First 5 minutes: Comparing ME:A's opening to the OT.... thoughts?

I felt ME2 had an awful start but that's just me. The lazurus thing is just so meh.

I think mass effect generally tends to have a good opening to them though, I don't feel like Andromeda is any different.

I like them all. ME1's was powerful because it was the intro to a series no one had seen before. A start of something new. I love the MEA intro as well. Waking up into the unknown was a perfect way to start.

For openings, I'd go with ME1, Me:A, ME2 and, finally ME3

Me:A was actually the closest for me in terms of creating excitement for the game, and tbh, it is pretty much impossible to beat ME1... ME2 with Shepard being raised from dead gave me the "not again" feel after a few other games that started with protagonist coming to, with or without memory loss. Me3' beginning was less than stellar imo, really boring.

Not shitting on Mass Effect 3 here (and I know everything said before the word "but" usually means nothing)

But

I think Mass Effect 3 started a bad trend in Bioware games of starting the game about 30 minutes to an hour after where the game should have started.

The Arrival DLC from Mass Effect 2 had me excited at the thought of having to be grilled by Alliance military officers/Batarian Hegemony ambassadors etc. Having a crowded courtroom filled with mixed opinions and having Shepard deal with the political BS and being able to emphasize how umprepared/in denial everyone is about the return of space Cthulhu. Key characters could have come in to either help testify for me or against me and establish who is who and what side of the fence they currently sit on. Characters like Vega would be able to have a few minutes maybe before I go into the courtroom and set up who they are... "hey Shepard, I know I've been on guard detail for you for a couple weeks now and it might not seem like it, but I believe you...I'm rooting for you" and then when the inevitable shit hits the ol' proverbial fan he can cut you loose and help you and Anderson to the Normandy while the Vermire Survivor maybe tries to escort others to safety etc...Idk literally just spitballing here with a half baked idea I came up with just now.

Inquisition was worse because this huge event takes place before the game and does absolutely nothing to distinguish your various different protagonist's race/origins/reason for being at the summit. The catalyst for the entire game takes place in the main menu when you hit new game. I'm forced to ask "what's going on, what's happening? who are these people? (which fair enough if that's your intent as the writer) but most importantly I was asking "why should I care?" Up to that point all I knew of my PC was from the time spent in the CC. While it might be fine for them to have lost some memory of what they were just doing, they didn't forget who they were but we have no way of establishing that.

With ME1 you already get important information about your character before they even open their mouth. You get visual cues just by watching them walk down a hallway even...

Andromeda does pretty much the same thing. Should have started a few days/weeks before you actually left. You should have been able to have the tutorial level be the training/testing phase back on earth. This would have allowed you to meet some of the key AI figures, learn why they were doing this, meet characters like Liam and Cora...spend time with them, establish why you want to go, and most importantly build up your relationship with your family (even if that relationship is cold and distant) Should have been able to have your dad be his distant/stiff self..have him say something insensitive or too direct...walk off and have your twin comfort or encourage you just so we can see initially the family dynamic...twin=support system / dad=source of tension. Then when he dies off without you being able to resolve any issues and your support system now lays in a coma you have the sense that your Ryder has a greater sense of personal loss on top of this new responsibility thrown at them. It's now up to Ryder to adapt to the situation without the help they are used to and make new bonds with your crew in hopes they help give Ryder the support/strength they need.

MEA has REALLY SLOW start. Basically it only 'begins' after arriving to Nexus, which is couple of hours into the game. For me it had been even worse, it 'clicked' ~the time I got to Eos vault.

It might be unfair to comapre the pacing of 20-hours long game with something meant to be closer to 90, but I wish we had better prologue for MEA.
There is a huge plot issue which is hard to discuss in a spoiler-free manner, but Im only going to say that it's pretty much the same as with DA2. It just CAN'T 'work properly' on your first PT, when you have zero attachments.

ME1 was great. I remember that feeling when 3 minutes past the CC you hear Anderson discussing your background, while Shep is departig for her journey.
ME2 - that was the real WTF, but it was supposed to be like that. I also love the 'technical' side of it - how they had managed to make a totally 'seamless' and immersive pre-CC intro- gameplay, how they had managed to add the Anderson\Udina choice without players even knowing etc. I's good. I can almost forgive Alenko wearing Phoenix armor.

ME3 was...meh. It has too many immersion-breaking and inconsistent things in it. It's not seamless at all (especially for those who had skipped the DLCs, comics and novels).
- Anderson-not-in-Council
- zero details on Shep's detention - which barely makes any sense with 'no Arrival PT'
- the in-game trial process should have been part of it (same to KOTOR2)
- Vega being Shep's best buddy etc.
- and don't get me started about the 'tactics, strategy and survival' speech.
- technical side - lighting, it's bad. Nothing an no one looks right in it. I've spent days struggling to recreate my customShep before a good person told me NOT to check the headmorph on the prologue.


MEA..As I've already said - it's too slow to build the setting and attachments.  The 'awakening' part was decent, but Habiitat 7 mission could have been cut twice shorter, and the accents are just not there. Its attempt to mimic some of ME2 prologue motives is failing for the reasons mentioned above. I could not care about the most of it. Now I can - but that's 90+ hours of the gameplay, learning the characters (including the PC) and grasping the bits of the backstory.

ME1 is the best.