Mass Effect Megathread: He said "I should go." Do I sound like that? - Games

If Eos is a good taste of the open world elements of Mass Effect: Andromeda, I can't say I'm particularly impressed, nor exactly excited. Most of the time I just frantically scan and check everything because I fear I'll miss resources, and, by the looks of it, doing that will fuck my gear progression in the long run. Also, the "just one meaningful quest chain per zone and a barrage of useless, uninspired side quests" model from Dragon Age: Inquisition makes its triumphant return in Andromeda, apparently. The whole gear system also annoys me at this stage because is a serious case of quantity over quality: there are so many things you can craft or improve that you are never sure if you should go right ahead and build as many pieces as you can or save your stuff for later. And I wouldn't complain about these elements if it wasn't clear, the more I keep playing this, that all the problems we are all facing with Andromeda can be tracked down to the developers taking their time with the open world angle and say "screw that" towards anything else

Don't bother mining for resources. It's not really worth the time.

Kai Leng [I]alone [/I]makes ME3 my least favorite of the trilogy. Forgetting everything else about the game, having a cyborg ninja show up and start taunting you over emails just broke the experience for me.

[QUOTE=EliaMoroes;52022506]If Eos is a good taste of the open world elements of Mass Effect: Andromeda, I can't say I'm particularly impressed, nor exactly excited.[/QUOTE] Eos is my least favorite of the 3 open-world areas I've been to.

While there are people discussing issues with games, if we consider the Control, Destroy or Synthesis Ending to be canon. Wouldn't after rebuilding galactic with or without help from the reapers, the species of the Milky Way be able to reach the Andromeda Galaxy in less than 600 years? Also if the "cycle continues" ending was chosen, wouldn't the reapers find out about the Andromeda Initiative from the minds they absorb to make a new reaper? Thereby perhaps seeing them returning to the Milky way galaxy eventually, as ruining their plans?

I sincerely hope they'll make another game in the Milky Way because Andromeda doesn't bode too well.

[QUOTE=Loadingue;52022601]I sincerely hope they'll make another game in the Milky Way because Andromeda doesn't bode too well.[/QUOTE] The interesting thing is that they haven't written themselves into a corner - The Heleus Cluster is outright stated to be a small part of the whole (Possibly something like the Magellanic Clouds - the quest "Know your Enemy" covers this), so if they actually hire some writing staff for their talent and not their diversity someone could easily take these beginnings and make something decent from them. The fact is that they've moved off from the Milky Way because they wrote themselves into a corner with the way(s) ME3 ended.

I still want to go back to the Milky Way, see the Citadel and Earth again. And why not Omega too.

[QUOTE=usaokay;52022696]Can't more people from the Milky Way post-ME3 still visit Andromeda? I know they used a [sp]Geth mass relay[/sp] as a one-way trip. Would open up a hell of a lot more options.[/QUOTE] Then they would need to decide whether control, destroy or synthesis is canon. Which I don't think they will.

The "History" section at the start of Andromeda 2 asks you what Shepard's favorite color was, Red, Blue, or Green.

[QUOTE=usaokay;52022703]Dragon Age Keep had the whole choice system down to a niche when crafting your personal story decisions made in DA:O and DA2. Then again, people really hated ME3's ending, which I don't think Bioware will ever go back there again.[/QUOTE] None of the DA1 or 2 decisions are quite as profound as the fate of the Milky Way galaxy - if the answer is Destroy then they lost the Mass Relays which will have set civilisation back centuries, if the answer is Control then everyone is huskified and dead (Let's face it, despite the authors saying Indoc theory is bunk'em, the only people advocating for Control end up being controlled by the reapers), and if the answer is Synthesis, then everyone IS reapers. That would necessitate 3 entirely different forms of visitor from the Milky Way galaxy. It is not going to happen, which is why they did Andromeda. That's the corner they're writing themselves out of.

[QUOTE=Craigewan;52022707]None of the DA1 or 2 decisions are quite as profound as the fate of the Milky Way galaxy - if the answer is Destroy then they lost the Mass Relays which will have set civilisation back centuries, if the answer is Control then everyone is huskified and dead (Let's face it, despite the authors saying Indoc theory is bunk'em, the only people advocating for Control end up being controlled by the reapers), and if the answer is Synthesis, then everyone IS reapers. That would necessitate 3 entirely different forms of visitor from the Milky Way galaxy. It is not going to happen, which is why they did Andromeda. That's the corner they're writing themselves out of.[/QUOTE] Might want to rewatch the endings because almost none of that is either implied or shown. Green eyed krogans are still krogans and headbutt and jostle each other, green eyed EDI is still EDI. Blue ending shows a significant span of time passing and no one starts moaning and yelling for Isaac to make them whole again. Red is certainly blowed up but the systems proper are shown to be still intact, and Patrick said straight up the relays could be repaired over time.

[QUOTE=27X;52022728]Might want to rewatch the endings because almost none of that is either implied or shown. Green eyed Krogans are still krogans and headbutt and jostle each other, green eyed EDI is still EDI. Blue Mass Effect ending shows a significant span of time passing and no one starts moaning and yelling for Isaac to make them whole again. Red is certainly blowed up but the systems proper are shown to be still intact, and Patrick said straight up the relays could be repaired over time.[/QUOTE] And yet when you listen to the Star-Child's description of Synthesis, that is exactly what he implies. "Organics and Machines must become one another to understand each other" or something to that effect. Perfect description of the magic Reaper-ification process. If it was actually Alec Ryder's description, that'd be fine, I'm a huge Culture fan. But that is not how it is stated. And again, the ending shows something, sure, but Control has always been implied to have one end point, Reapers controlling those who would control them. Bioware's "but its magically different when Shepard does it" posited by the Star Child fools no one. And yes, I am aware that they said the Relays could be fixed, but that still sets Galactic civilisation back centuries, as I said. The point is though, even if they are as shown, the effects are too profound for them to ever acknowledge in a game because it would require three sets of vastly different characters with vastly different backgrounds/dialogue depending on what was chosen. If you take them at face value - Did they have a hard time, post-Reaper war, clawing themselves back up to a galactic civilisation? Were they waited on hand and foot by the now-subservient Reapers (and if so why didn't they bring their giant machine-manservants with them)? Or are they... whatever the fuck the green-glow of synthesis at face-value is supposed to be? (Serious, face-value synthesis is the worst ending and makes no fucking sense).

This discussion is reinforcing one thing for me: Bioware [b]need[/b] better writers.

[QUOTE=Craigewan;52022735]And yet when you listen to the Star-Child's description of Synthesis, that is exactly what he implies. "Organics and Machines must become one another to understand each other" or something to that effect. Perfect description of the magic Reaper-ification process. If it was actually Alec Ryder's description, that'd be fine, I'm a huge Culture fan. But that is not how it is stated. And again, the ending shows something, sure, but Control has always been implied to have one end point, Reapers controlling those who would control them. Bioware's "but its magically different when Shepard does it" posited by the Star Child fools no one. And yes, I am aware that they said the Relays could be fixed, but that still sets Galactic civilisation back centuries, as I said. The point is though, even if they are as shown, the effects are too profound for them to ever acknowledge in a game because it would require three sets of vastly different characters with vastly different backgrounds/dialogue depending on what was chosen. If you take them at face value - Did they have a hard time, post-Reaper war, clawing themselves back up to a galactic civilisation? Were they waited on hand and foot by the now-subservient Reapers (and if so why didn't they bring their giant machine-manservants with them)? Or are they... whatever the fuck the green-glow of synthesis at face-value is supposed to be? (Serious, face-value synthesis is the worst ending and makes no fucking sense).[/QUOTE] StarChild's explanantion is actually irrelevant because the story is told from folks are quite literally just people, and again two writers said StarKid is straight up lying, and you can take that as out of universe if you want, but the simple fact is a guy and his grandkid at the end show pretty plainly that huskification and reaperization is not an all or nothing wholesale chthulhuitastic cancerverse, the end, if it's even a thing at all, and indoctrination theory is dumbest thing ever put forth to attempt to passively aggressively retcon bad writing, and ranks up there with 'Finn is feverdreaming AT is his dying last seconds as Jake licks his hand and barks for him to wake up". Yes Mac Walters is a terrible writer at anything other than POV character studies, that's a very known thing, now more than ever.

I want the sequel to MEA to have Ryder go back to the Milky Way only to realize everyone's gone. Regardless of the ME3 ending, something went horribly wrong and there's almost no one left. Then you realize it wasn't the Reapers, it was something else, and there you have it, another Lovecraftian horror, somehow even worse. I know it's fanfiction-tier but to be honest I've read fanfictions much better than 90% of what Bioware wrote within the last 5 years.

The moral of the story is to never have multiple endings with drastically different galaxy-spanning consequences if you plan on making a sequel.

Finally finished Andromeda yesterday. It's definitely a bit messy but I enjoyed it. Now I just want to see what DLC they end up making for it. I hope the multiplayer gets as much update attention as ME3 did.

They go back to the Milky Way but everyone is dancing like Shepard so they leave again.

[QUOTE=DeEz;52022805]The moral of the story is to never have multiple endings with drastically different galaxy-spanning consequences if you plan on making a sequel.[/QUOTE] Why couldn't they just go with "all the Reapers die" or something similar and that was it, you live with the galaxy you have shaped.

[QUOTE=yellowoboe;52022836]They go back to the Milky Way but everyone is dancing like Shepard so they leave again.[/QUOTE] Have you been to Tartarus? People can't dance in Andromeda either. Ryder is even infected with the Shepard dance. I hear it's fatal.

[QUOTE=Janus Vesta;52022860]Have you been to Tartarus? People can't dance in Andromeda either. Ryder is even infected with the Shepard dance. I hear it's fatal.[/QUOTE] Fatal for your social life, anyway. Let me tell you.

-snip- a restart fixed it [editline]28th March 2017[/editline] A restart, however, won't fix this issue. [video]https://youtu.be/b-BORlcnk18[/video] Has anybody else encountered this bugged out terminal in Podromos? Its been broken since the moment I set up the outpost.

Yeah i still don't know what that terminal is for either

I finished the main story, and all I have to ask is [sp]How the fuck did the Archon steal the Hyperion from the Nexus? The bloody thing was docked there. No one said how during(or after) the mission, just that the Archon got control.[/sp]

My biggest critique for the new series is that they failed to mention the Andromeda Initiative in the original trilogy. I had assumed that Asari Councillor who was told about the fall of Thessia was referring to it, when she says she must go prepare, but nope. To those who say they couldn't go back and put it in, yes they could have. I'll use the portal arg for portal 2 as a reference. They went back updated the game and actually went ahead and put the "party escort robot" into the end scene, thereby giving us the start of portal 2. All they had to do was put in an email in Mass Effect 2 or 3 mentioning the Andromeda Initiative. They could have mentioned it as one of the programs out there, that Shepard helped play a part to in some way.

For all my gripes with the writing, I don't mind it just being a case of the program being super-top-secret so Shepard never hears about it. Given how badly they fucked up the end of 3 it was kind of a given that there would be an ass-pull in regards to anything that wasn't a prequel. Retconning it in would honestly just be the writers going "No guys it was totally a thing, see!"

[QUOTE=Janus Vesta;52022860]Have you been to Tartarus? People can't dance in Andromeda either. Ryder is even infected with the Shepard dance. I hear it's fatal.[/QUOTE] I got Ryder drunk and he just started doing the Shepard dance on a table before passing out. I think I accidentally made him gay too. Kadara changes people I guess. :vs:

[QUOTE=Loadingue;52022840]Why couldn't they just go with "all the Reapers die" or something similar and that was it, you live with the galaxy you have shaped.[/QUOTE] I think they were trying to avoid a cliche ending; unfortunately, that kind of ending is cliche because it's satisfying :v: My headcanon is that the Catalyst destroys the Reapers, Shepard passes out, fade to white. Fade back in, the entire squad is in front of a huge memorial, camera pans over all the important characters we lost throughout the trilogy. One last conversation with the squad, then they exit the building. They all walk down a set of stairs as the camera pans upwards, skybox showing the Citadel in Earth orbit, fade to black, credits. Cliche as hell, but I would have been perfectly satisfied with that.

[QUOTE=Craigewan;52022698]Then they would need to decide whether control, destroy or synthesis is canon. Which I don't think they will.[/QUOTE] I wish they went with a new game coinciding with the original trilogy. I remember someone pitching a gritty noir Mass Effect game taking place on the Citadel at the same time / right before the OT and I thought that sounded awesome.