[No Spoilers] (PC) ME:A Textwall/Review: My Perspective on the "Black Sheep" of the Franchise
Jun 8, 2017 18:08:42 GMT
corsair and evhgear like this
Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2017 18:08:42 GMT
Platform: PC
Difficulty: Insanity
Ryder: Bro!Ryder
Romanced: Vetra
!!!WARNING!!! !!!TEXTWALL AHEAD!!!
Notes:
*I will be making references back to the OT and comparisons to the individual games therein, but not the OT as a whole unless I deem it necessary. I don't think it's fair to compare ME: A to an entire trilogy but it is fair to compare and contrast it with the previous individual games.
**I am indeed aware that there is already a thread for BSNer ME:A reviews, but I didn't want to clutter up that thread with my long-winded diatribe. Plz don't pwn me modz!
Preface:
Now that the new game stupor has worn off, I feel ready to give my in-depth opinion on ME:A.
When ME:A was about to drop, I, like many of you, read many of the reviews on the game after the embargo was lifted. The torrent of negative reviews of the game painting it in a bad light was upsetting and I began to think that ME:A would be a pale shadow of the OT. I then went to forums, social media, and comments sections and saw the amount of hate the game was receiving from those who played the trial and those waiting for the launch. I was baffled at how hard people were bashing the game on all fronts. The hordes of the Internet sent me into a sort of despair as the day to unlock drew nearer.
I truly expected the worse and had no hope for a great ME game. Instead of allowing the opinions of others effecting my personal experience of the game, I decided to go on a full media blackout until ME:A launched. When the game finally launched after all those years, I cleared my head of other's opinions and dived in head first. Essentially, the Internet hate machine was in full effect, and still is to some extent.
Personally, I really thought that the “games media” was going to hate ME:A from day one, no matter what. They had to save face after failing to mention the abomination that was ME3’s ending and then calling gamers “entitled” after we wanted something better. Surely a bit of a conspiracy theory, but I can’t shake the feeling. Users bombing the ratings on Metacritic is no surprise either as trolls will be trolls and user reviews on that site are as toxic and vitriolic as they can possibly get. They are also laughably easily to discredit and ignore.
I fully believe that the prevailing mainstream opinion of ME:A is disingenuous at best and complete bullshit at worst, so please, hear me out…
Gameplay:
Gameplay is at the all-time peak of the franchise thus far. The emphasis on cover based shooting has taken a backseat to a more freeform style of fighting with the inclusion of jump jets and more ways to evade enemy fire as well as new ways to navigate the battlefield. The ability to hunker down and take cover from enemy fire remains, of course, and this time does it like ME1, albite far superior. Instead of running at a wall like Shepard in ME1 and dumbly failing to duck and cover, Ryder instinctively ducks and covers whilst a weapon is draw. At first, I disliked the new way cover was handled, but it works well and is very intuitive. I would still prefer the cover mechanics to be contextually based, but ME:A's system works very well and has grown on me.
My playthrough consisted of the insanity difficulty and a fresh Ryder. The game is very difficult at the beginning at this difficulty and get easier and easier as you level and acquire better weaponry. The game could scale difficulty with level better, but isn't bad as is. Overall, I really loved the gameplay and continue to enjoy the piss out of it. ME:A absolutely excels at the most important part of being a game, playing well.
The conversation system has been completely revamped to represent more shades of gray instead of playing either guardian angel or psychopathic maniac roles that the Paragon/Renegade system forced players into has been greatly refined. No longer are you forced down one path or another. You can be the nicest person in one conversation and then a complete flaming dickhead in the nest. The change is welcomed and for the better. Sure, the extremes you can chose as far as choices go are no longer as extreme and like the OT, you do get occasionally railroaded into acting in certain ways at times, but the new system allows for far more nuanced role-playing than ever before.
Gameplay Score: 95/100
Controls:
ME:A’s controls are well polished and intuitive. Ryder feels like he/she has weight to them. The controls aren't floaty in any way and seem to be very responsive. Whilst firearms are holstered, Ryder's movement can be a bit clunky as landing after jumping causes him or her to stop entirely in order to soak up the impact. Same thing happens whilst mantling on to terrain of a high elevation or dropping down slight elevation differences or the soft stop cause by Ryder recovering after executing an evade. If presented with a railing of some description, Ryder can seamlessly vault over it without any penalty to forward momentum which is certainly welcome. The only major issue I experienced was Ryder getting stuck on very small changes in elevation. Getting unstuck would require backing up and trying again or going around. Very annoying, but the resulting glitched animation is quite funny. A better way BioWare could have done this would be to eliminate the hard and soft stops from out-of-combat navigation as well as improve clipping masks on uneven surfaces.
When the guns are draw, the control system definitely takes on a top-speed-zero-drag type of mentality as the hard and soft stops have been replaced with parkour-style combat rolls and other methods of carrying forward momentum. There are still some hard and soft stops that bug me a bit, but I was never killed because of one nor was I ever greatly inconvenienced. Overall, combat control is very smooth and managed to improve upon ME3 considerably, which was no mean feat in and of itself.
The mouse is very responsive with no noticeable acceleration or smoothing. Controls are fully rebindable, although some odd conflicts arise if you clear all binds and then go through the list binding. Overall, controls could use a bit of polish in the realm of fluidity and navigation but combat controls work very well, which is really where it counts the most. This is the best PC version of any ME game that BioWare has put out to date.
Control Score: 90/100
Graphics and Performance:
ME:A is the best looking game to date. With all settings on Ultra, textures are very sharp, shadows are crisp, lighting is very pretty, and effects look amazing. It’s obvious to me that the shift to the Frostbite 3 engine greatly improved the graphical fidelity of the game. The improvements are readily apparent especially whilst comparing the ME:A to previous entries utilizing the outdated Unreal 3 engine. Graphically, ME:A is on par with if not better than any other triple A title currently out.
(Partial specs in sig/full specs in bio.) Performance wise ME:A is okay to good. While the graphical fidelity is definitely there, it isn’t so Crysis-level amazing the it warrants the widely varying performance. Depending on where you are, performance is either quite good or teetering on bad. Oddly enough, dropping graphics settings down to lower settings only really helps average and maximum framerate. Minimum framerates are pretty consistent regardless of graphics settings. That is certainly weird scaling, but the game looks good on most settings, so I’m not all the surprised. ME:A can be a bit of a system hog at time. On my system, All settings maxed, I saw great fps while on more open and barren areas of ~120 fps. When I came into more closed and clustered areas, I saw significant drop to ~80 fps. That is a pretty big drop, but totally playable to most. Personally, 80 fps is as low as I can stomach on my 240 Hz G-Sync monitor. PC performance isn’t bad, but further optimization could certainly be done. Also, avoid SLI and CrossFire at all costs. mGPU support in ME:A is perpetually broken and no fix seems imminent. You get a minor performance boost from mGPU, but it also introduces extreme micro and macro stutter.
Graphics Score: 90/100
Performance Score: 70/100
Story:
BioWare obviously played it very safe with the story of ME:A. There are no real character deaths or decisions that have major effects on the game, but I would assume, like the OT, that we will see far more impact of decisions in future games and the effects on the characters therein. ME:A reminds me very much of ME1 in the story department and brings the sensation of exploration, awe, and entering the unknown but I found Andromeda's story to pull me in far more. The story gets off to a slow start before it all gets going, but is a far quicker pickup than ME1 and its endless Citadel fetch quests, a welcomed change.
Like the OT, the main plot of the game is full of sci-fi tropes and can tend to be fairly predictable. I have never really thought that BioWare's main plots have ever been groundbreaking or even original nor do I think BioWare’s story writing abilities are the cream of the gaming industry crop. What there are though, is engaging. Never once did I find myself bored with the story nor did I just want to get through it. I savored every moment. Unlike the OT, ME:A takes a far more laid back tone. There is no impending doom leering over the horizon, but a new galaxy to settle and explore. The story greatly reflects that Ryder is not saving the galaxy, but trying to make the most of a colonization mission gone awry. After ME3’s ending, the (some may say drastic) change in tone helps to heal old wounds left behind from the ending of the OT.
Overall, the story is engaging and come to a satisfying conclusion (a welcomed change from ME3, lul
) and kept me interested from start to finish whilst feeling very Mass Effect. Surely BioWare could have taken more risk with it, included more weighty decisions, and delve deeper into certain aspects, but it is obvious that they wanted to create a safe jumping off point for a new series. I approve.
Story Score: 75/100
Characters:
What BioWare lacks in main story writing ability they more than make up for with their ability to craft memorable characters is the main thing the separates them from the other space operas out there as well as other studios Their ability to create great characters seems to be something that is uniquely BioWare, and that is ever present in ME:A.
ME:A’s characters are far more interesting than ME1’s for a multitude of reasons, but that is primarily because they are not cardboard cutouts this time around and actually develop during the course of the game. Both Ryder and his/her our crew is a hilariously fun, ragtag group of misfits all in way over their heads. They are dreamers hoping for a better life outside of the Milky Way. There is far more optimism amongst them than your crew in the OT and I really like the feel of a civilian crew rather than a bunch of sticks-up-there-asses military badasses. No one is perfect anymore and they fuck up, frequently. Your crew feels like real, flawed people, not a collection of mary sues embodying tropes of varies bad-motherfucker types. The crew bickers amongst themselves and can be a bit out of control at time, but in the end, everybody buckles down and does their jobs with aplomb. I love the Ryder and new crew and hope to see them many more times in the future.
Romance in the game has taken a much more mature theme with certain romances featuring significant nudity. I romanced Vetra and was sadly left with a shitty fade to black, but the course of the romance, the build up, and the final scene were very satisfying. (Disappointed in the lack of femtur nudity imo.
) Vetra may not be Tali, but she is easily the second best female character in the franchise. From what I watched and discussed, the other romances are all satisfying in the same ways, although I have no experience with them personally. Romance has been changed to flow a lot more naturally then the OT's talk 3 times then fuck system. Romance has certainly improved in ME:A over the OT and I love it.
Sure, no one in Andromeda will ever replace the perfect duo, team dextro, of Tali and Garrus, but I never once missed them in spite of the new crew and future installments will surely bring Ryder and his band of misfits to new highs.
Character Score: 85/100
Technical:
ME:A certainly had a fair share of technical issues on zero day, but patches have addressed most of these and those remaining will surely be fixed as later patches are launched. As far as launches go, ME:A was very stable on my system (partial specs in sig/full specs in bio) and never crashed or errored.
Animation has been a major point of contention and I can understand why. ME:A suffers from what all BioWare games seemingly suffer from, a problem that I call “BioWare face.” BioWare face is essentially how BioWare’s human and human-like faces are encroach upon the depths of the uncanny valley. This has plagued all of the ME games in the franchise thus far, but it hasn’t effected ME:A worse then previous entries like the memes and image macros would have you believe. In classic BioWare fashion, the human and human-like facial animation is wonky/janky, but the body animation is much improved over previously entries with animations such as walking and running being greatly improved over ME3, which was damn good in its own right. Surprisingly enough turians, salarians, krogans, and other non-human aliens facial animation is excellent. Only the humans and asari suffer from the dreaded BioWare face.
On the topic of bugs and glitches, ME:A had a boatload of them on launch. They can range from hilariously entertaining to outright game breaking. My playthrough was relatively bug free, but I did encounter some goofy animation bugs that gave me a hearty chuckle. There are reports of bugs causing people to loose hours of progress so be weary and save often. There are also some bugged quests After the many patches so far implemented, most bugs are fixed but a number of the do remain in wait of future patches.
I have seen many complaints about the save system as you can only manually save outside of main missions and there is no quicksave command. I certainly would like a quicksave key, but I like how the save system in the main missions work as it actually punishes the player somewhat for failing. That could be just me though, as I hark back to the days of SP games actually being difficult and thoroughly enjoy the challenge.
I also found the voice acting to be on point even if there are no big-talent names doing the VO work this time around. No issues here, imo.
Technical Score: 65/100
Conclusion:
Like any individual game in the OT, ME:A has flaws but is a great game in the end. The difference with ME:A vs. say ME1 is that ME:A had the odds stacked against it. Not only did it somehow have to emolliate the hard feeling left in many ME fan's hearts after the ending of the OT, but it also had to create a new jumping off point for the future of ME (which I think it did wonderfully.) ME:A had the full wrath of the Internet hate machine from the very start for reasons unbeknownst to me.
From the first leaks to the the final product, ME:A has been the target of what I would be consider pathological hatred. I don't lump those with legitimate subjective criticism into this group, but the people who actually want ME:A to fail. The people who want BioWare to go the way of other closed EA studios. It baffles me to no end.
In closing, I really enjoyed the experience the ME:A provided and did not find its failings to pull me out of the immersion nor effect my enjoyment of the game. Unlike ME3, I am eagerly looking forward to ME:A2 and I am hopeful for the future of the franchise. (Surely future patches will indeed improve the game further and fix the technical issues and add QoL improvements but I can't predict the future so I have based all of this on 1.07 and previous versions.)
Final Score: 85/100
TL;DR: Even with its flaws, I really liked ME:A and am greatly looking forward to ME:A2
Difficulty: Insanity
Ryder: Bro!Ryder
Romanced: Vetra
!!!WARNING!!! !!!TEXTWALL AHEAD!!!
Notes:
*I will be making references back to the OT and comparisons to the individual games therein, but not the OT as a whole unless I deem it necessary. I don't think it's fair to compare ME: A to an entire trilogy but it is fair to compare and contrast it with the previous individual games.
**I am indeed aware that there is already a thread for BSNer ME:A reviews, but I didn't want to clutter up that thread with my long-winded diatribe. Plz don't pwn me modz!
Preface:
Now that the new game stupor has worn off, I feel ready to give my in-depth opinion on ME:A.
When ME:A was about to drop, I, like many of you, read many of the reviews on the game after the embargo was lifted. The torrent of negative reviews of the game painting it in a bad light was upsetting and I began to think that ME:A would be a pale shadow of the OT. I then went to forums, social media, and comments sections and saw the amount of hate the game was receiving from those who played the trial and those waiting for the launch. I was baffled at how hard people were bashing the game on all fronts. The hordes of the Internet sent me into a sort of despair as the day to unlock drew nearer.
I truly expected the worse and had no hope for a great ME game. Instead of allowing the opinions of others effecting my personal experience of the game, I decided to go on a full media blackout until ME:A launched. When the game finally launched after all those years, I cleared my head of other's opinions and dived in head first. Essentially, the Internet hate machine was in full effect, and still is to some extent.
Personally, I really thought that the “games media” was going to hate ME:A from day one, no matter what. They had to save face after failing to mention the abomination that was ME3’s ending and then calling gamers “entitled” after we wanted something better. Surely a bit of a conspiracy theory, but I can’t shake the feeling. Users bombing the ratings on Metacritic is no surprise either as trolls will be trolls and user reviews on that site are as toxic and vitriolic as they can possibly get. They are also laughably easily to discredit and ignore.
I fully believe that the prevailing mainstream opinion of ME:A is disingenuous at best and complete bullshit at worst, so please, hear me out…
Gameplay:
Gameplay is at the all-time peak of the franchise thus far. The emphasis on cover based shooting has taken a backseat to a more freeform style of fighting with the inclusion of jump jets and more ways to evade enemy fire as well as new ways to navigate the battlefield. The ability to hunker down and take cover from enemy fire remains, of course, and this time does it like ME1, albite far superior. Instead of running at a wall like Shepard in ME1 and dumbly failing to duck and cover, Ryder instinctively ducks and covers whilst a weapon is draw. At first, I disliked the new way cover was handled, but it works well and is very intuitive. I would still prefer the cover mechanics to be contextually based, but ME:A's system works very well and has grown on me.
My playthrough consisted of the insanity difficulty and a fresh Ryder. The game is very difficult at the beginning at this difficulty and get easier and easier as you level and acquire better weaponry. The game could scale difficulty with level better, but isn't bad as is. Overall, I really loved the gameplay and continue to enjoy the piss out of it. ME:A absolutely excels at the most important part of being a game, playing well.
The conversation system has been completely revamped to represent more shades of gray instead of playing either guardian angel or psychopathic maniac roles that the Paragon/Renegade system forced players into has been greatly refined. No longer are you forced down one path or another. You can be the nicest person in one conversation and then a complete flaming dickhead in the nest. The change is welcomed and for the better. Sure, the extremes you can chose as far as choices go are no longer as extreme and like the OT, you do get occasionally railroaded into acting in certain ways at times, but the new system allows for far more nuanced role-playing than ever before.
Gameplay Score: 95/100
Controls:
ME:A’s controls are well polished and intuitive. Ryder feels like he/she has weight to them. The controls aren't floaty in any way and seem to be very responsive. Whilst firearms are holstered, Ryder's movement can be a bit clunky as landing after jumping causes him or her to stop entirely in order to soak up the impact. Same thing happens whilst mantling on to terrain of a high elevation or dropping down slight elevation differences or the soft stop cause by Ryder recovering after executing an evade. If presented with a railing of some description, Ryder can seamlessly vault over it without any penalty to forward momentum which is certainly welcome. The only major issue I experienced was Ryder getting stuck on very small changes in elevation. Getting unstuck would require backing up and trying again or going around. Very annoying, but the resulting glitched animation is quite funny. A better way BioWare could have done this would be to eliminate the hard and soft stops from out-of-combat navigation as well as improve clipping masks on uneven surfaces.
When the guns are draw, the control system definitely takes on a top-speed-zero-drag type of mentality as the hard and soft stops have been replaced with parkour-style combat rolls and other methods of carrying forward momentum. There are still some hard and soft stops that bug me a bit, but I was never killed because of one nor was I ever greatly inconvenienced. Overall, combat control is very smooth and managed to improve upon ME3 considerably, which was no mean feat in and of itself.
The mouse is very responsive with no noticeable acceleration or smoothing. Controls are fully rebindable, although some odd conflicts arise if you clear all binds and then go through the list binding. Overall, controls could use a bit of polish in the realm of fluidity and navigation but combat controls work very well, which is really where it counts the most. This is the best PC version of any ME game that BioWare has put out to date.
Control Score: 90/100
Graphics and Performance:
ME:A is the best looking game to date. With all settings on Ultra, textures are very sharp, shadows are crisp, lighting is very pretty, and effects look amazing. It’s obvious to me that the shift to the Frostbite 3 engine greatly improved the graphical fidelity of the game. The improvements are readily apparent especially whilst comparing the ME:A to previous entries utilizing the outdated Unreal 3 engine. Graphically, ME:A is on par with if not better than any other triple A title currently out.
(Partial specs in sig/full specs in bio.) Performance wise ME:A is okay to good. While the graphical fidelity is definitely there, it isn’t so Crysis-level amazing the it warrants the widely varying performance. Depending on where you are, performance is either quite good or teetering on bad. Oddly enough, dropping graphics settings down to lower settings only really helps average and maximum framerate. Minimum framerates are pretty consistent regardless of graphics settings. That is certainly weird scaling, but the game looks good on most settings, so I’m not all the surprised. ME:A can be a bit of a system hog at time. On my system, All settings maxed, I saw great fps while on more open and barren areas of ~120 fps. When I came into more closed and clustered areas, I saw significant drop to ~80 fps. That is a pretty big drop, but totally playable to most. Personally, 80 fps is as low as I can stomach on my 240 Hz G-Sync monitor. PC performance isn’t bad, but further optimization could certainly be done. Also, avoid SLI and CrossFire at all costs. mGPU support in ME:A is perpetually broken and no fix seems imminent. You get a minor performance boost from mGPU, but it also introduces extreme micro and macro stutter.
Graphics Score: 90/100
Performance Score: 70/100
Story:
BioWare obviously played it very safe with the story of ME:A. There are no real character deaths or decisions that have major effects on the game, but I would assume, like the OT, that we will see far more impact of decisions in future games and the effects on the characters therein. ME:A reminds me very much of ME1 in the story department and brings the sensation of exploration, awe, and entering the unknown but I found Andromeda's story to pull me in far more. The story gets off to a slow start before it all gets going, but is a far quicker pickup than ME1 and its endless Citadel fetch quests, a welcomed change.
Like the OT, the main plot of the game is full of sci-fi tropes and can tend to be fairly predictable. I have never really thought that BioWare's main plots have ever been groundbreaking or even original nor do I think BioWare’s story writing abilities are the cream of the gaming industry crop. What there are though, is engaging. Never once did I find myself bored with the story nor did I just want to get through it. I savored every moment. Unlike the OT, ME:A takes a far more laid back tone. There is no impending doom leering over the horizon, but a new galaxy to settle and explore. The story greatly reflects that Ryder is not saving the galaxy, but trying to make the most of a colonization mission gone awry. After ME3’s ending, the (some may say drastic) change in tone helps to heal old wounds left behind from the ending of the OT.
Overall, the story is engaging and come to a satisfying conclusion (a welcomed change from ME3, lul
) and kept me interested from start to finish whilst feeling very Mass Effect. Surely BioWare could have taken more risk with it, included more weighty decisions, and delve deeper into certain aspects, but it is obvious that they wanted to create a safe jumping off point for a new series. I approve.Story Score: 75/100
Characters:
What BioWare lacks in main story writing ability they more than make up for with their ability to craft memorable characters is the main thing the separates them from the other space operas out there as well as other studios Their ability to create great characters seems to be something that is uniquely BioWare, and that is ever present in ME:A.
ME:A’s characters are far more interesting than ME1’s for a multitude of reasons, but that is primarily because they are not cardboard cutouts this time around and actually develop during the course of the game. Both Ryder and his/her our crew is a hilariously fun, ragtag group of misfits all in way over their heads. They are dreamers hoping for a better life outside of the Milky Way. There is far more optimism amongst them than your crew in the OT and I really like the feel of a civilian crew rather than a bunch of sticks-up-there-asses military badasses. No one is perfect anymore and they fuck up, frequently. Your crew feels like real, flawed people, not a collection of mary sues embodying tropes of varies bad-motherfucker types. The crew bickers amongst themselves and can be a bit out of control at time, but in the end, everybody buckles down and does their jobs with aplomb. I love the Ryder and new crew and hope to see them many more times in the future.
Romance in the game has taken a much more mature theme with certain romances featuring significant nudity. I romanced Vetra and was sadly left with a shitty fade to black, but the course of the romance, the build up, and the final scene were very satisfying. (Disappointed in the lack of femtur nudity imo.
) Vetra may not be Tali, but she is easily the second best female character in the franchise. From what I watched and discussed, the other romances are all satisfying in the same ways, although I have no experience with them personally. Romance has been changed to flow a lot more naturally then the OT's talk 3 times then fuck system. Romance has certainly improved in ME:A over the OT and I love it.Sure, no one in Andromeda will ever replace the perfect duo, team dextro, of Tali and Garrus, but I never once missed them in spite of the new crew and future installments will surely bring Ryder and his band of misfits to new highs.
Character Score: 85/100
Technical:
ME:A certainly had a fair share of technical issues on zero day, but patches have addressed most of these and those remaining will surely be fixed as later patches are launched. As far as launches go, ME:A was very stable on my system (partial specs in sig/full specs in bio) and never crashed or errored.
Animation has been a major point of contention and I can understand why. ME:A suffers from what all BioWare games seemingly suffer from, a problem that I call “BioWare face.” BioWare face is essentially how BioWare’s human and human-like faces are encroach upon the depths of the uncanny valley. This has plagued all of the ME games in the franchise thus far, but it hasn’t effected ME:A worse then previous entries like the memes and image macros would have you believe. In classic BioWare fashion, the human and human-like facial animation is wonky/janky, but the body animation is much improved over previously entries with animations such as walking and running being greatly improved over ME3, which was damn good in its own right. Surprisingly enough turians, salarians, krogans, and other non-human aliens facial animation is excellent. Only the humans and asari suffer from the dreaded BioWare face.
On the topic of bugs and glitches, ME:A had a boatload of them on launch. They can range from hilariously entertaining to outright game breaking. My playthrough was relatively bug free, but I did encounter some goofy animation bugs that gave me a hearty chuckle. There are reports of bugs causing people to loose hours of progress so be weary and save often. There are also some bugged quests After the many patches so far implemented, most bugs are fixed but a number of the do remain in wait of future patches.
I have seen many complaints about the save system as you can only manually save outside of main missions and there is no quicksave command. I certainly would like a quicksave key, but I like how the save system in the main missions work as it actually punishes the player somewhat for failing. That could be just me though, as I hark back to the days of SP games actually being difficult and thoroughly enjoy the challenge.
I also found the voice acting to be on point even if there are no big-talent names doing the VO work this time around. No issues here, imo.
Technical Score: 65/100
Conclusion:
Like any individual game in the OT, ME:A has flaws but is a great game in the end. The difference with ME:A vs. say ME1 is that ME:A had the odds stacked against it. Not only did it somehow have to emolliate the hard feeling left in many ME fan's hearts after the ending of the OT, but it also had to create a new jumping off point for the future of ME (which I think it did wonderfully.) ME:A had the full wrath of the Internet hate machine from the very start for reasons unbeknownst to me.
From the first leaks to the the final product, ME:A has been the target of what I would be consider pathological hatred. I don't lump those with legitimate subjective criticism into this group, but the people who actually want ME:A to fail. The people who want BioWare to go the way of other closed EA studios. It baffles me to no end.
In closing, I really enjoyed the experience the ME:A provided and did not find its failings to pull me out of the immersion nor effect my enjoyment of the game. Unlike ME3, I am eagerly looking forward to ME:A2 and I am hopeful for the future of the franchise. (Surely future patches will indeed improve the game further and fix the technical issues and add QoL improvements but I can't predict the future so I have based all of this on 1.07 and previous versions.)
Final Score: 85/100
TL;DR: Even with its flaws, I really liked ME:A and am greatly looking forward to ME:A2
ME:A sold a lot better than the naysayers want to admit. It wasn't a financial flop and the Loltaku articles are clickbait bullshit. No need to worry. More shit is on the horizon my friend. 