I am... Very conflicted

I really adore the idea of the game. Going to new galaxy with everything left to explore excites the imagination, some of the side-plots are also fairly intersting, but there are awful flaws in the execution.

When you already start to explore Andromeda, the further you go the more bland everything seems. It feels like it's all one small country problems rather than something galaxy-scale massive. Everything seems similar and repetitive. The same species on each planet, the same structures, the same ruins.

Gameplay-wise it's also repetitive to a tiring point. Each time you want to reach some place you must go across the same exact puzzle, most likely activate 10 consoles to open gates and create bridges. By the end of the game I couldn't even look at them anymore. In more important side quest you do small parts in 10 different places, sometimes divided onto different planets, so traveling to quest locations takes 80% of the time of actual quest realization.

Lore-wise its promising when it starts, but the ideas seems to be taken from the original trilogy, but with less care to make them seem incomprehensible and intimidating. Like the long-gone ancient race and enemies with unclear motives are never really explained in a way that felt meaningful. Some of the plot-lines feels very underexplained and unfinished when you finish the game.

I also dislike how the decisions seem pretty important the moment you make them, but it's hard to tell if they really impact anything in the long run or are they just details. Another problem with quests is that they can start in a very interesting way but they suddenly rush on a finish line and some of its' aspects are left behind not to be mentioned ever again.

I kinda liked the crew though, especially the alien members. There are much less pissibilities of what can happen to them than in trilogy (no one can die I guess?) and most of them feel quite insignificant to the plot, but their personalities were enterntaining and all of them felt alive. I adored how they interacted with eachother and Ryder way more often than the Normady's crew. Riding long miles in the car also felt much more bearable with them talking in their seats most of the time. Romances are also quite well done, although the early-game flirting is awfully awkward.

I liked Jaal the most, he's really my highlight of the game with a lot of details put into his personality. The whole Angara race is not that bad too, I'm just conflicted about the way they got introduced and how they're the only civilized alien species in the whole Galaxy.

I don't think I need to talk much about the animation. Lots of technical and some design problems here. Faces stuck in the same expression the whole conversation, plastic humans, lack of texture on white-washed Turian faces, the Asari being Smurf-like faced copies of each other [*]

Personally I consider Andromeda to be the worst Mass Effect game and also somehow still a step down from Dragon Age inquisition with simillar issues BUT i also don't think it's a complete failure, there is something enterntaining here, something that can make you want to finish the game and tell your friends about it. I think it's worth a try as a guilty pleasure game and a undemanding spin-off to the main trilogy. It's entirely possible to like it even with the acknowledge of it's flaws and consider it a fun journey.

I think 6/10 is a fair rate for this one.

I love the setting and design. Enemies are astonishingly beautiful, but they stop to impress you the moment you reach the 3rd location and you see the same exact 10 dudes, just a little upgraded. Those are too repetitive, in the final arena I had no strenght to deal with them anymore.

The locations look good and are interesting to walk across, but they don't have this unique fresh feeling when you move from one to another, so it's entirely possible to get bored in the halfway. Worldbuilding is well done, but it feels a bit less apocalyptic and more hopeful than in the soulslikes I've played before. Not saying it's a bad thing.

The plot... exists, and I believe the writers did everything to include every side plot they found important, however I didn't bother to complete all side quests because I had no will to come back to already explored locations because of how unintutive they are to explore without a compass. But this may be on me and my lack of sense of orientation in the field.

I loved the dancer class, the combat for me was friendly, not too demanding, just the right amount of agressive (which appeals to me quite weel after getting addicted to Bloodborne), but the stamina consumption is a pain in the ass. Nice healing system, few renewable hp potions + loosely limited amount of potions that refill hp in a slower matter, but using them with brain makes surviving in fights much easier.

Actually I found this game pretty easy, as for someone who doesn't put much care in combat in games other than soulslikes, I had no trouble with casual enemies, and there was only one boss I found pretty hard (the first titan I guess?), all the others were down in the first attempt.

Big minus for the optimalization, the graphic requirements are ridiculously high even for the low settings, what can make the game a bit stuttering, the animations look floppy and the details load with a delay, maybe even unplayable for many.

In conclusion, I find Steelrising a very promising game and I can feel the heart that was put in it, just the financial possibilites of the company were limited or the production a bit rushed. it has a lot of field to improve but it's not a complete flop. I adore the Spiders ideas and I sincerely hope one day they will have all the possibilites to make a game that won't have any underdeveloped aftertaste.

It's not about the conclusuion but about the whole journey. This game perfectly captures the feeling that the whole galaxy prepares for the war and makes you feel like you participate in one too, I really cared about saving every race. Very hard decisions to make but it finally finishes some of the most important side-plots, giving some of the characters the ending they deserved.

Kinda sad that most of the ME2 party members are left behind and are not present during majority od the game, but playing citadel dlc somehow makes up for that. I also adore how the characters move around Normady and interact with each other, this makes the crew feel a lot more alive than when they were just sitting in their places doing their jobs like in ME1&2.

I know that the ending is controversial, but I don't really mind, either way the Shepard's story feels complete, and it's written in a very emotional way.

Flaws for me is not being able to hide the weapon during missions, and the body proportions&eye movement feels a bit weird comparing to ME2. My Shepard felt like a different person the first time I imported her, but eyes can get used to it.