As someone else mentioned, when you finally get away from all the dialogue, horribly animated cut scenes and cringe worthy story bits the game actually starts to feel.... ok. I played through the storyline part until the 'buy to play more!' block and it was ok.
Driving around in the !mako shooting shit (You have to get out to do it, Nomad has no guns) and jumping around exploring and chasing your little quest markers as you explore. The game doesn't feel half bad. Not revolutionary. Not awesome, just... Mass Effectish. And its ok. I actually started to find myself enjoying just roaming around shooting shit, doing the little side quests. Though the scanner can get right fucked. One like Horizon that was full field of view would have been so much better. But whatever.
The people that did the 'game' elements did ok. Nothing monumental, but ok. Gunplay is pretty easy on normal. Sniper rifles pop heads easy peasy. Which is nice cause the biotics so far feel weak as shit. ABC Vanguard (always be charging) felt poor. You don't have the skill points to really make the biotic skills worthwhile at the start. So the charge feels weak and I don't think it defaults to the shield regen you got in ME3. So, for me it was sniper people till they got close. Bioltic charge/explode then shoot more. I am not saying it is good, don't put that juju on me. But the gameplay and exploring portions are passable.
I met Peebee at one point. She never joined my crew but the 3 interactions I've had with her make her the 'not shittiest' npc so far. Which, is pretty telling. I also met my Krogan squaddie. He didn't join, but his meeting was so painfully cliched it was... bad. Big bad Krogan throws enemy through window. Jumps out afterwards, grunts. Maybe even roars. Then tries to talk badass while cutting a war trophy tooth out of the dead guy. Yeah.
To me it seems that all the story bits and shit were just a couple fucking hacks, blazed out of their minds going, "Hey man, wouldn't it be cool if..." and no one ever bothered to stop and ask if it made any fucking sense. Ever. Once. So many things about it driving me nuts. We're professional soldiers. Chosen for this mission. But not a one of us behave in anything resembling a professional or competent manner. The Ark flying to the planet. With no scouts. When the nexus was there 100yrs prior with intel and setup to be the command hub. The shuttle combat drop onto the planet without seat belts where we get sucked out the door to do our 'cool' fucking landing.
It really feels like they had a bunch of storyboard 'Wouldn't that be fucking awesome!" scenes and the rest of the story is some contrived shit so they can try and move you from one 'aint it cool' scene to another.
I'm rambling, but I want this to be good. I loved old Mass Effect, but damn if they aren't actively trying to be shit.