Mass Effect Andromeda

Mass Effect series is one of my favorite Sci-Fi games of all time. Its rich world, great characters, and stories were one of the best and most memorable from last generation. I wasn't even bothered much by its ending. Flash forward to this generation, we have a new game based in the same world but set as far away possible, narrative-wise from its predecessor.

If you're new to the Mass Effect series, the game is an action shooter role-playing game. It's narrative heavy with lots of decisions that affect the overall storyline. And for many fans, one of the best aspects of the game is its world and characters.

The first Mass Effect game had many issues and most of them were combat related. The second game, which is my favorite in the series to date, fixed many of the issues the first had and had an even better story than the first. The third was even better combat-wise, but the narrative felt a bit rushed.

The best aspect and the most evolved aspect of Andromeda is the combat. It's faster, more responsive, and more varied. Where the previous games restrict you to a specific class from the start, in Andromeda the option to change class is opened throughout the game. The developers encourage experimenting through this new Profile System and by throwing lots of skill points at you with every level-up. Each class also comes with more options and it's up for the player to mix and match to fit his/her own style.

The maps are also a bit different this time around, the areas are more opened with a larger scale opened areas, but you will get to fight in the usual small corridors areas.

My main issue with the combat is the enemies. I hoped there would be much more variety to the enemies to complement the combat mechanics, but most of the enemies are just bullet sponges.

When it comes to the narrative, Andromeda had huge shoes to fill. While the arc of the story and direction are great, the writing is weak mostly, and the characters are all absolutely terrible. while they may get moments to shine, the way they are written is inconsistent.

Andromeda is easily the biggest game in the series. You could spend over a hundred hours in the game easily, but many of the missions are awful time wasters. In previous games, the thing that kept me playing was part the story and part the gameplay, and in Andromeda, most of the mission carried no weight narrative wise and felt more like chores.

The metagame part has loads of fun mechanics that require planning and strategy, but by far the worst aspect of it is the planet scanning. The benefit from it is huge, but it's such a monotonous, time-wasting chore that I can't believe anyone could have fun doing it. 

Combat

Graphical fidelity 

Art Design

Story

Enemy Design

Characters

Time-waste missions

Since Mass Effect is basically being handled by a new team, I see Andromeda as a great start. The problem is that they bit more than they could chew. They should have focused on quality rather than quantity. The writing, mission design, and characters need more work to reach what the fans expect from a great name to fit in the series.