Mass Effect Andromeda is a great game that I think you should play. I enjoyed it start to finish. I have not played the Mass Effect trilogy series. Other than Mass Effect Andromeda not being what the fans of that series expected, I don’t understand their ire.
You can choose, with limits, how your character looks. Pick wisely because you will see this face a lot in cutscenes and conversations. You can choose male or female. If you change the default name they will just call you Ryder.
Mass Effect Andromeda has a lot of references to the original series. Whether these are canonical or not, I have no idea. The story line is not so much of a story, but a situation. A situation which you, and all the other NPC’s that join you, must overcome. Many of the NPCs come with their own backstories that you can learn about. If you are like me, you will come to like them. I enjoyed the ways the characters interacted and bantered between themselves. It reminded me of Star Trek crews that really clicked.
There are notes, audio logs and memories all over the place making the story and lore rich and vibrant. I suggest you take the time to read them, and talk to everyone. If you want your story lines spoon fed to you, this might not be your game.
It feels like a sandbox game, in that if you want to drop the main quest and follow the many side quests in any order, the main quest will still be there when you get back. There is no time pressure. The side quests are well written, and compliment your main mission. I always felt the urge to complete the side quests to make my new home a better place for all. The games ability to entice you to play the side missions is a testament to it’s great immersion.
I really enjoyed the cut scenes, the voice acting, the barter of your crew and of NPCs in general. You will walk through a crowd and hear relevant and interesting conversations all the time. The world feels very alive and realized. You can even follow romantic story lines with some of the characters, straight or same sex.
You can research technology, upgrade and build weaponry, and send some of your teams on away missions to gain experience points. You can also do some away missions yourself / multiplayer online. I did not do this as there is already so much to do in this game. I preferred to get my weapons and armour off the dead.
Some have said the decisions you make don’t have consequences. I do not know if this is true or not. But I can tell you that it sure felt like they did. So the writing is very good in that area.
The graphics are amazing. The environments are fully realized. I recall standing under a huge downed Remnant ship on a planet and looking up and feeling so small.
The areas are vast. On planet there will be a lot of back and forth driving. But it is fun. Also you will be getting forward ‘nav’ locations that you can fast travel to. So that will speed things up considerably. Travelling between stars can get a little tiresome. You cannot skip those scenes. Also the planet landing and launch scenes cannot be skipped. I found that very odd. However you can skip the traveling between planet scenes.
Normally, you can save almost anywhere. However there are some main missions where you can’t save. Normally I would hate that. But they have small save points throughout them, and if you jump to your death you will respawn and be able to try again. This is also helpful on the platforming sections of the game. This is very well implemented.
It took me a hundred plus hours to complete the main mission and there are a few last side missions I want to ‘mop up’ before I shut it down for good.
Sure the idea of a ‘Pathfinder’ is contrived, but so what.
I have heard it said that that it is similar to Starfield, but better.
The only downside is that you need the EA Launcher to run it.
I bought on sale. But I like it so much I would have paid full price had I know how fun it was.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1238000/Mass_Effect_Andromeda_Deluxe_Edition