What Did You Do Today in Andromeda

I actually don't super hate the CC like everyone else seems to. Certainly not as good as DAI in any but the two ways- shiny skin and peanut butter hair aren't present. I also really liked customizing the twin. I disliked that there is only one shade of red. It looks like it came out of a dye box and in a lot of lights look pink, while there are 20 shades of brown and black. I also think the Iris being bigger would have decreased us seeing so much eyeball white. And the scars could look less like someone attacked you with a tube of lipstick and more like actual scars- I avoided them altogether.

I actually like the VAs, although a lot of the men seem to have higher pitched voices than seem appropriate. it's the facial animations... Which everyone has already harped on. But I was hoping for funny mess up glitch faces, not a lack of anything but mouth movement.

I was using a USB controller fully expecting total functionality, as it's a 2017 game and I had total functionality in DAI. I've tried twice to map melee to a controller button, but it refuses to be on anything but a keyboard button making the functionality "out of the box" worse than the ME 2/3 controller mods I was using for the other games.

I enjoyed ME3 battling. I don't like MEA battling at all; so many deaths due to the melee mess as well as not being able to cover properly. Also, as a person who aims terribly slow, a grenade exploding in my hand sucks. I guess I got mines and grenades mixed up? but I don't remember grenades in ME3 exploding in my hand. I do like the jetting to the side rather than rolling. Always did wonder how they didn't hurt and slow themselves down with all that rolling in OT.

Protaganist: My complaint about ME2/3 was that I was always the least interesting in the room. Everyone else was more charismatic, funnier, smoother. I guess what I'm running into is that although my Pathfinder is more interesting/emotional the companions aren't interesting. I also historically complained about Femshep being 98% professional soldier and only getting to be human woman in flirt scenes in ME2. It got way better in ME3, where my Femshep could finally express doubt, depression, grief and loved it. She was still a soldier, but I finally got to show the softer side.

Nonetheless, I thought a more casual non combatant protaganist was totally up my alley. Why I'm so confused as to why I'm unhappy with my Ryder? Perhaps it's the fact that Pathfinder seems to require that you be a Master Jack of All Trades and Ryder is absolutely a master in none. She's a novice everything, and it makes completely no sense for her to be a Pathfinder. Which brings me to narrative, I guess. I dislike Cora, but egads, why does she assign herself as my 2nd in command when she should have been Pathfinder? Who cares what Alec did in an emotional moment, the chain of command and history of training and education clearly states this position should have gone to Cora. Cora is kinda inconsistent on her feelings about it. In one scene, she doesn't seem to blink that this act occurred. In another, she's frustrated enough to kick a wall. How could an entire ship full of different races of people and skills not be flexible and smart enough to find appropriate worlds without a Pathfinder? Ryder is not smarter and more expereinced than an entire ship full of people.

And becoming Pathfinder is narrative chaos. Not only what I just mentioned. Excited to have a family, I created a Ryder who loved hers. And should be devastated that Alec died. Take a day off, have a grieving scene similar to what Hawke got in DA2. Prefereably WITH my twin, who still doesn't know. Instead, I seem to be forced to pick dialogue, with attached supporting auto dialogue, about how she's excited with the new responsiblities, that she'll do her best, happy to be in charge of the Tempest with big ol' excited smiles. *growl* no. Just no. It makes me feel like a Ryder who is finally glad her father's out of the way is canon while my Ryder who gives a crap is OOC. Additionally, a dad I know all of five minutes who dies off screen is so ridiculously underwhelming in the grief department I can't imagine why they bothered. They either should have made Alec Pathfinder for a third of the game or outright just made you the Pathfinder from the get go. As in, the plan, you were chosen, etc. Maybe even some dialogue about how you were the youngest Pathfinder chosen for the Adromeda Initiative but that the founder saw something in you that made her decide you were suited for the job anyhow. Dad Ryder could have been a fellow combatant and super AI user. oh well. I should stop trying to fix a narrative that can't be fixed.

Totally don't get why SAM was hardwired into my brain or how that would save Ryder or why the Doctor would randomly agree to that. Space Magic. Or, paranoid, SAM wants a new host. 


The companions aren't interesting- I'm more interested in the people who work on the nexus than my companions.

The Intro was good and exciting. I liked Liam and all his banter. I liked the wacky crazy lightning world. with floating mountains. I felt like I'd entered a new Galaxy. The mystery of why the Kett somehow can't access the old tech but we sort of can is weird/confusing but interesting. I honestly do wonder what the heck happened to the other Arks I think the idea of investigating who my father really was and what he was up to a bit...I dunno. I find it weird. Because in ME3, I had the feeling from all the crap laying around Anderson's apartment that he was going to die, because otherwise, why give him all this audio about who he was? But that was to get me more invested in a character they would then kill later. Alec is already dead. By the time I unravel who he was, it'll be what, half game? end game? So, I'll care that he died 60 hours after he died? The killing of dad off screen and how they've handled the transfer of power is bad. My Ryder's reactions to it have been inconsistent by no intention of my own. I've been non positive emotions, mostly bored, since dad died. And now I can't even go up a hill on this boring desert planet of empty emptiness. I mean, why did they even try to make a go of it on a radioactive desert planet? The lightning planet seemed more liveable by comparison.

The nomad can't go up a mild incline, as you've already all found out. I mean, I'd read about this, but hadn't known it was this bad. I go up and over a totally vertical incline of one boulder just to be bested by a sandy hill right next to it. I'd also read that one needed to upgrade it and it would stop sucking. But I don't want to collect materials by walking my Ryder's butt literally up to each rock-then find wherever the upgrade center is on either the nexus or the tempest- and upgrade the basic movement object just to do the first world. I didn't even craft my first game of DAI- or even my second. I am not a crafter and don't like it being required. wonder if they'll patch the Nomad to have it's driving capabilities not start out sucking for new players. Also reminds me of ME1 in the controls of it. Bah on that.

I remember being slow to get invested in Femshep in ME2. I made myself play it anyway. I was locked in from the second ME3 began and couldn't wait to keep playing it. Not so here in Andromeda.