Is it odd or out of place to write a review of a game
months after it has been released? *shrugs*
TIMEAccording to the above image, I've put in 77 hours. Seems about right. Note that most of those hours were spent performing side missions, as the actual main story probably takes only a few hours. Okay, maybe a little longer than that... but know that you probably could complete the main story in one good family free day. There was no sense of urgency or importance to get the main mission accomplished; whenever I did a chapter, I made sure to do every single side mission and task first before moving on. Hell, it got to the point where the last few hours was just the main story: I had
all tasks and sides completed well before needing to do the main mission.
STORYWhile the story isn't anything we haven't heard from a ME game before, there was enough interest to move things along. I won't say that the interest was gripping; in truth, it was like watching a movie you wanted to be good, and you continued watching in the hopes that eventually it'll pay off. It doesn't. Doesn't mean the story sucked or that it was boring, it just means that, well, it was average at best. Even with the main side quest, you uncover all these clues as to what is really going on, and you hope for a big reveal because that's what the clues are pointing at... a big reveal... and what is given goes in the opposite direction of where things were pointing, with what was revealed just becoming an "oh, okay" moment. Also, because I did all the tasks and sides before touching the main, I encountered things out of order; didn't change the story at all, other than facing/fighting something (in a side) BEFORE said something was encountered for the first time (in the main). Made the cut scenes a little weird, but after that happened a few times, I got used to it.
RELATIONSHIPSKnow how the relationships in Bioware's Dragon Age games can affect how that character interacts with you? Or how previous ME games had consequences as to whether or not the character lived or died, or how they interacted with you? Yeah, don't expect any of that here. Complete the character's relationship quests, and you'll get power points or something. Whether the quest was done in a positive or a negative aspect, you still get the points, the character still lives, and one dialogue later, everything is as right as rain and back to normal. There's one particular mission where you have to choose between salarian or krogen; any player of ME knows of the relation these two species have, and you'd think that this particular choice would have lasting repercussions. Nope. Pick salarian, and your krogen crew member is only upset for one conversation; pick krogen, and your krogen is happy for one conversation. Depending which species you pick, they'll aid you in the final battle; doesn't matter which species. Your choice does not push the story at all! There are no lasting repercussions!
ROMANCEThere's plenty to chose from, I'll give the developers that. But, unlike previous games, there isn't any... there's no emotional attachment. It essentially falls into a "you wanna?" type conversation, with answers being "not my thing" to "wait" to "sure, let's go!" Oh, you can also be with any species, even though that was the asari gig.
WORLDSThe worlds seem as if they were developed by Lucas. You have an ice planet, a jungle planet, and a desert planet. You can only explore the planets in which a colony is being established, and even then, you're limited in range. The planet development looks boring, with something you'd expect to see from
No Man's Sky. In fact, I did read that the worlds were supposed to be created in the same manner as NMS or Minecraft, as they wanted this to be an exploration game, but it wasn't until halfway through development that that idea was scraped.
COMBATCombat was good, controls were good. Unlike previous ME games where you had to stick with what class you were (soldier, biotic, tech), you have the ability to jump around between the three, with more division in that you could pick sub-classes. I stuck with one throughout the game, even though I increased each class' abilities equally. At no time was there a place where I had do perform something as one thing over the other. Likewise, as far as landing parties go, unless I was required to bring a certain crew member, I stuck with the same two. There was no need for any particular class or skillset. There were no scenarios where I needed a biotic. No infiltration missions.
CRAFTINGYou still have the ability to craft armor or weapons from blueprints, but there isn't a need. None. At. All. Anything you can craft, you can find. Anything you can find, you can craft. The only time I crafted a device was if a side mission required it. As far as crafting augmentations into a device to improve its characteristics, I couldn't tell you if that's true or not. There are slots available where you can attach an improving device to the pre-existing weapon or armor, but again, I couldn't even tell you if it works or not, or if there were any changes. As long as you equip weapons that are ever increasing (ie, going from Sidewinder II to Sidewinder IV), and you'll be good. Note: you do not control what armor or weapons your crew has, so save yourself the effort and, if you chose to craft stuff, only worry about yourself.
INVENTORYUnless you are wearing it or shooting it, sell sell sell. Since you don't need to craft, you don't need to horde items. If it turns out you do need an item, with all the stuff you'll be selling, you can easily afford to buy anything you want.
MISSIONSBe prepared for a lot of going back and forth. Go to location A only to go to the opposite side of the map to get item 1, only to return to location A. Head to Planet B, pick up an item to take to location 2 on Planet A, so you can get access to whatever is in location 3 on Planet C. You know, like finding a green key that will unlock the green door on level 2, when you are already on level 6. There doesn't seem to have been much thought in the missions... main or side... just a lot of repeating ones used to fill space so the developers could say "we have HOURS of extra missions!"
GLITCHES and BUGSEven with the release day patch and fixes, there were still plenty of noticeable glitches. Nothing froze the game, so that's good. There were just disappearing people, disappearing landscapes, falling through eternity, some character location jumping, bad conversation angles, hesitations, skipping, and on and on. Stuff that should have been taken care of. Stuff that was obvious. There is one part in particular where, after I founded a colony, the image froze on the landscape, while the head of the Initiative was holding a conversation with me... a conversation where I had to give answers. I couldn't see the dialogue wheel, I didn't know what my options were. When you get to that point, you'll know that the options on the left are emotional/from the heart whereas the ones on the right are logical/of the mind.
Now, I don't know if it is because the previous ME games were good and that they set the bar rather high as far as expectations go, but I felt as if this game didn't live up to that potential. Don't get me wrong, it was a good game, on par with the first ME game... and compared to 2 and 3, the first wasn't that good either... but Andromeda just didn't carry the same impact as the previous games. It's a good launching point, but... yeah. Average at best.
