Mass Effect Andromeda : what could have been?

It was a good game, with very good potential to be great with a few tweaks and more patches.  Honestly, EA said they could delay launch up to 6 months without really bothering their financials, and SOMEONE decided that it wasn't needed and was ok to release the buggy product they did......

Issues were mostly overblown, but honestly, the bad facials and such were simply a byproduct of the game being unfinished, and you can see it in several areas.  Why they didn't delay the release and fix these very noticeable and easily lampooned issues is beyond me.  They could have STARTED the game and release patches from where they ENDED it instead....think about 6 more months of intensive patches from where the game stands now....THAT is what we could have had.

Honestly the decision to drop MEA befuddles me, why they wouldn't fix the issues, release the DLC make some money from it, and continue revenue for 6 more months to a year more is beyond me.  At least in Dragon Age 2, they released some DLC, fixed many of the complaints about the game in them and seemingly learned from their mistake...hopefully they do the same in ME. 

I think I am mostly sad about MEA now, because of how close we came to really getting a great product, one that could honestly keep ME at the forefront of SciFi gaming for years to come.

Sorry, terrible game and not because of the animations. Characters, story and dialogue were appalling. That's what killed it for me. Managed forty hours before giving up as I just didn't care what happened to my crew, the Initiative, the Angara or even Ryder.

@LocoShep

I definitely agree that it was a good game, which ended my hunger that I've been having for years after the OT.

Speaking for myself, I say f*** all the negative reviews. And again, yes there were serious bugs but not for me and honestly, which game doesn't have them? Well, I don't know any "perfect" game. I've encountered just minor problems so I can't complain about anything and I wouldn't even if it was the other case. For example, my experience with Witcher 3 in terms of game bugs wasn't really good. I couldn't continue with story because of broken quests and constant crashes so I waited several months until they finally fixed it and I was able to continue with main story at least and even now it's not completely polished and I still can't finish some quests. Despite all of this, I love that game and would never consider to waste my energy being angry for the rest of my life and demanding refunds... That's just how I see things, what has to happen just happens so next time everyone'll be more careful with preorders and such things or simply won't buy another BW game. On the other hand, I do understand most of the players who were not satisfied with it and it's current state because it's their right. When you pay for something you naturally expect it to be perfect. But we all know it's not that easy in game industry... 

Anyway, I had a really good time with Andromeda though there're few things I'd like to see changed next time (e.g. story with better antagonist and possibillity for some crew members to die as I think it was always natural part of ME, choices with bigger immediate impact, game mechanics tweaks etc....), however that's not as important as the fact that this game absolutely didn't deserve to be "abandoned" especially with some crucial story lines left unexplained (Quarian Ark, Benefactor, Ellen Ryder, potential Reaper threat). These could've been easily solved with dlcs but instead they chose to move on and leave it as it is.

Of course, there're dozens of possible reasons why this happened and we can only speculate and I think there's no point in that as we won't change it. The only thing we can do is keep BW / EA informed that this was not a good way how to deal with this situation and move on. I think Casey'll start with another ME project at some point and hopefully it'll be MEA sequel with save import option because I don't want another standalone game as that was never ME's style and because it's not Dragon Age and it'd be nice to see them finish what they started (especially Ryder's story). I also hope that Hudson won't leave BW again in early stages of another ME project they'll work on as that would probably damage next ME again.

In the end, I'm glad that BW at least gave us some support (patches) and didn't leave us completely with unfinished game right in the beginning and made the game more playable for everyone. Also, as I thought the books'll tell the rest of the story and that's ok with me. It's better than nothing so there's still something positive we can look foward to 🙂 🍺

I'll repeat my reply from another thread. And for the record, I have over 600 hrs with the game (SP only) while ME3 I had around the same but mostly Multiplayer. I had a lot more fun in single player in MEA!

There are so many open ends in the main game that should be filled with some DLC's. If the game flunked, it was because it was rushed. By the time facial animation was fixed, the damage was done. It is still a great game and the fans deserved better. It is a stupid decision EA has made. Invest some of the profit, and there was plenty of it, and make the franchise something that will attract both old and new players again. It is dam better than Anthem will ever be. The Mass Effect Universe didn't deserve a poor decision like this. Stupid suits with short vision cannot foresee what greatness would become from a little investment? Fire these hacks and hire players instead. CDPR has players running the company and look how well they did with all their Witcher games! Frak people who hates video games and work in the game industry. They sh*t on us and we still pay them!

I would have to agree with Agentbrown14: I did not care much about the new characters, only a little bit with Ryder. And graphics and face animation aside, I could let that one slide because as some of you have mentioned, that could have been fixed with a simple patch -- but I wasn't thrilled about the idea of an open world game but I was open enough with the concept that I gave it a go. The ONLY thing I would love to see in MEA is that, since the story takes place 600 years later, they could at least showed the progress on what's going on in the Milky Way especially other planets like Earth, the Asari homeworld, Turian, etc. -- especially after the Reaper attacks if the Citadel has been rebuilt. Regardless of the ending you chose in ME3, there should be somewhat of a mention about that; and I understand if MEA is trying not to make it all about Commander Shepard, but at least the assurance for the gamers that the Milky Way is doing OK since then. With the advanced technology, you couldn't contact the people from Milky Way to see how those guys are doing? I think BioWare developers made a HUGE mistake not being able to do a DLC, or at least some sort of Mass Effect Genesis Comic Strip, since you can't transfer the decisions you made in ME3 to MEA (different console platforms) but you can choose them before the game starts; so based off the ending you chose on ME3, it will somehow affect MEA, it would be interesting to see if 600 years from now, if you chose "Control" that maybe the Reapers are controlled to help the Initiative find the lost arks of the Turians, Salarians, Quarians and Asari and become an ally in protecting them from the Scourge or the Kett. And if you chose "Synthesis" maybe you'll encounter a species who is an offspring from someone who has that new DNA and it was passed on through generations. Just saying. I'm more of a story-oriented gamer, the combat gameplay and graphics are fine - and like I said, the face animation and little glitches are fine because the patch could fix that, but I agree - there should have been some DLC's and I would have been fine as well with delaying the game before its release to perfect it; it would just make the wait worthwhile just so we have a game that won't end up being dropped.