conprado

[cara-mel5]

i need other motorsports explained to me in f1 terms

[paulhway]

My Mass Effect: Andromeda thoughts...review thing... kinda.

Finished it last night, maybe 90 hours. More if you use Multiplayer.

Expect minor ... S P O I L E R S ...

To start, character customization is garbage. This isnt anything new, I cant remember a Bioware game where I was happy with it. From the limited "cryo chic" hairstyles, to the surprisingly unfriendly facial morphs, finding a face you're OK with is challenging and takes far more time than it should. While I wholeheartedly applaud the racial variations available, everything else is sub par, at best. For a game where 75% of the game is your character taking and emoting right in front of you, this is still too glaring a mistake to overlook. You need to do better, Bioware, this is terrible (I think I said this abount DA:I too).

The Tempest is awesome. Love it. Want more.

Scene: I am talking with Jaal about something sad, and suddenly his leg starts spasming like crazy and never stops. Scene: Sitting lovingly w/ Peebee, and her hand is clipping inside her stomach, and the cup Lexi was drinking floating 2 feet from her actual mouth. Scene: Talking to Drack, when his Drack clone walks by in the cut scene (He doesnt have those, btw). Scene: Talking to the Moshea, cutting back to me and you can only see the top of my head. Yeah, far more of that than there should have been. I don't even know what this IS, but it happened. A. Lot.

While on the surface some of the characters can seem kind of bland, once you get to know them, almost all of them are wonderful. Even the people I didn't like, I liked. ;) Yes, even Tann.

Startships in cut scenes are good, and mostly in game they are too (Love the Tempest!). The exception to this is "mob drops". On most worlds, enemy outposts are supplied w/ "mobs" via dropships, which are completely broken. They fly in @ mach whatever through mountains, the ground and other physical impediments JUST to get in your way. Then they launch into the stratosphere as if "my people need me" is still a thing. I had more than one fly right through me just to get to it's drop.

Vetra goes from Tony Curtis in Operation Petticoat to protective Older Sister instantly, and never looks back. Her sister Sid is more Vetra than Vetra is. While I love Vetra, I REALLY wanted her to be more proactive in her "supply officer" role. But outside of some small character things here and there, it never happens (did not romance her). As a character, she is better than this.

Facial animations for humanoid are, almost across the board, terrible and poorly done. They all suffer from "Botox Face". Addison has the emotional range of a flea, Cora and the Asari are always happy about SOMETHING, not matter how horrid the scene is, and default Sara Ryder looks like a victim of the Jokers laughing-gas bombs. Sara's emotions are almost non existent, visually (her voice conveys far more emotion that her face ever does). I CANT count the amount of times I was removed from a scene because the facial animations didn't fit the scene OR voice. I CAN count on my hands the variance of emotions Sara had in cut scenes, and even fewer that worked (wry smile, semi-angry, cute smile)

Drack is the best ever at everything. He was never not in my landing party (save for certain quest obj), and his personal story is the strongest (and most fun/touching).

While Liam needed more development time to become an interesting character (dug the Movie Buff aspect), I really loved the whole loyalty story side of him (fighting pirates, Star Wars references) and wished THAT Liam was more present in the regular story.

OK, I need to get THIS off my chest. Peebee loyalty story. I HAVE BIOTICS! I CAN THROW PEOPLE! I CAN CATCH GRENADES! How the FUCK can I not grab the Remnant thingie while Peebee saves the ex? HOW?!?

Love the Raptor, and the Angara are a cool new addition to the ME universe (while feeling kinda Geth-y @ the end). Jaal is amazing.

Ok, when you're invited to the party on Kadara, get wasted. Best scene in the entire game.

Reyes. I saw his con the second I met him, but the game wouldn't let Sara. I tried to "romance" long-con him the same way he was me. I needed the James Bond style "We are romancing each other, but totally gonna kill each other" choice here. Sara is NOT this dumb, people.

Andromeda felt like "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". Using the formula of the first game/movie and restart the series. It was OK, but once you saw it, some of the magic died. Mass Effect can do better than that.

I could see the Archon's end game before he did. Seriously. How do I NOT have the option to counter this? It kind of started to ruin the story.

You fight the Archon's fight 4 times before you finally fight him. The Architects. The first time, "OK! Fun!". Second time, "Oo, something different? Oh. No?". Third time, "Fuck you!", fourth time, "Another mob...", final time "Really?". Just... shitty.

Archon was a shitty villain. He had no weight behind him. Bland as bland could be. The IDEA of what he was and represented was stronger than anything he actually brought to the game/story.

Backtracking sucks. I cant tell you how often I had to go back to the planet I was just at because "reasons". And being unable to skip certain cut scenes (Landing) or just directly land on the planet (ala Eos) makes it even more annoying. I literally alt tabbed out the second I clicked on a planet knowing I could surf the net and not miss of affect anything in game.

Cora had a nice story. She found herself in being able to help the new Asari Pathfinder, and it worked real well. I loved that and wish we had seen more of it.

Bioware in in danger of becoming the next Ubisoft. Ubisoft games are marked by the "Climb the tower" mechanic, and now Bioware games have that same mechanic. If you played Dragon Age Inquisition, Andromeda feels almost the SAME. I neither want, nor need this. Once you SEE the mechanic, it's ALL you see. Story first, guy, come on. You used to know this.

Having finished it, I am glad I played it. ME:A is a good game, a 3 out of 5. But because it's a Mass Effect game, I expected more. It’s only been a day, but I miss the world, I miss the characters, I miss my Pathfinder.

If you're an ME fan, you're already playing it. If not, it's a very average RPG. If you're looking for one, try it out. I wouldn't pay full price, though. Wait for a sale. Anything around 40$ and I'd be happy w/ what I got.