Most Underrated Game: One Year Later

Definitely overhated. It's not perfect, but the issues I have with the game can be fixed without scrapping the entire enterprise. I think a sequel with save importing (or keep importing) and actual consequences for choices made (Sloane v. Reyes, sparing/killing Primus, Arresting v. releasing Dr. Aden, to name a few) would go a long way toward bringing people back. Starting over with a new protagonist and crew would just be a step backwards, because we can never see the true consequences of choices in the first game of a series. It takes a second game to show how everything plays out. Even the Virmire choice would be inconsequential if the OT had stopped at ME1.

I think the development of Andromeda was filled with good instincts/intentions with varying levels of execution:
- Upping mobility and making combat more dynamic? That was great. I didn't want jump jets until I had them, now I never want to be without.
- Bringing back loyalty missions and one-on-one get-togethers with crew? Definitely love this, just wish I loved my crew more.
- An attitude of exploration and fun? Good in theory, but it tried to force a Citadel DLC feel onto relationships that hadn't had 3 games to deepen. Too soon.
- Male and female protagonists that exist in each other's stories? Awesome. I just want both to be awake and interacting in the next game. The chemistry between Fryda and Tom is exceptional. They are my favorite female and male Bioware protagonist VAs to date (well, Jen Hale and Fryda are jointly my favorite female protagonists) and I will be very sad if we don't get to have them back.
- Freedom to play the way you want (e.g., no class restrictions, multiple ways to get resources and gear, tens of optional sidequests). This is actually awesome, but if you don't understand how this works (as I didn't on my first playthrough) it's easy to get overwhelmed with options and start feeling like you have to do things you don't enjoy. My second playthrough was so much more fun because I ignored everything that felt like a chore (tasks, caches, mining, crafting, random mook fights, APEX missions, profiles) and just did stuff I enjoyed, like critical path quests, loyalty missions and tobogganing down snowy cliffs on Voeld. All with just 3 powers and pretty much one gun for the duration. I'm not arguing against all this freedom, I love it. I'm just arguing for better training of players so they realize they can just do the things they like and ignore the rest. If you like crafting, knock yourself out.
- Emotive Ryder. I'm all for Ryder not being a brick like Shepard. The tone system is a good starting point but I felt it needs a few tweaks. Professional and logical felt too similar. Emotional seemed always to say the correct (Paragon) thing. I think it would be nice if a certain response type is wrong depending on the situation, so people need to think before just habitually choosing bottom left. Sometimes emotional people have inappropriate outbursts. Sometimes logical or humorous people come off as uncaring jerks.
- Return of hazards. I loved this, I just didn't love being told every time the temperature changed.

Many of the things I liked less in the game I can attribute to lack of time/resources or resting on laurels:
Reused Asari faces, reused alien heads in general, reused dinosaurs and space bears, lack of finish on many faces (e.g., Kandros, Vorn), wonky animations, crew that I should have loved more but didn't. All of these things can be polished in a sequel. (To be clear, I loved the VAs for the crew, just not their dialogue.)

Some things may difficult to fix: I don't think Bioware has hit the sweet spot on open worlds v. corridors yet. The open world part limits what can be done, for example, you can't drive 130kph in a detailed environment, so we get multiple barren areas (sand, snow, asteroids). Having so much room filled with inconsequential tasks makes the narrative lose focus. I think a more even mix of Habitat 7 style semi-open corridors, Havarl-like open but detailed maps that can't be driven on and wide open areas like Elaaden and Kadara would be good. Throw in a few ships/buildings with old fashioned corridors too. I'd rather have a 60 hour game with less driving and fewer tasks than a 120 hour game filled with rock scanning and mooks randomly jumping out of shuttles.

I think the best way forward is to continue in Andromeda but treat MEA as a two-and-done rather than a trilogy, so that nothing in MEA2 needs to be left open ended. Bioware could up the heat by having a larger scale conflict. Maybe the Jardaan return and want to scrub the system to start over so Ryder has to form an alliance with the Kett to avoid everyone in the cluster getting wiped out (this may be too Reaper-esque). Or maybe the Kett invade in force and the Angara must petition the Jardaan to intervene while discovering their creators are actually arrogant assholes. Or maybe everyone has to fight "the Enemy" of the Jardaan, who are attracted by Meridian being online. Or maybe the issue is the uncontrolled growth of the Scourge now that remnant tech is lit up across the cluster. Bring back the original crew with a little bit more maturity (looking at you, Liam ) and put the screws to them. Maybe Ryder has to choose between mom or sibling surviving.

I'll stop as I'm getting carried away.

I sunk more hours into Andromeda than any other game last year. It has its flaws for sure, but none were enough to drive me away from it. It was a studio put together to craft an entire new game, and instead of being allowed to continue and grow they were quashed. An unfortunate decision.
I've said a lot about Andromeda and backed it up quite a bit. For now all I will say is that it has potential to become much more than it currently is. A sequel to send it off would be great. I still think it will be the third time the series gets rebooted (me2 was) and with some fresh faces including us creating a new main character. I think there is a lot that could still be done in Andromeda.

ME3 is probably my favorite for any number of reasons, not least of which was that BioWare finally decided I was worthy of getting the LI I had deserved for at least the past 5 years prior.  As for MEA, I found it to be fun to play.  Not nearly as grim as it could have been given what had gone down prior to the beginning of the game.  I did think Ryder could have shown a bit more emotion regarding losing Dad but it's not like Shepard had much emotion over being dead for 2 years (and that's from a game many argue is the best of the MET).

I love the game but it did have its fair share of problems, such as most colonies being pointless once you've established them (only Eos seems to get significant post-colonising missions), there were no new alien-aliens just humanoid ones, there wasn't enough tension in the plot despite the possibilities that colonisation brings for tension, the asari were poorly visualised, they didn't allow us to complete one of the main story objectives of bringing every ark home, and other issues. That's not to say its a bad game, I loved it, but it's flawed. I'd have happily bought any story DLC they would've added, and I'm sure to replay it once a few more mods come out.

Its coasting at average game review which I think is fair. It got maybe more flak than it deserved in the beginning as animations really are a minor issue, not worth losing it over. But, the story is just okay, the characters are bad, the combat is pretty good, but things like access to all powers, only 3 active powers, unbalanced weapons, crappy research system, lame platforming bits, brought down the game play.

Since EA killed the ME:A game so horridly -I will stick with what I have inferred.

The Remnant were servants of the pre-fallen Angara.
The Angara that we know by the end of the game were the Jardaan.
I am not referring to the dialog in the game but to the codex's found around inside the monoliths.

As to the Benefactors: I believe it to actually be the Citadel council -or the science branches of the different races governments.
Each person shown in the Benefactor screen in the game were reference to the science divisions of said race in the image on the screen.

As to the Quarians.
Agreed.
Bah!
Humbug to Bioware.

Maybe, but it was proven BW Montreal was undergoing merger with EA Motive before ME:A even went Gold. If SP DLC's were still planned, it was only on paper as there simply was no people who can work on it. Skeleton crew that could work in it was only working on patches while integrating with EA Motive for whatever new IP they are making. Handful of people in Edmonton who took over later on was simply too low in numbers.


I will note that anti-MEA crowd was for the most part full of shit. They couldn't know any of this, until after everything got reveled when BioWare confirmed Montreal-Motive merger.

All that merger proves to me is that they weren't going straight into a sequel for they don't need a full team for DLC, not that there wouldn't be DLC for everyone keeps talking about EA and how they cheat their customers if they released a game with zero plans for DLC even before going gold means they were removing potential money off the table before even having any public reactions to their game.

You can talk your way out of it but to act like no DLC was planned is super naive.

If MEA broke Bioware sales records, had 90%+ review scores with a overwhelmingly positive reception, we would would have had SP DLC.

To say otherwise is to just come across as a sore loser and not wanting to admit that MEA bombed, thus causing EA to set MEA asside like Andy did to Woody.

When you mention the Quarian ark hint, you seemed like you were saying Bioware didnt have the aspirations to do sp dlc.

Not so sure about that.  I think there is a reason there was no season pass. Sure if it sold like hot cakes they'd crank something out, but I think the evidence leads more to that they really didn't have plans for any DLC outside some general concepts.  I think they had 0 confidence it in and expected to make no DLC, but if a miracle happened and it sold well they would flesh out some basic ideas into a DLC.