I'll go against the grain and say that the story, although perhaps not the writing, of the first ME is more generic and uninspired than ME2. The collectors were a better group antagonist than the geth, and the companions were also generally an upgrade over the cast of 1, with the exception of Wrex. 2 is also where best boi Garrus and Tali really came into their characters as well.
Problem wth ME2 companions is that most of them were turned into a Star Trek family episode. Help me with my son, Help me with my Dad, Help me with my Daughter, Help me with my Sister, Help me with my dead Dad. Etc.
Also retcons destroyed some of the cool aspects of the ME1 characters and races. Like the Krogan who were totally dumbed down in ME2.
I am not, let me quote myself:
If you want to praise Andromeda for enemy variety you have to praise ME3 as well which had even more enemy variety. All the enemies from Andromeda (with the exception of something like Architect which is just and DAI Dragon Fight) was in ME3 already. The giant brutish monster - it's the Reaper Brute from ME3. The invisible Kett, that is the invisible Cerberus Operative and Geth Hunter/Assassin, The robot that constructs smaller droids and throws them at you, that's the reaparized Rachni. The big walking Mech that's an Atlas. etc. etc.
In terms of enemies Andromeda did not do anything new. But I did like the larger variety of guns and armors.
No matter how you try to twist and turn it, MEA has combat strategy.
You won't go far in the game just by smashing the awesome button. MEA combat is competently made.
And yet it feels really hollow. MEA combat is very floaty. The guns doesn't have this punch, shooting enemies feels like using a pellet gun (especially at the start). ME3 combat was more static but also felt much better. The melee attacks are a joke. There isn't really indication you are hitting something like ME3 had. And there too many bullet sponge enemies. (Admittedly ME3 was starting to have this problem too)
Also because of the balancing issues some of the guns in Andromeda are really useless especially when you craft like two very good guns to switch over.
Not to mention combat profiles break the lore, but that's an entirely different subject.
This is the codex, unsubstantiated claims are the norm. Story quality is also naturally subjective. Although I think you'll be hard-pressed to find a BioWare game story worse than Andromeda's 30-hour snoozefest. It's really Andromeda's lackluster companions that set it apart. Basically any BioWare game with companions had better companions.
Companions are one thing but the villain is really one of the worst Bioware produced (supposedly Anthem's one worse but never played that one). And it's not like ME had great villains to begin with. Some of them were at least enjoyable (Illusive Man for example). ME as a whole had pretty bland villains. The one in Andromeda is just a Saturday morning cartoon bad guy.
There is nothing really in Andromeda to hang on to in terms of story.
The reapers arrive at Earth because it gives the player motivation, not because it makes sense in the story, and it ends on Earth for the same reason.
It made in the previous version of the main story. In the one they ended up with it's just a mess.
In the original ending Reapers had an actual motivation to do what where they are doing and traces of it are left in the game (since they changed the ending so late).
You don't have to go far, DAI and Anthem are both easily worse than MEA.
Anthem? Maybe.
DAI? No.
While it had shit combat, the characters, the story and variety in missions were much better.
It still had shit quests to extend the playthrough. To be honest Andromeda and Inquisition share most of the dame problems when it comes to quest design, wokeness, retconing the lore etc.
But where DAI wins some points back with the story and characters Andromeda just falls flat on its face.
Hell even the C&C while shallow was still better handled in DAI.
The Old Republic is an MMO
And yet the Single Player quests were much better than anything Andromeda was able to present us with.
But worse than that, TOR was created
instead of a much more
single-player KotOR3.
That's not an argument against TOR.
Same thing can be said for Andromeda.
"But worse than that, Andromeda was created instead ME4".
Bioware took a pool if people want a prequel or what. People wanted a sequel and instead they got Andromeda.
MEA went back to ME1 design, look and feel, which is why I like MEA. That was a stated design goal, and they succeeded at that.
It did? By what measure?
You mean the Nomad? Which are actually just ME2 driving sections expanded upon? You still drive in basically hand crafted corridors but now the enemies respawn!
Oh maybe you mean the crafting which ME1 didn't really have?
The outpost building ME1 never had?
The power point system ME1 never had?
Profile mechanic ME1 never had?
No. Andromeda isn't going back to ME1 design you were duped by the PR. Andromeda shared DAI's design which is painfully visible while playing.
It was no masterpiece, obviously, but it got an overwhelming amount of hate that it didn't really deserve because of some bugs and weird animations (that are mostly fixed now).
Have you played the game? My problem with it wasn't that some faces looked silly. It was the Nexus was basically a dead place with no interesting background conversations.
It was the amount of shit fetch quests thrown at you.
It were the retarded characters.
Dumb as a brick villain.
The tone that felt like it was a superhero movie written by Joss Whedon.
The wokeness .
The brain dead fanservice - Zaeed's son. Saren' student. Conrad Verner's cousin. Garrus' Father. Liara etc. etc.
The art direction.
Nonsensical C&C - like in Jaal's loyality mission.
And many more things.
We must have either played a different game or you are will play anything and think it's good if you can turn off your brain for a couple of hours.
