Mass Effect Andromeda: Shitstorm Edition - RIP Biowear

[RG 448]

Finished the story last night, and overall it's actually a pretty good game. The premise was perfect, the execution of the story was decent, and the gameplay is much improved over past installments. The characters feel underwritten and bland at first, but by the time I got to the loyalty missions most of them had been fleshed out enough to at least be somewhat likeable and relateable, except for Peebee and Liam, who get fleshed out into bigger assholes.

The environments feel alien and most of them are gorgeous, and this really feels like its own distinct galaxy from the Milky Way. In spite of all that, the game has an absolute fuckton of technical issues it really shouldn't have, even after the graphics fix, and at times dealing with them was damn near infuriating.

Even though the ending is open-ended and some questions are left unanswered for future installments, I found the resolution of the central conflict to be satisfying. The themes of exploration and discovery are well-handled. Overall, a solid installment in the series with a few major flaws that, if Bioware acknowleges and improves on them, could be the start of an amazing new chapter in Mass Effect.

 

[Accel_Rider]

except for Peebee and Liam, who get fleshed out into bigger assholes.

Could you give examples? I have no desire to play this game, but I'm curious.

 

[DangerousGas]

Could you give examples? I have no desire to play this game, but I'm curious.

Liam is a ridiculous cunt. He effectively tries to coerce you into stealing specifications from the a garage just after you ally with them. Peebee is just inordinately narcissistic and lolrandom, which grates continually. Cora is a terminal asari fan girl, suvi is a religious loon, vetra seems chill though.

 

[Accel_Rider]

Liam is a ridiculous cunt. He effectively tries to coerce you into stealing specifications from the a garage just after you ally with them

Lol, is this GTA or Mass Effect?

 

[DangerousGas]

Sorry, that was meant to read as angara, not a garage. Yay autocorrect.

 

[RG 448]

Could you give examples? I have no desire to play this game, but I'm curious.

Liam is played off like the loose cannon type character who plays by his own rules and constantly insists he knows what he's doing, except he's a fuckup and his loyalty mission basically amounts to bailing him out after his risky endeavors blew up in his face and he put other people in serious danger.

Peebee was obviously intended to be the breakout character, and her forced eccentricities constantly fell flat for me and I was annoyed pretty much any time she was speaking or doing anything.

The difference is we can tell Liam was deliberately written to be a presumptuous bumblefuck because other characters constantly call him out for it in-game. With Peebee I still think the writers expected us to find her charming. I will say that Liam being presented as the rebel cop who plays by his own rules but doesn't get results was a nice subversion that makes me at least appreciate his role in the story, whereas Peebee is is more like a walking trope than a character most of the time.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

With Peebee I still think the writers expected us to find her charming.

Thing is, OldBioware used to be able to do that sort of thing and for it to work. Imoen in Baldur's Gate, for instance, and Jan Jansen in BG2 but it helped that they were actually competently written and funny and had character development.

Peebee, if as I suspect she's at all like Sera from DA:I, simply will make me want to slap her.

 

[RG 448]

Thing is, OldBioware used to be able to do that sort of thing and for it to work. Imoen in Baldur's Gate, for instance, and Jan Jansen in BG2 but it helped that they were actually competently written and funny and had character development.

Peebee, if as I suspect she's at all like Sera from DA:I, simply will make me want to slap her.

That's the thing, there are a few characters in Andromeda who are genuinelly likeable and charming. Jaal and Drack are good examples of that. Really it isn't new. Peebee is the wacky and eccentric scientist trope, but Liara in the first Mass Effect was essentially just the shy and socially awkward scientist trope. Granted, Bioware made her not suck from ME2 and onward by giving her a vendetta and a sort of criminal edge and making it fee like a natural progression, but I don't know if whoever's writing these new characters will be willing to put in the effort to shape Peebee into something likeable.

 

[DangerousGas]

Peebee is basically an academically-inclined sera, without the awkward 'lolpronked' mission.

 

[Lackadaisy]

Peebee is basically an academically-inclined sera, without the awkward 'lolpronked' mission.

So... just as annoying.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Peebee is basically an academically-inclined sera, without the awkward 'lolpronked' mission.

Oh fuck. Please tell me I can bump her off for real just so she doesn't shit up the rest of the game with her annoyingness.

 

[GethN7]

That's the thing, there are a few characters in Andromeda who are genuinelly likeable and charming. Jaal and Drack are good examples of that. Really it isn't new. Peebee is the wacky and eccentric scientist trope, but Liara in the first Mass Effect was essentially just the shy and socially awkward scientist trope. Granted, Bioware made her not suck from ME2 and onward by giving her a vendetta and a sort of criminal edge and making it fee like a natural progression, but I don't know if whoever's writing these new characters will be willing to put in the effort to shape Peebee into something likeable.

Liara generally succeeded as a character, even in ME1, because they made sure to develop her from the start as a character. In ME1, you have to help her stop Saren because her mother got mixed up in Saren's plans, and her reason to keep helping you logically follows from this. Throw in owing a deep debt to Shepard as a result of this, and by ME2 (and the canon interquel comics) her vendetta and continual desire to aid Shepard still makes sense, and ME3 just took this still further.

Really helps they worked pretty hard to keep Liara out of falling into typical cliches asari were usually slotted into, and her romance was only allowed after events that would logically allow for one that didn't seem implausible in hindsight.

Even Samara was well done as an asari character (Morinth not so much, but that was kinda the point), because again, they worked pretty hard to keep her from being a cliche and gave her some good story that tied into the overall plot, especially by ME3.

Haven't played Andromeda, nor do I plan to, but sounds like they got off to a bad start by making the asari character a cliche to begin with.

 

[RG 448]

Liara generally succeeded as a character, even in ME1, because they made sure to develop her from the start as a character. In ME1, you have to help her stop Saren because her mother got mixed up in Saren's plans, and her reason to keep helping you logically follows from this.

That's a firmly-established motive for being involved in the story, but even Peebee has that much going for her. Personality-wise in the first game when she wasn't just delivering exposition about Protheans and her mother, her moments were just an extension of "I'm scientist girl and my career kept me from learning social norms so I'll get adorably flustered any time someone uses a figure of speech or sarcasm because I'm just so shy and awkward."

Like the only way she could have been more cliche is if she wore glasses and did her head tentacles up in a bun for the entire game up until the love scene.

 

[GethN7]

That's a firmly-established motive for being involved in the story, but even Peebee has that much going for her. Personality-wise in the first game when she wasn't just delivering exposition about Protheans and her mother, her moments were just an extension of "I'm scientist girl and my career kept me from learning social norms so I'll get adorably flustered any time someone uses a figure of speech or sarcasm because I'm just so shy and awkward."

Like the only way she could have been more cliche is if she wore glasses and did her head tentacles up in a bun for the entire game up until the love scene.

True enough.

Then again, starting out, at worst, kinda boring and only getting better from there is definitely a better way to win people over than a character starting out grating on your nerves from day one, because at least you don't want to strangle them off the bat.

 

[RG 448]

True enough.

Then again, starting out, at worst, kinda boring and only getting better from there is definitely a better way to win people over than a character starting out grating on your nerves from day one, because at least you don't want to strangle them off the bat.

You're right about that. Liara.1 was less interesting than the rest of the cast but she wasn't annoying like Peebee is.

 

[Muttnik]

Peebee's LOLRANDOMness made me flashback to the early/mid-2000's. It's obnoxious and you can feel the life being sucked out of you at every last sad attempt at a joke.

 

[GeorgeDaMoose]

I have no idea why people keep saying Peebee is lolrandom. She's really just a self-obsessed cunt fixated too much on being the Liara of Andromeda.

 

[Ruin]

Peebee's LOLRANDOMness made me flashback to the early/mid-2000's. It's obnoxious and you can feel the life being sucked out of you at every last sad attempt at a joke.

Peebee is basically a blue reskin of that hideous annoying lesbian from DAI Sera or whatever her name was.

 

[ADN_VIII]

Peebee is basically a blue reskin of that hideous annoying lesbian from DAI Sera or whatever her name was.

Sera at least coaxed a chuckle here and there from when she would make a fool of herself. PB&J doesnt have that going since all of her lines and her personality are tripe.

 

[The Great Citracett]

Big discount today, and an enthusiastic response to match.