2967

No it was not.

Better companions, and companion quests? Absolutely! But the main story was the worst thing about ME2. The careful world building and universe from ME1 are some of the best ever in gaming.

2968

I put that watershed at 3, 2 for me is a big change without anything that makes those changes work. 3 is those changes but, y’know, fun.

And for me, RPG as a videogame definition aren’t about roleplaying (the story and choices and consequences are certainly better in earlier iterations, especially 1) but mechanics, which…ME1 had more numbers and trees and stuff, but I think the overall structure of those mechanics is better in 3 and Andromeda, without some of the baggage 3 inherited from earlier games.

2969

I don’t remember ME3 being any different from 2, other than advancing the story of course. It felt like they perfected the formula in 2 and just iterated on that. I enjoyed all 3 games, but ME1 had some severely rough edges.

Still haven’t played the remakes, I already bought these games and choke at the idea of paying top dollar again.

2970

It’s super different. Every enemy type in every faction feels very different and needs to be handled differently. Enough of those types are mobile and aggressive that you’re forced to move around regularly and not just hug one piece of cover and slowly whittle down HP bars (the whack-a-mole style fire exchanges that are why I tend to hate basic cover shooters). Biotics are much more effective. Ammo is way less of an issue. Because you have branching final specializations on powers, there are actually meaningful choices to be made when levelling. There are a variety of guns of each class and not just assault rifles (there’s a DLC for 2 that opens it up a bit more, but not many). Gear overall becomes a reward instead of a negligible percentile increase without being as overwhelming and bitty as ME1. I could probably go on if I had played either game within the last few years. Fundamentally, ME2 was a game where I hated everything mechanical about it and combats were a tedious slog that were far too frequent, and all of this only more so on replay, whereas ME3 was a game where the combat and progression were compelling enough that I spent dozens of hours playing it in cooperative multiplayer horde mode w/ no writing or characters involved. You absolutely could not pay me to play ME2 without the worldbuilding and characters.

2971

Those all seem like pretty iterative improvements to me compared to the essential overhaul between 1 and 2.

2972

Which is why I say 2 is the big change, and 3 is the game that makes those changes work. It’s not nearly as big a change as 1-2, but does a complete 180 on my enjoyment. And then Andromeda drops the stupid fucking global cooldown, lets you choose powers more flexibly, gives jetpacks, and moves away from obvious waist-high-cover combat arenas, and is that lil’ bit better still.

2973

That’s fair. I remember enjoying ME2 just fine, but I haven’t played it in a Very Long Time.

2974

Some of the companion quests in Andromeda are super good.

The one where you sneak on-to a raiders ship and the raider leader is bitching at you on the video screen, and you can just kill his feed…hilarious. Also when the ship flips upside down because there is a space battle going on outside.

2975

I was thiiiiiiiiiiiis close to resuming my early replay of Andromeda, but this thread has me jonesing for another go 'round with Inquisition. I think I’ll play as a warrior, I’ve only ever done mages and rogues.

2976

You can switch direct control to any party member at any time, and they are pretty well specced too. Does rolling another char for a class you haven’t played before really bring that much to the table?

2977

I’ve only ever played as me, barring my untimely death during a dragon fight.

2978

The game does actually react differently to the PC based on their class. Especially for mages.

2979

ME3 had an enjoyable Multiplayer game aspect. The way it was handled with the campaign might have been annoying for people that were only interested in Single Player, but I will always have a place in my heart for Coop shooters with cool class mechanics

2980

I jumped into a multiplayer match for the hell of it today and the lobby filled up right away. People still play this! It was an amusing diversion.

Damn I really want more Mass Effect now that iterates on Andromedas gameplay!

2981

ME3 had super fun MP. I’m not usually an MP guy, but I did play ME3 multiplayer quite a lot. And I kinda miss it.

2982

All the recent talk around the Mass Effect trilogy reminded me: oh yeah, I should go back and finish Andromeda one of these days. I was loving it until I got bogged down on that one jungle planet where you can’t drive a vehicle.

2983

If it helps, that planet is much smaller than the others you explore.

2984

I think that might have been my favourite bit… because you didn’t drive a vehicle.

2985

So I booted up a new game of this on Friday and just finished it now. Granted, I was playing on narrative mode but wow…you really don’t need to do much to progress to the Endgame. I explored Eos and Voeld, a bit of Kadara, and that’s basically it. Crazy.

I played FemRyder for the first time, and I liked her voice acting with the exception of a few horrible line readings. I went with a slight variation on the Asian model and it worked really well for the entire family.

I enjoyed exploring…until I didn’t. It got tiring. I preferredthe tighter missions like infiltrating the Archon’s ship.

I forgot how awesome the music is in the game. From low-key synths to the bombastic score during the finale, it’s all oretty damned perfect.

That’s it. Just random thoughts upon completing this evening. I’ve still got three planets to hit plus everyone’s side missions.

2986

It takes the Pillars of Eternity 2 / BG2 approach. Short critical path, massive amounts of side content.

Whatshisname with the afro and the British accent has the best character side mission.