#( I want to say ' nothing wrong with the remastered games ' but ... 😭

[timestrained]

listen, no shade ... buuut ... 2015 Max Caulfield Supremacy

[ageless-aislynn]

As I'm drawing to a close on Mass Effect: Andromeda, I originally planned on going on straight into the Mass Effect Legendary Edition (comprising the remastered original trilogy of ME). But I'm finding myself inexplicably dragging my feet the closer that I get to that point.

Annnnnnnd it just tonight dawned on me why.

Big-time spoilers for the original Mass Effect trilogy and Andromeda beneath the cut.

In Andromeda, nothing you do will get your squadmates killed. I don't ever have to worry about them, no matter what choices I make. But in the original, I've been seeing that that is very much not the case. You can get multiple members or even your entire squad killed. You can apparently make choices in the first 2 games that you'll seriously regret carrying over into the third. I can't tell you how many times I've come across people saying something like, "Yeah, so that was so horrible in 3 that I had to go back and replay the first 2 games just to get a better outcome!"

Friends. That does not sound like fun to me. That sounds like stress. I do not need more stress in my life. And I'm just the sort of foolish sap who will be seriously bothered by getting my squadmates killed or by ending up with horrible consequences because I don't know what I'm doing. So I hear people saying things like, "You HAVE to play it through the first time as blind as possible and live with the consequences of your choices!" and I cannot tell you how absolutely horrible that sounds to me. 😭

So I either have to obsessively chart my way through 3 games so I don't get anybody killed who is savable (and I know there are some who aren't no matter what you do *is looking at Virmire right now, for starters* 😱) or every choice will be a horrible, stressful moment for me.

I know a lot of people complained that the consequences of your choices in Andromeda are too light or even non-existent. I can't tell you the utter relief I felt when I realized that most of my choices might color the dialogue of how people respond to me but, ultimately, they don't matter. Whatever's going to happen is usually going to happen anyway. And I like that a lot. I WANT low consequence choices. I don't want reality. Reality sucks, quite frankly. I want my squad all with me at the end, whether or not I'm lousy at magically knowing the right choice to make.

And hey, if you like it the other way, that your choices have true weight and consequence, I'm definitely not suggesting you're wrong. It's just not for me. At least, not right now.

So, I'm thinking of going with a different game next. I have a bunch in my Steam library now, so I may do some researching to see what might just give me some fun, non-stressful play. (Post showing my Steam library, if you have an recommendations. 😉)

I feel oddly guilty about putting the OT off, especially in light of how much I truly love Andromeda and how much I've been looking forward to playing the OT. But, mannnnn, I'm honestly struggling with stress, depression and anxiety a LOT in real life right now and I don't want to add to that.

Geez, I feel like such a total lightweight right now, though. 😕

Anyway, if you read all of that, thanks. 💖