70 hours in, i cannot get most of the complaints. At all. UPDATED OP#2

Andromeda is a good game but it was probably gonna be criticized nearly as much even with patches at launch. the latter half of the game is great but the they didn't manage to leave a good first impression for a 2017 game. our new crew at least at first feel like an alternative version of what we had before for the most part, sadly we can't control their abilities. the game has some great planets but they decided to start our journey with exploring a desert after the intro and later on saving the planet by solving Sudoku puzzles which i didn't mind but i agree that the concept is funny.

The combat is great but not sure if it was the main attraction for the majority. as for Alec, his final moment is admirable cause the concept of saving your children is touching and getting to see it later on with his point of view is also interesting but knowing him before the incident would add more impact to his death. you can roleplay as if you didn't know him much but even then by default your Ryder spent more time with Alec than you ever did. it is not that big of a deal though. In The Witcher 3 for example Ciri made her gaming debut and only book readers knew well about her while gaming audience only got to see her during the tutorial of the 3rd game and yet the game had a touching reunion scene with her and Geralt which still can be appreciated cause the concept of meeting a daughter figure is touching regardless but could have been a better scene if they included her in prequels instead of presenting Alvin (he had his own twist of course).

Yup. i was being generous to those that played it for the sake of combat but overall while i do appreciate good gameplay i play Bioware games for characters. i enjoyed the game more than you did though probably thanks to certain elements like Drack (a self aware Krogan that sees himself as someone expandable despite how deeply others care about him) but yea sadly it is the weakest Bioware game i played in recent years if ever. i usually agrees with Angry Joe reviews and i understand his score but at the same time i can relate with your point of view as well. if characters can't appeal to you in a game that you play for characters then it is hard to bother playing. music not having a strong presence alongside underwhelming banters (opinions vary of course) didn't help either probably.

Unfinished, rough and unpolished are synonyms. But okay...

So you'd consider a car missing its engine to be equivalent to a car missing it's coat of paint? If I forget to stick a garnish on the pie then it's basically the same thing as throwing the raw ingredients down in front of the diner, amirite?

FWIW I don't actually believe that you're struggling with this point and that, more likely, you're arguing for the sake of arguing, which I'm not interested in doing. The point is simply that MEA had issues but they were blown out of proportion by people using the exact logic you're using above. Whether or not you consider that fair is a matter for debate, but the underlying point about whether the game really was hopelessly broken and not finished is not.

Aaaand language.

That's exactly the point I'm making. There isn't.

Look, this is really easy to test. Grab an item, stick it on ebay, and  advertise it as something other than what is. When the buyer comes back with a dispute case, try telling him that whatever you described it as is a synonym and they need to stop taking things literally. See how far it gets you.

There's a time and a place for wordplay, and discussion of what something is and is not isn't really it.

It would have been wierd though... having dad follow you when he's the leader of the team.  I think the game was trying to allow the player to choose whether or not they wanted to be emotionally attached or detached from the family at the start... with the memory triggers to serve as either Ryder discovering his/her dad for the first time really (detached originally) or affirming his/her affection for dad (if played as attached from the beginning)... or, alternatively, the player could continue to play as detached throughout the entire game simply by not finding the memory triggers or visiting Sam in Sam Node to view them.  That's the reason, I'm convinced, that Sam will only cue up the memories within Sam Node (to allow the player to avoid them if they want).

The game is written so allow players some options (point of an RPG after all)... so I wouldn't expect it to be written the absolutely best way for a single option.  It's a background choice you make, much like deciding Shep's background in the CC of ME1.  When you select those first lines, you're just choosing... do you want to play a Ryder who was attached to his family or not.  If yes, select the options that reflect that attachment (i.e. telling Dunn to give your dad a chance, etc.)... if not, select the options that indicate you don't agree with him and you don't know him.  You are then free to write the fan fic that describes their background relationship in more depth either way.

You don't have to "feel" a real loss for Alec in this game to play this game.  In fact, you may not want the attachment.  Sure, the NPCs are going to express the loss... People do to family members even when those family members are estranged.  Scott can still respond in ways that just reaffirms his estrangement or he can start to respond in ways that show a developing attachment after death as he begins to understand his father better, or he can response as though the attachment was always there.  The player is able to decide here in this game... which makes it a step up from FO4.  It's still a role play game.  The player is just going to have to decide some background things in their own head because the game is not going to start with your character at infancy and have you actually play their entire lives so that you can personally "feel" that background... let alone do it in a way that players can absolutely "feel" 3 different background possibilities.

That was part of my point though... because the choice is there and the game then commits to "accommodating" both scenarios... neither one gets as strongly supported in the game's writing as it could if the game were only allowing the player to go with one type of personality.  That's an advantage to games like TW3 that use a PC with a singular personality and then makes all the in-game choices merely decide game actions (like if this particular PC lives or dies).  Bioware attempts to write a different sort of game... one where the player's choices are in choosing the PC's personality and not so much just whether or not this or that NPC lives or dies.

I happen to prefer Bioware's style to TW3.  I don't find choosing a faction or deciding which NPC gets to sit on the throne to be as intriguing as deciding to mold my PC into some sort of different personality with each playthrough.  There's always room for improvement, sure.  If they can expand the range and the amount of dialogue in each possible "personality" pool to accommodate more extremes of personality, I'd be all for it.  For now, we play within the range of difference they set.  A total A-hole to his dad was not within the range they set.  Would have been a nice option... as would have been an option to have a Ryder literally fauning over or conversely dumping on the sibling at every visit to the Nexus.

Comparing with TW3... I didn't play TW or TW2, yet I was supposed to be fawning over Yen the whole game chasing a scent of lilacs and gooseberries.  The romance with Triss came with similar pregame baggage... none of which I "felt" nor did I feel that it was well built up in the dialogue for a player who did not play the previous two games nor had read any of the books.  The Kiera romance, although it was the one that seemed like it could be built in game, also felt "forced"... with her making all the aggressive moves and no way for me to make any personality type choices regard how Geralt responded to those "moves."  I abandoned my playthrough shortly after that point, but my understanding is that the Keira romance doesn't even wind up as being a romance option in the end.  I also found I didn't feel any sort of comradery with the other NPCs with whom Geralt was supposed to have a past... including Ciri (his alleged daughter).  All of the "feels" in that game were 1) not within my ability to choose the nature of the relationship and 2) were, I'm guessing, based very strongly in whatever happened in the previous two games... which was not well described within that 3rd game.