Replayability - Andromeda Vs ME1-3

Just hard to say. Depending on what is in store via patches, the replay value could improve.

I think I will finish the main plot in my current NG+ run, then consider maybe trying to take a run to 100%.

Unlike in previous installments I don't really feel any urge to use a lot of different builds or play "every class," but as above could change if the game gets rebalanced.

I've replayed the trilogy (as a trilogy and each game alone) more than I can count. Andromeda I played through twice. Was on my third when I got bored and moved to MET again.

The combat for me is more fun than MET. I like profiles, I like being able to mix and match skills and that is the one thing that I really note hugely.

I know I will go back to MEA again, but I feel like I need a cooldown time because of all back and forth on quests where I am now a shuttle driver and because honestly it just doesn't really suck me in. ME1 and ME2 I felt like the pulled me into the story. ME1 even with is sloppy combat is still fun to me because the story is fun and the side quests as sub par as some might see them are were nearly all related to what was happening in the galaxy at that moment or were used in the future as I run through them. You have the emergence of cerberus, you see exogeni has been up to some things. You find husks. You run across rachni. Even the Rogue VI on Luna is kind of related because AI in the galaxy at that time is pretty out of control and you have this VI that has gone crazy. When you get that mission, you have no idea what it could be and if it could be related to the geth somehow. Later it evolves into something more interesting but my point is that all the quests both side and main in ME1 were pretty awesome. Despite the clunky as a tin can combat, you really have some interesting things happening. Feros is under siege by geth and some krogan. It's got a mind controlling plant alien that is right in line with the whole indoctraintion aspect. Noveria is fun because you have to clean up the mess made by Benezia and Saren under indoctrination and you get insight into the Rachni and that the war with them was likely because they were indoctrinated (sour yellow tones from dark space). That's pretty damn relevant. Vimire is fantastic. The battle of the citadel is very well done. The music throughout the game is amazing and it is the kind of music that sticks with you.

Much of the same of that goes for ME2 though we take a detour that many don't really like for that game. Later you see that there was a relevance because the collectors were made by reapers and that is what becomes of these races after they have been taken. They still serve the reapers in some awful form 50,000 years later much like the keepers who have been around forever. Only with the protheans, you know who they were. They were the reason you are part of the galactic community. Gameplay is improved greatly. The quests are generally good and all of them are relevant by design. ME3 becomes a war game but still has all the great kind of moments we came to expect. Downside of that one is cerberus because a headache, but gameplay is kicked up a few notches to be the best of the series.

Compare any of that to Andromeda and it feels like andromeda has lost its way trying to be too much like ME1 but missing the important part that ME1 was very fun even with crappy combat because the story and the quests were interesting and fun. You didn't even have any really cool discoveries in MEA that were little side things like talking to one of the salarians that were captured and getting their take on indoctrination in virmire or feeling like going through every aspect of the dialogue tree was going to yield you more intel so you could begin to put the puzzle together. In MEA they hint and skirt around it but the dialogue is just so poor. You are there to unravel what is going on while also making a home for the races and allying with the Angara but you don't learn stuff because nobody knows jack and at the end you never really learn much more than when you started. It's completely lackluster from start to finish in story, design and even the music which is almost never playing.

I know now I will be waiting to see what happens with the next one. I will not buy it having learned my lesson twice now with MEA and DAI. DA series is dead to me at this point. MEA series is one I will actually now be forced to watch all footage I can related to the story because going in, I really could not imagine they could come up with such a lackluster story for any ME series and make the game so unimpressive. Now, I have seen it happen so I have to actually spoil myself because I don't think I can even count on reviews.

16 Play throughs in 8 years


Vs


2 Play thtoughs in...4...weeks?


The first installment will always be the weakest until the second and third come out. You can't create an entire story from the pieces of one game.


Just....Ryder and...Pathfinding...


When we have a few games we'll know. I suspect Andromeda will be a game I skip over in my future PTs.

>I never learn: don't preorder

I'm always of that mindset but seeing as how I gave Bioware a second chance and their product ended up mediocre once again, I'm inclined to never preorder or even purchase a Bioware again. The days of Bioware quality are long gone. Bioware will never be great again. It's the redpill the drones here have yet to swallow.

Oh Dutch, you say that but you can't quite us drones or Bioware

So I guess you're not bored yet?

May get around to playing with Scott, but the game lacks any real replayability. Ryder is a static character with dialogue options that are all variations of pretty much the same response 90% of the time. Not worth listening to a second time.

Replayability of MEA is... low.
Watched a few ME1-3 vids on youtube which reminded me of something.
In most dialogue scenes (major... main story related, and minor... sidemissions), your squad was present, and when they did not say anything (though mostly they did), they were at least visible, gesturing, posing, one could even read their faction expression to some degree.
With each playthrough, we could take another squadmates and get another outcome, everyone said something else, was posing some other way. Every play was different.

Now look at MEA... in every major conversation Ryder is alone (+SAM), minor conversation were changed... zoom in to Ryder, but the NPC you talk to keeps doing his/her stuff... mostly wandering off screen, with Ryder staring at a wall. And if your squad have something to say, it is like when talking across 3 rooms and you never see them. The replayability to see the very same thing everytime is low, even when we decide something. (Gues that is even the reason why the squadies feel so bad, since they are actualy quite ok, but never around, except for the Tempest or Hubs)

I'm on my third playthrough. I'll probably take a break after this one to play some other games I picked up, then I'll come back to MEA in a few weeks and try a build or something I haven't tried yet.

MEA's status as a standalone title, the start of a Ryder trilogy, or the start of a trilogy with different protagonists each installment (ugh!) doesn't have any effect on how much I enjoy it or how much I'll replay it in the future. I love it right now and I'll continue to play it for that reason. Down the road, it'll be a game I always come back to. Just like the OT.

You know I keep trying to think if there was ever a one and done game for me and the only one I can think of is Alpha Protocol. If there was ever a game that had great potential and failed that would be it. Now I loved it actually but it certainly wasn't issue free but it would have been a great series of games. I just have never played it again. I might reinstall and replay it someday.

Maybe if the patches fix the game balance. If not then i got no intention of replaying. Ryder is way too static of a character and i tried the different conversations options which are pretty much meaningless. Ryder through the game remains a swarmy piece of crap which really annoys me. Hell i could probably skip all dialogue which i started doing anyways but the combat and gameplay need a lot of balancing and fixing to actually enjoy it.

So basically waiting to see if patches add replayability back cause atm the game lacks it.