#Note that this is also me talking Specifically about that brand of sidequests that are really just main quests to the left

[shiroselia]

Honestly actually, I've been rotating "Please assume the player Has done things rather than assuming they Haven't" now because I think that's the tldr of the tldr on the questchain I just finished, but really I think it can just be applied to SSO's writing as a whole

A Lot of problems with the quest writing would be, maybe not solved, but atleast made milder, if the writers stopped being so fucking scared of assuming their players play the game, assume your players Have done things, because your writing is taking some Major hits from you doing the opposite

And if that is such a problem anyways maybe we should make a tighter quest progression/unlock system instead of intentionally souping it all up without any structure so the writers don't have to play guessing games and walk on glass not to spoil their own game and also players can have a better and tighter gamplay experience

[rottenbrainstuff]

BG3 playthrough - big jump sideways

I’ve been sick all weekend with a big cold, so I’ve pretty much only been drinking hot liquids and playing BG3. For HOURS. Somehow, it feels like I’m still not that much farther into the main plot - I just feel like I’ve gotten farther sideways, and completed a million little sidequests that don’t really have to do with anything, though it’s all been super fun. In the spirit of completing a million little tangents, here’s a million random notes. (lots of little spoilers)

Hey I read a thing… I had always assumed, always always, and I think I’m not the only one that assumed, that the city shown in the beginning cinematic being attacked by the nautiloid was Baldur’s Gate. Apparently it’s not. Apparently it’s a different but nearby city called Yartar. I mean that does make more sense - the question always was, how did Astarion get taken by the nautiloid in the middle of the day, did the nautiloid break through the walls of Cazador’s palace? But then why would Cazador write in a journal that he didn’t know what happened to Astarion and he went missing during a hunt? So I guess that’s why. I don’t think it’s very clear that the city isn’t Baldur’s Gate.

So first and foremost: I finally got Minsc. I was fully expecting to just leave him permanently at my camp for the rest of the game like I’ve done with Jaheria and Halsin. Like sure, he’s funny, but I’m HALFWAY THROUGH ACT 3, I don’t have the time to get attached to a brand new companion! I couldn’t even connect with Halsin really, and I met him in act 1. Especially not a ranger, who, I dunno. Maybe I don’t play very good, but it just seems to me that for everything a ranger can do, I have a different companion that can already do it, but better.

But he was really funny, so funny, like, making me burst out loud laughing at every other line. I checked found out that if you respec him, he still keeps the ability to summon Boo, so I changed him to a barbarian (basically taking Karlach’s place… sorry Mama K) which I feel matches his character better anyways, and somehow, suddenly, he is now my second favourite companion, after Astarion. Did not see that coming. He’s hilarious, love him, love his dialogue, love Matt Mercer, love Boo, love how Boo launches himself straight into enemy’s faces.

He has funny things to say about all the other companions - he doesn’t like Gale because Gale uses words that are too fancy, and Tara scares Boo. He’s jealous of Halsin because Halsin beat him at arm wrestling. He has nice things to say about Wyll and Shadowheart and Karlach. (sadly Lae’zel is still kidnapped so he hasn’t met her yet) Oddly though - he has nothing to say about Astarion. He simply says, Boo told him not to gossip about people behind their backs, and he feels he should also be careful what he says to Astarion’s face. It’s a bit weird - he usually has nice cute dialogue with Astarion as we’re walking around. Oh well.

Every single thing Minsc has to say is hilarious, and I’m really glad I went through the giant pain in the ass of getting him. Out of all the companions I have, he’s the one that approves of the choices I make in my specific playstyle the most. Like, Astarion is still complaining whenever I give money to people (dude we literally have more money than the bank has in its vaults, we can give a little out), Wyll complains when I do sneaky things, Lae’zel complains when I talk my way out of fights, etc etc etc, but Minsc man, me and him are just vibing, he approves of all my choices.

I am also glad because in the last fight, I got to whack Roah Moonglow. I’ve had my eye on her ever since we had the nice casual chat about slave trade back in act 1: nice to finally have the chance to smack her down.

I found Ethel! I had actually *totally forgotten* where she appears in act 3, and I had no idea she had anything to do with the missing kid, so I was COMPLETELY SURPRISED by that reveal. Grisly started talking about Lorna NEVER having a daughter and I was like… what the fuck is going on here? I was just at her house, she has books and toys all over the place. Then she’s asking me to KILL Lorna. What? Is this… is this Orin??? Feels like something Orin would say??? And then her voice changed and it alllll snapped into place, all the bizarre things, all the mind altering, of fucking course it’s Ethel, of course. Best bad guy reveal, wow. Ethel is my favourite antagonist in this game, I just love how awful she is. I also like how Astarion might complain about me jumping in to help sometimes, but something about Ethel must really freak him out, because he ALWAYS gives approval when I throw down with her. After finally getting rid of Ethel in a VERY annoying fight, Mayrina finally decided to let her poor husband’s corpse rest, and I’m sure her and Kled will eventually have a very cute happily ever after. (why are the hobgoblins so cute in this game?)

Araj Oblodra isn’t here for me, because I didn’t give her my blood in act 2. I know Astarion has some really nice things to say in your defense, but back in act 2, my durge was worried that whatever was wrong with him could be transmitted or otherwise contained within his blood somehow, and he didn’t want to it give to some creepy drow lady from a house that my tav knows is sketchy, so he kept his blood to himself. So instead, her shop is closed by order of Lord Gortash due to safety violations, lol.

I found Jaheira’s house. Listening to everyone talking online, I had expected this to be a lot sadder, like, that her children had turned their backs on her and had no respect for her or something. Maybe I misunderstood, because that’s not what I saw here at all. Yes there was some conflict, but honestly I found it more… interesting than sad, because Jaheira’s oldest ward seems she’s like basically a copy of her. I left the house feeling good, not sad. Jaheira’s got a lovely family. And yes it seems like Jaheira made a big mistake in trying to protect them by pushing them away, but… like, that happens, people make mistakes, parents make mistakes, kids get mad, everyone forgave everyone in the end? It was fine. Cute. I wasn’t sure which was the best choice for them - to tell them to protect the refugees, or to tell them to help with healing. Shockingly, absolutely shockingly, there’s no good info online! Crazy I know. I told them to help refugees cause that’s been my tav’s whole thing ever since he stepped foot in the Emerald Grove, I hope that wasn’t a mistake. What I DID find online was a bunch of people bitching about the writing. Look guys, if you don’t like it, just go play Starfield or something and fuck off. A friend of mine kept joking that Bethesda doesn’t even hire writers anymore and I thought it was a joke, but apparently it’s not, they literally do not, and the people who code the quests get to write them.

Let’s see, what else. I found Dammon and his spicy book. I know it wasn’t just a random dev decision to put it there, because the actual book is in his room, and then a note interviewing the author of the book is in a different room of his house, so Dammon is a legit fan, haha. I found a VERY busy graveyard with no less than two fights and no less than two living things buried alive. I paid off the bank and the guy gave me a key to a vault I had already looted. Everything in the sewer is done I think? I found a note that explains why that sleeping tiefling is down there, which no one online mentioned when I was looking it up… does no one actually read the books and notes in this game?... anyways with this mysterious unwakeable tiefling, apparently he’s recently had family or loved ones die as they tried to travel to Baldur’s Gate, and he’s taken the last of his money and bought a schwack of sleeping potions to overdose on. Poor guy.

And I got rid of Mystic Carrion and now the zombie bros are hanging out in his house, I like it. I found Volo and had a fuck of a time figuring out how to save him, since the fire burns away the cart and makes everything explode, and even if you untie him he doesn’t seem to be able to run away in time, arrrrgh Volo.

Volo is at my camp now and had some surprisingly supportive comments to make about my dark urge. HOW did Volo know I’m a Bhaalspawn? I mean it’s not exactly a strict secret, I’ve told a couple people in town, but I’m not ADVERTISING it either. I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t a single dialogue choice to ask how he, of all fucking people on Faerun, who I haven’t even seen since he popped my eye out in act 1, managed to figure out that I am the other chosen Bhaalspawn.

Lastly, speaking of Bhaalspawn, I found and killed Sarevok. What a goddamned pain in the ass that was. I’ve never savescummed so hard before. Every choice I made was the wrong one. Took a lot of reloading to eventually figure out that I should kill the outside guards first cause it’s freaking impossible if they come in to fight with everyone all at once, then do NOT kill the three freaky ladies, instead immobilize that asshole so he can’t hit me and charge up his fucking shitty attack, and smack him with everything I’ve got until he dies, hopefully very soon. Man.

Bringing Minsc along to the fight adds some nice extra dialogue as Sarevok reacts to seeing him again. Bring Minsc AND Jaheria adds even more, but also makes him talk to YOU more about blood and bhaalspawns and whatnot. (but I didn’t bring Jaheira, because I don’t like her in fights, sorry Jaheira) Sarevok was creepy. How unnerving for my resisting tav. I kind of wish there had been more of a buildup to him though.

I found the office of the Society of Brilliance, where they tried once again to buy the gith egg off me. I want to say this again, because it makes me sad that our history classes appear to have failed a lot of people: wanting to take a child and “fix” its ���violent nature” by raising it outside the influence of its “brutal” culture was literally and specifically the stated goal of residential schools. Even if they said absolutely nothing about experimentation, their goal should be horrifying, and that’s why. Blurgg and Omeluum seem to be the only sane ones in this entire organization TBH. Blurg’s as nice as always but Omeluum is missing, more to do, oh boy, but that’s ok cause I had to go to the place he’s at anyways.

I had some thoughts about Astarion’s parents, because I see people discussing it / including family in their fics - I personally do not think he had family he was close to. Just in general I do not get that vibe from him at all. Karlach talks about her family, Wyll and Shadowheart we get to MEET their family, Gale talks about his mum, Lae’zel doesn’t have a traditional family but talks about her creche, and Astarion never mentions biological relations once, not once. He mentions his spawn siblings a lot, and it seems like they take the place in his thoughts where a biological family would have been. I feel like any bio relations must either be dead (and maybe the grave is part of a benefits package that came with his government job?) or else (my personal opinion) he did not have a good relationship with them, and was perhaps estranged when he died.

For as much as I got done this weekend, I still have so much more to do: the Steel Foundry, the House of Grief, the House of Hope, the stuff in the basement of Wyrm’s Rock, and the temple of Bhaal which looks like it’s going to be a gigantic pain in my ass, and while I was helping Volo I found a whole new freaking quest about checking out some dead waveservant, whatever the heck that is. I am loving this game, the only reason why I can be so picky is that it’s so good, it’s kept me busy since October and I adore it, I really really do. But, act 3, man. I do wish they had more time to finesse it. I can really see how this would have worked amazingly if Baldur’s Gate had been split into lower city and upper city areas, and removed half the quests and content in this area and spread them out over a second area. More room to breath. I’d like to have more fun exploring random areas, not feeling like every single step I take is unlocking some new thing for my journal. Or even just… tweak the quests so they have something to do with the main plot, so I don’t feel like I’m just doing random errands for ever random citizen.

Oh well! I don’t care. I’m having so much fun regardless.

[ganymedesclock]

how do you figure that the knight has a personality. from what i've seen, it's purpose is to stop the plague, and every action it takes is to further that goal. there aren't any sidequests that bring it to other, irrelevant things.

Anon pardon me for being rude but this just sounds a lot like you really weren’t paying any attention at all.

The first thing Ghost did was leave Hallownest entirely

They came back specifically because Hollow was dying. Numerous people speculate or imply about this and it is shown to us in the opening cinematic- Hollow screams, and then Ghost specifically returns to Hallownest. Given Ghost shows neither loyalty nor reverence to any figure of the Pale King, in any route, it is hard for me to believe this is their instruction.

Literally numerous characters explicitly discuss that Ghost is making independent decisions. Open the wiki and find a character page and read their dialogue. I challenge you to find basically any character in the entire game who has more than a single sentence of dialogue, that does not talk about Ghost making choices and having opinions. 

The soundtrack that plays during Hollow’s fight sharply changes tonally in response to Hollow stabbing themselves. No one else is observing Hollow. “We” as player do not have a presence that is acknowledged in the meta of the game. Ever. Ergo: These moments of sadness are emotions we are told that Ghost has.

The person who tells us that Ghost is empty was wrong about it explicitly and big time. Literally the entire reason Hollow didn’t work is because the Pale King was wrong about the vessels and his entire civilization ate shit because of it. In case you missed the charnel pit filled with dead children, or the fact that you basically find his dead body curled up in an empty throne room where you then have to smack it out of its chair and onto the floor in order to clear the area, PK is not a trustworthy source of information. He is factually observably incorrect about several things (see: the lore tablet in the Howling Cliffs that states there “is no world beyond” and implies sapience only exists within Hallownest’s bounds when half the cast casually talks about and is canonically shown via things like Quirrel’s prequel comic to have come to Hallownest from outside, and been sapient the whole time. PK HIMSELF came to Hallownest from the outside and was sapient. 

Also the specific thing you cite that would be counter-evidence to Ghost lacking a personality happens. like. all the time. Things that aren’t relevant to Ghost’s Assigned Objective:

Literally any ending except “Hollow Knight” which you can complete by ignoring everyone and running in a straight line to the goal. Even that ending requires Ghost to conduct independent synthesis of ideas to figure out how to complete this, which an entity that has a personality and thoughts does things. 

Any objective that requires the Kingsoul calls for you to wander what White Lady notes is a long way off the path and obtain objects you were never “supposed” to have when your path ahead to replace Hollow is clear.

Every aspect of the Delicate Flower quest

The Colosseum of Fools

The entirety of the Grimm Troupe DLC

The entirety of Hidden Dreams DLC

The entirety of Godmaster DLC

Sitting with Quirrel at the conclusion of his storyline

Sitting and listening to Marissa

Meditating with Mato, or seeking out the Nailmasters in the first place

Beating up Millibelle for robbing you

Accepting the Hunter’s Journal and completing it

Fighting Hornet a second time and acquiring the King’s Brand (which is used to defy an explicit order of the Pale King, that the Abyss is to be left sealed)

The grub sidequest

Pursuing any of the character storylines, such as Cloth, Bretta, Tiso, or Elderbug’s to its logical conclusion

This list is incomplete and could continue

It certainly looks like actually most of the game consists of actions that make no sense from the perspective of an empty creature who is completely apathetic, lacks a personality, and only obeys orders given to it by PK, and, after all, we are roleplaying the experience of being Ghost, considering never at any point does the game ever acknowledge the player as an entity or break the fourth wall. The closest it comes is the Shrine of Believers which is extremely esoteric to access.

It would also certainly seem I’m really mad about it, which I am: Anon, please consider that I am an autistic adult. Please consider that many people with autism, especially in childhood, can be:

Nonverbal

Prone to repetitive behavior or acting in a way that others describe as “robotic”

Lack what is considered “typical emoting” / could seem to be “blank-faced”

Basically, everything the vessels are. And autistic people are, you know, real actual human beings with thoughts and feelings. You know what people argue, all the time? That we aren’t. Especially young nonverbal kids.

Do you understand maybe why I am saltier than small oceans about this subject?

If so, I really hope you understand that while I cannot physically reach through the screen and stop you from believing this, broaching this attitude does cause me, as an autistic person, to trust you significantly less, especially since we are talking about a game that calls a huge amount of attention to the fact that all of the vessels suffered and were hurt by what was done to them. Broken Vessel reaches out to you when they fall. Hollow actively stabs themselves during their fight to prevent Radiance from using themselves to hurt you and comes back as a Shade to attack her in Dream No More.

To insist there’s not evidence of Ghost having a personality is to both insist, in arrogance, that all of the humanity of playing Hollow Knight is only brought by the player- when we are not a force that exists in this world- and to deny the fact that there is anything wrong with the Abyss. Which is clearly not the conclusion the game intended to present you with. There is a reason we feel something about the Abyss, and not about the workshop in the White Palace where bits of Kingsmould armor are stacked up. And even the Kingsmoulds, it’s made clear, have at least the capacity to grow and form opinions given the implications of The Collector.

[lily-of-the-eyrie]

🎓🔍 Scene Commentary: Colonel Edition ③

Notes for [SQ3-3] Circumstances [video here]. Come join me as we talk about more theories surrounding the Colonel’s manipulation skills, hints about his history before Shay met him, and Gist being charmingly sassy.

Highlights this time include: 　❗️The Colonel's Finances 　❗️Gist and the Colonel

Without further ado, here we go:

[SQ3-3] Circumstances

― Part I: Heading to Albany ― Shay, having retrieved the Morrigan, follows Gist's advice to set sail for Albany, where the Colonel's waiting.

　The Colonel himself isn't present while Shay and Gist are on the way to Albany, but on the flipside, we got this great opportunity to see these two gossiping about the man.

　Gist opens the scene pondering out loud what the Colonel might want them to do next. Now this bit is mildly amusing because he said "I wonder what he has in mind for us to do next"―did Gist just...slip up? Shay naturally went wdym-"us"-👀 at him over here, because he's pretty sure he hasn't signed up to be part of their team...

　Still, Gist doesn't even trip over his words as he follows up with how he's really just all giddy about doing his part in making the Colonel's ideals a reality. Aside from the impressive save he pulls here, another highlight of this section is that Gist frames "the Colonel's ideals" in extremely concrete terms: "secure borders, prosperous farms, fair trade". These are very specific large-scale implementations of the Freedom From Want theme compared to what we heard from the Colonel himself two chapters back, which was more on the philosophical/ideological side.

　Next up, the Morrigan docks at Albany, where the Colonel's waiting. I just have to say that it's incredibly cute of the Colonel to address Shay as "Captain Cormac" following Gist's example after seeing the Morrigan.

　The issue on the table for their meeting this time is the French forces' movements into British territory, which is likely to break out into a full fight between the two kingdoms' armies. Now watch how Shay wound up working with these two again despite the question of him agreeing to run for more of the Colonel's errands was left hanging at the beginning of this scene: the moment the Colonel mentions that "New York could burn" if they don't do anything about the French forces encroaching upon British territory, Shay throws his weight in with them.

　We've already established that Shay's the kind of person who cares about the little guy, so this isn't all that unnatural; especially now that he's a good friend of the Finnegans', not doing anything when New York's at risk is going to sound unreasonable to him.

　However, the audience isn't the only one who understands this―at this point, so does the Colonel. After what happened at the Greenwich gang HQ and Fort Arsenal, he knows for a fact that Shay isn't going to turn his back on a chance to save innocent people. Did he, then, strategically bait Shay by presenting the fact that New York is in terrible danger and joining him is the best way to save all those townspeople? Or was it just something he said because he's also the kind of guy who's concerned for the safety of New York etc., and by saying this he's also trying to communicate to Shay that their goals are aligned? The trick to this is that of course these two possibilities don't have to be mutually exclusive―I'd say the Colonel feels that he knows Shay well enough at this point that he'd want to both get Shay to help him out while also letting him pursue what seems to be his calling.

― Part II: Gathering Supplies ― Shay and Gist, having reunited with the Colonel, head to a nearby French outpost to gather supplies and thwart French expansion into the River Valley.

　In order to dislodge the invading French forces, Gist then suggests that they raid a nearby French outpost for supplies. The trio covers a range of interesting topics during their time sailing to that outpost, chief among which is Shay's skepticism towards the Colonel's intentions behind all his seemingly charitable actions. This is an important bit for two reasons:

(1) Despite all they've done together so far, Shay doesn't stop questioning Monro. He's cooperative with the Colonel, sure, but just because he kinda sorta trusts that he's not a bad guy right now, that doesn't mean he's going to do whatever he says until he gets to the bottom of why he does it.

(2) The Colonel, again, calmly faces off against Shay's doubt by being straight with what he wants: that the colonies become "a place of safety, development, and purpose". Now this is something literally every one of us recognizes as a Templar Line™, even if Shay might not (did he? Hmmm). In any case, the most important takeaway here is that it strongly links the Colonel's concern for the common man with core Templar tenets, giving us a clear look into his personal take on how the Order's beliefs were meant to be applied to the world. He's not part-timing “being a Templar” half the time and “being a benevolent authority figure” in the other half, those two things are one and the same for him.

　On a random note: I’m just gonna mention here that Gist being cheeky as hell with the Colonel's noble "money is only a means to an end" talk in this bit is hands down my favourite part of this scene.

❗️The Colonel's Finances

　On a more serious note, the Colonel's comment on how he's "not a rich man" did get me wondering about his financial situation... I mean, obviously he's not dirt poor, and while there's that idea that Templars tend to be loaded, he doesn't look like he's just rolling in gold, either.

　Realistically speaking, being a military officer in the early 18th century can be a rather pricey career―the pay's far from great, and with all the spending for supplies and equipments, it can be quite a while until even the officers could expect to turn a profit from their job (one exhaustive source about the economics of the 18th c. British Army I’ve read pegged it at around the time they get promoted to Captain). And while the Colonel did come from what you might call a respectable family, it’s more of a modest than aristocratic one.

　However, assuming he's a long-time player in the field of renovating cities, a.k.a. the sidequest that, in the long run, gives you way more money than you know what to do with in Rogue, I guess his finances are quite stable. Now the question is, how much of those renovating gains he put back into more renovating... 😂

― Part III: Taking Down the French Fort ― Having obtained their supplies, Shay & co. sail the upgraded Morrigan to the French fort and take it down.

　With the party ready to take on the French fort, we see the Colonel show a pacifist streak as he reins in Gist, who was being a little too excited about the prospect of throwing fists with the French. Really, these two have such amusing interactions.

　Next, he shows a strategic side as he agrees with Shay's suggestion about taking out the fort's commander to force the French to surrender; he may not be against pitching a battle when necessary, but he also seems to be a big fan of minimizing the overall casualties.

　One really paltry but personally highly interesting thing I picked up in this scene is how the Colonel, commenting on how the French soldiers in the fort would put on an aggressive defense under pressure, said they'd just "dig in like a wounded bear", which does sound like an uncommon expression... I mean, "like a wounded animal" is something anyone can say, but him specifying "bear" over there just makes it sound like he'd gone up against one himself before. Considering he’d likely not have met a bear before he got to the colonies (bears had been extinct a long time in Britain and Ireland), if he did have a bear encounter, it must’ve been after 1750... Did you get chased around by this fuzzy creature in the frontier's wilderness at some point before you settled down in New York, Colonel? 😂

❗️Gist and the Colonel

　Since the amount of interaction the Colonel has with Gist is second only to his interactions with Shay, analyzing how things are between these two can tell us quite a lot about the Colonel's personality.  

　First, it's obvious that these two are close friends―the kind of relaxed bantering they have on board the Morrigan sounds pretty much on par with what Shay's got going on with Liam, which isn't all that surprising considering Gist and the Colonel had known each other (and presumably worked together) for 6 years at this point.

　Still, while the Colonel may be the older and higher-ranking of the two (ie.-He is Gist’s senior in both the military sense and the Templar one), therefore putting a clear superior-subordinate dynamic at play here, you don't see the Colonel trying to roast his colleague for stepping out of line (which he clearly does all the time, judging by his behaviour in this chapter), and what he does when Gist gets a little too rowdy is to gently but firmly prod him back onto the proper path. Maybe it's just his brand of leadership, but he displays similar tendencies when dealing with Shay, who has his default setting set to "unruly" most of the time. He’s clearly skilled at handling people much more hot-blooded than himself, and has a good hang of how to be an authority figure while still standing on the ground with his subordinates instead of putting himself on some distant, overbearing pedestal—honestly, a pretty good way to end up with their respect and loyalty.

　Another highlight is Gist's adoration of the Colonel's ideals. Now I think we all know that the Colonel's utopian take on Templar ideals is one of his greatest charms, but what I'd want to bring up here is the fact that, if Shay followed the Colonel because he was inspired by the man's idea of making a better world, he wouldn't have been the first―Gist had been there before, citing how he used to wonder if he’s doing the right thing, but ��not since [he] met the Colonel” . I'm not saying that the Colonel's deliberately going out there to steal people's hearts with his brand of Templar beliefs, but judging from his success at inspiring Gist (and presumably Finnegan Jr.) into joining his fight, his winning Shay over to his side isn't a one-off thing.

[sevendeadlysinsguide-blog]

The Seven Deadly Sins Cheats

The Seven Deadly Sins Guide

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[justshepardthings]

My Review of Mass Effect Andromeda

Just because I know I’m going to be asked about it (and let’s be real: because I want to broadcast my opinions into the void) I wrote down my thoughts on Mass Effect Andromeda. This review is spoiler-free but I put it under a read more for length. I’m warning you: it’s long. I had a lot of thoughts.

Quick Version: 6.5/10. Strongest elements were characters, combat and on-planet exploration. Weakest were story, worldbuilding and visuals.

Story

The story is one of the weakest elements of the game. It had a lot of the same issues I saw in Dragon Age: Inquisition:

Generic, uninteresting villain

Odd pacing

Tonal yo-yo between the more serious story missions and lighthearted sidequests

Overall lack of urgency

Actual story itself felt hastily written

Promise of weight and gravitas, but no way to really “fail”

The story did pick up weight as it went along, but it doesn’t really hit its stride until near the end of the game, with the final mission being hands-down the best mission in the game. The overall tone felt very light and peppy. I saw a review that said that the original trilogy felt like something on par with Game of Thrones, whereas Andromeda feels more like a Young Adult novel. That’s not casting any judgment on the tone itself - just that the tone is a lot less “dark.” Considering Ryder is also a much younger character and how they interact with the world colors the story, overall it feels much more like a fun adventure story than anything more profound. I don’t think the story is going to stick with me the way that other Bioware games have.

For me, the loyalty missions were much more enjoyable than the actual story quests. They felt more weighty because the characters involved were more fleshed-out, and I cared much more about the crew than I did about Space-Corypheus. However, the way that loyalty missions were dolled out was really back-loaded. They all seem to update at the exact same time after a particular mission, so you end up doing all of them in a row. I felt like Liam was the only character whose missions were spread out throughout the game. I also would’ve liked more opportunities to fail, because it makes pulling the loyalty off more rewarding (like in Mass Effect 2, for example). I purposefully tried to “fail” some companion missions to see what would happen, but at the end of the day I still earned the characters’ loyalties and comparing them to the “successful” version there seemed to be little difference outside of a few passing lines of dialogue. But that being said, the loyalty missions themselves were a lot of fun and helped to further define the characters.

Characters

The characters were easily one of the best things about the game and motivated me to complete sidequests that I might not have otherwise. Each was unique in comparison to each other and in comparison to other Bioware companions. I’ve seen a lot of complaints that they felt rehashed but I have to disagree - I think the reason why they don’t stick out initially is because there are a lot less “strong personality” characters where you get a sense of who they are immediately after meeting them (for example characters like Jack, Samara, Javik from the original trilogy). It does take a few conversations to really dig into each squamate’s personality, but I consider that a good thing because it motivated me to seek them out and spend more time with them. I genuinely enjoyed interacting with all of them.

There were also a lot more interactions. Your squadmates talk to each other a lot more frequently, which helps to develop their characters and distract during otherwise mundane driving sequences in the Nomad. Characters also talk amongst themselves on the Tempest during downtimes. Some of the non-ship interactions were brought back for Andromeda as well - you can talk to each companion at each port for new dialogues, and a few scripted off-ship scenes a la the Citadel DLC. Each companion also had a few missions in addition to their main loyalty mission, so you really got to know each of them.

The only companion I felt disappointed by was SAM. After such great AI characters like Legion and EDI, SAM’s utter and complete lack of personality (outside of being a narrator) was a huge disappointment. Considering SAM is a major driving force throughout the game and is key to the story, that was an oversight.

It also should be noted the criticism of the M/M romance options - once again, they got the short end of the stick with only two romances (both humans, and one a considerably shorter romance). Bioware has released a statement that they’re aware of this criticism and will be addressing it, so it remains to be seen how they’ll handle it. I romanced PeeBee and found her romance emotionally satisfying - there were a lot more opportunities to interact with your love interest in Andromeda. However as per usual, this game has the trademark Bioware problem of 1-2 romances getting the bulk of the attention and cutscenes (in this case, the Cora romance has significantly more content than any other romance).

RPG Elements

It’s time to talk about Ryder. I can’t shake the overwhelming feeling like Ryder’s personality was pre-defined by the game. It doesn’t help that this game has easily one of the worst character creators (can we call it that? it’s really just a “preset recolor”) but the dialogue as well feels like I have little control over who Ryder is as a person. I like the new choices the game affords…in theory. In practice, you really only end up have 2 options for most of the game (either “casual/professional” or “emotional/logical”) and even when you do have all four options, the left side options are very similar while the right side options are also similar so it’s hard to distinguish what really sets them apart other than the specific sentence Ryder will say. 

It came across less like a personality choice and more like a response simulator - is your Ryder slightly sarcastic and awkward, but knows when to be serious or is your Ryder slightly sarcastic and awkward and makes jokes? This comes through in any dialogue where you don’t make the choice - Ryder’s overall tone is very playful and jokey, regardless of whatever options you chose throughout the game. I think this also funnels into Bioware’s general trend of moving their player characters more toward a specific direction - there is no option to be evil, or even an asshole in this game. I consider that a negative, because one of the defining features of an RPG is choosing who you want your character to be. In Andromeda, Ryder is much more of a set personality. I don’t dislike Ryder’s personality by any means, I just felt like I had no hand in it.

Ryder also had a reoccurring issue of brushing things off - something catastrophic would unfold right in front of them, with maybe one line of dialogue referencing it (if even that) and then the game moving on. It made story beats feel a lot less important and Ryder lack believability. The game exploited the fact that Ryder is a younger character by having them deliver dialogue that would be inappropriate or painfully awkward coming out of Shepard (but works for a young leader just trying to find their place). I would’ve liked to have seen their inexperience manifest in more character-driven moments of doubt or even failure. Ryder feels some doubt and uncertainty over their role (especially under Addison and Tann’s scrutiny) but this is quickly resolved in the game. One of the reasons why the end mission was so enjoyable was that it was the first time Ryder really fumbled and felt like someone inexperienced thrown to the wolves and trying to make the best of their situation.

Setting

Maybe just because I’m always desperate for a KOTOR 3, but a lot of the visuals in Andromeda reminded me of KOTOR, particularly the Tempest and the city-on-top-of-a-city Kadara. Voeld, Havarl and the asteroid were all an absolute blast to explore and really recaptured the spirit of awe that ME1’s exploration invoked. I also absolutely loved the visuals of the Remnant tech and vaults, there was a very Tron-meets-Blade-Runner theme that I was 100% here for. 

That being said, the other locations could’ve been more. I’ve read the Art of Mass Effect Andromeda and looking at some of the plans they had for the planets versus the end results is a huge downgrade. In my opinion Havarl, Voeld and the asteroid were the only planets that made me really excited and where I wanted to stop frequently and admire the scenery. Eos, Kadara and Elaaden aren’t badly-designed by any means, but they’re quite boring visually and honestly are really similar to each other. I’ll fully admit that I don’t know anything about game design, so I don’t know if it’s easier to build desert, mountainous worlds and that’s why that setting is so prevalent in Andromeda (and in Dragon Age: Inquisition), but it’s a wasted opportunity. Andromeda was their chance to really shake things up - we’re in an alien galaxy, you can “bend the rules” and make things more visually distinctive, they don’t need to be the same. 

I felt similarly when it came to the design of the Angara - I don’t think their design was horrible, but it definitely felt a little basic. It’s also shocking that in a brand new universe, we’re only introduced to two new alien races on top of losing many races from the original trilogy who don’t appear in this game. In a series with worldbuilding so strong, to see that fall flat is a huge waste.

This is all speculation on my part, but the worlds seemed to lack that clear vision that the original trilogy did. Playing those games, you knew that the creators knew that universe inside and out. I didn’t get that impression here. And because I’m the kind of person to notice, there were a considerable amount of lore inconsistencies from the trilogy and within this game. Some could’ve been fixed easily - like when you meet the Angara and they initially can’t understand you, but then miraculously can once you land on Aya (having SAM throw in a line about how he updated your translator would’ve solved that). Other lore details were more insignificant, but something I noticed as a long-time fan (like how the Genophage is seemingly brushed off, when we know from the original trilogy that it’s immune to gene therapy).

And because I have to, I’m going to briefly touch on the animations. I know it’s been beaten into the ground at this point, but it bears mentioning. I know that this was a new team, I know that this was a new engine for them and I know that the amount of characters they had to animate was colossal. But at the end of the day, this is a product like anything else. For a final product to ship with incomplete animation is unacceptable. I think the reaction online was over-the-top, but I absolutely think that EA and Bioware should be held accountable for releasing a game with that many wide-spread animation issues.

Gameplay (Combat & Crafting)

Overall, I thought it was a fun game to play. The combat is a lot more fluid than the original trilogy for sure, and because of that I enjoyed the combat a lot more. The option to shake up your abilities keeps the game from feeling static and lets you really find your perfect combination of moves. The jetpack really came in handy for combat, and I liked being able to choose if you wanted to be a more stealthy fighter or run into the thick of it. I was also ecstatic to see that the overheating mechanic was brought back for some weapons. However, I would’ve liked to have had more than 3 abilities at a time, and I really wish that you were able to control your squadmates’ powers. The game lets you pull off combo moves which is an incredible new feature - but there’s really no way to plan them, you just have to use your abilities at the exact same time your squadmate does so it ends up being completely random.

Crafting definitely could’ve been more streamlined. The game throws you into the crafting screen with little explanation, and the added step of having to use research points on top of finding schematics and gathering materials felt like another burden. It’s also such a wasted opportunity that you couldn’t craft for your companions. I was literally swimming in gear and materials throughout most of the game, and I didn’t need to upgrade my Ryder’s weapons and armor nearly enough to use them.

Gameplay (Exploration)

First off, the way the sidequests were handled was a huge step up from Dragon Age: Inquisition. I never felt like I had to do sidequests in Andromeda, instead, I felt like I wanted to do them to learn more about the world. They were also organized much better in the menu by being broken out by mission vs. task, and even further into whatever planet (or character) they pertained to. It made it easy to tell what sidequests were more story-related. The sidequests themselves were varied and I felt rewarded for doing them with additional cutscenes, dialogues and the occasional choice. Discovering sidequests while settling planets really helped hammer home the theme of exploration. That being said, the constant running back and forth across the galaxy was annoying (especially with those unskippable traveling cutscenes). At times it was obvious padding to make the game length longer. They also suffered from the common video game problem of distracting from the main plot and feeling more like random tasks than coherent missions important to the story.

Unfortunately, there were also a few features and glitches that made exploration tedious. SAM constantly repeating the same lines nearly drove me out of my mind. I also personally loathed the scanner, I dreaded any mission that required it (which unfortunately ended up being many of them) and the sudoku Remnant puzzles felt like an afterthought. I kept encountering a glitch while driving the Tempest where the game would freeze for 1-3 seconds, then suddenly speed up. That made traveling a headache. I also encountered a few other glitches that impeded finishing missions, and I know from reading responses online that there were quite a few major sidequests that are bugged.

Overall

Andromeda is a game of almosts. Each element is almost solid, but lacking something that drives it home. While not a bad game by any stretch, it’s also not one of my favorites. 

[nazih-fares]

Five years after the final controversial Mass Effect 3 episode, Bioware’s Sci-Fi RPG is aiming for a comeback and its first launch on the latest console generation. A brand new galaxy to visit, with revamped mechanics and new narrative system, the franchise gets a new look with Mass Effect Andromeda and tries to do what most “reboots” do in the industry: to not disappoint its fan base while attracting newcomers to the series. The question here is simple: is it a success?

Before we start, it is necessary to give you a bit of narrative context of Mass Effect Andromeda especially for those that didn’t play the original trilogy. The singularity of the adventure experienced by each player during the first three Mass Effect forces Bioware here to find a way out of the trilogy, without having to decide among a string of choices and possible options like it did in Dragon Age Inquisition. Instead, Bioware created the concept of the Initiative, an organization with a single goal to provide a new home for humanity and its allied Milky Way Alien species (Asari, Krogan, Turian, Salarian), by colonizing potential “golden” planets in Andromeda galaxy. Thus began a 600-year journey thanks to Cryogenic sleep, where each major Milky Way race was put in stasis throughout the long journey, before reaching Andromeda. This is how your adventure begins, in the skin of a newly awoken human colonist (Ryder will be your family name, whether you choose the default male/female names, or edit your own), which you can, like all other Mass Effect, design from scratch at the start of the game.

Mass Effect Andromeda is probably the franchise entry with less oomph than the iconic adventures of Commander Shepard, which you can feel directly within the early hours of playing the game. Slow-paced and unattractive, they put us in command of a group of characters that have the heavy burden of arriving after the brilliant team that was in the original Mass Effect trilogy. Thankfully after a few hours, the first story trigger reminds us to recall memorable moments of the Mass Effect saga, and soon discover that Mass Effect Andromeda is also a more joyful Mass Effect game, pitting us against new enemies, with uncharted territories and unknown Alien races to discover, that ends on well-paced and convincing final chapters, but leaves us with many questions unanswered. Is that a sign that Mass Effect Andromeda is laying the stones of a new trilogy or multiple-episodic adventure? Probably, and I highly doubt it won’t. In any case, without spoiling the story for any of you, Mass Effect Andromeda is a game that starts slow, but ends up having a proper pace within couple of hours, reminding us why we love the series, and will take you anything between 20 to up to 60 hours if you take the time to carry out all the side missions and tasks (estimated based on my current playthrough).

Mass Effect Andromeda’s success is all thanks to its universe and lore which is still as captivating and interesting as it was in the original trilogy. The iconic elements that made the series are reused again so as not to disturb the fans, and so the Nexus acts as a new Citadel, the Tempest replaces the Normandy ship and even the Mako Land Rover from the first Mass Effect returns in a new design and name as the Nomad. The overall structure of Mass Effect Andromeda meets the typical specification of the saga, which will make you chain long dialogues with multiple choice, exploration of planets, lots of return to the Nexus but also events and relationship building on the Tempest. Like Mass Effect 2, and in contrast to the third episode that is more stingy on this point, Mass Effect Andromeda decided to make us live more events that deepens the relationship between the characters on the ship, whether it is through sidequests (which are sometimes fun and refreshing) or simple exchange of dialogues between Ryder and the other crew members. The result is very convincing and even compensate in part the lack of charisma of most new characters, especially for those that got used to Garrus, Liara and others from the original trilogy.

Mass Effect Andromeda like every previous title offers a great load of missions and quests to do. If Bioware has not skimmed on quantity, it must be recognized that the quality of the latter varies greatly. You should know that a lot of effort was put into the writing and the overall narration of these missions, which avoids at any time to see you inherit a task without knowing the reason behind it. Similarly, a handful of lighter and shorter quests help you “chill” a bit between major chapters of the story, bring a bit of freshness to the whole ensemble, while others, more copious, can have an impact – although often minimal – on your main story mission. But like previous Mass Effect game, there’s still so many fetch and deliver sidequests, and an abuse of the scanner ability in missions, even if it has further usefulness which I’ll talk about more later on.

The more interesting missions are generally those at the core of the narrative axes of colonizable planets, which percentage of viability makes it possible to evaluate your influence on them. To boost this viability number, you will have to venture on the surface of these semi-open worlds with the Nomad. The latter can be improved throughout the game to facilitate your navigation and has two configurations, depending on whether you are looking to climb steep trails or to speed through clear terrain. On that note, the planets are less generic than the large empty areas of the first Mass Effect, and Andromeda playgrounds are more carefully designed, playing effectively between large deserted areas and dense populated areas for missions and enemies, as well even the game’s version of dungeons which are called Vaults. In the end, there’s so much to do on each of the five planets that can be colonized in the Andromeda galaxy, done by clearing important missions, field analysis, exploration of vaults, clean-up areas from hazardous environments, optimize local outposts, and more to reach a 100% viability level.

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While the roleplaying part of the Mass Effect series was gradually toned down in favor of a more pronounced action-based gameplay, you’ll be happy to know that Mass Effect Andromeda actually puts its RPG core first, while dusting off the rest to make it a more dynamic gameplay. The difference is as noticeable in combat as it is during your travels, as our main character now has a jetpack sort of booster, which helps him take longer jumps but also can be used in fights as a way to strafe away from danger. These new gameplay elements singularly changes the fights which are more exciting and dynamic, yet still requires you to smartly use cover like the previous games. The new automatic cover system struggled to convince me initially, but was finally much more enjoyable over time as I got used to it.

When it comes to combat tools, all major weapons and powers of the series are back in the game, but the latter have been revamped to offer more variety of playing style. Level progression is once again done thanks to a skill tree, where you spend points in each talent branch, as extensive as the original Mass Effect. On top of that, Bioware decided to add even more depth, with something called profiles, which are activated and upgraded depending on how you distribute your skill points on the talent tree, and activate some extra bonuses, rather than forcing you to pick one distinct class at the start of the game and end up stuck with it until the end. These profiles are very similar to the classes for the original trilogy, and range from Soldier, Engineer, Adept, Sentinel, Vanguard to Infiltrator, plus a new jack of all trades profile called Explorer. Each profile (which can be switched instantly even during combat) has its weaknesses and positive traits, which can be either extra weapon damage percentage if you’re using the Soldier profile, or even turn temporary invisible when dodging properly as an Infiltrator profile. On top of weapons, armor and improvements that can be equipped, the scanner now makes it possible to analyze different elements of the environment, whether it is fauna, flora, enemies, machinery, or anything else and accumulate research points to initiate technology research. Finally, it will be necessary to use minerals recovered via probes or mining systems, direct extraction on planets or from merchants against a few credits to create these newly designed or researched weapons, armors, and mods before equipping them on your character.

Sadly, the interface has some questionable ergonomics on that front, but the research and development system is easily tamed after a few hours and proves invaluable to improve your equipment, especially if you intend to complete the title on higher difficulties. Despite its problems of ergonomics, the entire interface is not as unpleasant as you would expect from a Bioware RPG, and can be handled at ease on the long run. Other options add to the title’s RPG elements, such as the management of strike teams that you can send on missions to gain additional resources, which reminds me a bit of the Assassin’s Creed III’s contract missions. These missions can be directly played via the multiplayer mode, which makes its return by using the basis of Mass Effect 3, or can be dealt with by the AI on its own with a real-life timer. On top of all that, the final RPG elements is in terms of the Nexus itself, which gains levels by colonizing planets, and allows you to unlock different military, commercial or scientific bonuses.

By abandoning its guided system ranging from the pragmatic character to the model of virtue that is the Paragon, Mass Effect Andromeda gets rid of a Manichaean system in favor of a new model of personality building according to your preferences. This system certainly suits the style of our character in this opus, but it is a bit disappointing when it comes to the consequences of our choices, which are more difficult to perceive, often masked by tricks and illusions of change. For example, one of our first core mission objectives allows us to choose between two different “path” for your colony outpost, which is either focus on a military or scientific objectives. This will then activate secondary quests, but there’s not really any major differences depending on your choice, except very basic dialogue lines. Sure, while the previous Mass Effect played an illusory part in this type of decision, the trilogy still offered a better balance between your choices and its real consequences on the game, your character and his crew. Wish it was the case, but in Mass Effect Andromeda, even choices that have a real influence on your team are rare, and I have a feeling that these consequences will only be visible in the longer term, in an upcoming and probable sequel.

Now that we’ve talked about most elements of the game, it’s time to discuss the biggest let-down of Mass Effect Andromeda which is on the technical front. Even within weeks of its launch, and after a bunch of updates, there’s so many collision, frame drop and even game crashing issues, without pointing out at facial animations that are very low standards in comparison to the previous Mass Effect games. Understandable in semi open-world planets where a lot of elements are loaded, but there’s even a lack of fluidity in enclosed areas (like the Nexus or your ship), which overall is unworthy of an AAA production. Strangely, none of these defects alone makes the game unplayable, but their number and regularity can annoy and break the immersion, and it’s the console users that suffer the most, especially on Xbox One. During the time I played, I sadly experienced a lot of these issues on my Xbox One (learned it’s the same as well on other consoles), and while even the progressive resolution system aims to reach an optimal frame rate cap of 30FPS, the game engine (which is Frostbite now instead of Unreal Engine) has difficulties to render in some instances, which are countered by an adaptive v-sync, which results in screen tears.

On PC, the performance is obviously dependent of your resources, and our testing machine is high-powered 8GB NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1070 fitted on a 4th Generation Intel i7 4790 3.6Ghz CPU and topped with 16GB of RAM. For those of you that like to tinker with the settings and get the dials just right, Mass Effect Andromeda has you covered. The game handles ultrawide resolutions just fine, although the loading screens looked kind of strange. There’s also an FOV slider (a veritable must-have for PC gamers), although I was fine with the default setting.

In terms of graphics settings, the game offers four standard settings: low, medium, high, and ultra. Of course, if you want to change any of the specific settings within a preset, you’ll end up in ‘Custom’. ‘Ultra’ doesn’t actually max out the settings completely, as HBAO isn’t set as high as it’ll go. It goes without saying that you’ll need beefier hardware to hit those higher benchmarks. Once you scale your settings down, the game will automatically switch down your resolution, so be sure to disable resolution scaling if you want to keep higher resolution but switch out some settings.

The game’s higher resolution settings will need reasonably demanding hardware, as our GTX 1070 just barely managed 1440p, with some noticeable drops here and there. At 1080 FHD it managed remarkably, and I only recall a few fps drops throughout the game. In terms of visuals, FaceGate notwithstanding, the game manages to look incredible even on medium settings. The shadows, the AA, the textures – this is truly a masterpiece for the eyes. Just don’t focus on the actual eyes.

Even with all these technical issues, I cannot deny the fact that Mass Effect Andromeda is gorgeous in terms of artistic direction. Each planet, open zones, vaults and even the Nexus are gorgeously painted, and if you are lucky enough to have an HDR-compatible TV, do not hesitate to activate the option on your Xbox One S or PlayStation 4 Pro consoles to get that little pushed contrast that really pops the colors. In terms of sound effect and soundtracks, Bioware worked with John Paesano, better known for his recent work on Marvel’s Daredevil Netflix Original series. His compositions are in line with what was proposed in the original trilogy, perfectly accompanying the action, despite a less important presence of significant themes, and heavily influenced with the original Mass Effect with a nice blend of “space synth” and traditional orchestral work.

Mass Effect Andromeda was reviewed using an Xbox One digital code of the game purchased by the reviewer as well as a PC version of the game provided by EA Middle East. The main review was done on Xbox One by Nazih Fares while the PC version was tested by Mazen Abdallah on a PC running Windows 10, with an 8GB NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1070 fitted on a 4th Generation Intel i7 4790 3.6Ghz CPU and topped with 16GB of RAM. The game is also available on PlayStation 4 in both digital and retail stores. We don’t discuss review scores with publishers or developers prior to the review being published.

Mass Effect Andromeda is neither a bad entry to the series, nor a title capable of reaching to the heights of the original trilogy. Five years after the final controversial Mass Effect 3 episode, Bioware's Sci-Fi RPG is aiming for a comeback and its first launch on the latest console generation.