4/5 ★ – ReverieVagabond's review of Mass Effect: Andromeda - Deluxe Edition.

The phrase "It's a good game, just not a good Mass Effect game" is the most common sentiment I see when discussing Andromeda. Opinions on it are mixed with every aspect up for debate. But ultimately, I just believe the game suffered from high expectations. The original trilogy was highly regarded and left a significant impact on its players, so it's no surprise that a new entry into the franchise would be met with those high expectations. Andromeda had to be as good, if not better, than the trilogy. In some ways, I think it fills that role just fine. Andromeda easily offers the best combat, exploration, and visuals in the series. While combat can be dull at times, I found that it can be extremely addicting at others, particularly in the case of multiplayer. But even so I still have my nitpicks with some of the visuals, like how the Turians look like sponge and how Ryder's teeth glow so brightly on the Tempest you'd think they're made of plasma. The writing is the biggest letdown though. Frustratingly, it doesn't reach the quality of the trilogy, and not in the "every action heavily plays into the characters and their personalities" way. I'm pretty sure half of the dialogue options for Ryder have the word "adventure" in them. Like, a concerning amount. To the point where it makes no sense given the severity of the situation. And yet you can choose to make your character swoon over it being an adventure. When literally nothing has gone right and a bunch of people are missing. This odd writing is carried throughout the game. There's a scene on the Tempest between Ryder and Drack where Drack says, "I need your help with something," and Ryder has the option to respond with "out with it, it looks like you have something on your mind." Which is so baffling I genuinely had to pause from the whiplash. And it's made all the more frustrating when the game shows that it can have good writing. There's a line of missions called "Movie Night", where, as the title suggests, you have to set up a movie night for the crew of the Tempest. The part where they watch the movie and bash it feels like the writing was taken straight from the Citadel DLC from Mass Effect 3. It's genuinely so good and engaging, and there are plenty of this quality writing sprinkled throughout the game. For example, one writing decision that I loved is whatever gender you didn't choose to play as was a canon character. It added a unique concept that I never considered possible, and I love what they did with it at the end of the game. It's just unfortunate that the end was plagued with other baffling writing decisions at the same time. Andromeda's development cycle was short, with the bulk of the game being built within 18 months. I feel like given another year, all the writing issues would be resolved, and Andromeda would've made for a fantastic entry in a fantastic series. But that's not what happened. Instead, we got a pretty fun game with mediocre writing, So yes, it's a good game. Just not a good Mass Effect game.