Going back to my backlog to finish jotting down thoughts on games that I've completed a while ago now.  This mini review is for Mass Effect: Andromeda, a game that I finished a year ago (yes, I should blog more often).  Just for the record, I finished ME:A on 10/6/22.

I know that this game seems to get a ton of hate.  I don't really get the hate because it was, legitimately, a fun game.  Now, I did buy this game on sale (so not on full retain price), and I did wait until a number of things were patches and updated.  I know that a lot of early adopters end up stuck with things that I probably didn't have to deal with - but I think this is an unfair ding for this game.  Anyway... I still experienced some visual glitches but it was OK, there was nothing game-breaking IMO. Andromeda, although large and not always populated, was a fun galaxy to be in. There were a lot of hints and connections to the original trilogy, and there seemed to be tentative connections being made for future games in this series.

I did miss having the Quarians around. They had their own "arc" starship that would bring them to the new galaxy, but we never got to see them arrive (or just be there).   I got the sense that more games were planned but didn't materialize - at least based on the number of loose threads that exist in the game.

I played as Sarah Ryder, which I thought seemed like a better character, and because this is Mass Effect I decided to romance someone, and that someone was Peebee. I was a bit surprised by the nudity when you reached that endpoint of the game.

The only enemy I hated was The Progenitor which was a pain in the butt to beat (remnant tiller) regular weapons seemed to do NOTHING. I headed to Aya, bought 22 Cobra RPGs (yes...overkill much?),  only used 1 of them (plus my shotgun) to take the darned thing out.  I wish that I knew about the Cobra RPG earlier (at lever 40) so that I would not have spent so much darned time on that Progenitor.

Story Synopsis from Wikipedia:

In 2819, following a 634-year journey aboard the Ark Hyperion, Ryder awakens in the Heleus Cluster of the Andromeda Galaxy. Hyperion strikes a dark energy cloud called the Scourge, temporarily knocking out its power and sending Ryder's sibling into a coma. Pathfinder Alec Ryder, Ryder's father, informs Ryder and Cora Harper that the planet they were sent to scout may no longer be viable for colonization. Alec, Ryder, Cora, and Liam Kosta head down to the planet, coming into contact with a hostile alien race, the kett, as well as strange structures from a synthetic alien race, the Remnant. Ryder and Alec find a terminal inside an alien monolith, which Alec activates in an attempt to stabilize the lightning storm-stricken planet. A large blast throws the two off the elevated platform, damaging Ryder's helmet and exposing Ryder to the toxic atmosphere. Alec saves Ryder by giving Ryder his helmet, sacrificing his own life. Ryder is later revived and merged with the artificial intelligence SAM, learning that Alec has made Ryder the new Pathfinder.

Hyperion reaches the Nexus, finding it incomplete and with no other Ark in sight. The crew learn from Nexus leadership that all of the worlds in Andromeda have become inhospitable, and that the Initiative has been stranded upon arrival, suffering from civil unrest and a supply shortage. As humanity's new Pathfinder, Ryder is tasked with finding a suitable world to colonize, as well as uncovering the fates of the other Arks. Ryder is also assigned a spaceship, the Tempest, piloted by Kallo Jath and accompanied by Vetra Nyx.

Ryder's first stop on the search is Eos, a desert planet plagued by radiation, where Nakmor Drack and Peebee join the crew. With SAM's help, Ryder unlocks a Remnant vault, which houses a terraforming system that rapidly repairs the planet's ecosystem to more hospitable levels. The planet's newly-improved viability allows Ryder to establish Andromeda's first successful outpost. Ryder also discovers a star chart pinpointing the location of other worlds that might hold similar structures. It is deduced that these worlds could sustain the Initiative.

On the way to another system, the Tempest runs into the kett fleet, and is forced to escape through the Scourge, suffering significant damage. The ship lands on the planet Aya, coming into contact with a new alien species, the angara, who are mounting a resistance against the kett. Ryder proves the Initiative's good intentions by aiding the angara on two other planets, in addition to recruiting a member of their species, Jaal Ama Darav, to the Tempest's crew. Ryder also rescues high-ranking angara Moshae Sjefa from a kett facility, discovering in the process that the kett have been turning the angara into more kett through a genetic modification process known as "exaltation". The Moshae takes Ryder to Aya's vault, learning that the kett leader, the Archon, is chasing an object called Meridian, which can control all vaults and, by extension, the worlds that they are connected to. Ryder, anxious to stop the kett, tracks down their flagship and discovers that the kett have captured the Salarian Ark and have been experimenting with various Initiative species. Ryder frees the ark and learns the location of Meridian.

Ryder then proceeds to the presumed location of Meridian, which is revealed to be an ancient Remnant city. Ryder discovers that Meridian, a Dyson sphere-like construct, was taken away from the city, disconnecting the vaults and rendering the planets uninhabitable.[46] The Archon launches an attack on Hyperion, severing SAM from Ryder, while also capturing Ryder's sibling, whose SAM implant he intends to use in order to take over Meridian. Ryder manages to activate the Remnant fleet and, together with other allied forces, makes an assault on the kett fleet guarding Meridian. The Ryder twins work to defeat the kett, eventually disconnecting the Archon from Meridian's system and killing him in the process. Ryder is hailed as a hero, having activated Meridian and made the cluster more suitable for settlement. Hyperion, after crash-landing onto Meridian, settles on the planet as humanity's new home.

In a post-credit scene, the Archon's second-in command, Primus, is seen observing Meridian, hinting at a possible future threat.

Gamerscore: 600/1000

Achievements: 31/55

Total enemies killed: 2,039

Total experience gained: 1,565,676

Total headshots: 273

Number of materials collected: 27,889

Number of items crafted: 29

No idea how many hours - wasn't tracked for some reason

Overall: 8/10 for me