Happy First Anniversary, Andromeda!

I'd love to celebrate with some MEA DLC...

I'd certainly like a Quarian Ark DLC as I'm not much for tie-in books. While it's not happening, that doesn't mean Mass Effect is finished. Like Garrus' ruthless calculus of war, EA has its own ruthless calculus. If we want more Andromeda or Mass Effect of any type, we have to convince EA that it's a good investment, i.e. that it will make money.

I suspect they'll bail on MEA. Not because it couldn't be made improved on by using DLC or a second game but because they'll ignore that they made mistakes and instead blame the setting or some other nonsense. I actually loved Ryder (Scott, since I never played Sara). He was just the type of fun-loving, adventurous, "green" character I didn't know I wanted to see. As much as I loved the seasoned Shepard, I wonder how 22 year old Shepard who had his career destroyed because of Dad would have fared? It's far easier to criticize the Ryder Twins for not being Shepard than to imagine that maybe that was intentional - to not just make a Shepard clone in a new setting.

That said, I still think the removal of Paragon/Renegade options was what hurt it. People could have got their tougher Ryder, though I still think the inexperience should have played a role. Imagine the first meeting they have where they basically leave without it being formally dismissed and Ryder uses Pull to force them back his way, telling him he hadn't told them they could leave. Or something that would make it clear he was in charge and that their opinion on the subject wasn't relevant. This type of Ryder might more align with Tann, wanting power and control, rather than a more Paragon version that strives to prove himself instead. (This is just off the cuff nothing I've really thought about.)

The problem with bailing is that they will have a higher development cost again for the next game for they are going to have to develop a new backstory and world for the game.  At least if they stay in Andromeda they have all of that already created and done which might cut months off the development cycle.  Besides BioWare deliberately like the Milky Way and I don't think they would want to go back so people could then use that against them again.  Its a no-win situation and I think the budget and timetable will ultimately make that decision and if they feel the setting was the problem it would be altered, just not thrown away.

I liked the removal of Paragon/Renegade for my protagonist didn't feel bipolar psychopath or locked into a single path.  I just don't understand why they did it half way when the Dragon Age team had done it so much better in Inquisition.  I doubt you would ever find anything like what you are talking about with pull for that would take plenty of resources that might get taken away from other areas.  For that entire encounter would have to be animated so instead of cleaning up other areas of the game they work on that, or they would have to deal with the whole "what about me and my skills" it just becomes a blackhole of people wanting to be catered to as much as I like the engineer part of Mass Effect 3: Omega.

Time certainly flies when you're having fun, eh? Hard to believe its been a year and hard to believe I put in complete Playthroughs of Witcher 3 (my second), Red Dead Redemption, LA Noir, some MLB the Show, some Madden 18, and about half of Ghost Recon Wildlands in between the four PTs that I put in of Andromeda.

I picked up TW3 but it hasn't really clicked with me, probably because of the lack of customization and companions. Also, I was sort of turned off by my inability to murder child rapists without consequences. If I want that I'll live in the real world.

It's not exactly because he wasn't a bad ass, its because he just wasn't a well anything.  He felt to me like he was resigned to be there and was just going through the motions. As a quick example on Pee Bees loyalty quest where she launches you in the escape pod, the most you can muster is a sigh and a I'm not mad. If he at least felt like a intrepid adventurer or a fun loving adventurer that dmc got from it I'd be in.  There were far too few parts where I felt that he felt any real thrill of discovery or adventure.  I think the best for the style of character I'd of been happy with was actually Liams quest(most fun loyalty quest in the game despite him being the lamest character in the game) and even there not quite at the full fun loving adventurer mode.  I tried to play Sara but I actively disliked her voice, maybe whatever subtle differences she has would have made up for it.

 Also I felt his conversational range was far too narrow, while some may have seen Shepards range as bipolar psychopath I think someone said in this thread I felt it allowed you to make it more your Shepard. Ryder felt more of like a set protagonist. While there are a decent number of story points you can make big decisions on in the ordinary conversations most of the options when I tried them felt the same in tone.  Even if the effect in game is always the same(you get the information or whatever) the how you got there and dealt with people in Mass Effect really defined your Shepard. Not saying there is no difference between the heart icon and the logic one, but the degree of difference just felt smaller than ME1-3.

I completely understand where you are coming from, but at the same time that is how I felt about Shepard until the second game where the companions helped to define him better.  The blank protagonist is what BioWare does to allow players to feel like they are part of the game and I think the open world approach just amplified that problem and a more structured game could have helped define Ryder like how it felt the world defined Shepard.

When I first heard of Andromeda I was really excited for visiting a new galaxy and everything. Putting down new roots for humanity and the other council races seemed like it was going to be a great idea. Hell, it still seems like a great idea. But the execution of Andromeda went wrong. The entire game IMO felt like a big joke in most missions. Everyone was always joking. It just felt as though the writers wanted to capture what the citadel DLC did. But they failed to realize the citadel DLC was good because of the time the player had with all the characters from the original games. As a player coming into Andromeda I don't know anyone. All I know is we have an important task to find a home word. But everyone, even Ryder without my control sometimes, are making light of the situation. I was looking forward to a dark, grim story. And that wasn't the only issue I had. The character we play, Ryder, was a bumbling idiot. SAM was more of the protagonist because it was the one doing everything, opening the vaults etc, Ryder did nothing. I think the game would have been more compelling if Cora was the leader not Ryder.

Look I know most of the time on this forum I wish for a Shepard Reboot, I still do by the way. But if they go for more Andromeda the writers have to seriously sit down and think what makes ME, ME. Because it's damn sure not the exploration! They need a new protagonist, someone whose more confident. Or if they do decide to use the Ryder twins make them more confident in their abilities, and bring back renegade options seriously. Give us actual conflict and a serious tone in storytelling. Anyway those are just my 2 cents. I just want ME to feel like ME again.

I do think I may have to take a short pause from other gaming activities and play some glorious Andromeda again. It has been a while.

Happy birthday and Good gaming.!

maybe they can continue the game as "Andromeda" and just divorce it from Mass Effect as an IP?  Or just call it an Mass Effect AU?  I still think it would do better as it's own standalone series.

But yeah, DAI did dialogue far better than MEA.  My Ryder always felt the same no matter how I mixed up the tones.