Mass Effect Andromeda is the best game in the franchise.

It's not the best, the most tightly and intelligently plotted, that's probably ME1 by a bit over a hair, but it's far ahead of the wall-banger idiot ball moments that drive ME2, and it lacks the deep structural flaws and last-second missed-the-key-pass misplay of ME3.

It hasn't got the best, the most engaging and likeable cast and writing. That's ME3, which was able to draw on the 'greatest hits' from the first two games (Garrus, Tali, EDI, Liara, etc) and its own expected ratio of likable new characters. Who expected to like hanging out with Vega so much? Not me! But while there are cast members I don't care for as much as others, MEA actually has an above-average ratio - and even the ones I want to smack, the other NPCs react to the same way.

It hasn't got the most pathos and Feels. That's ME3 again, though given how soul crushing that game could be at times, I find that personally something of a blessing... But when MEA reaches for the emotions, it doesn't miss. Jaal's voice actor, in particular, turns in a very moving performance.

It certainly wasn't the most technically polished; while the 'unplayable' I've seen tossed around in other places is a gross exaggeration, I ran into my share of bugs, one of them even major, and there are points where content has been visibly abridged for lack of time or budget, which I didn't notice in any of the other three.

What MEA does have going for it, besides the fact that it manages 'runner up' cred in all but one of the above categories, are the actual shooty gameplay, which continues the trend of improving with every game, and what, for lack of a better term, I'll call 'mood'.

Andromeda makes me smile. Major missions like Outposts feel like accomplishments, like I'm actually part of this amazing, audacious leap into the unknown and laying the foundations of an entire new world. Even more than Shepard, I'm with Ryder on the voyage from "AHHHHH EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE!" to "Got the girl, check. Killed the baddie, check. Saved the entire cluster, check."

Mass Effect Andromeda is freakin' amazing.

-----
Iä! Iä! Moe fthagn!