The metascore is completely justified in my opinion. I enjoyed portions of the game, but I found that any quest that falls in the 'additional tasks' log wasn't worth pursuing: they consist of busy work that had no context. In terms of more substantial quests, I didn't appreciate having to complete a task on one planet only to be told that Ryder has to fly to another previously explored planet to talk to an NPC to continue the quest. Why can't I communicate via a terminal or a transponder which everyone and their mother have apparently. I have to sit through several loading screens while taking off in the tempest, exiting the cluster, traveling to the designated planet within a different cluster, initiating a landing, then finally finding said NPC to have a 'conversation' with to recieve a clue on where to go next. A complete waste of time.
Harvaal and Eos were my least favorite planets to explore, especially with the plethora of meaningless additional task quests that litter Eos' map when you visit it second time round. Find six lost drones, plant five beacons, scan minerals...all pointless task that adds absolutely nothing to the story. Thankfully Elladen and Voeld kept those types of quests to a minimum; thus, were much more enjoyable to attain 100% planetary viability. Throughout my first playthrough, I managed to skip a ton of those 'additional task' quests and still hit level 60. Good to know that I can just ignore those during a second playthrough.
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