Why do people dislike Andromeda?

There are a number of things to unpack here, but I'm actually surprised it's been 2 hours and nobody has responded ... it must be the weekend approaching.

When to play through again, hmm. Obviously everyone will be different, some might say "right away" and others will totally agree with your 6-month timeline. I have been inconsistent, doing both things. I think it depends on what you're going for when you play again. If you're just going to play it, and essentially make the same choices again (because maybe that comes naturally) then I'd give it some time. I think it depends on if you want to try to forget details and experience them almost-new again, or if you remember every detail, but just want to step into the world again.

For me, I start to lose the details, but remember the overall picture, and while the first two trips through the MET were essentially the same play-through (since I just naturally seem to gravitate to the same kinds of choices) I found the most fun in spending some time to plan my next adventure. I make a list of most of the choices along the way, and the order in which to do them. I write that out in a sort of outline and follow it, to make sure I stick to the plan in order to experience things differently each subsequent time.

I've found the thing that makes the biggest difference for me on each playthrough, is which squadmates are alive or not .
I highly recommend saving everyone... and then play through again, and uhh... don't save any of them. Really changes the feel of the game quite a lot.


This is a big one. I don't know if I can actually answer this convincingly, but the biggest problem is how much hate is just... Internet Vitriol^TM. There were a lot of flaws, but it was still a good game. Honestly, I think if it was a different IP, and wasn't saddled with carrying on the Mass Effect name, it would have been received quite differently.

For me, ME:A wasn't focused enough. I liked it, I had fun, and played it a couple of times, with different characters and made 3 different scenarios to play out, but each time I get to the end, it just... leaves me feeling a bit incomplete. I know I'd feel a lot different, if I knew there was more to come after the end, but for now, that's not the case.

As much as the end of ME3 is/was so highly controversial, it feels over once the credits roll at the end. As imperfect as those games were as well, it does feel like I have some closure. ME:A really needs another game to help me reach that conclusion. But that's just me.

I can't really answer this myself, and to be honest, I haven't really followed it much since I don't like spoilery things, but there certainly is a lot of speculation happening over in the Future Mass Effect section.



haha, I wish I had a good answer for this, there will undoubtedly be recommendations, but I haven't found anything that scratches the itch the same way the MET does.

This is a wonderful reply thank you!

Regarding the next playthrough, you have earily pinpointed the reasons for my question. One of the things I absoltely LOVED about the games was the way decisions I made had far reaching ramifications which changed outcomes, even across games. I AM the sort of person who gravitates to the same ways of doing things, and that's a big part of my decision about when to play it again. I want to see what happens if I choose differently, in some cases because I made a mistake; say by hitting one of the triggers, because I had put the controller down beside me while going through the conversation, then panicjking because ... oh crap ... it's one of those times when I can hit a trigger, then ... oh crap ... I hit the trigger but it all happened so quickly that I didn't actually want to do that after all!

:-P

Then there were those decisions like allowing the Illusive Man to study that half-built human Reaper, and now wanting to know what happens if I don't allow him to, and wondering how different the third game is if I choose differently.

A bit like now trying to decide if I should read your spoilers, which I really want to do because you reply is interesting and I want to read it all, but also don't want to because I have only had one play through and I want to find out how different things are when I make different choices by doing it, not by finding out in a spoiler. You know?

;-)

I want to wait long enough that I'm not bored by having to trudge around exploring and mining while things are still fresh in my mind, but not long enough that I forget the choices I made, and end up with the same play through because I gravitate to the same choices again.

First World Problems eh???

Making a list is an EXCELLENT idea and you've given me the perfect solution thank you. While it's fresh in my mind, tomorrow (I'm in Australia where it is currently 3:30am) I will write out a list of the choices I made - especially the ones I later decided I would like to make differently to see the alternate outcome - then I will wait until I get to the point where I have forgotten enough of the details that I can start again, at which point I won't get bored but I also won't have the same play through.

Thanks HEAPS for that!

Moving on, your description of the endings of both are spot on. The end of Andromeda does kind of just ... peter out ... and is a bit meh. Furthermore, I remember getting near the end of ME3, and knowing the end was coming, and thinking it would be about 30 minutes - like when you have your final battle with Ganon, or whatever - but it was truly EPIC and it went on for hours. It was brilliant! Which also made the end of Andromeda a bit disapointing because I said yes to the mission that was going to end the game, expected another EPIC, hours long finally, but was so powerful by that point that I got through it all very quickly without even remotely looking like I would run my shields down and start losing health, let alone die...

Having said all of that though, I am a bit of an oldie who started playing D&D in the 80's, at the point when they had only just started introducing the AD&D books. It also means that the first adventure video games I played were completely text based, and Kings Quest was consequently mind-blowing when it came along! The point being that graphic problems and glitches in the game really don't bother me - I've also worked as an engineer in the computer industry for more than 30 years, so bugs are more interesting to me than being put offs - and I wonder whether younger gamers who have never played with a character who is made up of 24 pixels, and have to wait for the screen to redraw every time you 'walk' to the edge, are less patient with those kinds of flaws?

This is in no way whatsoever meant to be a criticism. I'm not some oldie sighing and saying "the youth of today". Quite the contrary actually! If everyone was like me then developers would keep getting away with putting out crap and it's a good thing if young people are more demanding and that is driving the huge leaps forward that games have been taking.

I also think it's very interesting that you mention Internet Vitriol, because that thought crossed my mind too. I don't know if you mean the same thing, but I have been very interested in the way things these days - especailly movies - can be completely destroyed by the Internet. A great example of this, to me, is what has happened with the new Star Wars trilogy. Some bright spark called Rey a Mary Sue, and next thing every kid on the block was complaining that Star Wars was ruined. Of course, Anakin Skywalker ACCIDENTALY blew up the Trade Federation ship, when he was a kid, and Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star, after evading Darth Vader - who was right on his tail - first time out in an X-Wing, 10 minutes after he first heard about the force. My point being that Anakin and Luke are two of the biggest Marty Stu characters in film history, and pretty much all the criticisms about the new movies can be directed - ten fold - at the George Lucas movies, but it became sort of trendy to hate the new movies and look like you knew something about film because you bandied the term Mary Sue around.

I don't know if that makes sense, and I apologise if you're a person who doesn't like the new Star Wars movies and think Rey is a Mary Sue, but my point is that I couldn't help thinking that it became trendy to dislike Andromeda and then it just sort of became a fact that no one really questions any more.

Look ... everyone is different and I'm not trying to criticise anyone. I didn't like Red Dead Redemption 2, because I've never been a fan of westerns and I got so sick of that endlessly riding aroung on that bloody horse. However I love Star Trek - which the Mass Effect series borrowed from VERY heavily - and I LOVE science fiction in general, and I LOVE incredible detail, which Andromeda had no shortage of, and I'm not bothered by little glitches, so I'm not surprised that I loved the game and genuinely just want to hear from others what they didn't like, if only to prove that I'm wrong about it just being tredny to dislike it.

I think we are quite similar in some ways, because I really don't want to know too much about the new game either. I don't like watching movie trailers or reading reviews because I find that expectation often ruins things for me, and so having no expectation is best. In fact, further to the above I suspect that one of the reasons I enjoyed Andromeda so much was that I was expecting it to be terrible, based on the little I had heard. For many hours I was expecting to start getting bored and dislike the game, but then at some stage I realised I was thoroughly enjoying what, to me, was an epic role playing, action, adventure, strategy game with a really interesting story, that had epic detail, and which continued to fascinate me as it slowly unfolded, and left me wanting to know more about who built all that Remnant technology, and why, and who were the Kett really, etc., but being worried that the hate of the game meant that I am never going to find out. So, yeah, I don't actually want to know details, I just want to know whether they are going to continue with the Andromeda Initiative or wipe the slate clean.

Ultimately I just hope that they come up with something that pleases us all and gets the whole thing back on track so that more games keep coming. I would guess that if the next one fails then that will be it, so let's cross our fingers together that whatever they do it is enjoyed by all?

Asking other people about games is a bit silly I suppose. As I said, I really didn't like Red Dead Redemption 2, even though it's one of the most highly rated games. I've heard that The Witcher 3 is very good, but I'm not really in the mood for fantasy after all that science fiction, so I started having a go at the Arkham Assylum game, and a few hours in I am enjoying it more than I thought I would, because it is just running aroung fighting - which is what I thought it was going to be - and while it certainly isn't Mass Effect, it might stop me from shaking so badly and mumbling to myself as I rock backwards and forwards, the way I have been since I spoke to Peebee - my blue, alien, lesbian girlfriend - and then quit for the time being...

:-(

Oh my there's a whole thread/debate about Star Wars in the movies area... to be honest I stay out of it.. I have my thoughts and opinions, but I don't feel the need to convince anyone else to change their mind, or complain about what I like or don't like.

I did want to say though, my spoilers were not story spoilers, I just didn't want the images to take up too much space. The first one is an example of what my script/plan looks like, and the second is a screenshot from my Mass Effect 2 playthrough where the crew didn't survive.

Thanks for your reply.

Actually ... a couple of times - such as when I first fought an Architect and it killed me, because I wasn't strong enough yet - the game hung, and by the time I realised it had hung, and then restarted it, and resumed, it was a considerable period of time and consequently a real pain. It only happened to me a few times, because I quickly realised I wasn't going to beat him (her???) at that point, after I finally 'broke' one of it's legs, then had my loud celebration cut short as I realised I then had to chase him and do it all again to kill him. So I can see that if the game was constantly crashing, then ... yes ... I could understand how it would be a VERY different experience.

*SPLEESH!*

 There I was, killing Kett by the dozen, thinking I ruled, when suddenly this giant behemoth rises up through the ground and kicks the living crap out of me! It was a humbling experience...

:-P

Anyway, I watched a YouTube video in which a guy recently decided to go back and play through Andromeda to see if it was really as bad as people remembered, and I could see during the video that even though he appeared to genuinely be trying to re-evaluate it, he was clearly still looking at it through vomit coloured glasses and I don't think he would have been able to enjoy it no matter how much they'd fixed it. That's partly why I decided to ask the question here instead, to get some varied opinions...

Are you saying that you thought the story in the first trilogy was much better than the Andromeda story?

Personally I LOVED the story, and I especially loved the detail - it was like reading an awesome, 1000 page science fiction novel - and also the way it was told, slowly unfolding as you spoke with 'people', read terminals, and explored, not to mention the incredible plot twists along the way. I love mystery type movies and stories where you're wondering what on earth is going on, and it slowly unfolds, then has an ending that you didn's see coming, all of which Mass Effect had. Having said that, being an oldie and having read a lot of science fiction, I found that the story was not at all original. Pretty much every aspect of it, until the ending - including plot points, characters, and alien races - were all borrowed from other series. I didn't mind, because in fact I thought, early on, that the writers clearly loved the same books, movies, and TV shows as me - Star Trek being the series they borrowed most heavily from - and I quite enjoyed remembering a lot of the classics from Clarke, Asimov, and others, as I played through the game.

So I also loved Andromeda because I thought the story was actually much more original than the first three games.

Now ... a younger person might not be aware of the older stories, movies, and TV shows that the first trilogy borrowed from. Please don't take this the wrong way, because it is not a criticism of either Bioware, the original trilogy, or younger gamers. Quite the opposite! What I'm driving at is you might be a younger gamer and you might turn around and tell me that Andromeda is completely unoriginal and copies a bunch of books, movies, video games, and TV series that I haven't read, played. or seen because I'm an oldie. All I'm trying to say is that it's interesting that different people will think differently about the stories, perhaps dependent on their own personal tastes and what other media they have consumed?

So I'd be interested to hear more about your thoughts on that.

As for playing again, thanks to what you and others have said, I am going to make a list of the choices I want to make differently next time, then wait about 6 months so that I won't get bored in ME1 as I have to drive around looking for resources. Oh, dear, the planet mining in ME2 was just horrible. Luckily I bought one of those Microsoft Elite controllers and was able to set up a profile that enabled me to mine those planets a lot more easily.

But I digress!

Q. Lastly, although I had bought a pre-owned copy of Andromeda for $10, when I was half way through there was a bundle which included Andromeda, with a whole
swag of DLC's, and Dragon Age Inquisition with all of it's DLC's too, for only $20. Obviously you're a fan of Dragon Age? I definitely want to play it, but I'm not in the mood for fantasy right now after such an awesome science fiction hit, but can you tell me, should I play all the Dragon Age games from Origins onwards, or should I start with 2, or should I go straight to Inquisition? Your advice about this would be much appreciated, as was your reply thank you...#

Cheers!

I would play all 3 as they're al fantastic games Origins and 2 don' tnecessaril yhave the bes tgraphics and als oOrigins has a silent protagonist which may or ma ynot appeal to your taste but I presonally find al l3 games fun. Perhasp snot as much as Mass Effect but it is made by the same company. Though if you liked Andromeda then you'll likel yenjoy DA2 as it has a very family oriented story as well. Though DAI is m ypersona lfavouriet of the 3 I would sugges playing them and doing so in order and addin gyou rchoices to the Dragon Age Keep as you go so you ca nimport them into |DAI an dany future DA games tha tcome our way as well. But yea hit is a fantasy world with magic swords and shields but it's still a lot of fun.  I poften like to pla yi twhen I want a change of pace though as it is slower than ME and it for the most part takes longer to complete because of it but it is worth it. Especiaslly for the dragon fights as they'er magnificently done.

Unoriginal as you said. There's parts of Star Trek, Halo, Stargate and Stargate Atlantis' main badguys mixed up with MEA's story.

Oh, and you really wouldn't want to play MEA without it's updates....
Unless you have the patience of a Saint...

Aha!

See, now, that IS really interesting. Star Trek is a very heavy influence in ALL of the games, but I didn't mind that because I LOVE star Trek. At one point I was even wondering whether they started out making a Star Trek game but couldn't get the rights, so simply renamed the Klingons to be Krogans, changed the Borg Cubes to be giant flying Cockroaches and renamed them Reapers, redesigned the Enterprise and called it the Normandy, and so on and so forth.

Anyway ... the interesting thing is that I never watched any Stargate except the movie, and I never played Halo, so I thought Andromeda was more original than the first three games, but that was only because I consumed different science fiction than you.

Fascinating!

In the end I hope that whatever they do, it's something that we ALL enjoy, so that we get more games, because I suspect if the next one fails then that's going to be it. I would love for the Andromeda Initiative to continue because I liked the story and I would love to find out the answers to the unaswered questions. However if that meant that people like you didn't enjoy the game, and the whole thing died as a result, then that would be terrible, so I would prefer it if they wiped the slate and started again if that's what it takes to keep us all happy. My guess is that's what they'll do, because I will play the next game whatever it is, whereas you - and others like you - might not play the game if it is a continuation of Andromeda, so the safest bet if you were Bioware would be to start a whole new thing.

Thanks for your reply. It's interesting to find out the various different views about the whole thing. I really want to play the game without the patches now, just to see how bad it was, kind of like watching The Room...

:-P

Crikey ... I have GOT to go to bed now.

Aloha!

I dont know why ppl didnt like the game, I think it was a hideous mess at the release in 'EA' style(he he... ;p), so obviously ppl were put off, I usually try to wait for a year or a half after the release unless i know the dev is solid.

I dont hate it but I can tell you what I like about it. To me its more of a space exploration game with a story and the ME setting and background, I like the idea of people from milky way going off on a 600 years journey to settle in new galaxy, to escape clutches of galactic society government and also the threat of all out war. You get to be a specially enhanced and trained person who would lead the expeditions to the new worlds in Andromeda fighting the elements and preparing planets for your people to settle there. Its not a superexcticting game like the original trilogy but its in the same setting and it is about something new, which I think is good, I mean three game with the same take are enough imo.

Its not perfect ofc its EA games game lets not forget ;p
So if you dont like unrealistic looking characters, or little choices in making your character stand out, or that combat and balance dont make sense to suits at EA, now the combat is actually nice but its not a challenge its just stupid, i dont know how to explain it you would have to try. Also most of the crew will annoy you, and there will be alot of lorebreaking copycatting from ME for the sake of wider audience finding joy in reassemble, or costs cuts. Also the main story is a bit weird tho idea behind it isnt half bad to me.

But if you find space movies relaxing I think youll like this game its really nice.

Well, I didn't hate it, but my take after both Andromeda and Inquisition is that Bioware are not that good at "more and bigger." To me, their strengths lie in strong worldbuilding through more focused stories that make you care about the characters and your own choices and have high replay value. Even if you don't make vastly different choices from one playthrough to another, the best Bioware games that I've played do a good job of drawing me into their worlds and letting me craft a compelling protagonist, such that I find myself wanting to repeat the experience. However, in Inquisition and Andromeda, I found some of the exploration and combat a bit dull after a while and the sidequests kind of repetitive, to the point that they felt like they were just taking up time and didn't have that much connection to the rest of the world or the characters.



If you're looking for a non-fantasy game that will give you an experience somewhat similar to Mass Effect, I'd recommend the two newer Deus Ex games (Human Revolution and Mankind Divided). The protagonist is more of a fixed quantity than Shepard or Ryder and doesn't really develop friendships or romances with the NPCs, but you still have your share of consequential choices and an interesting world to explore.

Whenever you want. When you decide to play the trilogy, you can post your playthrough in this thread, if you like. And when you play MEA, you can post your playthrough in this thread. If you like a bit of motivation to play, here's a thread with all kinds of stuff that has been found that folks may not have known about.

Depends on the person. Some might hate it because of this, that , and the other thing. My issues with the game started before the Hyperion flew into the scourge. The game did have a few things I liked, but not enough for me to like the game as a whole. I will add that I did enjoy completing speedruns since I was able to skip nearly everything in the game. If interested, here's a thread with reviews from posters about the game.

I have no idea what the next ME game will be about. I would guess the earliest it might release would be 2025. At the moment, I believe a remastered trilogy will be released before that time.