Bethesdas, and the other one is Bioware. The concepts coming together, while leaving out the weaknesses, is what I'm looking for.

If they'd left the romances out. Not that I'm against romances, but in this game it's just number crunching and entirely useless since you can establish a mixed harem. Regardless of sexual orientation, jealousy or any meaningful element to ít.

100% the game, move on to next game, replay MEA a few months later.

MEA wasn't built to replay over and over again like the old games that were much shorter. It was built to be over 100 hours so you can enjoy the game in its entirety in one playthrough. The old games forced me to play through the same repetitive campaign that I already knew just to try out other powers or actually use all my characters. That was boring. I hate doing multiple playthroughs of a linear only game. There's way too many other games to play.

You only need to do maybe two or three playthroughs at most and there's no reason to be in any hurry to rush through it. Mass Effect won't be coming back out for some time now

But you have freedom to approach the story content as you please or not at all. Same reason why MEA is more fun than having to replay the story over and over again

That's why I said, combined strengths would make for a near perfect game. Both Bioware and Bethesda shine in some aspects and they suck at others. In Bethesdas case it's the world not reacting to your achievements and rather poorly written companions and the newly introduced romances. In Biowares case it's statuesque NPCs and newly introduced worlds or maps that don't even try at looking alive.

What Beth has going for it is the moddability. I very much doubt that I would play their games nearly as much if it wasn't for the excellen modding community.

I agree. BioWare open world games are much more boring, I liked ME1-ME3 (and also DAO and DA2) way of doing missions and side missions from ME2 was cool and not too large too disrupt main story or characters progress.

I don't think the vestiges of the OW kill Andromeda replayability. They do in Inquisition for me because you need to close those rifts and put camps down to advance the plot,  but in Andromeda they are easily just.. not done, and all planets easily get to 100 viability only on the main planetary stories that are great and comp missions that are even better. It is really a pretty condensed experience, and there are never silent stretches of boredom or enforced returns to skyhold to do wartable crap to unlock parts of the areas, etc. Also smaller cast eliminated the dread useless companion content & gearing them up you do not want doing like in Inquisition.