[Megathread] Mass Effect Andromeda

[I Push Buttons]

usually I'm fairly easy to please, but Mass effect 3 is one of those rare exceptions. the thing is... if it were stand alone game? I would likely still grumble at the ending, but it wouldn't have hit me as much as it did and most of the things that bothered me? wouldn't bother me nearly as much if at all. but... it was a sequel to two of my favorite games of all time, and because of that because those were the characters I spent a LOT of hours with, the world that i spend a LOT of time with, what was done to them in the final game hit me is hard as it did. and some of the worst offenses are thanks to the same guy who is now a project lead on Andromeda. I liked a few moments in ME3 and they definitely improved the gameplay a LOT (also if there is one positive thing I will say with no reservations what so ever? soundtrack is top notch. I still listen to it semi regularly), but overall experience? yeah :/

Andromeda a fresh start, with all new characters, all new galaxy, so I'm cautiously reserving judgement. but if I didn't love ME1 and ME2 as much as I did? I would very likely just give up on the series, the way I gave up on Heroes of Might and Magic sequels (and just like I gave up on DOctor who midway through 11's run). and who knows, maybe like with HOMM, I end up giving up on Mass effect after Andromeda. or maybe it will be awesome and I will not. I just don't know and that's kinda the key, because what ME3 did was to kill that "day one buy" trust in the franchise for me.

I thought the ME3 ending was ok from a "defeating the Reapers" angle. It was pretty shit with regard to all of your decisions/companions up to that point.

But you had just spent three games hearing about how the Reapers are an invincible all-powerful force that has successfully cleansed the galaxy for hundreds of thousands of years. So the idea that we could ever conventionally defeat them just didn't fit.

If it wasn't deus ex little kid AI, it would have been deus ex something else. The only ending that would make sense if they didn't pull some bullshit out of thin air to defeat the Reapers would be us losing in the end.

[Witchblade77]

I thought the ME3 ending was ok from a "defeating the Reapers" angle. It was pretty shit with regard to all of your decisions/companions up to that point.

But you had just spent three games hearing about how the Reapers are an invincible all-powerful force that has successfully cleansed the galaxy for hundreds of thousands of years. So the idea that we could ever conventionally defeat them just didn't fit.

If it wasn't deus ex little kid AI, it would have been deus ex something else. The only ending that would make sense if they didn't pull some bullshit out of thin air to defeat the Reapers would be us losing in the end.

except. we
1. did defeat a reaper in ME1. it took a lot, but remember, it was a reaper WITH a geth fleet.
2. got serious hints in ME2 that a weapon existed that took down the reaper. not like the crucible, actualy weapon, because reaper we visit to get the IFF? was taken down by that specific weapon. which for some reason goes nowhere. we stop their expedited arrival in the last ME2 DLC which SHOULD mean that they have to hoof it now, while we have time to work on something. instead what do we do? jail Shepard and sped 6 month more denying something we knew about for years now. its something that bothered me since ME2 actualy, this "ah yes reapers, we have dismissed those claims" ok, I can see in public you may want to, not to cause panic. but in private - we should have been working on weapons. and could have been, what with all the parts of sovereign AND that evidence of a planetary weapon that took down a reaper in a past.

the whole point in the first two games is that we are told that reapers are invincible, that they cannot be defeated, blah blah blah.. and yet... here we are. defeating them. its not so hopeless after all! we can learn from prior cycles, we could LEARN from Vigil (which gets just about forgotten). and don't even get me started on sudden changed motivation of the reapers. or dear god, Leviathan :/ (which incidentally, should have allowed us to defeat the reapers on its own)
but instead we hit a reset button, AGAIN, because someone (Mac Walters) decided that its a good idea to make a THIRD GAME IN A SERIES into a good entry point.

yes it would have taken something, but they COULD have built up based on the prior to games instead of pulling this ridiculous transhumanist mugguffin out of their asses which incidentally goes against the themes that we've been building up for the rest of the series - you know, strength through diversity? nope, the best future is making everyone essentially the same >_> ooookey then.

crucible could have been that weapon. instead of bring up that bullshit kid, they could have skipped him all together, and use the crucible as an, you know actualy weapon? this is why the only way I can even tolerate ME3 nowadays is with Mehem installed. its my version of Batman vs Superman director's cut. still doesn't fix ridiculously acted Lex, or the whole Martha cheesiness, but at least makes a little bit more sense now.

ME3 had a lot of issues, some of them due to writers writing themselves into various corners via Suicide mission, and some of it, because someone (Mac Walters) decided to put his own spin on the story in THE LAST INSTALLMENT.

meh.

[I Push Buttons]

except. we
1. did defeat a reaper in ME1. it took a lot, but remember, it was a reaper WITH a geth fleet.
2. got serious hints in ME2 that a weapon existed that took down the reaper. not like the crucible, actualy weapon, because reaper we visit to get the IFF? was taken down by that specific weapon. which for some reason goes nowhere. we stop their expedited arrival in the last ME2 DLC which SHOULD mean that they have to hoof it now, while we have time to work on something. instead what do we do? jail Shepard and sped 6 month more denying something we knew about for years now. its something that bothered me since ME2 actualy, this "ah yes reapers, we have dismissed those claims" ok, I can see in public you may want to, not to cause panic. but in private - we should have been working on weapons. and could have been, what with all the parts of sovereign AND that evidence of a planetary weapon that took down a reaper in a past.

the whole point in the first two games is that we are told that reapers are invincible, that they cannot be defeated, blah blah blah.. and yet... here we are. defeating them. its not so hopeless after all! we can learn from prior cycles, we could LEARN from Vigil (which gets just about forgotten). and don't even get me started on sudden changed motivation of the reapers. or dear god, Leviathan :/ (which incidentally, should have allowed us to defeat the reapers on its own)
but instead we hit a reset button, AGAIN, because someone (Mac Walters) decided that its a good idea to make a THIRD GAME IN A SERIES into a good entry point.

yes it would have taken something, but they COULD have built up based on the prior to games instead of pulling this ridiculous transhumanist mugguffin out of their asses which incidentally goes against the themes that we've been building up for the rest of the series - you know, strength through diversity? nope, the best future is making everyone essentially the same >_> ooookey then.

crucible could have been that weapon. instead of bring up that bullshit kid, they could have skipped him all together, and use the crucible as an, you know actualy weapon? this is why the only way I can even tolerate ME3 nowadays is with Mehem installed. its my version of Batman vs Superman director's cut. still doesn't fix ridiculously acted Lex, or the whole Martha cheesiness, but at least makes a little bit more sense now.

ME3 had a lot of issues, some of them due to writers writing themselves into various corners via Suicide mission, and some of it, because someone (Mac Walters) decided to put his own spin on the story in THE LAST INSTALLMENT.

meh.

1. It took the entire citadel fleet (which was entirely wiped out) AND the Alliance Arcturus fleet (which suffered immensely as well) to just barely defeat one single Reaper, and only because it harmed itself empowering Saren. Yes, all Reapers aren't sovereign level capital ships... But there were hundreds of those (most of the reapers engaged in space combat), and thousands of destroyers (mostly engaged on the ground). The codex said Reaper capital ships could destroy DREADNOUGHTS (the largest most powerful ships we could bring to bear against them) in a single hit... In 2186 there were ~125 Dreadnoughts in Citadel Space (39 Turian, ~39 Geth, 21 Asari, 16 Salarian, 9 Human, 1 Volus). So they already outnumbered our most powerful ships multiple times over.

Not to mention a large portion of the fleets were almost instantly wiped out as the invasion began. The Alliance literally lost two full fleets and half of another instantly (basically 1/3 of the entire Alliance Navy).

2. If you read the investigation of that weapon, Cerberus found it and said it was defunct/of no use. Not to mention that weapon, as devastating as it was, still lost... As that race no longer existed and the Reapers were still harvesting.

[Kithelle]

https://forum.bioware.com/topic/5749...ng-our-forums/

The announcement and reasoning is still up, but they'll completely purge the boards by October 25th.

TL;DR, bioware devs are no longer reading their own forums, and thus they see no reason to keep them around with other communities like reddit and tumblr.

So the typical complaints I've seen in other games where devs use other media in lieu of their own forums and website.

[Witchblade77]

1. It took the entire citadel fleet (which was entirely wiped out) AND the Alliance Arcturus fleet (which suffered immensely as well) to just barely defeat one single Reaper, and only because it harmed itself empowering Saren. Yes, all Reapers aren't sovereign level capital ships... But there were hundreds of those (most of the reapers engaged in space combat), and thousands of destroyers (mostly engaged on the ground). The codex said Reaper capital ships could destroy DREADNOUGHTS (the largest most powerful ships we could bring to bear against them) in a single hit... In 2186 there were ~125 Dreadnoughts in Citadel Space (39 Turian, ~39 Geth, 21 Asari, 16 Salarian, 9 Human, 1 Volus). So they already outnumbered our most powerful ships multiple times over.

Not to mention a large portion of the fleets were almost instantly wiped out as the invasion began. The Alliance literally lost two full fleets and half of another instantly (basically 1/3 of the entire Alliance Navy).

2. If you read the investigation of that weapon, Cerberus found it and said it was defunct/of no use. Not to mention that weapon, as devastating as it was, still lost... As that race no longer existed and the Reapers were still harvesting.

1. you are forgetting that this entire fleet was also fighting an entire fleet. they weren't just fighting a single reaper, they were fighting the GETH fleet. it took couple of well placed hits by a single ship called Normandy to take that reaper down while the rest of the fleet was keeping geth busy. and that's BEFORE we did any research on sovereign fragments and their shielding technology. and no, the fleets weren't instantly wiped out.

2. yes, becasue Cerberus is sooo very trustworthy, they totally wouldn't try to hide any information from the rest of the galaxy, no way. we don't know why that race lost. maybe they developed that weapon too late into the cycle. we. don't. know. because we never bothered to research it, they just abandoned those threads, just like they abandon those interesting dark matter hints on Hailstrom.

there were a LOT of ways they could have ended mass effect 3. a LOT. for god's sakes, that inclusion of Leviathan undermined so much of the original ending, sometimes I wonder why they even added it, it only made narrative less coherent. they have chosen to ending in the most ridiculous abrupt way possible. a way so damn unscientific and pointless that it makes Fallout 3 ending before the DLC look reasonable (you know the one where you could be there at the end with a super mutant who is immune to radiation and yet he refused to go in and press the damn button because its your destiny or some crap, aka we must kill off protagonist at all costs even if it makes zero narrative sense) its amazing how much more coherent (still crappy and full of plot holes especially with that whole Normandy picking up your crewmates while Harbinger politely waits, or the whole mechanics of that transporter beam in a first place, etc, but not nearly as crappy) the ending works if you just remove the star child and leave it at pressing the button at the citadel, ostensibly activating the crucible.

but if only those were the only issues with ME3. if only. there is a reason I'm comparing it to Batman vs Superman. up to and including there being a number of people who didn't have the issues with it that I have. i can only speak for myself and people who agree with me (which do indeed exist). heck, here's another comparson for you. ME3 is basically starship troopers the movie. on its own, if you just take ME3 as a standalone game, forget any other games etc in the series? its pretty good. kinda like Starship troopers as long as you forget that its supposed to be based on a book - it works pretty well. but... its supposed to be based on a book which it doesn't at all do justice, just like ME3, in my and a few other people's opinions - doesn't do justice to ME1 and ME2. and these same people? are not working on Andromeda. yeah, I'm apprehensive. becasue fresh start or not, its still supposed to be a mass effect game and that gives me a pause. oh well... the worst that can happen is that it sucks and I say good bye to the franchise that (and I'm not exaggerating) changed my life.

[Elim Garak]

1. you are forgetting that this entire fleet was also fighting an entire fleet. they weren't just fighting a single reaper, they were fighting the GETH fleet. it took couple of well placed hits by a single ship called Normandy to take that reaper down while the rest of the fleet was keeping geth busy.

That hit only worked because Sovereign's shield was down, because Shepard incapacitated Sovereign while it was in the Saren's body.

[Witchblade77]

That hit only worked because Sovereign's shield was down, because Shepard incapacitated Sovereign while it was in the Saren's body.

but it also showed that their shields COULD be incapacitated. and SHOULD have been studied. and apparently - WERE studied enough seeing as we were able to bring down reapers in ME3 (whether with thresher maws or with quarian orbital fleets). they could have used all of those little plot threads left in the first 2 games and worked with those instead of doing a soft reset on the franchise in a final game. that star child makes no sense. prothean archives on Mars suddenly having information we haven't found in decades make no sense, especially given that we HAD awesome archives that had a LOT of information and we knew it was relevant, not just because of the backdoor transport to citadel, but because of Vigil. characters acting out of character, auto dialogue, ostensibly smart and capable characters making ridiculous choices as a plot device, activation sequence involving... shooting the tubes? its just.. nope. lets drop all those plot threads in favor of .. well.. what we got :/

I can only hope that writing in Andromeda would be better then that.

[Matt0193]

I was more than a bit disappointed to find out that I had to participate in ME3 MP to improve my chances in SP and then I started playing MP.... I enjoyed the hell out of the ME3 MP. Fairly well done in my opinion.

I didn't play ME3 at launch, was the website not available? You could reach and maintain 100% contribution from assets through that alone as of Jan '15, which even without the extended cut DLC you could've reached the highest Destroy ending.

[Deleted]

You sure played and discussed it a lot for it being garbage. Guess it really wasn't garbage after all unless of course your name is Oscar.

Played it because i needed resources for the ending (fun times) and saw all those challenges that needed a stiff fisting.
What can i say, i'm a slave for perfection and i enjoyed completing arbitrary challenges more than the game itself.

[callipygoustp]

I didn't play ME3 at launch, was the website not available? You could reach and maintain 100% contribution from assets through that alone as of Jan '15, which even without the extended cut DLC you could've reached the highest Destroy ending.

Huh? This is the first I've heard of there being a website option for improving your chances of the best ending in SP. Do tell.

[Matt0193]

Huh? This is the first I've heard of there being a website option for improving your chances of the best ending in SP. Do tell.

http://n7hq.masseffect.com/galaxy_at_war/

Basically it increases your Readiness value by doing timed missions. It slowly decreases, but it's not difficult to maintain. It should still work, I used it last year.

[Witchblade77]

http://n7hq.masseffect.com/galaxy_at_war/

Basically it increases your Readiness value by doing timed missions. It slowly decreases, but it's not difficult to maintain. It should still work, I used it last year.

no, it was not available at launch. for about a year or so, you had 2 options. an IOS app (which was free, but you still needed an iphone or ipad, they never released android version) or multiplayer. app worked similarly to website, with one key difference. it took considerable time to get to the point you start with on the website and what I mean by that is that you actualy had to train up to having 5 fleets going to all 5 quadrants. you started with one. small one. another thing about launch, up until release of Extended cut if i remember correctly - well for some months after release, to get the "best" ending (aka destroy with tiny cutscene of someone's chest in a rubble taking a breath), you needed 4000 assets. which was mathematically impossible at launch without multiplayer. (or modding)

and no, I'm not pulling that number out of my ass, this was the reality and if people request, I will make an extra effort to scan the page from the official guide that I still own, where all the original readiness requirements on release are stated.

P.S. post Extended cut, you no longer need anything extra, as they reduced the requirement to 3100 to get destroy plus ending, which is possible to get with just base game.

[Nerraw]

https://twitter.com/Faburisu/status/792705921097039873

[FobManX]

I really want to replay the entire trilogy but man ME1's combat is just so clunky it makes it unbearable.

[Kathandira]

I really want to replay the entire trilogy but man ME1's combat is just so clunky it makes it unbearable.

I absolutely agree. I tried about a year ago, and just couldn't get passed how horrible the combat is now.

Shooting games have come such a long way in terms of smoothness of control that playing older games now just feel terrible.

[Lahis]

I absolutely agree. I tried about a year ago, and just couldn't get passed how horrible the combat is now.

Shooting games have come such a long way in terms of smoothness of control that playing older games now just feel terrible.

Honestly ME1 combat was never good, but other aspects of the game are so excellent that people mostly overlooked it.

There's a reason why Bioware completely overhauled the combat system in ME2.

[Kathandira]

Honestly ME1 combat was never good, but other aspects of the game are so excellent that people mostly overlooked it.

There's a reason why Bioware completely overhauled the combat system in ME2.

Completely agreed. The rest of the game makes up for it.

[Tommy T]

I liked the combat.
Melting faces with OP shotguns was hella fun.

[Aeula]

Didn't really like the first mass effect at all personally. The second and third were way better.

[May90]

I think ME1 combat was fine, but the balance was off... Once you hit level 30 or so, you are practically unstoppable, even on Insanity!