Mass Effect™: Andromeda Deluxe Edition

I played this thing twice. Once in EA, once on Steam. So nobody can say I didn't give it a fair chance. I'm a Mass Effect fan to the bone. The OG trilogy hit me hard and still does. It defined my childhood and adulthood and raised the bar to what SCI-FI, RPG, action games could be. Maybe that's why this game annoys me so much. Let's start with the obvious: The faces. My god, the faces. How do you make a Mass Effect game in 2017‑something‑whatever and somehow end up with facial animations that look WORSE than a 2007 game? Everyone stares into the void like they're waiting for a Windows update. Souless, stiff, stupid, pick your word. It's a crime in a series where conversations are half the experience. And the character models? What happened there? Huge torsos, tiny legs, weird proportions everywhere. Everyone looks like they were built in a hurry by someone who's never seen a human body. It's distracting and honestly feels unfinished. The story...yeah, about that. It's basically a cheap retelling of the OG setup. Ancient tech, mysterious ruins.."figure out what happened" Except now it's all done with the energy of a fanfic. The Remnant are just discount Protheans. Nothing hits with the weight it should. And the writing feels like the devs were chasing some checklist instead of making a good Mass Effect story. The Nexus feels like it was staffed by a randomizer. Nothing feels natural. Nothing feels earned. It's like they wanted to "say something" instead of actually making something good. The sad part? Some things actually work. The graphics, the atmosphere, the gameplay...yeah, those parts are fine. But "fine" isn't Mass Effect! Not after the OG trilogy set the bar where it did. And let me say this separately because it deserves its own spotlight: None of the jokes in this game land. Not a single one. NO ONE takes anything seriously! Ryder doesn't even react like a real person. Their father dies and they act like they lost a pair of socks. Everyone is joking about everything, all the time, like they're in some bad improv show. Who the hell even wrote this crap? The OG trilogy had stakes. It had serious moments. It had humor that actually worked because it came from real characters in real situations. Here? Everyone just throws random lines at the screen hoping one of them sticks. Spoiler: they don't. And the villains? They look like cardboard boxes with guns taped to them. No ideology, no menace, no weight...nothing. Just empty shells standing around waiting to be shot. So what are we left with? Amazing graphics. Occasionally decent voice acting. Top‑notch gameplay that feels completely disconnected from the story, like two different teams made two different games and duct‑taped them together. In the end, it's a heartbreak. Here's the truth: If this is your first Mass Effect game, you might enjoy it. It's playable. It's okay. But if you come to this after the original trilogy? The screenshots and artstyle lie to you. This isn't Mass Effect. It's a fanfic wearing Mass Effect's clothes, occasionally hitting "mediocre" on a good day. The devs dropped the ball so hard it fell into another galaxy. 4/10

[h1]5/10[/h1] [b]Pros:[/b] +Main story concept is good +Lost of likeable characters +Huge variety of weapons and skills [b]Cons:[/b] +Character customization is ridiculous +Some speeches lack emotions +Dialogue options sometimes do not match what is being said later +Kind of grindy +Side tasks are bland +Ending is lame +Travel is too repetitive with cringy animations A continuation of an incredible game series that could have been done better. Plenty of things in the game feel raw or incomplete and sometimes it suggests parts being cut out in a hurry. At first I wanted to get the experience similar to the previous games, but then I just focused on the plot and it managed to slightly disappoint too. A nice concept of a story, but general realization is kind of weak. Still finished it though. So it’s rather an average experience you can live without.

Original ME trilogy are fantastic games. This is just vaguely related trash sharing the same name. Check out if you like: clunky jumping puzzles, empty radioactive planets, and pointless scanner mechanics. Characters are bland as hell, story isn't compelling at all. Overall a huge disappointment. I wanted to like this game, but its just... bad.

Huge downgrade from first trilogy. Horrible writting, gameplay is clunky (movement, shooting, and menu functions), missions are designed to increase playtime. In order to equip anything you have to select your loadout outside of each mission area even though its openworld and you are picking up things as you play. Feels slapped together by people who dont play games. Avoid this and just enjoy the original trilogy, wouldn't be surprised if the next reboot or instalment skips this entirly.

Honestly best $3 I ever spent. It's pretty damn rough around the edges but it's honestly a 9/10 w/ mods.

I bought it excited for another mass effect title. years later, i finally played. this is terrible. the character models are ridiculous, huge hands, odd shoulders, etc. it feels like every single dialogue needs to have stupid quippy remarks, like it's some kind of marvel movie or something. and the gynocracy. total gynocracy. everything. so many bullsh!t conversation sequences dealing with 'feelings' and other nonsense. the companions all generally suck. the enemies are flat, no depth whatsoever. the planet and system scans feel like an after thought. the mission structure feels like filler. i can't even finish it, it's that bad. very disappointed.

I can't believe im actually saying this. im a die hard original trilogy fan. and this game has its flaws sure. every game does, even the original trilogy, but this game actually makes me want to come back. sure the writing is cringe worthy, the pacing is as slow as anything. but the game feels good to play. not as a mass effect experience. but as a game. i find myself feeling like i need to play this game over other games.

[h1]Short version (spoiler free): Buy on sale / buy[/h1] 7.5/10 The game is decent, has good gameplay, pretty good graphics barring facial expressions, and an ok story. The game's premise is very cool and appealing. It incites awe, exploration, and curiosity. Sadly, most of these fall flat pretty quickly. Your role in the game that you have been given is basically useless right away because a lot of what your role is supposed to do has already been done. Furthermore, the game sets up some cool ideas but they are never really fleshed out, leaving you wanting more. The main villain is ok. It works but is nowhere near bombastic or really daunting. In fact, you barely have any interaction, and the interaction that you do have is meh at best. In general, dialogue in this game is a shell of what it was compared to the trilogy, and this was especially noticeable with companions. The world looks beautiful. It's very scenic, and I found myself often thinking, wow, this looks really nice. The only downside is that it's open world, and the open world does not really add anything besides extra travel time and fetch missions. Fetch missions in this game range from ok to really annoying with many loading screens. Honestly, the game would have benefited from the semi-open world stages from the ME trilogy. The gameplay was actually quite refreshing. It felt good, felt dynamic, and was fun. It's not perfect, especially around skills and crafting, but overall it was enjoyable and you didn't want to avoid it. Thus, I rank this game a 7.5 out of 10, and I would definitely recommend it when it is on (minor) sale. It was fun, I am happy to have played it, but I also felt that it did not live up to the original trilogy. Not because the trilogy put the bar really high, but because this game had a lot of potential that was unused. Moreover, the dialogue also was just bad at times, feeling like a Marvel clone, and serious topics were avoided. Nevertheless, this game is good, and if the trilogy did not exist, it would have probably gotten a better rating. [h1]Long version (SPOILERS AHEAD)[/h1] [h2]Graphics[/h2] This game actually had really good environmental design and graphics. It really created moments where you could look at the landscape and it would induce awe. However, character design and facial expressions were disappointing. They do not look realistic in any way and even give off uncanny valley vibes. [h2]Story[/h2] The setting of the story is just amazing. You start off on an ark to Andromeda. However, as soon as you arrive at your supposedly new world, you hit a barrier which leads to severe damage to the ark. Despite this, you and your father go off to scout the world as you are part of an exploratory group. Quickly you encounter two things, Remnant structures and the Kett. The Kett at first seem interesting but honestly get very generic very quickly. They act as typical bad guys, and there is very little actual backstory as to why they do what they do. They basically use genes from other alien races to enhance themselves but refer to it as exaltation. However, that is also as far as they go with their story. Also, a mega pet peeve for me is the name. Kett sounds very close to Geth, and it just makes it feel even more generic. You learn some small extra details here and there but nothing really interesting or supporting. The Remnant have even less of a backstory and are basically just Proteans, Andromeda edition. You eventually learn a bit about how they came to be, but not really either. But onwards, you and your father explore the planet and go to a Remnant structure to deactivate it. Deactivating it causes an explosion, and your father dies right away saving you. In doing so, he makes you "Pathfinder". Afterwards, you go to the Nexus, basically this galaxy's version of the Citadel. On the Nexus a big mutiny had taken place, and the mutineers lost, becoming the Exiles. Also, you find out that the other arks are still missing. The story is a good setting. The part about the genes and origin of the Remnant you of course don't find out right away, but this is also where the story already kind of ends, and it starts to become errands. You become a Pathfinder to look for places to settle outposts, but basically every planet is already settled or explored by the Exiles from the Nexus. The last big part is the meeting with a new alien species, the Angara. Initially it seems cool, but they seem distrustful of you, and you need to mend relations by again doing errands. You quickly find out that the reason they distrust you is because of the Exiles. The Angara as a species are kind of cool and a bit more fleshed out, but also here there is a lot of potential left out. They set up ideas and mention things which would've made amazing set pieces but are then never explored, pun intended. So this is exactly why this story falls flat. Basically all of the big events which should have come with the title of Pathfinder, like exploration, finding habitable places, and making first contact, have already happened. The same goes for any of the big events which come with the realization that you have left everything behind and cannot return. Throw in a generic villain and no real depth to any of the characters, and you kind of have a lackluster story. It's not bad, but in no way amazing. It would be the typical film you put on when you're watching with a large group where everybody kind of and kind of doesn't watch. [h2]Characters and dialogue[/h2] The characters in this game are really a downgrade from the trilogy. There are some cool ones, but most of them are one-dimensional, boring, and don't really do anything for a reason. For side characters this would still be doable, but it's also your companions. Especially Cora and Liam (also shoutout to Peebee) are really bad, and the problem is that they are the first you are introduced to. Cora and Peebee act like whiny teenagers. Liam acts as if he is in a Marvel movie, really, even Jacob of ME2 was more likable. However, they greatest problem character is SAM. He is an AI in your head and helps you to understand and he speaks to you (he is unbound). The concept is interesting, yet it also kinda destroys the story and everything. SAM is simply to overpowered and solves any issue right away. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] Gameplay genuinely feels good. It's fun to shoot, you're very mobile, allowing for all kinds of ways to tackle encounters. The only downside is that you're quite limited in abilities, to only 3 at the same time, which is a shame as it reduces the options. A small pet peeve of mine is also the inertia that your character has, which makes jumping on small boxes etc. just annoying, and it doesn't really add anything. [h2]The unused potential[/h2] The ideas which I would've loved to explore more were plentiful, but to keep a somewhat long story brief, here are the main ones. I would've loved to see more from the Ancient A.I., but basically you just have the one mission and then it's over, even if you keep her on the Hyperion. Another one, the Angara often mention that they were a huge space nation before the Scourge and that its coming caused a lot of death and loss of contact. But the Angara are everywhere, and they already know all about each other. There was the potential to make Angara meet Angara again after centuries had passed, but alas. Also, more actual exploration of the Remnants and their creators would have been nice. [h2]Verdict[/h2] This game really had a lot of potential to be amazing, but it was not used, so the only thing I can give it is decent. It's fun to play, nice to explore a bit, and even the story was still ok. If it was standalone without the trilogy existing, it would've scored even better. So overall, I can recommend this game. Maybe not for full price, but if you find it on sale, I would absolutely recommend it.

Mass Effect trilogy is in my top games of all time. I've played all 3 original games from start to finish around dozen times. I even played through Mass Effect Infiltrator. Andromeda I couldn't finish once. It's boring, it doesn't feel anything like Mass Effect, and it's constanly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crashing. Also - devs got Clancy Brown to voice one of the characters and they kill him in first mission. Talk about waste of talent.

Verry underrated game. It's too bad the sequels got cancelled.