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

Just saw this video.

I agree (tenuously) that Andromeda isn't a 'trash' BioWare game; that's Anthem IMO; but it is the worst out of all the other Mass Effect titles compared to the original trilogy.

One thing I especially agree with the video on is how much of a wet paper bag Ryder is in the story. I get that the twins are still "wet behind the ears" newbies but it really doesn't speak to their capacity as a leader when they can't even order their companions and Tempest crew to follow their orders in the strictest sense.

Shepard could step in between Tali and Legion and lay down the law; saying it was his way or the highway; wereas Ryder meekly suggests that Drack and Vetra don't smuggle things on the Tempest and they blow him off and do it anyway.

I used to have this problem due to a lack of Kaidan Alenko. I got past it and have been fully able to enjoy it. It's along the lines of disliking Ash and Miranda at first and them coming to appreciate how good of characters they are.

Here's the thing. The comparison is between one unfinished game vs a trilogy, which had three games and other media. It's not a valid comparison. If people want to rag on the writing, that's fine, but MEA remains an incomplete game. This is a fault, of course, because no game should end on a cliffhanger. With ME1, we knew the Reapers were out there and would have to be confronted but the story essentially stood on its own. With MEA, we had at least three major plots not completed - Mysterious Benefactor, Mom Ryder and the Jardaan/Meridian. I'd also say the quarian ark since the book was obviously not meant to be how that plot was completed. It's not even fair to require people to read a book to wrap up a gameplay plot. None of that is acceptable and I'm sure at least some of that would have been completed in dlc. BioWare dropped the ball there.

And as a stand alone title I would say that ME 1 still outshines ME:A in everything except for graphics and having fast-paced combat; which is only granted by reason of having ~10 years of hardware advancement to prop it up. 


ME 1 has diverse and well written (IMO) alien species. It had a more compelling villain; with a motivation beyond "I'm evil". Etc. And that's even before you bring in the points you brought up about how ME 1 was actually a finished product out of the gate as opposed to Andromeda being a cliffhanger. 

I'd wager the Reapers were at their best in ME1. They were mysterious, we had no idea of their motivations and got the sense that they might be truly infinite and suggest that synthetic-type beings could come about naturally. I realize that a billion years would seem to make them endless, but I could imagine them as a cosmic force that showed up for some unknown reason.

Then we got the Catalyst. Then we got an idiotic race that created AI to solve the problem of AI turning on organics. If we had to have the Leviathan, it would have worked better if they created AI that got out of control and then see them go on to corrupt other AI throughout time. Since we know they have done so it would make sense.

Sorry, side issue, but your comment made me think of this. Hmm...imagine if the kett were using Reaper-creation as a model for their own existence? Reapers turn races into goo and make new Reapers out of them. It's a sort of conversion. Imagine if the kett got the idea of converting from them? Or even if we learned they were developing a massively powerful race via conversion to stand against the Reapers? It would still make them villains but with good intentions. You know, one of those "road to hell" type of things. Then the Jardaan are following a similar path but they create new, separate races to challenge them. I know none of this is true, and probably wouldn't work well in the game.

I'm kind of in the same boat.  Now there is a lot of caveats here and there too but for me, as I might've even mentioned, in some ways I am *struggling* to get through the LE in comparison to Andromeda and part of me is really looking forward to playing it again.  This is not to say I am not having a blast with the LE and still pretty much enjoy the games as they were, I don't try and rhetroactively judge games for the better versions of those games from later on, but man...despite still being my favorite game in the series for that and, well I think its a great game, ME 2 really hasn't aged well.

ME 3 has actually aged a little better in that regard since the characters are a lot more *dynamic* but then even it has its other flaws.

Its weird now that you mention it I haven't had a single bug at least of the real noticable game breaking variety on the PS4.  

For me the open world minutiae/freedom to do something else is something that pulls me in and is missing in 2 and 3. Also whats missing is any freedom from the corridor and gunning after corridor and gunning, because thats what 2 and 3 are mostly. In 3rd you are autotalking 95% of time with binary choices. I'll take the light and GOOD banter over silence and "100% concentrated on mission in military" style quips in 2 and mostly 3. Its been very jarring to play 2 and 3 again for me and I've hit the wall with them as the 3LE play vaned down and now I'm like "well, theres better game, MEA.."

It has become even more clearer for me that MEA & ME1 are the kings and 2 and 3 are just way too cartoony shooters with name ME in them. But then again, I was never very excited over 2 and 3 as I thought they broke the mold 1 introduced way too bad.

I'm looking forward to more ME, but not anymore interested much in the OT, just mostly ME1. My head canon stops at ME1