So...why was squadmate control taken away from us?

You know, the beauty of the OT was that if you did not want to use tactical pause, YOU DID NOT HAVE TO. Squad powers were hotkeyable, and if you did not feel like bothering with setting up combos either, there was an option for their AI to use all powers/only defense powers in combat.

Like many other things from the OT, tactical pause combat that many of us loved is gone now. Was it appeasing the multiplayer/shooter crowd? Was it dumbing down the game aka "streamlining" choice? Was it deemed too complex to code with profiles switching and power interaction? I think we will never know.

I also think Andromeda axed too many things that made Mass Effect the games we loved, tactical combat being just one of them.

because the game is not finished

Betheseda did the same thing with Fallout 4, by slowing down time in VATS instead of just being allowed to take a breath. Sometimes I need to figure out how I'm going to deal with this mob of raiders who suddenly caught the attention of a freakin' Behemoth and oh yeah... ghouls swarming in from the building above and you're doing the first Minuteman mission in Lexington. It's a mechanic I learned to deal with, but yeah... I miss the tactical pause and directing fire.

Infact if they want to remove a bit of tactical element the series had, they might as well ditch the squad completely. They are atm completely useless, barely contribute to the fights and are best talking machines. I cant believe this but Beth now does better companions than Eaware atleast when mass effect is concerned. Due to their MP first design soldiers already lost adrenaline rush as time dilation is a issue in MP.

RIGHT! Why even send them to a designated spot if they're going to jog in place and can't get around one simple box.

In the trilogy, I counted on Liara, Jack and Samara to do their biotics when I told them to execute it. Garrus and Thane I knew could handle long range targets. Vega, Ash and Wrex worked best charging the line except when dealing with mechs.

But hey... I've adapted to spamming the A button.

It was a big mistake. The reason they did it was clearly to stop people breaking the flow of this all action fast paced combat they're all so proud of.

But since when was that Mass Effect, though? All they did was diminish the use of your squad. They might as well never leave the ship.

Haha i laugh at MEA and inventory, I mean what point does it even serve? You cannot craft from it, you cannot equip from it, so whats the point of having an inventory? Then to outdo themselves even more each item has 10 ranks why?? what purpose does that serve when they could have just used ME2 style reserach which applies to everything style. Hell they could have used DAI model where you have a schematic and stats depend on materials use. The crafting system that exists is by far the worst. The inventory is as bad as ME1 but has none of its functionality.

Your initial belief is actualy not wrong. Though it do have something to do with the current generation of "cull of duty" gamers, to a large part it is also because playing videogames became acceptable in the last 10-15 years. 20 years ago, only nerds did play videogames. The typical cliche highschool quarterback would never ever play videogames, but they do now... and I have seen such people play... ME1-3 combat with squad control would be too much for them... a very streamlined easy CoD game is all they can handle. Of course, it is the current generation as well... todays youth is shielded from competition and consequences. Remember that one mission in ME where we had to pick one mission and the other would fail automaticaly, because of no time? This would not work today, for some yes, but most would hate it, and we had that situation in MEA... Voeld and Havarl... help the resistance or the scientist. Also all the decisions, they are not all that "deep" and "dire" as in ME1-3, consequences are there, but very limited.

As I play MET now, I realize that I did miss at least being able to pick a target to attack fast with multiple powers to get it off the map. I feel like that aspect of tactical play is gone. What I do notice is that when I take cover and snipe in MEA, my squaddies stay back. They have not ever, to my recollection, moved on targets when I am hanging back and doing pre-emptive snipes as long as I don't drag them into the fray. This I think is a different design than MET. From what I have seen so far in MET (I've never been a sniper in MET before) they seem to still do their own thing. If I want to hold an area from a certain position, they still run around the map which is kind of ironic because shepard is a commander and you would think they would take a cue from him more than Ryder. Also some were military in MET. But nope. They just get on that and kill stuff while I am trying to snipe.

MEA, I don't like bringing cora because she charges all over the map. Probably would have same feeling of liam who has havoc but I never bring him. I don't like having squaddies that can charge off and get themselves killed though if I could intentionally get them killed so I could then do my own thing solo, I might like that more.

I do miss tactical pause because sometimes I cannot get see things that are happening. Like where enemies have moved to or where weapon fire is coming from. I sometimes freeze in MET and do a quick spin to see what is around me then back to real time to decide how to handle it.

This was even more hilarious if make his AP rounds squad based and took another AR user with you.... Got my cinematic experience and insanity acheevo in one go!

Anyhoo, I'm weird so the thing that annoyed me most about not being able change their weapons was that they still had those bloody placeholder weapons in cutscenes...!!

But all in all, I was surprised how well the squaddies performed in combat. Peebee was kinda useless though, unless one had biotics too.

For the next game: give them 2 weapons, a few outfits and me the option whether or not they use powers without my say-so and I'd be content.

I agree if you know what your doing almost any companion can make a good amount of damage or help with passives. I played on insanity and Cora help a lot with the extra charges and extra shield, too bad their weapons suck for most part.