Is Mass Effect Andromeda as bad as everyone says it is? - A look at the writing and mechanics

Sorry for the wait on this one. My uploads might be a little delayed for awhile because we're expecting a baby towards the end of the year. Without getting too sappy, I just want let you know that I appreciate everyone who takes the time to watch my stuff. It's given me the opportunity to build an amazing life and future for myself and my family. So thank you. I'll probably hit The Witcher 3's DLC next. Have a good one!

Someone once described the dialogue and companion interactions of this game as “if the writers played the citadel dlc and nothing else” and I think about that a lot

This sentiment of "even if the game is good, it's not what I want from this series" is a huge part of my problem with modern Assassin's Creed

Liam is the answer to the question nobody ever asked: what if you took Jacob and made him worse.

2:09:34 What's interesting here is that if you're playing as Sara Ryder, she will actually explain to Jaal how human eyesight works which shuts him up. Scott Ryder doesn't know, which is kinda funny. It's easy to forget that unlike the OT, the "opposite gender" version of yourself is a person who exists regardless of who you play as, and they have a different background to your PC.

I will never get over your dad's pointless death in the intro of Andromeda. You're telling me that a well trained, elite pathfinder that specializes in dangerous exploration wouldn't know to just...trade the good helmet back and forth with you to take breaths? Real life Scuba divers are trained to do this, why hasn't anyone in Mass Effect figured it out?

“We expected life, not an enemy that refused to talk.” Right because humanity’s first ever contact with alien life wasn’t just getting shot up or anything. Have they completely forgotten the first contact war? That is absolutely a possibility!

The good parts: - The Nomad is fun to drive (no surprise, Criterion Games were roped into doing that part). - Complete class customisation (my character was literally Jango Fett). - Similarly crazy weapon customisation (LMG that shoots sticky grenades will never stop being fun). - The story premise and some of the threads. The Bad parts: - Due to the massive production issue, the overall execution. - The economy is broken. You can easily become an unkillable god before the mid point if you do everything. - The fact this has bombed so hard the interesting parts of the story aren't likely going to be resolved in any way.

Your comment about "lack of consequences" is spot on. I picked up Mass Effect 3 in 2012. I had no idea what the series was about, but people were talking about it so I gave it a go. When I got to the "Save the Quarians" or "Save the Geth" bit and it was a no win choice I was so upset & felt that shit for weeks. Then I learned I could get a better outcome if I played the previous games so I went and bought ME1 and ME2, played them, then started ME3 over before finally finishing ME3. It's been 12 years and I still remember that vividly. I played Andromeda and it was aggressively fine... but watching this video I find myself going "I don't remember that character, I don't remember that character... definitely don't remember this guy". The consequences help make these games memorable!

EA's response to this video: "We're very happy to hear you enjoyed your time with Mass Effect Andromeda."

"Liam's a loose cannon who I wouldn't trust to take a food order in a restaurant", that bit fucking killed me, probably the harshest criticism I've seen for a character in a while

There was a moment at the very ending of the game. Yay, you win, you get your little victory celebration, and there's a moment where it pans over all of your companions looking at Ryder like it wants you to remember all of your fond memories with your team. And I distinctly remember having the thought of, "... Wow ... I literally care about none of you."

as someone who has put way too many hours into this game and has actually enjoyed most of it, the best way i can describe the writing is “someone swapped a mid spin-off mass effect fanfiction written by someone who only played 3 and really only liked Citadel with the actual game’s script and the devs just went with it anyway”

I've typically described this game as "I guess it was fun enough to finish it and do most of the side content, but I instantly forgot every event and character the second I was done. I do not care strongly enough about anyone or anything that happened."

2:02:07 New Tuchanka: ❌ Twochanka: ✅

On the topic of them setting up stuff as sequel bait: a primary side mission has you investigating the deaths of the leadership. You end up discovering a whole conspiracy in which a mysterious benefactor funded the Initiative, then snuck along on the trip, was discovered by the head of the Initiative, then killed the head and framed it to be an accident. Huge mystery that was clearly meant to be explored by in the future games. Kinda like the original plans to explore the Quarian Ark and the (original) hints that said Ark would have encountered the start of the Reaper war.

They managed to send an entire expedition to another galaxy and yet couldn't be bothered to run a basic psychological evaluation or background check on any of the volunteers.

One thing I remember liking about Andromeda is that if you stuck with the default name of Scott/Sara, NPCs would occasionally call you by your first name. That, and I guess the gunplay and mobility was more slick, but that's one minor and two notable positives in a sea of mehs and blechs.

I can't watch that "Krogan" fight scene without hearing: "Oh No" x 10

Really surprised you never brought up the fact that the Kett are essentially just the collectors from ME2...