Constructive Criticism: Peebee's Loyalty Mission (spoilers, obviously)

It lacked a Nuke, every mission is better with a nuke, right?

My biggest problem with her mission is all the hand holding. I don't need Peebee telling me to scan a damn rock or device every minute like I fucking know stop telling me.

As the majority of missions (not tasks or random exploration) PB's LM lacked planning and relied heavily on luck (or almighty plot-armor). If there's no consequences for player's actions (or the actions themselves are very limited), it is immersion-breaking (for me, at least).

After seeing that the planet is a volcano without a place to land safely, PB could ask to go and acquire a shuttle (as Kalinda did), instead of just launching the escape pod. There could have been several ways to plan and execute the mission (for example, Shadowrun series had several missions, where it was possible to discuss routes and approaches before starting and it affected the walkthrough and the mission objectives).

Edit. Could you add a neutral option to the poll?

"no meaningful consequences".
And we have a winner.

Bad writing in the game, as usual.

I liked Peebee and enjoyed her loyalty mission as just that a "fun mission in Andromeda" as narratively it has problems, as does the rest of her character.

For me, the central conflict for Peebee was her relationship Kalinda and that seemed like a lost opportunity for BioWare to explore the complexities of someone overcoming an abusive relationship.

The game sets it up that obviously Peebee and Kalinda were close but you have to talk to Peebee a bit to determine how close. What those conversations reveal is a toxic relationship filled with abandonment and manipulation which was central to Peebee's seemingly cavalier attitude towards relationships, trust, and being a part of a team. Where I think the game faltered a bit was the constant "telling" and not "showing" of a character's motivations. Instead of Peebee telling me "don't get too attached" through conversations, this needed to be conveyed through the narrative and her actions. Maybe you go into the escape pod and "see" she has not unpacked and, when asked, she can be evasive at first. Or with the confrontation in Peebee's apartment, there could have more "toxic" subtext in the conversation where Peebee is trying to stand up for herself and discuss the dysfunction of their relationship with Kalinda claiming it was all in her head, making her doubt herself.

All this would lead to the companion mission. Peebee, at just over 100 years, is supposed to be young by Asari standards but she is obviously brave and resourceful enough to go to a new galaxy and venture off into essentially the unknown on Eos to explore her technological pursuits. In order to survive, she needs the intelligence and cunning/scrappyness to accomplish this meaning that despite her relatively young age, she's no fool. This was a perfect opportunity, through her contact and support of Ryder, that builds her courage enough to formulate a plan to turn the tables on Kalinda and bait her into dooming herself through her own arrogance. In this respect, Peebee allows Kalida to steal POC, all with the intention of allowing Kalinda to think she leveraging Peebee's intelligence to lead her to more profitable ends. When POC is returned, Peebee would know that Kalinda would have installed some way to track the Tempest as well as the scanning capabilities she created through POC to find more lucrative Remnant tech.

Peebee would then lead Kalinda to the planet, allowing her to see the treasure trove of remnant tech available, all the while knowing Kalinda has the access shuttles necessary to make the landing on the planet which the Tempest does not possess. The plan in this case is to get the Rem Tech and abandon Kalinda on the planet while making the escape in her own shuttle, thus using her intelligence and cunning to turn the tables on her adversary. You can even have the "paragon" option of placing a following up call to her team to inform them of her situation and leave it up to them to pick her up should they choose. Additionally, in the conversation post-mission, Peebee mentions upfront that a new escape pod had already been obtained on the Nexus and is waiting for pickup which could lead to a "flirt" option of asking whether a new bedroom is necessary in this case.

Obviously this would play out better in the hands of a writer better than myself but that seems to be the case for most of the characters except for Drack and Jaal, who I felt got the best story arcs.

Thank you, I appreciate the comments.  

Yeah, Peebee's mission, and her character in general, was a frustrating one because she could go from super-intelligent to naive dunderhead sometimes within the same conversation.  Like I said, I am not a seasoned writer but I could see some obvious plot points and direction they could have easily pursued to make her character more complete and her story arc more compelling.  Here you have someone who's intelligent but has been conned by an expert manipulator but is reluctant to acknowledgement it as it throws her own confidence and self-perception into doubt.  Talk about fertile narrative soil to grow something from but, like most of the game, a lot felt hastily written which, for me, points to the 18 month actual development time.  Same thing for Cora.  Instead of her introducing her contact and training with Asari huntresses, you, as Ryder, notice the writings in the cabin and strike up a conversations about them or you hear her discuss some Asari cultural situation with Peebee or Lexi and inquire about her knowledge of the Asari which leads to more about Cora's character.


Again, its "show me" don't "tell me".    

I liked the loyalty missions just fine. I usually let Kalinda live despite just killing all of her cronies. The only thing I didn't care for was all the hopping around we had to do just to get to these missions. I think Vetra requires the least amount of this. In ME2 they said they had a problem and you went there and did the mission. Done. There were bigger decisions that could lose you loyalty as well. The tone of PeeBee's mission is more lighthearted. For some reason though, I was more angry with Aria in ME3 ramming Omega with a pod. PeeBee I can excuse, Aria not so much.