Oh, I'm not implying anyone is not a fan. Almost the opposite.
I'm more wondering if there is a sort of nostalgia factor involved when comparing the games for the superfans who played the original trilogy multiple times. The mention of bit characters from ME1 got me thinking, because I sure as heck have no idea who those people are. I can probably only name a handful of non-party NPCs, and those are mostly the ones who appear in multiple games or have major impact to the main story line.
I only completed each game once, and read the first few books. I know I enjoyed it all and put the series high in my personal Top <X> Games, but the details are fuzzy to me. Just curious if that is part of the reason some can enjoy Andromeda, and other cannot, despite playing the same game.
It could also just demonstrate my personal Swiss cheese of a memory and have no bearing on anything.
My bad, I guess I didn't really get the point you were making. You bring up a good point. But, I don't think that's whats creating my discord with Andromeda. I'm really okay with the idea that this was supposed to be something different from the original trilogy.
But, as ....to use Spy's subtitle....a game scholar after being in this hobby for 35+ years, it's the way the pieces were put together that bothered me the most. I'm not talking glitches. I didn't run into many and, seriously, after ME1 (my favorite game of all time) there is no room to complain about glitches. I'm talking about the way the story plays out and how disconnected it is from the world exploring/building AND the way the missions are sequentially and technically built.....go here, talk to this person, go there, talk to this person, go back, talk to original guy......Sure there weren't laughable elevator rides, but the back and forth reeeeeeked of filler nonsense to pad the game.
The story wasn't bad, but it didn't come together well. It seemed like there were two distinct things going on with one being the world building and the other fighting the kett. And there was too much time between meaningful story sequences.
The characters. Woof. Well, Peebee is good. Vetra is okay, but underdeveloped. Jaal was okay, too, but his overall species just blows when compared to ANY species in the original trilogy. The rest are blah and for some reason I just hate Liam. Other than Peebee, nobody on this crew would be a welcome addition to the squads in the original games. I played as Scott Ryder and regardless of how I interacted with characters, I disliked his tone. This was the first time in recent memory in an RPG where I just couldn't connect with my avatar.
I'm not the type of guy that is overly sensitive about language, violence or sexuality, but there were a few times in this game where I feel sexuality was forced upon me. I don't play games to see digital alien boobies (note: i like boobies very much as a general comment) and I certainly don't play games to see my character kiss dudes. Yet, it seemed like everyone was ready to either touch or accept my 'Lil Ryder despite my purposely avoiding flirting with anyone except my LI.
This is all my opinion and high five to all my pals who are and have enjoyed the game. For me, though, as a Mass Effect game it did the series a disservice (EA agrees) and as a game, it was not very well produced.