Happy First Anniversary, Andromeda!

Last time I tried 100%, I missed a few before going to "Meridian" and ended up at 98% so I'm going to be deliberate this time.

I hear you on the early struggle...I'm torn a bit honestly.  Having a "base model" Nomad lends itself to some authenticity but I itch for gunning the thruster over some of the more challenging hills.  After getting the achievement for leveling all profiles to level 6, I may start from scratch. 

Yeah, it takes about 3 games to unlock all powers in every profile.  I don't normally care either BioWare games are the rare exception where I at least attempt to unlock all achievements.

I never liked The Reapers as a threat, they made them too powerful and the game's climax suffered because of it.  They were boring and were designed with no weakness to exploit to end the game so regardless of who was writing the game you would have needed some magical maguffin to defeat them.  If anything the refuse ending made the most sense with how powerful they made them.  The Dark Energy plotline that came out after Mass Effect 3 sounded in basic premise to me at least would have been just as badly received.

None of the other enemies were intimidating or scary either, just moving targets.

Its not just the comparison of Reapers amd Kett, but even Geth and Kett. The whole backstory of the Geth and their connection to the Quarians was really interesting. The Kett lacked that.

Not everyone knew the truth, and if they did, they were in denial. And when I meant mysterious, I meant their history and origins. They were machine so obviously they were made, but by whom?

 I didn’t think the reapers really had any meaningful mystery in ME2. By then, we pretty much knew what they were about. The bit about the colonists being reaper building material just seemed kinda ridiculous, and ME2’s terrible battle barks basically turned Harbinger into a bit of a laugh. The Collectors had a better mystery there though. I thought learning that they were once prothean was way better than the human reaper hooey. 

I also loved ME3.  Of course, I found the MET in 2016 so I missed out on all the drama around it.  I have my preferences for endings, why I would or would not choose them.  Based on what I'd heard about the pre-EC endings, I can see why no one would really want to choose Destroy.  But I never saw that and, well, fuck the Reapers. 

True, the kett weren't all that terrible, at least not compared to the Reapers, but what would have been?  Also, it seems like there was a rogue element on the kett side that set them off course.  Perhaps the "lockstep" kett would be stronger.  They also seem to have an empire behind them that we've yet to see - which is a reason why I believe this was never intended to be a single game.  They had more planned and we're probably never going to see what that was

I did like the lighter tone but still think it would have been better served by having the option to play more Renegade.  Big miss there.  However, I do agree that what made sense for a DLC that was clearly intended to be a love letter to fans and a final send-off for Shepard is not what you design an entire game around.

Now, it looks like plans for DA4 are a dicey.  Original plan was for the story to revolve around Solus but the head writer who left believes that will likely change in his absence.  If the DA franchise, which has done fairly well, is in danger, ME pretty much has no hope.  One rumor about DA I've heard is reboot.  I'm not sure I'd be interested in a reboot of the MET, or even another story where the fate of the galaxy is at stake.  It was too well done to even try to recapture it.  We already know the story and how it ends.  Retreading that path isn't what I'm looking for.

Don't forget the "we are superior to you in every way, even though you keep thwarting us".

Meaning, Harbinger was the head all along and there never was a Catalyst?  Can anyone be all that sorry to not have a Catalyst?

oooh that could have been an interesting trajectory for the trilogy. If ME 1 left the mystery of the Reapers largely intact then ME 2 could have been about discovering the truth. Hell TIM could have even sent you on that grand chase because he had his suspicions but no evidence.