MEA: Yay or Nah

Eh, where's the "It depends" option?

Because that's my actual answer. The game is okay, not great, not terrible, but it was entertaining enough to me. Whether someone else would enjoy it will depend on what they're looking for. I would recommend to someone who enjoys this style of game and has some time to kill, but not if they were especially fond of say, being able to control the squad powers in the OT, or who was a fanatic about animation quality.

Need a 'Meh' option

I just finished it last night and I picked the maybe down the line. I had bad luck with bugs and technical issues, and then it wasn't an outstanding game to begin with. My best friend asked me this a week or so ago, and I told him I couldn't in good conscience recommend he go out and buy the game at full price in its current state, and I still can't.

You should have added an only if it's on sale option. I may have chosen that one instead.

I was torn between selecting "yes" and "maybe later". Yes, because the game is not as broken or as horrible as the hate train lets on, far from it. There is a lot of good there, solid concepts dampen by poor execution in most cases. "Later" because there are still issues that need to be resolve that I suspect will be but can not be entirely sure. So, I went with "maybe later".  

My experience has been far and away from the horror stories that I have read regarding game breaking bugs and glitches that according to some make the game unplayable. In fact I can count the number that I have run into over ninety hours on both hands while needing only one to count memorable ones. Even still each and every one was fixed with a simple reload of the last save, except the sound vanishing bug which has not happened since 1.0.5 and even then that was fixed with a reload of the game. 

Yes, the animations are still a work in progress but I am optimistic to see what they do in the coming months with how much they improved the infamous "my face is tired" scene. Yes, the dialogue and voice acting is not the best which if all of us were to be completely honest has always been a hit or miss thing with any Bioware game ever save for a select few characters in any given title. The delivery of the story and universe is not the best nor the strongest in the series. The combat while fun does lack squad control and some weapons and powers lose viability on Insanity made worse by a hard cap on the player's strength at level eighty while enemies continue to scale beyond that. And yes, too many fetch quests to are akin to a MMO with too much travel between planets being required to complete them. There are plenty of issues.

However, the premise of the story is interesting with lots of potential in the future. Some story arcs do bring you to halt as struggle to decide what to do, which is a good thing and means the writers while not on par with the original team have the ability to create compelling and enjoyable content. Don't believe me? Look at the discussions sparked by them. Squad mates while feeling familiar do have their own quirks and stories that lead to some pretty enjoyable and memorable loyalty missions, some. Planet exploration is back and the environments do look good if not barren but that is apart of the story with the promise of more variety and depth in coming sequels. Combat is more polished than it has ever been, face paced, fun, and flexible. Though some balance issues are present. 

Mass Effect: Andromeda is not the strongest introduction but it has potential as a series, some of which is untapped. I am enjoying the game personally but can certainty see how it might disappoint which is why I have actually told some co-workers to wait a bit to see if Bioware can unlocked some of that potential or at the very least polish the game a bit more. 

i was hesitant after the lukewarm reception, and even hostility from some people

but im loving the game overall. my biggest complaint is a flaw shared by just about every "open world" game nowadays. too much "content" that is essentially jsut forgettable filler. id much rather have longer, more involved quest chains than the multitude of lesser quality "fetch quests"

It's an ok game. 70 metacritic score does it justice.

Fair and enjoyable experience that would recommend even though by waiting a couple of patches you can get a better game. If I had a friend interested in the game I'd recommend him to wait a bit so that BW can iron out most the main issues.

I'm actually enjoying myself more now that I have a better grasp of where to go and how to pace myself, and of course I have amassed a large supply of remnant decryption keys. 

Needs "great in some aspects, horrible in others so both yay & nah at the same time" option.

Recommending someone to spend $60 on an, objectively, unfinished game? Hell nah.

Yes

Agreed. I think most of all it depends on what people expect from a new ME game. If they want it to be something like ME4, with heavy story focus and great characters etc. they might be very disappointed (that's where a lot of the hate and bad reviews come from actually, aside from obvious technical issues). If they're just looking for good fun and willing to take it for what it is, not minding if it's different, then I'd recommend it.

My personal history is that I was hugely disappointed with ME3--not just the ending, almost all of it. The "old" Mass Effect was done for me, I didn't want more of it. I didn't expect anything from the franchise anymore. If anything I wanted a fresh start and something different, and that's what I got. I was very positively surprised that it brought back a lot that ME1 did best, things that I stopped dreaming of after ME2+3, except for great main story and characters of course. I'm a huge ME1 fan and I love MEA despite all the wonkiness (I could say the same about Skyrim). It feels like the guys who made it loved ME1 and Skyrim, just like I did.

By the way, while I think the story is somewhere between meh and ok, I think it's much better than the cringeworthy trainwreck that was ME3's.