Retcons or contradictions that you have noticed

Female Salarian dockworker flies against everything we know about the Salarians.

They take Krogan to Andromeda and try to cure the genophage (by trying to run gene therapy during cryosleep, which is complete BS on its own but ok). I mean, I am sure the salarians and turians on the initiative were thrilled about that idea, right?

In asari-asari relationship one of them would assume a male role, but would still not think of themselves as male.

whole SAM idea bugs me because its essentially the same thing as what the Geth do after unifying them and the quarians (AI integrating with a host organic to improve functions).

and entire trilogy settling centuries of conflicting culminated in that unified synergy.

whereas it turned out Alec Ryder just happened to also design that same thing long before Shepard even met Tali or the Geth.

N7 is a level of training, not a rank.  Like Shepard was an N7, but had a rank of "COmmander"

THough some writers seem to forget that.

Oh man, where do I start?!?

I mean, I kinda like the game on it's own but they should have made this a new IP or a reboot or a parallel universe or something because it just doesn't fit into the ME universe as we knew it at all (and I say this despite the fact that I usually despise reboots and parallel universes and that sort of thing).

Let's start with the premise: Why go to Andromeda? In 2185 1% of the Milky Way is explored. You don't need to be 600 years in cryo and take the most stupid-ass risk in history to get a fresh start or satisfy your inner urge to explore at that point. I am not through the game yet and maybe there is some secret reason (I am just saying: reapers) that would make this more believable but even if there is, the whole "fresh start/pioneer spirit" thing seems to be motivation for most low level people you can ask and that already makes no sense.
This by the way is also a problem while playing because to me, all those people in the AI aren't brave, they are simply stupid. For example, when we arrive at the Nexus and are supposed to be like "Oh noooo, this can't be happening!!!", I was outright laughing at them thinking "You idiots!!! This was so completely unnecessary and stupid, you deserve what you got." (and if I think my own protagonist is stupid, it doesn't help with identification wither(.

Then, there is the technology they used: An ODSY drive would have made a HUGE difference for the original trilogy plot. Not only could the Milky Way people have outmaneuvered the reapers to some extent, who clearly don't have that technology. The bigger problem is that even the faint possibility to cross dark space and travel to other galaxies makes the reapers' cycle of extinction scheme a complete and utter joke. "Yea, we'll keep the Milky Way in check with the cycles and if synthetics develop in other galaxies, where they are a couple of billion years ahead of us in development because we just hibernate and do the same shit all over again every 50.000 years without progress, I am sure it'll be fine" It's even more BS now than it used to be. And Shepard doesn't even mention this (well, it wasn't retconned yet at the time, right?).

Tech Nr. 2: SAM. SAM is a complete and utter violation of council rules on A.I. but all four council races built one without the council stepping in? Did they keep it secret? Oh, I am sure the council didn't mind them building "SAM nodes" into their dreadnought sized ARK ships without supervision or control. Governments usually don't care, right? Oh and what about a bunch of private investors building a space station almost as big as the Citadel itself just like that within 10 years that is also capable of flying to another galaxy? I am sure that was easy.

Timelines: When the Andromeda Initiative was founded, humans had interstellar space flight for just over 20 years. and first contact happened 15 years before. Yet, a private human businesswoman has the cloud to start the most ambitious undertaking in the history of at the very least this reaper cycle (if not all cycles) as a multilateral cooperative endeavor evolving almost all MW species. She did this despite the fact that the other species and their galactic economies are millenia older and more advanced? I mean, the ME timeline was always shoddy at best but this brings it to a whole other level.

They take Krogan to Andromeda and try to cure the genophage (by trying to run gene therapy during cryosleep, which is complete BS on its own but ok). I mean, I am sure the salarians and turians on the initiative were thrilled about that idea, right?


I could go one for ages like this, those are just some points from the top of my head.
While I do agree that the Asari male thing is just stupid and takes away from the species' interest factor, at least they just decided to call themselves something different, I can worl with that even if I think it was unnecessary and stupid.
I do not buy some of the fundamental premises of this setup though and while I do really like the game itself, I'll never be able to play it without some measure of contempt because of those issues.

I am not entirely through the story yet but if they don't come up with something absolutely amazing at some point, calling this Mass Effect is a bit of a farce.

Female Salarian dockworker flies against everything we know about the Salarians.

Didn't Liara's "father" sell drinks in a bar in ME2 on the citadel? And didn't she refer t9o herself as a "father" even if only in our terms? I seem to remember something like this.

I'm a cynical old man. I look at it as a way in the MET to justify not having female Salarians and Krogan. "we can't have female salariasn and Krogan because they are super rare and important. yeah, thats it!"

In story I have no problem with hand waving it on the basis that Andromeda is a 'fresh start' for the species.

the geth telescope really bugged me. And yes, they attempted to explain it in game. However the explanation was dumb.