Tree and Star

I had played this game with high expectations after playing the other games in the Andromeda series. Whereas Andromeda Dreaming added some interesting backdrop material for fans of the series, this piece feels dispensable. It has a lot of spelling and grammatical errors, which suggests that it was rushed. Gameplay is linear and suffers from a severe case of "guess the verb," which all but strips any enjoyment from the story. After I played all the way through and learned I could achieve a better ending, I started playing again, only to quit when I forgot the exact commands necessary to complete the first sequence in the computer lab. It just wasn't worth the aggravation.

I did like the interplay of events between the main character and his wife, plus the old man who is a central figure in the plot. There was a lot of action & suspense (gratuitously) written into the storyline, which takes place before the events of Dreaming and Awakening, and which made the game feel like "Star Wars: Episode I." I just feel the saga was better without it.

If you're a huge fan of the Andromeda series, don't mind having to install Hugo, and are not irritated by major design flaws, then feel free to give this a try. Whether you feel it belongs with the rest of the Andromeda games is up to you.