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jackals-ships · 4 years

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OKAY SO

cracks my knuckles. Barghest time ty @scottyadores for enabling me uwu

under a cut for length bc i tend to ramble and there's a good amount of backstory type deal, Cerberus rlly should be it's own warning tbh, no graphic things but vague discussions of "hm. that's probably not ethical science bro?"

SO Zander is my mass effect trilogy self insert (their full Legal name is Zander Lycaon Shepard Victriril-Maxxion, they have a human mom, turian mom an turian dad+mostly turian family! i think many thoughts abt them) i project. like a LOT on them and the Barghest akdj

the Barghest came about bc of the fact that me and canon hold each other at arms length. and i was thinking "okay what if. Cerberus didn't get got mildly at the beginning of me2 and they could fully rebuild Shep" and then i remembered oh hey Cerberus like. SUCKS. like sucks sucks so what if. we Winter Soldier the lil shit

so in the Zander Cinematic Universe the timeline is vastly changed, I'm still working out exact details like dates and stuff, but zan wakes up post death and has 0 memory of wtf is going on. the only things they remember are a) how to hold a gun and b) something Bad happened so Cerberus decides to run with that. they inform them that they died, it was a v important job, and they always worked for Cerberus

this ofc doesn't sound? right? but so far nothing seems weird so they don't press too hard and focus on recovery. joker and chakwas and the few people who were conned into joining up w Cerberus are banned from bringing up anything that might give them back their memories under threat of death or worse

the first few years are fairly normal, they're sent out on recon jobs, a few diplomatic missions, some jobs that require fighting, and they're given the code name Icarus. everything btw is hidden from them to an extreme degree. as far as they're aware Cerberus is a fringe group but it's not yknow. That

during this time period they're also outfitted with some body mods. they basically just upgrade the alliance muscle weaves already in them. it makes them stronger and faster +boosts up their biotics (think Cora levels of "I could rip apart an ATV with them" kinda boost lmao)

it's a few more years until there's an accident on a job causing Zander to lose both legs below the knee AND someone fucks up and let's loose "oops! actually we're a terrorist organization" under the assumption that they were totally out of it. understandably they throw a fit! they threaten a lot of things and end up attacking a doctor, it's a whole mess

so this is where things get "that is not ethical science". there's an in game revelation you can have where Miranda explains that she initially wanted to put a control chip in Shepard and that is exactly what happened way way before all of this went down. Zan comes around awhile later and is explained to that they're not allowed to leave. Cerberus brought them back, they owe them a debt, etc etc there's a lot of threats an they Can't Leave Essentially

now before Cerberus Zander was. well Garrus and Kaidan and Ash were Basically 70% of their impulse control and that comes back heavily. they start getting v v reckless and Cerberus figures they can do some..science if the lil shithead is gonna try and get got anyways. Zander ends up about 6ft 5in vs their original 5ft 8in, their biotics get a Massive boost, their original pointy teeth are made a much larger threat etc

this is where the name Barghest comes in bc there's a job that causes them to lose their sense of balance and they outfit them with a cybernetic tail that helps fix that issue (my thought process was cats use tail for balance what if. human have tail) (also im a furry. and i have mild vertigo. i would like a tail to fix that akhdjs) and they get sent on many more Murder Adjacent Jobs

there's actually a mission where they're sent after Nihlus who narrowly avoids dying (nihlus internally: first my husband now my protege. OKAY I GUESS) and a few other high ranking individuals. the Barghest becomes v v v infamous during this time period bc the way they take care of people is done in a way that's meant to send a message

they also get a crew called the Wild Hunt (Cerberus likes their thematics. I mean fuck project Lazarus?? really?) composed of themself, The Grim, The Wraith and The Dullahan! i have designs for them. somewhere on this blog. all of the Wild Hunt holds hands

it's a while longer before they're sent after Archangel who in this version has become a much more prolific, going so far as to work with Aria and become a very annoying threat. he almost gets got by the Barghest, they only stop because it's not until he's halfway dead that they realize "oh. wait. I know him?" and have a mini breakdown and drag him to a hospital where his original crew is like "what. the FUCK-"

I wrote a thing awhile back about it actually, it's all v heart touching when he comes around and explains Yeah. That's Shepard and Zander goes :o while the rest of the crew is "they tried to kill you. they're literally a murderer what the FUCK Vakarian" "you don't have all the facts" "which are?" "I love them"

and then they slowly begin getting back their memories from when they Weren't the Barghest and honestly it's a lot of me and my memory issues going "..i would like to have someone who is that nice to me when i don't remember what a spoon is called"

then y'know mass effect 3 happens except when the alliance tries to arrest them they go ":) no thank you im busy" and the council gives them semi sort of immunity bc it's shown that theyyyy rlly didn't have that much of a choice AND they want to do better AND technically their Spectre status was never revoked? plus y'know. reapers. those exist and Zan by this point is a mini tank filled with rage who wants to rip apart every Cerberus building they encounter with their bare hands and if they can't do that then reapers are also a good target

tldr: Barghest. pointy. i have placed my issues onto them but via the lenses of sci fi. they could bench press garrus. they probably did once they stopped trying to kill him. the archangel crew has been given 30 heart attacks via them eating cereal on the kitchen counter at 3am with their weird glowy cat eyes

#jackals barks #places my trauma and fears onto zan as rhe Barghest: here u go my child :)#fun fact also Barghest was initially known as the Hound and then i thought hm...black dog.... Barghest...... similar vibe #half my scenarios w them also are either 'v v soft and funny ala zan accidentally scares butler by being Very Quiet'#or 'i have decided to personally emotionally harm everyone around me :)'

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okase · 7 years

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Andromeda Opinions

aka I’m weak, have played some of the trial, and also I’m side-eyeing a lot of people on both ends of the critic spectrum lol

Not gonna be plot-spoilery, but still keeping it under a cut:

Gonna start out by just listing things about the game itself. Not gonna be split up into pros and cons ‘cause eh. Most of these are just general observations.

First off, yeah. The animations can get preeetty janky. Like, sometimes characters faces don’t even move janky.(Particularly bad with human NPCs) Or move too much janky. However, they’re not 100% bad all the time forever like some people are implying. It’s just, when you notice, boy do you notice.

Character creation is limited, as people have noticed. which is kind of annoying. You have several presets, and those presets determine ethnicity, eyebrows, and general eye/lip/face/nose shapes. You can customize features a bit, but its not hugely extensive. I THINK that’s so that your Ryder can actually look at least somewhat like your sibling and dad. If so, I’ll accept it. Still slightly bummed tho.

However, makeup and tattoo options are really cool imo. Color is whatever you want it to be, and neither are exclusive to either gender which is good.

Hair looks nicer, and actually moves/doesn’t look like wood. The hair selection is a bit limited, with the dudes having 1000 short cuts and the ladies have 5000 bob cuts. But they look nice imo. I can’t recall one I saw that looked horribly awful.

Textures are nice? I could see veins on my Ryder. And sweat and stuff. Neat little details and I approve.

Sometimes eyes on NPCS look dead though, which is uh, distressing. Honestly it’s just this one Nexus person that it really bothered me with though. Mostly because her entire face except for her mouth just. Didn’t move. You’ll know who I’m talking about when you play it lol

There have been some changes to alien anatomy that feel kinda weird/wrong?? Namely the turian legs and salarian pupils. Considering everything is kind of been redesigned a bit, I’m not totally throwing a fit about it but I do have to wonder why they did it. And it does throw me off sometimes.

The Kett give me a kinda Collector vibe. They’re weird lil crab men. Not sure how to feel about them so far, but at least it’s not fighting Cerberus again lmao

Environments are really, really pretty and so far have been unique to each other. Approval

Menus seem a bit unintuitive, as it’s taken me a while to get used to them. Text feels too small or something, or it feels too cluttered, idk. Honestly though, I take a long time to get used to new UIs in general though so maybe take this with a grain of salt

Actually am liking Ryder a lot as a character so far. They feel more alive and like a person than Shepard did. So that’s cool.

Your squadmates are also fairly cool so far, but this is limited because lol trial. Even Peebee, who I thought would irritate me to no end, is... well, still annoying, but it feels more in-character annoying than Liara gets shoved in your face annoying. Liam’s character seems a bit all over-the-place, with him seeming like a cool dude one moment but a crazy hot head the next. Idk, it was probably just the first mission but it felt kinda jarring.

I like SAM, I like your daddo. Seem like cool characters so far. All of the Tempest characters are endearing so far, but my interactions have been limited.

VETRA IS GONNA BE MY FUCKING WIFE I can tell already

The Nomad drives WAY much better than the Mako. Like, it actually feels like its on terrain and feels like driving a car in a racing game when not in 6-wheel drive. It’s actually kinda FUN to drive in.

Combat has definitely stepped out of the ‘just sit in this spot and shoot th thing’ territory. Enemies come in from different directions, you gotta be aware of your surroundings, etc. Still need to use cover but it doesn’t feel like you can just camp out there and wait for enemies to come to you.

Abilities are cool in themselves, and are assigned to buttons/button combos. No power wheel which, while I’ll miss spamming attacks, overall feels like a good thing imo

Resource collecting is still resource collecting. Doesn’t feel quite as tedious so far though. Most stuff tends to be in the way you end up going anyway.

You can go alternative routes to places from what I can see. However, didn’t get to test this really due to feeling pressured by trial time lol

Jump jets are fun as heck and I’ll likely be upgrading them throughout the game

And yeah. These are my thoughts on individual stuff so far. Overall? There’s definitely some flaws, and some moments and things have had me tilting my head a bit or being like ‘lol wut’ but there’s nothing that’s been horridly game crushing for me. I’m enjoying it so far. Like, genuinely having fun, wanting to play more. That, exploring space, and being gay with space raptors is what I came here for, honestly, so.

I like it?

I’m not entirely sure it’s worth the crazy $60+ price tag, but that’s something kinda subjective anyway. If I get tons of play time and end up loving the characters, it’ll be worth it to me personally.

I was gonna also talk about how people have been reacting, but for not wanting this to get long and possibly preachy, I’m gonna not. Just... if you really love Mass Effect, go ahead and get the game. You know you’re gonna play it. Just don’t go in expecting it to be a masterpiece, and you’ll be fine.

If you’ve been kinda ambivalent or unsure? Just wait until reviews happen, or it goes down in price. $60 is kinda steep for something that you just -might- enjoy.

Also, for the love of god, I’m totally understanding of being critical considering the hot mess that was ME3 but don’t go out of your way to be nasty because you don’t like a thing and tell people how garbage Andromeda is if they actually like the game., And on the opposite of the spectrum, for the Bioware Defense Squad, Bioware does not need you to protect their precious fee-fees. They’re a grown up corporation that’s selling you a product. They spent over 100 million dollars on the game, and they need to show their work.The company itself-not the individuals, the COMPANY- need to hear feedback, or they’ll never improve, and then they’ll think feeding you shit with a smile on their face is totally acceptable.

Also, also, in light of recent events, harassment /=/ critique/useful criticism aka DONT HARASS PEOPLE WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU

And yeah that’s pretty much it. Kase out. Can’t wait to smooch me a lady space dinosaur

#andromeda #mass effect:andromeda #this got really long holy shit im sorry #video games are very serious lmao

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