If there was one major thing you could change about this game, what would it be?

The biggest issue I have with Andromeda is that the game completely gives up trying to explore the whole concept of being a pathfinder and all the struggles that the job entails. I feel like the Eos vault was the turning point that made me not enjoy the plot and the premise anymore. I don't like that seemingly magical super technology from the Remnant is the only reason we could have had success in Andromeda. It also does not help that Ryder him/herself does not actually do much past a couple of choices and being a body for SAM to function in. Your character should feel like they have an impact especially in games such as this. Both SAM and the Remnant were doing the work, I simply gunned down the things trying to stop that and cracked jokes here and there.

You hardly make any difficult choices throughout the game and you as a person cannot physically activate Remnant technology without SAM. It feels way too unnatural, way too coincidental, and I would have greatly preferred a more realistic approach. I am not necessarily saying that the Remnant or SAM should be removed. I only think that they should have less impact in the narrative.

Making Andromeda viable should have been a cruel struggle. The game should have been about struggling and surviving, all while making choices. The introduction mission set it up perfectly. None of the golden worlds panned out. A revolt broke out among the chaos and anxiety of not knowing if the other arks made it. The most respected and best pathfinder who also pretty much leaded the Initiative along with being your father dies after an accident, leaving his newbie son or daughter to take his job. The other sibling is in a medically induced coma. Everything was screwed up and there did not seem to be a positive way forward. This was such a good set up. But like any deus ex machina, you oh so happen to find and operate super technology that can terraform and correct entire planets. That felt like one giant cop-out. Almost like they had no idea what to do with the premise they set up.

The whole plot points of the Remnant are nowhere near as interesting as what we could have had. Imagine if your outposts could fail if you neglected them. The Kett, Outlaws, Remnant, and local wildlife should have actually posed a threat to your outposts. You'd need to either send supplies, personally deal with the problem, or send a strike team to sort it out. And the planets themselves should be borderline inhospitable. This would make scientific and research advances more critical. Running out of raw materials or supplies should be a concern as well. You should have multiple choices on even where to place your settlement on a planet. I could go on, but hopefully you get the idea.

The main story could have been about first contact with the Angara. Managing relations with them. Dealing with outlaws and possibly either achieving peace with them or taking them out completely. Dealing with Kett forces at almost every corner. All while exploring and making areas viable for the Initiative to make outposts. Not all that different from what we have now but this way involves less space magic.

For a game that was supposed to be focused on being a pathfinder and exploring, it feels awfully too familiar to the original trilogy. It suffers worse though because it only goes half-way into this new direction. There are elements here and there, but the story revolves around the same type of premise of the other games but with characters, environments, and gameplay systems that do not work as well for that style of game.