How Does Mass Effect: Andromeda Compare to Previous Mass Effects? [Spoilers]
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- This is a total-spoiler video critique of Mass Effect: Andromeda meant to take a look at how it fits in the original trilogy in terms of theme and structure. It aims to figure out if this spin-off is more of a Frasier or a Joey and how it might've come to be one way or the other.
If you enjoyed this video and want to contribute to the production of others like it, please consider supporting me on Patreon!
/ noahcaldwellgervais
![The Outer Worlds in Close Critique [Spoilers]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TpxidRlZyXc/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Outer Worlds in Close Critique [Spoilers]](/img/tr.png)
"there are birthday cards more narratively surprising and satisfying" need to remember that one
fuckin savage
@@Ally5141 Noah knows what he's doing. Shame he doesn't get as much recognition as he should
@@majik5194😅😅
lol but it’s okay if it’s just 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
Just a minor thing, Mass Effect 1-3 had minor details about which foods are toxic to which species and the challenges of making one species' food edible for others. But in ME:A? Barely a week before the Angara are baking pies.
@Laurine Coache Fucking spamming solicitors go fuck yourselves.
XCOM Chimera Squad does a lot with this idea. The characters talk about it during downtime and you hear advertisements for
alien-safe commercial foods. I love that shit.
I feel like Ryder and crew don't take life and death situations seriously enough, like thay already know they're going to win. It worked in the Citadel DLC because we knew it was fan service, but Shepard reacted properly to threats in the main story during the original trilogy.
Strat-Edgy pointed out that the constant smirking, whether intentional or just poor animation was REALLY out of place with the tone of the setting.
Yeah just the facial expressions on Ryder ruins it for me. like looks like a goofy awkward dumb guy that would not be in the leadership role hes put into
@@jonkersley4986 You know what ruined that for me? Cunts pre-ordering it.
@@jonkersley4986 Seriously, a lot of people when it first came out were pointing out his/her father should have been the main character and leader since he actually reacted in a semi reasonable fashion to the crisis they walked into.
12:20 is the perfect example of that. All I could picture during that scene when I first saw it was Nathan Drake as Ryder, mugging at the camera the whole time.
"Mass Effect Andromeda is the Blues Brothers 2000 of electronic roleplaying, it exist only because people loved the first one" ....
WOW, now that's just brutal.
guillaume pascal This kind of brutality exists in Tuchanka.
How is that brutal in any way?
Imagine sequel that has nothing to do with original in any way only in name but exists because original is good.
I think it means the result is a cynical cash-grab with no heart, more of a product than a game or experience.
we sure that isnt really dragon age 2?
The memory of Shepard is so strong, that Noah calls Ryder ”Shepard" at 38:38.
Re-watched and confirmed. Great catch lolol
I played the "Ai that wishes to die" Quest before doing the Main Quest on that Planet. After that main Quest, the Kadara Angara Open up an Embassy on the Nexus. After the Sidequest, there was some political turmoil in which the Angara Threaten to close the embassy. Since i did the Sidequest first, they threatened to close their embassy that wasn't open, and Angara that weren't on the nexus yet got upset.
The Habitat 7 reward is the Andromeda equivalent of beating James's pull up record in Citadel DLC.
HiiighAsAKite
I have done all of these, and the biggest grind of them all is Habitat 7.
I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite Andromeda video (+1 for not bogging down on the facial animations like everyone else did)
If this were old Bioware, you’d be able to convince Cora that her old CO did the right thing, hardening her and causing her to become more cynical and cold. It’s that lack of depth and choice that demonstrates the company’s fall.
The citadel species included several non-bipedal, non-humanoid series. Do these not exist in the entiry different galaxy?
You don't SEE all of the different galaxy. You know how you'd zoom in from the galaxy map in the original trilogy onto the Horsehead Nebula or the Local cluster? THAT'S what you're exploring in Andromeda. A single cluster. A teensy tiny part of the Andromeda galaxy.
Well it's worth noting that both species you encounter and interact with in Andromeda are genetically engineered, as opposed to being the product of evolution.
Dry half sarcasm: A sequel where you play as an Elcor squad taking on those boring bipeds would be amazing.
Hopeful note: Blasto is allowed to Enkindle this idea if he wants to participate.
This is oddly the first ME:A critique I've seen that mentions just how tired and uninspired the actual plot and subject matter are, which is by far the biggest issue I had with it. When I finished the game and had to sum up my experience with it, I called it "eating regurgitated oatmeal".
Chris Davis review also mentions that. Hell, I think nearly every rewiever under the sun criticized the plot in some way or the other.
Andromeda was bad. Very bad. That's all I can say about it.
Eww...
Fucking apt.
@@LynxStarAuto But the combat was amazing. You have to give it that.
i really want that game where you can romance a nine foot tall mineral monster. marketing-wise its obvious why bioware didn't go that route, but i think the avenue for pursuing or contemplating romance and what it would be like between multiple deeply dissimilar species is a fascinating avenue that i haven't seen explored in a game yet--certainly not one of andromeda's size.
Noah, I'm always surprised how awkward looking your characters are
Late to the comment but he does always make potatos
I concur
I was more curious as to who his ME characters were modeled after. In ME1 I thought Admiral Adama but I doubted that after each installment.
I actually liked his Shepard :o
I thought he was handsome
Wellp, some heroes' faces are made for the big screen.
But some heroes' faces will be made for radio 🤷♂️
Why did the Salarians and Turians agree to bring Krogan onboard? Why was an AI program approved and not immediately purged by Citadel authorities? How were they able to build ships that go faster than the Reapers? Why didn't they have any contingency plans for eventual complications? Why didn't anybody take a psych-analysis to make sure they wouldn't turn into violent pirates the moment something goes wrong? Why is nobody trained in simple cooperation and waste time being mad at each other when everyone COULD FUCKING DIE? Why is nobody acting professional in an exploration mission through literally unknown space?
I just keep seeing a complete lack of understanding of the setting, and creativity to actually make something interesting. If the developers didn't give a damn about the game, why should I?
Yelchor I can't take these games filled with kids playing at being grown ups. The complete lack of professionalism is just yet another reason I'll never play this game. Thank God we'll always have the trilogy.
Well if you played the game you would have got most if not all of these aswers. Lack of understanding and "giving a damn" goes both ways. I see this a lot when it comes to critique towards this game. Since all the pieces are not layed out in the open during the main story people have major plotholes and thus criticize the game.
But to save some time i'll try to answer these the best i can:
Bringing Krogan aboard was likely not a decision any one person or race made. Remember that while Tann is very hostile towards them he's only the 8th in sucession to the directors chair. It's entirely possible that the "real" leadership that was killed during the initial scourge incident or the uprising may have been much more symphatetic to the Krogan. This i not directly answered in the game. Some logs from previous leaders would have helped clarify this.
Citadel authorities? You mean C-Sec? The Andromeda Initiative was and is a civilian operation and thus does not fall under C-Sec or Council control. Plus it is said many times during the game that the Initiative was very secretive in it's reqruitment. Some conversations for example reveal that Vetra figured out something was going on when she smuggled stuff to Kesh. Kesh eventually came clean and Vetra was reruited. Also SAM says that it's true capabilities were never disclosed to anyone but the pathfinders and Gien Garson. Even most Initiative members believe SAM is an AI not "true AI". Infact the Alliance found out about Alec's experiments with AI and he was discharged from the Alliance. This also affected both Scott's and Sara's careers. However the fact that AI-s were guiding the ARK-s was never a widely known galactic news. Plus new galaxy = new rules.
The ships did not go faster than reapers. It took reapers a number of years (5?) to reach from dark space to the milky way. That's assuming they started their journey after Sovereign was destroyed at the end of ME1. It takes 634 years for ARK's to arrive in Andromeda. That is considerably longer compared to what the Reaper ships would be capable of.
The Initiative had plans but you can't really plan for dark energy clouds in space i guess. Plus their suvey prior to leaving the Milky Way didn't show the scourge.
The people were normal prior to launch. Dr.Lexi theorizes that some peoples brains acted negatively due to the unusually long cryosleep no one had apptempted before. She develops a potential cure with help from the pathfinder during the first visit to Elaaden.
And supposedly there were limited resources on Nexus's arrival (food, water etc). Chaos during the scourge deaths and unhappiness with the solutions offered along with altered brain chemistry of many people lead to uprising.
This is exactly how I feel after finishing the game.All of them act like a bunch of teenagers when the parents are out.
I did not care for any of them,so uninteresting,so meh.The krogan is ok because he is a badass but thats to be expected of them.
But the thing that that sucked the most is the conversations.Nothing you choose has any impact.For ex: you find 2 guys stealing from a corps and you have 2 dialogue options"
1-carry on
2-stop it or else
I hit the second thinking that may start a fight...nope,the 2 dudes say something along the lines "piss off" and that was it.Now if the same thing happened with Shepard you bet your ass there would be 3 dead bodies.
And thats the thing about the conversation options,they give 2 or more apparently different things to say but the result is the same answer with a different tone.
I think it would have been a lot cooler if the game had went in the past,play as the proteans in their rise to rule the galaxy and ultimately their demise at the hands of the reapers.
silvarenone If I have to read a novel to understand anything in the game then something's clearly gone wrong.
well they kicked him out-how he was able to run away or not get spectre-ed for his research is another thing..
Watching without having played the game as I don't have any intention of doing so...
"The Quarian ark..."
*eyes light up*
"...Is never found during the game"
*groan*
there will be no Quarian Ark as there will be no additional DLC for this failed cesspool of a game.
Yup. the Quarians are dead. Thank you bioware Montreal for fucking over my favorite ME race.
@@whodatninja439 They killed off the Space Gypsies?
Thw good ending of ME 3 saw them finding a habitable planet though???
@@fuzzydunlop7928 Well ... At the end of the game, you get a distress signal from the Quarian ark, teasing a DLC. Which never came.
"Andromeda is going to be better once the DLC comes out"
Fuckin WOOPS
rip; so whats been going on with mass effect andromeda dlc.
@@megamike15 There is none
@@DStecks did they just give up on this game?
@@jakespacepiratee3740 Faster than they did with Anthem.
@@KentaroMiyamoto21 woah a furry!
Dude, an hour video.
Fuck me, I'm commenting before watching. You're a fucking god amongst the TH-cam realm, keep doing you ma man.
I'll enjoy the fuck out of the next hour. Thanks
Mass Effect could have been the Star Wars of the gaming world.
EA had goose laying golden eggs. They could do everything with it. MMO talking about the rebuilding of the Milky Way galaxy? Excellent idea. Spaceship sim? Why not. Another installment of Shepard's story? Fans would love it. Movies? Books? ME is ideal for it.
And what they did? They destroyed one of the best build worlds in the sci-fi genre.
Mass Effect was the Star Wars and Star Trek of the gaming world. Had its own fairly sizeable expanded universe for only 3 games and the interesting history contained in the Codex alone is richer and more fleshed out than any gaming universe beyond Dragon Age and The Elder Scrolls to my knowledge.
Andromeda had infinite potential both as a fresh start for the games and the expanded universe. The Milky Way universe still had all kinds of room for EU material set before the trilogy.
But just like they utterly wasted the potential of actual Star Wars, EA let it slip through their fingers. Star Wars in every medium survived The Phantom Menace's reception. Mass Effect could've survived Andromeda, Dragon Age's 2 reception proves Bioware can bounce back in both games and EU content after failing to meet fan expectations.
Hopefully the Legendary Collection means EA has finally realized it. Much as I'm gonna really miss the multiplayer in 3, it says good things that EA is passing up the chance for reasonable loot boxes in a game that already had them, had a wealth of content to get from them, really good earning rates for currency and gave decent drop rates on the rarer items. Mass Effect 3's use was reasonable and EA could get away with the microtransactions here. But they chose not to and it's pretty surprising.
I love how you call it the Goose that lays Golden Eggs. Cause it's perfect. It could have provided so much, if they had let Bioware just handle it. But EA decided they wanted goose for dinner, no matter how much it'd go against them in the long run.
Sounds exactly like Disney Star Wars to me. So mission accomplished, I guess
"Well, scan them back." Jesus Christ, the Tempest is crewed by children.
Even worse, by quirky twenty somethings that got lost on the way to a Sitcom.
@Withnail I think it works so well in Citadel because it's so different from the tone of the rest of the game. I agree that it can become too much if it's the tone for the whole experience
December 2022. I just say this video recommended… and I didn’t realize that your video was made 5 years ago. What kind of affect did andromeda have? It didn’t. I never played it and never cared to play it. It was years of effort wasted by the developers for who knows what reason.
How cool would it have been to be a captain of a squad of corsairs? Sorta like Alliance sanctioned privateers.
Or maybe a rogue squadron-esque game piloting those sick F-61 Tridents? But it would be open world with your "normandy" ship being a small specialised carrier. Actually I guess it would be more like Star Fox 64 haha.
Or maybe a game where you are part of the Blue Suns or another group of mercs, swept up in an unprofitable fight for moral reasons.
Or maybe a Mass Effect "Lara Croft"-esque game. Since, according to the codex, much of the Milky Way is still uncharted. So its up to you to chart those new relay courses, find and open new ones, find new species, old relics, and cool.... whatevers.
And this took me 5 minutes, bioware.
Synystr7 I'm currently writing/drawing a comic book in the middle of my school lessons time which, is just a son of my boredom, about the N7 multiplayer characters, but giving them personal stories, personalities... (I'm bored enough to use my time on that) and ego aside, its writing is objectively better than the one in andromeda... At least I try pretend to be serious... And I'm fuckin' 17
PD:The trident idea is beautifull. Not every game in mass effect universe has to be an RPG.
I honestly think a Mass Effect Rainbow six would be perfect.
You forgot that the game wasnt supposed to be original, it was supposed to reap cash.
That it did.
I disagree that the premise is solid. To me continuing from ME3's ending would've been significantly more ambitious and much less derivative than pressing the "soft reboot" button.
The biggest reason I didn't end up buying ME:A was when I first heard about it, I thought it was awesome. Right up until I heard that the game lacked a non-human protagonist.
I remember when I first played Mass Effect 1 I wanted to play as one of the non-human races. It was clearly something that the premise lended itself towards, you have other arks from the turians/asari/krogan. But it just... doesn't. I don't know what's more disappointing, the fact that I just had no interest in the Mass Effect franchise anymore or the fact I had no interest in my favorite video game developer anymore.
Then there's all of the lore discontinuities. Some of them so blatant that were clearly glossed over due to the lore being too challenging to reincorporate. Such as the Krogan Genophage being glossed over as being something they had just "got over". Despite the social and political ramifications of such a thing.
Despite this being 2 years old I feel the same way, they blew the perfect opportunity to make a mass effect with a non human protagonist
It would have been so interesting to choose your race and it would determine which ark you start on each with it's own challenges at the get go.
Who cares that much about lore. I could care less it's a fun game to explore and shoot stuff. Dont need much effort to enjoy it. Dont be so critical on a game
@@joeypatton5691 It's something that was really important in the previous games and something that had ethical and moral debates over, and they just go "that's not important anymore don't worry about it". To me that's a failure on the writer's part.
@@DeadYorick I know lol I'm just messing with you
Your critique is almost salarian. Well done!
funny how the salarians short lifespans would mean they'd absolutely despise padded, unfulfilling games like this
@@WSBM14 They wasted extremely precious living time with this...Could be worse, tho, it could be Vorcha (they only live up to 20 years)
NCG is basically the human version of a Salarian, if only in his vocal affect.
@@billvolk4236 bioware should cast him as a salarian in the next ME
"There are birthday cards more narratively surprising and satisfying than the Kett and the Archon." Ouch.
Ones that actually make you feel something, too.
The writers had a new galaxy. A NEW GALAXY.
and the first species we encounter are boney humans with projectile based weapons that serve as goon fodder. My disappointment is immeasurable and my game is ruined.
MEA is like every Bioware game since EA took over - lacking distinctive vision, constantly chasing industry trends, hopelessly muddled in how it executes its systems, and technically behind the times. Beyond romances and branching dialogue trees, Bioware no longer has any kind of distinctive identity, and their games feel uninspired and dated as a result.
I can't agree. Mass Effect(1) was half-way taken over by EA from Microsoft and are actually the reason ME was released on more platforms than just Xbox. Mass Effect 2 came out be a great game, too. Often said to be the best of the series, in fact. Mass Effect 3, despite its ending and some shortcomings was not a bad game.
That is to say I don't think EA has released any good games lately, but I think you might be discrediting a bit.
sebool112 But EA really had nothing to do with the first mass effect I mean I think it wasn't until the game was already released that EA took over bioware which was probably contractual too
it's probably no coïncidence since MEA has EA in it.
Darkly Tranquil I have been saying EA was bad for Bioware since they took over after ME.
@@FXIIBeaver so has everyone. It’s popular to blame EA. But the issues with this game (and Anthem) famously have nothing to do with EA.
see, I loved this game unironically, but I'll definitely admit it's more of a turn-my-brain-off popcorn game compared to Mass Effect 1-3's big serious space drama.
Easily the most endearing and likeable part of the game to me were the terminal hijinks in the Krogan Colony on Eladeen. Reading up on the Krogan trying to figure out family life again with their fertility starting to recover was quite funny and also heartwarming. I'd watch _Krannt hardly wait_ any day if that was a real romantic comedy.
I CLAPPED! I CLAPPED WHEN I SAW THE NOTIFICATION!
Here, the applause is actually worth it.
petrallen
It said Mass Effect and I CLAAAAAPPED!
I KNOW WHAT THAT IS!!!
Very cool, very cool
I APPLAUDED IT FOR BEING DIFFERENT!
ANALSYS! I'M GONNA CUMMMM!
You know I really enjoy the positivist bent this channel has, in fact I've always found your videos to be a refreshing oasis of positivity in a gaming community that on average can be pretty cynical (not without reason obviously, but still) but there is a sick joy in seeing you tear down something that genuinely disappointed you, I must say.
That's the beauty.
If someone's negative more often than not, there is no weight to them. They're fluffy.
But if you're positive and nuanced most of the time, those moments of negativity convey almost physical hurt, and Noah is an excellent writer to spice up those moments.
Kind of wish Andromeda didn't have combat at all. A mass effect game that's exclusively about teraforming and diplomacy would have been so cool.
38:36
I miss him too Noah... But we have to move on :(
No. We don't.
I was looking for this comment.
Easily the best video game critic on TH-cam in my opinion. Your scripts are amazing.
I'm tempted to say he's the best I know of. And what does it say about the state of video games journalism that all the ones I could list as being the best at their job, work independently of any major publications?
Good point James. Every single one of the critics I follow are independent. As a consumer I've benefited massively from that. Although, I'm often watching these critiques after I've already played the game myself, in which case they're just a form of entertainment for me. Interesting how critique has in many ways transitioned from purely a consumer utility to a form of entertainment in its own right.
Cody Persinger be sure to Check out Joseph Anderson aswell, he's a Great critic and Analyst aswell
Noah in 2014: I am hopeful for the future of Mass Effect!
Noah in 2017: There is no god...
2021: a remaster of the first 3 games and a 5th one on the way.
@@megamike15 .... That's... Good news.
@@mattstorm360 Is it? Bioware changd since ME3. Nothing good ever came from them after ME3. The remaster will be good but what can you do wrong with an almost perfect trilogy. I heven't any high hopes for DA4 or ME5.
@@derpho never seen attack of the clones?
Two million unit ready, with a million more on the way.
"That's... Good news..."
"How does Mass Effect Andromeda compare to previous Mass Effects"..........It Doesn't
I'm actually really curious now what he'd think of Nier: Automata since tonally and polish-wise it's a complete 180 compared to this tripe.
@@BobExcalibur well there really is no excuse for the gratuitous amount of ass in that game. Yoko Taro is a horny manchild just like Hideo Kojima
@@BobExcalibur I feel dumber for having read that, please apologize.
Mass effect? With those facial animations it should be called “lacks affect”.
I’ll see myself out now
hundreds, possibly thousands of reapers roosting in the void around the edge of the milk way and not a single one detected and destroyed the pathfinder ship as it was leaving... ?
So if Mass Effect 3 was the Return of the Jedi of the ME franchise (generally quite good overall, but brought down by some questionable decisions motivated more by business realities rather than creativity), is this game the Phantom Menace of the series?
And of course great analysis as usual Noah.
Sounds more like the Force Awakens of the series. A game that completely squanders the series' potential in favour of a safe cash-grab. At least The Phantom Menace had ambition, even if it couldn't fully realize it.
Brandon Watson That's right on the money. If we get an Andromeda trilogy, unfortunately I think it'll suck just like the prequels do but I hope we'll get our own Episode 7.
I do wonder to what degree it would even be possible to correct course at this point if a second trilogy of games is planned. While issues like character animation and dialogue systems are things that could certainly be iterated on and improved going forward, what's far more disheartening is that basic story elements which would be the foundation for any future games feeling so ...uninspired.
Mass Effect 1, for all of its clunky combat and inventory management mechanics, was impeccable in its world building and setting up of the story's main conflict. Gameplay systems can be improved upon, but I'm not how Bioware would go about making something so obviously watered down at its core feel free and innovative.
I don't think ME:3 horrible ending was motivated by money. It killed any chance of seeing Shepard again, any of the companions that everyone loved, or of seeing the Milky Way Galaxy again. If anything, I'd think studio execs would have pointed out what a shitty ending that was and changed it.
My friends and I believe they made a mistake taking the series out of the Milky Way Galaxy, as while the original trilogy plot was thoroughly finished on a definitive note, they could have gone for a prequel idea of humanity's first steps after finding the first Mass Relay, playing out the short period of the First Contact Wars and later the rocky diplomatic missions to become recognized as Citadel Members.
I love how uncompromising your criticism is. Having spent £40 on this game ($60 US?) I must say I was seriously disappointed. The lack of originality pains me, and the departure from ME1's style pains me even more. Thank you for this brilliant analysis.
flyagaric123 well at least we still have ME 1 2 and 3
flyagaric123 the most disappointing thing, and the one thing that maybe could have redeemed it, would have been dlcs (quarian ark, jaardan and the kett) sadly thats never going to happen.
I find this comment odd. I think in many ways Andromeda is far closer to the original than it is to 2 or 3, or indeed closer to the original than 2 or 3 themselves are. ME1 and 3 are wildly different in tone, mechanics gameplay. ME:A goes back to ME1's spirit of wander around in a spaceship and explore.
@@hansenlung Did they abandon any plans on DLC for this game?
The only thing I really remember from this game is asking myself "Why the fuck is there a Quarian Ark? That doesn't make sense".
Pretty much as my opinion. A serious lack of imagination in here. It could have been so much more it's painful. There are few things evident in here:
1. Bioware doesn't know how to do a proper open world or segmented open world game. The best bits of ME:A and DA:I were outside of that.
2. Bioware Montreal is an unexperienced C team of Bioware. They did Omega DLC for ME3, the strengths and weaknesses of that DLC are all magnified in here.
3. Apparently there was a very rocky development cycle, with EA not believing in the game and maybe pulling the rug under it. Combined with an unexperienced team that couldn't possibly deliver the game in time in a complete state before 2019.
ME3 should have been the last game in the franchise. Any followup game will be always in the shadow of the trilogy and it's impossible to continue the story in the milky way after the way that game have ended. As for Bioware, their future is very much dependent on that new "Dylan" IP. If their A team can't produce an imaginative product, this will be their end. As for Mass Effect, I don't see the franchise continues with the ME3 ending fiasco and the general ME:A reception beyond the current DLC cycle. As for ME:A itself, it remains to be seen how much Bioware can fix all the technical stuff including animations.
One thing that I did very much liked in ME:A is the combat itself. As a former arena shooter player I adore the hyper-mobile style of combat and how crunchy the skills feel. Also I'm a tinkerer in my soul so I actually liked the crafting system, even if it could have used a much better UI. That said, I don't think I will play it anymore after my current Insanity run. For my arena shooter fix I always can play Overwatch, the characters there have actually so much more personality (including the outside the game stuff) than the ME:A ones with so much less lines, maybe outside Vetra and Jaal.
And one last thing, a 600 year trip is actually consistent with the established lore about FTL speeds of citadel spacecraft.
3. Few of the people responsible for the games that made Bioware great still work for Bioware.
(this one is snarky) 4. They have been replaced by fan fiction writers, social justice advocates, and racists.
3. Like Mac Walters? xD
4. I hate comments like this when the writer is actually serious about it. Every content creator has an agenda, like it or not, but saying that for example that feminists in Bioware deliberately made female characters to look unattractive is very tinfoily. That mark something racist guy no longer works for Bioware and one low grade individual's opinions shouldnt impact the collective, especially if they make a good product (not that ME:A is one, but still).
I believe the effective development time of the game was about 2 years, not 5. There is too much unfinished and unpolished stuff here, thus clearly indicates a lack of budget per game minute and a lack of time. As well it may explain the fan fiction grade writing at places, because they didn't have the resources to go over it. I've heard that the game should have had procedural generated planets, and they spent 2-3 years trying to make it work, but failed.
I'm calling into question the culture of the corporation, not whether or not Manveer Heir is still working there. It seems we agree that every content creator has an agenda. After DA:I and this game, it seems to me that Bioware has chosen a new direction with a more hardline, leftist agenda. Political stances being polarized these days, I find that their agenda correlates strongly with the "gamer are toxic/women are not sexual objects" crowd.
A few points that indicate a political shift:
Other than one returning character in Dragon Age Inquisition, there have been no sexy women in two entire games now.
In Dragon Age Origins the qunari were a race with very strict gender and class roles. To question one's role was heretical. In Dragon Age Inquisition, their culture has been changed. We are told that anybody can be any gender or profession that they want and that it is celebrated. Complete, useless, and lore-damaging 180, for political purposes.
Pandering.
In Mass Effect Andromeda we meet a character who blurts out that she used to be a he within 10 seconds of meeting them. Character gets the dialogue responses: "Good for you" and "Why that name?"
Most of all, it's the fact that they don't really do anything exciting or politically risky anymore. They employ people who value safe spaces now. Do you think we'll ever see another character like Branka again, with the scenario about women being intentionally offered up to darkspawn, forced to eat their kin and raped until they lost their mind and transformed into brood mothers? THAT kind of edginess and willing to to places with their storytelling was what made me love them. They made me sit back and dwell on the decisions that the storytellers make, or that they let me make as a character. I had a KOTOR playthrough where I saved the galaxy and I had another where I murdered most of my crew after turning to the dark side and took over the galaxy. I want THAT company back.
More, they employ people like Sam Maggs and Manveer Heir and others who I have read say really stupid shit beyond the bounds of simply expressing political beliefs. That's an indictment of the employer. I think they're now a sloppy, political company and even people not wearing tinfoil hats have noticed the quality of their work degrade rapidly.
About no sexy women, I blame the dogshit FB3 engine for that. That engine is made for FPS with bald marine dudebros, anything other than that and it is an uphill struggle.
About anything else, it's more an EA kind of thing. Making games is very expensive nowdays, and publishers want the money they invested in it back. That leads to uncreative, risk free, but flashy games. That is a problem for all AAA game developers (don't bring me CDPR as a counter example, they have many underpaid overworked Polish workers and they gambled their existance on The Witcher 3, which paid off). The best they can do is to rely on the companies' reputation to smooth out things. Bioware is known to include all kinds of LGBT stuff in their games, so EA plays on it to attract as many customers from those crowds as possible. Everything is made flashier and more explicit as the time goes.
I don't believe EA/Bioware specifically hire leftists. I do believe they hire lower grade writers and programmers (especially programmers) to cut costs. Many leftist will want to apply there because of the company's reputation.
I think we generally agree here, though my jokingly snarky point #4 seemed more of an attack than I intended. EA and Bioware are aiming their products at a currently-in-vogue ideology and people can feel the limits that this imposes on the quality of the product, both through the explicit choices of direction and the implicit nature of hiring cheap writers who share the ideology. It's all combining into a product with nothing to say, something to preach, and the only passion at all is in the effort to be inoffensive.
Regarding the attractiveness of females: I've considered the frostbite engine being the source of the problem but I feel that it's not impossible to make an attractive face. Morrigan looked good in Inquisition. From the strength of the current ideology that I've experienced in real life and on the internet, I think the looks are intentional: females are to have hard-as-nails personalities, puffy, boyish faces, and almost no revealing outfits.
Great Video! But im glad I get to be pedantic and say around 38:40 you call the main character "Shepard"
A Freudian slip, I'd venture to say.
"To have made them uniformly zealous and to have made their religion so central to their culture is a pretty bold creative choice, it makes them more alien; but giving them a fearful bureaucracy makes them more human."
I'm saving this quote (from 22:29) because it intrigues me how we live in a culture that considers religion and zeal to be more alien than bureaucracy.
ArtaShrike perks of living in the "modern" era! 😂
Bureaucracies are far from a modern invention, and are arguably as fundamental to human societies as organized religion. The Old Testament makes multiple references to Cyrus the Great(it's said that he funded the construction of a new temple among other benevolent deeds), whose empire used an organized bureaucracy similar to the federal/provincial system used by many modern governments, and _that_ system had roots in empires before it.
Modern in this case refers to the Weberian bureaucratic model. It might have precursors but in its "scientific" Weberian incarnation it has had the most far reaching impact and can arguably be described as THE defining institution of the modern era.
Sid Sin+ I had to look up Weber's model, but I see the point. The history class I've been taking covered bureaucracy in general terms and noted the existence of ancient bureaucracies without differentiating different forms, and so I wasn't thinking about how the meaning of bureaucracy is different now than in the past. I'd say my first comment still stands to some extent though, just like the rest in this thread.
Thank goodness for that ..we need to move beyond faith
Noah. you didnt talk about space Sudoku!
To and From, The Danian I actually liked that part. Was the most "alien" or "discovering" thing to do in the game
It nearly made me quit the game... but i persevered and saw the game rise from below to above average.
The first 2 to 3 hours are inexcusable though. You can even fellow the player drop rate if you look up the later trophies on the PS4.
lol if you're too dumb to solve a basic sudoku then you should just play cod maybe
*Grabs a bowl of popcorn*
This'll be good...
This analysis is outright savage at times. Those times where Noah says something, and it takes a moment to sink in, and then you go "Oh snap!"
I've watched it trust me. I used to have an N7 picture... I decided it was time to move on.
it just isn't the same Bioware anymore
God dammit, its finals week man! What kind of monster are you?
Zac Frazier Keep it on while making flash cards, that's what I'm doing right now.
I like how you occasionally referred to Ryder and shepherd. It sounded accidental which to me is symbolic of another issue of the game
And people said Fallout 4 was an insult and a bad game. Holy FUCK. What happened to Bioware?
SJS + EA =
TheCrossboy The game is not that bad. In fact if you see it as an independent title instead of a mass effect game, it is very nice and enjoyable. The real problem is when you see the potential when looking back to the original trilogy, and how they have wasted it in so many things.
Gamers are seriously too stupid to see anything between BEST GAME EVOR and 0/10 RAPED MY CHILDHOOD, huh.
Just got around to watching this finally and it saddens me today; knowing that EA is essentially "jumping ship" on this game, so we may never see DLC for this and these glaring holes and plot lines will never be resolved.
Wow, an actual critique that doesn't just blame everything on 'SJWs'.
SJWs poisoned our water supply, burned our crops, and delivered a plague unto our houses!
That's why I come to this channel, too. I know the critiques aren't going to resort to that lazy mental shorthand.
@@Dudeman162
They did?
No, but are we just gonna wait around until they do?
While I'm happy that his analysis explored the game deeply, and not steeped down to political analysis, sjw influence on the wide sense is a part of the problem. Bad philosophy, bad politics cause bad storytelling and bad hiring choices.
@@Mbeluba you using lazy shorthand to vaguely blame a subgroup without proof.
„Needy corporate nostalgia“ is one of the most apt descriptions of modern marketing I have ever heard
It feels that, with Andromeda, not even a number of DLCs might fix the issues in almost all departments of the game design. They can claim the animation/dialogue system is just bugged, but what's the explanation or excuse for the asari all have the same face model, except for PeeBee? Even NPCs in the previous games had a variety of generic face models 1-X. Can you imagine that Benezia had the same face as Samara? Or Vasir looked just like Shiala? In Andromeda, Dr. Lexi, Kerri, Kalinda, and Dr. what's-her-name in the Nexus science lab all have the same face. Are the developers too lazy to put in a couple of models for a major race?
I hope you'll have a complete critique of the game after the DLCs some day, and I look forward to seeing it.
Its freakin LAZINESS. Pure laziness I hate when devs do that. Witcher 3 actually was guilty of this a bit but not to the extent of Andromeda. Of course Witcher had tons of content to make up for a bunch of human characters having the same face.
JadeDragonMTR i
Noah, probably one unintended redeeming aspect of the creation of Andromeda is that it gave you the inspiration to write and present this brilliant critique. You've done a terrific job - your wit and humor was a delight to witness.
what kills Triple A games is the need for "ACTION ACTION ACTION!!!"
everyone wants some of Call of Duty's money, so they inject ACTION into even RPGs.
The big twist of the Remnant should have been that they were also from the Milky Way galaxy and arrived in the centuries after the Initiative left with faster FTL ships. They built an entire civilisation that rose and fell while the Initiative slept and their fate is the big mystery of the game. This parallels real world thought experiments about colonising other star systems: do we wait for FLT technology or send sub-light vessels that risk becoming obsolete and overtaken in the intervening centuries.
the teaser about the quarians at the end made me so mad; for a second I thought it was going to be a nice post-game mission, then becomes essentially 'they're still alive, somewhere.. don't worry about it they'll come home when they're good and ready..'.
Felt like the little popup at the end of ME3 that someone had said bioware should waste time and money animating, voicing and editing.
My favourite alien races in Mass Effect are the Elcor and Hanar. The fact they only have humanoid species as their new aliens makes me not want to play it.
*with regret* that's what happens when sjws make a game. they substitute real diversity for fake diversity. *disbelieving amusment* like the character who actually tells you they are transsexual.
@@robertgiggie6366 I genuinely cannot believe that you chose to express these already pretty embarrassing opinions through the unspeakably dorky medium of online roleplaying.
Robert Giggie this is one of the best parodies of a status quo warrior i have ever seen
Woah dude! This is the most savage video I've seen from you yet.
Andromeda is the Fallout 4 of the Mass Effect franchise.
no
fallout 3 exists
lol
Still, Fallout 3 was, on it's own, pretty playable.
MAE and FO4 on the other hand...
Fallout 4 is better than fallout 3
But fallout 4 is better than fo3 in pretty much every way you can think of
Last time I was this early, commander Shepard hadn't killed himself out of the dishonor this game caused him.
+blanket cocoon
wow, what?
blanket cocoon I don't know. I'm still trying to decide.
One one hand, my profile picture is pure cancer, my name is idiotic and my comments are generic.
On the other hand, I'm not the guy who goes around calling people shitstains without some form of explanation.
That could actually be somewhat good?
One spot of originality in Andromeda : Making the main bad guy ridiculous looking. Short, herbivore eyes, constant look of befuddlement, toilet seat hat. That was original! But maybe not on purpose...
38:38
Shepard? huh?
Pretty sure Noah is a big babylon 5 fan. He's obviously a sci-fi guy and B5 is near the mountain top in terms of narrative and execution. I think his comparison was meant as a bit of a jab at bioware due to it being out classed visually by a show that is over 20 years old and was made on a shoe string budget.
This video is pretty much spot-on for how I felt about the game. The worst part about the game is that it teases you with such good snippets that you only feel all the more let down by the bad or mediocre pieces. It seems worse than it is because it's so up and down. It's not an awful game, just an unremarkable and almost stale one.
Thank you Noah. You're one of the better game critics out there. Keep at it mate
38:40
Steak??
I FCUKING LOVE STEAK
LMAO
The fact that Noah slipped up and said "Shepard" instead of Ryder makes this even funnier.
He said my name at the end! I'm basically famous now.
There are *loads* of episdoes of Babylon 5 that are better than Andromeda because Babylon 5 FUCKING SLAPS.
That Blues Brothers 2000 line is the most cutting shit I have ever heard
Outer Worlds's public image: Fallout in space
Outer Worlds's actual role: Andromeda done right
Perfect timing, Noah. Cheers. :)
Inigo! ahaha huge fan!
There were a lot of Krogan in this game that seemed like total wimps which just seemed wrong. lol
This I actually didn't mind as much, mostly because it kind of fixed the plot hole that was, why bring them at all? If, however, you're bringing a clan of wimps and scientists...well, perhaps they were hoping to breed out the more violent stuff, for the more rational krogan...the big problem there is how many of the other races go insane over the course of it.
What they should have done is make the krogan plot a sort of Civil War by outside influence. Instead of being Clan 'Nerd' the evil krogan leader should have instead been part of Clan Urdnot, sent by Wreav(Wrex's evil brother or whatever) to take over the Initiative from within and send back resources...but the spy realized how stupid that was, since he's now here, and the strongest krogan, and so tries to take over for himself, and you thwart that, only to be faced with the dilemma of the krogan not trusting anyone.
I was watching this and when you were talking about hard sci-fi and showing the scene where SAM describes the weird stuff as an "unstable mass of dark energy."
"*mass* of dark *energy*"
alright that aside, I imagined a very stereotypical "oh my god don't talk about science it makes my head hurt" as a way of killing the conversation, but the player get's the choice to say "no hold up, tell me what you meant."
And then they proceed to have an interesting, constructive conversation about real science and how the ship-board AI inteprets what it's seeing with the knowledge it already has, and you get to bond more with SAM more than you do with Liam or whoever else is the pre-ordained quirky 20 something the game classifies as a companion.
Seriously, Obsidian games and recently Disco Elysium just let you talk for hours about stuff in detail and actually prompts the player to internalize that information and world build for them, on top of the games worldbuilding for you. I'd much rather play a Mass Effect where I can say "hold up, did you just call energy mass?"
While I do love your videos, I have to point out something that's been bugging me for a while. I really think that with a bit more polish, your videos would be amazing. Just small things as well, maybe cut out the clicks here and there, retake the bits where you cough or stumble on a word. I really think that these kind of changes would greatly improve the quality of your videos.
Marvelous Chester then they aren’t Noah videos. Get with it my dude
For some reason the little clips that serve as intros make me a bit melancholy. Almost like I’m missing something that was never there.
I only just found this video, and I'm glad I did. I'm new to the channel, and it keeps pushing me to think about games and process my thoughts and feelings about how they're made and how they play.
I never played Andromeda, because during its development, there were really worrying signs--videos hyping up the design process for the Kett where they showed interesting concept art and then proudly displayed the utterly underwhelming end design, with a mention that "Well, we thought about having them grow their own armor out of their skin, but then they'd be naked, and that'd be weird." Somehow they managed to sow off the lack of creativity in a promotional video about their creative process, which was absolutely flabbergasting.
But far worse was a single detail: the mention that the Ark project started before the Reaper War. I'd been interested in what an Andromeda mission might mean in the wake of ME3. I'd had ideas about a refugee narrative, co-opting a deep space exploration project in a desperate attempt to ensure the preservation of galactic culture in the face of extinction. People without a home to return to, trying to find a place to live in defiance of utter destruction. It would be heavy stuff, but a valuable subject to engage with.
But it quickly became clear that the pre-war launch date meant that the aim of the Andromeda mission was colonization. And given how BioWare's writing had previously treated stand-ins for indigenous cultures--most notably the elves in Dragon Age--I had no faith that they'd really knuckle down and wrestle with the issues. This video is the only review or discussion I've seen that actually mentions this, and I'm sad to find out I called it.
...What I _didn't_ call was the way the Reapers were handled. Dropping all the heavy weight of _apocalypse_ in there as an _optional sidequest?_ I'd thought they'd just made no mention of the war, which was disappointing but didn't bungle _more_ of the emotional depth of the characters. Who the hell could find it believable that someone could find out "by the way, the Milky Way might be dead" and then continue on as if it was nothing? I was honestly shocked to hear that.
17:38 You are so right about Saren as a nemesis. Virmire is such a powerful point in ME1 because you not only get the big reveal from Sovereign about the Reapers, but you have the first of two arguments with Saren. Saren is given depth in that he knows the Reapers are unbeatable, or at least he completely believes it because of indoctrination, and he would rather people live as their slaves than be abolished by them. He is wrong, but he makes a thematic case for it.
I'm so glad for this review, it gave me good reason not to buy the game.
I don't mind glitches or bad animation
I don't mind political pandering (as much)
I don't mind exploitive nudity in a game (as much)
what I do mind is a story afraid to stand on it's own, and constantly tries to appeal to the mass audience and becomes bland as a result.
It's also one of the few reviews out there that give concrete advices of how to fix it for beginning developpers.
This is the only MEA commentary I've watched or read that so adequately focuses on its shortcomings in creativity and imagination. "Games, almost as much as books, can show us [...] the almost impossible." Why, then, does MEA only show us things so familiar that they've become boring? The next species of rubber-forehead-aliens with nice butts. The next species of human-like evil jerks who want to turn us into themselves. The next set of planets with familiar landscapes. The promise of SF is that it creatively explores the possibilities of the unknown. MEA promises that, and delivers nothing. Where is the sense of wonder?
Thanks for this critique. I had wondered if there was anyone else who shared this specific disappointment to such a similar degree. I'll go read some SF books now.
As soon as the game came out, your inevitable commentary video about it was one of the things I was most excited about. MEA was a significantly less disappointing experience for me - perhaps my nerves have hardened into twigs from 180 hours of DAI, but the overworld grind in MEA was slightly more... supported by the story and the context. It felt a bit more believable for the characters and the setting, even in its tedium, than DAI's herb-picking leader of the free world did.
Also, a little nitpick, 600 years from us to Andromeda means about 5,000c, which is consistent with what Citadel species were able to manage in the first three games using FTL drives. Mass relays would connect single systems; the area surrounding these systems would have to be explored via regular FTL. In the original trilogy, the kicker was that FTL drive operation built up a static charge in the ship that needed to be released into a planet's magnetosphere every few stops. The Initiative Arks' special ODSY drives use that charge to power ship systems, and can therefore remain operational for very long periods.
jesus christ the armor and helmets in this game are so ugly and overdesigned, reminds me of those power rangers-y armor designs from halo 5. like at 44:00 what the hell am I supposed to be looking at, an exploding metal insect? is it a head? is it the top, back, side?
YES!!!!! I've been waiting for this since the game dropped.
Man the thing is, as a fan of the Mass Effect series, I want to at least play Andromeda for myself before I spoil myself with this video. But also, there's no way in hell I'm paying full retail price for fuckin' Andromeda.
I could never explain why i love this channel but I really do. Even your travel videos I could listen to in the background and feel inspired to work and do creative stuff. Plus the dedication to only the best music. No one could make content exactly like you could. I appreciate it so much.
Little you do matters... sums up the whole game perfectly, you get heaps of dialogue options th ast don't matter, heaps of upgrade options that make little difference to gameplay and every side quest gets you a gold star an 'atta boy' and not much else
Noah, I agree that citadel was amusingly self referential and thoroughly enjoyable, but it only worked because I already loved the characters and genuinely wanted to know more about them. Movie night with millenials in space just didn't have the same impact for me that citadel did, which in the end was pure fan-service that didn't take itself very seriously.
I forget the exact details, but the best quest in Andromeda, for my money, was the (additional task) one where you set up probes all over the (first) desert planet, slowly unlocking bits of transmission that reveal the story of someone who came to the new galaxy to honor their loved one, who would be long dead by the time they reached it. Or something like that. Completing that quest was the most emotionally impactful experience I had with the game. I (mostly) don't even mean that as a dig - it was really well done, and I thought, here there is real heart and real fruit of the premise of this game.
Noah just to clarify, they dont travel a lot without mass relays because they accumulate eletric charge on the hull and that can cook the ship and the crew. That is why some ships land to discharge the energy acumulated and cruisers must discharge that more slowly on moons or trought thetered cables
So much potential lost with the aliens, the original ME universe not only had your gamut of rubber forehead aliens like the Asari, Turians or Quarians, but also the Elcor, the Hanar, the Keepers, the Yahg, Rachni and Krogans, all either very interestingly (and non-humanoid) designed or have unique quirks or mysteries about them.
It was a shame they gave ME to the B team that never before developed a game on their own, you feel it everywhere.
And while I enjoyed the game, alot of the potential was lost, all new races are humanoid, first contact goes relatively smooth because apparently Translator AI has evolved so rapidly that it can decipher and translate languages where there should literally be no analog for in the galaxy...
The language thing was the wooooooooorst missed opportunity, how cool would it have been to have to befriend a new race using nothing but gestures and actions on your part? Sure, eventually you could have overcome the language barrier, especially since there was various curious individuals on both sides, but it is so annoying that the language barrier didn't exist at all, within 5 minutes of stepping foot on their planet you can understand and communicate with the locals.
God damn...
And while I enjoyed buddying up with Jaal, the fact that they just trust you outright and not even ATTEMPT to keep you seriously at arms length is frustrating. These guys are at war with the only other intelligent species they ever met, but suddenly you come along, shoot a few of their enemies and you are buddy, buddy. Sure you gotta gain the trust of one of their leader figures, but don't worry, the plot will come along and hand you the trust of their most awesome leader figure, so that the other leader figure stops the plot from progressing.
First contact should have been dealt with differently, even with what's there. Encounter some Kett, attempt communication, Kett open fire. This sets a precedent.
Then you encounter some Angara, a scout party, visibly armed, maybe with some dead humans on the ground, pilfering through their stuff and being very curious about the weird aliens they just found.
Especially in light of the previous Kett encounter, it could have opened some serious involvement on the part of the player: Did the Angara kill them? You didn't see what happened...you can't find out what happened since you can't ask them, they react hostile to you when you aproach them, guns in hand. Do you approach them at all? Do you approach them with guns drawn or holstered? What is your tone towards them. Do you confront them about the dead bodies? Do you attempt to find out?
Or do you just gun them down, assuming the worse and being careful, rather than curious.
Both could be valid options in the light of the game. But it could be very interesting once you properly encounter the Angara, and they mistrust you if you gunned down their scout party for no reason, maybe even put you on trial, or you tried your best to handle the situation peacefully, which might be looked at favorably by them. So many possibilities...
One thing that I missed from Dragon age 2 was the up close chat view you got with every NPC not just your companions.....
But now I realize that they didn’t do this close view because it would take more time to animate each face. Watching Andromeda and the clay faces, I’m happy they didn’t show the close up.
Great stuff as usual Noah. Beautiful backdrop at the end as well... I hope I can cross the pond and go on a road-trip around America myself one day. :)
Villainousascent here, coming from California. Why would you ever want to come to America? We have some nice vistas sure, but that not enough to get me to feel like that's in anyway redeeming. America has no real redeeming value, as far as I can see. Not anymore.
Do you talk like this normally? It's a great throwback
Serious question: Where do you play your games when on the road? Do you actually play them in your camper van?
I feel the same way, that MEA is somewhat lacking of presentation persistence. But nevertheless is see like you said the effort that was put to the game and have to disagree with you on some points.
1.) How alien are the aliens:
At first glance the lack of distinguishable properties of the aliens can be seen as unimaginative and repetitive but there is a harsh reality tied to that point of alien design. And I also see often the argument that it's a new galaxy but it's all the same tied to that problem. So even when you are in another galaxy there are still the same laws of physic so will be the laws of chemistry and essentially the laws of biochemistry which ties to Evolution. In Evolution there is principle that's called "Convergent Evolution", which stats that life will come to similar solutions to problems in similar environments. Because there are only a few solutions to the same problem, like there only a few working concepts for flying so on a different plantet with the same conditions you would see the same solutions, because only these work in this kind of environment.
Here are some info on that matter:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution
2.)Boring planets:
So like in 1.) when you look for planets that can harbor human life you will look for the ones that are similar to earth and not the ones with spine crushing gravity, acid rain and overall hostile environments, despite how cool they can be.
3.) Scourge or dark energy:
First of all dark energy and dark matter are two completely different concepts. Then they are not predicted but rather arise from the necessity to explain the universe with our current understanding of the universe. With this the explanation for the scourge in the game can be seen as scientifically accurate to some degree. It says that the scourge counteracts the interaction of normal matter and energy. Which at on point can be some kind of antigravity, like on habitat 7. And again scientifically correct to some degree, if our understanding of the universe is correct.
Scourge wiki: masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Scourge
Simple explanation for dark energy and dark matter: th-cam.com/video/QAa2O_8wBUQ/w-d-xo.html
So to conclude this, in MEA there are many scientific concepts incorporated which can be seen as boring and already used, but which actually derive from our scientific understanding of the universe. So it's somewhat unfair to accuse MEA for lacking of inspiration and also demand at the same time to have a concept derived from science.
In my opinion the biggest problem is that MEA leaves the reasoning almost completely to the player, which results in a misunderstanding caused from a lack of uniform understanding of the concepts it try s to incorporate.
56:43 DA:I did seem like a transitory piece, it presented an opportunity for Bioware to observe what worked for its audience and what did not. Instead of learning from it, they saw it as an opportunity to double down on some of its worst elements. Rinse, wash, repeat in a separate IP and net the profits, essentially.
Hopefully, Andromeda can serve as a stern reminder for Bioware that risk aversion and lack of commitment to quality will result in a kick to the financial gonads. It seems doubtful, but one can always hope.
"Mass Effect: Andromeda is The Blues Brothers 2000" - Savage.
Your analysis is excellent but I feel compelled to disagree
about the Drack loyalty mission. Drack is an interesting character for me as I
feel he has a lot of regrets that he covers with a large amount of bluster. As
you discover Drack spent 1000 years being violent and ended up becoming seriously
injured, ending up in constant pain. During this time he had second thoughts
about his life and was considering ending it. He was essentially given care of Kesh
(granddaughter) as a challenge and raised her from infancy. He says that he is
living for her and her generation. He is the old way and she and her generation
are the new Krogans. Drack and Hark (Kesh’s ‘fiancé’) isn’t just a jock/geek
dynamic. Drack knows Hark is important to Kesh (from memory I think he finds
out they are in a relationship during the mission) and his understanding of
Hark is filtered through Kesh. Drack sees Hark as the new Krogan. During the
whole mission he is saying “I am expendable, you are the future of our kind.”
While he may disparage Hark for his clumsiness and lack of combat training that
is just cover for the fact that Drack came to Andromeda to die after ensuring
the new generation of Krogans made a new start. He hopes (in an odd way) to
become irrelevant in the new world and I think is a bit conflicted about the
appearance of the Kett. On one hand, he enjoys fighting and is good at it. On
the other hand… he didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past. The Kett are
a good enemy for him, they are all combatants, no innocents or non-combatants. At
one point Cora accuses the Krogan of screwing up by nuking Tchunka and Drack
just laughs at her and says “good point”. She has said nothing to him that he
hasn’t thought to himself about his own people... He emotionally enjoys
conflict and violence, but has come to recognize intellectually how awful it can
be.
Still love the title cards.