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Mass Effect: Andromeda

polonyc2 said:
for the people that finished the game, how long did it take you?...I'm a completionist and love exploring, doing all the side missions etc
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I finished the game right at 100 hours, and I felt like I'd been pretty thorough.

polonyc2 said:
so the beta test will conclude in another 2 months...thanks to everyone who's been testing the game for Bioware...I'm sure when I play it fully patched it will be through all of your hard work :D
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Ass... lol. Just trying to do our part to keep the galaxy safe Commander. ;)
 
Well, I'm down to just the bugged quests:
Overall, some of these quests are just annoying in that they ask you to find something (a data pad, a piece of Remnant/Kett tech) without markers, hell, most of the time without listing which planet the quest is on.

Edit: This is with 99% completion, 85.5 Hours, at level 68, on Normal, with Sara Ryder.

I'll wait for this first patch before I go in and restart with the brother and up the difficulty.
 
SighTurtle said:
So upon arrival in Androameda, it's stated that beacons were placed to reestablish contact with the Milky Way galaxy, but no response has come back. Found something sad about that.
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Well, it's been 634 terran years. A lot can happen in that time. Maybe the Rachni ended up killing everyone instead of the Reapers :eek:. Or they discovered Spice because it turns out Tuchanka is Arrakis :cool:.
 
polonyc2 said:
so how did you like the ending (no spoilers)?...satisfying?...not good?...better then ME3's original ending?
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I completed the game at just over a hundred hours. Level 63, with a fairly complete play through. I did miss some of those additional task quests without he markers. Some of which were bugged. Nomad Shield Crafting for example wouldn't complete for me. I had the same problem with the Aid APEX quest that the guy above had. I was able to complete PeeBee's Remnant scanner quest. The missing scientist quest has a potential bug in it that it won't complete if you kill the architect before hitting the last nav point. I happened across the Architect and killed it before I got to that stage of the quest.

First and foremost, there are two major aspects to the finale of any Mass Effect game. 1.) The story. How the ending feels, how the story wraps up and the prognosis for the future of those character's and the franchise. 2.) The end mission. Was it fun as a game?

On the story side Mass Effect Andromeda's ending is 100 times better than Mass Effect 3's ending. Not that this says much to be honest. I could film myself wearing an N7 hoodie, shitting in a bag, throwing it at the wall while playing the "You'll never be better than Commander Shepard song" and it would be an improvement over ME3's bullshit ending. I think Andromeda's ending was satisfying. It was interesting with great environments and relatively enjoyable. I think ME1 and ME2 had the most satisfying endings but Andromeda is close. There is a certain emotionally satisfying quality to the endings of ME1 and ME2 that make them greater than the sum of their parts. If you look back on them objectively and technically, there is no reason why Andromeda's ending shouldn't be or isn't better. The ending is meatier than that of the first two games in which they more or less just stop. This one talks about the future in some detail and gives you a sense of your crew's continued purpose and what the Initiative still has to do. In ME1 Shepard leaves the Citadel stating he'll find a way to stop the Reapers. ME2's ending is even less impactful telling you that Shepard is going to do things his or her way from then on. It took a DLC to actually flesh out the game's ending somewhat with the Arrival DLC. In that way ME:A is handled better than the rest of the series.

In Andromeda, you don't just save the day but you pave the way for an entire future and lay the ground work for a new civilization that's already beginning to diverge from the Citadel Council in the Milky Way. In the ending, the ramifications of the Pathfinder's actions and their successes or failures are touched upon and help aid in that sense of accomplishment. You don't just save the day and restore the status quo, you change the galaxy in a way that no one else probably could have. So there does feel like a pay off to the game's long run time. That said, ME1 and ME2 had something that's hard to define. I think there is a certain emotional resonance that those two games evoke during their final missions that Andromeda doesn't quite match. It should. You end up with far more time and effort vested in ME:A over the other two games. In fact, ME:A takes longer to complete than both those games and all their DLC's combined. The character driven story arcs and moments are generally good and even on par with ME3 which is one thing that game did well. I think ME:A simply feels flat in the emotional areas because the journey to the end is perhaps too long or diluted with pointless side missions and busy work. The moments that make a Mass Effect game what it is are all present, but again due to pacing they seem few and far between unless you really think about it.

This is why I have never liked the open world game formula. Sure you gain some freedom within the game's world but those games lack focus in their story telling and direction in their game play. All too often you end up wandering off on side quests and spend hours on mundane shit that may not have any impact on the future. They are distractions from the main objectives and the story. While the other games had these things, they could all be completed relatively quickly and didn't make up the bulk of the game's time line. Andromeda's story can basically be done in about 30 hours. In that sense its the same basic size as ME2 and ME3. The busy work, extra quests, mining, ground and space exploration make up the roughly 50-70 hours it will take to complete everything the current game has to offer.

When it comes to the final mission, it's the full on Mass Effect experience delivered by the first two games. The locations, environments and views provide that sense of wonder and awe that you'd expect in a science fiction epic. The game's stunning visuals deliver on that front like the franchise never has before. The battles are fast, frantic and generally fun. The boss battle is somewhat frustrating in places but overall feels enjoyable. It does a decent but not perfect job of mitigating that "I'm doing boss mechanics" feel that games fall into which can detract from their story telling. The mechanics are a modification of things we've done in the game already, but thrown at you all at once. Because of the familiarity you aren't left wondering what the fuck it is you should do, or need to look up the final fight online to get a sense of what you need to do. Again it's challenging, exciting and frantic. I'm not sure how I'll feel about it in further play throughs, but thinking back on it I enjoyed it well enough. As a final mission the game matches anything visual or technical achieved in the series thus far. The scale and consequences of it feel appropriately epic and fits the rest of the series.

That said, the ending in many ways is kind of predictable. If you really think about it, Mass Effect 1's story is a variation on the machine vs. man themes and its ending is predictable to an extent. That story usually only has two outcomes and the variations are all in the details. It's the same thing here. If you've finished the vault on Eos, chances are you can figure out what the end goal is and what happens. I will say that the details, the environments and the experience are what we expect from a Mass Effect game, both good and bad. There is far more to like about those missions and few negatives to the experience. What we didn't get was Marauder Fucking shields as our last "bad guy". There are no nonsensical human Reapers, or bad guys who shoot themselves because our character is a smooth talker who lays on the guilt so thick that it drives people to suicide.

Andromeda does break the mold of a traditional Mass Effect game ending somewhat. You don't have to wait for a suicide mission and potentially your character's last night alive to get it on with your chosen romance option. It only really locks you into the final series of events when there isn't a lot left to do. The game even warns you that this will happen. You can also enter a free play mode after the ending where you can go back and finish most missions. You do have a few choices to make at the prologue of the game ala ME1. The end rush through the game is thematically similar in some ways to ME1 and ME2. All in all I think Mass Effect Andromeda reinvents the series in a "safe" way that will allow them to continue from here with a fresh start. BioWare did a good job with the basic story, structure and feel of the game. It falls apart here and there on a pure quality basis but it seems BioWare will be addressing many of these issues Thursday with more fixes coming later.

While I enjoyed the ending and the general story of it, there is one problem in that it suffers from the "push a button and all your problems will be solved" plot device that ME3 had. In this case it's a lot less retarded than the space magic ending of ME3 but a bit contrived none the less. As usual the ending likely borrows from established science fiction. In a sense, the vaults and Meridian terraform the entire cluster restoring the golden worlds via some energy that I can only compare with the Genesis Wave in Star Trek II and III. Given the Remnant can make machines or bridges out of thin air (likely through turning energy into matter) at will, I don't think that's a huge stretch for their civilization. Despite the golden worlds being restored, the game is clear on what challenges the Initiative faces going forward so it tries not to present the one push of the button as a galactic wide fix. It's just the ground world for what they need to do.

As with ME1, there are many mysteries left to explore. I think that's a good thing. We learn that the Remnant engineered the Angaran civilization and possibly much of the life in Heleus but never why. We never do fully understand what the Scourge truly is, where it came from or what caused the Remnant to flee with their work unfinished. We never get a concept of the Remnant / Jaardan (think is how it's spelled) and their physical forms.
 
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IdiotInCharge said:
Well, I'm down to just the bugged quests:
Overall, some of these quests are just annoying in that they ask you to find something (a data pad, a piece of Remnant/Kett tech) without markers, hell, most of the time without listing which planet the quest is on.

Edit: This is with 99% completion, 85.5 Hours, at level 68, on Normal, with Sara Ryder.

I'll wait for this first patch before I go in and restart with the brother and up the difficulty.
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It took me like 2 hours to find all those damn Manifestos. They're all out in the open on Havaral, you can't miss any.

https://mic.com/articles/172118/mas...tions-where-to-find-them-on-havarl#.zAIn1BpPZ
 
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Pro-tip: Augmentations applied to your melee weapon are always active when your gun is drawn. However, your gun augs only work on your equipped gun.
Melee weapons also get the "Weapon" augment bonus and have up to 5 slots, which is a huge advantage.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Pro-tip: Augmentations applied to your melee weapon are always active when your gun is drawn. However, your gun augs only work on your equipped gun.
Melee weapons also get the "Weapon" augment bonus and have up to 5 slots, which is a huge advantage.
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Good tip. I haven't done much with melee weapons, I'll have to craft one and put a bunch of Augments on it to try out. You're sure melee weapon augments do work even when using another weapon?? If so it would be worth just stacking Kinetic Coils on it, although a couple of other augments always being active would be nice too.
 
Yeah you press F to use a melee attack, you can never "equip" the melee weapon. So the augments are always active otherwise it makes no sense to have them at all.
I pulled the info from another forum where they claim to have verified it.
 
bmg said:
Good tip. I haven't done much with melee weapons, I'll have to craft one and put a bunch of Augments on it to try out. You're sure melee weapon augments do work even when using another weapon?? If so it would be worth just stacking Kinetic Coils on it, although a couple of other augments always being active would be nice too.
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It makes me wonder if the vintage heat sink could be put on a melee weapon and it would apply to all your guns. It would alleviate the need for thermal clips. :)
 
Human Sentinel is now my favorite class in multiplayer. The level 6 evolution turning Barricade into an electric fence just melts anything that touches it, and you can detonate multiple times. It's a life saver for wave 6 objectives. The play style for the build is unique and a lot of fun.
 
Dan_D said:
I think Andromeda's ending was satisfying. It was interesting with great environments and relatively enjoyable. I think ME1 and ME2 had the most satisfying endings but Andromeda is close. There is a certain emotionally satisfying quality to the endings of ME1 and ME2 that make them greater than the sum of their parts. If you look back on them objectively and technically, there is no reason why Andromeda's ending shouldn't be or isn't better.
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There was one aspect which would have made Andromeda's ending more satisfying for me:

You should have been able to put a bullet in the Archon's head (or some variation thereof). Having him just collapse as a secondary result of activating some terminals was pretty anticlimactic after all the shit-talking. Unless there are other ways for it to play out that I missed.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Bioware put a trans character into the game to appease SJW's. Turns out it just made them MORE ANGRY.
I hope they've learned a lesson here.

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Yeah, actually talk to each other instead of making assumptions. I think we can all learn from that.
 
the issue is that people with the issue typically agonize over it much of their lives. This is hardly a realistic portrayal and I don't believe it even needed to be there.

 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Mass Effect: Andromeda becomes an early access game after launch
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This has been happening for quite some time now, though.

As I like to say: when games became always-online, we first worried it was about anti-piracy, but little did we know it became about incomplete launches and never-ending fixes to never-finished products.

Diablo 3 became a dramatically different game over many iterations of post-1.0 releases, and continues to not be a finished product. Then again, is this the world we deserve now?
 
Litfod said:
There was one aspect which would have made Andromeda's ending more satisfying for me:

You should have been able to put a bullet in the Archon's head (or some variation thereof). Having him just collapse as a secondary result of activating some terminals was pretty anticlimactic after all the shit-talking. Unless there are other ways for it to play out that I missed.
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There is a conversation piece concerning dissection of the Archon, particularly his brain. It would seem that damaging or destroying his body would be counter-productive for research being conducted afterward, though I admit it would have felt good!
 
So I assume for any builds that rely on Tech or Biotic damage, the Heleus armor and helm are the best items to wear? Because nothing else even comes close.

tbh I am disappointed with gear in this game. I haven't used a single drop since Habitat 7. Everything is crafted. As a result I just immediately sell or deconstruct any items I find.
 
Hell, for the last half of the game, I have deconstructed everything except mods (which are only destroyed, so I sell them). I have over 100,000 single-player currency units.
 
polonyc2 said:
so how did you like the ending (no spoilers)?...satisfying?...not good?...better then ME3's original ending?
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I wasn't disappointed, the ending felt 'good'. I wasn't blown away either, but this ending wasn't designed to be an ending, simply concluding a chapter and preparing for the next one.

ME3 had EVERYTHING riding on it, all the choices, story archs and relationships you'd built over 3 games. I didn't expect it to live up to all that, but I also didn't expect it to be an insult to long time fans. ME:A is a "lighter tone" and a new beginning. I didn't have high expectations for it, but I did have some expectations. By and large I was pleased enough with the ending, but I can't say I didn't see it coming.
 
jiminator said:
the issue is that people with the issue typically agonize over it much of their lives. This is hardly a realistic portrayal and I don't believe it even needed to be there.
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As I said. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. There will always be someone who will take offence at something. You can't and shouldn't even try to please everyone at the same time.

I wonder how much of this outrage comes from actual transgender people vs sjw idiots.
 
ghostwich said:
This has been happening for quite some time now, though.

As I like to say: when games became always-online, we first worried it was about anti-piracy, but little did we know it became about incomplete launches and never-ending fixes to never-finished products.

Diablo 3 became a dramatically different game over many iterations of post-1.0 releases, and continues to not be a finished product. Then again, is this the world we deserve now?
Click to expand...

Is it really fair to call an evolving game as "unfinished?" I mean, I remember when I first started playing Destiny and The Division they were drastically different. Now they are truly fun and feel great to play, although admittedly I never had a problem with them before. Bungie's plan for Destiny was for it to be a "10 year" game so constant revisions are a good thing because it has added more game modes, more to do, and other things over time. The vast majority of games release as "complete" games so your generalization is not really fair.

And since we are in a Mass Effect thread, I can say that the game felt very complete to me other than the sometimes distracting facial animations. I beat the game this past Saturday and I can say that it's my favorite Mass Effect out of all of them. I will jump back in it when this patch drops to see the differences and maybe finish up some tasks.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Overall, some of these quests are just annoying in that they ask you to find something (a data pad, a piece of Remnant/Kett tech) without markers, hell, most of the time without listing which planet the quest is on.
Click to expand...

If you think that's annoying, go back to one of the older Mass Effect games. I beat Andromeda on Saturday morning this past weekend, and went back to play Mass Effect 3 and man going backwards is hard. The controls are so rigid and robotic-like, and the biggest problem is the lack of being able to track/locate quests objectives. I mean, they're all like this: "Go to the Citadel and talk to this person to do this," or, "Go here and do that" with literally no markers anywhere on where to go. Especially on the Citadel I just end up running all over the damn place trying to see if a interact icon comes up next to an NPC. Just two nights ago I was running around the Citadel and I talk to one of the people and completed a quest by giving them schematics to something I didn't even know I was looking for.

Yes, some of the quests in Andromeda are not tracked to the pinpoint location but that's the point for those quests and the other 95% of the quests are accurately tracked to their locations so it's still a massive improvement over the previous games. Hell, going back to Mass Effect 3 and going to the enormous quest list I am always trying to select a quest I want to do in vein thinking that it will somehow track it and give me an idea on where to go, so I just end up going through missions that end up getting listed on the Galaxy Map and hoping the others show up if I play the other missions and complete them. Apparently some of them are only complete-able once you do other main story missions but it's still incredibly frustrating to have an ever-expanding quest list without being able to track any of them.

Note: I gave up on two of the quests I can't do... one is a Liam quest where it says I have to evaluate Kadara for an outpost which I can't complete for some reason and the other is "work with Reyes," but I don't remember what that quest line is called. So hopefully this upcoming patch will fix those two so I can go back and finish them.
 
zamardii12 said:
It's not really a spoiler because it's mentioned very early in the game how many arks there are, and at some point it's mentioned that other races are on one of the missing arks.
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The other races are supposed to be aboard a fifth Ark, not the four "first wave" arks.

Litfod said:
There was one aspect which would have made Andromeda's ending more satisfying for me:

You should have been able to put a bullet in the Archon's head (or some variation thereof). Having him just collapse as a secondary result of activating some terminals was pretty anticlimactic after all the shit-talking. Unless there are other ways for it to play out that I missed.
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Agreed. It's my one issue with it but strangely, that's the Mass Effect way to do things. ME1, ME2, and ME3 were all the same way for the most part.

Frraksurred said:
I wasn't disappointed, the ending felt 'good'. I wasn't blown away either, but this ending wasn't designed to be an ending, simply concluding a chapter and preparing for the next one.

ME3 had EVERYTHING riding on it, all the choices, story archs and relationships you'd built over 3 games. I didn't expect it to live up to all that, but I also didn't expect it to be an insult to long time fans. ME:A is a "lighter tone" and a new beginning. I didn't have high expectations for it, but I did have some expectations. By and large I was pleased enough with the ending, but I can't say I didn't see it coming.
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Agreed all around. The ending to Andromeda, while predictable was satisfying. ME3 was always going to be a disappointment for some because of the hype surrounding it and due to the fact that some of those choices had to be abandoned in the final chapter. They'd never see real fruition or realization due to time / budget constraints.

zamardii12 said:
Is it really fair to call an evolving game as "unfinished?" I mean, I remember when I first started playing Destiny and The Division they were drastically different. Now they are truly fun and feel great to play, although admittedly I never had a problem with them before. Bungie's plan for Destiny was for it to be a "10 year" game so constant revisions are a good thing because it has added more game modes, more to do, and other things over time. The vast majority of games release as "complete" games so your generalization is not really fair.

And since we are in a Mass Effect thread, I can say that the game felt very complete to me other than the sometimes distracting facial animations. I beat the game this past Saturday and I can say that it's my favorite Mass Effect out of all of them. I will jump back in it when this patch drops to see the differences and maybe finish up some tasks.
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It wouldn't be fair to judge the multiplayer too harshly because it will evolve and change just as Mass Effect 3's did. Every AAA multiplayer title gets refined after players give the developer feedback. The same game always needs to be retuned constantly as new content is added. It makes sense for the developer to do this because added content keeps the game fresh and can bring new players into it (impacting sales) and incentivize players who may have dropped the game to come back. It makes financial sense for the developer. It worked perfectly with Mass Effect 3 as it remains relatively popular. When it first came out I wasn't all that into it. With a few more maps, weapons, character classes and enemies I was far more interested in it and I've logged many, many hours in the game since. Similarly, Mass Effect Andromeda's multiplayer should evolve over the next year or so as it's predecessor did.

The single player on the other hand shouldn't be evolving in the same sense. After a release of a single player story based RPG, there shouldn't be anything to do but patch a handful of bugs and resolve technical issues that inevitably get missed during QC. Single player RPG's do not evolve and shouldn't evolve beyond potential DLC at a later date. I think many people would agree that DLC should only be offered when there is enough content to justify the cost and that this content should be things that either couldn't have been fit into the original game due to time constraints or things that couldn't be done at all in the original game for one reason or another. What we don't like is shit like "From Ashes" which was clearly meant to be an integral part of Mass Effect 3 that was gated behind a pay wall. Notice that this was not done with Andromeda. For the most part Mass Effect DLC is what DLC should be. It rounds out and expands the original game with ideas or content that couldn't have been integrated in the original game for one reason or another. Most provide a relatively solid value for your money.

That's the only "evolution" a single player RPG should have after launch. I'm one of the most ardent fans of the series and even I won't allow BioWare the excuse of the game "evolving" as a reason for it's shoddy state. While I think Andromeda is a good game overall, it shouldn't have launched in the state it's in. It was as though the game were "completed" without the benefit of any significant quality control.
 
If you got an outpost on Kadara, then you likely bypassed something for that questline (if you didn't, you f#cked up).

And Reyes is a pretty big and unexpected story thing- on Kadara. Might want to revisit it for both, because you cannot settle the planet without settling the issue with Reyes.

On ME3 questing: ME3 is old enough that just Googling the title of the quest gets you where you need to go. I usually had tabs of them open for those that weren't tracked, or for those that required me to go to places that I could not go to until a certain point.

MEA is like that to a degree of course, but instead of not knowing where to scan on the Galaxy map, you don't know where to drive to on the expansive maps. I won't say that it's better or worse, but it is annoying, and like ME3 they could have done a better job letting you know what's what, particularly if you're given information in-game that may be extremely helpful but somehow that information isn't included in the quest log.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Mass Effect: Andromeda becomes an early access game after launch
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I see two all too common problems exemplified in this article:

The negatives and whining are way overstated and the expectations of what the patches can and will do are also overstated.

People like that have been and will continue to be disappointed no matter what happens and my advice to them would be go play something else and move on.

No Man's Sky is an Early Access Game at best. Not this. Let's get real here.
 
Dan_D said:
The single player on the other hand shouldn't be evolving in the same sense. After a release of a single player story based RPG, there shouldn't be anything to do but patch a handful of bugs and resolve technical issues that inevitably get missed during QC. Single player RPG's do not evolve and shouldn't evolve beyond potential DLC at a later date. I think many people would agree that DLC should only be offered when there is enough content to justify the cost and that this content should be things that either couldn't have been fit into the original game due to time constraints or things that couldn't be done at all in the original game for one reason or another. What we don't like is shit like "From Ashes" which was clearly meant to be an integral part of Mass Effect 3 that was gated behind a pay wall. Notice that this was not done with Andromeda. For the most part Mass Effect DLC is what DLC should be. It rounds out and expands the original game with ideas or content that couldn't have been integrated in the original game for one reason or another. Most provide a relatively solid value for your money.

That's the only "evolution" a single player RPG should have after launch. I'm one of the most ardent fans of the series and even I won't allow BioWare the excuse of the game "evolving" as a reason for it's shoddy state. While I think Andromeda is a good game overall, it shouldn't have launched in the state it's in. It was as though the game were "completed" without the benefit of any significant quality control.
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It's interesting you mention the pay-wall. Before Andromeda launched I wanted to go back and replay the series. So I replayed ME2 and really loved it, and then while playing ME2 there was a sale for Mass Effect 3 for $5 so I scooped that up. Once I finished ME2 I went to play ME3, but first I wanted to find the DLC to add to it since the first time I played the game (on Wii U) I didn't get to play it with any of the cool SP DLC. So, I searched all over the net and there is nowhere you can buy ME3 DLC other than Origin. So, I went to Origin and low-and-behold all the DLC can only be purchased with "Origin Points." Since I was new to this, I bought 1500 Points so I can get the Citadel DLC and then I kept adding and adding points so I can get ALL the SP DLC so I can have a complete experience since this might be the last time I play ME3 for a long time.

Once I bought all the SP DLC for ME3 guess how much I had spent in EA Points? $55 fucking dollars. I got ME3 for $5 which I thought was a deal (which apparently happens all the time for the base game), and then I still end up spending $60 total to play the complete experience. Why EA hasn't come out with a package that includes all the DLC for a single price or something is beyond greedy. Especially for a old game like this, and from what I could tell the DLC never has gone on sale for ME3 so it will forever be locked behind a price-locked pay wall. Pretty shitty.
 
polonyc2 said:
Mass Effect: Andromeda’s sequel should ditch nearly everything about Andromeda

http://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effect-andromedas-sequel-should-ditch-nearly-everything-about-andromeda/
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So, I read that article and while the author does make some good points it's clear to me that he's s fedora wearing, Starbucks slurping, VW driving, Apple worshipping, wannabe intellectual hipster. I do agree that there are some themes in Mass Effect Andromeda that could have been interesting if explored further, but this guy misses the point. Not every piece of entertainment should delve into all of those themes and when they do, we often end up with bullshit like Mass Effect 3's ending. A lot of the crap that this guy probably likes has a fatalistic or nihilistic end. I do agree with his take on Tann and the uprising, but this shit:

“Life reached an evolutionary milestone when it climbed onto land from the ocean, but those first fish that climbed onto land ceased to be fish,” warns one character in Death’s End, the final novel of the trilogy. “Similarly, when humans truly enter space and are freed from the Earth, they cease to be human. So, to all of you I say this: When you think about heading into outer space without looking back, please reconsider. The cost you must pay is far greater than you could imagine.”

This is nonsense. I don't want games to become overly philosophical and fucking preachy. A good story doesn't need to do that all the time or necessarily at any time. I'd also disagree with his idea because what makes us human isn't our fucking planet.

I disagree with his entire premise that the next Mass Effect needs to ditch everything about Andromeda. While the Kett aren't particularly interesting, we have only seen one potential facet of the species. Sovereign and his motives weren't clear, nor was he particularly interesting beyond his amazing dialog or the fact that he was a sentient starship. When the game's evolved, the motivation and story behind the Reapers went from interesting and thought provoking to fucking retarded. Sovereign was cheapened from an "intelligence beyond our understanding" to a barely sentient pawn of some cosmic scale piece of software with a flaw in it's core logic. In other words, we should give BioWare a chance to develop the Kett. Chances are they can't do worse than they did with the Reapers. The Reapers seemed more interesting to start with but the reality is that Sovereign, despite claims to the contrary is one dimensional as fuck. The common Geth you kill in the game aren't that interesting either until they were fleshed out in subsequent games. Similarly, the Kett could serve someone or something more interesting and get better as they are fleshed out over time.

The Angaran aren't interesting either. The story with them can't really go any further without getting into their origins. Their origin is the only interesting part about them.

The Angaran aren't interesting in themselves but the fact that the Remnant created them is. BioWare could go a lot of directions with this and it may simply be that the Remnant created them as a way to preserve themselves and that the Angaran are the Jardaan / Remnant, or at least their descendants. The game keeps asking the question as to why the Angaran were created and what it means for them. There are some interesting ways this idea could be developed.

The point is, outside of the appearance and detail of the universe, nothing original was really done in Mass Effect 1 in terms of story telling that hadn't been done or asked in other mediums in the past. ME1 is often praised for it's story telling despite it's villain and their motivations being no clearer than that of the Kett and no more interesting or even intelligent. Sovereign was interesting only because he was a common theme in a unique wrapper that we hadn't seen before. He told us nothing and left us to our imaginations. It's no wonder their actual motivations were less than enthralling once revealed. We had placed too high and expectation on BioWare at that point to deliver more than they did.

Cliff notes:
Article Author is wrong
Author is likely a hipster
 
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zamardii12 said:
Why EA hasn't come out with a package that includes all the DLC for a single price or something is beyond greedy. Especially for a old game like this, and from what I could tell the DLC never has gone on sale for ME3 so it will forever be locked behind a price-locked pay wall. Pretty shitty.
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I can't disagree with this and it's an example of the kinds of things EA does to continue to earn ire.

Hell, even Ubisoft does the right thing and offers the flat package with the season pass and that sort of thing and you can work from there with GMG, CD-keys, discounts, and the rest of it. Usually you see regular, deluxe, and then uber limited crazy and you can work from there. EA really should do the same thing.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
So I assume for any builds that rely on Tech or Biotic damage, the Heleus armor and helm are the best items to wear? Because nothing else even comes close.

tbh I am disappointed with gear in this game. I haven't used a single drop since Habitat 7. Everything is crafted. As a result I just immediately sell or deconstruct any items I find.
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For tech I think the Angaran armor beats out Heleus. I'm using rank 6 items, and although I have researched the Heleus gear I have not yet crafted any. Great for power damage, but the Angaran basically matches it for tech damage.

Rank 6 Heleus = 34% power damage, 12% weapon damage, 22 Damage Resistance.

Rank 6 Angaran = 33% tech damage, 33% tech duration, 35% shields, 21% tech construct damage.

Heleus is obviously great for those who want to switch between combat, tech and biotic with profiles. No other armor benefits everything across the board. Less spots for augmentations with Heleus as well, can close the gap by getting 8 extra DR on another armor set (or whatever you want with 4 aug slots).

I have not used it yet but the Remnant armor is also interesting. It focuses more on health/shield regen and delay reduction instead of a flat out boost to health/shields/DR. That is easy to dismiss but in actual use I'll bet the Remnant armor does more for survivability than straight up boosts to health or shields or DR.
 
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Remnant Armor is nice and especially if you find yourself in situations where you feel like you're taking hits and healing options are few and far between. Looks pretty sweet, too.
 
zamardii12 said:
It's interesting you mention the pay-wall. Before Andromeda launched I wanted to go back and replay the series. So I replayed ME2 and really loved it, and then while playing ME2 there was a sale for Mass Effect 3 for $5 so I scooped that up. Once I finished ME2 I went to play ME3, but first I wanted to find the DLC to add to it since the first time I played the game (on Wii U) I didn't get to play it with any of the cool SP DLC. So, I searched all over the net and there is nowhere you can buy ME3 DLC other than Origin. So, I went to Origin and low-and-behold all the DLC can only be purchased with "Origin Points." Since I was new to this, I bought 1500 Points so I can get the Citadel DLC and then I kept adding and adding points so I can get ALL the SP DLC so I can have a complete experience since this might be the last time I play ME3 for a long time.

Once I bought all the SP DLC for ME3 guess how much I had spent in EA Points? $55 fucking dollars. I got ME3 for $5 which I thought was a deal (which apparently happens all the time for the base game), and then I still end up spending $60 total to play the complete experience. Why EA hasn't come out with a package that includes all the DLC for a single price or something is beyond greedy. Especially for a old game like this, and from what I could tell the DLC never has gone on sale for ME3 so it will forever be locked behind a price-locked pay wall. Pretty shitty.
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You answered your own question: "Why EA hasn't come out with a package that includes all the DLC for a single price or something is beyond greedy." This is exactly the point. Also, the system they have in place has a psychological impact of hiding the costs from the consumer. You figure your still getting a deal because you got the game for $5. Before you know it you paid full price for a 5+ year old game. Outside of the ending, it's actually a good price for the time you can sink into it. The game is a lot of fun despite some issues. The DLC's for it are fucking fantastic overall. EA knows it and this system allows them to make money on it. It works more often than you might think so they'll never tear down the paywall for it. It was many years after release before ME2 had it's DLC go on sale.
 
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