Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017)

After the MANY patches, I've decided to give this game another chance and boy am I glad I did... The combat is much improved and rpg mechanics are actually f***ing present in this installment... thank god. It may take a while to get into it and I don't blame you for not being patient (believe me this story is mediocre all the way through)... once you reach about level 10, that's when the real game begins. This is the best gameplay in the entire series and its actually NOT a mind numbingly repetitive cover shooter like the past few bioware games have been. Dragon age inquisition is sooo damn boring compared to mass effect. Biotic combos are sooo satisfying and the particle effects would convince anyone from watching a JJ abrams film. Is it casual? Yes but its still got lots of RPG elements. Are the enemies varied? Not really... However, with lots of customization options from hair styles, to weapons and mods,(not your squad unfortunately) abilities, clothes to classes to ACTUAL dialogue choices that affect future interactions. Gone are the BS paragon vs. renegade binary pedantic bore. One thing i wish though was the game wouldnt outright tell me the significance of the 4 choices with those emojiis. Also the cooldowns for the abilities in this game can also be frustrating. Now let me inform you... where this game really falls off is the voice acting and story. If that's a make or break deal for you then I'd advise you to stay clear. Otherwise if you love sci fi, rpgs, and aren't immediately turned off by a third person, this game will engage you for at least 20 hours. Great graphics, sound, music, atmosphere, gameplay, exploration is about as good as its been in prior entries (and the mako actually doesn't suck this time around), there's a bit of unnecessary padding, the animations still aren't quite that great, and like I previously mentioned the voice acting and script together really sucks (trust me my finger was hovering over that mute button).

P.S. If you don't play this on hardcore or insanity, you are missing out on A.I. that are surprisingly intelligent and aren't programmed by helen keller. 3.5/5 is my final score after I've spent about 50 hours doing most of the side missions.

Now I'm near the end, I have to say it has really grown on me. I still think the exploration could be better, but is no longer bothering me as much as when I was on Eos and Voeld for the first time.

I think is mostly because I really fell in love with the cast. Drack is now in my Mass Effect list of best characters, I really loved Peebee, Sara Ryder is really fun and Jaal is adorable. Vetra is really intriguing too. I even have a soft spot for Kallo, the pilot.

Also, the sex scene surprised me. I didn't expected to found actual front nudity in the game.

Played the first couple hours when the game was released and was so severely disappointed that I put it down and didn't pick it back up. The original Mass Effect is a top 5 game of all time for me. But this? Ugh. A whole new new galaxy to explore and they populate it with scary alien monsters with assault rifles. Feels more like Gears of War.

Well anyway, it's been irking me that I never finished it. So I picked it back up today. Yeah, it still sucks. But I'm going to try my best to finish it off.

All this being said, I feel that the next Mass Effect game will be great (if they make another...). This was so universally shit on, but there ARE some good points here. Plenty of good franchises have a stinker in them. I think this will be a good lesson for them.

3.5 stars. I enjoyed it enough I finished it which doesn't happen for most games. My favorite parts were exploring the worlds and opening them up, getting them all to 100% viability. Open world icon hunt, sure, but each world was different and fun. I enjoyed driving the car around. A lot of the side quests were entertaining. The team dynamic was well played up and I enjoyed how the crew bantered with each other. Combat was fun and not terribly difficult as vanguard on Normal; I upped it a level for awhile but would take it back down for bosses as they became impossible to damage with my loadout.

Facial graphics were much improved after the patches, but there are still things like cutscenes that are completely missing characters, with just an empty space there; re-used enemies like fiends seemingly on every world; transparently cut and paste characters (almost every asari looks the same); terrible inventory and endless crafting menus that provide questionable benefit; enemies that will randomly gank you if in close quarters with no warning; and on and on.

Finally, the overall main plot was entertaining but ultimately felt weak. It's possible follow on games would or will fill in some of the missing pieces; if so I think it will retroactively help this game.