Spoilers for ME: Andromeda
Just beat ME: Andromeda a few minutes ago. I really don't get the dislike of the game. I mean was it mostly just the really serious bugs? Because, from what I remember, playing it shortly after release, and again these past few weeks, it's pretty stable. It did have a few freak outs on my PC, forcing me to hard shut down the game, and my PC on one occasion. But, I mean I've played WAY more unstable games that people can't stop praising left and right *cough Fallout: New Vegas, cough cough*.
As far as the actual game itself, it's perfectly good, quite good in a lot of places actually. I won't say it's some mind blowing piece of gaming, but honestly, the ME: OT isn't really all that amazing in retrospect either. ME:A does have some issues, but a lot of them, are pretty much similar issues from the OT.
The economy/looting system is basically pointless, as there really isn't much of anything you need or want to spend money on. The few times you do, the cost of the item in question is laughably small. Otherwise you basically just build your weapons/gear, and those don't require credits so much as just farming for resources. Which you will find tons of if you are being even slightly diligent in exploring the galaxy.
I barely bothered with gear for the most part, as playing a Biotic, Titanic God of Zoomy Destruction, basically made it frivolous. I'd upgrade maybe every 20 levels or so, because Biotic Charge + Nova + Shotgun kills pretty much anything less than an elite/boss, and those still get royally fucked up by it. Nothing really has time to hurt me with that combat style. The Charge replenishes my shields, and puts me close enough where aiming with the shotgun is unnecessary, and then I follow up with Nova Slam, if the thing is still alive (usually they aren't), Charge has cooled down, and I repeat the process. This isn't unique to ME:A though, as I recall the Vanguard being ridiculously OP in the OT as well, this fact of the universe just continued with ME:A.
I found the characters mostly enjoyable, some were more milktoast than others, and some were just delightful. The krogan Drack was a wonderful character as the "grumpy old man"....who happens to be 1400 years old, and a combat powerhouse. He had great lines, great chemistry with the rest of the crew, and I genuinely enjoyed having him in cutscenes and random banter.
The standout for me was Cora though. 1. She's got biotic powers, which is already a major plus for me. 2. She's got that sexy little shaved head but with long hair on the top style that girls can rock and look hot. 3. She also just had a personality that I enjoy immensely. She takes no shit, but she isn't a *****. She's perfectly chill and comfortable with who she is, and is happy to let people just be who they are, as long as they aren't a threat. She's feminine and gentle when things aren't exploding, but when things ARE exploding, she's literally flying into combat next to me (because she's built for Charge+Nova too), and taking names. There was really no doubt who my love interest was going to be, and she was always in my group.
The rest of the ship crew was fun, had their own little sub-missions and storylines. Suvi was fairly dull, as most of her stuff just revolved around her being religious, and usually replying with "gosh, look at all this new stuff, it really makes you think about god huh?" No Suvi...no it doesn't. It makes YOU think about it, but not me. Gil, the engineer, was also fairly annoying, as his overall demeanor, I would summarize as "Frat Boy Dudebro." He's openly rude to the Salarian pilot, and does things that are genuinely risky as hell, especially since he doesn't actually inform anyone of the changes he's making. Basically he is constantly tweaking the ship, WHILE IN FLIGHT, and doesn't actually tell anyone. So you know, when the fucking pilot tries to fly the ship, and is surprised it's not responding how he expects, he gets mad. And yeah, I agree. Rewiring the engine of a Formula 1 car, while it's racing at top speed, is dangerous at best. Not telling the fucking driver you are doing it, is just stupid IMO. I appreciate that you have to adapt the ship for the dangers of Andromeda but, for fuck's sake Gil, at least notify us when you are gutting the ship mid-flight.
But yeah, I really don't get the flak the game got. The missions, both main and side felt on par with anything in the OT, from incredibly minor things, to big choices.
If I had a big complaint, it would be the hazard system, and the ammo boxes.
So, basically every planet you run around on, has some kind of hazard at first, that is a risk to you when you are running around on foot. So it forces you to move from safe zone to safe zone. Frozen planet forces you to move to heating stations, desert planet forces you to move to shade, etc. That's fine, no big deal. The problem is, they put SO MANY of the safe zone spots all over the map, it's basically a non-issue. I was never worried about actually being out in the cold so long I might start taking cold damage, as sometimes the nodes would be so close that SAM wasn't even done telling you "Ryder, you are in a dangerous zone now" before you were OUT of the danger, and back into safe. Which made for some really annoying audio spam of "Ryder I'm detecting dangerous levels" *literally 2 seconds later* "Levels back to safe levels Ryder" *and again literally 2 seconds after THAT* "Ryder, I'm detecting dangerous levels" It just became a tedious bit of distraction, as it's entirely for the player, as the character knows damn well he's in a cold zone, cold enough to hurt him, because HE can feel it. I just kept picturing Ryder, shivering in the cold of what is basically Hoth, and having SAM say in his head "Ryder...you are currently in cold temperatures" Ryder: "...YES SAM! I FUCKING KNOW!" *growls through chattering teeth* They should've extended the distances between safe zones on some of the worlds, the cold one specifically. The desert planet, the safe zone was shade, so any shadow was basically good enough, and...ok fair, lots of shadows when you are running around ruins, so I can't really fault the GAME that *I* was clever enough to hide in the shade of a truck to get a short reprieve from the glaring sun. But still, the constant updates, both visually and audibly, got old quick.
The other thing that was annoying, was the ammo resupply. Like the safe zones, they are fucking EVERYWHERE. 1. They telegraph super early that you are about to enter a combat zone, otherwise why is it there? But it also makes the idea of having a limited ammo supply superfluous. In a combat zone filled with near infinite ammo top ups, why have weapons with ammo at all? It doesn't make me have to think tactically about my attack, rationing ammo, relying on allies and timing combos with powers to maximize damage. No it's just, bullet hose until dry, then walk 10m in any direction, and you probably are in range to refill. 2. It just feels so off putting to go into an ancient ruin, of a long dead race, so technologically advanced they can instantly terraform entire planets....and they've got an ammo locker on the floor. I mean...why? They don't use physical ammo at all, it's ALL energy weapons from the Remnant. So why would they just happen to have ammo resupply boxes, all over their ancient terraforming stations, when they can just replicate robots with fucking laser beams of death, to do any defending?
I also got annoyed with how we'd go through these ancient ruins, filled with "amazing" things, that just blow away our scientists minds, making them salivate at the thought of running tests, and learning new secrets of the ancient Remnant technology! ....except the stuff I'm actually looting out of these containers....is apparently good for nothing other than vendor trash...and I get like 50 credits off of them. Less money mind you, than if I just sold them a random trash shotgun I found on a dead Kett. And since the economy is basically pointless, it makes it very unsatisfying to go dungeon diving for these items, when I know I'm not actually going to do anything with them.
You don't use them to make new and amazing upgrades to the Tempest. You could say they give you access to the Remnant research options, to make weapons/armor from that tech tree but....you are swimming in that tech from just scanning stuff. And the objects literally do nothing to help with the research. Also, odds are good you only will be using 1-2 items from that tech tree at all, which means you will have thousands of research points left over by the end of the game....like I did.
So yeah, a lot of ludonarative dissonance with those aspects.
But again, the OT had these issues a lot too. Little things that just kept popping up to remind you "oh yeah, this is a video game, and we are making allowances for that, even if it makes no sense"
Overall though, I quite enjoyed the game. It had some great characters, the Salarian Pathfinder was a personal favorite for me as far as the wider cast, and the final fight, where everyone that you spent the whole game making alliances with, show up to help you, was sufficiently enjoyable. One moment in particular actually got me choked up and a bit teary eyed with Awesome Tears. I really think this game gets a lot more flak than it deserves. It's not perfect, and some of the warts it does have are GLARING, but no more than the source material in my mind. I am bummed it was DOA, as I would genuinely like to see more in this galaxy going forward.
