Glass half full

I liked the game overall despite all the flaws.

Loved the combat.
Enjoyed the visual design of certain planets (Kadara, Havari and Meridian).
Drack surprised me pleasantly. Raeka is a good Salarian.
Bradley comments on your N7 armor.
Certain side quests.
Fighting an Architect for the first time was great.
encountering a vault for the first time was cool.
having both protagonists in the story, instead of one disappearing by choosing the other, which is not new for the industry of course but still cool.

He does? That's awesome! Definitely want to see more of this kind of NPC reaction to the player; you can never have too much of that if you're trying to make an immersive experience.

Nah, it's cheap port.

I disagree with the idea that the "tension" in the last section of the main, "critical" patch should be extended to the whole of the main plot. I think that, given the lighter, more relaxed pace of most of the game, the amount of escalating urgency in the final bits hit the right note for a proper crescendo. My main issue with the original trilogy was that we have 3 games of OH MY GOD WE NEED TO STOP THE REAPERS OR WE'RE GONNA DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! and it all fell flat at the end 'cause there was nowhere to go with ramping things up. This is why, aside from many other issues, Priority: Earth was such a let down, in my opinion.

That being said, I have a few issues with how the main parts of the critical path felt a little too story/gameplay segregated from the rest of the game. Setting up the outposts and all of the issues involved are a part of the main story of the game, but the Archon/Meridian part felt just a little too separate. Tighten that up for MEA2 and it'll be damn near perfect, in my opinion.

To get back on the "official" topic of this thread:

I really enjoyed that most of the quests (I haven't done everything yet) either tied into the main narrative (not necessarily the plot, but the theme of the game) through world building or tying into other quests at various points. Things had a fairly organic way of moving from one bit of side content to the next, and the top three categories of quests "Priority, Allies, and Assignments" were all very good in my opinion, all tying into or supporting the main story.

But you can literally sleep with the fishes. God Father reference YOHOHOHO

I really can't say enough good things about the combat and the skill trees. It's deeper and more fun that it's ever been in the series, they really took the best bits from ME1 and ME3 and mashed them together to something that's for a lack of a better word, fucking amazeballs.
There are so many builds and combinations to come up with and so many attractive skills and passives to tinker with.
Nothing really sticks out as completely useless or OP either which is a Bioware first, it's rather well balanced.

I also like Ryder and how you start at the bottom. I really didn't think the new protag could live up to Shepard but i think they have, in their own way. Even the corny casual responses are growing on me. Also the sibling is a huge bonus, i just wish they were around more often.

Then there's little things i always wanted in the trilogy like chucking people/things around with biotics, pistols/SMG's not all occupying the same russian doll holster and that you can choose to have a first name that the NPC's use.

Both Straight Males and Females can, with the latter having more details from what i heard xD the wonders of Andromeda.

Actually I'd have loved it if your character truly did start from the bottom. Ryder wasn't really starting from the bottom, he was a member of the Pathfinder team, combat trained, and the Hyperion Pathfinders' son to boot - isn't he second in command or some such?

Would be very interesting to have literally played some kind of total nobody, freshly awakened from cryo - a janitor, lowly technician or cook, and then watched as they rose through the ranks, learning combat skills, and gaining insights as you played.

Sadly, I suspect that few people would enjoy this except me - I've always loved the idea of your character being utterly 'crap' and unskilled when starting a new game, and working your way up; but I think most people prefer to start with reasonably strong characters.

Bioware has shown that sometime they over corrects for things. Most of the individual pieces are either fine or passable, but put together in this game in the way they did made for an overall disappointment. I just don't want them to blame it one this feature or another. It's an easy way to assign blame on an unpopular aspect of the game and move on, but the issue I think occurred at a higher level of design, starting with the writing.

A lot of the things people gripe on (open world, scanning, tasks etc) would have been ignored or appreciate if they are integrated better.

There is one very amazing thing about Andromeda: It might have had a Edge of Tomorrow reference with "You have a whole in your Ark" during Cora's mission.

It is my impression that Cora is second in command of the pathfinder team.

Young Ryder is a recon specialist with minimal alliance military training and spent time "on a peacekeeping force" and "guarding a mass effect relay" and his/her combat experience was mostly against a few raiding parties. Compared to most of the pathfinder team young Ryder is pretty much a still wet behind the ears rookie.

All members of the pathfinder team have a SAM implant, except Daddy Ryder does some mojo to remove blocks in young Ryder's implant that gives young Ryder some enhancements, which is kind of explained in SAM node early in the game.