So I finally did a second playthrough...

I want to preface this by saying, I never thought the game was "bad". Just mind numbingly dull, a giant pile of "meh" I called it at release. Now, given that no DLC ever happend, and knowing how the books turned out, I figured it was time to go back and give it a second look. The TL;DR version is this: I still think it's very boring, not bad, not good. It is still overall a "Meh" product with some small glimmers of potential, but also many wasted opportunities. Now for the ultra long, wordy Super Dork version...


As many on this thread know, I was never a fan of this "Andromeda" thing. This idea of having to go to another galaxy to explore uncharted worlds was always ridiculous in concept, knowing that 1% of the Milky Way had actually been charted and explored. However everyone knows why we're really here, we're here because Bioware, imo, made a mistake. A mistake that has cost Bioware in various ways, some minor, some larger. That said I do not enjoy the bending, twisting of the lore that had to happen in order to make this possible. Using Mass Relays as a telescope is always going to be dumb to me. You will never change my mind, so don't bother. But alas in Andromeda we are, and what exactly does it provide? Well...honestly, more of the same. This is not a compliment for me. What follows is entirely preference, so feel free to ignore it or whatever lovers of the game do around here. Andromeda kinda feels like a joke. It's not nearly Alien enough. It's far too familiar to what we left behind. I understand why this was done, but honestly for me, if your going to jump to a whole different galaxy, I want it to be truly alien. I want to see things that are just incomprehensible. Every time the game showed something that is suppose to be "ooh look how strange and weird that is!" I just shook my head and said to myself "No, these are all things that could easily have been discovered in the Milky Way, since 1% of it was charted." Flying alien manta ray things on Havarl? "ooo thats so weird" No, no it's really not. The game tries WAY too hard to sell you on this idea that everything is so weird and mysterious, but it's not, not even a little. It's the same milky way tricks in a different location. The only real exception to this is The Scourge, this is the one truly alien element that I just cannot see in the Milky Way. It's truly a shame that it ultimately played such a small role in the game. Assuming a sequel gets made I hope they take more advantage of it. 

Andromeda also feels wholly inconsistent, on the one hand when we arrive, we're told that things are at the brink. Everyone is starving and desperate. There was an "uprising" of people because leadership failed on levels so great it makes the Citadel Council look competent. These people who dared to voice their skepticism were banished, basically sent off to die in the uninhabitable cluster. These people include the Chief of Security Sloane Kelly, whose crime was trying to prevent wholesale slaughter of scared, angry people looking for answers. Okay cool, no problem. I finally find the exiles and what do I see? that their doing just peachy keen, WAY better in fact, than the people who kicked them out as a "punishment". I'm not sure what this says about the game. I cannot decide if this is born of developer incompetence, or if this was wholly deliberate to hammer home just how pants-on-head retarded the Nexus Leadership is. I suspect it is the former, but the latter is wholly possible, given what a sniveling, disgusting worm Director Tann is. This leads me to the characters.


Tann is easily in the Top 10 of "Most annoying Bioware characters". Yet for me, hes only the Third most annoying character in THIS GAME. Tann is such a typical trope character, so typical in fact that I'm frankly tired of it. I'm utterly done with Bioware doing the "lol political leaders are all dumb idiots" thing. Tann is a fucking weasel, the absolute definition of stereotype politician. I seriously held more respect for the Citadel Council than I do this man. He is utterly worthless and cannot for the life of me understand why he is STILL in charge. My first time through the game, I didn't pay much attention to Tann, and brushed him off. This time however it was like seeing him for the first time, and holy hell did I hate every second I spent with him. My new understanding of this man has changed several views I've held until now...

Kesh is still badass, moving along...

My biggest surprise however, is the 180 change in opinion I've had about Addison. Make no mistake, shes not really a nice person. Shes still manipulative and overly political. However during this second time through, paying more attention to various things, I cannot shake the feeling that shes really not as shit as she seems. I get the impression that shes so prissy and nasty because like many, shes just been so frustrated for so long about the constant political bullshit and the complete and utter lack of progress. I had to remind myself that, until you found Eos, her opinions about things mean basically nothing, and no one cares how she feels about decisions. Also Tann has made it pretty clear that if you don't follow "protocol" he'll gladly look for a replacement, preferably another Salarian <.< You can argue that she should just stand by what she believes regardless, to hell with the position. That is valid to a degree, but she IS in a position that can enact positive change on a large scale...once things get going. To toss that potential aside is no easy ask.

Jaal, Vetra, Suvi, Kallo, Lexi, and Drack are fine, nothing else to really say. Competent companions with no real complaints. 

Cora, sigh, Cora just does not make sense. Her personality and demeanor are perfectly fine. Shes a very nice, level headed woman. Logical choice for wife material. What makes no sense about her is her backstory. The OT gave NO indications that biotic people are treated like freaks in the milky way, or weirdos who get picked on. This just flies in the face of established norms in the OT. The fact she has to go be with Asari Commando's to find acceptance? I'm sorry that's just silly. Her character is basically an Asari reskinned as a human. I've no idea why they gave a human the backstory that obviously belongs to an Asari aside from "lol that would be too predictable". Except that's a crap excuse given how many times in the game they lean on obvious, expected tropes. To me, it would be FAR less predictable for us to have an actual Asari Commando for a companion, rather than a human asari commando. Why? Because the only Asari companion we got was a carbon copy of Liara's background. A super young "Ancient Alien" expert who gets no respect. 

Why does the ancient alien expert have to always be Asari? Why can't it be a human, or a Salarian? Anything else really? Honestly Cora and PeeBee should have just swapped places imo. They can keep their personalities, but their backgrounds and role being swapped would be far less banal. Speaking of Ancient Alien expert...why does the Tempest even have one? PeeBee contributes almost nothing throughout the plot in regards to her field of Rem Tech study. SAM does literally everything Rem Tech related, the whole game. He translates the language, he figures out the programs, the bypasses, he even acquires the data logs to shed light on the Jaardan's history. These are all the things that narratively, PeeBee should be doing. Shes even more worthless to the crew than Liara was, because only Liara knew wtf Ilos was (a topic for another time). PeeBee does not even have that, she has literally no benefit she brings, other than being another body and making a Tech drone power that's kinda shit. 

Liam is toxic waste, the definition of a character that I just want off my screen. I would take James Vega 7 days a week and twice on Sunday over this halfwit. I'm tired of not being able to throw companions off the ship. Pissed me off in the OT and that sad trend continues here. Idc if throwing a particular Companion off the ship dooms me to failure at the end. Let me make that choice, that's why killing Vivec in Morrowind is brilliant. You break the campaign doing it, but the game does not stop you from making that mistake. Stop railroading my options in damn rpgs. 

The armor designs are exceptional. In fact in many cases it's the best in the series, and makes me wish they do a whole franchise reboot with this new philosophy in armor design. the Nomad handles nicely, my only complaints are the lack of weapons on it, and the pointless 6WD mode. There is no reason for that to exist. 

 
Besides that, most side "quests" have the same problem as DAI, tedious busy work whose only purpose is to pad out game time. This is not the type of content that I enjoy doing, and thus is a negative. I also encountered an insane amount of bugs and glitches during this play through. Like, it's astounding. Other than that all I got left is nit picky detail things, like wanting an animation for getting in and out of the Nomad, and other such type of detail things.