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[prag16]

I'm assuming it will be something like The Division's PC controls where Q and E are the L/R Bumper power and T or some other nearby key is the LB+RB.

Q and E were used in the trilogy to tell squad mates where to go. That is still a feature (even if you can't control their powers directly anymore). On console I think they said D-pad left/right controls it. Regardless I don't much care what the defaults are. Two of those powers are getting mapped to my side mouse buttons. It's just a matter of where I feel like putting the third (probably left ALT).

 

[Bisnic]

They could also just leave them as 1-2-3 like they did with the original trilogy for 1 to 8.

 

[Heckler456]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gip_9AdbtHA

15 minute interview with Natalie Dromer regarding her role in the game.

 

[Caboose]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gip_9AdbtHA

15 minute interview with Natalie Dromer regarding her role in the game.

She sounds nice

 

[DeadlyParasite]

The more material for the game that gets released the less I like what I see. A lot of concerns raised from those previews today as well.

:\

 

[Maledict]

Well, on one hand I actually did like DA:I. Yes, it went on too long and had way too many maps, but I enjoyed the overall game. I even bought all the DLC< although haven't played any of it because I'm still DAed out. One day!

On the other hand - Mass Effect really isn't about pressing X every 20 metres to scan for some damn rocks or something. Like I said earlier, crafting in modern RPGs is a bad idea that has failed every time and just results in an annoying, grindy collect-a-thon, and I see nothing here that doesn't make me think its the same.

Still looking forward to the multiplayer! ;-)

 

[Heckler456]

The more material for the game that gets released the less I like what I see. A lot of concerns raised from those previews today as well.

:\

Most previews were rather positive though.

 

[Retrofluxed]

So excited. At this point, quit teasing it and just release it already. My money is ready to be spent.

 

[MadLaughter]

So given Drack is like 1400 years old and has that quote about humans being meat that spoils, any chance the dude was awake the entire 600 years?

 

[Poodlestrike]

Well, on one hand I actually did like DA:I. Yes, it went on too long and had way too many maps, but I enjoyed the overall game. I even bought all the DLC< although haven't played any of it because I'm still DAed out. One day!

On the other hand - Mass Effect really isn't about pressing X every 20 metres to scan for some damn rocks or something. Like I said earlier, crafting in modern RPGs is a bad idea that has failed every time and just results in an annoying, grindy collect-a-thon, and I see nothing here that doesn't make me think its the same.

Still looking forward to the multiplayer! ;-)

Literally all I want with regards to crafting is the ability to entirely automate resource collecting. I'll go way out of my way to do it if I have to.

So given Drack is like 1400 years old and has that quote about humans being meat that spoils, any chance the dude was awake the entire 600 years?

Um... I doubt it, if only because they seem to be going in a very different direction with him than the usual "had to stay awake for 600 years alone" thing would usually imply.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Most previews were rather positive though.

Most reviews for Inquisition were positive, but different people look for different things in games.

This favorites / classless system is actually bothering me a lot.

 

[Heckler456]

Most reviews for Inquisition were positive, but different people look for different things in games.

This favorites / classless system is actually bothering me a lot.

Why though? There is clearly still A LOT of choice there, and a regular player probably wont fill out every ability on a regular playthrough, so you'll still have to build your character in a certain manner. There's just more choice now. Point being, in effect it isn't actually entirely "classless".

Besides, there's always self-imposed abstinence. You'll probably be able to play the game on a higher difficulty with just one or two classes.

Anyway, in my opinion, it's hard to effectively argue that the benefits don't outweigh the negatives here. More variety is always welcome, and to me, the class I played in the original trilogy always ended up being more of an afterthought. Now, if I see a cool way of playing, I could still work my way towards that, even though I'm halfway through the game already.

 

[Maledict]

Yeah, I don't like having to rely on self-imposed restrictions to make the game challenging. Definitely not keen on the profiles system we saw - I never expected to be able to switch them on the fly like that so completely. Makes it very unlikely I'll replay the game, and also makes me assume there's no class specific dialogue in the game either.

Seems a weird choice TBH, and very unlike the series. Wonder why they did it? Maybe because so many players always play as soldiers and they wanted a way for people to explore other classes?

Edit: for me, I don't really see any positives in this. I'm completely happy to chose a class and play with that classes abilities and powers. It's going to be very weird in game to switch to having biotic powers out of no-where mid combat. Also going to be very odd balancing things given the combos you will be able to take.

 

[Tovarisc]

I wonder if you can miss out on romance with possible character because you just wasted most of game flirting someone who will say "Nah, I'm not into X" at last stretch of game?

 

[prag16]

Most reviews for Inquisition were positive, but different people look for different things in games.

This favorites / classless system is actually bothering me a lot.

The jury is our on the profile/favorites system. I can see why some people are concerned. However the handwringing about DA:I doesn't really seem too well founded at this point.

Its deja vu... reminds me of the overwhelming concern about boring Ubi game design in Horizon. I think this will help a similar situation with regard to ME:A and DA:I... Yes there are similarities. No it's not the same thing, and should do a lot to differentiate itself.

Makes it very unlikely I'll replay the game, and also makes me assume there's no class specific dialogue in the game either.

I wouldn't make determinations like this before even laying hands on the game. Seems extreme.

Class specific dialog, how much of this did the trilogy really have? I can't remember a whole lot. Non issue for me.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Anyway, in my opinion, it's hard to effectively argue that the benefits don't outweigh the negatives here. More variety is always welcome, and to me, the class I played in the original trilogy always ended up being more of an afterthought. Now, if I see a cool way of playing, I could still work my way towards that, even though I'm halfway through the game already.

The absence of classes harms replayability (I'm going to beeline cool stuff straight away) and is effectively guaranteed to cause balance problems. When I can switch between any profile on the fly and I'm a tech god one minute and biotic god the next, it doesn't really feel like I'm playing any specific character. I'm not deciding whether I want an ability, I'm just deciding whether I want the ability now or later. And I can swap and change character skills on the fly like it's a change of pants, which feels really fucking weird.

My faith in Bioware's ability to deliver an engaging RPG system is at an all time low.

 

[DeadlyParasite]

Most previews were rather positive though.

I wasn't talking about previewers opinions but rather my own.

 

[Sou Da]

The absence of classes harms replayability (I'm going to beeline cool stuff straight away) and is effectively guaranteed to cause balance problems. When I can switch between any profile on the fly and I'm a tech god one minute and biotic god the next, it doesn't really feel like I'm playing any specific character. I'm not deciding whether I want an ability, I'm just deciding whether I want the ability now or later. And I can swap and change character skills on the fly like it's a change of pants, which feels really fucking weird.

My faith in Bioware's ability to deliver an engaging RPG system is at an all time low.

I feel like a lot of this is riding on the pacing of XP. Shoemaker lamented about not having a lot of abilities so I have to wonder.

 

[Metroidvania]

Anyway, in my opinion, it's hard to effectively argue that the benefits don't outweigh the negatives here. More variety is always welcome, and to me, the class I played in the original trilogy always ended up being more of an afterthought. Now, if I see a cool way of playing, I could still work my way towards that, even though I'm halfway through the game already.

Bioware could have accomplished (near) the same thing with an option to re-spec when on the Tempest, or in some other limited fashion.

Instead, there doesn't seem to be any limit or downside aside from the quick cooldowns we've seen (which may be longer at earlier levels, to be fair).

The question becomes: How do you balance encounters, then? You can't throw a shielded enemy at biotics, because they can swap out to a tech tree perk, for example.

One of the only things left is either to throw numbers at you to overwhelm, and force you to use CC as one of your options for battlefield control, or to just pile on the health so the challenge is roughly simultaneous for any player, even ones exploiting good power synergies (who may just end up having an easier time).

I mean....the power fantasy is a thing Bioware's been fond of in pretty much all their games, but this is pushing it for me.

I feel like a lot of this is riding on the pacing of XP.

Admittedly, this is true, and could make or break a lot of the mid-game 'encounters' depending on how the xp scales, especially with how much purported side quest content is available (and how much is locked off until you get late game gear for hazardous worlds).

 

[Heckler456]

Bioware could have accomplished (near) the same thing with an option to re-spec when on the Tempest, or in some other limited fashion.

Actually, Bioware does have an option for you to respec, further indicating that there is in fact meaningful choice (at the very least in the first half or so of the game). And like has been said, they've clearly stated that you need "at least one NG+" to fully max out everything. The highest level we've seen thus far was level 70, and in the latest PCGamer article, they specifically mention you run out of things to put points into at level 123. So, I mean, you clearly have to be making choices for at the very least a significant portion of the game.

And like, what you guys are completely glossing over is that this isn't a "you can be every class you want" kind of thing. It's a "you can pick any and all combinations of skills that you wish" type of thing, which is something that promotes a ton of experimentation that was sorely lacking in the original trilogy.

And how do you balance it? Again, I've said it before, but you asked this question ten minutes ago while they've been hammering away at that very problem for the past 5 years. I'm guessing that if they picking this particular combat system, there will at least be SOMETHING redeemable about it.

The absence of classes harms replayability (I'm going to beeline cool stuff straight away) and is effectively guaranteed to cause balance problems. When I can switch between any profile on the fly and I'm a tech god one minute and biotic god the next, it doesn't really feel like I'm playing any specific character. I'm not deciding whether I want an ability, I'm just deciding whether I want the ability now or later. And I can swap and change character skills on the fly like it's a change of pants, which feels really fucking weird.

My faith in Bioware's ability to deliver an engaging RPG system is at an all time low.

If you want to be a "god", you're going to have to specialize. Seeing as how there are 4 favorites with 3 skills each, and Biotics, Tech, and Combat have 12 skills each, you can quite clearly see how you won't ever be a god at every single thing, even if you had everything maxed out.

 

[Heckler456]

.

 

[BeauRoger]

The absence of classes harms replayability (I'm going to beeline cool stuff straight away) and is effectively guaranteed to cause balance problems. When I can switch between any profile on the fly and I'm a tech god one minute and biotic god the next, it doesn't really feel like I'm playing any specific character. I'm not deciding whether I want an ability, I'm just deciding whether I want the ability now or later. And I can swap and change character skills on the fly like it's a change of pants, which feels really fucking weird.

My faith in Bioware's ability to deliver an engaging RPG system is at an all time low.

Hmm, I seem to remember something about a "softer" type of class separation, in that you level up a specific profile related to the abilities you upgrade (tech/biotic/combat). When you level up your profile those corresponding abilities get a boost, so while you can put basically anything into a "favorites" slot, the subtypes you havent sunk a lot of skill points into will be weak, if the difficulty progression and xp distribution is at all decent. Hopefully this would encourage the player to specialize in maybe 1 or 1,5 of the total 3 types of abilities.

 

[Metroidvania]

Actually, Bioware does have an option for you to respec, further indicating that there is in fact meaningful choice (at the very least in the first half or so of the game). And like has been said, they've clearly stated that you need "at least one NG+" to fully max out everything.

They did not actually say you need at least one NG+ completion, if that's what you meant (if not, apologies). Shoemaker, at least (though he seemed confused about it) mentioned that he was told that you could theoretically max either 'just about' after doing everything in one playthrough, or 'some ways' into NG+

And like, what you guys are completely glossing over is that this isn't a "you can be every class you want" kind of thing. It's a "you can pick any and all combinations of skills that you wish" type of thing, which is something that promotes a ton of experimentation that was sorely lacking in the original trilogy.

I mean..sure. And on some level, it does come down to what you want in your role-playing game - commit to a role and find out you don't like it vs 'knowing' you could be performing more optimally if you just give up your build.

I can see both sides, but I would assume you could see why people are 'worried' about it?

 

[Heckler456]

Hmm, I seem to remember something about a "softer" type of class separation, in that you level up a specific profile related to the abilities you upgrade (tech/biotic/combat). When you level up your profile those corresponding abilities get a boost, so while you can put basically anything into a "favorites" slot, the subtypes you havent sunk a lot of skill points into will be weak, if the difficulty progression and xp distribution is at all decent.

Oh, is that's that list of names you're talking about? Can you level those up too?

 

[Heckler456]

They did not actually say you need at least one NG+ completion, if that's what you meant (if not, apologies). Shoemaker, at least (though he seemed confused about it) mentioned that he was told that you could theoretically max either 'just about' after doing everything in one playthrough, or 'some ways' into NG+



I mean..sure. And on some level, it does come down to what you want in your role-playing game - commit to a role and find out you don't like it vs 'knowing' you could be performing more optimally if you just give up your build.

I can see both sides, but I would assume you could see why people are 'worried' about it?

"It would take a long time, but it is technically possible," he said with a laugh. "We don't actually have a level cap, so you could keep going until you have straight-up run out of things to spend points on, which should be around level 123."

As to seeing why people would be worried about it? Not really... I mean, I do understand that people are worried about it, but for example, the reasons summed up here seem to mostly stem from a combination of thinking the combat should be a certain way, because otherwise it'll be shit; and some misconceptions and undue preconceived notions about what the combat will actually play like. But I respect the subjective nature of this, of course.

 

[BeauRoger]

Oh, is that's that list of names you're talking about? Can you level those up too?

Im talking about the profiles such as vanguard, engineer, soldier, etc, the ones that used to be classes. From what i understand, if you pick mostly combat abilities for example, you level up the Soldier profile, which in turn gives you stat boosts. I would imagine that those boosts pertain both general things such as HP, but also boost those specific combat abilities. So if you mostly have soldier abilities and just put a few points in say biotics, those will be far weaker since the profiles that include biotics are at a low level, and the favorite slot containing them would be basically useless. At least thats how i hope it would work. If they can balance the difficulty and the XP gains right, hopefully that would mean that you could only become truly competent in one of the 3 ability types, with a second acting more as support, especially on higher difficulties. Alternatively, you could go for a 50/50 spilt and become a vanguard or something, but even then you would need to leave out a lot from both subtypes to be viable, hopefully leading to some tough choices and different builds.

 

[Heckler456]

Im talking about the profiles such as vanguard, engineer, soldier, etc, the ones that used to be classes. From what i understand, if you pick mostly combat abilities, you level up the Soldier profile, which in turn gives you stat boosts. I would imagine that those boosts pertain both general things such as HP, but also boost those specific combat abilities. So if you mostly have soldier abilities and just put a few points in say biotics, those will be far weaker, and the favorite slot containing them would be basically useless. At least thats how i hope it would work. If they can balance the difficulty and the XP gains right, hopefully that would mean that you could only become truly competent in one of the 3 ability types, with a second acting more as support, especially on higher difficulties.

Yeah, I just watched the video again. Must have totally glossed over that part.

If I had to guess, I'd say that by endgame, in a normal playthrough, you'll have 4 full-fledged profiles. Which means 12 possible skills. So either a fully specialized class like the olden days, an even mix of two/three, or some random combination of skills that suit your personal playstyle. I don't understand how this doesn't sound good.

 

[Officer.Sanchez]

I think It feels like the classic "VIT / STR / DEX / INT / RES" system.

 

[prag16]

I feel like a lot of this is riding on the pacing of XP. Shoemaker lamented about not having a lot of abilities so I have to wonder.

Yeah. You won't be a "God" of jack shit for quite a portion of the playthrough most likely.

I wasn't talking about previewers opinions but rather my own.

But I mean you haven't played it. How can you be this adamant without playing it or at least knowing a lot more than what they've shown.

If you want to be a "god", you're going to have to specialize. Seeing as how there are 4 favorites with 3 skills each, and Biotics, Tech, and Combat have 12 skills each, you can quite clearly see how you won't ever be a god at every single thing, even if you had everything maxed out.

Yeah, this seems likely. I know 89 metacritic GoTY DA:I was such a disastrous train wreck that nobody trusts Bioware anymore, but as others have said, how are people so sure the balance will be horrible. And whatever else people are afraid of. Snap judgment hot takes based on incomplete information. Let's relax.

 

[Woorloog]

It seems ME3 MP has actually surprisingly large amount of players still, on Xbox. I asked before, but i didn't realize it is that much! Very fast matchmaking overall, still, even after so long.

Anyone still playing it on Xbox, send friend request to me, gamertag Empyrus, could play some Gold matches with pre-made teams (with randoms, i think i'll stick with Silver, at least until i figure a fun build and level things to 20).

 

[DeadlyParasite]

But I mean you haven't played it. How can you be this adamant without playing it or at least knowing a lot more than what they've shown.

Because there's a lot of things they have shown us and told us explicitly outright....

Why would I need to wait 3 weeks to formulate an opinion on something there is definitive video and text confirmation of?

For example:

1) An emotion-based dialogue system equivalent to that of Inquisitions has been confirmed.
2) Terrible third person non-cinematic conversation modes like that in almost all of Inquisition (even if it's been reduced in Andromeda) has been confirmed.
3) Bare-bones squad leveling (as shown in todays gameplay series video) has been confirmed.
4) No squad armor customization beyond the terrible costume system of Mass Effect 2 and 3 has been confirmed.
5) No issuing squad abilities and no pausing time to use powers has been confirmed.
6) Consumable, limited ammo types instead of static abilities has been confirmed.

These are the top things I am unhappy about and they will not change from now until launch or whenever the EA trial starts. They are set in stone and no amount of playing the game will sway me to think otherwise.

The things I am unhappy about that I do need to actually play the game to formulate a final opinion on are:

1) The cover system
2) The class and abilities system
3) The weapon changes
4) My opinion on how interesting the squadmates seem
5) The length and ratio of main story to side-content.

And so when I say the previews and videos released in the past two weeks have done nothing to alleviate the above concerns I mean it. It's demoralizing and has shaken my faith in the last remaining video game series I care about. This console generation has utterly destroyed my trust in developers to produce a sequel that doesn't completely obliterate what I enjoy about the previous entries (ie, Gears of War 4, Titanfall 2, Halo 5).

I hope you can at least understand why I am uneasy and apprehensive about what's being shown about Andromeda, even if you don't agree with me or my issues with the game.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

If you want to be a "god", you're going to have to specialize. Seeing as how there are 4 favorites with 3 skills each, and Biotics, Tech, and Combat have 12 skills each, you can quite clearly see how you won't ever be a god at every single thing, even if you had everything maxed out.

Define "god". I'm saying you'll able to stack ranks in one or two key powers (probably for combos), since you only map 3 to the controls at any point in time. You can be a powerful (but not versatile) biotic while also being a powerful tech and soldier character. That feels very wrong to me, it feels extremely vulnerable to min-maxing, I thought they had a really good system going with ME3 and they just needed to improve it a little bit. The absence of a level cap exacerbates things in principle but I doubt you'll need to hit it to feel like you've got most of the good stuff.

I'm very nervous about how this game is going to turn out, but I'm still going to buy it at launch.

 

[KillLaCam]

Im still just gonna be a biotic god. The most ill add is the cloak ability

 

[Nostremitus]

Any word on if target seeking, incendiary, concussive blasts are still a thing?

 

[Dany]

Im still just gonna be a biotic god. The most ill add is the cloak ability

Same here. I aint about trip minds, hacking or any of those lesser powers.

 

[Big Nikus]

One of the things I really want to know, and perhaps shinobi can tell us : is the novel spoilery ? Is it better to read it before of after playing the game ?
I don't know why but I'm expecting that it will be better to start reading it after playing some hours of the game first.

 

[Heckler456]

One of the things I really want to know, and perhaps shinobi can tell us : is the novel spoilery ? Is it better to read it before of after playing the game ?
I don't know why but I'm expecting that it will be better to start reading it after playing some hours of the game first.

It presumably details how certain human factions split off from the main human expedition, including the lady that we saw in the first gameplay showcase.

 

[Dandy Lyin]

Is Dr. Lexi the first British asari? It just seemed weird when I heard her.

Also, I'm very close to going into blackout mode. Spoilers are so tempting.

 

[Heckler456]

Is Dr. Lexi the first British asari? It just seemed weird when I heard her.

Also, I'm very close to going into blackout mode. Spoilers are so tempting.

Starting next week Wednesday, I'm planning on vanishing. Horizon -> Torment -> Love Season 2 -> Iron Fist should hopefully be enough to keep me off of Neogaf. I hope :<

 

[Dandy Lyin]

Starting next week Wednesday, I'm planning on vanishing. Horizon -> Torment -> Love Season 2 -> Iron Fist should hopefully be enough to keep me off of Neogaf. I hope :<

Oh nice, I didn't realize Love season 2 was coming so soon!

My plan is:

-Night in the Woods(I'll be done it by Sunday, I expect)
-Pillars of Eternity(I'm only 10 hours in, so this should carry me through 1.5-2 weeks at the pace I'm going)
-Torment
-???

Filling time between with books and TV.

Of course, I've never been very good with avoiding spoilers... Poor impulse control. I managed with TFA(and I didn't get to see it til mid-January last year), so I can hopefully do it. The experience is always so much better the less you know, so it's worth it.

I was kinda hoping this thread would be a safe haven, but it's too easy to accidentally spoil something despite good intentions.

 

[Bisnic]

I'm not sure how much cross platform games there is out there... but what are the chances that PC & console players will be able to play together for this game?

 

[Maledict]

I'm not sure how much cross platform games there is out there... but what are the chances that PC & console players will be able to play together for this game?

Zero.

 

[Ridesh]

IGN even compared the game to AC Unity in terms of how buggy the preview build was, I'm worried as hell.

 

[Tony Redgrave]

IGN even compared the game to AC Unity in terms of how buggy the preview build was, I'm worried as hell.

Shinobi said in the other thread that they played an earlier build that was more buggy, now there have been many squashed bugs and they'll be refining it till launch. There'll be a one day patch too.

About the profile system, the devs said playing with a single profile is perfectly viable so, just do that? That should be pretty similar to the OG trilogy right? Just switch between different favorites from the same 'family' to use more powers.

If I have it right, it just means that you can decide and it'll be fine as long as you've got some self-control.

 

[X-Frame]

Shinobi said in the other thread that they played an earlier build that was more buggy, now there have been many squashed bugs and they'll be refining it till launch. There'll be a one day patch too.

About the profile system, the devs said playing with a single profile is perfectly viable so, just do that? That should be pretty similar to the OG trilogy right? Just switch between different favorites from the same 'family' to use more powers.

If I have it right, it just means that you can decide and it'll be fine as long as you've got some self-control.

According to the GameInforner article I read today, the press were made aware of the older build and how hundreds of bugs were fixed since then. I didn't read the IGN article but they made no mention of this? Ian on Twitter even confirmed as well that they fixed a lot since that Press build.


And as far as the Profiles and Favorites, I full plan on only investing and maxing out 3 viable active powers at first and then, or at the same time, investing in various passives like the weapon passives and profile passives.

On controller, I'm used to only using 3 powers at once anyway on my Shepard. Anything else I only used on occasion.

I'll likely work towards a Sentinel profile first to be as tanky as possible and jump right to Insanity difficulty.

 

[Ralemont]

I think one thing we need to consider is that Andromeda looks to be a much bigger game than any of the trilogy games. The way the class system worked in ME3 can't support a 100 hour playthrough: hell, you start running out of things you want by hour 30. This classless system is going to be better at engaging the player's interest in combat over a longer period of time.

And to be frank, it's a much better idea from a development standpoint to build a AAA game around content that everyone will experience, or at least as many as possible, rather than require people to go in on 2-3 playthroughs to start seeing and appreciating the opportunity costs of the design decisions. The amt of players who finish a BioWare game just once is already low.

 

[prag16]

I think one thing we need to consider is that Andromeda looks to be a much bigger game than any of the trilogy games. The way the class system worked in ME3 can't support a 100 hour playthrough: hell, you start running out of things you want by hour 30. This classless system is going to be better at engaging the player's interest in combat over a longer period of time.

And to be frank, it's a much better idea from a development standpoint to build a AAA game around content that everyone will experience, or at least as many as possible, rather than require people to go in on 2-3 playthroughs to start seeing and appreciating the opportunity costs of the design decisions. The amt of players who finish a BioWare game just once is already low.

Has anyone asked them about length and/or amount of "content"?

The trilogy games were typically 20 hours if you kind of rushed but still did most content and didn't skip most dialogue, and up to 40 hours if you're a little slow and tried to do everything (might be a little generous). I don't really require ME:A to go significantly higher than that, personally.

 

[TC McQueen]

Poking some fun at the character animation jank:

I hope we get some genuinely funny character expressions out of these guys. It'd be nice to see the terrible gun stealing GIF get replaced by something fun as the go-to ME:A GIF.

 

[DOWN]

The absence of classes harms replayability (I'm going to beeline cool stuff straight away) and is effectively guaranteed to cause balance problems. When I can switch between any profile on the fly and I'm a tech god one minute and biotic god the next, it doesn't really feel like I'm playing any specific character. I'm not deciding whether I want an ability, I'm just deciding whether I want the ability now or later. And I can swap and change character skills on the fly like it's a change of pants, which feels really fucking weird.

My faith in Bioware's ability to deliver an engaging RPG system is at an all time low.

Not sure this is true. You have limited points to spend. You can't master all skills. You're not gonna have the best abilities in tech, biotic, and combat because you have limited points to spend and the skill trees split into either/or.

 

[X-Frame]

Not sure this is true. You have limited points to spend. You can't master all skills. You're not gonna have the best abilities in tech, biotic, and combat because you have limited points to spend and the skill trees split into either/or.

Well it is true that you'll be able to fully level up every single skill and ability, it may take 2-3 playthroughs for that, or possibly some grinding on the first playthrough -- but it'll likely be a while into the game before you'd have enough points to be a Biotic and Tech and Solider god at the same time.