Mass Effect: Andromeda Director Leaves Bioware

[JamesStone]

They could have been created to preserve the essence of each race, their creators believing all species are doomed to extingish themselves in conflict and war.

I'm confused. That was revealed in Mass Effect 2, though replace "creators" with "Reapers".

I mean it as a primary objective. The Reapers would be essentially shells for entire civilizations, preserving the species at the apex of their evolution before their inevitable self-destruction. Problem with these endings was that that, like many other great things in Mass Effect 2 (I will never not be butthurt about how little Harbinger was focused in 3) by that whole Organics vs Synthetics thing.

The Reapers were created by the Leviathans originally to save organics from synthetics. Little more is considered as a possibility of self-destruction, and almost nothing changes, even in dialogues, if you manage to make peace between the Quarians and the Geth, something that apparently never happened in previous cycles. The Synthetic vs Organic conflict stranglethorned its way into the main plot, when it should have stayed in the B-plot where it belonged and performed admirably.

Also, the "start turning people en-masse into Jell-O" was another thing that probably came naturally in coming cycles, considering not much Leviathan Jell-O had to be needed to create Harbinger. So that "we are each a nation" speech from Sovereign and the concept of species' preservation got a bit shafted in terms of importance

 

[LetalisK]

The Reapers were created by the Leviathans originally to save organics from synthetics. Little more is considered as a possibility of self-destruction, and almost nothing changes, even in dialogues, if you manage to make peace between the Quarians and the Geth, something that apparently never happened in previous cycles. The Synthetic vs Organic conflict stranglethorned its way into the main plot, when it should have stayed in the B-plot where it belonged and performed admirably.

I love the Mass Effect series (2 and 3 more than 1, actually), but that is an issue I have too. There was lost potential in the Reapers addressing the peace between Quarian and Geth.

Actually, that's my biggest complaint in general about the series. I think it's pretty good as it is, but it had the ingredients to be even better and it was just kinda wasted.

 

[JamesStone]

BioWare Montreal only did the multiplayer bits and The Omega DLC, so I never had high hopes to begin with. Facing escalating threaths are silly, where do you go from fighting the Reapers? Halo fell into the same trap by now, pulling out even bigger baddies at every turn. In Dragon Age Inquisition you save all reality twice. Once in the main game and once in the final DLC. What the hell.

The Conduit could have been a massive trap, designed by the Reapers to drain the resources of the resistance, then deliver an overwhelmingly crippling blow: a wave of energy spread through the Mass Relays that permanently disabled advanced tech but left them intact ("You develop the paths we desire" indeed.

Oh cool, I join in to vent some aswell.

I kinda liked the whole ancient superweapon angle, it's very space opera-ish, with their own spin on the clich?, being made by all the previous races together, bit by bit. It made sense.

Then of course a plot that basically wrote itself for 2,5 games got blown up by cheap plot devices (the all solving indoctrination) and obligatory twists.

As I said, the current endings could work if they got a bit more foreshadowing and explanations. I also like the concept of "Superweapon created bit by bit" they introduced, but they failed to answer the question, one that I rarely see introduced, and that is: "Why did the Reapers never destroyed the schematics?"

They obviously didn't want the Conduit to be placed on the Catalyst, considering the resistance they gave. The Starbrat himself says only now that the Conduit's placed new options are considered. Yet they never noticed thay every cycle, completly different species came up with the same weapon, only every time slightly more advanced than the previous cycle? This doesn't ring any Reaper alarms?
And in 37 million years, MINIMUM, they never once managed to find the records of its construction? And it just coincidentally appeared right when the Reapers reached the Sol System? Yeah right.


I kept expecting a big twist, and I sure got it. I still can't comprehend what the original creators of the Conduit had in mind when they proposed Synthesis as the best solution, or why a Superweapon meant to defeat the Reapers gives their operator a choice in what to do.

It'd be like we, in the far future, creating a nuclear device capable of wiping out a Star Cluster as a last resort against an enemy we couldn't defeat, and when the commander clicked on the button to launch an AI interface came up and said:

Choose one of three options:
A: Destroy the Star Cluster
B: Brainwash the Star Cluster
C: Fuse your DNA with your enemies, bringing understanding between yourselves


As a final angry note, no one else thinks the message is a whee bit racist? The only way for peace to prevail is if we're all the same?

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

They're a lot like Bethesda to me, their games fail in numerous ways but they do one thing so great that it lifts the entire game up by the neck. For Bethesda, it's open-world. For Bioware, it's their companions. Even Inquisition was a step in the right direction when it came to your traveling squadmates.

Spot on: I think Bethesda and BioWare are both quite poor and unambitious devs who ostensibly craft puddle shallow games, yet their IP's identity and focus still feels distinct enough for me to keep buying their games. Bethesda's worlds (preferably a mile or two away from the nearest idiotic NPC... ) are hugely immersive as well as being superb canvasses to RP in, and BioWare's characters and sense of a cohesive world (be it ME's or Thedas) will always keep me hooked, regardless how risible the story or gameplay.

...apropos risible story and gameplay:

Considering they said Inquisition will be the baseline by which they create all future games, that has already been proven correct. On the plus side, that game was such an exercise in mediocrity that improving it OR making it worse would be something of an achievement.

Wait, when did they say that? Did they say that? Please say they didn't say that...

If Andromeda has a worse story or core gameplay than DA:I, then yes, that will be a truly colossal achievement. Maybe they'll just have you hold down one button, and all combat will just go into autopilot... 'cause that would be even more 'accessible' to dumb gamers who can't be arsed to think about what they're doing in an RPG (yes, that's judgmental and elitist, but fuck it, DA:I's combat was just so bewilderingly inane as to almost not class as gameplay). And the Big Bad will be a Big Bad who wants power because he wants power, because he wants power.