CRITIQUE: Mass Effect: Andromeda - A Terrible Game

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Quick note: I'm aware I make a bit of a hash of pronouncing "Moshae" a couple of times in the video. I struggle with this kind of thing, and no matter how many times I listened to the word in the game audio, it just kept coming out in different ways why I read from my script. I also say "ansari" a few times instead of "asari" and I have no idea why.

[@dieseliulian]

Chris Davis as long as you don't mispronounce 'krogan' we're good here :D Totally unrelated, have you played Nier Automata? Along with Horizon, it helped me get over the Andromeda disappointment.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

+dieseliulian I'm working on a Nier Automata review right now. I ended up liking the game a lot. Well, the ending at least. Other parts of the game were frustrating. It certainly tries to do something new though which I really appreciated after Andromeda.

[@deschain1910]

Maybe you have a subconscious obsession with Aziz Ansari. Scary thought...

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

+Deschain19 That would explain a lot!

[@MegaRugster]

Think the main problem with moshae is they tend to pronounce it moshai.. which doesn't really help if you're trying to pronounce something that's written differently. I just refer to her as the "annoying one who is most ungrateful for being rescued"

[@Madman1234855]

I think Alec gave up his helmet because he realized he was in Mass Effect: Andromeda and was desperate for a way out.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Wouldn't blame him.

[@ParasiteQueen1]

I busted out laughing!

[@commanderdanielcousland9981]

Madman1234855 he was litteraly the most badass character in Andromeda, went out like a champ 😫

[@TheRixtah1]

LMAO. And as he's running out of oxygen he's like "kill... me... kill... me..."

[@gsimon123]

Because he realized the sobering two facts that he was the only solid voice actor/character the entire game had to offer and that he was not the protagonist

[@ryeb]

For some reason all of the aliens in this game look like people wearing rubber monster suits. They're completely unimaginative.

[@armorclasshero2103]

This is what happens when the people doing the real work leave.

[@bobdylan1968]

I feel like you're being disengenguous. The visuals of this game are incredible, especially for the time.

[@smoothbrainchumak7278]

@@bobdylan1968 Nah man, compared to the previous games its kinda an downgrade

[@tehehe5929]

@@bobdylan1968 Technically yes, aesthetically no.

[@T-Flame]

@@bobdylan1968for the time? How old do you think this game is? It looks worse than older ME games.

[@jackkolby909]

Even if the other races had a whole trilogy to work out their backstory, the codex in Mass Effect 1 actually infodumps on you pretty hard right off the bat and lays down 90% of the races right then and there, pulling you into the story. The Angara being this flat has no excuse.

[@jannieschluter9670]

Did you consider reading the Codex? The Codex is part of the game for a reason and expected to be studied by the player like you who expects more depth. Without the Codex it is something for the casual player who hated the story heavy approach of the former Mass Effect games. Read the Codex.

[@captainvinno]

@@jannieschluter9670 I'm assuming Jack did read the codex...

[@TheJupiteL]

What I just found out why the codex is so good is the narration. It's like listening to news reel at the start of an apocalypse movie or something, it feels intense just to listen in.

[@leonerd1763]

I forgot what their name was before reading your comment.What a piece of shit of a game Andromeda was.I truly regret to have bought it day one full price

[@spanishnameisjesus]

"Think I pissed that one off! Maybe because I shot him in the face!" That's when I realized that pre ordering and waking up at 6am to play this game was a big, BIG mistake.

[@IsmashedtoRedbone]

Armalight I’m sorry to hear that man, pre orders suck except for red dead and that’s it lol

[@wakkjobbwizard]

I preordered this game. And if I’m honest, there weren’t as many bugs as people say. And my god if I wasn’t called a fanboy for saying this. But seriously, the game is worth it for $20 or less. The combat was actually really good.

[@Igneeka]

And that's why no one should ever preorder games tbh

[@jfelton3583]

@@wakkjobbwizard true fans did not care about combat gameplay. That's how you differentiate between fans ofnthe series and fans of Andromeda. And fans of the series hated it so EA had this shit shelved. And rightfully so because itnwas a trash game

[@wakkjobbwizard]

jfelton3583 I didn’t say the game was really good because of the combat being pretty good. I just said the combat was good and that the game is decent if you can find it for cheap. I obviously prefer the other Mass Effect games. It’s the same thing with Rage 2. I bought that on day one and really enjoyed the combat, but the game was pretty meh.

[@1215298]

My opinion on Mass Effect- Andromeda is the same as Shepard's companion's comments when referring to his/her Clone: "You're just a pale imitation of the real thing!"

[@CorinneO.O]

i played andromeda a few months ago and never understood the things said towards the game cuz i enjoyed it...till i played MELE and realized what a waste of potential mass effect andromeda is. it's like it is not made by the same bioware that made the trilogy.

[@aw2584]

@@CorinneO.O well its not lol

[@shanedawndusk3290]

And this is why comparing a single game to a fucking trilogy is entirely unfair.

[@beetheimmortal]

@@shanedawndusk3290 Bro, even if you compare it to just ME1 it fucking fails still. And I hate ME1.

[@shanedawndusk3290]

@@beetheimmortal That’s called a biased opinion

[@Darluk]

No volus? How am I going to play as a biotic god?

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

You just reminded me of Niftu Cal and now I'm even more depressed about this game.

[@Darluk]

I miss the volus, vorcha, hanar, and of course the elcor (and what happened to the quarians anyway?). You touched on it a bit by criticizing the Kett, but I find the alien designs rather lacking in imagination. They're all clearly humanoid and utilize the same skeleton, which is probably why some of the animations look bad. I wish they had designed something truly alien or at least something other than knockoff twi'leks and knockoff protheans.

[@averyaustin1]

Fear me lesser creatures!

[@DumbArse]

Darluk You get an other very bad DLC teaser at the end in the form of a very very bad emergency signal from the quarian ship

[@Darluk]

Man am I glad I skipped this one.

[@Tbal_96]

This game is also almost a complete carbon copy of the original trilogy and Mass Effect 1. You have the ancient race that leaves behind its tech for later species to find, like the Protheans. You have an enemy race with unfathomable numbers, who's purpose is to eliminate all sentient life in the Galaxy and convert said species into ones of their own... like the Reapers. You have a ship very similar to the Normandy SR-1. A vehicle similar to the Mako with exploration similar to Mass Effect 1. And your crew? Two boring Human crew (Cora, Liam/Ashley, Kaiden), A Turian renegade with and eye piece (Vetra/Garrus), an Asari obsessed with an extinct race (Peebee/Liara), a war torn Krogan (Drack/Wrex) and the Tech specialist (Jaal/Tali). This is bad story writing.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

I find this all so frustrating. I'm a writer myself and would kill for a chance to write for a huge franchise like this. I know writing for games is difficult, but the lack of imagination on show here is such a waste of a big budget. You have 40 hours and can tell any story you like and the best you can come up with is a retread of the original trilogy? Such a waste.

[@deschain1910]

Eh. I thought a lot of the details and smaller scale stories had plenty of good writing in them. There were themes explored in Andromeda that were not touched on in the original. It's like how people said Star Wars 7 was exactly the same as Star Wars 4, but I had very different experiences watching the two movies personally. It all depends on how far you want to zoom out. Get macro enough and everything looks the same, really.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Hey Deschain19 - just as a head's up, a lot of your comments got filtered into spam for some reason. I've no idea why. I approved them all and I'll keep an eye on it, but I thought you might want to know in case it's a recurring problem. Not sure what you can do about it mind you.

[@deschain1910]

+Chris Davis Thanks. How strange. I wonder if it has something to do with me posting so many comments on different threads here in a short amount of time. Or are lots of people giving me the old thumbs down or reporting me as spam? :( Perish the thought...

[@Starkillar64]

Mario Badia As a halo fan I can tell you that your dead wrong on the whole ancient advanced alien thing being ripped from Halo. It's an old sci fi trope you will find in plenty of novels and short stories, that being said Halo did it MUCH better; the backstory of the prometheons was well explained and was not a crutch for the writing team to just pull stuff out of their ass because they ran out of ideas. The rules for what the prometheons/ forerunners were and what they made were pretty much stagnate up until Halo 4, unlike Mass Effect which even in the original trilogy seemed to make up rules for the reapers for the sake of moving the plot forward

[@xcaluhbration]

It's a shame your father dies in the game, the relationship between him, your sibling and yourself would've added a much needed level of complexity to your character. Why do the PARENTS HAVE TO ALWAYS DIE?! It's possible in fiction to tell a compelling story between a parent and child but time after time they don't.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

I think that's one of the reasons The Last of Us resonated with so many people. Instead of killing the parent, they killed the child and then developed a new parent/child relationship. It's difficult to pull off, but when it works, you're left with something incredibly powerful.

[@xcaluhbration]

Chris Davis I've never played the Last of Us but I will since I've heard nothing but great things about it. If it makes you believe in the love between the characters like the first season of the TellTale walking dead season 1 did with Lee and Clementine, I'm all aboard. Great video btw man, we appreciate the work you put into this.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Thanks! Walking Dead Season 1 is a great example as well. I have some minor issues with the gameplay in The Last of Us, but the characters are some of the best in all of video games. It's well worth playing.

[@Bjorick]

umm, this game was written by SJW's, who have daddy issues, and hate to be told what to do, by anyone. That's why the parents are killed. Besides, this story was never about your or your character (like ME trilogy actually was), this was a movie with cutscenes, you play the writer and the world they wanted to create and live in, you are meaningless except to digest their 'story'. I know that sounds harsh, but that's how i see it. ME had a story that you responded to, like life. the universe didn't revolve around you, it existed and things happened, and you had to effect it, you made the universe revolve around you because you never gave up. this game seems to expect everything to revolve around you for simply showing up, lol.

[@xcaluhbration]

Bjorick Wow... I'm not going to dispute any of those points. You can sense the "gimme stuff because I'm me" theme throughout the game. Also I do personally HATE political correctness in my games, but I prefer honest characters who I would still excuse to be PC but have to be faced with others who don't share their views. THAT would make for a compelling PC story. Anyway, I hate this game because Its boring and I can never forgive any game for that because we know video games can be a MAJOR time waster of your life... but when it's fun, who cares? When it's BORING though? You have this moment of gamer clarity that can easily cause you to question your life choices.

[@A2simp]

I love the design choice of naming the bad guys after a drug, imagine if in halo you fought the cocaine instead of the covenant

[@A2simp]

TooLateToTheStory ketamine, known as ket for short

[@lizardC549]

Imagine fighting the Opioids on hardcore difficulty.

[@fakharhayatadil349]

Bro I just laughed my ass off xD

[@giorgialadashvili4771]

I mean they named the "ancient alien race" after a basketball star, so why did you expect?

[@GymmyRhys]

Kett is the name of a drug? ive never heard of it

[@thanevakarian9762]

I felt more connection with Jenkins death that Alec’s for sure

[@jakehanson216]

I love this comment

[@CorinneO.O]

true!

[@DavidWoodMusic]

Jenkins best boy

[@williek08472]

We hardly knew ye

[@Lawrence-og4oc]

Im hella late but I felt more empathy for Wilson in Mass effect 2... He could have been like the first crucial choice. Save him or Jacob. 😅😂

[@RogerWazup007]

I wish so many open-world games didn't have nearly impassable, tedious, steep, fall-inducing mountains in between you and where you need to go.

[@michaelcassy9592]

It's called subnautica

[@davidmccormick4735]

Intergalactic travel = no big issue. Small airborne vehicle for planetary exploration = impossible.

[@ZackExplorer28]

so the map can just go on and on and on? sure, keep dreaming.

[@RogerWazup007]

Variety in terrain is great, but a mountain often being between me and where I want to go is annoying, especially with slow/limited mobility.

[@MelonTartVA]

Ok, so to explain the trip to Andromeda, a friend of mine (who is a Mass Effect veteran) has said that the trip to Andromeda was in case Shepard failed to stop the Reapers. Since they were in cryo sleep during the events of ME3, they have no idea of those events. The writers used this to avoid writing themselves into a corner by canonizing one of the me3 endings

[@dwwolf4636]

Dandy lions.....

[@jtfike]

They left 2185, ME2 was 2187 so it does line up

[@thesomethingandsomething9823]

@@jtfike No, ME2 was 2185, ME3 was 2186, and MEA was 2819 after the intro cutscene showing them leaving in 2185.

[@loct5370]

I always under the impression this was the case, or something along these lines. If there's a slight discrepancy with timing maybe it was a matter of, "give or take a few years" with the trip to Andromeda

[@garyballard179]

@@thesomethingandsomething9823 The Andromeda Initiative did _not_ leave the Milky Way over 600 years after ME2. It _arrived_ in Andromeda 600+ years after ME2. It left _during_ the events of ME2.

[@CFilmer]

"I have a weak spot for cash" So does EA...

[@gownerjones]

"Stimulating the cardiovascular core." When sci-fi writers try to be cool to the point where they avoid the word heart... Cringe.

[@miceatah9359]

thats called writing sry to bring it to u

[@gownerjones]

@@miceatah9359 Overcomplicating the word heart is called writing? Is it that easy? Finally I can become a writer!

[@rotaryskratch18]

@@gownerjones yes! You've finally discovered the meaning of the word "creativity"! Now get to writing, you could be the next Kurt Vonnegut!

[@user-pq4by2rq9y]

@@miceatah9359 *poor writing

[@Hirotoro4692]

@@rotaryskratch18 creativity isn't in beating around the bush, lol.

[@kiragray6982]

When I was a kid, I played the original trilogy over and over again, I didn't even really make different choices, I just enjoyed the world and characters so much that I wanted to experience them again. Given this obsession, the fact that I didn't even finish Andromeda, and just dropped it out of boredom, is striking.

[@MandaloreGaming]

Excellent break down of the game, keep it up my man

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Thanks!

[@JointedSpagel]

I wouldn't mind you doing some sort of collab. Too bad you guys do such different genres. I love both of you guys commentaries though! Keep it up boys!

[@lordofbanana6869]

Cockmeat

[@RealMisterDoge]

Based Mandalore

[@tgreaux5027]

What the heck is Ssseth doing here?!?!

[@sarademoor]

Excellent point. At the Nilken quest, I kept yelling it's attempted murder! That's an actual crime.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

+sarademoor Definitely not a good start to the game! It still baffles me how no one spotted that.

[@sarademoor]

Good video btw, I found myself agreeing with many points you made. I desperately wanted to love this game, but a few hours into the campaign, I couldn't care less what happened to anyone. What it lacks most is soul imo. It's not just one thing that bothers me. If the story is good, I could care about a talking polygon. It's just, if the story is ok-ish, the characters barely tolerable, then I fall over bad animation and glitches. That breaks the paperthin immersion.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

+sarademoor Thanks! Lack of soul is a pretty good way to describe it. If the writing is good, then you can get attached to 2D images that never even move their lips. I used to play 2D point and click games like Sam and Max Hit the Road and those characters had plenty of personality. The writing and characterization in Andromeda feels like a 1st draft of a script. All the pieces are in place, but someone needed to go back and add jokes, characters, check for plot holes, etc.

[@sarademoor]

Haven't played that particular game, but I have the same feeling about the Stardew valley characters. Totally see what you mean.

[@deschain1910]

Huh... I thought I remembered somebody in-game calling it attempted murder, but maybe I'm misremembering. Anyway, my interpretation was that this wasn't relevant. The question was, what do you want to do with him now that you know it was attempted murder. Set him free, or exile him? Those are the options regardless, because they aren't going to waste resources imprisoning someone long-term. It's interesting reading the comments under this video, from the perspective of someone who would actually rate the game a 7 or 8/10. You guys have very different interpretations of many things than I had while playing through the game. :)

[@captainufo4587]

You know why Dragon Age Origins was good and Andromeda was bad? Becase the writing and designer staff responsible for those games resigned en mass after they saw in which direction the publisher wanted to bring both Drang Age and Mass Effect. DA2 and ME2 were already partially written and designed, hence them being somewhat reminiscent of the original titles, then ME3, DA Inquisition and MA Andromeda are all the products of the new Bioware staff, that clearly doesn't have the same talent and know-how of the old one.

[@adeptdamage3669]

I'm sorry but DA2 was way worse then Inquistion.

[@captainufo4587]

Well, yes. If you don't mind me using coarse language, there's shit and then there's very foul shit, but that doesn't make the normal shit better. DA2 suffered because it's base idea and it's execution clashed badly, plus very rushed production. In itself, the idea of following a single hero throughout different parts of his life is good from a roleplay point of view and very much in line with the barely used origin theme of DA1; if that's what you were looking for, you could see it buried deep inside the game. Except that then it was executed with poor writing, rushed planning, recycled graphics and in general half the time it would have needed to be properly flashed out. Also, where DA1 was specifically made to feel like an Infinity Engine games with modern technology and aesthetics (which IMHO is part of the reason of it's success), DA2 backpedalled and tried to look like Mass Effect and failed miserably.

[@semvision]

DA2 was horrifically bad, the worst AAA game of 2011.

[@irllcd13]

DA2 was far from horrifically bad. That's a gross overstatement. It wasn't good. It was very disappointing, but let's not slip into hyperbole.

[@del5582]

I came into DA2 just last year, after all the hubbub died down, as a sort of impartial appraiser, and I was enthralled, and did another playthrough a few months later. It simply has to be understood that they were trying to do something different. The world was smaller than Origins, but the game had a lot of heart, the writing was first class and on par with what we (used to) expect from Bioware, the gameplay was challenging and fun. If you don't go into DA2 expecting some grand, majestic quest, and simply take it in, in and of itself, as its own game which sought to do something different than its predecessor like I did, you might treasure it like I do. Inquisition I'll get to eventually, and again, come to my own opinion.

[@JustSumGuy01]

So much potential. It could have been about exploration, first contact with new races and no big bad to loom over your playthrough

[@ZackExplorer28]

and no fighting bad guys or a main villain? sounds boring if you ask me.

[@JustSumGuy01]

@@ZackExplorer28 Then you lack imagination. They could of had an actual message about the problems with colonization. And if there IS going to be a "bad guy", have some nuance to the bad guys. Write it so that they are only fighting to push back the Andromeda colonists and sees them as invaders and they're willing to kill innocents to prove their point.

[@avosthyric]

I remember when this game came out and I thought "Aw, man. That sucks. Hopefully the next game they release will be back to the expected level of Bioware quality." And then they released Anthem. I really hope Dragon Age 4 will be a good game. I think my heart will break if it turns out to be another Andromeda.

[@wakkjobbwizard]

It probably won’t be very good, but the first one I played was Inquisition so I don’t really want to judge.

[@avosthyric]

@@wakkjobbwizard same here. Inquisition is pretty flawed, but I still love it. If the next game is on the same level that'll be enough for me.

[@zhongliimpact6220]

Fuck stop hoping and giving them money seriously, it's embarassing.

[@Eqvil]

Personally I think the mysterious benefactor was Liara. As the shadow broker, she had the funds, and she had knowledge about the reapers from the beginning.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

+Eqvil Yeah, she definitely could be. My only issue with that theory is that it means the Benefactor isn't in Andromeda Galaxy (because Liara is in ME3). I'd like to think that such an important figure would eventually show up in the planned sequel or 3rd game. I think it's implied that the Benefactor made the trip although I must admit, I can't remember why I think that so I could be wrong. It would be cool for series veterans to get the reveal that it was Liara all along, but that would be awful storytelling for people who haven't played the previous games. Everything Bioware and EA said about the game is that it's supposed to stand on its own with only minor throwbacks to the trilogy. But the storytelling in Andromeda is pretty bad, so who knows...

[@Eqvil]

Finished watching your video. Gotta admit, there was a lot you mentioned and it was fun watching. Worth a subscription. There are only some things I found annoying, in addition to everything you mentioned. 1. The armor perks forced me to wear armor that I don't like aesthetically, but liked the perks. I had an armor that gives 35% extra exp, so I could never justify wearing cooler armor because having one extra lvl up for every 3 earned was too good. 2.The amount of resources you periodically get from your researchers if you unlock them from the cryopods, the amount you find on the planet, the amount you find by scanning a planet from orbit, and the amount you get from finding caches in space are all the same. You are telling me that the small amount of minerals I find on a planet that can fit into my hand gives the same amount as the mountain range I found from orbit? I scanned all planets just to complete it, but finding stuff was never satisfying. 3.. The vendors are useless. For a game that makes us work hard for materials and money, they never offered something that was stronger than what I had. Same for guns dropped from enemies. They scale according to Ryder's lvl, so in most cases, my crafted weapons were better than anything dropped. 4. Story pacing. Just when I thought the game is opening up and I'm starting a great adventure, (when you are supposed to hunt down the Archon), all the planets are introduced, it started ending. 5. Continuity. You mentioned it about forwarding mail to the Nexus, but not being able to access your own mail outside of the ship. I will add. On the very first mission, Ryder cracks the glass of his helmet and repairs it with his omni-tool. He cracks it again and neither Ryder or Alec think of using the omni-tool. After that, it is never again seen used in a fashion that would suggest it can create materials outside of combat. 6. I played the game literally all the way to the desert planet before I found that there is a map option, AND a fast travel option. You mentioned it but I have to underline how poorly some game concepts are explained.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Thanks for watching! 1. Completely agree about the armor. Unfortunately I find that to be a common problem these days, so it seemed harsh to single out Andromeda for it. 2. Never even noticed this! Well spotted. 3. Yep. I only visited the vendors to be thorough for the video. 4. It's terrible story-telling from beginning. Pacing issues could have been resolved by sending the writers to a Story-telling 101 class. 5. That thing with the omni-tool is so silly that I can't quite believe they included it. Sure, you can say the second crack was worse than the first and therefore couldn't be fixed. But why even show the helmet being fixed the first time? It added nothing to the story and then made people ask "Why didn't they use the omni-tool again?" during a major death scene. 6. I didn't realize you could warp straight to the ship from the NOMAD for an embarrassingly long time!

[@irllcd13]

It's Illusive Man. He knows about the Reapers and is obsessed with preserving humanity and has access to insane amounts of money. Also, Cora has the same last name as TIM.

[@SuperBrockMister1]

The old bioware is dead. I refuse to support another game they create until there are massive changes.

[@lignagirroc]

Holy fuck why did I find a random Kripperino here?

[@nilocblue]

Uh, ok... lol

[@Macwylee]

Like what changes? You gonna give some examples?

[@kira-dk2mx]

Getting rid of the SJWs layering the company here and there.

[@Macwylee]

So let me get this straight? Your scared of the SJW boogyman which is non-exsistnt, and yet you give EA a pass? Wow, just wow.

[@farisprasko3549]

I love when fans of the game make a better story premise than the actual developers. Great job!

[@karolinskie1949]

Seriously. What's terrible is that this seems to be happening more and more these days.

[@Keriga]

I am currently on my first playthough of Andromeda and my biggest issue with it is actually with Ryder. For some reason I just can't "connect" to her. In comparison, I don't have this problem at all with Shepard while playing the trilogy. I love my Shepard and playing the games as her is awesome. She is awesome. Huge part of this is her believable relationships with her grew, which Ryder doesn't really have. Plus the dialogue is much better. In my opinion, Andromeda's biggest problem is that it tries so hard to be a Mass Effect game. As a completely independent IP it might have been a lot better as then it wouldn't be compaired to the much better trilogy that came before it. I am still going to complete my ME:A playthough, since it might somehow connect to the future ME title (although I hope they keep it at minimum) and I want to be able to keep up with the lore. Still hoping though that the future game is more like the trilogy than Andromeda.

[@MoonMoverGaming]

Eeehhh I feel like if Andromeda were an original IP, no-one would have ever given a single care about it. The reviews would be just as bad, but there would be fewer of them and fewer sales as well.

[@VeaFlea]

People just need to stop excusing game devs for shitty releases that come with the promise of later patches. Game devs getting away with this shit has already set an awful precedent of unfinished games making it to the market

[@catsquidcatoverlord9842]

I mean it's not really the game devs fault. They have to release when it releases. I blame the company and their management for how many errors on their part happened to make them think releasing it in this state was ok.

[@bigboybastard7162]

Even 3 years later this problem is still very prevalent, hell it just happened with cyberpunk to a major extent.

[@davidkahil5158]

No patch is going to fix this game

[@davidkahil5158]

@@bigboybastard7162 Yeah cyberpunk is alot like andromeda both games are dogshit

[@julianhanna37]

This comment really is 2000 times more true 4 years later, very sad the state of gaming

[@Monarch_943]

An entire galaxy with only 2 new alien races and yet they come up with the most generic and uninteresting alien design ever -_-

[@palaven4048]

Not an entire galaxy, just one cluster. Considering most clusters in the Mass Effect trilogy had no sapient species, I'd say 2 is pretty good.

[@jinx5005]

It wasn't an entire galaxy though, it was just a cluster.

[@brandonryan8177]

I'm pissed at them never showing the other 12 vasel races of the kett the only ever even name 3 of them and concern that there still in there original form just kinda forced labor situation one of whom Aperently a species of cannibals

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

A universe of aliens, with none as cool as the Krogan.

[@jimpatterson1111]

Agreed. Definitely different designers. I LOVED all the races previously. The new ones seem hackneyed.

[@dragoniraflameblade]

At one point, I started tearing up out of frustration and sheer disappointment... And maybe anger. I've waited FOREVER to play this game. I've avoided SO MANY spoilers until now. The only reason I watched this was to see how bad it really was because I'm almost at the point where I can buy it. This is what I waited for??? What's wrong with you, Bioware?

[@misaeltoral508]

Felicity Swan So, let me get this straight. You teared up over a GAME that you haven’t even played yourself? Are you serious or really stupid?

[@TheDayMang]

Bioware is dead

[@andrewmurray1746]

It's true they failed, I only want people to realise that their ambition outstripped their investment and a lot of the bad press would have been nil given another 6 months of testing. From that lack of foresight they have effectively killed one of the the best SF franchises in history.

[@9999plato]

If you want to waste 10 hours of your life get Origin and you can play the 10 hour demo. I stopped way short of that and I'm, a diehard Mass effect player. What a shitty game.

[@MrLaggan]

EA is the problem.

[@DavidLee-vi8ds]

I can't believe that you so thoroughly played a game that you hated so much. And then thought about it long enough to do such a detailed review. I salute your dedication. You really suffered for your work.

[@Tzilandi]

"Mass Effect: Andromeda hasn't finished being shit yet." Oh my God, we're barely halfway through the video. XD

[@HellRa1z3r]

44:48 What was the point of doing that roll?

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Haha! That's how people move! You should see me when I go shopping. Rolling all over the place.

[@ES21007]

Chris Davis Link, is that you? The hell are you doing shopping not moving your ass saving Zelda?

[@haydengallina5554]

Lol what was the point of grabbing the gun when she had all her guns on her back

[@kevinj4243]

HAHAHAHAHAAH

[@TheYourGod666]

This is fucking atrocious

[@Tbal_96]

May I add that the point of a Pathfinder in the game is absolutely pointless. Almost every planet in the game has been discovered and settled before Ryder and the Human Ark arrive. And every other Pathfinder is missing, not to mention each Ark arrives at different times, sometimes years apart, and if that is the case why are we even called pathfinder? The only places you travel to and explore are already settled and mapped meaning you are NOT pathfinding. The only thing that this Pathfinder does that is remotely Pathfinder-like is that you reset those Monoliths to save the planets ecosystems and fight the hostile Kett, those are two purposes for being that could never have been anticipated by the people in the Milky Way, it is so poorly structured I can't help but shake my head at the concept.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

The whole "Pathfinder" thing seems so ridiculous, that I'm starting to wonder whether it was a late addition. The game wants you to feel like a "chosen one" but doesn't give you any special abilities or purpose. You're absolutely right when you mention that the only special thing Ryder does is something that couldn't have been anticipated when they left the Milky Way. Great point. You're not a chosen one, but the game kind of pretends you are at random intervals. I'd rather they went without the chosen one thing completely, but if you're going to do it, at least do it properly.

[@deschain1910]

Huh? Pathfinder is just a rank in the hierarchy of each Ark, like the lead of the expeditionary force. That's all. The only thing you're chosen to do is get special attention from the AI assigned to your Ark and special authorities. You guys are attributing way more mysticism to this concept than I got out of it...

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

"Pathfinder is just a rank in the hierarchy of each Ark, like the lead of the expeditionary force." You're completely right that it's just a rank. I'm fine with that part. However, everyone in the game talks about the "Pathfinder" as if you're the savior all life in the galaxy. You're constantly told that no one can settle on planets without you... except that everyone already has. And that's with the remnant and kett problem. Imagine if the galaxy were peaceful as expected. Pathfinders would just be leaders of the expeditionary force like you point out. So why are they so revered? What skill set do they have that random bandits don't? They're very much made out to be the most important people on each ark and I have no idea why.

[@deschain1910]

I attributed this to whether or not people bought into the corporate hype. You meet many people, even among the Initiative, who are not at all impressed by your title until you prove yourself to them. Also, the other pathfinders you see in the game are elite personalities on their own, even without their pathfinder title. The people who worship you seem to have little knowledge of the details of what's going on. The people who are informed don't really treat you that way, though they may treat the other pathfinders with great respect due to their previous accomplishments before they were with the Initiative. I think the reason they aren't settling planets without a pathfinder is simply due to the authority that is afforded them by the rules and the SAM. It seems those in charge still wanted to follow the Initiative bylaws unless there was no other choice. I think they were close to that point when you arrive really. As far as the people who are settling planets without you, you'll notice that it's stated that they are not succeeding without pirating Initiative resources or getting them through moles. The Krogans are the only ones thriving without help. So, I don't think even the game treats you as particularly special other than your authoritative position in the Initiative and the resources at your disposal, not least of which being your SAM. I mean, she's courageous, but Ryder is definitely not treated like Shepard in the 'you're special' department by the game and the people in it.

[@iwanttoputkamuistoesinmymo5938]

AceArchangel they need a title that sounds important

[@Fortonor]

You probably know this by now, but Bioware Edmonton (that made Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3) and Bioware Montreal (that made this game) are 2 different studios, based in cities thousands of miles apart. A Kotaku article is out now, detailing how this mess of a game ended up being released (ironic, considering that Kotaku was at the forefront of trying to convince everyone that there was nothing wrong with this game at first), but long story short, absence of Casey Hudson's direction and Drew Karpyshyn's writing meant really bad things for this game right off the bat. You can't just replace one of the most talented contemporary writers with an unmotivated B-team and still get a consistent quality of storytelling.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

I think there are actually three studios because there's one in Austin as well. That Kotaku article is pretty interesting and not at all surprising. There had to be huge issues with the making of this game for it to end up the way it did. I'm glad we at least have a partial explanation for it.

[@sichamento]

I would like to point out a technicality. Bioware is not a thing, EA owns them. The usual dev and publisher relationship doesn't apply here if the publisher owns the developer. Its something that suprisingly few people mention.

[@FatalFist]

It was more disappointing than anything else because they really needed to redeem themselves after the botched ending we got in Mass Effect 3. The outcry was so bad, they couldn't even make a full fledged game. Shame too because the combat is amazing and exactly what I want to see moving forward in a ME franchise.

[@derekdrake8706]

"Just because you're not the main person in charge doesn't mean the game isn't fun." This quote applies to life as well lol

[@whiskeyricard]

“Pathfinder, it’s really cold, really hot, just right.” Every fricken 5 seconds. For hours and hours. I desperately prayed for a way to shut SAM up. His only purpose is to tells us things we already know.

[@arkhe1n107]

This is old, but If you're on PC, there're several mods to alleviate several of those minor issues, including this one. It's literally called "Shut up, SAM".

[@08-145]

The game is so bad it isn't even worth pirating

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Nope. That's why I cringe when I see people saying it'll be worth it when it's $20/$30/whatever. The price doesn't matter--the game isn't worth anyone's time.

[@Starkillar64]

Andrew Stapleton I pirated the game when It came out (because fuck EA and fuck the identity politics stuffed into this game and surrounding its development team), and I got about 8 hours in. I don't remember a single character's name besides Pee Bee (what an awful name) and I couldn't be bothered to explain how boring and unresponsive, not to mention repetitive, combat is. As someone who played the entire trilogy in a month I'm surprised I couldn't stomach this game.

[@DormantRooster]

It was $30 shortly after it came out. It's been hovering around the $30 mark since then. I imagine if they want to sell more, they'll have to move it down to $10-15.

[@GamingLovesJohn]

Christian Jay it's back to $60.00 again LUL

[@lgvereor]

This. It isn't even being pirated and sold in poor countries that have booming pirate "markets". Less than a day after any movie or game is released, you'll find it on every street corner being peddled on home-burnt DVDs by teenagers for a few dollars, but not Andromeda. It's so freaking bad that even desperate third world poor kids aren't peddling it on street corners for cash. Congratulations Bioware, you broke the world.

[@SirIsaacClarke]

I miss the Quarians. Tali was my favorite from the previous games.

[@ironwolf56]

They made the mistake of saving the Quarians for a DLC that never happened. The Quarian Ark was supposed to be what the DLC expansion to Andromeda would have been about.

[@Ploskkky]

I really am a Mass Effect fan boy. I did not even mind the ME3 ending. I played all ME games 3 times and I am even thinking about giving them another go. That is how much I enjoyed them, Andromeda is the first Mass Effect game I will never play and I am currently going through different stages of grief because of that. Instead of playing Andromeda I finally got around to buying The Witcher 3 and I am having a great time.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

+A.Plosky The Witcher 3 is so many levels better than this it's almost impossible to overstate. You made a great decision there.

[@Oleksiy777]

The Solus Project is a good and inexpensive alternative to MEA.

[@SuddenFool]

Witcher 3 is my game of the year and my favorite game so far in my life. thou diffrent strokes for diffrent folkes. i used to be mega into ME but after ME3 the ending just killed the joy for me sadly and havent really bothered with any bioware game since.

[@bsnbiowaresocialnetwork2750]

If you are a ME fan boy, you should give it a go. At Patch 1.09 with most issues addressed, it's a solid game.

[@Ploskkky]

It's not the technical issues that are the major problem. Technical issues can indeed be repaired. But alas the abysmal writing can not. Just watch Chris Davis' excellent review and you know why ME4 is irredeemable. I bought the Witcher 3 after I discovered that Mass Effect 4 was a failed and butchered game. It was a good decision. Perhaps I will buy ME4 in a year or five when it is 7 bucks in a sale. But I don't think it will happen. There are so many good games these days I'd rather spend my time with.

[@victorgealtach9574]

There's something I want to add for the Peebee Loyalty Mission. I usually play engineer, and I use the Remnant VI/turrets a lot, and I always thought it was weird that you could tell your *Remnant VI* to go and fetch the Remnant Tech, so you could both save Kalinda or whatever her name was and have the tech. Like Mass Effect 3's resolution of the Geth/Quarian War, there were three options to choose from, why couldn't they do that here? Why couldn't they have a counter for all the Vault's you've cleared, and thus gained plenty of experience manipulating Remnant tech, and have Sam appropriate another drone and fetch that secretly? I mean, you are wearing what looks like the recreated Remnant armor at the start of Jaal's loyalty summary, so you've done the research into that as well. Alpha Protocol, a massively underrated game everyone should play it, even has dialogue options for what armor you're wearing, so it isn't a new idea to implement. 2:14:28 How. *Dare* you. Attack that poor, baby Tarrasque?

[@RaidsEpicly]

jesus that hair color makes ryder look even worse

[@themissingpeace7956]

The facial animations reminds me of the Sims 3...

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Sounds about right.

[@jimjimmy8900]

Lonely Noodle the sims 3 is kinda better tbh

[@fcuk_x]

There was like 12 people that cared about facial animations. Out of hundreds of thousands.

[@thumpersmith4015]

After growing up with the orginal trilogy, like I remember playing the second game in elementary school, and replaying it multiple times, I can't help but like Andromeda a bit for trying something so daring. Even if it fell on it's face so hard it somehow went out it's ass. The characters aren't the best, the writing is from something akin to a forced 6th grader writing a story for class, and the story is a far cry from the other games. But there's something amazing just exploring a brand new galaxy and helping settle planets. I wish they dropped the whole Meridian (forgot how to spell it) and just focused on settling and exploring planets. And make it more involved, like managing supplies and people from outposts and building certain building for outposts. Even if it isn't mass effect feeling, it would've been more compelling to just help settle worlds that find the prothe- I mean Remnant Maguffin.

[@boogerpicker8104]

No body talks about how mass effect Andromeda doesn’t even have the whole andromeda galaxy in it. It’s basically just cluster of systems

[@crupt1023]

Have you ever played the game? They even call it the "Helius Cluster." It makes it very clear that its just a cluster.

[@boogerpicker8104]

Evan Allen okay but we had the entire Milky Way to explore in the other games

[@petermozuraitis5219]

@@boogerpicker8104 I think Andromeda was supposed to be a new trilogy, more of the Galaxy would be explored in later games. Sad.

[@Horvath_Gabor]

@@petermozuraitis5219 That actually doesn't sound half that bad. The first game establishes the new races and the fight against the Archon, but after defeating them, the unlocked precursor tech unlocks the rest of he galaxy, and suddenly it turns out that, without the periodical wipes by the Reapers, it is now ruled by several millennia old, technologically stagnant xenophobic empire that would make the Protheans look like kittens in comparison, and now the colonists and the Kett has to band together to resist a race that has long since perfected galactic genocide. Then, in the third game, suddenly the Reapers show up, because as it turns out, they have branched out after several cycles, and while the ones in the Milky Way are destroyed, one splinter-fleet arrives, and while they are few in numbers, their tech is way better than anything in the Andromeda galaxy, so now everyone has to band together to resist them. It would have been a nice trilogy, if not for the first game collapsing at the starting line.

[@jinx5005]

@@boogerpicker8104 there are no Mass Relays in Andromeda, they just arrived.

[@JoshuaJacobs83]

What I love most about your video is your admitting you don’t have all the answers. It’s one thing to know something is bad and want to change it, but a truly honorable person admits they don’t know how to fix it. I admire that.

[@mango_unchained]

I feel like Jaal's devastation from finding out the kett were angara was a little... hollow. Like yeah, I get the sadness and conflict, but it feels a little hollow that he's so devastated that he's been killing his own people when you've been fighting angara in the roekaar. You'd think the sadness was that this was happening to them, like seeing your friend turned into a zombie, not so much sadness of 'I've been killing my own people?!'

[@saltyshrimppasta]

A few things I noticed that you missed/didn’t know: In the very beginning, the air IS toxic, which is why Aleck couldn’t share the helmet. There is dialogue with Liam (at least with Scott Ryder) that says so Krogan can survive on harsh planets because they’re a more resilient species. This is canon from the original trilogy You can also save the Turian ark which changed the ending, but not by much. Also the Quarian Ark was said to be missing but this will never get a sequel The worst thing about the dialogue is the God awful Star Wars references riddled throughout That’s basically all I noticed. Great review all around but these parts kinda stuck out to me

[@madcourier6217]

Even if the air is toxic could they not hold their breath for 30 seconds and just swap the helmet between them? A quick look at the codex also says the atmosphere is primarily argon-nitrogen based, which is dangerous as an asphyxiant but nothing more. Then again the Codex is bullshit.

[@egoalter1276]

Argon is an anaesthetic, but only if you breath it in. It is not toxic. Granted, very small fractions of nitrogen monoxide, hydrogen sulfide or carbon monoxide could make it toxic.

[@dieseliulian]

I've never watched anything longer than 30 minutes on KZbin, so you must be doing something right since I watched all 2+ hours. I would probably pay to play your version of Andromeda, you seem to have put a lot more thought into it than the entire Bioware team of writers did over the past few years. From my point of view, Mass Effect is kaput. They've shown quite clearly that they've lost interest in it, as most of the problems should have been very easy to spot early into the production cycle. They did get my money, I do regret not having waited for the reviews, but this has also thaught me that there's no such thing as a 'protected franchise', an IP so important to the dev and publisher that they'll do anything in their power to put out a good product. I had very high expectations, I was ready to spend the next few months playing the single and multiplayer, buying all the existing DLC... I put myself on full media blackout leading up to launchday, to avoid having my experience tainted in any way, to enjoy my 'protected franchise' like I'd done with ME2 and 3. After about 5 hours of single and multiplayer, I ejected the disc and couldn't believe what was happening. I traded in the game, I'm having a lot more fun with Horizon and Nier.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Thanks for watching! It's always great to hear from people who managed to watch all the way through! When I wrote the script, Bioware had just released a big patch for Andromeda and it sounded like they were going to keep working on it. Since then, there's been almost complete silence. I expect you're right--the franchise is dead. We might see a revival in about 5 years, but I don't see a sequel to Andromeda happening ever. I went in mostly blind as well and I was quite excited when I booted it up. I had no idea what to expect, so it felt like a big new adventure was awaiting me. So much for that. There are too many good games out this year (especially on PS4) to justify spending time or money on this one. At least you were able to trade it in--mine's a digital copy!

[@StefanConstantinDumitrache]

As we have seen by now, no ammount of patching could fix this game, because there's no such thing as patching a new story in it. I had to stop right after you finished talking about the main story line, but In will get back to finish the video tomorrow.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

You've probably already watched it, but if not you absolutely have to check out Anderson's Witness video. That's incredible. btw, linking to other videos in KZbin comments sometimes gets the comment flagged as spam. Obviously, I've approved this one, but just thought you'd want to know in case you're wondering why your comments don't always appear.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Completely agree! That point seems to get forgotten quite often when people talk about this game. Thanks for watching half the video. Hope you enjoy the rest!

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

+Third Track Off J Dilla's Donuts B-Side. Thanks!

[@wintermoons1215]

My biggest issue with the entire game, and honestly the thing that made me stop playing, was how bland and devoid of personality your sibling is. It's like they were afraid to give them any kind of personality because you could also play as them. I was excited for an emotional, fully fleshed out sibling relationship, but Scott's 2-second mildly angry reaction to Sara telling him she's lied about the death of their father was the last straw for me. A normal person would have been furious for a prolonged period of time over something like that. And watching the clips where Scott takes a large role in the ending are painful--his flippancy COULD be taken as a coping mechanism if the voice actor were allowed to give it that needed desperation. And I know the actor is capable of this: most of Scott's ambient dialogue, while he's guiding you to raise the platforms in the final fight, have some form of emotion to them, so I entirely blame the VO directors.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

+wintermoons1215 The sibling could be removed from the story entirely with only a tiny bit of tweaking required. I don't really understand the point of him/her as the story stands. I think you're spot on when you say Bioware was afraid to give the sibling a personality because you can also play as them. In that case, why have the sibling at all? Just do normal character select at the beginning. Maybe kill the sibling instead of the father? So frustrating!

[@Olivia-W]

@@ChrisDavis_Games Yep. You could make it, for example, that there are multiple pathfinders, and Sara's father is just one. Each one is assigned a few planets. Eh.

[@MrSoopSA]

@Chris Davis They were setting up for storylines involving Ryder’s sibling for the sequels, maybe even for the DLC, both of which we now know will never happen.

[@ironwolf56]

I seem to remember one of the devs saying the sibling was supposed to have a much larger role but it was drastically cut.

[@SchulzEricT]

@@ChrisDavis_Games I only today learned that your sibling in ME:A didn't die in the crash at the beginning of the game...

[@SGSOnlineTV]

1:13:40 the worst part of that stupid scene is that even though the game specifically points out that the planet is now being called Ryder 1 on all maps, it never actually changes it's name on the galaxy map of the tempest

[@paulocarreirapinto]

i´m convinced that the "face is tired" meme is an easter egg. Maybe a convo between devs or something

[@MidTierMenace777]

I'm only human

[@TheZorkiel]

1:43:53 "When presented with a choice of whether to be a good person or a bad person I always end up playing the good person. In games anyway, in real life I'm an ass-hole but in games I always go for the good person role because it's a fantasy."

[@phoenix9531]

Mass Effect Andromeda Review The Movie

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

+nintendrako I'm campaigning for a theatrical release. I want this on the big screen ;-)

[@xenon8117]

Something that irritated me was the reveal of Cora being a biotic on Habitat 7. Biotics are not that rare so why they decided to treat them as some sort of new magical ability that nobody knows about makes no sense. It’s so minor but it’s the little things like this and the Tempest intro that tried to be better than it was that pissed me off. I guess I just felt a little hostile to the game pretty easily for no good reason and the game never earned me turning that around. I never managed to finish it. I also wish they gave Ryder the DA2 treatment of personality tones. Ryder is younger and less experienced than Shepard so I wish we could play between a Ryder that is trying to be responsible and inspiring and a Ryder that is more flippant and not suited to the role of pathfinder. Have people react to us differently depending on which tone is active at the time. 1:25:20 Basically describing Dragon Age Origins and to a much lesser extent DAI. Perfectly good concept that they didn’t use here sadly.

[@DaciValt]

I always find that scene with Cora unintentionally hilarious. They have this super dramatic music and everything except it doesn't look at all remarkable and she did what students at Grissom Academy can do... make a barrier... woopdie do... Literally any Asari could do what she did in their sleep. Ofc they have to put in a snarky remark in with it, this is Andromeda and people can't have a normal conversation. "Don't worry it's not contagious".... I mean wtf? Was it even necessary for that line? Nope. But I find that alot about with the dialogue, completely uncessesary lines are tossed about with smug undertones that kill any mood it was trying to set up.

[@mango_unchained]

What's funny too is thinking about the exiles, people like Sloane Kelly who escaped to Kadara and are gang leaders now. Why were these type of people the first to be taken out of cryo? The first people out of cryo would be scientists, high-ranking military, doctors, etc. And it would have been far more compelling to see these people who became criminal leaders who were actually respectable and incredibly smart people. But that would require them to have interesting motives, and the writing team clearly has no idea what a motivation even is

[@egoalter1276]

Wgy even take along base thugs, yes.

[@jimbeaux89]

I’d much rather have the insanely genius story/character development of the original ME trilogy, over the flashy graphics, smooth gameplay and shollowness that is MEA. They got away from what made the first three so damn good. No thanks

[@naedolor]

The deal breaker for me was also involving the exiles. I kept on killing them like flies and they kept on coming. And they were everywhere. In less than an year, they managed to thrive wherever I went. At this point, there wasn't really much need for my skills and the whole idea of the story doesn't make much sense since they were doing better than the actual expedition.

[@Steellama]

I love that bit about drak surviving just fine. I'm confident of three things, when the universe is finally ending, there will be Shepard, cockroachs and krogen; trying to kill the cockroaches

[@thelordelric8424]

you bring up a problem that I have hated in video games for years: fucking unclimbable mountains always in my fucking way.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

If there's going to be mountains in a game, there needs to be a good map to help navigate around them. Don't just tell me I need to get to the other side of a mountain and then hide the damn route!

[@thelordelric8424]

or give us Morrowind style levitation so that we can make our own damn route

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

I'd be fine with that. Especially in games where your character already has a bloody jetpack!

[@Silver_Warden]

This drove me INSANE in Dragon Age: Inquisition, to a point where I stopped playing it for months to regain my sanity. Nearly every single quest outside the "hub" areas is on the opposite side of the damn map, located behind at least two ranges of mountains with no visible way around them, the minimap serves absolutely NO purpose whatsoever, and the most enraging moments is when it shows that your target is located 1 meter away, but there's a freaking impassable mountain in your way, and in reality, your target is KILOMETERS away, because you need to turn around, run all the way back to the other side of the world map, turn left, then right, then traverse a bunch of caves, cross three bridges, kill 300 enemies, and only THEN you will find the one way the level designer wanted you to take that will lead you to your objective. Say what you will about Skyrim, but at least there you could always see SOME path around, and there were no fake walls all over the place...

[@ilyanagalen9320]

You don't think the maps worked? Don't people know that closer lines mean elevation any more? Or that the thick lines on video game maps that look like roads...are roads? Never had a problem with them maps. I found the Elladen one to be more vast than the map suggested, but then it's a true desert world with less features, I quite liked it.

[@megadeth-1a885]

you know what's crazy? I started my first playthrough of this game like a year ago then took a break. I returned the other day and realized I beat the game a year ago. Its just so uninteresting that I completely forgot that I beat it. Saved myself some pain I guess. It just doesn't come close to the originals. Messed up thing is the lead writer from ME2 and ME3 directed this. He left Bioware and I think thats a good thing. He doesn't have it anymore

[@chungusbooper]

"Sorry, my nipples are tense from dealing with...everything."

[@carlosrfonseca]

The tiny problem with the idea of re-writing the game is that Bioware couldn't write itself out of a wet paper bag. Sure, ME:A has, or, by now, mostly had, a bunch of technical issues, but the biggest unfixable issue is the crappy story development and poor dialog writing. The story itself isn't entirely bad, it's unimaginative, but not entirely bad, but the way it's developed is awful. An example: the idea of the exiles isn't entirely bad, and it kind of makes sense, however, they should be scrapping by *at best*, not thriving, and there shouldn't be nearly as many of them. In the end the issue is that the writers are probably too young and inexperienced to know how to develop the story and write decent dialog, and there's really no way around that. You can feel this lack of writing experience throughout the game, and I don't mean just the gaping plot holes (previous ME games had them too), I mean the way the game feels way too much like a bro shooter, in that the characters don't really take their mission that serious.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Completely agree. You need to start with a good story and then have good writing to make that story worth experiencing. Bioware Montreal failed at both.

[@halsaufschneider1446]

I don't know what you are complaining about. Every time I visit a friends house, I have to pick the lock. I also kicked in the back door a few times, already. But maybe that would explain why they are so mad at Me, and their surprise jumps when they notice Me in their room... Some quality writing and quest story right here, ripe for the taking. BioCrooks

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

I even break into my own house sometimes, just for a laugh. Always a tricky one to explain to the police though.

[@ВитяЩербина-н4з]

Mass Effect Andromeda was THE example of no-brain greed. Enough pre-orders for releasing the game completly broken and then wondering why no one buys their shit anymore afterwards. "Lets make money now!" "But we fuck up a big franchise and no one will buy our games anymore!" Response option 1:"LETS JUST MAKE MONEY NOW!" Response option 2:"People are stupid enough to buy our stuff even after we fuck it up. Just take 99% of our next projects budget for the E3 trailer." Guess what happend...

[@WobblesandBean]

Holy shit...I think you're right, the writers _were_ trying to go for a Firefly feel with this. I always wondered why there was so much cringey dialogue and corny jokes when their situation is so dire, but now I have an answer. And it kinda annoys me knowing they thought they could pull it off.

[@melanieszelong4664]

I couldn't stand changes made to alien races. Salarians looked much taller, turians no longer stood straight-legged, female krogan body shape change and the asari all look like the same head with different colors and markings. I don't know why they felt they needed to redo them because it kind of makes it look like cheap versions of already designed races. Like what you would see in a knock-off B movie

[@juusovuolle8251]

I must say i am quite pleased to have found someone really taking their time on tackling a massive mess that was the latest addition to the Mass Effect franchise. I must say it has had a special place among many gamers hearts. I feel that Mass Effect changed how people view role playing games ME1 and 2 and baldurs gate and Dragon Age Origins, they were and are some of my favourite games of all time and i did not expect to have similar expirience that those games gave me all those years ago, I myself have not played the game but did bunker down to my friends house for a week and watched him play it through in the insanity difficulty. with all the drama behind scenes (old crew leaving in the aftermath of ME3 and EA adding people to the team purely for feminist agenda / anti white politics) and not to mention that the Bioware Montreal didint really have the talent and expirience that game this big would require to pull off. Having said that i really enjoyed you analyzing the game piece by piece and not only that but brainstorming improvement ideas quite liked your take on the matter hoping seeing more content from you.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Thanks! I hope we get a documentary or insider story from development on this game because it was clearly a disaster. Glad you liked the brainstorming. I wasn't too sure whether to include that as it's hard to do it without coming across as arrogant. Working on Nier: Automata at the moment, and I'm fairly sure that will result in another long video as I definitely have thoughts on that game!

[@jessih3824]

Juuso Vuolle i

[@ilyanagalen9320]

I loved Andromeda as much as I did the first game (ME2 will always be head and shoulders the best game of the last 20 or so years for me). I'd love to know how Andromeda is supposed to be this big disaster given everyone's constant comparisons to the first game and how similar they allegedly are. I very much enjoyed the game and thankfully I can recognise the effort that clearly went into it.

[@ilyanagalen9320]

The effort was clearly there, and it's a good game. Not the best in the franchise, but still very good. So far the only reason I can see for clearly biased people calling the game a 'disaster' - since it so demonstrably wasn't - is that they're still sore from ME3 and really want to put the boot in to BioWare/EA.

[@ilyanagalen9320]

And I'll repeat myself - it wasn't. I enjoyed the game, and many gamers I know also did. A lot of people who claimed they would never buy nor play this game, that they were done with BioWare and ME...seem to know an awful lot about this game. It's a shame they don't just fuck off and cry about the ME3 endings. Well, tough. Don't like MEA if you wish, there are always others that do.

[@usernameunknown9940]

I agree with world-building being the #1 problem of Andromeda, I never had the impression that we were in another galaxy, we only get the Angaras, the Ketts and the same random animals as new creatures??? (the Jordans are not a viable excuse for this). And the Angaras being able to understand humans and vice-versa, having the same kinds of weapons as the people from the Milky Way and so on really broke the immersion for me (I get that they had contact with those exiled from the Nexus, but still did they develop all that in one year?). Really the animations were horrendous (and the hair texture...), but the writing is what killed that game, be it world-building-wise, plot-wise, or caracter-wise

[@HellRa1z3r]

Another huge problem with ME:A is Bioware put in too many pointless side quests. I don't know what it is, but a lot of game developers now seem to think the more stuff(quests) they put in a game, the better the game will be. Final Fantasy XV is another good example of too many pointless side quests. In ME:A, it doesn't even makes sense that Alec's memories are scattered in Andromeda because he's never even been there. These memories should have not been in the game. Storywise, they were all over the place, and the story was confusing. I'm astonished that Bioware even let that story go gold. Here's what I probably would have done with the story. The very beginning of the game could've been a combat tutorial in the Milky Way sometime before they set away for Andromeda. I think it could have been cool to play as Alec Ryder, fighting Geth, or a form of a reaper. Here, we'd get a small glimpse of the beginning of his Andromeda plan. Maybe the mission goes bad, and he sees it's too late to save the Milky Way Galaxy. Throughout the game after Alec dies, SAM can play back memories of Alec, but not too often as it's extremely taxing on the human body, and doing it too much can put Ryder in a coma or worse.. In these memories, we'd go back and play some of his missions, and instead of just listening to audio recordings, we would play the events that motivated his future actions. Maybe we'd play a mission of him trying to find a cure for his wife, fighting geth, reapers, or even meeting up with suspicious people. Most of these missions will probably involve combat to make it more fun. Whatever it is, it will fit into the story and replace the current memories that are in the game. Way more fun than running around looking for pointless memory fragments. One of the main problems with the plot is that nothing really makes any sense. The Archon's reason for doing what he does isn't very clear,, and we don't know anything about the Remnant. Honestly, after watching the Andromeda trailer (kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqq9qJKlptBqh5o), I thought the story would be something different. For one, I thought the guy saying "This is incredible", and "I have a bad feeling" was the archon, but it was actually Jaal. I think it should have been the Archon, possibly discovering the Milky Way's various technologies, or maybe even finding a genetic miracle within human DNA that would benefit the Kett. Andromeda is lacking hard on science fiction -- something that the original trilogy had. Also, the Angara should have been the one's we ran into first, and with us being armed aliens, there would be some conflict. I have plenty more ideas, but these are just some. I've played all 3 Mass Effect games, and this one definitely a disappointment. The two worst things about this game besides the facial animations is the story, and skin textures. Bioware should have stuck with the Unreal Engine, the Dice Engine isn't meant tto make these types of games, and is supposedly a lot more complicated to use.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Completely agree about there being too many pointless side quests. I don't understand the fascination with adding content for the sake of it. I assume it's to say that the game takes 100+ hours to complete, but if 60 of those hours are boring, who cares? The Alec memory quest was particularly ridiculous. I kept waiting for an explanation as to why the memories were scattered the way they were, but nope. Just random. It's interesting how so many people are able to come up with more compelling stories than Bioware did!

[@sayansengupta5791]

Was listening to this video in the background while "Working from Home". The line at 28:57 threw off badly, because I was pretty sure I had watched this video way before the pandemic happened. Now sitting 2021, the working from home line hits different.

[@RyanKaufman]

Even just hearing the music makes me sad. Mass Effect 1 has a nostalgic effect on me because I adore that game so much, but even when I first heard the soundtrack it had such a powerful sense of scifi adventure. In fact, all three games highlight that game's strength. ME1: Space opera wandering. The joy of the game is letting the story and lore of the universe wrap around you for 20-40 hours. ME2: Space pirate for justice. You're one turn away from an outlaw, skirting the rules and doing what needs to be done. ME3: Action. BWAAAM the action is the best in the entire series and nothing else about this game is good. I mean it's pretty open and shut to me.

[@TheAlmightyAss]

You say that but actually try playing the original Mass Effect again. Fucking hell it's crap at times.

[@RyanKaufman]

@@TheAlmightyAss I did just a few months ago with the trilogy remaster. And I actually found ME1 was the only one of the three I liked still. I love the lore, the writing and narrative developments, the dialogue exchanges (when they matter) everything hits to me. The ONLY downside is squadmate interactions are a touch sparse. ME2 improves the squadmates, and everything else bottoms out in quality (in fact I found it was the worst of the three, I have softened on ME3 quite a bit and love its gameplay loop so much that I'd rather play it with its diarrhea ending and horrible Cerberus plotline than play a second more of ME2). ME1's combat people claim is worse... but I just don't see it. I love the power diversity, ME2 just streamlined way too hard and I'm thus bored playing it. ME1 is jank as shit in combat but ME2 just makes me yearn for the infinitely better 3, 1's loop is so far removed I don't even really think about it like this. But I also understand I'm a fuckin weirdo.

[@117johnpar]

that cutscene where they're entering the atmosphere in the jumpers looks so goddamn janky, It looks like a first year SFM creator.

[@Synthia17]

That ending boss fight is even more pathetic if you found and fought other remnant architects on other planets before

[@pericelsus]

Okay wait a minute. The year is 2184 but they were cryogenically frozen 600 years before. In 1584. Right.

[@bigj1905]

One of the biggest problems with the game is that we know more about Ryders Father than we do Ryder. Ryder gets next to no backstory, expect for a few random pieces here and their, and we have no idea who Ryder was before they went to Andromeda. Ryder was a solider/archeologists who had a rocky relationship with her father. That’s about all we know. By contrast, we know way to much about the father. We know he was the military attaché on the citadel who got booted out because he was working with A.I to try and save his ailing life. While working on the illegal A.I, he meets Jien and later the Mysterious Benefactor who agree to fund his project if he gives it to the Initiative and goes with them to Andromeda. Why do we know more about a character who died 30min into the story then we do the MAIN FREAKING PROTAGONIST!

[@Epsato]

I hated the combat in this game most of all. The lackluster weapons felt inept even for level 1 enemies.

[@xenon8117]

Combat definitely got more praise than it deserved, everyone seemed to love it but it’s not anything special.

[@derekdrake8706]

I remember playing this game. I remember beating this game. I have the achievements. ... but this video is full of scenes I just don't remember. That says A LOT about the quality of the game.

[@griffonclaw]

I know this video is over a year old, but it still resonates. BioWare didn't even bother to finish it. They ran away from the problem instead of addressing it. They can't break my heart anymore because my expectations for Anthem and Dragon Age are just void. I don't even expect to be pleasantly surprised. I give up. I tried to run another campaign on Andromeda and I hit the wall again when I realized that the story leads nowhere.

[@trmblingblustar]

I'm playing through the first three games, and one of the funniest things in the game (and KOTOR) is when character A asks you to talk to character B about something important, who happens to be across the room. You head to character B and get them to agree with character A. Then you head back to character A and they are like "I talked to character B and we had a long talk and made up/designee a contract, ect.", when neither character made a move or gave any indication they talked.

[@JakenTheGreat]

Found this channel by accident but I'm glad I did. I love in depth channels like this, you got yourself a subscriber

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Thanks!

[@gloriacuevas9072]

m

[@gogista]

shit.. just realized I broke your 69 subs count. Sorry about that mate.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Haha. I did like seeing '69' under a video called The Sexy Brutale! It seemed fitting.

[@r.w.9631]

It's so weird your first two videos have more views then the rest. Usually it's the other way around. Decent channel. Still haven't reached your full potential which is a compliment and criticism but definitely not meant as insult. Keep it up

[@PB-ji5rb]

As a 16 year old I can confirm that neither do we talk that way nor do we believe adults to talk that way. Pretty sure It's just the highly skilled and massively qualified wrighters at Bioware being highly skilled and massively qualified.

[@MrHulaHoops]

Well i’m a little late to this party, but I’m glad I turned up. I find myself scouring the internet for news on ME:4 and this pops up so I thought I’d give it ago, saw the length and thought I’ll stick this out for 20 minutes... well here I am 2h30 minutes later. I have to say, this is done brilliantly. I couldn’t agree more with you on 99% of the points and I count myself as a bit of a ME fan boy, you do this so well without making it seem like you’re just slagging something off for the sake of it. Mass Effect 2 was perfect for me, a great amount of exploration and some really well laid of linear levels. I cannot state it enough, I do not want to drive a shit car around 5 copy and pasted planets picking up shit and shooting the same enemy at little outposts. I hope we see a return to The Milky Way and to Shepard. Great video once again, you’ve gained a subscriber! Keela Salei.

[@Senorgusanos]

Dude this is one of the most thorough, well thought out critiques I've ever stumbled upon on youtube. It's obvious you put a TON of time into this...well done, mate.

[@Esakosarara]

"Actually fuck it, I gave it a 2/5" xDD I love you now.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Thanks!

[@jmjedi923]

I still think they should have done an Aztec like story where you bring natives together to fight the kett since your colonists, not warriors Maybe theres a few pre spaceflight civilizations and a few early spaceflight civilizations and you have to either ally with them or maybe enslave them or something similar to fight this overall galactic empire

[@karolinskie1949]

Good stuff. I've actually tried to play Andromeda and wow, that was a mistake. Terrible agme. I don't know what happened to the Bioware I used to know, but the studio that took its place is seriously not worth following at all.

[@TheLaziestWriter]

I feel like I disagree with most of your Mass Effect opinions, but the videos are good enough that I keep coming back to them

[@yarpen26]

You know you did a good job with your two and a half hour long material when you managed to get me invested all the way from beginning to end, even though I never did (or will) even play this game.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Thanks! When I'm making the videos, I often find myself wondering "Who the hell is going to watch this?" It's good to know that there actually are people who make it all the way to the end!

[@SecondQuantisation]

One of the HUGE reasons conversations and events felt flat was a terrible soundtrack. The scene where Ryder dies is, aside from the voices, silent. Many "action scenes" had little or no music. The sound tracks to ME1-3, especially ME2 Suicide Mission, were epic, they sent chills down your spine or your adrenaline going. ME:A? Silence. Music "short circuits" our emotions, it can MAKE you feel something all by itself. It could have covered up a lot of terrible writing and lack-luster conversations but Bioware didn't put any effort in. At times I thought to myself "they forgot to put in the soundtrack!! Why is it silent!". The Bioware division who made ME:A were incompetent. So many things could have been fixed with minimal effort. I really hope the division of Bioware who made ME1-3 don't screw up their new IP called Anthem. I hope the ME:A division learn from this. (I'd complain about a bunch of SJW crap in ME:A too, motivated some real idiots at that Bioware division but that's for another time) /edit Got yourself another sub, great video BTW

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Thanks! Yeah, that Ryder death, in particular, is incredibly flat. I don't tend to notice the absence of good music as much as I notice the presence of good music when it is there, but you're right. The soundtrack was borderline non-existent.

[@ParasiteQueen1]

+Chris Davis Not to mention that Ryder had a little grimace/smile(?) like 15 seconds after hearing of Alec's death.

[@jerm5466]

I have no idea how so many people disliked this video, it’s excellent.

[@Eshtian]

There's two types of people to blame that on (to what degree exactly I don't know) There's the andromeda fan boys, yes, this game has fanboys. And I like andromeda, it's still bad, but I enjoy it despite it's bad quality, and I don't understand how some one can fanboy this game. I like the video as soon as he insulted it in his intro. Then there's the people who go "well that's just your opinion" You know the people who clarify that the floor is made of floor. These people don't think you can objectify art and then clarifies that everything is an opinion which makes no sense.

[@janosd4nuke]

@@Eshtian Or the absolute idiot who clicks on a long form critique then 5 minutes in realised it's hours long and acts all butthurt. Also Andromeda fanboy represent. And I loved the video, riddle me that. Yyup, there where some things I disagreed in the vid, but it was quality throughout. And the game is still a bloody mess. I kinda look at this game like a stray puppy: fur all messed up, won't behave no matter what, but so full of love.

[@Eshtian]

@@janosd4nuke you said it yourself the game is a mess, fanboys believe that their game or whatever it is, is absolutely perfect. If your able to respect some one else for not liking it or accept it has issues your not a fanboy, just a fan.

[@janosd4nuke]

@@Eshtian there is no such thing as perfect, and it's kinda embarrassing how many don't get this and shut themselves out from any meaningful conversation. And yeah, may have been just the cheeky contrarian speaking from me to take up that label while doesn't fitting in any real sense. It takes a certain almost crazy positive attitude to immerse myself in the game and refuse to brake that. Not denying the flaws wich are many, but can essentially headcannon through what could have been as on some points it shines through (In Chriss' example the crewmate emails) that some devs really poured their souls into this trainwreck. So I'm in the great position of getting more enjoyment from it than the vast majority but can still talk about it in a rational way.

[@KEWords]

@@Eshtian why is it in any industry there are weak minded jerks. Who liable any one who enjoys a product a fan boy to avoid a real discussion. Played MEA through. Main story line and enjoying what other games would have sold as DLC. Also have plated ME1 twice and partway through ME2. Keep feeling closed in, manipulated, and sad when a real crisis moment like escaping a collapsing location is a cut scene vs. the stressful real time time run for my life like in Andromeda. I like both, but find ME low on choice and problem solving.

[@Wooksley]

Why didn’t they set it during the First Contact War or better yet the Rachni Wars? Imagine a sci-if game with no humans in it, that would be awesome. And why didn’t they make more alien alien races so to speak, the two races that were introduced were way too human-like.

[@SchulzEricT]

The Rachni wars? Hmm... could you make a trilogy out of that? I'm thinking if they do the Rachni wars in the 1st game, it'd end with you defeating them. Then that transitions neatly into the 2nd game being having to deal with the Krogan... not sure how you put a bow on that in a 3rd game though. (Obviously you could just say: make it a duology if that works for the story... but for tradition's sake, I want to make it a trilogy.) If it was simply a duology of the Rachni and then Krogan wars, you could be a Salarian or Turian. It would probably make more sense to be Salarian in 1, Turian in 2... and again, if we're not beholden to making it a trilogy, we could also not be beholden to importing your character (story, yes; character, no) but if we want maximum player choice, either could work.

[@Wooksley]

@@SchulzEricT the Andromeda setting is so dumb that practically anything would be better than that.

[@Senumunu]

the writers of this game binge-watch Netflix originals. you can see it very clearly in the structure of their "writing"

[@leonthesleepy]

After 5 hours of the game, i have to agree. Its just flat out boring, messy and directionless.

[@derpflinigan9490]

"Shitty dialogue. Might be trouble." "ME: Andromeda leads right to them."

[@saintallison]

2.5 years late to the party... but I have to say I really appreciated this video. I listened to it while at work and well, I was foolish enough to buy the game when it came out and put it down after a few hours frustrated with bugs. I've always wondered if it'd be worth revisiting but this helped me realize it isn't. I loved your alternate storyline and feel at peace about one of gaming's biggest disappointments. Looking forward to catching up on your back catalog! A+ quality content

[@sullivancaldeira1917]

Now they are fermenting a project for another ME game, although it pretty much depends on how Anthem and the new DA game fares.

[@BigC60]

Dark Souls is the best franchise ever. Dishonored is also amazing

[@lorenzovonmatterhorn7402]

Actually I played it 5 months ago on PC .. did not encounter any bugs and I gotta say I actually liked it a lot. Also bought it when it came out and quit 5 hrs in .... If you have time replay it. I actually wanted more when it finished lol

[@saintallison]

@@lorenzovonmatterhorn7402 In the year since I posted this I actually tried playing the game and beat the first planet. My expectations were really low, but I found bits of enjoyment scattered through it. Life got in the way I havemt revisited it, but I plan to. I also listened to the 3 audiobook tie-in novels. The first 2 are forgettable and didn't add much, but the 3rd "ANNIHILATION" is an excellent book in my humble opinion. It follows the events on the missing Quarian ark. The author knows their Mass Effect lore and uses it very well (in some cases better than the original trilogy did). The audiook narrator was the voice actor of male Rider also :)

[@BADDOGBOY18]

I felt that way too about the story and how they could've done the story some years after the Reaper invasion as non of the ships seen in the opening section are seen in ME3 as their designs are much more advanced looking. It would also help explain how they had the tech to travel through dark space if they had worked on it with multiple races studying Reaper tech. I also felt bored being stuck fighting more machine type enemies instead of focusing on an enemy that was basically changing every race into more of them. Could have gone into major Racial Superiority territory and address not only humanity's past experience but how they still fight such ideals even hundreds of years later. It would have been good to have some deeper stuff going on. I guess if they had to focus just on regular non-giant machine enemies they wouldn't know what to do.

[@SR-vf7bz]

I just finished playing the whole game. I would rate it a 6 out of 10. One thing noticeably different from the first 3 in the trilogy was the relationships built with the NPCs in the game. I some how felt a closer bond to the original NPCs in the first 3 Mass Effect. Maybe this is contributed to the time spread over the 3 releases. However I didn't experience much in the way of reported original glitches except Ryder got stuck a few times after a dialogue portion. The story line was rather dull and I could see a hundred miles where it was going. The tasks and quest seemed like busy work rather then mystery solving. The battle play was weak at best and never really offered any major challenges. Even though after 108 hours of total play and finishing all of the tasks I would fall asleep between the jumping in and out of systems and scanning planets for the same thing. If all the planets could have been landed on and explored that would have been exciting! Anyhow I don't think i will play through again but I am waiting for the sequel to be released. I am in awe of the amount of work that goes into creating this type of game play and the numerous cut scenes involved in the game so kudos to them but Bioware please step it up the next release, maybe some AI NPCs!?

[@MildraTheMonkVT]

I appreciate how in-depth you were on the matter. Personally, the game is a hell of their own making, and if that postmortem is any indication then this was doomed from day one.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

+Mildra Thanks!

[@MildraTheMonkVT]

That said, there's one thing in the controls I hated that i'm not sure if you had issue with; who the hell thinks assigning reload and weapon switching to the same button is a good idea? Also, charges were baffling.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

+Mildra I remember thinking it was a strange thing to do but I used the weapon wheel to switch weapons so I never accidentally reloaded when I wanted to switch. I did accidentally switch when I wanted to reload though, but only once or twice. It reminds me of Rise of the Tomb Raider where reload and pick up item are mapped to the same button. If you want to reload when standing over an item, you'd pick it up instead.

[@MildraTheMonkVT]

It's an on-principle thing for me. And given how combat is supposed to be reflex-intensive it's not something I can overlook.

[@ParasiteQueen1]

Your humor is excellent. Very quick and excellent. As someone who has beaten the trilogy 17 times, I despise Andromeda. I put in 35 hours or so, and due to performance issues on PC I just gave up...well, that and the dialogue. Liam is a wreck. Good vid, Chris. Subbed.

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video. Good call on giving up with Andromeda. It's not worth putting in more time just to get that ending.