I like the Bethesda games a lot, but “cover shooter” is a pretty specific genre where melee is deemphasized and each stage has this kind of linear progression where the use of cover is mandatory and is a very developed gameplay mechanic. In looking it up, it seems to have originated in its modern form in a 2003 game called Kill.Switch.
ME2 leaned into it heavily for combat, and also simplified the RPG stats development and the rest of the equipment system. It just made it feel a lot less like Kotor or Dragon Age Origins, which was jarring but not bad once I accepted it was continuing this story I really liked with a rather different style of game.
Looking back, I realised I was about to be in a fight when I came to a bunch of spots to take cover. I remember thinking it was pretty lazy game design.
Andromeda was hot garbage, but I enjoyed it. It’s even less of an RPG than ME2/3. There are a couple times when they imply a choice will matter, but then it won’t. There was a lot wrong with that game. Not gonna go into it every time. I will say I enjoyed the terraforming stuff, but that’s only the first half of the game. The second half is fetch quests, if you care about doing everything. You could just go for the other ark ships (which advances the main quest) but I was trying to get into blue girl’s pants, same as I did in ME1/3. Different blue girl, but kinda the same look. Andromeda is PG, with no real romance options that I could see. You could flirt but halfway through the game those options just went away. Like they didn’t even bother to finish them. Or maybe I somehow broke it flirting with all the girls in the game, even the turian. Like they all found out and that was that, but they never said to pick like you get in ME1 if you push it with both Ashley/Kaiden and Liara, the human or the asari you talk to next at a certain point will demand you choose. Andromeda just dropped the whole thing, like it dropped the terraforming stuff and just went to fetch quests. It’s like that meme with the horse where the back half is poorly drawn. The ending of the game was decent, but it teased a sequel or DLC that never came.
If you do get Andromeda, don’t spring for any bonus editions. They just include online stuff, and the servers are no longer up. Xbox happily sold me the special edition for $4, but the extras that weren’t in the $3 base version were unavailable because the servers were no longer up. I’m not mad I paid an extra dollar, but if I’d paid like $5 or more extra for something they couldn’t deliver, I might be mad. But I absolutely got $4 worth of game. Legendary only set me back $6, so that’s $10 for all four games. Not bad.
I like the Bethesda games a lot, but “cover shooter” is a pretty specific genre where melee is deemphasized and each stage has this kind of linear progression where the use of cover is mandatory and is a very developed gameplay mechanic. In looking it up, it seems to have originated in its modern form in a 2003 game called Kill.Switch.
ME2 leaned into it heavily for combat, and also simplified the RPG stats development and the rest of the equipment system. It just made it feel a lot less like Kotor or Dragon Age Origins, which was jarring but not bad once I accepted it was continuing this story I really liked with a rather different style of game.
I suppose someday I’ll play Andromeda.
Looking back, I realised I was about to be in a fight when I came to a bunch of spots to take cover. I remember thinking it was pretty lazy game design.
Andromeda was hot garbage, but I enjoyed it. It’s even less of an RPG than ME2/3. There are a couple times when they imply a choice will matter, but then it won’t. There was a lot wrong with that game. Not gonna go into it every time. I will say I enjoyed the terraforming stuff, but that’s only the first half of the game. The second half is fetch quests, if you care about doing everything. You could just go for the other ark ships (which advances the main quest) but I was trying to get into blue girl’s pants, same as I did in ME1/3. Different blue girl, but kinda the same look. Andromeda is PG, with no real romance options that I could see. You could flirt but halfway through the game those options just went away. Like they didn’t even bother to finish them. Or maybe I somehow broke it flirting with all the girls in the game, even the turian. Like they all found out and that was that, but they never said to pick like you get in ME1 if you push it with both Ashley/Kaiden and Liara, the human or the asari you talk to next at a certain point will demand you choose. Andromeda just dropped the whole thing, like it dropped the terraforming stuff and just went to fetch quests. It’s like that meme with the horse where the back half is poorly drawn. The ending of the game was decent, but it teased a sequel or DLC that never came.
If you do get Andromeda, don’t spring for any bonus editions. They just include online stuff, and the servers are no longer up. Xbox happily sold me the special edition for $4, but the extras that weren’t in the $3 base version were unavailable because the servers were no longer up. I’m not mad I paid an extra dollar, but if I’d paid like $5 or more extra for something they couldn’t deliver, I might be mad. But I absolutely got $4 worth of game. Legendary only set me back $6, so that’s $10 for all four games. Not bad.