Mass Effect: Andromeda could be the best game that I've played. Not this year, not this gen, but ever. And I'm saying this based on only 60 hours of playtime, and 45% story completion so far. Cane recently made the same claim about Red Dead Redemption II while only being about halfway through it, so I figured that I could do the same with ME:A.
It's basically the sci-fi game that I've always wanted.My favorite toys (and comics) as a kid were Micronauts. ME:A is more or less the video game equivalent of the adventures that I played out with my Micronauts as a kid. And it's also part Mass Effect (original trilogy), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Red Faction: Guerrilla and Firefly which are some of my favorite sci-fi. Combine all that into an open-ended, galaxy/planet exploring, content-packed experience with a good story, cast of characters, choice-driven narrative and visceral combat and it's not hard to understand why it appeals to me so much.
I've never been this addicted to a game. All that I want to do is play it. The only reason why I stop is to eat, and sleep (and to post here
). Of course I've been addicted to games (mostly RPGs) in the past, but not quite like this. It blends so many aspects so well, and is well balanced. It offers a lot of story aspects and character interaction within non-action areas such as at space stations, ports and in your ship, on-foot/vehicle exploration on open planets and high-octane combat moments. Basically, it never has you doing any one thing for too long. There's a lot of variety, and a good mix of things to do. Combine that with a normal difficulty that offers a good challenge without being frustrating, and it's just fun to play. It's also packed with more content than any other game that I've played before. And the majority of the side content is interesting offering individual mini-stories that aren't connected to the main story. They even segment the missions so you know what are main missions, side missions and tasks. The tasks are kind of filler, but some of them are more interesting than simply collecting or scanning a bunch of stuff around the planets.However, the game isn't quite as good from a technical standpoint as it doesn't offer state-of-the-art graphics, or performance. While the graphics are good (especially their art design), from a technical standpoint they look like an early PS4 game especially the character models. And there are times when the framerate drops considerably. There's bugs and jank too, but not too bad. The main reason why the game got so much hate when if first came out was for these reasons, but it's been improved substantially with updates. Basically, this is a Phase game.
It's similar to the low budget European RPGs that I enjoy so much, a little rough around the edges but with good content that makes up for it. Of course it's technically better than those, but it doesn't quite feel like a AAA blockbuster either.The reason why I made this thread was to share that this game proved to me that I still like video games just as much as I always have. I admit that lately I was starting to wonder if I still liked them as much as I used to since RDR2 failed to engross me like I was expecting it to, but it was the game and not me. I still really enjoyed my time with it, but it didn't hook me like big anticipated games usually do. And it wasn't just it, I was having a hard time wanting to play a lot of what I have. I'm more selective now than I used to be when it comes to what I want to play, I don't have a desire to play everything like I used to. I just want to play the stuff that really clicks with me, because if it doesn't then what's the point?
Now back to playing.
) sci-fi action RPG with a good story, a likable cast of characters, visceral shooting combat, exploration/discovery and tons of content.
