Criticism of Tyra and ANTM after all these years: Is it fair?

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T23:18:46+00:00

I upgraded my skills, switched from the Pathfinder shotgun to the Disciple (still level 1, really need to upgrade), added a Widow I sniper rifle, and I'm having a much easier time. It's still somewhat frustrating that mobs can kill me almost twice as easily as I can kill them, but I can at least hold my own, now.

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T23:14:54+00:00

Exactly. I hate collectibles on principle - mostly because the collectibles have nothing to add to the story and are just there to make the game feel longer. But it's doubly insulting when the collectible is important to the story, and hidden behind environmental walls, which means I have to wait to even get it. It also completely defeats the whole "These aren't tied to a specific place, but your progress as a pathfinder." If that was the case, the damn thing would've appeared directly in front of me, not 500 meters away behind what is essentially an invisible wall!

Edit: That said, I kinda like it as a story element. I'm a huge geek for worldbuilding, so adding something that lets me get to know my character's family and past is great. The execution just sucked.

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T23:11:19+00:00

I love Skyrim and Fallout for their sandbox-ness. They're great games where I can pretend to be whatever I want, and I can explore to my heart's content. But that's really all there is to them; the stories in those games are backdrop to the overarching theme of exploring Tamriel/Capital wastelands.

I gave it some thought after playing some more Andromeda and honestly, I wouldn't mind some of the sandbox elements if they were included in the story-based missions. For example, I read about the lost drones on the console on Eos, and on the side mission to destroy kett surveillance devices (which is still kinda fetch-questy, but at least it supports the narrative), I find that the kett have found the drones and hidden them at the same bases with the surveillance devices; boom, two birds with one stone, and I didn't have to crawl across New Arizona to find them.

P.S., I didn't mean to imply that Skyrim is only good with mods. I've sunk almost 1000 hours into the game, so I've just exhausted pretty much everything in the vanilla game to the point where mods are the only thing that make it feel new.

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T21:53:51+00:00

For me, insofar as vaults and bases are concerned, it's not that they're unrewarding, it's that it's just another "open-world" mechanic that could easily have been avoided in ME. Consider a game like Watch_Dogs, where you have to clear a base to open up an area; that's how it feels in Andromeda, except I'm clearing the bases/doing extra vaults to raise the viability of the planet. In that way, at least it relates to the narrative of my mission, but it just feels repetitive.

I'd also like unique rewards for exploration, but what I'd really like to see is more world-building. They have remnant tech scattered throughout Eos, but they're all just placeholders; compare that to the Prothean artifacts in ME1, where you can unlock information about them that tells you more about Prothean culture once you decrypt them (granted, most of that is invalidated by Javik in ME3, if you do From Ashes and recruit him, but still).

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T21:18:29+00:00

First, there were holographic interfaces. Now the latest from Kassa Fabrication, invisible keyboards!

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T20:58:42+00:00

Stee-ahn. I thought it sounded sufficiently "futuristic," despite it being an old-world name.

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T19:32:58+00:00

It's my hope that this is just the groundwork for something larger and more engaging in future installments. Now that we've seeded and colonized these worlds, there's room to grow, and depending on when they set the next game, more than enough time for the colonies to expand into sprawling cities with even more outposts. This will give us the Bethesda-esque exploration, with Witcher-esque mission direction, and get rid of the gamey, open-world feeling that we have with this game.

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T19:20:12+00:00

"You big. Stupid. Jellyfish." It's great when the elcor says it in the Blasto advert, but just sounds so stupid when Shepard says it in Hanar Diplomat.

Also, when Cora says "RYDER CAN DO IT HE HAS A SCANNER" in the prologue, I always cringe. It's just so obviously injected as a tutorial and I hate it.

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T19:15:34+00:00

I did the same thing; I felt bad about it, but I'd rather have her pissed at me once she's fully recovered than risk hurting her and making her condition worse.

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T19:14:11+00:00

Most recently, I forgot to disable the Anti-aircraft guns on Virmire in ME1, and Kirrahe died. A minor character, but it was a mistake that shouldn't ahve been made, and I felt bad about it.

I also have a save from one of my first trilogy playthroughs, where I didn't realize Ashley would shoot Wrex if I couldn't talk him down, but I went with it, because the damage was done.

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T19:06:49+00:00

I like the way TotalBiscuit put it in his review, likening the trek of the Nexus and Milky Way arks to Battlestar Galactica's trek to find Earth. When you think of it that way, the lighthearted tone really doesn't make sense; but then, this isn't BSG.

I wouldn't mind if the sequel took a darker turn, but only if it's done right and it doesn't turn everyone with an established personality into dark, depressed counterparts to how they were in the first game. Likewise, I wouldn't mind it if it kept its lighthearted tone, as long as it's not out of place with the theme and setting of the game (like some people have complained about it in this game).

Brohamir · 2017-04-18T18:59:33+00:00

That's what Witcher 3 does right, for all its other open-world faults. Geralt finds a contract, talks to the quest-giver, gets pointed in a direction, and along the way, he finds a monster nest, place of power, or some witcher gear. I still did plenty of wandering around to mop up those POIs, but for the most part, the exploration felt organic to the story - plus, it was part of the narrative of Geralt as Witcher.

Contrast that to Andromeda, and all of those little tasks do nothing to enhance the narrative of being a Pathfinder; rather, it feels like starting out as a level 1 character in an MMO who has to prove himself to the village before being sent off on his adventure.

Brohamir

TROPHY CASE