#it’s the same issue from Mass Effect. you want to battle a Reaper… but there’s no logical way you can win

[darthluffy]

A little over a week until we get to fight one of these. An enemy so large it doesn’t even fit on screen. Whose tendrils stretch out for miles, through solid rock, metal, and whatever humans got in it’s way. I can’t wait

[pip-n-flinx]

yup, it all goes below the cut

So I’ve been seeing a resurgence of ME content following the trailers for ME4 and MELE, which makes sense. But I’m a salty m-fer and I honestly am sick and tired of Mass Effect getting shit on for things that other game studies (looking at you fromsoftware) get praised for. So we’re going to unload a little.

The underpinnings of the mass effect universe is this huge extinction cycle, designed and perpetuated by the Reapers. As sufficiently advanced civilizations reach a tipping point, not unlike the great filter theory of space travel, these AI come in and wipe anyone out. This sort of cyclical storytelling, with pieces of the previous cycles being dribbled in throughout the trilogy, seems pretty similar to progression of Dark Souls. At the end of the Mass Effect Trilogy, many fans were upset by the ending choices: Destroy, Control, and Synthesis.

What are your choices in Dark Souls? At the end of the first game, the cycle ends and you, the player, get to choose how the world enters the next era. Does they cycle of undeath continue, or do you shatter the world and hope something new rises from the ashes?

How, pray tell, is that really any different a decision? And why is it when fromsoftware does this its groundbreaking storytelling, but when bioware does it we decide collectively its ‘just a shitty recolor of the same ending?’

I agree, there are some flaws in how they chose to animate the climactic moments of ME3. For one, the fleet assembly and space combat with the reapers above Earth doesn’t change much no matter how many/which allies you bring to the final fight. And of course, the ‘garbage recolor’ ending. And I agree with the premise that more than the color should have changed. We should not have had to wait for the still flawed Extended Cut ending to be released to see how Shepard’s final choice changes the end of the game.

We can also comment on what the crucible actually does. If it is some incredible power-source in need of direction - the citadel - it is a strange choice of weapon to design for your battle against the reapers. We could speculate endlessly on why the writing team chose this, but the real issue here is that there is very little in game context for how this comes about. We get a few lines from Hackett and Liara explaining the Crucible, but that’s about it. Surely there could have been more discoverable codex entries about it, perhaps on Eden Prime with Javik?

To be clear, I don’t actually have a problem with the end of the Trilogy. Sure, it has its plot holes, but I’m not actually too fussed about it. It felt like a fitting end to the series to me. Graphically a little disappointing, to be fair, but otherwise a fine capstone to the story.

I’ve actually read some comments and posts explaining that they ‘won’t buy the legendary edition because they won’t fix the ending’ and I.... Do you even know what a remaster is? I’m not buying the remaster because I think many of the new lighting choices detract from the story, and a reskin won’t ensure the graphics stand the test of time any better than the old ones. I’m perfectly happy replaying the original trilogy without a fancy graphics package that adds nothing to the artistic vision nor sets out any distinctive art style. A few years will see even these HD 4k graphics obsolete/dated, and I’ve spent enough money on Mass Effect as it is.

Moreover, I really hate what speculation and rumor I’ve heard about Mass Effect 4. First, I hate that it will be a ME4 and not an MEA2. This will take some explaining so bear with me.

I’ve seen videos of the original graphics and animations that caught so much flak for Mass Effect Andromea. Unpopular opinion: I don’t think they were bad, and I certainly don’t think they were bad in the context of Mass Effect. None of the games prior had flawless rotoscoping or anchoring. Even watching stock sheploo in the original trilogy is painful if you’re hoping for realism. If y’all want to play this game we can start sharing clips but suffice to say I’m personally convinced we can go tit-for-tat on awkward animations.

Moreover, I think Mass Effect Andromeda is the best Mass Effect game. Best gameplay, by far. It has all the hallmarks of a great sci-fi: new aliens, new planets, new villains. And while I understand some people felt the switch from overcompetent supersoldier Shepard to young-kid-with-daddy-issues-and-more-than-a-few-bad-bosses Ryder was jarring, I absolutely loved playing a plucky hero who lost their mentor before they’d even properly started training. It gave the game an urgency I loved, and to me Ryder felt like a much more relatable protagonist than Shepard.

The story itself is a fucking masterstroke. Hear me out:

So in Mass Effect, the twin plot drivers are infighting with council/alliance/cerberus ‘allies’ while facing down the threat of and advanced AI wiping out all organic life to preserve diversity and make way for the next ascendant race. In Andromeda, we’re met by the same bickering and infighting amongst our own faction, and the Kett. The Kett, for whom nothing is cyclical. Everyone must assimilate. Who shun technology and seek to eliminate biodiversity by ensuring all civilizations end with Kett. And instead of a well trained military commander and a ship of soldiers, mercenaries, and specialists in the sciences who grow to be respected players on the galactic stage, we get Ryder. Ryder and their crew of misfit nostalgia-driven rock-licking rule-breaking cereal-smuggling culture-vulture heart-broken multiple-amputee nervous-doctor neophiles who meet one alien and have to save all their races from genocide by a rogue Kett Archon. And the Jaardan? the long gone artificial life-forms who had the technological capability to be reaper analogs? They’re the life-givers, the gods of the Andromeda galaxy, seeding species and hope into the galaxy for the player to find.

It’s such a perfect inversion of the original trilogy while still preserving the genre and the universe they had already built. It’s fucking brilliant. And I’ll never forgive them for abandoning it, nor will I forgive the fans whose vitriol stopped the project in its tracks, and killed any hope of a second trilogy.

Honestly, I don’t care if you agree about MEA, or the ME3 ending. I know this isn’t a common take among bioware fans. I just... I’m so fucking done with this franchise and this fandom. I’d like to think my mutuals and the other blogs I follow have level headed positions on this stuff (possibly more level headed than my own salty takes these days) but I honestly wonder why I’m even on this platform some days. It doesn’t spark much joy anymore. I hope no one takes this personally, I certainly don’t mean this as an attack or criticism of any of my followers but damn, I’ve got a lot of feelings tonight and almost all of them are negative...

[ghostxofxartemis]

Summary: When's the best or worst time to bring your boyfriend home to introduce to your Spectre Father Commander Shepard? Prom Night!

Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy

Relationships: John Shepard/Ashley Williams, Alexandra Shepard/Jason Argyle

Rating: General Audience 

Also available on AO3.

Grissom Academy’s docks were currently occupied by many shuttles, small ships for those who could afford them or who were government employees. But there was one ship - no frigate , that stood out from the rest; Normandy SR-2.

The parents’ of the students were currently walking back to their shuttles or ships, while the graduate students gathered in the Atrium, graduation ceremony having just ended, chatting up with their friends before they went back to either their room or their parents ship to get ready for their Prom Night. Tomorrow, they’d all be leaving to go home.

Jason Argyle currently held Alexandra Shepard in a tight embrace and kissed the crown of her head. He had grown up to be quite tall, almost as tall as her father, standing at 6”1. Alex was just an inch taller than her mother, standing at 5”10. “You know, actually seeing your father in person for the first time. I’m slightly terrified of going to ask him about “officially” taking you out.” He sighed. They’d been best friends since Alex arrived at Grissom Academy at the age of thirteen, and eventually they admitted their feelings for each other and had moved on to the next stage of their relationship about six months ago. Of course, they had gone out with other people in their grades, but those relationships had never lasted long.

Alex buried her head against his chest and laughed. You have no idea how terrifying he can be when you get on his bad side. But only if you get on his bad side. “Your mother is just as intimidated. I mean...C’mon! Your parents are the first and second human spectres and your father is the Savior of the fucking Galaxy! How can one not be intimidated by him?!”

“You’ll be fine, you may have a sniper pointed at your head. But as long as you don’t say something witty right away, you should come out alive,” she retorted.

“Really, that’s not helping! Thanks, Alex.” She could picture him scowling at her, which made her laugh even more. She tilted her head to look up at him, lifted herself on her toes slightly to kiss his chin.

Jason, although a couple years older than Alex, was in the same grade. It wasn’t that he was held back a few years, he had been almost a year old during the Reaper war, and that meant he hadn’t been able to start school until a couple years later than usual. Just like some other students in her grade.

“Alex! There you are!”

Alex pulled away from Jason and looked at the direction she heard the familiar voice come from and scanned the faces. She didn’t have to scan too long as her good friend Lauren Hernandez, another one of the biotics at Grissom Academy, ran up to her and hugged her tightly. “You better get going, people are talking and gawking at your father’s ship. If you don’t want the attention, I’d go now,” she let Alex go. Lauren knew just how much Alex hated the attention that came with being the daughter of the Savior of the Galaxy. She punched Jason on his bicep “good luck later, buddy” before walking off in the directions of the dorm rooms. She looked back over her shoulder quickly, noticing they were watching her go, she waved, “I’ll see you guys later!”

“Well, if i’m going to look presentable when I face your father, I, also, better get going and get ready,” he kissed the bridge of her nose, “I’ll pick you up later in the Normandy, I guess,” he sighed, “someone shoot me now and get it over and done with.”

Alex made a show of scowling at him, “alright, see you later” turned on her heels and walked in the direction of the security to make her way back to her father’s ship.

                                                             ~n~

John, still in his black suit and tie, was sitting at one of the tables down in the crew mess. Garrus was leaning against the counters and told John he’d be right here behind Shepard making a show of ‘working’ on his Viper so that they could intimidate the boy together. John was currently facing Garrus but not directly looking at him, elbows on the table as he leaned slightly backwards.

“Now, Shepard. Just how bad are you planning on scaring the kid?”

“Just enough to know what I’ll do to him if he ever lays a hand on her and I catch him. Remember, I taught Alex how to defend herself, but it doesn’t mean I’m just going to let any hormone crazed boy date my daughter,” John shifted his glance to meet Garrus’ now. Last thing John needed was his daughter dating someone like how he used to be before he met Ashley. He remembered all too well how climbing up the ranks of the 10th Street Reds granted him any women he wanted and sometimes even two at the time. Those days were long gone now, there was only one woman who held his heart now, only one woman he wanted to please.

“Oh, I haven’t forgotten you taught her. Still can’t believe she managed to take you down like that,” Garrus laughed, remembering Alex getting her father in an arm-bar in the cargo hold as crew members looked on during their off duty hours. They’d always like to watch them train together.

“Proudest moment of my life,” John grinned, remembering how proud he was of her. It had happened just before she started her last year of Senior High.

John stood up with the biggest smile on his face. She had baited him, just like he taught her, placed her right leg behind his left leg and hopped a bit closer, closing the distance. Of course she hadn’t expected to take him down like that, no, he was a much bigger, stronger and tactical opponent. She wanted him to unbalance her and to throw her to the ground, and then, she brought her right leg behind his shoulder, and her left leg over his head, and with her weight, she pushed him to the ground - using his body weight against him,-  she squeezed his arm between her legs, she bridged up and he tapped before she broke his arm. The student had finally become the teacher. Even James still hasn’t managed to take her father down. Crowd cheering her, she had jumped to her feet, excited beyond words that she managed to take him down and ran along the cargo hold, high-fiveing James, Cortez, Garrus and the rest of the onlookers before leaping onto father's back. He’d manage to catch her legs and shift her weight so they were resting on his hips before spinning around in excitement.

“I feel bad for the guy who gets on her bad side. But, then again she is a mix of you and Williams. Dangerous mix, if you ask me.”

“No one’s asking, Garrus,” John laughed all too aware how a mix of their personalities combined in one could cause collateral damage. He’s seen her be like him, patient, deliberate, tactful and persuasive and then like a flip of a switch she could be blunt and dangerous... feisty like her mother.

‘That’s impressive, Sarah must be just as good as you’. John had said to Ashley down in the cargo hold of the Normandy SR1, as she told him about the time Sarah had an encounter with a boyfriend. ‘Better I’m more or less of a straight up puncher,’ is what Ashley had said, what seemed like a thousand years ago now, to compare her sister, Sarah, to herself. It’s accurate.

They heard the door from the elevator open and their gaze shifted into it’s direction, and they spotted Traynor rounding the corner with a young man following behind her. She saluted to Shepard, “that’s him, sir,” pointing to the younger man behind her.

“Thanks, Traynor. You’re dismissed,” he nodded at her and she turned to head back into the elevator to head back to her post in the CIC.

John stood up from his seat, and motioned to Jason to have a seat on the bench. Garrus was now into action, he grabbed a ragged and started cleaning wiping down his viper. Pretending he was getting it ready for battle.

Jason took a seat on the bench, he placed the corsage on the table and John studied him. He didn’t speak right away, instead he took purposeful steps back and forth in front of the kid, in the goal of getting him nervous, all the while keeping his eyes on the kid. He knew it was working when Jason brought a hand to his collar of his suit and adjusted it before bringing his hand down, swallowing hard and slowly.

“What’s your background?”

“M….my background, sir?” Jason asked confused.

“Yes, your background. Where did you grow up? Did you have stability? Background,” he paused in his tracks, shifted his weight onto one hip and crossed his arms. Behind him, a click could be heard from Garrus’ sniper.

Jason gulped, “parents’ are Alliance, sir. Father serves in the fifth fleet under Admiral Hackett. He’s N7, like you” he added hastily. Man, he’s so intimidating, he thought. “Mother is back on Earth. London. She’s a lawyer for the Alliance.”

John nodded, good start. Kid’s from a good background, seem respectful, disciplined, I can see that. Most students at Grissom Academy came from a good background, a stable family who did very well. It wasn’t everyone who could afford to send their children to the Academy. But cost wasn’t an issue for two people who were on Alliance Officer and Spectre Salary.

Jason continued, “I got three older brothers, also all serving in the Alliance. Also, a younger sister” he didn’t think it was important, but he could be wrong, and he didn’t feel like taking his chances right now.

“What’s your future goal?” John was always a man straight to the point.

“I have a knack for engineering, sir. I plan on enlisting, and then going to college to pursue engineering. Serving has been a tradition in my family,” he nervously adjusted his collar again.

John gave Garrus a quick glance, and the Turian nodded. They had an understanding: if the Turian nodded, he agreed that he liked where this was going so far. If not, well he’d have to change tactics. He looked back at Jason.

“What are your intentions with my daughter?” another click from Garrus’ viper, and he adjusted slightly, aiming it more into Jason’s direction now.

Jason’s green eyes widened. “Nothing, sir!”

“Nothing?” John demanded. “So you mean to just lead her on and toss her aside after tonight?” John's eyes flared as he uncrossed his arms, and walked towards Jason bringing his face up close to the younger man and placing his hands on either side of him, cornering him. Jason could have sworn they almost glowed red from overhead light at this angle, but that’s impossible. Is it?

“No, no, no” Jason interjected quickly, then took a deep breath trying to calm his rising heart beat. He heard another click from the turian’s sniper. Oh God, I’m a dead man.

“Oh my God, dad! What are you doing?!” Alex stood just in front of the table, one hand on her right hip as she shifted her weight on her left leg. John hadn’t heard her approach. He looked up at her, and his lips curled down. Alex’s lips twitched upwards slightly as she rolled her eyes. Expecting this exact reaction from her father.

She wore a navy blue dress, which brought out her blue eyes, just like blue brought out his. But the bosom of the dress was heart shaped, decaled with gold gems that shined when the light hit it in certain angle, revealing just enough cleavage that was appropriate for a young woman her age, but it was still a bit too much to John’s taste, that made her father - would make any father- uncomfortable.  The dress, made out of Italian silk material, hugged her curves perfectly, revealing a matured body. Her face was framed by loose strands of hair that had been curled, an elegant braid was pulled back with the rest of her brown hair in a twist and ending in a messy bun at the base of her neck. Her make-up was done up, smokey eyes, with a natural coloured blush with a hint of pink tint in but not overly powering. Her lipstick was a fiery red.

John groaned slightly, she looked absolutely stunning, which tightened his chest slightly. She wasn’t his little girl anymore, the one that jumped in puddles of mud, catching frogs with her brother and tormenting her cousins when they visited the Williams’ back on Earth for the holidays. Or the little girl that liked to get dirty down in the engineer deck with Chief Engineer Adams, Donnelly and Gabby, learning everything she could from them. She always had a curious mind, seeking more knowledge. She’d grown up into a beautiful young woman. John shifted his glance back at Jason, his eyebrows furrowing together in a V shape, father instincts on high alert now.

“No, sir. What I mean is...my intentions are pure. She’s a strong willed woman, brave, smart and witty. Admirable traits. But she’s also scary and for that, I would never want to get on her bad side, not intentionally. Instead, I want to protect her. Be a shoulder for her to cry on. Be there for her on her good days and her bad days, I haven’t...we haven’t...” he held his breath as he waited for John’s reaction.

John understood what he and met, and looked backwards back at Garrus, and also noticed Ashley was now standing next to the Turian, her arms crossed. “He’s got guts to face you like that, Shepard, or maybe he’s just stupid. Either way, I’m starting to like him,” Garrus mandibles clicked together in the way it suggested he was laughing. John nodded as well. Not at a lot of people were brave enough or stupid enough to face Shepard the way this kid just did, and for that he respected him. John looked back to Jason, “If you ever harm my daughter in any way…”

“I don’t plan on it sir. I’m not looking forward to seeing what you would do to me,” Jason attempted to chuckle but it came out more as a strangled cough.

“Good man,” John straightened, releasing Jason from his prison hold and taking a few steps back. When Jason didn’t move, he added ‘well, what are you waiting for? Go on, get out of here! Make sure you bring her back to my ship as soon as the prom is done or I’ll come after you.”

Scrambling to his feet, Jason picked up the corsage from the table and walked over to Alex. She looked up at him and mouthed “I’m sorry”. Jason, spreading the band or the corsage with his fingers, offered it to her and she slid her wrist in the loop, and he then affectionately squeezed her wrist before lowering his arm. She pined the boutonniere on his lapel, then he offered his arm and she took, leading him to the elevator and head out for prom night.

“I’m surprised you didn’t want to interview him in the cargo hold, to space him if he said the wrong thing.” Garrus chuckled.

“I was tempted,” John smirked.

“Did you really let her pick that dress?” John asked Ashley as she approached him, placing her head on his shoulder.

“You only get one prom,” she said and kissed his cheek and made her way to the elevator.

Notes:

*So, since Ashley and her sisters all took self-defense growing up, and John being Earthborn and growing up in a gang, I have this inkling that both of them would want their kids to also learn self-defense. I also figured, since John would have probably picked up some knowledge in mixed martial arts with street fighting during his time in a gang, on top of the hand to hand combat he would have learned in basic, then probably even more during N7 training, that he’d be perfect one to teach Alex and Kaidan some self-defense. I also put in my knowledge, as someone who does Brazilian Jiu-jitsu in real life/personal take downs I've witnessed or done myself, into this little story.

[rlhy]

Mass Effect Retrospective

2010-2012 Video Game Produced by BioWare

Mass Effect 2 is one of my favourite video games ever. Despite that, DLC add-ons were a fairly new concept at the time, so I was pretty resistant on buying any of the content that came out. I’ve heard how great of an experience Lair of the Shadow Broker was or how vital Leviathan was to the lore, so after I got used to the new landscape of paid add-ons, I had every intention to return to these one day.

I finally played them ... 8 years later. 

The good news is, the games still hold up! I had to replay the first half of ME2 because my saves were deleted and I was filled with a gleeful nostalgia. It’s also interesting jumping from Mass Effect 2 and 3, and seeing the subtle and not-so-subtle changes between the two. 

The addition of 4 directional combat roll and indicators for changing cover. This is a major overhaul that made movement much improved. Camera is still quite tight around Shepard, which makes it hard to be aware of your surroundings, and easier to get stuck in level geometry. 

ME3 felt like a quieter game. As such, it felt less epic and more lonely.

ME3 has what seems to be more loading doors. Either that, or the new animation for bypassing doors make it much more obvious that they were loading doors. 

ME3 also made use of seamless camera transitions at the end of most of their cinematics. This wasn’t used in ME2. 

As a general note, all the DLC missions exacerbated the issues with level design that to this day we’re still struggling with. That is to say, the mission flow follows the basic progression of Combat Arena > Cinematic > Repeat. The best missions got away from this by starting with a low-key search for clues in a smaller environment. This resulted in a stronger story exposition.

ME3 DLC felt larger in scope than the ME2 DLC, but with the same budget. As a result, it felt like the cinematics lacked the same impact and polish.

Kasumi - Stolen Memory

+ The mansion is one of the more exquisitely designed locations in the series and the objectives of the mission are a nice diversion away from standard combat interactions. There are also multiple ways to accomplish each objective, which I learned afterwards.

- The vault area devolved into combat way too soon. I was hoping to spend more time in it with more meaningful interaction (similar to the mansion). 

- The majority of the mission involves a series of overlong combat arenas, ending with an exhausting fight with a helicopter. 

Overlord

+ The story line of the rogue VI is an interesting and ambitious premise though falls short of the expectations that come with this classic sci-fi conceit of man merging with machine. 

+ The visuals of the rogue VI are very cool, especially during the boss fight. It reminds me of Rez. 

- The Hammerhead controls better than the Mako did in ME1, but ultimately did not make for better gameplay. Platforming over rivers of lava, though a fun diversion at first, were quite annoying by the second or third time.

- The overworld between the missions (where you would drive the Hammerhead around to find one of the three stations) became tedious quickly. Bad checkpointing made accidental deaths a bigger hassle. 

Arrival

+ Great environment design in the final battle, with the looming Mass Effect Relay in the background, getting closer and closer to your location. 

- This DLC was the most dubious of them all, as I mostly remember it as just being a blur of endless combat arenas. It also begins with linear corridor sequences (though it tries to mix it up with a few puzzle switch mechanics). 

- After the vision from Object Rho, fighting 5 waves of enemies felt endless. However, I learned afterwards that you don’t have to survive for the mission to continue.

- It’s also surprising to see that the reason Shepard was back on Earth and being tried in court at the beginning of ME3 was the result of this optional DLC. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one confused when ME3 started. 

Lair of the Shadow Broker

+ By far, the best of the ME2 DLC. Expertly paced with striking improvements in cinematic direction. Dynamic camera shots punched up the action in most of the cutscenes, most noticeable in the Tela Vasir chase. 

+ The skycar chase through Illium is a scenario that I’ve always wanted to experience in a video game. Despite the subpar controls, it nails the atmosphere. 

+ Ending the DLC with a hub room that you can endlessly revisit was a very smart way of ensuring the DLC had a lasting impact on the world. Research Terminals, Dossiers, and conversations with Feron and Liara were very welcome, as well as extra interactions with Liara on board the Normandy. 

- Despite the great pacing, the infiltration of the Shadow Broker base was a slog. The roof of the ship felt labyrinthine to the point where it took me out of the experience. At least the designers had the foresight to keep the interior of the base very short. 

Omega

+ For a package mainly consisting of combat arenas, the mission flow is tightly paced. Each combat encounter doesn’t overstay its welcome, and is greatly helped by the improved combat system in ME3. There are also periods of respite where you regroup at Aria’s base. 

+ They vary up the locales quickly, more so then any other DLC package. The streets of Omega are vivid and it’s a nice touch to end the mission with a return to Afterlife. 

+ Aria and Nyreen are great additions to the team. They do a good job with their relationship, with a lot of words unsaid. 

- Nyreen’s death scene felt very unearned. It felt unnecessary, campy and didn’t serve any purpose.

- After playing Shadow Broker, having the game dump you out to the Normandy unceremoniously after the mission is over, is a slight letdown. 

Leviathan

+ Of the DLCs, Leviathan had the most amount of varied gameplay. Rummaging through the lab to find clues to the Leviathan project, and then using those clues to filter for a location were very welcome. 

+ They establish a decent mission flow, with highs and lows. Combat missions are followed by fact-finding non-combat missions. 

+ I was very glad that the mission ended after the final revealing cinematic. I was half-expecting to fight a few more waves of Reapers. 

- This is a huge omission to the regular game, and arguably should have been included in the base package with a more integrated and fleshed out storyline. 

- Though it’s clear that the end times are coming in the Milky Way Galaxy, this was a DLC that felt like they could have kept combat to a minimum. They do a good job with varying up the gameplay, but each section ends with the Reapers finding you, and you miraculously escape after waves of their horde. 

- The escort mission where you have to guide the drone wasn’t really made for a Vanguard build. 

[autodiscothings]

Prayers for the wicked must never be forsaken.

I jokingly tag all my Thane Krios reblogs and posts as ‘Sad Murder Lizard,’ but I think it sums up my thoughts on him pretty well.

When you first meet him, it’s very cool- neck snapping, vent crawling, sauntering down darkened ducts to casually take out guards, starting a gay awakening in salarian janitors… as introductions go, it’s great.

And then you learn he is dying. And holy shit, is this the trait in which his entire character is built upon; death and redemption. He tells you this, several times over:

The universe is a dark place. I'm trying to make it brighter before I die.

And later, during his loyalty mission trigger:

As I face the end of my body's time here, I find myself dwelling on my mistakes.

Well alright, it’s a suicide mission! Hop aboard, sad murder lizard, you’re recruited. Plenty of room on the Normandy with similarly inclined folk staring at the end of a barrel.

So Shepard sits and talks with Thane over tea, and the first conversations are surface- religion, his sickness, where he’s from. Given what choices you make, he can be quite dry in wit- not Garrus levels of snark, but it’s there.

The second conversation, however, is when the fucked up shit starts surfacing. You learn he’s been an assassin-in-training since he was six, given to the Compact by his parents to the hanar:

They were training me. I was not to be used and thrown away. I was an investment.

Oh but don’t act shocked- sorry, did I mislead you? They saw me as a person, honest. And anyway, I didn’t really kill my first man until I was twelve. This is normal, yes?

And if you fire back that it sounds like slavery, he gets very defensive:

They rescued us – some of us- from extinction. We owe them our lives. Don't insult me, Shepard. Anyone can refuse to serve. Few do.

So let’s talk about that Compact. When I first started writing about drell, I was trying my hardest to see it from the hanar’s point of view; that their intentions were honourable and good, and to some individual hanar, perhaps. Thane gives a mauldin Thomas Hobbes quote about the drell homeworld:

“When all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, when the last remedy of all is war, which provideth for every man with victory or death.” As Rakhana died around them, my people slaughtered each other for mouthfuls of water.

Out of the billions left to die on Rakhana, the hanar took 375,000 drell to the ocean homeworld of Kahje. Later on, thanks to Kepral’s fucking them up, their life expectancy actually decreased: out of those 375,000, Thane tells you:

There are only a few hundred thousand of us left, after all.

I’m going to assume drell are not a mono-religion culture, but to Thane’s religion, where the literal goddess of the afterlife carries you across the sea, it’s very easy to imagine the deep effect it had to most. We the lucky ones have been carried safe and sound, and placed on welcoming shores by our saviours.

The drell at the time weren’t even space faring, nor had they discovered the Relays. They had “no fusion power,” which given the janky space science the writers are prone to can either be taken to mean actual (still a theory)  fusion power, or (already proven, thanks Manhattan Project) nuclear power.

If drell were pre-nuclear power, that means Rakhana fucked itself over during their version of the industrial revolution; the hanar literally took a race that barely made aeroplanes and cars into a world full of Mass Effect relays and made them their servants.

And this fits in very nicely with what Thane tells you the third time you speak to him. That his accountability for his actions are not his own, because drell do not think of their body and souls in the way humans, asari and turians do. So when he kills, it’s on whoever ordered him to make the kill- he was the gun, not the one who pulled the trigger.

My body is merely flesh. Flesh whose reflexes were honed to kill. My body was only the tool they used. If you kill a man with your gun, do you hold your gun responsible?

As lines of defence go, it’s fairly shit, isn’t it? You can’t argue anything back to him, the game won’t let you.

It’s also of note that during this conversation he lets slip his infamous “sunset eyes” solipsism, and his Wife In The Refrigerator is mentioned.

Irikah at least gets to speak in the Foundation comic, and I like some on the things they introduced about her. We learn she was a scientist, and worked researching a cure for a hanar disease; that she really did stand defiant in the laser dot of his sniper rifle.

But it was still her role to die, and I did not get the impression she was her own person in either the  comic or through Thane’s dialogue. In a 24 page comic about her husband I would understand this can be hard to achieve, but she still was a prop created for Thane.

Her death is glorified, too. There’s an entire panel of Thane kneeling in her blood; her attacker goads Thane by telling him she “tasted sweet” when she died, and of the “unspeakable” things they did to her.

And so Thane went after them all in a suitably badass manner. It’s a common storytelling trope: John Wick, Akira, Cowboy Bebop, Logan/Wolverine, The Punisher… Revenge yarns are fun to watch, but the reason for the revenge always seems to be an afterthought.

All of this could be dealt with Thane telling you what he loved about her; perhaps the pride he felt because she helped people with her work, not like him, he was just a killer- that she was a good mother; how she liked her tea- just something other than- defiant, wife, murdered.

Fridging aside, we learn that Thane tried to be a family man. In the comic, he flat out states he didn’t know how to be a husband or a father, but did it anyway. When he asks Shepard for help finding his son, we see he starts to contradict himself:

My body is blessed with the skills to take life. I didn't want that life for Kolyat. I hoped he would find his own way. If he hated me, so be it. He would not have shared the path of sin.

He calls it sin, his life. Gone is the “it was a honour, Shepard” defence and in its place is a man who knows the paths he walked down were dark:

I'm trying to make it brighter before I die.

The loyalty mission hinges on finding Kolyat so his son doesn’t make the same mistake. What’s interesting here is two things introduced to underpin this. The use of Captain Bailey, who looks the other way to help because he sees a parent who gives a damn and knows what estranged father feels like, and Mouse.

Mouse the drala’fa, the forgotten duct rat. Mouse who Thane gave chocolate to, but not Kolyat. Mouse who he took a photo of. Mouse who he used for his wetwork, to spy on his targets. Mouse, who is more observant than he lets on:

Whenever you talked about your kid, your eyes got like that. Like they was someplace else. Sad. He had that holo you took of me, you know. That's how [Kolyat] proved who he was. But when he turned it on, his eyes got like yours do.

Interestingly with Thane, I find the Renegade options reveal meatier options (and snarkier responses.) It’s through Renegade Thane begs Kolyat that he knows no other life:

I was six when the hanar began to train me. I didn't know any better. Your mother woke me from my battle sleep.

That’s him admitting it was a hard life, a life no child should have. There’s no honour of the Compact there, but a lonely man trying to reach out to his son to not make the same mistakes he did.

If the mission is a success and you slap/shoot Kolyat, Thane tells you about Irikah (in an offhand manner I take issue with, as mentioned.) But the main takeaway I get from this conversation with Shepard is this:

It is difficult. All things worth keeping are.

That’s him realising his mistakes, and having some semblance of hope for the future. The last conversation you have before the last mission, no matter if you romanced him or not, is Thane telling you he walked to his death with open eyes. That when you met him snapping necks in Dantius Towers, it was his last target, because he knew without Shepard there, he would’ve died.

If you fail the loyalty mission, Thane walks to his death again, because taking bad is not that same creating good, and that:

Entropy always wins.

If you romance him, you know he’s now terrified he’s woken from his battle sleep and had a reason to live again (Kolyat, Siha) only to have the ticking time bomb in his lungs and the Collectors remind him what little time he has left:

[I will] take the time left given and praise all I know for allowing me to walk my final days with hope and certainty that I am worthy of more than my cold isolation, solely because you believed.

So Mass Effect three happens; Thane is a bit of an afterthought here. From a cold logistical gaming writer POV, I can see why it happened, but it still sucked to endure if you: 1) romanced Thane and 2) actually liked the character.

The writers seemed that take the letter to a romanced Shepard from the Shadow Broker dossier and used it to shape Thane’s narrative for the third game, as well as for the Citadel DLC. Kepral’s isn’t magically cured in the space of six months; no space magic happens for Thane to return to the Normandy and be at your side again.

If I’m honest, I like this aspect of his story; Thane Mod exists for those that do not. In my opinion, death has always shaped his character; it is his constant companion, still.

The reunion you have as a romanced Shepard is very much him “letting you go,” in some ways. After apparently getting it on in a hospital (classy, Shep- classy) the second conversation is him telling you that:

Live well with the time you have. Perhaps we shall see each other again.

No tu fira here yet, that comes later. To fit in with the narrative of the DLC, you can perhaps argue he’s keeping himself out your way as his sickness is worse than he’s letting on. Thane knows Shepard’s role in the Reaper war is important; he would only hold them back.

Which of course means that the game codes you as single there after, and you can’t tell Vega to get jumped when he’s all flirty, or brush off other advances.

Cerberus coup time, and Captain Cutscene (aka Kai Leng and his silly sword) is here. Thane goes out in the way he wanted; not coughing in a hospital bed, but trying to do some good saving a Councillor.

Thane is at least given a goodbye here; he dies with his son and either his Siha or his “only friend” by his side. He prays for you, not him. He wants the last thing he hears to be Shepard’s prayer, not his.

No one in the game recognises the sacrifice, and you need to buy a DLC to be allowed to grieve. When Garrus stands by the memorial wall to talk about the Virmire survivor -if they died, if they didn’t- Thane isn’t mentioned. All the headcanon in the world can create a reason why, but it’s still a dick move from the writers.

The DLC memorial scene is interesting. It has a stilted, awkward Kolyat not understanding why he has to have it (which, for a race built on memories, is hilarious, and I head canon that some drell don’t see the point of memorials, since they never forget anyway.)

Even if you don’t romance him, he sends vidmails to you, his only friend. You know he tried to reach out for you, but circumstances meant you couldn’t connect.

The main interesting thing I take from the funeral scene, is that the Council want to make Thane a recognisable hero. Thane Krios’s name would be associated forever with an act of good, not his “path of sin” as an assassin. He became his wife, defiant in the sight a scope. Or rather, a Cerberus sword.

So, to summarize: Thane Krios- death becomes him, death defines him; in his sacrifice, he will be remembered as a hero, not as a villain: Your mission gave me purpose. A cause to die for. A chance to atone. I was able to speak to my son again. I can leave my body in peace.

NOTE: Despite someone who has so far written a fanfic about Kolyat and has a lot of thoughts about sassy lizards, I’ve been very quiet on Thane/Kolyat’s dynamic in this little essay. It’s an interesting one to talk about, but it deserves its own separate post, which I’ll get around to at some point.

[luke-biwalker]

I finished Mass Effect Andromeda. Spoilers and thoughts below, beware of unpopular opinions.

I had to start the game twice because the beginning really burnt me out quickly with how virtually everything went wrong with the Andromeda Initiative. I wasn’t expecting everything to work out from the get go, but there’s only so much bad news I can handle before I start getting stuck in a rut.

The story shares entirely too many similarities with Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. Everything from strikingly similar ship bridge designs to plot elements to ‘mysterious black goo’ seems to have been lent from one of the worst the Alien franchise has to offer into Andromeda, and I didn’t like it one bit. 

It’s painfully clear that Bioware meant for this to be another trilogy of games, since there is entirely too much left unanswered. The benefactor has Cerberus and the Illusive Man’s fingerprints all over it, and we never found out if Cora really is his daughter or a relative.

The Kett bored me because it was been there, done that as far as the Reapers went. What the Kett call exaltation, the Reapers called indoctrination. It’s the same thing and lazy writing.

The crew were a mixed bag. My team consisted of Drack and Vetra unless I had to swap one out for a loyalty mission. I loved Drack, Vetra, Suvi, Jaal, and Lexi. Kallo, Gil, and Peebee grew on me.

I did not like Cora or Liam.

Cora’s unending dependency on leadership and Asari higher ups stunted her character for me, and the way she spoke over Vederia’s fears during her loyalty mission. She earned a few points back with me after showing a bit of humility in the end, admitting that she is too much of a follower to be a Pathfinder. I also liked the mission where we went and spread flower seeds together, that was a really sweet scene.

Liam, though... where do I start? I don’t think he’s horrible or anything like that, I just don’t get his eternal optimism in a sea of bad. His want to include everyone and to illuminate the idea of outsiders is commendable, but then he willingly ignores the channels to leak info to the Angara about the Nexus? Damn, that was... not smart or practical or a good idea by a long stretch. And it seemed to me that Liam didn’t respect Ryder for taking issue with that when confronted by how bad of an idea the whole thing was. I have no idea how this guy managed as a cop while having the mindset that passing valuable info around to potential allies was the best course of action he had. That was downright dangerous!

Also, him snapping at Vetra during party banter about Sid and things that aren’t his business whatsoever? I benched him for that, not sorry.

I romanced Gil and while I thought things weren’t as bad as everyone else said, turns out the game was playing me for an utter fool when it came to the ending and Gil decided to have a baby with Jill regardless of the fact that I said no and he accepted that at the time! Bioware, you want to fix the m/m in this game? Patch that shit out now. I know the long spanning joke ‘your choices matter’ that hangs over Bioware games, but how could you give me that choice, have both my Ryder and Gil agree not to have a kid with Jill, then have Gil turn around and go against what they both wanted to avoid?

What a load of shit. Fix that, Bioware. You know better, or you should.

Regardless, I don’t regret romancing Gil. I like his personality, I have a thing for guys who have a sense of humor and hide serious things behind jokes. I really loved the intimacy scene between him and my Ryder, the careful way Gil asked if it was alright to keep going further in their relationship.

More of that, Bioware.

For all my complaining, I started really getting into the game during the mission A Trail of Hope. The high energy and story related revelations (though similar to Prometheus) hooked me and didn’t let go until the end of the game.

The final mission was absolutely fantastic and definitely felt worthy of the name Mass Effect. I had all worlds at 100% viability and found all of the arks, so watching as everyone came together to fight against the Archon was something to behold. The last fight was perfect too, how even though my other squadmates weren’t on the team, they were there at the battle anyway, helping my Ryder push through the last of the Remnant defenses.

It might seem as though I disliked Mass Effect Andromeda from my critical view above, but when the story ended, I felt like I missed the game’s adventures already. Just because I think critically of this game doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy aspects of it or that I didn’t wish there was more. More of Gil tenderly asking my Ryder if their relationship could deepen, more of Drack and Kesh, more moments like the last mission and the final scenes after. I want Bioware to give us a good game, nothing more, nothing less.

And perhaps they will. The Citadel was one of my favorite things about Mass Effect 3, and it was a DLC. The same could happen here too.

For now, I’ll think critically of Mass Effect Andromeda but also remember what I enjoyed, while remain optimistic about future endeavors for this series.

[razieltwelve]

Minion Effect (Final Effect)

“So… how do you feel about hamsters, Mordin?”

Mordin Solus stared at Captain Luma Dia-Farron. In the short time that he’d known her, he’d become convinced of two things:

She was an absolute genius

She was at least slightly insane

After all, how else could you describe someone who had not only managed to trick an entire fleet of Reapers into moving away from Sur’Kesh but was who was also enjoying a sandwich and ice cream in the middle of a battle.

“They are quite cute,” Mordin said at last, eyeing the hamster that appeared to be relaying commands to the rest of the fleet from its position in a small chair attached to Luma’s own.

“That’s right,” Luma said, idly issuing another set of commands. “But the Imperial Main Line had always maintained that hedgehogs are cuter. It makes no sense.”

“Is your hamster qualified to command a fleet?” Mordin asked.

“Professor Huggleborough? Of course, he is. Look, he even has a little captain’s hat.” The hamster did indeed have a little captain’s hat on. She grinned. “Seriously, though, he is qualified. He’s been with me through every battle I’ve commanded, and he’s taken all the required courses and tests to advance. I am not joking when I say that he is more than qualified to command a fleet and that I would trust him to take over for me or my second if we were incapacitated. Besides, this battle was over the second they got out of position. The only hope the Reapers had was to use your home world as a shield. Now that they can’t do that…” She gestured at the vast holographic display in front of them. “Well, you can see the rest.”

Mordin could. The Reaper fleet, which numbered in the hundreds of capital ships and even more smaller vessels, had been lured into open space above the orbital plane of the system. Without a planet to hide behind, the Empire was free to attack.

The results were devastating.

The Empire had entered the system with two dozen ships. The battleships and cruisers had opened fire at long range, obliterating Reaper after Reaper with volleys of plasmam, lasers, rail gun fire, and other, less identifiable weapons. It was those rail guns that were particularly interesting to Mordin.

He’d asked Luma some questions, and although she hadn’t given a lot of details or specifics, she had told him a few things. The projectiles being fired weighed in the vicinity of one thousand tonnes, which boggled his mind, to say nothing of the velocities they were able to achieve. If Luma was to be believed - and she had no reason to lie - their rail guns were able to propel those masses at speeds approaching the speed of light.

Even with their kinetic barriers, the Reaper capital ships didn’t stand a chance.

“Do you want some ice cream?” Luma asked. “You’re looking all broody, which doesn’t make sense since we’re winning.” She tapped the console in front of her, which immediately brought a response from a group of bombers. The smaller vessels swarmed a crippled Reaper, and it vanished in a haze of bomb-delivered plasma.

Mordin shook himself out of his reverie. For all that she was cheerful and upbeat, he had already seen how cunning Luma was. What would happen if his people refused to meet the demands of the Empire? Would that cunning be turned on them? If it was, there might not be a Union left to save.

No. He had yet to establish solid communication with the senior officials of his people. But he would make them see reason.

“You know,” Luma murmured as the carrier shuddered faintly, unleashing another torrent of destructive power that annihilated dozens of Reapers. “You Salarians seem like my kind of aliens.”

“Explain.” Mordin was aware of exasperated sighs from some of the crew. The Dia-Farron, he’d gathered, had something of a reputation. They were much loved, clearly, but it seemed that a certain level of eccentricity was also expected of them.

“This is all information that we’ll be forwarding to you as part of a proper First Contact Package, but the Arendelle Empire is ruled by the House of Farron-Arendelle. Now, the House of Farron is made up of three major branches: the Yun-Farron branch, the Villiers branch, and the Dia-Farron branch. For reasons I won’t go into here, each branch tends to have its own… specialities.”

“Understood.” Mordin pondered the information. It made sense. Members of the same family could best help the family by specialising in different things, preventing over-specialisation and redundancy. 

“That also tends to come with certain personality quirks. Trust me, you’ll understand once you meet more of the other branches. Claire - the fleet admiral - is a Yun-Farron. The ones with pink hair tend to be quiet, reserved, and capable of killing you with a glare. They’re pretty much all tactical geniuses who excel in combat to an absolutely stupid degree. Believe me, I’ve seen Claire kill a dozen assassins with a butter knife. It’s cool but scary.”

“It is.” Mordin’s eyes narrowed as the Reapers attempted to retreat using their FTL drives. They failed. Interesting. The Empire seemed to have some kind of weapon capable of preventing FTL travel.

“Us Dia-Farron, we’re best known as scientists. We love studying things and learning, and we love hamsters.” She patted her hamster. “But we’re always on the lookout for new minions.”

“Minions?” Mordin murmured. He caught a long-suffering sigh from the captain’s second in command. 

“That’s right, Mordin. Just think of all the possibilities.” Luma gestured grandly. “If you and the Salarians become our minions, think of all you could learn and accomplish. Heck, we’ve already looked at your genetics, and we could increase your lifespan by at least twenty percent without any trouble at all.”

“Are you serious?”

“Of course, I am. Look at my hamster. When we first started working with hamsters back on Remnant, they were cute and cuddly. Now, look at them. They can command fleets, transform into giant war machines, and they can even have cola on demand.” Her hamster was now sipping on some cola. It was crazy. “Being a minion isn’t just a one-way street. You’d benefit too.”

Mordin wasn’t sure how to reply to that. Thankfully, they were interrupted.

“Ma’am, we’re receiving communications from Sur’kesh. We think it’s from a senior member of the Union.”

“I see.” Luma nodded at Mordin. “Let Mordin handle it.” She glanced back at the holographic display. “The Reapers are just about done. Make sure to keep a few alive for study. Annihilate the rest.” She paused and smiled at Mordin. “Just think about it.”

Mordin could only nod. He wondered if Liara was receiving a similar proposition as the Alliance moved to liberate Thessia.

[lesbianalicent]

mass effect: andromeda review

abandon hope of not seeing spoilers, all ye who click the cut

overall: 3/5 main story: 3.5/5 dialogue: 5/5 fuck all of you it was hilarious combat: 5/5 worldbuilding: 2/5 squad: 4/5 overall gameplay: 2/5 side quests: 1/5

this is gonna be long, y’all, i have A Lot To Say

so, first thing’s first: ryder is a treasure and probably the best protagonist that bioware has come up with since hawke or shepard. inquisitor whom??? they’re absolutely hilarious and whenever they open their mouth i know something delightfully terrible is going to come out of it. i find it interesting that the older folks who play this game (late twenties and over) HATE the dialogue but the younger folks who are around ryder’s actual age don’t? it’s an interesting split that i could write essays on just bc of how ryder talks bc it’s so similar to how i talk.

god she’s such a little asshole i love her i would die for her.

THE PROS: -fantastic combat that is probably the best that bioware has ever done, not having a set class is wonderful and being able to switch to do whatever you want is [prayer hands emoji] i can finally be the biotic infiltrator combo of my dreams -I LOVE BEING ABLE TO PROJECT MY DADDY ISSUES ONTO RYDER THANK YOU FOR THAT BIOWARE -kissable!! turian!! gotta Kiss That Turian!! -the tempest crew feels like a tight knit family, they feel Real, hearing them banter on the ship itself is lovely and seeing how their relationship grows over the course of the game is delightful. the movie night single handedly saved me. the emails and the message board killed me dead. -nakmor kesh is my girlfriend -liara t’soni cameos -SAM, i love that ai i hope he knows that. he’s a very different character than edi and i really like that? i like the relationship he has with ryder it’s a lot different than shepard’s relationship with legion and with edi -the little easter eggs scattered around, like hunting dr. okeer’s research and finding zaeed’s son -the main story missions really felt like mass effect, and there’s some great choices you have to make that i hope will have actual effects later in the series -STUNNING scenery, holy shit -nomad banter -peebee/vetra, specifically. thank you sheryl chee for my life. -THE RYDER FAMILY WHAT THE HECK I LOVE THESE ASSHOLES -loyalty missions were a lot of fun, liam’s specifically is SO funny i love that boy -i would die for the tempest’s crew THE CONS: -too big. way, way, WAY too big. like take the hinterlands and make it into several PLANETS big. it’s exhausting and it was neat at first but by the end i just wanted it to be done, i had to resort to doing a speed run just so i wouldn’t burn myself out on the first try. if i wanted to play an open world game i’d play world of warcraft or skyrim, honestly. the open world aspect of it is dEFINITELY one of the game’s biggest weak spots, and i’m def gonna save my completionist run for when some mods and patches come out so i don’t burn myself out real quickly. i still haven’t recovered from my dai completionist run and that was a year ago. -the loyalty missions are fun and interesting, but except for cora’s they really didn’t seem to have much of a point other than unlocking romances. in me2 the point of the loyalty missions was that the crew would draw a line with shepard somewhere, things you said and did could lose their loyalty and if you lost their loyalty the characters could and often did die in the suicide mission. these seemed more like personal quests, they didn’t even unlock new outfits :/ -okay. listen. i understand that garrus is a fan favorite. and i love him too. but holy shit liara had a VOICE cameo and he still got the most references. that goddamn archangel paintjob? “reach and flexibility”? having his picture in the codex? his goddamn father being in a flashback? liam mentioning a scarred turian vigilante? meanwhile kaidan and ashley get nothing, lmao, Okay. like shit even shepard only got referenced ONCE like come on y’all. not even gonna mention the battle of the citadel? that was a big goddamn plot point, especially since ryder was RAISED ON THE CITADEL? you’d think that the sovereign attack would be traumatizing. -dragon age characters got references but ash and kaidan don’t.........lol.........i see you bioware.............. -what was even the point of editing shepard’s gender -if you’re gonna have references you should at least have a little reference for every major character like the game is so fucking big you could have done it without being in your face. ellen’s role with biotics? reference baat. general williams and shanxi. wrex when talking to drack’s clan urdnot friend. -i really wish they’d have at least had some major choices from me1 imported in, like “did the council survive, who was the virmire survivor, was everyone recruited, did wrex survive” etc.  -speaking off, there’s plot holes for days. i can’t get a confirmation on when in 2185 they left, but if they left before shepard woke up and they didn’t ever recruit garrus in me1 then WHY would garrus’s dad talk to alec about it. the fuck my dudes. -yeah. plot holes for days. i’m tired and a bitter OT fucker. -gil’s.......entire.............storyline............lol GOD bioware...... -having the two crime lords being the latino man and the black woman. i see you bioware. -sloane’s entire storyline god bioware........... -the remnant are literally just synthetic protheans and the kett are organic reapers -i’m tired of this trend in bioware games where they use the “SILLY MORTALS YOU CANNOT EVEN COMPREHEND OUR ACTIONS, THEY ARE BEYOND YOUR UNDERSTANDING” like with the reapers it was cool, corypheus was a disaster and quite frankly so was the kett but whatever. -activating the monoliths and having to do sudoku. why.  -not prioritizing quests properly. you could miss one of the biggest twists in the game bc you don’t finish that fetch quest to get all the memory triggers, and that twist was the main one that i actually wanted to see (shepard and the reapers and liara’s SOS) -PEEBEE’S SEX SCENE GOD. TOO MUCH. BIOWARE. -JAAL WITH HIS VAGINA HEAD GOING DOWN ON SARA RYDER. FUCK.

that’s all i can think of atm but my main issue with the game is that bioware doesn’t seem to know how to prioritize quests, it’s SO BIG, and they treat their mlm like garbage. also racist tropes ahoy.

i’m really excited to see where they take the franchise tho! definitely got some solid future plot points with whatever the fuck the remnant were, whatever the kett are after (ugh...), discovering what happened in the milky way, who killed jien garson, who is the benefactor (my money is illusive man and tann’s power hungry froggy ass had her killed and it was unrelated just coincidental), ellen ryder’s recovery, the quarian ark, etc.

i hope they keep the same squad for the next game! continue the romances as well as add in new ones, maybe add a couple of new squaddies. i like having the same characters overlap in different games, it makes you actually care about them. add in scott/sara as a squaddie! LESBIAN/GAY SQUADDIES. keep ryder as the protag or so help me god..........

it really, really makes me miss the original trilogy tho. and playing it knowing there’s a bunch of ppl who wont ever touch it but will play andromeda hurts me deeply.

[psychicdan]

My impression of Mass Effect Andromeda

I have to say I was split by this game. I got the whole trilogy back in 2013, and finished with DLC(you know, money) before starting Andromeda, and recently I finished it. The premise was certainly interesting, and definitely felt Mass Effect at first. But one thing the originals had that this didn’t was, I don’t know, the atmosphere.

 Mass Effect always felt like a sort of space opera, from what I’ve heard, and while I had my own nitpicks, it was something I loved. The lore was rich and beautifully crafted, the stakes felt real, the characters each had a personal story to tell, and you literally had a whole galaxy before you.

 I know that Andromeda is seriously about, “New Beginnings”, but the team should have strived to hit the same bar the originals did. I’m not calling them lazy though. Anyone who played the first Mass Effect will likely agree that the open-world gameplay felt very flat, probably why it was removed in the other two.

That being said, reaching the same bar as the other two would be no easy task, but people will notice and appreciate the effort, which is a plus. From what I hear, development was very troubled, as they were delayed on settling on a premise, gathering the tam, etc. The writing team weren't even allowed to the script until the later stages, something that painfully shows. There’s narrative effort, but not nearly enough time.

I suppose it’s unfair to compare the narrative here to the trilogy. I mean, do you how annoying it would be if we just did Reapers or the Illusive Man again, carbon copies of the same issues? The kett had potential, but I feel they got reduced to one dimensional generic bad guys because, well, not enough time I guess. They only exist for conflict, not much else. I felt a potential threat from them, but this was more my imagination about their galactic empire, not really suggested by the game, not in a way felt anyway.

The Remnant and Jardaan, now that was interesting, and that is where it’s most infuriating. We have what, could be called, in science, or sci-fi, terms a Type 1 or above civilization, which is a level of advancement and evolution we above our own. It’s mythos on par with the level of atmosphere as the Reapers yet not mimicking them. And yet, it’s wasted.

The Remnant, well, just feels like an excuse for the planet viability feature. They don’t bother hinting at anything, we only get a shred of answers at the endgame, and it feels like it doesn’t even matter. One character suggests the the “Opposition” that brought down the Jardaan could be an enemy they don’t want, but the game doesn’t do anything with that. The Scourge they caused is just a story nuisance, and there’s no reason or guarantee we’ll get answers in the future.

I’m just saying, I saw potential for an enemy or story element on par with the Reapers, maybe a race bent on cracking and controlling evolution in a millennia long experiment. It could have had a powerful moment like when Shepard first spoke to Sovereign, the dark, oppressive, existential feeling presented onto their lives, but it’s not there. Or maybe I’m overthinking it.

Most of the characters weren't bad. In fact, Jaal and Drack were my favorites. I’ve dealt with worse. But the backgrounds and loyalty missions could have been better. Liam, yeah, he really needed work. I wanted to see him mature from a naive optimistic who expects the best to someone more realistic who learns to accept and deal with life’s hurdles, but no such development. The crew felt fine, but fine can be a problem. I want dynamic, and they didn’t exactly have it. Looking at you, Liam, back to the Tempest with you.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, good points. In terms of gameplay, this Mass Effect felt the most like an action-shooter RPG. I loved being able to choose my build from scratch. Rather than have my abilities and skill build decided from the beginning, it’s all based on what I invest in over time. I got to be a Level 6 Explorer and Level 5 Soldier by the end, letting me versatile and powerful in the way I loved. Combat was great, and thanks to the new skill assignment, it feels more seamless now.

I appreciate the researching and crafting system and diversity of equipment, and I could equip my Ryder how I liked.

One thing I really appreciated was the open world gameplay. In the first Mass Effect, it was hollow, bland, and a bust. Here though, the worlds were rich, colorful, and full of activity. Getting planets to viability felt good. In fact, I felt this open world gameplay was derived from Dragon Age Inquisition, which I also enjoyed. Kind of wish they applied there full magic from there to here.

Putting down outposts felt nice, like I was settling Andromeda, at least at first, Then an idea came to me. What if they let you build and upgrade outposts yourself. You could decide the functions and aesthetics, and be able to add stuff like military, resource gathering, production, and even add amenities. By amenities, I’m thinking like, a bar, or a sport court, I don’t know, my imagination isn’t the best.

In the end, the you invested and upgraded an outpost, it would feel like a real, lively town, one that not only serves you, but the people living there. That would help the whole thing of the Andromeda Initiative feel real and fun, and while I doubt Mass Effect will ever do anything like that, I think it would be a neat idea.

By the time I finished the last battle, settled a homeworld for the ark and watched the end credits, I came to like Andromeda and want more. I do criticize a lot of things, like not picking a generalized ending for Mass Effect 3 or baiting us with the whole Quarian Ark story, but I found myself wanting more Mass Effect. That’s a good thing.

So is it a good Mass Effect? Not really. Is it a bad game? No, although it would help if they cleaned up animations. Andromeda, while it could be a lot better, is really fun with an interesting premise. But hey, play for yourself and decide,

[rate-out-of-10]

MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA REVIEW

Since the Mass Effect series is one of my all-time favorite game series, I almost have to get my thoughts out on Andromeda. This game is a bit of a departure from the original series, taking us to the galaxy of (you guessed it) Andromeda. We leave the Milky Way in search for a new home amongst new stars and planets. Mass Effect: Andromeda is a loaded game, filled with content, so I will do my best to stick to all the pertinent information.

SPOILERS AHEAD. This review is based off my experiences with the game on the Xbox One.

We say goodbye to all of our adventures in the Milky Way, to Shepard, to our companions, to the fight with the Reapers, all of it; we meet our new human character, named Ryder, and whole new array of companions and crew mates, and other people/aliens. I will say that after the likes of Shepard and the Normandy crew, Andromeda does an admirable job with the follow up, but they just aren’t quite up to standard. And while I grew to adore some, most of the characters tend to fall flat. Drack, a krogan, grew on me very quickly the more I played with him, and I did fall into the Peebee trap, that cute ass asari, she’s just so infectious. Others like Cora and Vetra felt a little streamlined. I didn’t not like them, in fact I can say that by the end I did indeed like them, but there was a good while where I didn’t feel a good connection with them. But there is one companion that I did not enjoy at all: Liam Kosta. He was annoying, flat, boring to every degree, and I did not enjoy playing with him alongside of me at all. He delivers some of the most horrendous lines in the entire game. Our last companion, Jaal, is of the new species we find in Andromeda, an angara, and he felt cool in some places, and others a bit off (but only at first). Of course, by the end I felt for him and especially on his loyalty mission I really liked him. I was really hoping to get my twin, Sarah Ryder as a companion at some point. But of course, instead of killing her at the beginning, they chose the next worse thing: put her into a coma for most of the game. While you get to play as Sarah for a small section, which was short but sweet, and she helps you at the very end, I hope to see her as a companion in some future DLC. Andromeda features a wide array of new characters, and misses the mark with a few key ones. Our main villain, The Archon, of the new kett species, was a complete generic trope. The guy that believes he’s on some holy quest, he’s saving people, when in fact he’s just a psychopath hell-bent on killing everything that isn’t him. I was supremely disappointed in the lack of a boss-battle with him, as well. Where was it? The final section was just some drawn out wave combat as I disable some terminals, and then he dies. An absolute disappointment, especially when there are some pretty exciting bosses in the game, such as the Architects. Now, the game excels in certain categories, such as the loyalty missions for each character. I felt as though I really got to know my squad mates, and I helped them through whatever it was they were dealing with (except Liam’s. I did not enjoy him at all, I cannot express that enough). But the game tends to drop the ball in its essential story-telling. The main quest line had its ups and downs, but all together felt a little shallow. I was mostly interested in locating the other lost arks, and how they fit into the main story was very exciting and interesting, however the struggle with the kett and their exaltation, however horrifying it was, didn’t have too much pull on me. I was excited to craft new relationships and explore and do some amazing things, and I definitely did, I just wish that the main story had some stake in those feelings. In the original trilogy, I’d be torn between what to do, because I was so involved with all of it, but here I had almost no issue shelving the main quest in favor of my loyalty missions, or exploring the viable planets. I had no problem not playing the main story, until I had to, and I think that’s a problem. The main storyline isn’t strictly speaking bad, in fact it gets to be very cool towards the end with a lot of promise and spectacular moments, but it isn’t as enthralling all around as I would’ve hoped. And with the main story focusing on the evils of this new species, the kett, I was surprised that we only meet one other intelligent species native to Andromeda, the angara. Most of the other alien life is primitive and hostile. What made the likes of the Milky Way great was that humanity stumbled upon a huge galactic community of various species from the Milky Way, but in Andromeda there’s only two, and they’ve just been warring with each other for a hundred years, since before we got there? I wish we could’ve seen more, perhaps allied ourselves with another one, it could have raised the stakes a bit higher in the main story. As interesting as the angara were, this was a bit of a let-down.

Mass Effect: Andromeda makes a huge departure from the combat we’re used to playing in the series and offers a more versatile way to play. The combat itself, with your jump and dash abilities, feels so smooth. A major tune-up for the series, this was a great step in the right direction. Also, the class profiles, and access to every skill, was awesome. I very much enjoyed this new system. I didn’t feel bogged down or restricted, I could legitimately craft my Ryder in any way I wanted, and equip him with the abilities and skills necessary per scenario. It added a nicer piece of strategy to the game, and that’s always welcome. The game also looks as phenomenal as it feels in many places. Many environments are breathtaking; whether it’s the lush forest on Havarl, or the snowy mountains on Voeld, or the remains of the destroyed planet H-047c, or the springs of Kadara. I loved exploring each one and bringing up their viabilities to 100%. I felt so accomplished after activating the monoliths upon solving an alien Sudoku puzzle, activating the terraforming vaults, and settling outposts. And it wasn’t a high-maintenance thing at all, and I really appreciate that. Some games with aspects such as these sometimes go over board and make it a chore, but it’s fast and satisfying here. The galaxy map exploration has some cool things to offer as well, and some not so much. Its visuals are gorgeous, I will say, I very much like the point of view being the tip of the Tempest as you fly through the galaxy, but it isn’t so rewarding. Most planets you visit don’t offer anything other than a quick paragraph of info about the planet and some meaningless lore, others some XP and research points, and then the occasional salvage and loot. But exploring every system to 100% isn’t as rewarding as I wanted it to be. It’s not a necessity either, so that’s good because it is very much a skippable, tedious part of the game. The game’s research and crafting system is simple and cool to use as well, although I wish the OS was simple too. It can be a bit encumber-some and a real task to navigate, but you can get some really great gear out of taking the time to explore and find the elements and materials you need (or just purchase them). But trust me, you’ll get tired of the scanner real quick. Now, some other technical aspects were sore. The facial animations (of course), while I didn’t have any major glitches or problems during my 60 hour playthrough (thank god), they were still stiff and plain. However, it’s not something I take away from the game too much, plus future updates are fixing the issues. The voice acting is where I get most annoyed. Some characters just sound uncomfortable and some are lame. There were many deliveries that were cheesy or awkward, some were just painful to hear, even a few from my Ryder made me go, “oh my god stop.” One thing that players will notice as a departure from the original trilogy is the absence of Renegade/Paragon, it was swapped out with (I think?) a more dynamic approach to your Ryder character. Now in conversations, you choose between responses that fall under four categories: Emotional, Casual, Logical, and Professional. It was an interesting change from what we knew, however it doesn’t change the game or how I play all too much, it seems. You can read a nice psych profile written by the Tempest’s doctor, Lexi, based on your choices, but that’s about it. One thing that kept me coming back to the original trilogy was choosing different Renegade/Paragon options, it felt like they changed your relationships with other characters, it seemed like it would make a difference, but this new dialogue/action set up doesn’t have that same effect. There weren’t many major choices in the game that felt heavy either, none that drastically changed how the story would play out. Of course on my next playthrough I’ll be choosing the opposites of what I chose this first time, but if they don’t change my experience enough, I don’t see much reason to keep coming back to the game. I’ll wind up going back to the trilogy first before Andromeda, if that’s the case. Andromeda doesn’t have as high of a re-playability value as the trilogy.

One thing I didn’t touch on was the multiplayer, and that’s because it’s essentially recycled from Mass Effect 3. Wave-based, horde combat scenarios mixed with a few objectives, and then extraction. The combat in Andromdeda is great enough to where it’s fun to be in, but not for too long because I despise the leveling system. I don’t like the pre-set character abilities. I feel as though they could’ve kept it simple: let us choose what race we want, apply the skills we want to those races, and with each race they have a special ability that makes them unique. Almost like a create-a-class system from the Call of Duty games, but with your different characters/races. It should be progression based with the gear as well, not this loot box system with in-game currency that’s plaguing video games now. Acquiring better armor and weapons should be organic and correlative to how much I’m playing and how well I’m doing, not how much money I’m willing to spend. It takes the immersion right out of the game. It’s lazy. And that’s all I’m going to say on multiplayer. My final rating for Mass Effect: Andromeda is:

7.75/10. Not exactly what I was waiting for, but I’m glad I have it.

Andromeda has a ton to offer and for all intents and purposes, it’s a really good game, but there are quite a few shortcomings that hold it back from true greatness, especially as a follow up to one of the greatest game series’ to have ever come out. It excels with its planet exploration, its visuals, its combat, its loyalty missions, and dynamic class system. However the lackluster main story, which leaves many questions left unanswered, and a generic villain, copy & paste lazy multiplayer, some trivial voice acting, and its small scale choice system leads the game astray. I definitely think it’s worth getting for fans of the series, as well as those who enjoy sci-fi/fantasy games, and open-world exploration games. But the real greatness of the Mass Effect universe still lies within its original trilogy (for now anyway).