Should I play Andromeda First?

[MaXXimus Maverick McClane]

I am going to get the stink eye for asking this question, but as someone who has not played the Mass Effect Trilogy yet.......I know lol what your thinking. Should I play Andromeda first? Andromeda is considered the worst of the Mass Effect games and takes place between Mass Effect 2 and 3.

[Sticky Wicket]

Andromeda is considered to be the worst for a very good reason.

Even if you wanted to, for timeline reasons it would not make sense.

Enjoy the real game, and then you will know why Andromeda is the worst.

[AbedsBrother]

No. Andromeda is a completely different story and corrupts lore established in the previous games.

[᲼Jason]

Yes, if only for the fact that it will make you appreciate the original three games more.

Otherwise, don't.

[MaXXimus Maverick McClane]

Originally posted by My Wife's Son:

Yes, if only for the fact that it will make you appreciate the original three games more.

Otherwise, don't.

That was my line of thinking as well. Heck playing the trilogy might even be a step in graphics besides everything else like characters, plot and mechanics.

[phosTR]

Andromeda is an abortion of a game, don't waste money nor time playing that thing.

[piq]

It is a really good idea to play Andromeda first. It had problems with facial animation, but now everything is fixed. I played ME:A for 205 hours and have absolutely no regrets about the time spent. Despite the general criticism, you will get much more enjoyment from Andromeda than Anthem or CoD:IW.

[MaXXimus Maverick McClane]

Originally posted by piq:

It is a really good idea to play Andromeda first. It had problems with facial animation, but now everything is fixed. I played ME:A for 205 hours and have absolutely no regrets about the time spent. Despite the general criticism, you will get much more enjoyment from Andromeda than Anthem or CoD:IW.

Your probably the first person to suggest to play before the rest of the Mass Effect trilogy. Yeah compared to other games it is better just not what people are accustom to for a Mass Effect title.

[Sticky Wicket]

Originally posted by piq:

It is a really good idea to play Andromeda first. It had problems with facial animation, but now everything is fixed. I played ME:A for 205 hours and have absolutely no regrets about the time spent. Despite the general criticism, you will get much more enjoyment from Andromeda than Anthem or CoD:IW.

The problems with Andromeda is not much to do with the facial expressions but the lacklustre quality of the characters in terms of personality and the fact that it broke all the rules of the previous games profession related limitations. Both things contributed towards an overal meaninglessness of gameplay.

I'm sure that for some, they are happy with a mediocre action-based game, but the roots of ME is in a more meaningful RPG.

[MaXXimus Maverick McClane]

Originally posted by Sticky Wicket:

Originally posted by piq:

It is a really good idea to play Andromeda first. It had problems with facial animation, but now everything is fixed. I played ME:A for 205 hours and have absolutely no regrets about the time spent. Despite the general criticism, you will get much more enjoyment from Andromeda than Anthem or CoD:IW.

The problems with Andromeda is not much to do with the facial expressions but the lacklustre quality of the characters in terms of personality and the fact that it broke all the rules of the previous games profession related limitations. Both things contributed towards an overal meaninglessness of gameplay.

I'm sure that for some, they are happy with a mediocre action-based game, but the roots of ME is in a more meaningful RPG.

I still have to play through the trilogy like I said, but in regards to the first Mass Effect game some people had a problem with how micro management heavy it was in terms of maintaining your Shepard and his squad. Where as in the second Mass Effect it was a little more action based/ third person shooter while not overdoing the RPG side.

[piq]

Some people may not like Andromeda for personal reasons, but not objective ones. It may not correspond to anyone's expectations or preferences, but this does not mean that the game itself is bad. On Metacritic, most of the negative reviews were written in 2017, when the game was buggy, most of the positive ones were in 2018-2019.

https://imgur.com/a/bhPNDyb

"I am a member of the silent majority of people who played Mass Effect: Andromeda - a silent majority who loved and appreciated the game."

"This game franchise means more to me than I can put into words. It has saved me on my lowest days. It got me through six years of crippling depression and helped me cope with the death of my dad. Please don't let it die because of trolls on YouTube."

Source: https://www.change.org/p/bioware-dlc-for-mass-effect-andromeda

[spork865]

Come on, man. You're really gonna try to say there aren't objective problems with Mass Effect Andromeda other than the bugs?

The endless fetch quests, or the terrible alien sudoku, the lameness of only having three powers at a time, the extremely limited multiplayer, or all the framerate problems aboard the Tempest? The mostly boring villain-by-numbers?

Honestly though, I'm glad you liked it. I'm glad SOMEBODY enjoyed it. I love the original trilogy to pieces, it got me through some bad times too so I certainly understand. I think Andromeda has the skeleton of an amazing game, I just wish it had turned out differently.

BTW people are always ridiculous on Metacritic, ME:A was a 6 or 7 in my opinion, certainly not a zero.

EDIT: I meant to mention, I did really love some of the environments in Andromeda; they were beautiful and really stood out to me as being a step up from the previous games.

[piq]

Everything you say is true, but:
1) Surprisingly, some people like side quests more than the main missions.
2) I hate that alien sudoku too, but you can bypass these puzzles with 'Remnant Decryption Keys' which are sold in stores and can be found in chests. The objective problem is that their number in the inventory is limited to 9.
3) You can add sets of powers to favourites and rapidly change them on the go, so you have fast access to 12 powers, not only 3.
https://masseffectandromeda.gamepedia.com/Favorite
4) Regarding multiplayer, I was more concerned about the need to play for months to open all the guns and characters, but fortunately there is a trainer available that solves this problem.
http://www.arturalekseev.com/post/masseffectandromedatrainer

In fact, I agree with you. All I wanted to mention is that Andromeda is not as bad as some people say.

Edit: typo

[spork865]

Yeah, I was aware of most of this stuff (except that trainer, it had never really occurred to me, thanks) but I was mostly just disappointed in the direction they went in some ways. I was so happy when I finally got enough of those decryption keys to never have to do sudoku again lol.

I liked how you could set up favorite powers and switch between them, but I was just sad that the cooldowns mostly prevented you from performing combos between two profiles... if I could have mapped even one or two more I would have felt lest restricted.

I'm almost looking forward to dusting it off and playing it in a few years when I somewhat forget the ways it frustrated me...there were a few missions I liked in there under all the other stuff.

[piq]

Good. Next time you may find it interesting to install the following mods that will make the game less annoying for you:
No Profile Switching Cooldown - https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectandromeda/mods/693
1000 free Remnant Decryption Keys in the Tempest store - https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectandromeda/mods/350

[spork865]

Thanks, guy! I'll have to check those mods out and play around with 'em at some point - The no profile switching cooldown sounds pretty awesome.