One concept I thought was downplayed in MEA and I hope they go into more in the next ME game is what

Well I did like the fact that you can play as the Ryder twin you didn't choose. Hopefully we can have the opportunity to play to do more of that in the future.

If they bring SAM into the next Mass Effect game I would like to see something more then just being a gimmick. There are many different ways that interacting with Remnant technology could have been handled and it never felt like SAM was more then some generic plot device. For I cannot see how some other generic plot device was used nothing would have been lost and the annoyance of SAM wouldn't have been there.

I got the feeling that SAM was there simply as an explanation why Ryder could be spontaneously more adept and powerful than would ordinarily be possible without years of training or whatnot. Once the SAM-On-Switch was thrown, we could do anything that normal people couldn't do and he was mostly useless until he was needed again as a get-out-of-jail-free card.

My first inclination is to say downplay the existence of SAM, but I suppose I'd actually be interested in more SAM... but only if there are negative consequences to using it. There should be some give and take.

My preference would be to weaken SAM's hold on Ryder's physiology, to the point where the player would have to actually select a class and commit to that for the rest of the game. I'd actually prefer if SAM played more of a major role on Meridian itself, since it has a good grasp of using remnant technology, and have minimal input during actual missions or exploring. In this hypothetical sequel, I'd seriously downplay SAM's input entirely. The whole idea of a voice on the comm that guides us is novel enough, but it gets kind of old. Maybe we should be able to hack into things ourselves and figure out routes.

I wouldn't want to get rid of SAM entirely, as I'm fond of having a synthetic character as part of the roster to some degree.

If SAM worked more like EDI I think I would have been okay with it.  I just think the fatal connection of dependence they established for Ryder to get the benefits that SAM is used to explain just seems to be I wouldn't say lazy, but doesn't fit well into the story for me.  The basic idea of SAM of being an AI that is used to help with the initiative getting to Andromeda and maintaining the ships for hundreds of years while travelling does make sense for me.  Its just going beyond that seems to be stretch. 

cyber horror at its finest.

Ever see the movie "Upgrade"?

Yeah THAT's the kind of stuff I dont think the writers consider when writing SAM.

I don't see why the solution for being unable roleplay as a certain class should be to remove the classless system from those who enjoy it. I think a far better way of doing it would be to add dialogue options for those wanting to stick at one of the six original classes, so they could define their character by narrative choices and by just not unlocking some skills. I'm a completionist player by nature and my first playthrough of ME:A spanned over 300 hours - and I don't see my ongoing second and third playthroughs will end up being any shorter - so for me the ability to pick different skills and try different builds was godsent and extremely welcome addition.

I do, however, agree that changing between four loadouts of three skills was cumbersome and didn't quite work and something more resembling the old powerwheel should take its place. I predict this problem will right itself with the arrival of new generation of consoles. There's now a button attachment to ps4 controller on the market and I think the controller for ps5 will have something similar.

When you speak of supply stashes, do you mean these? Lore-wise their presence is sound, but I think on some locations where the Initiative had never set a foot upon, it would have looked less odd to have a pile of rocks with these symbols on top of them. 

According to the codexes Field Repurposing and Omni-Tool it's our omni-tool's minifacturing fabricator that makes all these resources into medi-gel and other consumables and in emergency it can do it using only raw materials in its vicinity.

😄 I, too, thought that ME:A storyline seemed like it was recycled from something that was first intended for Milky Way when I first played Andromeda. Like you could have the arks go through an unused mass relay and there they come across the Scourge: it fries the relay they used thus making them unable to return.

I myself didn't mind SAM's connection to Ryder, it was made by Ryder's parents and I thought of SAM as younger sibling that was left for us to bring up and educate after Alec's death. So my worry going forward is more that what if Ryder manages to mess up SAM's moral compass with their actions throughout the game. I also find it interesting that the story decides to focus on two fraternal twins, and then one of them ends up being siamese twins with an AI.

There's more to it than that. From the get-go, ME offered a class structure for the PC as well as followers. MEA changed that formula for the PC, but followers are still locked to limited skill sets. Giving every PC access to every.single.skill implemented in the game trivializes them, and expands the distance between Ryder and the followers, putting Ryder way ahead of them in potential.

I like choices with consequences in my RPGs, and class choice is among them. How you choose to build your character becomes meaningless when you can acquire every single skill in every single playthrough.

The real kicker, though, is that MEA's system does not promote Ryder learning and becoming more experienced and honing skills - it's all SAM. The idea that SAM is manipulating Ryder's physiology to unleash these different "profiles" tends to make the character feel more like SAM's puppet than an independent individual with their own unique talents.



I used to be a completionist, but as games have gotten so large, I got over it.

I also enjoy multiple playthroughs, making different decisions and seeing the different results - including class/build choices.



The other part of my issue was losing control of squadmates' powers and equipment, which we had in MET and lost in MEA. Those features offered players the opportunity to fully control power usage and setting off tech/biotic 'splosions, which in MEA relies more on AI.



Yes. Their omnipresence in combat areas remind me of "power-ups" and such in arcade games, and spoil what could be otherwise be a more immersive alien environment imho.

I'm familiar with ME lore, and on board with Ryder's need to find and exploit local resources as a Pathfinder. But I'm not keen to have it happening during combat, and in fact I feel like it makes the PC feel like a dolt who fails to plan ahead and organize supplies before they are needed. Much like the thermal clips introduced in ME2, these changes in lore were designed to explain the particular gameplay mechanics they chose to implement.



Well - the Ryder twins agreed to the SAM implant and Andromeda trip, though I suppose it's fair to say they weren't counting on the kind of connection Alec activated during... that scene - and weren't even advised of some aspects of it beforehand.

That's a great point about Ryder's influence on SAM. It's something that could definitely be developed going forward.

There should be some negative aspects with SAM literally tied into Ryder's brain, stuff that could alter the way Ryder does things and interacts with the rest of the crew. As far as SAM as exposition dump someone had to do it and that was the job of SAM so I don't care that the writers gave the technobabble to an AI that made sense. What I didn't like was when SAM was basically told Ryder not to punch an Outcast beating up a civilian on Kadara before you met Sloane and maybe it's just me but I also thought SAM was trying to push Ryder into a romance with Reyes, or maybe SAM had the hots for him.

Indeed, it would have made for a much more interesting narrative if SAM was more like STEM in that film.