'I like or love the game' (General feedback)

So far, I´ve completed Eos, Voeld and Havarl and I am about 30hrs into the game. So this is more like a first impressions post than it is a review. I am sorry for the long ass post but apparently I had to get that off my chest.

And there`s spoilers ahead.

Pros:
The game looks good

The open skill tree allows for more freedom and finally is a step away from MMOish caracter classes

Many cutscenes

So-sos`:

Combat: It´s obviously a huge improvement from ME3 and for the most part it´s faster, relies on mobility and quite fun. On the other hand it´s fairly one sided. Rushing in and/or moving from cover to cover seem to be the only options. There´s no stealth mechanics (except maybe that cloaking tech skill I haven´t looked into yet). When you come within a certain range, enemys imediately start shooting at you.
Plus the AI is quite stupid. At least on normal and hard your crew is constantly running in front of your aim and enemys let you shoot them from behind without even turning. Not being able to equip looted weapons is...weird.

Cons:

Mediocre story: I recently finished the Moshae rescue mission and the story started picking up a little but beforehand there was nothing that really stood out to me and I am yet to see some consequences of my actions.

Stereotype characters: There is no one in the entire game who`s up there with the likes of Thane or Mordin, with whom you can bond like you could with Garrus or who is as entertainig as Joker was.
The game fails to make me care about them and I don´t see anyone starting some kind of interesting character developement (maybe when I tried more loyalty missions).

No connection to the main character and his family: You are supposed to set up the main character and his core relations in the tutorial and like in DAI you failed. And I am not even asking for some prologue as long as Origins or Mafia3, you simply could have implemented a scene similar to the Shepard – Ashley hospital scene from ME3 with Scott sitting next to that cryo coffin talking to Sarah and remembering childhood. „Hey sis, do you remember that one time back on earth when you played dead and everyone fell for it...“ and so on and so forth.
Same with Alec. After his death you could have had several people come up to the main character, telling him old war stories about his father. What he did for them, how they still look up to him and whatnot, making Scott realize how little time he actually spent with his father and what a stranger he really was. Have him reflect on that, needing time on his own, have some crew member offer a shoulder, stepping in as a supplement parent. Take your goddamn time with it!
When Frodo thought Gandalf had died, he was heartbroken. He didn´t go: „Oh well, he occasionally visited me and my uncle, I barely knew him. So, I want everybody ready by the hour, let´s get that ring to Mordor.“
On top of that I don´t feel any connection to Scott Ryder. He comes accross as a goofball who barely grew out of puberty and doesn´t take anything seriously.
Awful voice acting: No effort whatsoever. Life- and emotionless.

Awful dialogue: If it is Liam going: „Maybe he´s angry because I shot him in the face“, Bain and Scott arguing about nicknames while taking down Kett baracks or Scott proposing to ask the Kett for the direction while rescuing Moshae. It´s a lot of inapropriate dialogue that instantly sucks any kind of atmosphere out of the game. If the protagonists don´t take the story seriously then why should I?
More often than not the oh so fabulous dialogue wheel that is supposed to step away from paragon/renegade decisions and introduce more layers to your character really only ammounts to choice A or B in the end. And so far the only thing it does for me is water down the character and prevent you from giving him an edge. Sometimes the dialouge doesn´t fit the description in the wheel.

Animations: Sorry, my face is tired.... But it´s not just the faicial animations. While talking to people, they do weird movements like using a console when there is none or they don´t move at all.
There´s also no daily routine for Npcs. The game is supposed to make you feel part of the story not moving lifeless dolls around and making them talk to other even more lifeless dolls.

Borderline stupid writing and quest design: The one quest about the first murder in Andromeda amounts to letting him go or exiling him for murder. Well, how about dropping the murder case and punishing him for attempted murder instead?
One of the very first quests on the Nexus where some guy is sabotaging relays ends with you confronting him and: doing nothing really, because you obviously trust his reluctantly stubborn word that he´ll turn himself in.
One quest on Voeld is about some Milky Way inhabitants who hunt down fish that is of some cultural importance to the Angaran people: 1) The Angarans on Voeld are starving and freezing to death and yet no one even consideres to eat the fish themselfes. Besides they can´t even specify or prove why these animals are important. 2) The hunters are just hired mercs and don´t doing it for food but because some Angaran scientist pays them to. 3) First thing they do when you come along is shoot at you because it´s not like you are 600 years away from home in a hostile galaxy where everything went to shit and there´s only a limited number of colonists that might have a better chance of surviving by working together. Let´s just kill each other over the cultural importance of some fish. Whose culture? No, not ours. To us it´s just fish.
Some other quest regarding Angaran matters – it might actually be the same one – where Jaal who is assigned to your team to have an eye on you flat out says: I can´t decide. You (alien who does not know my culture and we don´t trust, because we have made bad experience opening up to the Kett) decide what´s best for my people.

Angara: There was the chance of introducing new aliens who could have been anything. Basically they could have been really different and strange – as in alien. Considering it´s a whole new galaxy and all. Maybe, just maybe it would have been a great fit for a space-exploration themed game. Instead we got some wannabe Twi`lek who simply behave like humans. Except they are very emotional. Well in theory at least because the game doesn´t bother showing their emotionality. It rather contradicts itself by scenes like the one with the Moshae who states that emotions should never get in the way of science.
How about some missunderstandings between you and any Angara when you go for the professional dialogue option, because they are so used to showing emotions that is has become a way of comunicating and they can´t figure you out when you stay composed. But I guess the vanilla approach is far more exciting...look, there are blue ones and purple ones too.

No attention to detail: Whether it´s technical: My first encounter with an architect was on Voeld and my team went: let´s kill that architect. My second was on Eos and my team went: Holy shit what is that. Or after I finished Voeld, Jaal said: now Evfra will trust you, let´s call him – so I did. And after I finished Havarl Jaal said - now Evfra will trust you, let´s call him – again.
Design: all the sensors, antennas or drillers Ryder places on Eos are twice his size. I guess he must have pulled them out of his behind. Explains the silly running animation.
Or the Angaran strike team that accompanies you to rescue the Moshae is armed with N7 assault rifles. Or Tann gets his shiny new office but the broken energy relay stays broken.
Story: Why do these ammo crates that are standing around everywhere reload projectiles when they don´t have projectiles in Andromeda? - you could have made that a quest with the security running out of ammo and you desperately having to understand alien tech.
Why can you sell your stuff to Angaran vendors for Milky Way credits? Why did the Initiative even bring credits to Andromeda(or waste a server for that)? - you could have implemented barter, leading to a quest where you have to establish some kind of trading agreement.
Why do you suddenly understand what the Kett or Angaran are saying? I overheared someone somewhere saying something about a translator, but there was no build up to it. You could have had a way more interesting first contact with the Angaran, trying to communicate, factoring in their emotionality and finding common ground there. Or a quest decrypting Kett code. Or a sequence of Sam and Ryder actually learning Angaran.

World design: I liked Habitat 7 and Havarl, but Eos and Voeld are the khaki and white versions of one and the same boring and repetetive crap. Kett camp, remnant site, wreckage, repeat. And if you approach something there is always a Kett shuttle passing by, dropping the same 4-5 hostiles all over again. Thank god we have all that kryo or fire or whatnot stuff standing arount. It really has no narrative purpose or reason behind it but it looks really cool when it explodes. And thank god the Kett are stupid as fuck, otherwise they would send their whole infinite shuttle armada at you for a change of strategy.
Although the whole go there scan this or that fits the narrative of the game far better than it did in DAI, it is still the same MMO type fetch quest that doesn´t even complement the atmosphere of the planet. If you can`t fill an open world with life then just leave it. A day and night cycle and a dynamic wheater system for a start maybe? Sand storms or avalanches could present some diversion in itselves.

Character creator: Someone got hit by the ugly stick.

Summary: I get the story they want to tell and the atmosphere they want to create. Habitat 7 was a nice example of stranding on an alien planet and having to find your way through not knowing what is going on. They even tried to flesh out the relationship between Ryder and Alec or Scott and Sarah to some degree and of course the game has it´s moments here and there but so far the execution has been horrible. Even the tense moments like Alecs sacrifice or Fisher getting shot fall short. Be it because of bad voice acting, silly animations, stupid dialogue, uninteresting characters, insulting writing or a combination of the above.
To me the game feels lifeless and when I get home from work I have to force myself to play on. I am still hoping that it´ll get better but to be honest, the best it can probably achieve at this point is a nice little cliffhanger for Andromeda 2.

Can someone tell me what happened to Bioware? When I want a vast open world with lots of stuff to do but without a good story or any memorable characters I play Bethesda. When I want a shooter I play Battlefield. Thats not what Mass Effect used to be about.
Here´s hoping that they get their writing team back on track or sell the franchise to CDPR or Telltale. If they deliver another insulting product like DAI or this one I´ll probably call it quits.

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Glad you enjoyed it.  I seem to remember you being quite critical on the game before release unless there is another 'Faceman' who uses that avatar.  

Yeah the premise for the AI really falls apart...especially since it looks like where I am in the game it does not seem like there are going to be any ulterior motives to the AI...like there should be.  Still its a lot like the ending to ME 3...with the extended cut...its pretty good...as long as you do not think about Synthesis.  Same thing with Andromeda.  Its a good game and a good plot...as long as you do not think about how they bridged the gap.

I've started Hunting the Archon in the main story...but I pretty much only did enough of that mission so I could gain access to the Kadara back country so I could do the part of Drack's loyalty that was back there and the Firefighters.  I'll probably be advancing the main plot...sometime next week actually. lol.  Maybe this weekend. 

Oh, okay. You'll like the ending(s) I think. In fact, this game, more than any other I've played, is really set up for some good DLC. 

Yeah, there's more to the premise than initially revealed. I'll leave the joy of discovery to you, though.