This review contains spoilers
Okay so I originally played this game back when it released in 2017. It was my first Mass Effect game at that time. I only put a few hours in before I dropped it and chalked it up to it just not being for me. Now in 2022, I decided to revisit this game after completing the original trilogy for the first time in ME Legendary Edition. Now I might be riding the high that I got from the OG trilogy, but I actually enjoyed Andromeda so much more than I did back at release. You can technically play this without having played the other games(which is what I did at first) but I’m not gonna lie, you will not have a good time. This game was very confusing, boring, and there were a lot of story elements/references that didn’t mean anything to me back in 2017. Now that I played the OG trilogy, a lot of stuff in Andromeda felt familiar and made so much more sense. Before I dive into things I liked and didn’t like, I’ll just say that this game is actually a lot better than a lot of reviews give it credit for. This game has a lot of bright spots and I think it is definitely worth playing. I do highly advise playing the OG trilogy first before playing this game though.
The #1 thing I loved about this game is the combat. Even though I enjoyed the OG trilogy, I was never a fan of the stiff cover and shoot gameplay. It got extremely repetitive and boring most of the time. This game completely throws that out the window and offers the absolute best combat in the entire series. Class system is completely revamped and gives you a lot of flexibility in how you build your character, fluid MOBILITY is something that you finally get in this game, biotic abilities a lot more fun to use(I was a pure adept build), tech and biotic combos never get old, and gunplay is a lot smoother. Speaking of guns, there are A LOT of weapons and armor in this game. Your choice in how you approach combat in this game is superior to any of the other games.
The story is an acquired taste imo. They really nail home the fact that you are in completely unfamiliar territory in a new galaxy and you have to figure it out as you go. This made exploration as a whole that much more immersive and I was invested from the jump on that foundation alone. Ryder is more explorer than a military space commando that Shepard was. I think this game sells you on that pretty early on with her/his responses in conversations and interactions(I was playing as female Ryder btw). If you as a player are not sold on that, then Ryder will not feel compelling at all. From my perspective Ryder was a lot more laid back, witty, and funny than Shepard and it matched the tone of the game. This isn’t a story about saving the galaxy from a world ending threat. This is a story about exploring a new frontier and surviving it. Idk it just grew on me as the game went on and Ryder’s personality grew on me as well. The loyalty missions were some of the best in the series(especially Peebee’s loyalty mission). I just wish the missions mattered more like they did in ME2. Going to different systems/planets, doing side quests in said planets(which are really well done side quests btw), and getting viability up for outposts is a solid gameplay loop to get you familiar with the world and keep you invested. I personally think Kadara is the most fun planet that you will encounter. Outlaw world run by Nexus exiles, shady people giving you quests that make you question if you’re really doing the right thing, Sloane Kelly is one of the more intriguing characters in the game, detective Reyes quests were really well done, and just the whole vibe of a wild west planet in space is really cool. This planet alone almost made me forget about the main quest. Although I will say that Havarl is one of the WORST planets in the entire series. Navigating around the planet is pretty bad, the map design was confusing, and constantly getting attacked by wildlife and preventing fast travel was really annoying.
Also, the important decisions that you have to make in this game are a lot better here than in the OG trilogy. Now I don’t mean that in an impactful sense bc the choices in the original were more impactful. Andromeda is better in a way that it makes you as a player more conflicted. There were many times where I looked at 2 choices as being the right thing and sat at the dialogue screen for a while. I don’t wanna knock the choices you were given in the OG trilogy but most of them really felt like “pick option A bc it’s the paragon choice or pick option B bc it’s the renegade choice” regardless of if it makes sense or not. Of course the consequences of those decisions is what made them impactful but most weren’t necessarily hard to choose between. This game will conflict you between choices so much more bc there isn’t a gimmick of renegade/paragon and the choices are usually all viable options.
Now I could go over the negatives but I’d be reiterating the points of a lot of reviews that are made about this game. Yes some of the bugs are still present. Yes the party members aren’t nearly as interesting as the ones in the OG trilogy. Yes most of your decisions have less impact when compared to the OG trilogy. Yes they shouldn’t have left out some of the alien races from this game and yes the Angara/Kett/Remnant aren’t good additions. All that is true but a lot of these criticisms stems from a constant comparison to the previous titles. Andromeda was meant to be something new that they wanted to build upon and it looks like they won’t get that opportunity unfortunately(I would’ve loved DLC). I wanted to speak on things that I haven’t seen a lot of people talk about and highlight them. I get that there’s standards set bc the Mass Effect name is attached to Andromeda but I really do think there’s still something good here to enjoy.
The #1 thing I loved about this game is the combat. Even though I enjoyed the OG trilogy, I was never a fan of the stiff cover and shoot gameplay. It got extremely repetitive and boring most of the time. This game completely throws that out the window and offers the absolute best combat in the entire series. Class system is completely revamped and gives you a lot of flexibility in how you build your character, fluid MOBILITY is something that you finally get in this game, biotic abilities a lot more fun to use(I was a pure adept build), tech and biotic combos never get old, and gunplay is a lot smoother. Speaking of guns, there are A LOT of weapons and armor in this game. Your choice in how you approach combat in this game is superior to any of the other games.
The story is an acquired taste imo. They really nail home the fact that you are in completely unfamiliar territory in a new galaxy and you have to figure it out as you go. This made exploration as a whole that much more immersive and I was invested from the jump on that foundation alone. Ryder is more explorer than a military space commando that Shepard was. I think this game sells you on that pretty early on with her/his responses in conversations and interactions(I was playing as female Ryder btw). If you as a player are not sold on that, then Ryder will not feel compelling at all. From my perspective Ryder was a lot more laid back, witty, and funny than Shepard and it matched the tone of the game. This isn’t a story about saving the galaxy from a world ending threat. This is a story about exploring a new frontier and surviving it. Idk it just grew on me as the game went on and Ryder’s personality grew on me as well. The loyalty missions were some of the best in the series(especially Peebee’s loyalty mission). I just wish the missions mattered more like they did in ME2. Going to different systems/planets, doing side quests in said planets(which are really well done side quests btw), and getting viability up for outposts is a solid gameplay loop to get you familiar with the world and keep you invested. I personally think Kadara is the most fun planet that you will encounter. Outlaw world run by Nexus exiles, shady people giving you quests that make you question if you’re really doing the right thing, Sloane Kelly is one of the more intriguing characters in the game, detective Reyes quests were really well done, and just the whole vibe of a wild west planet in space is really cool. This planet alone almost made me forget about the main quest. Although I will say that Havarl is one of the WORST planets in the entire series. Navigating around the planet is pretty bad, the map design was confusing, and constantly getting attacked by wildlife and preventing fast travel was really annoying.
Also, the important decisions that you have to make in this game are a lot better here than in the OG trilogy. Now I don’t mean that in an impactful sense bc the choices in the original were more impactful. Andromeda is better in a way that it makes you as a player more conflicted. There were many times where I looked at 2 choices as being the right thing and sat at the dialogue screen for a while. I don’t wanna knock the choices you were given in the OG trilogy but most of them really felt like “pick option A bc it’s the paragon choice or pick option B bc it’s the renegade choice” regardless of if it makes sense or not. Of course the consequences of those decisions is what made them impactful but most weren’t necessarily hard to choose between. This game will conflict you between choices so much more bc there isn’t a gimmick of renegade/paragon and the choices are usually all viable options.
Now I could go over the negatives but I’d be reiterating the points of a lot of reviews that are made about this game. Yes some of the bugs are still present. Yes the party members aren’t nearly as interesting as the ones in the OG trilogy. Yes most of your decisions have less impact when compared to the OG trilogy. Yes they shouldn’t have left out some of the alien races from this game and yes the Angara/Kett/Remnant aren’t good additions. All that is true but a lot of these criticisms stems from a constant comparison to the previous titles. Andromeda was meant to be something new that they wanted to build upon and it looks like they won’t get that opportunity unfortunately(I would’ve loved DLC). I wanted to speak on things that I haven’t seen a lot of people talk about and highlight them. I get that there’s standards set bc the Mass Effect name is attached to Andromeda but I really do think there’s still something good here to enjoy.