For the record, the only acceptable Sara Ryder is Custom option 9 (I think - whatever the last one is).
rei
1666
Man, so much of the writing and dialogue is plain lazy, juvenile or rock-stupid. So many unearned profanities and “bro” attempts at action one-liners compared to OT. “Clusterfuck” was used even.
So today, this face happened
I love it. I was making the same face at Liam that entire mission.
I’m an idiot.
I thought the travel in this game was getting really really long, and I wished there was a point to the forward stations, like you could come down to the planet and go straight to a forward station instead of having to start at the same landing pad for the Tempest.
Well, guess what? I just discovered today that you can press “A” on the forward stations on any planet if you’ve been there, and it fast travels you right there.
Well no, I wouldn’t say idiot, I’ve made my share of obvious mistakes. But just out of curiosity - what did you think the forward stations were for, before you found that use?
At first I really did think there were new points where you could start. But then I left Harvl after fighting an invincible turret, and when I went back to the Nexus and came back to the planet later, it didn’t give me the option to go back to any other forward station. So that was the first inkling that they weren’t what I thought they were. I did use them to recharge ammo and health, so I thought maybe that’s what they were for. But Vandel is soooooooo huge, I kept wishing I could travel back to the forward station, and for some reason, it occurred to me to try it in the map screen this time.
So apparently almost every major enemy has an instant death melee ability (ie if you’re in melee range and they decide to use it, you die instantly, no matter what). I’m not sure why they thought this was a good idea.
olaf
1672
Yes the Bio Converter with the Tech Support Life Support skill is awesome. I am running Tactical Cloak, Energy Drain and Charge. Working the Explorer profile, putting roughly equal points into all three trees to advance the profile. Bio Converter works great with everything as long as you have some healing. I assume there are some other ways to heal aside from Tech Support? Not sure though.
I use the Isharay sniper rifle and the Piranha shotgun with Seeking Plasma aug. Bio Converter also skips the reload animation/cooldown so that makes it even better. The Isharay is a fucking beast with unlimited ammo and no reload time. The Piranha for close/mid range work. It has spoiled me in that you don’t really need to aim, just point.
I had a Hurricane SMG with the Sticky Grenade aug, it was really fun but the damage isn’t great. I also tried the Hornet with the same aug, less fun than the Hurricane and also less effective.
Great game. I am high 30s, outposts everywhere except for the Krogan planet.
I’ve done a few loyalty missions and while they have been a clear upgrade in quality over the writing in the rest of the game, i have much fonder memories of the loyalty missions in ME2 (although to be fair it has been years since i played ME2). They are also very short.
Unless the main quest picks up, i don’t think the loyalty missions alone can save the writing. The non main mission quests certainly aren’t going to do the game any favors.
Grifman
1674
Another thing I learned - you can use more than one type of any weapon. In the previous games you could only have one shotgun, one assault rifle, one pistol, one sniper rilfe. In this one, all four of your weapons can be one type, 4 pistols, 4 assault rifles, any combo, etc. And two weapons of the same type each have their own ammo pool. So you could have one Revenant assault rifle with seeking plasma rounds and another with stick grenades.
JoshoB
1675
Yes, it’s glorious! The only limiting factor is the weight (because if things get too heavy, you’re penalized).
Oh wow. I never would have tried to do that. Thank you for sharing that.
Grifman
1677
I did it entirely by accident, so it’s not like I’m brilliant or anything :)
I like the “taking off” animation from Elaaden best, because I love watching those giant tick creatures amble around in the foreground while the Tempest blasts off. They remind me of the buggalo from Futurama.
By the way, there is a companion app that will let you manage strike missions on your phone. And various other multiplayer related stuff that seems a bit pointless as an app where you can’t actually play mp but oh well.
One thing I really appreciate while playing this on Hardcore is that every encounter is meaningful. On Veold there are lots of little camps. Some are little ruins guarded by Remnant that are only hostile if you violate their territory, and there’s little factories and ruins all over where Kett teams are scavenging. You can drive around these areas and give them a wide berth, or you can go in and try to eliminate the opposition in the hopes of finding something precious at these places. And this is actually a meaningful choice, because most of the time I stop and try to take a place, I lose. So do I really want to spend time and energy learning a good tactical layout on how I should approach, and carefully picking off all these enemies in the hopes of acquiring what might not even be worth getting? For the Kett places, they might even fly in some re-enforcement during the battle.
So yes, as you might have guess, I usually steer clear. But I like that they’re there. And the couple of times that I did go to battle, the fight itself was such a nailbiter, and that even though it took me a few reloads and quite a bit of time, I was satisfied because each fight was really fun and interesting and different. For the Horde mode that Tom demonstrated, there’s only a few maps. But for these ad-hoc engagements all over the single players, there seems to be sooooo much variety, and just a little bit of difference in the layout leads to quite a different fight.
Scrax
1681
Okay - so Daddy Ryder Memories (Second one):
[spoiler]So I trigger the, I believe second, memory video - in which Mom and Bro-Ryder are with Dad. Mom is so happy to have the family together again - it happens so infrequently blah blah blah. Everyone is happy, except, there is no Sis-Ryder. Bro is to the right of mom, an empty space is to the left. Mom keeps looking at this blank space and says something to the effect of “Sara! - it’s so great to see you!” Except Sara isn’t there. Scott and Dad give each other a slight worried glance, Dad looks at the floor, Mom is still talking to ghost Sara. Bro Ryder awkwardly starts talking to ghost-Sarah as well. It hits me that clearly, Mom is starting to go crazy from her disease and that the family is awkwardly trying to pretend that everything is normal. Dad starts to, heart-breakingly, talk to ghost Sara too. I’m truly floored by this development. What does this mean? Is Sara a figment of our imagination? Is SAM creating this fictitious twin to heal or provide support for something missing from our heart? I suddenly start trying to remember previous scenes that we were in. Did other people acknowledge Sara? Is Sara Mr.Robot? It all makes sense now that my “sister” has been in this “coma” throughout the game so far. What a twist!
Except when I go to work today and talk to a co-worker who is a bit ahead of me, and yeah, Sara was actually suppose to be in the scene too. Except I didn’t see her or hear her, and now I am annoyed that I created a more interesting scenario in my head all along (and that I got a bug in a major scene). I really wish I captured this on PS4 share as it was incredibly surreal.
Please keep actual Ryder memories spoiler-free. [/spoiler]
Timex
1682
Yes, I had that exact bug with the ghost NPC not being there. I guess everyone gets that?
Seems pretty major to have not gotten caught by the QC team.
I did not see that bug. Playing on Xbox, for what it’s worth. (Everybody stop, hey what’s that sound, everybody look what’s going down …)
Scrax
1684
Here it is!! It’s even better than I remembered! That shoulder hug! Spoilers who haven’t seen the second memory.
