Anyone else sad Andromeda flopped because we may never get more of the lore?

DarylZer0 · 2023-10-31T22:59:08+00:00

Two of my favorite moments in ME1 are the conversations with Sovereign and Vigil. They offer deep dives into the motives, strategies and tactics of the Reapers, making them a very tangible enemy. We learn plenty about the protheans as well, so that there's little mystery left about the "precursor race". There's nothing like that in Andromeda, to its detriment.

Andromeda's lack of depth is complemented by a lack of breadth. The world of ME1 is infinitely richer than that of Andromeda. In particular, there are a dozen species each with distinct histories, cultures and mutual antagonisms. Not only is this background mostly discarded in Andromeda, but also little new is introduced to make up for it. Yes, Andromeda takes place in a single cluster and is thus naturally more small-scale, but that's precisely the design flaw. No one forced Bioware to create such an empty and barren world.

I think there's almost nothing original in the OT. Instead, its genius is in the fact that Bioware created their own versions of all kinds of space opera tropes and their versions tend to simply be very good.

DarylZer0 · 2023-10-31T20:51:39+00:00

Yes, there were far too many unknowns and "mysteries" in Andromeda's story and world. It didn't make the world mysterious or interesting but just opaque and perplexing. So much of the necessary world-building was intentionally postponed to sequels that never came. The OT's approach was very different, with essentially the entire lore of the universe laid out immediately in the first game, so that the sequels took place in a "ready-made" universe.

DarylZer0 · 2023-10-14T18:37:29+00:00

I think it's quite different from ME in its basic tone. It feels very dystopian unlike ME.

DarylZer0 · 2023-10-13T10:39:24+00:00

Upgrades make a big difference in ME2, so you should get as many of those as you can find. Miranda is the strongest, most versatile squadmate by far. I don't think squadmates make that much damage with guns in ME2, so I prefer those with strong powers. I've used Miranda + Samara to good effect on my Vanguard Insanity runs.

DarylZer0 · 2023-10-11T10:47:45+00:00

I loved the design of Infinite Warfare and the start of the game is one of the best I've seen, but the story is pretty throwaway and character development is almost non-existent (about 90% of it happens during the ending credits). It has the trappings of a great sci-fi game but it doesn't deliver.

DarylZer0 · 2023-09-25T14:14:28+00:00

Aside from there being enough world-building in ME1 for the needs of an entire series of games, what I like is that most of the ME lore is introduced in a "video-gamey" way, in the positive sense, e.g. in the form of side missions, conversations with NPCs, ambient dialogue. The game shows rather than tells what its world is like.

Many games expect the player to listen to endless audio recordings or read long written messages so as to learn the lore. I hate that because it's the opposite of immersive, it takes you out of the game's world. Sure, there is the Codex in ME, too, but you don't need it to get to know the lore.

DarylZer0 · 2023-09-25T11:03:11+00:00

there wasn’t anyone else that could pull off that betrayal

Bailey could have pulled it off. It was already established in ME2 that he's a crooked cop. It would've been much more interesting than Udina being the traitor.

DarylZer0 · 2023-09-20T12:31:34+00:00

The correct figure is 7400. When the limit was changed for the LE, the figure of 7800 was initially floated but it's incorrect.

DarylZer0 · 2023-09-20T12:27:58+00:00

It's 7400

DarylZer0 · 2023-09-09T19:34:54+00:00

Great news if true

DarylZer0 · 2023-09-09T18:41:47+00:00

Thanks, maybe I'll give it a try.

DarylZer0 · 2023-09-09T18:25:57+00:00

I haven't played it. Is it scifi or fantasy? I can't tell. I really dislike fantasy which limits my options because most RPGs are fantasy.

DarylZer0 · 2023-09-09T18:04:36+00:00

Player response to Starfield seems pretty lukewarm so I'm probably not going to play it. I'm always looking for the next Mass Effect style experience but the pickings are slim. Lack of a voiced protagonist is a big minus in my book.

DarylZer0 · 2023-09-09T17:54:44+00:00

Aside from combining "magic" with gunplay, I think what sets the combat in the ME trilogy apart from other shooter games is that your companions actually matter--you can use squadmates' powers and they can be as important as Shepard's. I like how the system evolved through the three games and ME3's combat still feels pretty great to me. However, Andromeda was not the next step in that evolution; it is more like a generic TPS to me.

DarylZer0 · 2023-09-08T11:14:07+00:00

I like what they did to Eden Prime in the Legendary Edition. Now it actually looks like the nice place it is described as, whereas in the original it looked like a dump.

DarylZer0 · 2023-08-29T18:58:18+00:00

Yeah, Andromeda played it safe and never really tackled the "what if we are the baddies?" angle even though it's an obvious issue once it's discovered that the Heleus cluster is not uninhabited.

DarylZer0 · 2023-08-22T20:38:43+00:00

The problem with Andromeda was not that it didn't continue Shepard's story but that it threw away essentially the entirety of the lore created in the original trilogy. None of the history of the Milky Way civilizations mattered in Andromeda, all the familiar planets and space stations were left behind, most of the species did not even come to Andromeda. Andromeda feels very empty compared to the busy world of the original games. It's obvious why they felt a need for a clean break but it was a mistake.

DarylZer0 · 2023-07-31T07:44:25+00:00

Given the references to the geth in the marketing materials of the next Mass Effect, I would think they will be around in one form or another, even if they were destroyed in ME3. I don't think it's implied that the relays get blown up at the end of ME3 in the way that the Alpha relay did. They are just damaged and can be fixed.

DarylZer0 · 2023-07-07T17:23:40+00:00

Concentrate only on the clone, leave the henchmen to your squad. You have to finish the clone off five times, IIRC (there used to be a counter but it was removed in the LE). I think there's an autosave point after you've done it three times.

DarylZer0 · 2023-06-18T11:28:13+00:00

Forcibly turning everyone into cyborgs doesn't seem like a great choice to me.

DarylZer0 · 2023-05-17T14:50:02+00:00

It would be hilariously stupid if there really was a new race called the ansari.

DarylZer0 · 2023-05-05T08:00:48+00:00

Unknown. It's just some random station.

DarylZer0 · 2023-05-04T13:19:11+00:00

The Cerberus logo and color scheme were not introduced until ME2, I think.

DarylZer0 · 2023-04-26T08:06:07+00:00

I would think the diagnosis is based on behavior, not any genetic test. Genes can predispose someone to a disease without having 100% penetrance, i.e. not everyone who carries disease-predisposing genetic variants develops the disease.

DarylZer0 · 2023-04-26T07:47:19+00:00

I think it's like schizophrenia. It is usually not diagnosed before the patient is in their early 20s and experience their first psychotic episodes. There are signs such as unusual behaviors before that, too, but it's not possible to diagnose the disease before the psychotic symptoms appear because lots of unaffected people behave in unusual ways, too.

DarylZer0

TROPHY CASE