I honestly think Andromeda's hate was overblown in the beginning. But I do think Andromeda had the potential to grow into a good series...but Bioware abandoned it after the initial backlash. There are clear mysteries in the end of Andromeda that either existed to serve as DLC or a plot point of another game, that will never be fully explored or answered unless you read the books.

I love Dragon Age Inquisition, but I did not enjoy the gameplay. Andromeda was made on the same engine as DAI - Frostbite, which I felt held back the game at some aspects. It does remind me of DAI's fetch like MMO quests, so I found myself tired out by trying to 100% everything.

Anyway, I think Andromeda is okay. I mean, ME1 was not that strong of a game by itself either - but it sets up ME2.

Andromeda's galaxy feels very small, as you don't meet as many races as you did in ME1. You will be seeing a lot of the same races from ME1, which I do think hurt the game a bit in developing an identity.

Andromeda's gameplay is alright (besides the useless quests/objectives), it is a newer game so it feels better to play than ME3 for example. But the companions in Andromeda were great in my opinion, in the original ME games I felt like the crew weren't coherent. Mostly, everyone in Shepard's crew is only there for Shep and will mostly only interact with Shep.

In Andromeda, Ryder is the leader, but the companions actually talk to each other. They're a lot more fleshed out than the companions in ME1 were, and I would've liked to see how they would've grown in a potential sequel. But alas, we will probably never see them again..