I finally finished the game yesterday after roughly 65 hours and would like to hear other opinions about the game as well (spoiler free if possible). Dragon Age: Inquisition was a huge disappointment for me, as I expected a story driven "RPG" like the older Bioware games I knew and loved. It was a short (at least concerning the storytelling) and soulless open world game. That's why I was kind of skeptical about MEA in the first place. However I love the Mass Effect series (disregarding the end of ME3) so I wanted to give it a fair chance. The start of the game works well, though the speed of acquiring your team feels somewhat rushed. After getting all six of them on your ship, the real game starts. Unfortunately the real game is pretty repetitive: Land on a chaotic world Shoot some aliens / outlaws in different places Do some banal sidequests Activate the terraforming technology If possible build an outpost, kill a giant alien and do some more banal sidequests After the 2nd or 3rd planet you are just starting search for the most efficient path on the map to do these 5 points as fast as possible. There isn't really anything epic or exciting about it. Bioware failed to fill their open world with actual "life". Especially if compared to todays king of the genre The Witcher 3. CD Project Red made many sidequests interesting and fun by adding tough decisions without a clear good - bad options. Still the world of MEA feels much more alive than DA:I. Another letdown were the team members. Except Jaal, Drack and (to a certain degree) Peebee their personalities are pretty sketchy. They don't create sympathy or even an emotional bond to them. Old team members like Garrus, Tali, Miranda, Wrex and Liara were far more interesting. The loyality missions nonetheless are together with the main story missions the best part of the game. They show that Bioware is still somewhat able to tell great stories. Sadly they only make up a small percentage of the game. Another old design feature Bioware dropped are the meaningful decisions by the player. In past games life and death of team members or even entire species depended on the decisions of the protagonist. In MEA there is nothing comparable. The only "grave" decisions (I can remember) in MEA are wether you destroy a Kett installation or not, giving the Krogans a piece of technology or not and letting some Krogan or some Salarians die. At least the ending is better than in ME3. I'd say it is the least spectacular of the whole series, leaves some loose strings for sequels / DLCs and gives you no important decision whatsoever but after over 60 hours of playtime it fits pretty good in the rest of the game. Plus they made an epilogue which feels kind of good. It allows you to let the whole game slowly settle in. Maybe Bioware got this idea from Witcher 3. If so, I would have hoped the steal more good ideas... The visuals of the game - besides the horrible facial animations - are quite good. But even 2 years old The Witcher 3 still (seems to) looks better overall. In comparison MEA looks too sterile and static. Conclusion: Mass Effect Andromeda is not a bad game. It's no great game either though. There are bits and pieces that work great and show the potential Bioware still has to tell great stories. However their focus on open world mechanics failed a third time (if you count the planets of ME1). Bioware may create beautiful landscapes, but they are unable to fill them with life and worthwhile stories. The stories they still tell are dull. Bioware seems to lack courage to tell stories that people may hate but will eventually remember (like the death of your team member in ME1). I don't think there is a big future for Bioware if they don't find the courage to focus on epic stories and great characters again. 8.2 out of 10 So what is your opinion?