Mass Effect: Andromeda reviews are in

I've played 10 hours of the campaign, and apart from a few facial reactions looking a bit off I didn't notice anything else. At least not anything that took me out of the experience to actually catch my attention. I had a blast with the 10 hours I played. The opening to the game is aces. Very interesting and grabbing. The movement is amazingly fluid. It's fun to just run around the planets. The jet/jump-pack is amazing. The new fluid movements make combat feel fresh and exciting. On just normal difficulty the enemies proved to be clever and challenging. There are no longer class restrictions on the powers you can unlock making cross class combos are a reality now. The ones I was able to unlock and use in different classes were all fun and a few of the combos were quite deadly already early on. The enemies were also doing a pretty good job of being able to avoid some of my power moves at times as well which was a nice touch and made combat feel more varied. I can't wait to play more in just under an hour and a half.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to disagree with the critics on this one. I'm about 5 or 6 hours into the campaign, and I'm digging the hell out of this so far. What were people expecting, the original trilogy all over again? This game does a nice job of differentiating itself, but in some ways it is sort of to the original Mass Effect what The Force Awakens is to Star Wars. The story, so far at least, is essentially a replica of the original game's, at least in terms of its structure. Regardless, I think the story is really fascinating, which in its most basic sense really resembles the best parts of Interstellar. 

Ryder is a great protagonist. I chose to play with Sara rather than Scott, just because I feel like this character works better as a female for whatever reason (I felt the exact opposite about Shepard). I really enjoy that Ryder, unlike Shepard, has a more detailed backstory that is closely connected to the greater plot at hand, and is just more of a fleshed-out personality as a whole. Shepard, being so customizable, was probably more of the "gamer's protagonist," but from a purely storytelling standpoint, I think I prefer Ryder. The side characters haven't done much for me so far, but honestly, it took a while for them to grow on me in the original game as well. 

The gameplay is tons of fun. The jump-jet ability was a fantastic touch, and the omni-weapon is always a blast (using those two together in a sort of combo move is fun as hell). I just love how the game as a whole shows a lot of futurism and advancement when compared to the original trilogy, though it's still clearly rooted within the same universe. (Though I do have a gripe with the fact that the genophage is not cured in this game, when I did that in ME3. I know BioWare said that one's actions in the original trilogy wouldn't affect the new game, but in this case, it feels really annoying.) The world-building as a whole has been pretty nice so far. I've seen several criticisms that this game doesn't introduce enough new species and whatnot, which I suppose is fair, but I think the kett make for great enemies. They're both challenging in combat and enigmatic in a way to fuel curiosity with the story. 

So yeah, I think this is pretty great stuff so far. Maybe I'm one of the few who feels that way. 

Ah, thanks for the clarification on #2. I guess I wasn't totally aware of how this one fits into the overall timeline. And #1 is interesting and I actually wasn't aware of all that, especially considering most of the promotional material for the original trilogy showed Male Shepard rather than the female version. But most of the play-throughs and whatnot that I'd seen from the first three played with FemShep, so I kind of got the feeling that she was the consensus-preferred version. I always preferred Male Shepard, not sure why. 

And I'm glad I'm not the only one enjoying the game! The resounding "meh" it's gotten has been really discouraging, but I think most people are really exaggerating its problems. Sure, it's far from perfect, and it doesn't live up to the original trilogy (how could it?), but it's actually exceeded my expectations as of now and improves upon the original games in several facets. It sounds like you're much farther along with them than I. I didn't really get to play much more during the weekend, I'm hoping to jump back in more during this week. 

Alright. I really wanted to take my time with this one before solidifying my thoughts. Having spent 62 hours with the game, completed the main quest and seen almost everything there is to see (there are still some additional quests I want to get around to), my verdict is that the game is good. Not great, but I still liked it.

Getting the elephant in the room out of the way, the graphics were definitely not the most polished. For a game on the PS4 - which is especially harsh as I just came off of the beautiful Horizon: Zero Dawn just before it, it feels like only a slight cosmetic upgrade compared to its predecessors. However, aside from a few graphical hiccups, and game-breaking glitches that required me to restart my last save, none of it really affected or tainted my experience. The game still looked stylized and lovely, and thankfully the worlds showcased had a great deal of variety to them.

Gameplay-wise, I had a lot of fun. I actually felt the game was easier than the original trilogy, but maybe that had more to do with my readjusted approaches, and my practical mastery of dodges and safety maneuvers. I basically went for as all around and well-rounded a fighter as I could get, spreading the wealth in various different areas that suited my gun and tech-heavy play style. Quests are also very well thought out, foregoing procedural generation or repetitive tasks that echo the same template over and over (like the first ME), and have genuine variety to them (the loyalty missions are particular highlights). And thank god, the Nomad didn't make me nearly want to pull out my hair as much as the Mako did. However, maybe the quests and the maps were a little too ambitious for their own good. Despite spending twice the time on this game than any of the predecessors, I felt the more streamlined and tightly knit set-up of the second and third games were preferable, especially with how far apart the game can set objectives to pad out the map spaces, as well as making jumps between planets feel like blatant backtracking. To me, time played isn't necessarily the same thing as value, and - again - Horizon handled that field better.

But the real draw of these games are the story and characters. It's essentially attempting to be The Force Awakens of the series, recreating similar beats of the first Mass Effect. However, whereas The Force Awakens took place in a familiar world that knew how best to balance gradual exposition with a continually flowing plot, Andromeda can often feel more tedious in how it hurls that exposition at you, echoing one of the worst qualities of the original game as well. Once on the Nexus, things do get more interesting, but whereas The Citadel threw a great deal of new things to do and explore, The Nexus rolls things out much more gradually, still mired in the hefty set-ups going into the universe.

Even the characters, the strongest part of this series, take some time to find their footing. This series is home to some of the greatest supporting players in gaming history, with dozens of instantly memorable characters that make an impact. Andromeda certainly has those, and like any of the other games some are more lovable than others, but it's not quite to the same degree. Very rarely do these character moments reach the brilliance of "Scientist Salarian", Garrus going on about his calibrations, or my personal favorite, "Emergency Induction Port." However, every so often, you will get those moments and that endearing character chemistry you were looking for, with things like the Movie Night worthy of standing with The Citadel DLC as some of the most inspired moments of the series, taking you right back to that spirit enjoyed aboard the Normandy. It's touches like that that make this team feel like a (highly dysfunctional) family, and I wish that the game had managed to capture that lightning in a bottle more often.

Out of all the characters, Jaal has comfortably proven my favorite, despite bearing the demeanor of a hardened warrior, bears a much more lovable and excitable center, with some endearing moments of him as a family man, and showing wildly varying responses to new discoveries. Cora plays a similar role to Ashley in being the one who always has their leader's back, but feels very different in being of an initially more cynical and saddened mind with her own personal stakes, while growing and finding more beauty in what the new Galaxy can offer. Her and Jaal without doubt are going in my top ten favorite ME characters. Vetra's hardened and cunning, but also sweet and family-driven center also made me love her character, especially impressive for what could have easily been an imitation of Garrus. And then Suvi was a pleasant surprise, seeming like she'd be a nothing filler scientist, but instantly won me over with her poignant philosophical musings, and her - quite frankly - absolutely adorable attitude.

After that, the characters - even when good - aren't too impressive. Liam is pretty much a Boy Scout, but his charm helps him overcome that. I liked Peebee, but she's essentially a more hyperactive Liara. Kallo, the pilot, is pretty much window dressing. Lexi is also just there to be there, and Natalie Dormer kinda coasts her voice-overs. Drack is just Wrex and Grunt thrown into a blender, and that's it. Gil is a walking snark machine who gets some heart later, and that's it. The villain of the piece, The Archon, is attempting to be Saren on a larger scale, but just feels like a less interesting Ronan from Guardians of the Galaxy. There's plenty of other side characters that I also like or enjoy, but not enough to make me favor the Tempest over the Normandy.

And I have really mixed thoughts on Ryder. Once again, I went with a female Ryder (which I tried and failed to model after Ruth Negga) as my lead character like I did Shepard, and as always, it's really fun to be able to dictate certain personality traits to make my character unique, whether it be certain politics, my varying sense of diplomacy and actions taken in battle, facial scars of fictitious events in the past I made up, even down to sexuality (My Alice Shepard was bisexual, but my Malika Ryder is lesbian). Problem is, the same personalization isn't fully felt for me. Ignoring how the game snatches away the Paragon/Renegade system and oversimplifies morality, with Shepard, I felt like I was in complete control of creating my narrative, and was able to progressively craft my character as I saw fit, by how her experiences changed both of us, and how we continually adapted to all the things, both good and bad, that we came across. I ended up crafting my own fictitious backstories that fueled decisions as I went on, and it led to an intimate level of involvement with a game I never experienced before. With Ryder, that same impact isn't as strong, as she already has an established backstory, leading it to be a weird and sometimes inconsistent mishmash of my input, and someone else's that makes those feelings less personal. At a few points in the game, I started asking myself "What is *my* motivation, then?"

And for those wondering, I romanced Suvi. I was instantly endeared to her. I tried for Cora at first, but was shot down.

It's a far cry from so much as touching the original trilogy, but in spite of its issues, i still ended up highly enjoying it. The series definitely needs more of a kick than this gave it, and perhaps the sequels that the game sets up will be able to improve on the faults that this suffered from, but for now, what we have here is already pretty damn satisfying.