Rodney McKay
Member
Just beat it.
Glad it ended on a high note, but overall this definitely felt like a B-Team effort kinda game.
The overall writing where nearly every character has to be sarcastic or joking at all times (especially in combat) was really grating for me. Even when the writing was good enough that a joke actually made me laugh (there was a kinda funny Star Wars reference at one point), the voice acting for (male) Ryder was so poor that even something as simple as a Star Wars reference wasn't done very well. And slap on the poor facial models and animations on all the human characters and it turns into a game where I almost dread what the characters will say every time I choose a response (in a series where I used to LOVE all the conversations and character interactions.
I can see what they were doing by removing the Paragon/Renegade system and a lot of the binary good/bad choices from the game, but what we're left with is almost nothing. When I replay this game as female Ryder after all the DLC comes out, I don't look forward to making different choice because they all seemed largely pointless. None of the choices I made seemed meaningful enough that I care if they get expanded upon in Andromeda 2. At least in Mass Effect 1, the choices were cool enough that I wanted to see their repercussions; even the small choices like helping a couple decide to have a baby or not felt nice to do even if you only get an email response or a line of dialog in ME2 or 3. Maybe that was just because ME1 was fresh and new, but I don't think I got that feeling once in Andromeda.
Combat felt like it was worse as a cover-based shooter with a focus on teamwork, but it's improved as an active run-and-gun kind of game. I did this playthrough mostly like I did in my ME2+3 builds, so I did a lot of cover shooting and using Overload on Shields, Incinerate on Armor, and that biotic "wub, wub, wub" power for chaining stuff and hitting people behind stuff. I do look forward to playing it as more of a fast paced, close range kind of game in my second playthrough.
I liked the planet colonization stuff the best in the game, that was definitely a good concept for Mass Effect. But sadly I felt like the Remnant tech stuff took the sense of adventure out of it. "Land on a rocky desert planet? Lets drill for water, clear out a cave to settle in, or make peace with hostile natives. Nah, lets just activate this magic vault and make the world 50% better instantly."
The main story missions were pretty good (especially the last one), but the loyalty missions were lacking outside of the ""find the ark" ones.
I do still love this series and I really want a quality follow-up to this game. The Andromeda galaxy has a lot of potential and there are still some mysteries I want to find out more about (like
) and the Kett is an interesting enemy/species that I'd like to learn more about. This game seemed to barely scratch the surface of the Kett and the Archon was a painfully generic badguy (I have a thirst for power! I'm way better than you!!).
Glad it ended on a high note, but overall this definitely felt like a B-Team effort kinda game.
The overall writing where nearly every character has to be sarcastic or joking at all times (especially in combat) was really grating for me. Even when the writing was good enough that a joke actually made me laugh (there was a kinda funny Star Wars reference at one point), the voice acting for (male) Ryder was so poor that even something as simple as a Star Wars reference wasn't done very well. And slap on the poor facial models and animations on all the human characters and it turns into a game where I almost dread what the characters will say every time I choose a response (in a series where I used to LOVE all the conversations and character interactions.
I can see what they were doing by removing the Paragon/Renegade system and a lot of the binary good/bad choices from the game, but what we're left with is almost nothing. When I replay this game as female Ryder after all the DLC comes out, I don't look forward to making different choice because they all seemed largely pointless. None of the choices I made seemed meaningful enough that I care if they get expanded upon in Andromeda 2. At least in Mass Effect 1, the choices were cool enough that I wanted to see their repercussions; even the small choices like helping a couple decide to have a baby or not felt nice to do even if you only get an email response or a line of dialog in ME2 or 3. Maybe that was just because ME1 was fresh and new, but I don't think I got that feeling once in Andromeda.
Combat felt like it was worse as a cover-based shooter with a focus on teamwork, but it's improved as an active run-and-gun kind of game. I did this playthrough mostly like I did in my ME2+3 builds, so I did a lot of cover shooting and using Overload on Shields, Incinerate on Armor, and that biotic "wub, wub, wub" power for chaining stuff and hitting people behind stuff. I do look forward to playing it as more of a fast paced, close range kind of game in my second playthrough.
I liked the planet colonization stuff the best in the game, that was definitely a good concept for Mass Effect. But sadly I felt like the Remnant tech stuff took the sense of adventure out of it. "Land on a rocky desert planet? Lets drill for water, clear out a cave to settle in, or make peace with hostile natives. Nah, lets just activate this magic vault and make the world 50% better instantly."
The main story missions were pretty good (especially the last one), but the loyalty missions were lacking outside of the ""find the ark" ones.
I do still love this series and I really want a quality follow-up to this game. The Andromeda galaxy has a lot of potential and there are still some mysteries I want to find out more about (like
the source of The Scourge
...
