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

It doesn't follow a fuzzy animal mascot character, therefore it will do terribly. 

Maybe Grunt, but it doesn't follow him. 

I fear this movie, aside from not having the things that made ME special like choices, is going to fall into the same pitfalls that movies like the Tomb Raider movie did. As a movie it'll be fine, but it's just retelling the game story. So not only is it not as engaging (instead of an active player we're just a passive watcher), but being the same will beg the question "Why should I watch this when I can play this?" 

The reboot one, not the Angelina Jolie ones. 

Can't say I am too much focused on anything beyond ME 2 at this point given how much of a blast I am playing it again and getting all the dialogue prompts unlocked and everything but I can say I am very much looking forward to running through Andromeda once I am through this run on the trilogy.

It’s a timely temperature check, with both fans and critics. Looks like it’s doing well on both fronts. I’m sure that won’t be lost on BW/EA.

I wasn’t particularly a fan of the Mars mission. For me the Earth prologue, Mars and Palaven were little more than an extended tutorial for new players (remember, “Mass Effect 3 is a great place for new players to jump on board the series” 🙄).

Unfortunately for ME3, instead of the battle for the Citadel, or the (clearly not 😂) suicide mission to the Collector base, we got the Bratalyst and its bullsh*t rainbow space magic middle finger.

I share this fear. Do we know if the movie is just going to be a retelling of the trilogy? If so, I don't think it'll be worth watching for me. Trying to compress that story into a 2 or 3 hour movie with probably a default broshep making choices I might not make, with potentially a whole new cast of voice actors for the squad, just doesn't sound like something I'd enjoy. I wish we could have a first contact war-era story instead, maybe a miniseries to give it the space it deserves. Anything that doesn't just retread the games in an inferior way.

-------------------

As to the main topic of the thread (not directed specifically at Hanako), I just found MEA boring. It has nothing to do with nostalgia or ME3's endings. I played ME1 for the first time in 2017 as a 32 year old, not as a teenager (certainly not as a teenage boy ) immediately after playing ME2 and ME3 for the first time. (Yes, I played them out of order. ME2 was free at the time, so it was my entrance to the series.) I think ME3's endings are tolerable, though I prefer them modded, and ME1 is my least favorite game of the trilogy.

MEA came out shortly after I finished ME1, and I really, really wanted to like it. I liked the 10 hour preview a lot. Habitat 7 was cool. So I didn't approach the game with pessimism. I just...found it boring to play, most of the time. And I think one of the more interesting revelations was shoved in at the very end of the game and then just dropped.

That said, I would have preferred if they'd stuck with the Andromeda galaxy for the next game. There was so much potential to tell the story of settling a truly alien galaxy where there had been no reapers guiding evolution to make sure species were at least somewhat compatible with each other. It should have been harder and taken longer to understand the Angara. Maybe instead, there could have been an alien species that communicated using means undetectable by MW settlers. Maybe the MW settlers could have found some local wildlife that were safe to eat, only to later find out that the "animals" are a pre-spaceflight sapient race that the MW folks have been murdering for food. The quarian ark's fate should have been part of the main game. There should have been plenty of dangers and moral dilemmas here without needing to include the kett at all.

I might try MEA again eventually, but I didn't even finish my second playthrough, so it may not get any better for me. The trilogy still has plenty of replay value for me, though.

I love Mars. Definitley one of my favorite missions from the entire series. But while that line does deserve a certain degree of ridicule I also do not think it applies in this case. Since every single video game, even those in a series, have slightly different gameplay twists and staples it does make a fair bit of sense that you should have to tutorialize...even for vets. New cover mechanics, levelling, and the heavy melee system...and weight system...was all things there were different then either of its predecessors.

Why is t'soni telling Shepard to get to cover? Why not have Anderson do that on Earth? If not Anderson, why not A/K/Vega when facing Cerberus after arriving on Mars?

The Collector in ME3 is being controlled by a Leviathan. It’s not self-aware. Them deciding to oppose the Reapers is propaganda to keep the Leviathans secret.
And the Remnant also speak in their own language. And the Loki mechs have for that matter since they have VI intelligence.
Sorry. You can’t have it both ways. Either the Remnant and Collectors count as races, or they don’t since both are just machines.
Already addressed the Yahg as being akin to the three vassal races we can learn about, or maybe the Jardaan.

Why not?

1.  The purpose of Earth was to tutorialize and set up the story as much as anything.  Introducing the central conflict, themes, the tone of the overall work and what to expect moving forward.  

2.  And I mean I know we don't like Liara but it has been fairly well established that she and Shepard are, if for no other reason, friends and comrades in arms.  Her yelling out for Shepard to take cover makes as much sense as anyone else is given the circumstances and she is just as fine in the role as anyone else.