Why do people here act like animations....

You mean reading two lines and scrolling down 3 pages worth of pictures to read two more lines and scroll down 3 more pages of pictures? Nothing at all ... if you like reading picture books.

One thing that stood out as bad and really bothered me more than it probably bothered other people was all the Asari looking alike. It wouldn't have bothered me as much if it was just the background models that you didn't interact with, but it was just ridiculous to have named characters who were supposed to be unique individuals looking the same. Lexi, Keri, the Asari Pathfinder, they shouldn't have been the same, it was just ridiculous.

This would have been like having Liara with her own model in ME:1, but Benezia, the Asari Counselor, Shiala, and the Asari consort all with the same face. It also just makes the game come across as half-assed.

- Story-- There were several plots going on at once. Can you be more specific?

- Uninteresting characters: Kallo was excellent The drack/Kesh dynamic was interesting, Jaal was interesting (outside of cutscenes), but yeah, they seemed to be "themed" characters rather than people. I agree.

- Dull open world- Open Worlds can only be so interesting in a video game. Have you tried looking outside your window lately?

- Bad side quest design-- Can you be more specific? I found that I actually wanted to do most of them, especially on Voeld.

- Cant control squadmates combat abilities-- Maybe Bioware watched players like me NEVER control their abilties in the first place. Programable AI of DAO and DA2 is as much controlling as I ever want to do- Micromanage ONCE and forget it. And sadly, it's gone forever.

- Ryder not as interesting/couldnt roleplay: Agree about lack of role play. On the fence about "not as interesting." I could agree with "not as badass."

- Villain -- I totally hated the Archon. What was wrong with the villain? I wanted to smash him. Isn't that the Villain's job? Job accomplished.

- Over use of jokes/humor in serious situations: I can only think of 2-3 times where there was inappropriate hilarity. I think at least one of them was optional.

The Asari clone army- I could not give a fuck about this. I was more annoyed by another human having my hairstyle than I ever will be about Asari's looking alike. Or the fact that all of the Turian's look either bone white or someone had vomited green bile all over them. Salarian's and most Krogan looked alike too, but there is little or no urge to fuck them, so people aren't looking as closely.

- Only 2 Andromeda races vs 5 MW races. - Yeah, I missed me some Drell and Quarians, but we got an entire new race from scratch (technically, new engine, EVERYTHING was from scratch)

I ENJOYED MYSELF. I did not expect an epic sonnet, poetry, something life changing. RYDER IS NOT SHEPARD. And the sooner you stop expecting her/him to be Shepard, the sooner you can pluck out the silver linings of a solid game.

*drops mic*

Couldn't agree more with the OP. Many fanboys and Bioware shills, still believe the game didn't do well because of the outrage from fans. How about because maybe the game just isn't good? Admittedly, the game isn't terrible, a 6/10 on its best day, but those aren't the standards Bioware and AAA developers go for. So in those regards it's deemed as a failure. There just isn't a whole lot to talk about in Andromeda, nothing stands out but the combat, which in itself is flawed. Weak story, characters, villain, and setting, make this arguably one of the worst, if not, the worst game Bioware has ever done.

I think that is the soul of my OP. The idea that many avid Bioware/MEA supporters has this innate belief that really nothing was wrong with the game outside of animations. Even to some, even nothing was even wrong with the animations.

Just like you have people on one side blaming the failures of Bioware on SJWs. On the other side you have those blamming the idea of no DLC on a "loud minority" of fans who were always wanting to take down Bioware and MEA was just low hanging fruit for them.

So yeah I agree. Many MEA fans have told themselves that outside of animations, MEA had all the makings of a standard AAA Bioware game which is not true. MEA was not standard Bioware quality cause if it were, it wouldnt be the lowest reviewed Bioware game ever and the 1st since ME1 to not get any SP DLC.

The Darkspawn weren't you're main enemy though, Loghain, and also the Archdemon in the shadows were.  The Darkspawn were just supposed to be the generic fodder enemy you beat up on.  Same as in ME:1, Saren, Sovereign and the reapers were main enemy, the Geth, generic Krogan, etc were used as the fodder enemy.  Saren was always one step ahead of you, you were chasing him all game.  

ME:2, the collectors destroyed the Normandy and killed you, so that the entire game they were built up as something bigger that you had to prepare yourself for, upgrade your ship, assemble a team.  You never just dominated them, you snuck on their ships, and escaped once they found you were there.  You didn;t overrun entire Collector ships and take them over.  The game used mercs as the fodder enemy that you fought over and over and just killed in droves at every turn.

ME:3 the altered races and husks were the fodder enemies, while reapers kept their air of invincibility the entire game, you had to pretty much an entire armada to kill the reaper you did kill.

However, in ME:A, the Kett were never built up into the anything, they tried to use them as both fodder and main enemy and it didn't work because you had no reason to fear them because you dominated them the entire game until the story called for them to all of a sudden show their dominance and just take the Nexus.  Up until then they were nothing.  I mean a ragtag group of exiles kicked them completely off of a planet.  For the Kett to have worked the Archon needed to be more actively involved in going against you, or the Kett needed a Saren type agent who was opposing you throughout the game, something to make them more than just fodder.  

Darkspawn were the fodder enemy, they were not the main enemy.  Loghain was the one who left you and the king to die, discredited you and the Wardens and put bounties on your head.  Loghain was the one who assumed power so that you had to build your little coalition to face at the end of the game and insert a new leader.  Loghan was the one who had Eamon poisoned.  Loghain was the one standing in your way because he wouldn't take seriously the idea that a blight was coming and an Archdemon would appear.  He was your obstacle in fulfilling your duties of using the treaties to bring everyone together to stop the blight and ultimately the archdemon at the end.

Had he not been there, you never become the Warden and the game would have went from Ostagar directly the end with Cailan & Duncan.  Darkspawn played no role as an antagonist or advancing the story, they were just there to kill.  Who were the Darkspawn leaders, their main characters, the ones plotting against you, what plans or schemes were they hatching against you?

The Reapers and the Darkspawn are one of the main enemies of the game and is the reason why the protagonist are driven to action.