Could have been a lot better. But it is a solid game in 2024, despite the release drama.

The opening premise was actually a breath of fresh air and it blows things wide open. I found myself swept up with excitement by the possibilities of an entirely new galaxy enriched with the existing Mass Effect lore and easter eggs. Narratively it allows a clean-break from the Shepard - Reaper - Prothean narrative whilst also honouring and acknowledging it subtly. Sadly the early potential of Andromeda's pioneering spirit is ultimately hamstrung, by a story that does what it needs to do, nothing more, and more importantly, the Angara apparently being the only native friendly highly-advanced species. But despite that, combat is ultimately fun.

If the game wasn't abandoned and had more time in the oven, it may have stood a chance against the following shortcomings which really held it back:

- Character models look awful
- Cutscenes are painful
- Characters themselves aren't as memorable as the roster from Mass Effect 1 to 3
- Voice acting is poor throughout. Krogan and Salarian NPCs sound particularly bad.
- Not enough races/species

Ultimately I would have liked to see an expansion to this game, or even a direct sequel to Andromeda with a much more vibrant galactic community on a fully realised Nexus. It has the bones of a very good game, just a lot of systems are half-baked.

TL;DR Is it bad game - no, worth for one playthrough. Is it bad Mass Effect - yes. If you are fan of the series and want to get the same experience as with previous games - you will be disappointed.

Long version

Story 7/10
Story is banal battle with epic evil. Is it bad - no, just fact. You will meet two new races, one good and one bad. Lineal playthrough, almost every mission have two ending, but they, in fact, doesn't matter. No matter what are you chose, story will continue in the same rails. Some choices leave you in wonder why there no other logical option, but it's rare. Narration option in dialog (paragon/renegade action in previous games) is so rare, that in full playthrough I remember only 4. And these option was so minor, that I don't want to count them but it's all we got (except one with outlaws). In general, your choices doesn't matter. Even more than in previous games.

Combat 8/10
It's strong part of Andromeda. Combat is really good. You have many weapon/armor options for your customization. Also you don't have to anchor to one class (in this version, they called Profiles), you can play all seven of them in one playthrough (but I'm still stick only to Infiltrator and don't fight by any other classes). But in general, this game doesn't have diversity of opponent. You will faced like 10 different enemies in the whole game (maybe more, but many of them it's just different skin). Not so funny, but OK.

Exploration 3/10
Exploration - is some kind of nightmare. Combine side mission on planets from first game with gathering planet resources from second and you'll have exploration from Andromeda. Seriously who though that gathering resources from many locations on several planet is good idea? Also you will need research points that you can gather from scanning objects during exploration. It's very annoying. Very. It's annoying to level that I use save editor to gave me many resources and research points. If you decide to play the game - I'm recommending use save editor for resources.

Visual 4/10
It's something different from what you can expect. After seven years face animations still terrible. Unskippable animations (what is really just loading screens) is so annoying that I want to shut down the game every time I need to explore galaxy. I spend like several minutes for visit five planets in star system. That applying to landing in planet and back to Tempest (it's your ship name). Annoying, annoying and annoying again. The test for my patience.
And don't even dare to expect asari looks beautiful. Most characters looks like it's babies in adult bodies. Very bad visual decision.
Visual at all very bad.

Multiplayer N/A
Don't have much to say about multiplayer as it's not necessary for singleplayer playthrough. But I played like 10 matches and it's pretty decent. But in 2024 there not many players so you will need to wait some times. It's main reason why I don't play multiplayer in this game

Companions 5/10
In most companions you can see counterpart from previous games. Smart assistant who can crack every mistery with your AI and availiable as romance option only for female main character? Looking familiar... Asari obsessed with ancient race? I definitely know this one! Human biotic commando? Miranda is it you? And you can see something like this in every character on your ship. I don't analise characters except your ship crew. Only Kesh leave me in cognitive dissonance (I leave this as surprise for people who will play the game). Companions is not very interesting. You will face only one fight between your crew and no matter with who you side - there is no consequences. I'm disappointed. They not bad if you don't compare them to their counterpart from previous games, but for me - they some kind of boring. Even when you made some radical decision that you squadmate doesn't like - there is no consequences.

Differences from previous games
Their removed Paragon/Renegade system. It was strike at my heart. Why? Why you remove the best part of the game? Instead you give us Emotional/Rational/Logic/Casual variant of dialog option and they all boring. Just boring, they have no impact on story at all. Give me back my option to punch reporter! You can meet reporter in this game too, but you can't punch her. And she doesn't ask you provocative questions. And her quest can bug, so you can't complete it.
You have only three skill active at one moment. And you have around thirty skills. So you can't use them as you want, you need to chose. They removed combat pause. And you can't use your squadmates abilities as you want, they will use abilities as THEY want. And they will teleport to you if you run from them too far. But you can jump! Even with jets! Every time when you want!
Mako analog in this game doesn't have weapons. At all. If you face enemies - you'll need to fight them outside of the vehicle. And also your ship doesn't have weapons. And ships on what you arrive to Andromeda doesn't have weapons. All weapons than Andromeda Initiative have is Avenger M8, I guess. Give me back my SSR Normandy-2 and Mako please. About Normandy. Your ship is small. Very small. And doesn't carry any weapons as I said previously.
There almost no moral choices. And no consequences. And if you understand it - this game became boring.
My recommendation - don't compare this game to previous games. This game is worse than original trilogy.

Beautiful but painfully uninspired game.

It's hard to fathom why Bioware let this game go so far astray, since they wanted it to be the start of a new ME series. It has a few positive elements in world design, mechanics and graphics, but most of the rest is just irredeemable trash.

Get it on super sale if you're curious. I'll say it's worth at least one playthrough for the avid ME fan.