Struggling to get through Andromeda after LE Mass Effect trilogy (LE-MET)

I finished my MET play through a few days ago. I briefly considered going through MEA but it really didn’t appeal at all so I didn’t bother. Back to ME1 for another run through.

Yes. I'm sorry to all those who enjoy the game but I gave it a chance and it's not for me.

You can feel how bored the VAs are, how bored they are with their own characters. I was never hype once during the game. What is there to be hype about? Should I have cared about Ryder's dad and his speech in the beginning because he's wearing N7 armor? Everything about it, minus the combat, is so extremely dull and uninspired it's an insult that it has the Mass Effect title. It's suppose to be a Space Opera, which means over the top action and exciting stories. That's unfortunately not what Andromeda is.

When I think about the OT, I remember the sci-fi atmosphere that reminds me a bit of Star Wars, a bit of the Fifth Element. The music, the areas, the oversaturated colors in ME2 even. Andromeda has none of that charm with a narrative that puts me to sleep. The only character that I remember from my 1 or 2 playthroughs is Peebee cause she was more rumbunctious and out there than the others (and the fake moaning thing in the better Mako lmao). Not to mention the CC is a mess and not being able to change facial features individually is a pain in the ass.

Say what you will about ME2, but I would play through that game 100x before I even think about playing Andromeda again.

I couldn't even bring myself to finish a single playthrough of MEA, the story was cringe; from the pervasive lighthearted/campy dialogue; the setting was dull and boring; with even the most mundane of Milky Way locations feeling more alive, more 'alien' in comparison; the utter lack of anything even resembling 'aliens' despite being in a galaxy over 2 million light years away, and the awful map designs full of nothing but wide empty space and stocked to the brim with Koren-MMO level fetch quests.

Those fetch quests ruined the experience of MEA for me. If the only advice one can give about their game is to purposely ignore content because its boring and tedious then that means said game must not be very good. In ME1 even quests like finding the First League medallions, while a fetch quest in itself; didn't feel nearly as draining, nor did it comprise 85% of the game's content.

As for the distinctive element of discovery and exploration; even the alien species you encounter within minutes of the opening credits in the first game were far more 'alien' than the rubber foreheaded humans you meet in Andromeda.



And that's not even mentioning the MP for Andromeda compared to ME3. ME3's MP might have been 'clunky' but at least playing as a Krogan felt like playing as a Krogan; you had weight behind your attacks and backhanding a husk halfway across the map was incredibly satisfying. Not like in Andromeda where every single kit is the same weightless bunny rabbit bouncing around with a stupid jet pack strapped to their back.

Add on to this the predatory unlock system where it actively dissuaded players from using the alien classes because someone stupidly thought it would be a brilliant idea to tie skill points to unlock cards making it nearly impossible to unlock and fully utilize the rare alien kits; especially when they bloated the unlock pool with those ridiculous weapon variants (each with multiple stages to unlock).

Well of course there aren't any aliens in Andromeda. The primary design consideration behind the new species was cosplay 

And yeah, going to a new galaxy to play space Fed Ex for criminals that discovered it before us and had already plundered it was a.....curious narrative choice.

Some positives, the narrative is....decent I guess, if you pretty much only do the main plot missions and loyalty missions (except Peebee and Liam's, because then you are railroaded into role playing a complete idiot). The ending is a bit cliche'd  videogamey "you saved the day congrats" but actually pretty good otherwise. Compared to ME3s I'd say it's excellent. People complain about the characters, and some of them are indeed terrible (the two above being prime examples, and most of the NPCs on the Nexus) but I didn't really mind Vetra, Drack or Cora. They'd have been middle of the pack if put into the trilogy, not great, not terrible. The main problem is goofy Ryder doesn't feel like a real person to me so the dialogue isn't as memorable, not so much the companions themselves.

And yeah, less said about that abomination of an MP, the better. How do you screw up a successful formula? Make playing a half ton krogan feel like frogger.

It's pretty funny that the most enjoyable piece of Andromeda media for me was the Quarian Ark novel. Yorrik (the Elcor doctor) is the best character in the entire galaxy, and I felt his bromance with the quarian protaganist more than I did one with any of my companions in MEA.

If they do an MEA2 they should have that writer replace whomever decided all the bad parts of DA:I (but in SPAAAACE) was a good idea for an ME game.

I've been considering it after completing my MELE PT but we'll see. It could pull a DA2 where I enjoyed it a lot more years later, but I kind of doubt it. DA2 was able to pull that off because I always liked the story and characters but was put off by other things (human only, stuck in one city, the usuals). With MEA, I didn't particularly like the story or most of the companions, and perhaps most importantly, I didn't feel like the dialogue options for the protagonist were interesting (had some complaints about this with Hawke as well but at least sarcastic Hawke is fun). So I'm not sure what a new PT is going to do to fix any of that but I still might give it a shot to see if it matches my memory.

At least we don't make immature and asinine assumptions about an entire age group based on streamers, of all people. The story, the characters, the environment, still hold up to this day. It's an epic story and one that will be talked about and remembered for years to come. Andromeda did absolutely nothing to further the series, it didn't take any chances, and the result was a boring drag that only make the news because of how much of a failure it was.

What's wrong with teenage boys wanting to play a badass female character? The irony here is Andromeda gives you that choice too. The only thing you've done is insult people based on what they like because you don't agree with it. If you like Andromeda that's fine, that's your choice, but saying people only like the OT because of the nostalgia factor is just plain wrong. 

Sorry, this really hurts your case (among many other things). The VAs loved working on MEA, many of them still gushing about it and their characters years later and wanting to do more with them. Oh yeah, they were totally bored with it. 

So the Shepard Trilogy? They were built around that stick far more than MEA's cast, to the point the trilogy itself makes fun of that. Meanwhile people only ever use the same couple examples from Liam, the worst offender, and he grows out of it.