Even amongst the noblest of gaming families, there will be some outliers. Some may dip in quality, while others may try to change the formula unsuccessfully. This doesn’t mean they’re terrible; it just means that there’s something about them that people didn’t love as much, putting them on our list of nine black sheep games from otherwise respected franchises.
Mass Effect Andromeda
When a series is beloved for its characters, stories, and choice-based gameplay, players can get lost in the narrative and not think of much else. However, any immersion that a game creates can be ripped away due to technical issues.
Such is the case with Mass Effect Andromeda. The fourth installment and undeniable black sheep game in the storied franchise was riddled with technical issues upon release. Textures wouldn’t load, character models were off or just plain missing, and the entire thing would crash often.
Andromeda also tried to cram a lot of story beats into a singular game, whereas the first three games had plenty of time to develop their characters and relationships. Where the original trilogy’s pacing is perfect and gives you time to fall in love with the characters, Andromeda felt rushed and flat in terms of almost all of its characters’ relationship building.
Mass Effect is still one of the most beloved series in gaming, and Andromeda is an aggressively OK game, but it is still going to always be the black sheep.
