Would you be ok if they went back to the Milky Way?

War Assets if the bomb goes off:


The explosion that rocked the Kelphic Valley killed every living creature within a 500-kilometer radius of the hidden bomb. All of the krogan clans gathering in the valley--which included males, females, and the rare krogan children--were wiped out in the blast.

Given these are krogan from all over the planet gathering there, its a pretty safe bet

I did not read all 8 pages so I apologize if I am just parroting others.

The OT ending was really messed up and essentially poisoned the possibility of an MW sequel. If it were just destroy/control they could have just edited some dialogue and be done with it (The reapers died/the reapers just took off and left). But you also have the synthesis ending which fundamentally altered life in the galaxy. There is the 'cycle continues' ending but they can deal with that same way as Shep dying in ME2, not allow that import into the next game. But you also have variations on endings based on your EMS. I don't see them making a coherent sequel based on those endings, even if its far into the future.

They could do a prequel with the first contact war or a younger Anderson as a Spectre but I would not pay for those. So that leaves us with a reboot of the OT, or as some postulated a 'remaster' where they can have a real ending that does not mess up narrative coherence. I doubt that will happen either.

So Andromeda is the way forward. My biggest problem with MEA is the story, the plot and the dialogue. For me its secondary to the animation problems, asari clones, fetch quests, open world and general bugs. The problem is that very few acknowledge the problems with the story/plot/dialogue (am yet to find one article or youtube that focuses on these). So when there is an Andromeda sequel, I don't know if I will buy that either.

Thats fine, I am not talking about the ending in terms of approval/disapproval, I am talking about creating a sequel based on the possible outcomes. Its very difficult to create one that can accommodate all endings and EMS values. If they had just cut out the star child and went to the crucible to push a button or whatever and then some variation on the destroy ending, everyone would have been happy and they would be able to easily accommodate a sequel.

I'd prefer that. But at the same time, it has to be really different from the trilogy to be attractive.

Andromeda (forgetting technical issues for a minute) doesn't contribute much. It's not a new spin on anything. It's so similar to ME1 you have to draw comparisons and that's where the new game is going to struggle because the originals are going to be more charismatic. Happened to Andromeda.

A new game has to offer a new spin. It can't be another 007 agent archetype with a squad on a ship flying across clusters using ancient technology and saving the galaxy from the bad uglies. It has to tell something new or there is no point making it.

Regarding the timeline, I wouldn't mind if they say: this game takes place in a timeline where Shepard destroyed synthetics. Control and Synthesis are just too bizarre and refusal was a joke. So pick destroy and go from there.

Another option I like better is to go Rogue One. Set it a couple of years before the geth attack on Eden Prime. You can be a merchanter seeking profitable opportunities in the Attican Traverse. Show us where the bad reputation we have with the other races comes from. Visit the shipyard where they're building the Normandy. Attempt to steal it. Or set the game after ME1, play as Feron and help Liara recover Shepard. In short, fill in things we were told about during the trilogy that we never got to see (just like the theft of the Death Star plans). There's plenty of those.

No to Milky Way. I want to see New Earth thriving in Andromeda. I'd like to see quarians finally not needing their suits. I don't want to go back to the Milky Way and hear any more about the legend of "Teh Shepard" or dig up Reaper fossils like they're the new Protheans on the block or run into any of Conrad Verner's clones.

Because it's not really populated. It's one of the cardinal sins of the game. You only have one new friendly alien race. Everything else is still about Milky Way races in a new environment. On deciding to move to a new galaxy, they should have invested the same love into creating new races as they did at the start of the ME series. That's one of the reason of why this feels bland.

So, it's basically still a Milky Way game, since for most of the time we still deal with the same old races.

Well - To be honest, there are a few new races. The Kett to start with, and also the Angara. We have not seen the Jardaan yet, but we have come in contact with their creations, the Remnant. Now - as this only takes part in one cluster of the Andromeda galaxy, and Andromeda is far, far bigger than that small cluster, we can assume there are countless new races "in store" for us.

I seen nothing in a "reboot" of the old ME Tilogy. What could it add, other than some high quality graphic updates (and maybe some game play improvements)? You are still playing the same old story. And that old story is already told and over. The outcome is determined completely. There is noting new to tell (apart from maybe some side tales that are not interesting because it would lead to nothing new). I myself certainly do not want to pay for a "remastered" version of a game that I have played to death (and thereby frankly have enough of it).

Yes - Mass Effect Andromeda for me is a foundation on wich a new series can take form. There are so many story's that are not told yet. Who are the Jardaan, and what motivated them? Are the Kett we saw really there true form, or where they only "constructions" based on the local life forms in the cluster? Is the scourge really a energy form? Or are we looking at the tendrils and connections of a big artificial brain? Who knows?

And what lies beyond the local cluster? Maybe, now the cluster is habitable, it's time to explore outside the outside the cluster? Search for the Jardaan. Search for the origin of the Scourge and what the Scourge really is? Search for the "home world" of Kett? And in the process - Meet new races, see new planets, discover new mysteries (and maybe sole some)?

ME:A has a huge potential to grow. The base has been lied down. The base was not flawless, but all game mechanics are now in place. That means physical developing would take far less effort, and more effort can be routed to story telling. If that happens the next game could be a lot better that this base game.

Yes - I know a lot of people here would love to see Bioware crash, and the ME series go to oblivion. I do not go with that destruction-train, because it solves nothing and gains nothing. You can call me stupid and a naive idiot and a dreamer, but at least I stay positive and try to look forward. I like it that way.

If the argument is that there were more races introduced in three games then there were in one then that's naturally yes, but I'm not following where that means its inferior. Heleus is basically only around 2-3 times the size of a MW cluster, so an expectation that it would be populated by as many/more races then the entire MW would be silly.

Having said that, I do agree that MEA is sorely missing a seperate enemy faction. I really like the Kett and Remnant as factions and the exiles are... serviceable I guess (they function better as an explanation of why you're fighting MW species than a genuinely fun faction to fight against per se) but they're really missing a horror/creepy faction a la Collectors/Rachni/Reapers. Frankly I kind of wish they'd done something similar to the Typhon from Prey and have them related to the Scourge i.e. something genuinely alien, but even if not then a some kind of xenomorph-style faction would have at least offered a bit more variety in terms of missions and quests. Maybe a predominantly melee faction of some sort.

Being in the Milky Way or not will not will not fix the real problems with BioWare. As I understand it, there were many issues with the management of ME:A. Many people left the company part way through the development of the game, including upper level managers. This tended to change the "direction" and "vision" of the game. It appears that what happened was these many changes caused other processes that normally would have been in parallel to come to a stop. ME:A was actually the result of about 2.5 years of work once things had gotten nailed down by upper level management.

There are other issues that would have to be addressed as well, such as immature writing. For instance, murder and attempted murder - especially with intent being clearly shown - both carry jail sentences in pretty much every country with a justice system. Silly lines like having your face being tired do not go over well. There are many awkward lines in the game - and a lot of them with this forced genderbender/transgenderism stuff in them that just don't work well. I don't care if a character is gay/bi or not, and I don't really need to hear if they are. Perhaps it would be more natural that if I chose to flirt and then said character would make indications as to a yes or a no it would be more natural - that way both (or all) crowds could be comfortable.

Another issue I have with the writing is that the story doesn't have that "hook". It just doesn't pull me in. I didn't explore everything in ME1 just because it was there. I explored everything because everywhere there were clues about an ancient evil that wiped out everything. I was constantly coming across artifacts that turned people into husks. I was also finding "dragons teeth" that indicated that the cycle is about to repeat. I also found Prothean Spheres, the Leviathan of Dis, 37 million year old Mass Accelerator impacts - tons of cool things. I even found a shifty looking cow that had nothing to do with anything - yet I always go see him on every playthrough. There are tons of cool hints in ME2 as well - they carried it forewards.

I know that the animations stuff has been harped on ad nauseum, but it should be brought up. This is supposed to be a AAA title. AAA titles have something that ME:A lacks, and that is polish. This is likely due to the long development time that left the games creators scrambling at the end. A company needs to be healthy all of the way around in order to produce top notch products. I don't think that the ME:A team was completely healthy.

The voice acting definitely has some major timing issues and inflectional problems as well. "Alec is dead?" I could harp on this, but I will chalk it up in the "lack of polish" category. Sometimes you put in "placeholder" lines and then go back later and get all of the dynamics right. Clearly they ran out of time and left many placeholder lines in as the final product. Again, not what is expected of a AAA
studio.

I'd also like to bring up the antagonists, as well as our new allies. The Kett look uninspired, blocky and retarded. Angarans look pretty weird too. I get that it's an alien, but does it have to be so ugly? The thing looks like a half melted gummy bear. "Artistic integrity" swings both ways.

It's not all doom and gloom - they did get a lot right. They just didn't get it all right. Going back to the Milky Way won't magically make it right, but it would (could) make it feel like the Mass Effect Universe some of us fell in love with.

And yet they were all there on the Citadel, apart from having 4 on your squad. So yes, they did their homework, as opposed to this game, which is basically Milky Way in a different galaxy. I get it, you're content with the one new species approach. But please, try to at least understand that it adds to the overall blandness others are feeling.

I am trying to understand. The problem I have is that you're tying the measure of 'population' down to the bald figure of how many species were introduced and glossing over anything else. This basically means I can stick a codex entry in with a picture of the alien and it's the equivalent of spending 20 hours fleshing out a species that appears as opponents and allies. It's a meaningless metric by itself.

It's like filling a CV with paper mill qualifications and claiming that it makes your more qualified then a doctor because you have more letters after your name. 

Tbh, it sounds like the problem here is less to do with species introduced and more the format with which exploration of Andromeda is going. That's fine, but expecting a game to be something that it isn't doesn't count as reasoning to claim the devs didn't 'do their homework'.