Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017)

Last night I decided to give Andromeda a second chance after playing it for the first time half a decade ago. I figured that since I had forgotten most of it, I could judge it with renewedeyes. I played through the first few missions and... yeah, not super feeling it. Gameplay was fine but it all felt just utter derivative. Everything feels like a a search-and-replace exercise from the original trilogy. The Tempest is the Normandy, the Kett are the Collectors/Geths, the Pathfinder is the Spectre, the big station is the citadel. Same boring planet scanning, etc... I had to laught when I encountered the first ancient building and Ryder said that she hadn't seen anything like that before.. except that the player had seen this same exact thing before when they went to the first Prothean ruins.

I had to comeback and read my review. Pretty much the same sentiment at the time. It feels like game with no reason to exist. No one made this game feeling that they had things they needed to say that weren't said in the first trilogy. The game exists just to squeeze more money from a successful franchise.

This time I also some annoying issues about the level early level design both in terms of gameplay and setting. I don't feel that the spacious areas inside the colony ship make for a believable sense of danger and vulnerability. I cannt feel that the Hyperion is in a precarious situation if the Pathfinder had a huge studio apartment with a coffee maker all for himself that is not being immediately repurposed for use after his death. Why the need to quickly settle? They seem to be doing just fine.

I was doing the first mission on Eos. Driving Nomad towards one of the objectives. The game warned me that I should turn on Nomad's scanner because where we were at that moment was rich with some kind of a mineral. I turned on the scanner, launched a probe, and then another pop-up showed up with the word "extraction". I thought "ok, this is how I extract minerals". So I pressed triangle and... I'm back on Tempest. What?

Apart from some needlessly complex game mechanics, another problem is interaction with objects. But I think this is a common problem with most modern games. Everything looks so detailed that any object may be interactive. But of course, it's not the case. So you end up pointing up your scanner everywhere.

Oddly enough, after sitting unplayed on my PC for almost 3 years, this game isn't nearly as bad as I remembered.

The graphics, facial animations & detail of the side quests might even be better than Assassin's Creed: Origins, which is generally viewed in a positive light. The dopey dialogue isn't nearly as dopey as I remember, but maybe I've just been broken over the last couple years and it seems normal now.

Granted, I still haven't hit the ice planet where I fell off the game the last two times I tried finishing it; so we'll see...

Beat on Hard, completion is 96% though I do not know what I have not done. This was the first game I purchased for my xbox one on sale for $20. In retrospect I do not regret the purchase because I enjoyed the game, but that price is a bit too high in my opinion. I got my ass kicked in the very first battle against the first enemy, largely due to not having enough ammo and the changes to combat. In the original trilogy, you can aim while safe behind cover or even pause the game at any time to adjust aim. Not so in this game, so I had to break out the mouse and keyboard in order to play this sensibly.

I started with a background in security and made my guy. I was not at all happy with the character creator and did not like the face I created. The main reason for that is I do not like his facial features and saw no way to change them. I sought to recreate my sniper vanguard from ME 1: I chose vanguard as my profile for the entire game (for the shield bonus) and put my skill points into sniper rifles and passives mostly. Here are my divergent skill choices more or less in the order that I valued the skill:

Sniper rifles: less weight, + clip size, + damage

Combat fitness: regeneration, +1 holster, hold the line (massive boost to damage reduction when low on hp)

Barrier: max shields, weight and speed while shields are on, shields restored at low hp

Concussive shot: recharge, damage, anti shields

Pull: duration, damage boost to inflicted targets, shield recharge while a target is pulled

Backlash: durability, durability, shield recharge when barrier breaks

Offensive biotics: recharge, damage bonus to enemies inflicted with an effect, biotic warrior (passive boosts)

Containment: duration, combo damage vs shields, manifold duration

Combat tools: evasion, aerial melee, aerial combat

Assault rifles: weight, clip size, critical hits

Shotguns: weight, clip size, damage

Pistols: spare ammo, clip size, aim damage

Team support: + restoration and shield regen, tactical revive (huge defense boost for me when reviving npcs, and fully recharges my shields after a revive), passive defense boost for each ally

Auxiliary systems: weapon weight. I did not invest further in this tree because I do not use tech skills.

I also put points into other skills that I did not really use since I can only equip 3 skills at a time:

Barricade: duration, weapon feedback, regeneration

Charge: duration, damage, bastion (damage resistance and shield recharge)

Lance: damage, anti shields, knockdown

For my primary weapon I wanted a ME 1 sniper rifle. I absolutely hated the change away from infinite ammo in ME 1 to clips in 2 and 3; whoever designed that is an utter retard for thinking that limited expendable clips is technologically and tactically superior to infinite ammo. I wanted a rifle that could fire a single shot without overheating for maximum headshot one hit kill damage, while giving the option to fire a 2nd follow up and then having to wait for the weapon to cool down. Thus my weapon of choice is the crafted Black Widow sniper rifle with a vintage heat sink. I kept this weapon up to par for the entire game. It is modded with a barrel, receiver, scope, ultra light materials and is built with 3 passive damage boosts.

Until near the end of the game I just used whatever other weapons I found as backup. I used the sniper rifle 90% of the time, even at close range, though there were times where I wanted a close range weapon. I used both assault rifles and shotguns. Near the end of the game I decided to craft an ideal AR and shotgun to fit my needs; that being backup close range weapons that are only meant to be used when I need as much damage per second as possible (because the sniper rifle is slow). After researching online I came up with the following 2 weapons:

N7 Valkyrie modified to fully automatic, with plasma bolts, damage boost while moving and one basic damage boost. It has: extended barrel, heavy stock, heavy clip and scope. It is essentially a light machine gun.

N7 Piranha fully automatic shotgun modified with plasma bolts, damage boost while moving and some anti shield. It has: extended barrel, heavy bayonet, spare clip and receiver. My 4th weapon is another piranha which is not crafted and has the extended barrel and heavy bayonet. It is obviously weaker and I only use it if I run out of ammo for the other 2.

My melee weapon is a crafted cryo gauntlet modified with some passive anti armor and anti shield boosts for powers. I love this weapon because it freezes enemies solid; what more do you need from a melee weapon? Then I can just keep hitting them while they can do nothing about it, or blast them in the face with my sniper rifle.

My armor is the Heleus Icon Armor full body suit, which I chose because it has the highest damage protection. I did not keep it fully upgraded every time a better blueprint became available, though near the end of the game I made sure to craft the ultimate suit. I crafted it with extra damage resistance at low hp, and passive hp boosts. It is modified with fusion resistance.

My helm is the Remnant Reborn again chosen for its protective properties.

My equipped consumable are: shield restore, incendiary anti armor ammo (my most commonly used one since I have no anti armor abilities), disruptor anti shield ammo, rpg.

My team mates are Jaal (focused on anti shields) and Drack (focused on anti armor). I have used all of them at one point though I prefer this combo. Drack is a tank and is even harder to kill than I am while Jaal hangs back with me and snipes.

As can be seen, my character is built to be as ridiculously difficult to kill as possible and I have survived some very sticky situations. Generally, I hang back and snipe at long range. I use pull and concussive shot liberally and combine them for combo boosts. I will also use aerial combat to snipe while hovering if I do not have a clear shot. Backlash I use when an enemy closes in on me or I want to reposition or I need a shield recharge; I like the concept of holding a shield to block (and reflect) shots but it sucks to not be able to shoot while using it. I use the assault rifle and shotgun when enemies close in and shit hits the fan, or any time high mobility run and gunning is required (the final boss was like that). There was one time where I survived a vault purge. I took a wrong turn and hit a dead end, so I ran into the wall thinking that I was dead. I survived with a sliver of health (both team mates died of course).

My personality profile pegged me as analytical, intellectual and non-emotional with a tendency to impulsiveness in some situations. I did not pay attention to the speech icons and picked whatever sounded like I would most likely say. I choose to act impulsively just about any time the game allowed me to take an action during a cut scene; such as interrupting a speaker by punching them in the face or preemptively shooting someone. I romanced Cora. While she is reasonably attractive she was also the only choice since I don't do bestiality.

I did do the apex minigame every time I was on the ship but I did not put much time in it. Tried one multiplayer game by myself; it was ok. Did not feel like playing with other people as there is nothing really special about it. I do not like the garish and random gambling nature of the loot boxes.

I overall enjoyed the game and found that it has by far the best character progression and combat in the series. The rest of the game is interesting enough but nothing all that special. The aspect of the game that annoyed me the most was the tedious travel. To go anywhere you first have to pick a system and watch the movie of exiting were you are and then the movie of entering the system. Then pick a planet and watch the movie of going to that planet. THEN pick a landing spot and watch the movie of landing. God damnit what a waste of time. Why can't I have the option to skip movies and travel instantly? Or at least allow me to directly pick the landing spot so I can go away and do something else while all the movies play (a la WoW flight paths).

The entire concept behind the game also rubs me the wrong way. Why the hell would a privately funded endeavor be able to circumvent 50,000 years of controlled technological evolution specifically designed by the Reapers to PREVENT life from developing its own faster than light travel? It would have made more sense for this to happen after ME 3 when the Reapers are defeated and their tech is used to unlock freeform FTL travel. But whatever, the game is still enjoyable. I also did not like how the crew of your ship seems to tick off every politically correct box by having one of each alien (which is fine) and 1 human of each gender and sexual orientation combination. What are the odds that 50% of a given population would be homosexual? While I don't care if the game includes homosexual options, the way the crew in this game is designed is simply blatantly unrealistic and pushing an agenda. Also did not like the sudoken mini game but I wanted to save resources so I did every single one rather than spending to skip it.

Might play newgame+ on harder difficulty at some point. Might also try multiplayer.

7.5/10