The_Tribunal

I finished Andromeda this morning. The game's combat kept me going until I finally started to get what they were going for. The intro is still not great but as that game went on I began to appreciate how much they emphasized exploration. Their framework for leveraging that element had so many problems but when it clicked, when you find the sanctuary caverns, the demarcated ruins, or start uncovering more of the secrets of the kett and other Heleus life it alludes to like a better Mass Effect, however fleeting those moments are.

The combat is awesome, flashing around the battlefield , chaining combos and using the variety of bitic and tech powers feels really good. It kept me engaged long enough to begin to like the new cast, though a lot of them still feel very shallow, a lot like the cast of the first. The writing became charming at a point, I couldn't help but grin at most of the scenes following loyalty missions, the night out with Drack, the cultural barrier between Jaal and Ryder, Liam's goofy compassion, it all made me invested in the story but it just took too long to get to that point.

In a lot of ways this game is the superior version of the first Mass Effect, but it utterly failed in incorporating the narrative depth of ME2. Andromeda still doesn't introduce a compelling antagonist, this series hasn't since Saren, but as a whole, the Kett are fleshed out to be a good faction with many narrative possibilities for the future, if there is any for the franchise. I hope there is one because I felt like my Ryder was an actual character at the game's conclusion, which I think is one of the good things gained from doing away with the Paragon/Renegade system. Also I didn't go with the default characters, so my Ryder looked significantly better than the ones handcrafted by Bioware, which is ridiculous. Anyway, in conclusion, I liked the game way more as I went on and I'm hoping there is a sequel in this universe.

flamethrower, annihilation, and lance. combat points went to the passive traits.

@crommi: good to hear. not buying a ps4 for one game.

@palmlykta: I'm finishing up my second playthrough of that game and thinking of writing a whole thing on how spectacular Durance is as a character.

@anonymous_jesse:

Pillars is a *good* lore dump.

@rongalaxy: yeah. he definitely has but I have no specific instances.

@artisanbreads: The creation of Fallout is an awesome story. Maybe I'm just having a crisis like the one Dan talks about in his review of Zelda. I really want to recapture the magic of playing Planescape and Fallout from my early days playing crpgs and should probably expect more of Obsidian and InXile in terms of game design, instead of just wanting them to perfect that worn formula. To make it worse, I can't even go back to those games because I really can't stand looking at them anymore. Ugh.

@fezrock: Yeah I wonder why the main stories get so bogged down. Tyranny is perhaps the worst offender in this. It was simply baffling to see my chaotic route develop into such a boring archetype, especially when juxtaposed with the quality of the companions. I think PoE has the best narrative chops that you listed. But as I run through the game for a second time, with the White March expansions included, the bad pacing becomes especially suspect. Which is a bummer because there is some fantastic side content in PoE. And yeah, the foundation is set with interesting metaphysical concepts imbued into the lore, but their actual manifestations in the content is lacking.

@artisanbreads: I think I cut PoE a lot of slack because it had been a long time since I had played the old cRPGs, but Tyranny gave me hope that they could expand more on the formula. In Tyranny there was a much more compact story line that handled the illusion of choice competently, allowed for better characterization, had some neat takes on combat (though it sorely lacked the variety of enemies that PoE was brimming with), and addressed the companion problem of PoE by making them much more present in the story, which gives me hope for the Deadfire. Someone that I can't recall put PoE in the context of it being a return to form for Obsidian, which has done much to temper my judgement of that game. The little hints of production pipeline problems and engine stability in developer streams and the documentary give credence to that theory. The fact remains though that they ensured that all of the stretch goals that were funded were included and the generally reserved nature of the Deadfire's campaign ambitions have me giddy for the sequel. Also, it's a sequel. Obsidian and Sawyer have a knack for sequels.

@castiel: yeah. they've embraced their personality-based approach in a way that kind of pushes me away.