Mass Effect Andromeda

[Silver Sorrow]

Let me guess 99 hours minus 50 of them spent fetching things? About right?

Exactly. EXACTLY. 

All things considered, it's hard to believe that this is the same company that put together ME and ME2...and even more so when it comes to others such as Jade Empire and KOTOR.

It's more or less bland; consciously, I don't remember a great deal of those 99 hours, but subconsciously? When faced with the NG+, my subconscious threw up. Maybe that explains why I've been hitting the alka-seltzer hard the last couple of days (although, those heartburn relief gummies are fantastic ). I mean, I was right at the beginning of the new game, and when I was tasked with visiting each of the 4 muckamucks in charge of the Nexus, I just about locked up. "noooooooooooooooooo..." I groaned. I *hate* talking to Addison. Every conversation with her ends with me adding a muttered "well...fuck you, too." What kind of writing is that? Not sure exactly, but it's awful.

And then...nightmarish images of talking talking talking talking talking to dull, colorless people (most of which are complete jerks), endless fetch quests, and dopey either-or choices that are thrown in there just to make the player want to ram his face into whirling fan blades, reminded me of my vast library of unplayed games that aren't Bioware-related. The Talos Principle, for example.

I'd say...if anyone wants to play it, wait until they've patched the crap out of it and are finished with the (most likely overpriced) DLCs.

What is the frigging point of having an offline mode if you have to be online to be offline?

It reminds me of an old Dilbert strip where he tells the IT guy that his e-mail is down. The IT guy tells him to send him an e-mail about the problem...

Anyway, I wouldn't blame you if you did boycott Origin. I remember how irritating Steam was, but they eventually evened out the rough parts and now it's unobtrusive, which is how a platform should be. But I don't see EA ever getting beyond their "stand aside plebians, for I take large steps!" attitude, so count on a lot more stupidity from them, at least until the Revolution comes, whereupon those bastards will be the first ones against the wall.

[Starfox]

The fact is, I have something like 400+ games on Steam, about the same on GOG (though most of them are from my collection of oldies) and... let's see... about a dozen on Origin, so really I find it hard to give a damn. I have yet to buy a single non-EA game from Origin and yep... I won't.

I'm not saying that Steam is perfect or not slightly evil from time to time but at least Valve is not (yet) a corporate machinery with value on the stock market that only cares about shareholders and consider gamers as money bags. Same for CDPR (GOG). I tend to be more agreeable to companies privately owned.

I don't have the time for that but it would be interesting to see how many brilliant independent developers EA bought to destroyed them in short order these past 30 years, starting with the namesake of their distribution service... Origin Systems "We create worlds" -- anyone remembers? Bioware is just the last in a long line. The only question is, how much time will it last. EA is the easy target but don't even get me started on Activision.

[Silver Sorrow]

I recall that EA took over PopCap games, and they're laying off people now. So...good work, Heartless Evil Entity.

Well...Bioware's released the v1.06 patch for Andromeda. You can read the patch notes here. They fixed a lot of stuff apparently, but did not fix the two things I found most important: the damned cursor bug and the fact that my character is hideous in conversations.

Although most of the time, she's okay.

Also, they added a couple of Nomad paint schemes (haven't seen 'em yet) and a new casual outfit for the Pathfinder...however, it's only accessible via a new game OR if you haven't checked your special delivery box in your quarters on the Tempest yet. Bioware is said to be "looking into" this, possibly to a chorus of slow, sarcastic clapping.

EDIT:

New Nomad paint schemes...aren't available at the vehicle merchant on the Nexus. Guessing they're included in the special delivery box. Which makes them inaccessible to me. Good job, Bioware.

The cursor bug seems worse, so at least I am suffering appropriately of late.

[Starfox]

So, yeah... I played Andromeda for about 65+ hours, not enough to have the end of the story but enough to give a general opinion. First the game is less catastrophic than the global rumor tends to point out. However despite the fact I'm playing the thing with patch 1.09 there's still a large number of issues, either deliberately wanted or not. And yes animations are still wonky here and there (like your teammates shooting in your direction to fight an enemy obviously in their back... That could have been hilarious if it was intended but I guess it's not -- even witnessed from time to time a member of my squad pointing the gun at me and the bullets leaving the barrel at about 90° trying desperately to go for the bad guy). Graphics are nice but other than that I can't say that it's a chef-d'oeuvre of program engineering.

And that's not the worst of the annoying points. I particularly loathe the idiotic choice to have SAM comment every time you f.. ing transition from a safe area to a hot/cold/irradiated area. No because it's not like if I had a warning blinking on my screen and the life-support display going online to tell me that it's no good outside. I absolutely need the AI going wild with warning like every 10 seconds and more often than not interrupting a non-replayable conversation between my teammates. Worse there's not even a mute button or any way to tell SAM to SHUT UP (in that regard customization of the UI and/or feedback is near nonexistent). I can't even tell how many times I heard "I detect an increase/decrease of temperature outside". Regarding conversation interrupted -- again -- each time a companion start to talk it's better to immediately stop the Nomad... Who knows, you could pass near something that the developers deemed "interesting" triggering a warning and sending the conversation down the drain.

What else? What possibly got me the most -- and I didn't need 65 hours to realize that, the sensation started crawling up my spine during the first ten hours -- is the almost complete lack of novelty. I mean, you take the original Mass Effect trilogy, you remove the Milky way, you transpose the whole thing to Andromeda and you rename and/or remodel some things and you get Mass Effect Andromeda... I'm not talking about gameplay there, I'm not talking about the planetary exploration -- which can actually be nice and certainly more interesting than the original Mass Effect. I'm actually talking about basic things like: Nexus=Citadel; Kadara=Omega (complete with a Queen although not Asari -- and you'll possibly get ride of her at some point so annoying she is anyway even Pathfinder Ryder... replace Pathfinder with Commander and Ryder by Shepard and you could pretend to be playing Mass Effect 4. And what is a Pathfinder anyway? It's essentially a Spectre with the same kind of power and authority and with the mission to solve problems and represent the authority of the Citadel... oops I mean, Nexus.  Even the Tempest is a redesign of the Normandy... Seriously? Between a gazillion of different designs they could imagine they came with a stylized version of the Normandy? Remnants=Protheans of course... Reapers... ah no, there are no Reapers equivalent... none that I could see at least until the point I am in the game. There are Kett but seriously, even the name is ridiculous. They are of a threat level similar to Collectors... maybe.

Remind me Bioware... what was the actual point of going to a whole new galaxy 2.5 million ly away? Doing something completely different, that absolutely couldn't be envisaged in the Milky-Way? Well, there's the Scourge I suppose (there are guys actually paid to pick unoriginal names?) but since I don't know the complete origin/function/whatever of the thing... It'll have to wait the end of the story. But I guess it would have been less exciting to send 5000 people in a bunch of shuttles to settle some worlds of the Attican Traverse. No.. much better to go to another galaxy to be pestered by and fight the pirates, various outlaws and scavengers that YOU BROUGHT WITH YOU. Oh and occasionally the Kett which are all things considered less impressive that your typical Milky-Way scum.

Later.. time for me to catch some shuteye.

[Silver Sorrow]

The squad AI is just what I expected -- brain-damaged -- so it's nice to see that at least some things remain consistent. Although it's not as annoying as it was in Inquisition, IIRC...

SAM. Or, as I call him, Bitching Barney. There is a mod that shuts him up (right here), but there shouldn't have to be one. "It's cold. It's okay. It's cold. It's okay. It's--" and that's when I tear the implant out of my head with my bare hands. Do these idiots even play their own games?? Because there is no way that any reasonably-adjusted individual could sit through five minutes of SAM's commentary without saying, "you know what? Let's take that shit out."

But, you know...Bioware. They'd rather march in gay pride parades than make reasoned gameplay decisions. Annoying AI chatterbox? Yeah...we could fix that. But we got all these rainbow shirts and Laverne Cox is going to be at the parade...

Lack of novelty: agreed. And I think that's what stung more than anything else. You get to a new galaxy and...oh. Huh. Well...this was a good use of our time and resources. And there was still so much of interest in the Milky Way: all those extinct races, and so on. They didn't have to do a sequel...they could've done a prequel centering on the alien races, such as the turians' civil wars, or first contact between asari and salarians...so many options. But no. We travel to a new galaxy to be annoyed by the bland adventures of Pumpkinhead Ryder and her boring squad.

If I may gripe more specifically for a moment: my favorite aliens were the turians. And the quarians were great. Even the batarians were fascinating. But the arglebargles...sorry, angarans...? Meh. While they tried to convey a scattered civilization of individuals with sometimes radically differing views, they're just not that interesting. It may be due to the absence of Drew Karpshooter (or whatever...these names!).

But citizens rejoice, because Casey Hudson has returned to Bioware as a general manager and things...things probably won't get any better. We need Drew back, not the guy who wrecked ME3's ending.

No.. much better to go to another galaxy to be pestered by and fight the pirates, various outlaws and scavengers that YOU BROUGHT WITH YOU.

As Pogo said:

And now, off to engage in my new hobby: increasing the speed of Zep songs to 150%. Because I can.

[Starfox]

There... finished.

Although it's not as annoying as it was in Inquisition, IIRC...

True... however there's a lot of common ground between the two regarding the gameplay. 2 third of the way I started to think of Andromeda as an Inquisition with guns and a Nomad. The Nexus leveling with the AVP giving you access to general perks? Could it be copied on the Inquisition influence system? Oh, wait... it is. And the APEX "missions" suspiciously seem to serve a purpose similar to the infamous war table (except they added optional multiplayer this time around). But well, I blame that one actually on EA with their stubbornness in trying to streamline every single thing in the development process of their games. "Hey, you had this concept that was working for this game... Just reuse it and spare us the whiny 'we need more time' bit". Remember the Dragon Age 2 disaster when they thought a RPG could be developed in a year?

SAM. Or, as I call him, Bitching Barney.

I call her Bitching Betty just because it appears that SAM's voice is female. I had a doubt myself and finally checked IMDB. Alexia something-something; not that it make the whole concept in game more agreeable to swallow. It's not only annoying it's insulting to gamers... Gamers -- for the most part -- are reasonably intelligent people that understand a concept without having the need of getting it hammered in their brain every minutes. EA and Bioware seems to think now that their fanbase is a bunch of very idiotic and borderline brain-dead people. Playing Bioware games nowadays is a way to achieve that state.

Gameplay:

Side quests are abysmally stupid and that's another common point with inquisition.

"Hey, sure we know that you have more important things to do like finding us a new home, fighting the bad guys and saving us all from extinction but while you are at it if you could pick 20 flowers, scan 16 rocks and 10 animals that would be of a great help, thank you... sucker". Excuse for that? "Oh, the scanner of a Pathfinder is so much more precise than a shitty omnitool".

There's also a common gameplay trick that Bioware use a lot, and I mean a lot... up to the point that it infects even the main quest. And it's the famous go to point A... Oh nothing there, no matter go to point B, oh shoot, let's go to point C then and.. still nothing? but hey I'm sure that the fourth one will be a charm. When SAM announce me for the nth time after scanning three waypoints that "I still need more data to draw a conclusion" I'm just like "Let me guess... AI stands for Absolute Idiocy... that's it?"

Even the final battle is in the same vein: go to console, wait for your sibling to open the console while defending against the baddies... rinse and repeat... three times with the only difference being the attacking wave becoming more numerous each time. I say "bravo" Bioware finally managed to bring the gameplay of a final battle down to level zero.

There's still a final battle though... which is kind of an improvement over ME3 ending.

And the Nomad dropping from the sky for the final battle? I remained stunned for at least five seconds before muttering "You're f..ing kidding me; am I to expect Saren back from the dead too?".

No kidding taking a step back and looking at the whole game it seems to be a patchwork composed of diverse bits extracted from the original trilogy that Bioware thought were working well. A little make up here and there and voilà how to make used like new.

And I still haven't gone into story details and characters...

[Starfox]

Last part of my overall musings on the subject of Mass Effect Andromeda... I was going to talk about the story and characters but I realize I forgot an important part of the gameplay... The Jetpack. A lot of people may see in the Jetpack a cool feature and I admit, it is cool, however it is not particularly useful. More precisely the only real use of the Jetpack is to correspond to the gameplay Bioware designed around the remnant sites and "vaults", a jumpy gameplay that most of the times requires from you to hop your way through the level rather than walk. After a while I renamed this part of Mass Effect "Tomb" Effect as in "Tomb Raider" because this is exactly what this is. even if the environment is different the concept is there. Idea recycling. Basically they switched parts of Mass Effect gameplay to a platformer something that no doubt EA would consider to be amusing to the masses but that is neither wished or required in a Mass Effect game.

Another touted use of the jetpack is in combat, allowing you to take a few meters elevation and remain there for a short time to shoot enemies (and getting hammered in return because at this point you're out of any decent cover). Be my guest. I tried that a few times and decided that the true and tried get cover method was far more preferable. I have my trusted Remnant VI and assault-turret for the out of cover job. Other than that the Jetpack allows you to go slightly faster on rough terrain because you can jump over some obstacles you'd have to walk around and it also allows you to evade incoming fire in combat. These are in my mind the only interesting features of the Jetpack that was really designed only so you could get platforming in the vaults. Kind of a gimmick which was unexpectedly turned by the virtue of marketing before release in possibly the main gameplay feature of the game. Point is, outside of the Remnant sites and one or two missions (like the prologue because it was designed this way) you can perfectly play the game without using the jetpack.

Now to the story and character... this is where it hurts the most.

It's not that the characters are horrible. It's not that the story is disastrous. It's just that the whole ensemble is "meh". I didn't get attached to any of the characters because most of them have nothing particular to get attached to. The "movie night"? I clearly didn't see the point. I get what they were trying to do, a Citadel Reunion thing like in ME3, but I don't get why they would think that would work here. In the original trilogy players got to know their teammates for a long time some of them for as long as 150 hours (the average play time of the trilogy). Making a reunion in Citadel made perfect sense. In Andromeda it's kind of a moot point. You don't get attached to character in just one game except if the characters are superbly designed... which is not the case here.

The Angara and the Kett are both another example of what shouldn't have been done. Sorry but you go 2.5 million ly across dark space to find a new galaxy teeming with awesome possibilities and what do you stumble upon? A very Terran like species that apparently are a mix between cats and... I don't know what else but clearly not alien enough. And the cartoon definition of the bad guys, the Kett that apparently have no other purpose than reproducing by forcing their genes on other species which is very Nazi-like in the intent and the methodology even. So what's new? There was weirder things in the original trilogy, like the Hanar. I remember a comment by one of Ryder's teammate who remarked that they went all this way in the total unknown and still managed to make it work... success! Yeah sure, when the "totally unknown" is exactly similar to the totally known you came from, it's no big deal.

My point is, there is absolutely nothing in this game that couldn't have been done in the Milky Way. But yeah, we get it... Going to Andromeda was the only way to leave Shepard well and truly behind although it doesn't help the case when you bring back Liara T'Soni, even if it's only in voice.

Other than that the story is full of holes, pseudo-scientific nonsense (a cookie to anyone who understands Suvi's explanation about the Geth FTL telescope and even more achieves to take any scientific meaning out of it) and at some point totally weird situations (weird as in "that doesn't even make sense"). I'll just use what is a minor secondary quest on Eos as an example. There' this guy called Massani (son of Zaid I take it) who calls you over the radio while you're exploring a part of Eos. Before he called me I already took out the main Kett base and just after he called me I took out the Kett barracks. During my assault on the Kett barracks the guy contact me again, all casual just if I already spoke with him about his plans, which I didn't since I had yet to meet him. Then later meeting him he acknowledges that I took out the main base but one minute later tells me that I should forget about attacking the main base right now because he thinks I'm not tough enough for it. The whole thing is beyond utter crap and is exactly the opposite of what Bioware would normally do. Normally Ryder should meet the guy let him explain the plan and say something like "Well pal, I already took care of a bunch of items on your list". How the guys at Bioware let that one goes unchecked is beyond me.

At one point I caught an item on a datapad about not revealing the identity of a guy who died before notifying the next of kin back in the Milky Way -- yeah just 2.5 million ly away; I seriously hope that was a joke. If not... Oops.

[Starfox]

Another bit of musing, this time regarding a part of a story very intriguing... but not for the good reasons.

ATTENTION!  WARNING! HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD... STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME BECAUSE I DON'T INTEND TO COVER THE WHOLE POST!!!


There, customary warning given. Soooo... Jien Gierson was killed by someone shortly before or after the arrival of the Nexus in  Andromeda... Reasons unknown but the clues point to an entity called the benefactor who would be the person who gave all the money to build the Initiative -- unlike the official story stating that Jien did. The identity of this benefactor and the reason why Jien was actually executed is not stated in the game (and I guess that was something they envisaged for a DLC). But well, we can always guess... And none of the guesses is an actual fit.

There are three obvious culprit who had the knowledge the motivation and the money to make the initiative happen. The first one is the very obvious culprit the one everybody think about at first... The Illusive Man. Problem is... Why would he do that? I mean, if it had just been about saving the human species, I could have pointed him out as the formal suspect, but why would he pay money to save everyone, Turians, Salarians, Asaris and even as we learn later Quarians, Drells and Hanar (although only Quarians are confirmed)? It's really not his MO. Humanity First was always his pickup line. Why save everyone he hates for an astounding amount of money while he could just save Humanity for a fraction of the cost? He was never that much of a philanthropist. And why would he not have taken the first ticket on the human Ark and let Shepard deal with the rest? Seriously, this guy has a way out and decide to sacrifice himself? Does that even seem like him? Plus according to what we learned from EDI in ME2, I don't think the amount of money The Illusive Man was able to commit was that big (not when just building the Normandy SR2 and rebuilding Shepard severely drained his resources). So I'd rule him out.

That leaves the Citadel Council (that's more in line with something they would do) because not only they could move the actual money for the whole thing only them had the actual power to conceal an effort that huge over several years. Without anyone noticing the construction of several enormous arks or one space station almost as big as the Citadel. That takes real effort to keep that endeavor implicating 100,000 people from different species such a secret in the Mass Effect universe, especially from organizations or people like Cerberus and the Shadow Broker. One can't help but notice however (and that's one of the many story loopholes in Andromeda) that Liara knew about it all, not because she inherited the files of the Shadow Broker after his death or because of her connections but simply because Ryder's father asked her to be on board. Well, she refused but then made no mention at any point of the stunning development during the course of ME2 (about the time the ark Hyperion left the Galaxy) or ME3? My female Shepard would be very sad to know that her sweetheart has been holding out on her  BUT... If it was indeed the Council behind the Initiative... Why all the cloak and dagger? Why not tell it straight on to Gierson at least? And why kill her? What purpose could be achieved there from the Council point of view? Well at least the Council involvement would explain the presence of a "retired" Spectre among the pathfinders.

So there's the last with the network, the knowledge, the money and maybe the motivation... The Shadow Broker himself. That was before he was killed by Liara and Shep, of course. Considering the amount of cutthroats and pirates inside the Initiative his involvement wouldn't be even far-fetched... But then again, what would have been the point? Starting another shadow empire elsewhere? Good for him but why would he planned to stay in our Galaxy then (he was killed around the time the four first arks left the Galaxy). And then why would Liara find no mention of that in his files? Then again we've just been shown that Liara was not the most reliable person in the world. How many secrets did she actually hide?

So most likely candidate for the benefactor... The Council but then that goes against what everyone think about this issue. For some reason, everyone want it to be the Illusive Man... I really don't see the point.

Other than that... I forgot to mention what really killed the characters interactions in Andromeda for me... They got completely rid of the Paragon/Renegade system to replace it by a choice between a "I'm a joker" or a "I'm an asshole". No wonder I'm not particularly invested in building my character...

[Silver Sorrow]

They seeded a couple of those "Let's Play Through The Entire Trilogy To Solve This Mystery!" plots through the game, but since the whole thing just about tanked both critically and artistically, the first game may be the last, and these bizarre little mysteries may never be solved.

But besides that, yes: the Illusive Man doesn't fit, nor does the Shadow Broker. So I'm guessing...possibilites abound, though.

1. That volus kajillionaire who owned the planet with prothean ruins? They never really said anything further about that guy.

2. A human faction with no *obvious* xenophobic tendencies? As Alec's project was obviously key to the whole thing...

2a. A human faction with no obvious xenophobic tendencies, but with an agenda to either do some serious experimenting on the alien races or exploit them in some other way.

3. A salarian faction who intended to exploit Alec's work for their own agenda? The Delatrass (or whatever) in ME3 was a pretty sketchy chick...

4. Turians aren't as underhanded as the humans or salarians, so I'm putting them aside for now. The asari...? Maybe. Maybe not. And Liara's a prime example of possible asari treachery. Then there's the issue of what they REALLY look like, so...

5. Krogan. It was the krogan. We're just snacks until they can establish processing plants.

6. It was the Reapers. Clever bastards.

The personality choices weren't my favorite part, really. I could be goofy, I could be serious, I could be a real snot...I guess it all fits into the shades-of-gray nature of the game, but...ah, well.

What bugged me the most were the forced decisions. For example, having to choose between rescuing the salarian pathfinder and the krogan scouts. Why is this even an issue? DO BOTH. Or the dilemma of blowing up/not blowing up the kett base with all the transmogrification candidates. Blow it up, Jaal gets pissy. Don't blow it up, the Moshae (I keep wanting to type "Moesha") rags at you...

...it's all artificial drama injection to make you think you're playing an actual Bioware game and not something slapped together by the B-team studio.

At least when you had to choose between Kaidan and Ashley, there was a reason behind it.

[Starfox]

6. It was the Reapers. Clever bastards.

Oooh love this one... Don't worry we'll keep you on ice for later, just in case we have the munchies. Plus actually we have a deal in the other galaxy with an horrible alien race that is not without reminding everyone of the collectors, that performs inhumane experimentation and send us the leftovers. Yes they send us the leftovers because we have a very efficient inter-galactic mail system (50 years max guarantee)

What bugged me the most were the forced decisions. For example, having to choose between rescuing the salarian pathfinder and the krogan scouts. Why is this even an issue? DO BOTH. Or the dilemma of blowing up/not blowing up the kett base with all the transmogrification candidates. Blow it up, Jaal gets pissy. Don't blow it up, the Moshae (I keep wanting to type "Moesha") rags at you...

Yeah but that's the thing about not putting renegade/paragon/neutral options in this game. Players don't have anything to build their character upon. So Bioware throw them a few random choices so they can try and make sense of who their character really is... And most of the time they miss the mark.

My typical Shepard for example wasn't an exemplary paragon or renegade. They were generally paragon with friends, renegade with enemies or to assert their authority and neutral in more than a few situations -- with Krogans, renegade all the way because this is the way to dialogue with them. Try to be neutral in Andromeda... you can't. But you can't be really bad or really good either. One can do better than the paragon/renegade/neutral system (a lot of RPGs go into nuances -- for example you can be good but with an agenda or you can be bad with a perfectly motivated reason and just not because doing evil is fun) but it was a good enough system for Mass Effect (the pondering about why being good over bad or vice versa was done by the player instead of being stated by the game as in classical RPGs). Getting rid of it was stupid from a role playing point of view. You loose several layers in the way you perceive and control your character... at least that's what I feel. I played a female Ryder and in an attempt to be thorough I started a male Ryder playthrough. Thing is... they're both the same, they are indeed twins. I can't for the sake of me achieve to separate them. My female and my male Shep were sometime very differentiated in the way they did things. The Ryders? It's really just a matter of gender and the fact that you can't flirt with Suvi as a male... Not that flirting with her as a female makes a lot of sense (as Kallo said "Kill me now" actually I was with him on that one).