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bredisgoode-blog · 7 years

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ME: Andromeda Opinions. (so late...)

If anyone pays attention to this blog at all, you might be aware that I’m kind of sort of obsessed fond of Mass Effect. (Please do not ask me how many hours I’ve spent on the series). I just wanted to talk a ‘bit’ (put this post next to the definition of underestimate, bc this post is long af) about Andromeda, since I wasn’t active online when it came out/when I played it. It’s a somewhat simplified analysis. Like I could write a college thesis for any topic for any Mass Effect game, so yeah it was hard to get it as short as this is.

First of all lets get this out of the way: I genuinely enjoyed it.

I avoided alllll the media and reviews as much as I could. The only slight spoiler I ever got was seeing the first rendition of Peebee, Jaal (in pop figure form, no less...), and a headline about the facial animations. I ignored that because to me, Mass Effect has always had some ridiculous animations. Especially facial animations when you make a custom character. I literally noted down the moments in Mass Effect 1 when they’re unbearably hilarious, there are a lot. When it comes to Mass Effect, I just don’t really care about the graphics. However, I will admit that when I tried to make a fem!Ryder, I simply gave up and just went with Sara because any face I tried just had the wORST issues. It was hilarious, but again, I really didn’t care. I didn’t have many issues with my custom bro!Ryder’s face. I will say that one face Lexi makes is AMAZING and AWFUL (you know which one I mean), but at the same time I was like idk that is literally a face I would make.

The only preconception I had for this game was of Peebee, who I thought looked a bit odd, like in a forced way. But I really didn’t care about that and tried to put it at the back of my mind so I would forget I saw her and go into the game with a clean slate. I was pretty sure I wasn’t getting Liara back, so that was the other reason I didn’t care to think about how Peebee looked. (SPOILERS: BUT I DID G eT LIA ARA BACK K INDA !! wDsdjfkd)

Things I liked/loved:

This game somehow felt like all three Mass Effect games put together. You have the new world and hero-building experience like ME1, the companionship and loyalty driven subplots of ME2 (which were so great in ME:A), and the “oh shit we need to really all work together to defeat this overwhelmingly strong and holier-than-thou enemy” feel of ME3. The only thing I didn’t like about that is that I felt like I didn’t deserve the ending being so cool because we haven’t really gotten into this world that much yet.

The game play is. so. smooth. Wow. At first I thought the controls were so confusing, but by the middle of my first play through I was zipping through the game.

I love the profile switching ability. I never really enjoyed playing other classes in the OT because once I played vanguard, I felt like I had all the powers I actually wanted and didn’t need the others. This game made me want to switch classes because I knew I could, and I ended up with a really personalized way of playing. It felt good. I think that was a smart decision. I’m sure there are general ways that people play, but you have so many options to play the way YOU want to.

Hearing Liara again. When I saw people suggesting we see OT characters in Andromeda, I cringed every time. I have this great head canon in which Shepard survives synthesis and gets Lazarus-ed again. So I didn’t want any implication of anything otherwise. (That’s just my selfish preference). They were really smart in how they brought Liara into the plot. It was a nice throwback without altering anything I thought or felt about the OT.

Exaltation (spoilss). Part of me thought, hm this is a bit too similar to the Reapers, but it’s done actually so interestingly that once we really see it happen, I didn’t care much that it was similar to what the Reapers did. Like first of all, how did they come up with this technology? Why do they do it? Why is it so monstrous and demented? I really want to know more about them and their beliefs, I don’t feel we even scratched the surface.

The Angara/Remnant/Jardaan. I knew something was off about the Angara, and I definitely knew there was going to be a connection with them and the Remnant, but I didn’t expect it to play out the way it did. I also just like the Angara as a race. Their abilities and overtly expressed feelings/emotions were very interesting to me.

The planets were diverse and beautiful. I loved that I had to keep going back to them all for side missions. (Though I didn’t like the time it took to get to each one bc of dum spaceship animations !! Good thing they took that out.)

All of the little connections to the OT made me really happy. Though they were a constant reminder that literally everyone from the Milky Way is dead bc of how far in the future Andromeda takes place... at the same time this was always the route I thought they should go so I can’t complain.

Loved unlocking memories, (just wish we got more out of it).

The architects were awesome bosses, in fact I liked that there were bosses in this game even though they were repetitive. The OT never focused on having bosses, usually you’d only face a final boss or just waves of enemies at the end of a section. Though I’ll admit the Voeld architect was the hardest and first that I fought. They could have organized that a bit differently imo.

The abyssal is actually a pro and a con. I was absolutely horrified to drive near it, and I thought it was really smart to make it so daunting... but then I found out it can’t do anything to you so I just kept trying to get as close as possible lol. Would have liked it to interact in the plot a bit more, but maybe it was supposed to be involved in another DLC plan (that got cancelled =)))))))))))))))))) )

The Moshae is the reason I live. I don’t know exactly why, but I was obsessed with her. I would literally bother everyone I know singing Wainting for Tonight and changing it to “waiting for Moshae” Maybe it was just that they said “Moshae” too many times in the game, but idk man she was cool as heck. I also like that she is opinionated just like the other Angara. She isn’t some passive all knowing god-like character. She will disagree with you if she doesn’t like what you’ve said or done.

I actually really enjoyed the new dialogue system. Though I’ve seen people say it makes you unable to be renegade like in the OT, and I definitely agree with that, I just hardly ever as renegade so it didn’t affect me. Do you even get to punch someone in the face though? Idk, but I would see why people would be upset if you can’t. It’s a Mass Effect staple tbh.

The communal crew computer thing in the sleeping area (great descriptions, I know) was cool imo. As were the e-mails. There were some great moments written in here.

Onto the few things I thought could have been handled better:

The Archon. He reminded me of a cute monkey??? I couldn’t take him too seriously. I thought some of the other Kett officials had much better aggressive looks about them. Also the first time we see him is in a moment of weakness; he doesn’t understand how Alec was able to utilize the remnant technology the was we was. It was just a weird introduction for an antagonist imo. After characters like Saren and Harbinger, I didn’t feel threatened by the Archon. (Though I did feel threatened by the Kett overall. Especially by the end.)

I don’t think we really got deep enough into this world. The only reason this bothered me is because I spent like over a hundred hours on the first play through. I thought subplots like the benefactor would tie more into the plot and no, the mission ends, and we don’t really learn much.

Some things are a bit clunky. Upgrade armor in one place, buy those upgrades in another place, change the colors in another. It wasn’t a huge bother at first, but when I really wanted to upgrade my armor, I just wouldn’t because I was worried (because of the confusion) that I’d loose the enhancements I had.

I would have liked one other race to be present in the game. I believe we would have gotten that with the Quarians and their DLC, except that got canned. This was the most frustrated I felt with any part of the game. To tease it throughout the game and just not deliver? All of these issues I had with the game are small, and they didn’t really didn’t bother me overall, but this did. Maybe I was just being spoiled because I was used to having great Mass Effect DLC, I expected it, but they egged me on.

Why are all the creatures nearly the same? That just didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t really care but at the end of the day, there’s no reason for it.

H-047c was so cool I just wished there were more missions here.

I really wanted to be able to interact more with our twin. But that made me really surprised by the (spoileR!) fact that we get to play as them towards the end.

This is not really a big deal, but I thought fem!Ryder’s voice didn’t fit the character. But I never liked playing bro!Shep because I didn’t like Mark’s ME1 and ME2 performances, so it’s not really a big deal/worry. I like playing bro!Ryder and fem!Shep more anyway. (This is also why the facial animation issues weren’t a big deal, like I said earlier I didn’t have many issues with that playing as my bro!Ryder, and since I didn’t even really like playing as fem!Ryder bc of the VA, I didn’t have to deal with the issues much).

And now the characters because I have quite a bit to say on them too:

Peebee - First impression was not a great. I kept thinking she was a weird version of Liara. Still quirky and nerdy, but obnoxious rather than shy and awkward. That drew me to her in a way, but it was a long time before I was sure I’d romance her. Also her actual name is so pretty. Pelessaria. Pelly could have been a cuter nickname that doesn’t make me think of a PB&J sandwich...

Vetra was another character I considered romancing, but it seemed to not go anywhere, and by the time it could, I was already too invested in Peebee.

Cora imo was so bland, it really was not until almost the end that I started to actually like her a bit.

At first I was worried Drack was a Wrex copy, but they put a lot more effort with Drack than Cora. We don’t even really tap into his background as much as I wanted, but I loved what we did learn. He’s a great character, and more original than I thought he’d be.

Almost went gay for Jaal, but then realized that what I thought might lead to flirting, was just us being best homies. Which I was ok with, but I still thought I would almost rather have him than Peebee. But then they made him a romance option for bro!Ryder anyway but it was too late by then =‘( I have to replay the game again soon.

I’m really hoping they don’t can the series the way it is and do a whole new soft reboot. I like where this game is headed, they just need to deliver a more polished sequel. Who knows when that will be, but I’m hopeful we’ll see more of these characters and this new galaxy, which we only barely got into.

PS - I FOR GOT TO MEN TI ON. When they did that first major patch they fliRKd up the way you walk and move, and I was so mad because I had just started to do this side to side motion that was a funny dance and now I can’t do it anymore and I’ll be mad forever about it. I was having fUN with your JANKY MOVEMENT ANIMATIONS!! I hope they make it an option for me to disable just that “fix” bc its not a fix at aLL but probably won’t bc they’re so done w/ Andromeda lol.

#this is so long i spent too much time on this it could have been so much longer too lol. now i want to play it again.#idk if i have the time but i might have to just go for it bc i actually miss playing this game #thats how u kno i actually liked it and im not bullshitting.#idk all the criticism ppl made was stuff i didnt care about enough for it to make me dislike the game #im so tired so ignore my typos thanks.#mass effect #mass effect andromeda #me: a #im tagging this for myself so if you see this and youre like really this fool had to put his late ass opinions in the tags. yeah sorry w/e #me a

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