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Our Faces are Tired...Mass Effect: Andromeda Retrospective || Mass Effect Month
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In the year 2022, two podcasters travelled through time to stop the threat of the podcast bots, unaware that it was the beginning of something far bigger. After establishing the PodPack Collective, the Chatsunami podcast and their allies now ready themselves to defend against the podcast promoters that lurk in the darkest depths of the internet.
They called it the greatest alliance in podcasting history.
The communities of the internet call it... MASS EFFECT MONTH.
Welcome to the penultimate episode of Mass Effect Month! In this episode, Satsunami is joined by PodPack member Luke from the Nerdstalgic podcast to discuss another of gaming's greatest controversies: Mass Effect: Andromeda. But is there still some good in this game? Were people too critical? And when will we ever get the next Mass Effect game?! All this and more in this episode of Mass Effect Month!
This podcast is a member of the PodPack Collective, an indie podcasting group dedicated to spreading positivity within the podcast community. For further information, please follow the link: https://linktr.ee/podpackcollective
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Transcript
Unexpected Space Journey
00:00:03
Speaker
Well, it's been one week since we defeated the podcast promoters, but you know what? I'm glad you booked that space cruise. A holiday is just what we needed. You didn't tell him. Me tell him? You said you were going to tell him. Wait, tell me what? Well, after we defeated the podcast promoters, we all went into the celestial traffic lights and then we woke up on this ship. Woah woah woah, is this still what now? So wait, if we're not on a cruise then where are we? Well, remember I always said I always wanted to try out the Andromeda Initiative and you said the pod park collective would pay for it? Woah woah woah, I said no such thing. Well, we're aboard the ark up here in, in the Andromeda Galaxy, sorry. Why do I get the feeling that this is gonna end horribly? Hey hey hey hey hey, calm down, I'll go get us a cup of tea and we'll all wait for this to blow over.
00:00:53
Speaker
Did he just mistake that ear lock for the fridge? Yeah, I think he did. I guess it's just us now. Ready to review some Andromeda? As long as there's no podcast bots out there, then why not? Welcome back to Mass Effect Month.
Mass Effect Month Introduction
00:01:12
Speaker
Hallo everybody and welcome to the penultimate episode of Mass Effect Month. My name's Satenami and joining me aboard the Hyperion today is none other than the one and only Mass Effect Andromeda apologist himself at his look from the Nerdstalgic podcast. Look, welcome back. It is an absolute pleasure to be back. And yes, I am an apologist. I will die on this hill. This is a fantastic game and I love it. And sadly, Dan had to be blown out of the airlock, but I know he enjoys Mass Effect Andromeda as much as I do. Yes. And if we look out the port side window, we can see that he took the digestives as well. It's going to be a biculous episode. I'm sorry. It's fine. Hopefully they've got digesters in Andromeda.
00:01:57
Speaker
I think there's a planet full of them, that's what I was told anyway by Bioware.
Impact and Reception of Mass Effect Andromeda
00:02:01
Speaker
I was promised a lot of things by Bioware, and that is a great segue to the essay that today we are indeed going to be talking about Mass Effect Andromeda, which is the 2017, I cannot believe it came out in 2017, but the 2017 game that quite frankly broke more hearts than Mass Effect 3 ever could. So before we go on and talk about why this game didn't do as well in terms of the fanbase and such and why there's still some things to salvage because I'm going to get this out of the way first of all. I'm not going to say that this is going to be an episode where we just start ragging on how bad it was and everything. We are going to try and look at the positives of Mass Effect Andromeda but as a long-term Mass Effect fan look I've
00:02:49
Speaker
Gotta ask, what were your first impressions? See when they first announced the Mass Effect Andromeda. What were your feelings at the time? Were you excited? Well, obviously I was really, really excited because I had been a huge Mass Effect fan. And up until the point of they announced the new Andromeda, I'd read all the books. I'd watched the animated movie. I was just ready for more. I was excited that there was going to do some more Mass Effect, to be honest with you. And the idea that it was going to be in a new galaxy, which means new aliens, new things to discover, new places to go, new people to meet. Initially, I was on board like incredibly excited. I was on the initiative all the way to Andromeda, all the step of the way with every single trailer they released. I watched, I enjoyed, and then the game came out. And we can get into specifics here and there, but I know the game didn't come out in a very good shape, but it didn't. It was quite rough. For me, maybe it was a road since the glasses, but I was so happy and excited to finally be back in the world of Mass Effect and be with characters that I loved and with a new sort of liquor paint that looked a little bit more prettier, a little bit more glassier. I was just enthralled so much so that I didn't realise, and again, I didn't realise a lot of the jank, I didn't realise a lot of the issues. and that when I finally completed the game about a week later, I was that, shall we say, taken by it, that I hadn't realised that I hadn't unlocked a single achievement, that the game had broke on me and not unlocked any achievement, any progress. But I enjoyed it so much that I was like, you know what, I'll happily go back and do it all over again. So about two weeks later, I replayed it and played it all over again once they updated some new updates and fixed it with patches. So going into it, I was excited and I was excited to play and I enjoyed it for what it was. But yeah, I will admit, even going back and playing it now for this review, there are still some janky bits. There are still some bugs. And a lot of the dialogue is very cringe worthy. Like my face is tired. I'm like, oh.
00:04:36
Speaker
you know you can't help not just cringe whenever you hear stuff like that but i still am a defender of this game because i still feel like it's very special because it is not just to me but just what it's trying to do it's that idea of expiration and one of the biggest things i love about mass effect is just having the ability to explore basically given a character through now into the Milky Way galaxy and been able to go to different planets. And because I'm a big nerd, I love to read all the bios on the planets. I like to read all the codexes. And this is basically Andromeda was for the nerds like me, the people that like to read all the dialog, scan everything, catalog things, find out about new races and new species and plant life and stuff like that. And because this game was able me to do that, I was able to go in a brand new sort of Not as good as the Maker, but nothing will ever be. Been able to go in the Nomad and go around these planets and have free roam and meet the Kett and meet the Angara and then scan planets and find out this mystery of the Scourge. Like I'll admit Andromeda gave more questions than it gave answers. It actually didn't answer most questions. But that being said, it gave me the ability to be like I was in Star Trek, to be like I was an adventurer going to somewhere new and being able to explore. And for that, it's quite special to me. Granted, like I said, there were a few things that were wrong and they should have done this and not that. But for what it is, I enjoy it. It is such an interesting game though, because going back to the landscape of how Mass Effect was perceived at the time, you had Mass Effect 1 and 2 as we talked about, where Mass Effect 1 was just this absolute game changer, no pun intended, but it was a a literal game changer where people were looking at RPGs and looking at Mass Effect as the gold standard, then Mass Effect 2 elevated that. But by the time we got to Mass Effect 3, there was a lot of disappointment as Dan and I talked about last week with the day one DLC, with the ending of course, the infamous celestial there is a lot to be disappointed in at the time with this game. So the perception of Mass Effect was, I wouldn't say overly negative because there was things that saved it and then there was the ending but at the same time there was a kind of mixed reception. So Mass Effect Andromeda had to be the one to pull Mass Effect fans out of that kind of slump and say, no, this is going to be the one. Guys, we're going to take you all the way to a different galaxy. It's going to be filled with wonder and it's going to be filled with joy. It's a bit like expecting Charlie and the chocolate fact today. And then instead you get that Glasgow Wonka experience. Oh, yeah. OK, it's not that bad. That's a good way of explaining it, to be honest.
00:07:19
Speaker
I mean it's just that disappointment of expecting something grand and there are grand bits and I don't get me wrong but I have to say the only exposure I really got to it because as I said this year was the year that I played Mass Effect all the way through so I played 1-3 in the Legendary Edition and then I went straight onto Andromeda.
Andromeda's Tonal Shift: Star Trek DS9 Comparison
00:07:42
Speaker
Jumping ahead a wee bit but I can definitely recommend to anybody who is playing these games, play the original trilogy back to back but give yourself time for Andromeda because it is just such a tonal whiplash and that is something we'll get onto in the episode but you're completely right. It's something that I kept ringing up to you guys and you guys must have thought damn what a nerd is that so in the sense I kept comparing the Mass Effect series 2 Star Trek Deep Space Nine where that was a darker take on the show, it was all about trying to find the goodness in the universe but at the same time realising that there's a lot of darkness that had to be thought out there. It was really fascinating to see the evolution of Shepard as a character, as this player avatar And then we go from this grandiose war story, you know, you've got lovers in space, you've got deception. It's a huge telenovela in space, let's say. But then you go from that to Mass Effect Andromeda. And I was only exposed to the memes that the time, you know, my face is tired.
00:08:46
Speaker
the glitches, phasing in and out of maps, that things weren't rendering in correctly. Did you ever see the one with Sarah Ryder, her legs, that they didn't animate her legs properly? So wherever she went up and down stairs, it looked like she was doing a crab walk. Oh yes, I saw that one. so When I saw that, I could see why people were disappointed, but I never really got the full disappointment, if that makes sense, because I myself wasn't a Mass Effect fan at the time, but as soon as I played the games and then I came back to it, I was like, oh no, oh no, I can totally see why people didn't like it, but in slight spoilers, and we will be diving into plot spoilers and whatnot, so
00:09:25
Speaker
Even though it and might not be the best out of the quadrology, let's face it, if you want to go ahead and play it, please feel free to pause the episodes, go play it or even watch a YouTube video on it and come back because I want to give you the opportunity. I don't want to be one of those guys who dives in and says, ooh, it's rubbish because of blah blah blah. So this is your spoiler warning and yeah, without any further ado, we'll we just dive into it. Oh, definitely. So, grab your earth tea, your biscuits, your crackers and cheese. I don't know why I thought of that, but have you seen a grand day out? Oh, I love Wallace and Gromit. Of course I have. I'm English. Yeah, well, of course. That was a silly question. I apologise. Now, I'm just thinking if he was on the Hyperion, you know, he'd be sitting there ready to go and then he would have forgotten the crackers.
00:10:11
Speaker
Not even Wensleydale. So if you'll excuse us, we're going to run out of the ship quickly and we'll be right back with the crackers after these messages. Welcome to Chatsunami, a variety podcast that discusses topics from gaming and films to anime in general interest. Previously on Chatsunami, we've analysed what makes a good horror game, conducted a retrospective on Pierce Brosnan's runs James Bond, and listened to us take deep dives into both the Sonic and Halo franchises. Also, if you're an anime fan, then don't forget to check us out on our sub-series, Chatsunani, where we dive into the world of anime. So far, we've reviewed things like Death Note, Princess Mononoke, and the hit Beyblade series. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can check us out on Spotify, iTunes, and all big podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.
00:11:02
Speaker
Howdy Beans, and welcome to my podcast trailer. Now you're probably wondering, who's this weird English fella talking to me about beans? Well, great question. I am the host of the Nerd Statute Podcast, Luke the Human. Nice to meet you, hope you're doing well, hope you're all good, as always. Now, you're probably wondering, what is the Nerd Statute Podcast? Well, another good question, let me answer that for you. The Nerd Stagit podcast is a variety podcast talking about all things nerdy and nostalgic, from books, to video games, to movies, to TV shows, basically, if it is nerdy, and even if it just has the smidge, the hint of nerdism to it. Rest assured, I will cover it. I'm on all platforms from Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube. All you do is search no target podcasts and you'll find me. So I hope to see you there really soon.
00:12:05
Speaker
I swear. See that elevator? It's longer and longer and longer. Anyway, we are back. but So let's dive into Mass Effect Andromeda. Will we begin with the story?
Plot and Setting Constraints in Andromeda
00:12:16
Speaker
Yes. This is quite a bizarre one, I have to say. And it's one that definitely came out of left field for me. But see for yourself, were you surprised when they announced that it was going to be set in the future 600 years ahead and it was going to be in a completely different galaxy?
00:12:34
Speaker
at the time and i still think this now i think it was the best decision they could have made because no matter what choice you made at the end of massfe for against spoilers but if you made a certain decision shepherd would die or there's a theory that he's still alive depends on what decision you made but again people were still reeling off the fact of Shepard's gone. The universe is different. It was still quite raw, even though this came in 2017 and Mass Effect 3 ended in 2012. It was still very recent in Mass Effect fans' hearts and minds. So to me, it made complete sense that we would be 600 years in the future and that we'd be in another galaxy because I know there's a lot of people out there and a lot of Mass Effect fans who would disagree with me. But in my opinion, know I think we've seen it and I think that there is to do in the Milky Way galaxy. And I feel like it was a clever idea to go to another galaxy like Andromeda. But I think I've made this comment to you on one of the chats. But scientifically, and this is me being nerdy again, sorry, anybody who's not interested, but scientifically in the real world, the Andromeda galaxy is getting closer to the Milky Way galaxy. And eventually, and in a couple million or billion years, the Andromeda galaxy will suck up and absorb our galaxy completely. And it will just be one big super galaxy, but that's like billions of years, so no need to get anxiety and stress over it. But the massive universe is, to an extent, our same human timeline. Obviously, the difference is it's set in the future and they found ruins on Mars. But apart from that, it is the same human timeline. So taking that idea, it would make sense that people in this timeline event would be like, oh, the Andromeda galaxy is closer to the Milky Way now. It is feasible with the technology we have to travel there. So it makes sense to me that a group of, or a collective of people would go, you know what, let's do it. Let's make the initiative. Let's go to another galaxy. Let's go explore and see what we can find. So yeah, for me, the idea and concept made complete sense. And then when you get to the Andromeda galaxy.
00:14:20
Speaker
I think what a lot of people were disappointed of is because even in the first Mass Effect game, on the X-Lock 360, you had the full Milky Way. You could go almost all over the Milky Way, complete Rome. And I think a lot of people were disappointed that because of the story and because of the scourge, we were only stuck in the housing cluster of the Andromeda Galaxy. Instead of having all of it, we ate we had a small slice. But I feel like that just kind of made the game better, in my opinion, because you had more time to explore. You had more time to get to know all the different races because they just give you the whole Andromeda Galaxy. You'd have to loan all these races again. And you've also got the races you've already got that you've taken with you. And then you've got the Kett and you've got the Inghara and then you've got the Remnant and you've got the Jawahane, I think they're called, and all these other potential races. So making it where you've got the Scourge, where we're stuck in the cluster for now, but hopefully if there ever is a sequel, I'm the only one hoping for it, that we would get to see more. So in terms of the story and the idea, I love it. Like I mentioned, sadly, there are more questions and answers and even me being a super fan, replaying it now, I'm sitting there going, we probably will never get an answer to that. We'll never know what that means or why that happened on and X, Y and Z. But for what it is and for what it's trying to do, I like it and appreciate it. Yeah. I have to say the major praise that I would give this game and I know
00:15:33
Speaker
That sounds very ominous. to be Yes, the only piece of praise I'm giving it. Now jokes aside, I do think there is a seed of a good idea in there. I do think that it's a fascinating idea to have all these different races that we've grown to love and know over the course of three games just shot across from the Milky Way to Andromeda to end up in the Helios cluster, as you were saying. It's really interesting to think well what they're going to find there, or what's going to happen and things. And the thing that I think is very disappointing is there's no, and this is going to make me simply such a mass effect nerd, but there's no Citadel moment, you know, in the first game, you have that moment where you fly into the Citadel for the first time and even before that, you've got Eden Prime where you get to see spoilers, you get to see sovereign floating above Eden Prime and you think, oh my goodness, what the heck is that? Even in two, you get the reintroduction of the Normandy and everything. That's a beautiful moment and I will die in that hill. For the third one, you get the destruction of Space Canada, as I joked about
Critique of Andromeda's Early Game Elements
00:16:41
Speaker
last week. And for this game, although the opening, you know, it's a really cool opening in this angle of the Hyperion, which is the big spaceship slash arc for humanity, basically gets shot across the galaxy. And at the very beginning, you know, it's a really cool visual. But then as soon as they hit the scourge, I feel as if ironically, that's where everything starts to go downhill because we get our first planet and the planet, I'm sorry to say, it's not overly interesting. It just seems like quite a hilly planet only minus the Shifty Space Cow. edge at the first game There's no Shifty Space Cow as far as I remember but yeah, you kind of run around with some lightning and then you come across your very first
00:17:29
Speaker
encounter with another alien race. And unfortunately it's the hostile race, it's the Kett which we'll come on to later. But yeah, it's not a great introduction. It's just basically you have to shoot them regardless, you can't talk your way out of it. There's not any of that Mass Effect charm. You know, it just seems as if it's very focused on the gameplay, which I have to say the gameplay is probably the best aspect of it. And you learn that very early on because you've got that vertical You can jump across and everything. That is really cool. But in terms of the story itself, I feel as if the thing that lets it down as well is just the writing of it. yeah And I don't know what your opinion of this is, but see the writers and the dialogue choices. I feel as if they're written very much like a Marvel character. You're like an MCU film. I know that sounds like such a terrible
00:18:24
Speaker
but criticism, but it just feels as if there's never really like a serious moment. You've got a good point there. I'll go off a little bit here after something else, but I've had the same sort of experience with Borderlands recently. They're hilarious, they're dark, they're gritty, they're great. If you ever play Borderlands 3 and you're like, either I'm getting older, or Borderlands is no longer funny, or I'm just mature. And it's one of those where you quickly realize the fact of there's something wrong here in the writing that it's not it's trying too hard to be something when it was good what it was. And I feel like that is the issue with the dialogue is the fact of they're trying to because how many years it's been since Mass Effect ended that they're trying to sort of influence a new audience and get that younger kids in. So they instead of having the dialogue because a lot of the dialogue in the first few Mass Effect games really followed what they were doing with like, Star Wars, the whole Republic, and what they were doing with Dragon Age and things like that. It was very sort of adult grown up. No need to look down on anybody. It's the fact that the dialogue was meant to be for adults playing it. You know, it was meant to be gritty. It meant to be hard. It meant to be realistic, real. Generally how people would actually talk to each other, not how people would just say things just because it's funny.
00:19:26
Speaker
Liam, again, one of the companions in this has some of the worst lines of dialogue. Oh, so cringy. But that's the thing is I think that they were trying too hard to get a new audience into Mass Effect instead of trying to already appeal to the audience that was already there and then start doing small things here or there to kind of get new people in. So yeah, so in terms of dialogue, not great, but one thing I want to mention about Habitat 7, which is where the humans go, which is meant to be our golden world. One thing that annoys me about that planet is that we do a thing that we do on it. We managed to set off the remnant artifacts, so we start terraforming it, we change the weather, so it now starts becoming habitable. We never get to go back to Habitat 7. Again, spoilers, our father dies on that planet.
00:20:05
Speaker
And we never go back to put a monument down. We never get to go back to kind of be like, even at the end of the game, there's never a chance of return to habitat seven. It's now more hospitable enough to take your helmet off. You know, it would be nice at the end of the game after we do all that thing that we do to go back and be like, ah, so this is where it begins.
00:20:21
Speaker
something like that, some sort of fact of you go there at the start of the game, it's a hellscape, you do all your work, times pass, and you finally completed the day, you save the day, at the end of it, you get to go back to the planet to run around, put a plaque down for the initiative, of all the people that have passed away and including your father, maybe in behind your cutscene where like settlements are starting to land and we can start again, things like that. And I feel like we never get that moment. And like you said, there's no Citadel moment. And I feel like the reason being with Andromeda is because the whole premise, the whole story is based off mystery. It's, what's this? Oh, that's a question. You'll get an answer, maybe. What's that? Well, you'll find out maybe. And I feel like that's the problem because when you get to Habitat 7, it's a hellscape. You don't know what's going on. Then you get to the Nexus, which is meant to be the Citadel. But I like to think of it as Habitat 7 was kind of like Eden p Prime, getting you into it, teaching you all the, how the world works and the movement, combat and all that. And then Nexus is kind of like your sit down moment. But the problem is when you get there, it looks abandoned. It's not finished. Again, more questions and answers. Why is it not finished? What's been happening? And you do get answers to some things, but by the end of the game, you are still left with, okay, who's this, who's that? Why this? And they hint at potential DLC, which we never got. And I feel like with the story of Andromeda, even though I love it, I feel like it it's good and quite special because they tried too hard with the dialogue of pleasing to an a audience. And because they tried too hard on the mystery, had asked too many questions, but not give too many answers out that it left a lot of people in that sort of by the end of it being like, well, what's the point? You haven't told me you like I played hours of this game, but you still haven't told me what I'm doing here. You've told me I'm a pathfinder. I'm trying to pathfind and make settlements. That's great. great, but you haven't told me who the Kett are really. You haven't told me who the Remnant are. You've given me a few twists and turns over the Ingharan and that, which is great, but they're still relatively in a way a mystery. And yeah, I just feel like because they set it so much on this idea of let's have a mystery, which is great, but because they didn't reveal enough and because there's a potential of, there's no potential of a sequel or DLC or anything like that, I feel it leaves the people quite sour. And I feel like that's why a lot of people are excited for whatever Mass Effect 4 or 5 is going to be, because there's hope. Oh, we're going back to the Milky Way. It's safe. We know the Milky Way. Whereas Andromeda, it's a bit magu. I've said this to you before. I still hope and have my fingers crossed that whatever happens in the next Mass Effect game, even if we never go back to Andromeda. I just want them to acknowledge it. Just to be like, yep, that happened. Don't forget about it. Acknowledge it. Maybe even have some Angara and be like, Oh, Angara here. They've traveled with some humans back to the Milky Way because now we have ReaperTech and we can cross dark space a lot quicker than we could at first. Even if it's stuff like that, we never get to go back. Just acknowledge it. That's all I want.
Bioware's Focus Shift from Andromeda to Anthem
00:22:49
Speaker
But I understand if Bioware wants to move on, I get it. The thing that really baffles me about the whole thing is just how quick Bioware were to just completely abandon in the game? That hurt. That really hurt. I don't know if you know this, but they abandoned it for Anthem and we all know how Anthem turned out. Was this not because they put their A-Team on Anthem? Yeah, if I remember correctly, the people that did the, I think it was the Citadel DLC or the Omega DLC, it was basically their B-Team, the people that did all the DLC. They were put on to do Mass Effect Andromeda and then the A-Team was going off to make Anthem. Obviously we're not here to talk about Anthem, but... Yeah. If you know, you know how much of a shit show that was, but it kills me to know the fact of they stopped working on the updates. Like there was hope for an update that would fix a lot of the problems. And there were updates that did fix a lot of the issues, but there was a hope that there was going to be a DLC like the Quarian arc or swing under those lines. That was going to be like the big update that was going to save it and give a hint and give some more answers to things. But it really hurt me to then be like, that's it. We give up. We're moving on. And they did the same with Anthem to be honest. I liked Anthem for what it was. I enjoyed it. I was there day one because at that stage I still had a lot of love and faith in Bioware that they hadn't let me down with any of their games. And then again, they dropped that one like a hot potato and it was just like, why you've got some great games that have so much potential, but because it gets tough and because you just want to move on. you drop it. It's one of those where I will play the next Dragon Age, but I'm not pre-ordering it. I will wait until the game comes out and to see what reviewers say, then I'll get it. It's a shame to say I don't put all the blame on Andromeda. The Bioware that made Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age, they're not there no more. It's a new team, so I don't blame them either. But it's just bad management. Bad management kills a potentially good game. This game was rushed. There's a lot of problems with development.
00:24:29
Speaker
And it's just a shame. It really is, because this game had so much potential to be special. And if they'd just done a DLC or two, there was a firefight mode and they was updating story content through the firefight mode, the online, which I loved and played because again, they brought in Batarians into the firefight mode. And the backstory, if I remember correctly, was that only two, I think two or three, no, it was two Batarians, the man and the woman were brought from the Milky Way galaxy and they were like the only breeding pair. But because of everything that was happening, they decided to fight.
00:24:58
Speaker
and Again, little bits of lore, little bit things like that. It was like, oh, that's fascinating. Yeah, Batarians. We both agree that the Batarians got given a bad card in the Milky Way. So now they've got given a second chance to f thrive and to start anew, which I thought was incredible, but only if that was in the game. Not a lot of people are going to play the multiplayer. Most people were so soured by the single player as it was, probably aren't around anymore to play the multiplayer. Because the multiplayer was really fun. It was Firefight from Mass Effect 3, just with a few extra added bells and whistles, a new look of paint. There were a few connection issues, because again, the game wasn't great at launch. But when it worked, the multiplayer was a lot of fun, and I probably hours into it. But yeah, it is a shame that this game had so much potential, and they just dropped it. And like I said, I hope whatever the next Mass Effect game is, they just acknowledge Andromeda. Even if it's just a dino dialogue, I just want somebody to go, oh, the Andromeda Initiative. And that's enough for me, because I just feel like it's unfair just to forget it completely. Because going back to something you were saying earlier, and I completely agree with you in the sense that they definitely had to try something different with the fourth game. I've heard rumours and talk about how they wanted to do a prequel game. Oh yes, that would've been great. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever get the first contact. War game which is a shame but that would have been interesting and then of course they said nah we don't want to do that so instead they had to focus like hundreds of years in the future and you know complete well not completely but relatively separate the story of Shepard versus what rider was going to come across in Andromeda and I get what they were trying to do and I can see the evolution there with
00:26:32
Speaker
the dialogue wheel for example being a bit more morally grey instead of your paragons and renegades. I think the biggest sin that I have for this game is just the fact that it's so repetitive. Again the whimsy and the absolutely fantastical elements of this game are just sucked out completely and you get a very kind of run-of-the-mill experience, you know, you go to planet A. Oh, it's a nice planet and then you have to go to, as you were saying, the Remnant Ruins and I absolutely hate the Remnant because I feel as if it's just so uninspired. The Kett as well, the Kett I have to say, do have an interesting idea but unfortunately, and don't worry, as I said, we will get on to the Kett in depth, but I just feel as if their potential was wasted just purely because they just didn't do anything. They were there as bullet sponges, that's all they were there for and they know they pop up in the cutscene and they try to make them a lot more threatening than they actually appear in game and there's a fine balance between that. But when it came to the writing and the story and everything, it was very repetitive. You went from planet A to planet B and the only kind of good side plot was maybe when you were in the Salarian arc, that was kind of cool. But then afterwards, when you get to the end, and people at home listening must be thinking, oh, Satsu, why are you racing through the story? You should go in depth. And it's like, to be honest, there's nothing really of consequence that happens in this game. It's like, you go from planet to planet, you decide what type of base you want, which has no impact in the overall story. There's no real impact for your choices, bar maybe one or two slight changes at the end, but then after that you reach, as you said, Meridian, which is the final planet, and you know, you settle there, you defeat the cat, woohoo, go champ. And then after that, yeah, there's a kind of teaser for DLC, and that is what shocked me. This is the same company that had Javic, the Prothean from Mass Effect 3. They had him as DLC day one, you're telling me like they did not have any story DLC whatsoever, it's just absolutely baffling they didn't even try because they have the Quarian phone you up saying, oh, don't come near us. Basically, in case any of you are wondering what the Quarian's talking about, it's an art that has basically every single other race from the Milky Way to Andromeda. So you've got the Drell, you've got the Elkhor, the Hanar, the Batarians for some reason, you've got Las but not least the Quarians and the Volus as well. But then yeah, we never see them because the main story or rather the main game just didn't perform as well and then they just completely abandoned it. And that is honestly baffling to me. I don't get why they couldn't have even had one and they had to explain it through a book, which the book was great, don't get me wrong.
Narrative Gaps and Missed Opportunities in Andromeda
00:29:35
Speaker
Oh that's what aches me as well, with that is the fact of if you have any books or any sort of extended media, what they should do, they should bolster what's already there. So you should have answers and questions in the game, movie, TV, show. And then the book should really give you a little bit more backstory if you want it, but you don't need it to enjoy the full experience. And this is what I learned later on. And it's still kind of annoys me. Even though the Annihilation, the book, it's a fantastic book and a lot of fun and I really enjoy it. Apparently they give you that idea of, oh, it's potentially DLC that the next expansion is us going to find the Quarian arc and help them. But turns out that was never the case. The original plan was always do a novel. But why? Because most people, unless you're a hardcore fan, you're not going to read the books. Meaning, if they ever did make an Andromeda 2, the Aquarian arc would be there, and people would be like, hold on a second, where'd this come from? When did it arrive? I thought it was in trouble. And they'd be like, oh no, we solved that problem in a book. And I think that's an incredible disservice. Again, incredible book, well written, but me personally, I would have preferred to play it. Instead of reading it, I would have preferred to experience it, play it, help solve the mystery. Again, are we going to say spoilers? What happens in the book as to why they don't want people anywhere near them? Yeah. So before we go on to that, just to point out, skip ahead, maybe about five minutes.
00:30:48
Speaker
So yeah, this is the book we're talking about is Mass Effect Annihilation. I've just gotten through it myself. Fantastic book. It's just such a brilliant look into both the Mass Effect universe as well as, you know what, it's a perfect bridge, I would say, between Mass Effect and Andromeda. definitely ironically enough it is a bridge because you know it is taking place in between the Milky Way and the drama dub. It's just such a good book and it explains so much but again I'm completely with you there. It is just such a shame that they really relegated this and important information for this game to a book. It is baffling to me but sorry, no go ahead. Well, it's one of those where even though I enjoyed the game first playing it, I was still hankering so much for information that I was trying to get any sort of new information about this world and universe as I possibly could. So I read the novels as they came out. I think it was every few months or by yearly thing. It took a while for all the novels to be written to come out. I read the prequel graphic novel as well of how they found the golden worlds and stuff like that using Gef technology. Again, all very, very fascinating. But again, it should really be in the game. A lot of this stuff should be in the game and they do explain it. And there are mentions of it here and there in the game, but not enough. And where it comes to this book, Annihilation, the reason why we can't go to the Quarian arc is because there has been an outbreak. And that this outbreak, if I remember correctly, is killing all the different races, including it's one of them sort of diseases that is like multicultural. So every single race is susceptible. It's killing a lot of people in cryopods and best way to explain it. It's like a murder mystery in the mass of each universe, but it's done so well. I won't spoil it or anything like that. But that is the reason as to why the Quarian arc is telling people to stay away because they've got an infection on board and they're trying to figure out what it is, what's the cause, and how to cure it. Again, fascinating idea for some premise. Who knew that you'd ever want to see a murder mystery in the Mass Effect universe? I do. i'd love to, but I'd love to play it. I would love to get my character and to be the detective and to be the pathfinder and to discover and explore and to ask questions of when did you start noticing symptoms? Who was the first race that was infected? Why? What did it look like? How did it jump? You know, things like this would have been great in the game. Great in a book. Yes, but not in the game. And I think this is the issue with the novels. The first two novels
00:33:07
Speaker
happened before the events of the initiative completely and this novel takes place around about the middle to end of Andromeda. It's one of those where like still you're left with so many answers. If it's Nexus of Horizon was the first book that one basically everything that happens in that book well in my opinion it's a great book but it's not needed because everything that happens in it you already know and are told about it in the game. So you didn't have to read the book because the game explains the uprisings and the outcasts and all that. And the second book is to do with Cora. It's to do with her and to do with Sam and AI. Again, fascinating ideas and premises, but I want to know more about what's going on in the actual Andromeda galaxy. And I thought before they announced the description of what annihilation was going to be, again, we'll get onto the KET in a minute, but there is this constant story beat, this constant sort of narrative of like the KET, the reason that they are the way they are is because they had a really bad history and that soon happened in their past on the whole planet. They don't like to talk about it. but this has led them to who they are and why they are the way they are now when you meet an Andromeda. And my hope was, oh, finally, this book is going to be about the Kett and it's going to be about what happened to them on their planet. I would happily have a whole book about the Kett because I'm fascinated to learn about them because as Chatsu said, and I completely agree with him, they're very one note. You know, there's nothing more to them because It's like, Oh, well, we'll explain it in a sequel, but no, explain it now and then expand upon it later. But tell us what we need to know now. But sadly, no, we got the Corin arc, which was a bomb because I would have liked it as DLC. But yeah, a lot of decisions with this game. And again, I, it goes back to what we were saying where the game's very repetitive. It's. full of mysteries, mini answers and if you are a fan of mass affecting you come into this game expecting massfi one two and three and to realize it's completely different on a smaller scale with a lot of questions and and not many answers it's one of those where I can see where a lot of people went, you know what, the game's busted, it's broken, I'm lost and confused and I can see why people jump ship because the decisions that were made in terms of story were just thrown out. It was like thrown everywhere and nothing was cohesive enough to keep a lot of people playing. So, Again, it goes back to what I was saying earlier about there's ideas here. Again, you've got all the different arcs, you've got all the different cultures, the ideas of how are they all going to meld in this brand new galaxy. You know, it's a whole tabula rasa.
00:35:18
Speaker
of life as it were, even in Mass Effect Annihilation the book they talk about starting a new life in Andromeda. It's going to be extremely different for especially races that in the Milky Way they were looked down upon, you know, Batarians especially, although to be fair in that book slight spoilers but they don't do themselves any favors. Yeah, no. Because they keep saying, oh, we are looked down on as smugglers and criminals. And then two seconds later, they do criminal and smuggler things. It's like that's just how they write Batarians, honestly. But that's so fascinating. But then, as you said, when you get to the nexus for the first time, I was so disappointed. It's like being a child going to an amusement park and you're really excited, you think, I can't wait to go in this, I can't wait to do that. You turn up to the amusement park, all the lights are off, it's closed down, there's not much going on. And it is just such a deflating experience when you get there and you think, is this what we're gonna have to do? And again, I feel as if the game suffers greatly in terms of pacing because with Mass Effect, although you got your missions where you could go to different planets in the first one or do side missions with second or even the mini missions where for example in the third one you had to get a guy's refund of like five credits or something that was hilarious but he had those kind of smaller moments sprinkled in with big grandiose moments of of going to save the universe or going to save the galaxy but in this game there's a lot of necessary things to go through that just absolutely grind the game to a halt. The ones that in particular are the scanning which initially I liked it but then it just got tedious especially when the game grinded to a halt and it was like oh you have to find the power conduit for this and that. Find this glyph. Yeah oh. The buddy Sudoku glyph puzzles, trust me. I hated them. Me too. No, that was the second thing I was actually going to bring up. They baffled me because initially I had no idea what was going on. And I was like, what is this? And then it clicked that, oh, it's a Sudoku puzzle. And then the fact that you have to do it on every planet, find the three glyphs. And it was honestly so crushing. That's why I hate the remnants so much. because it was just so tedious and every time I saw a thing to say, oh you have to activate the machine in the basement. The monoliths. Yeah. You've got to do it three times. It almost reminded me of, and again I don't want to keep linking my effect back to Halo. But do you remember the first time when you go into a forerunner building and you go down and you see all these robots wasn't by? So for anyone who doesn't know, apologies. The forerunners are the remnant equivalent in Halo. I think they came before the one in the mass effects of course, but the idea basically being that they have all these different robots going around and they have all this different architecture that's so alien and different that you want to know more. You want to know why do they have light bridges? Why do they have big balls of death?
00:38:25
Speaker
trying to gun you down. You know, it's all fascinating, but then you get to the remnant and it's just very by the numbers. Oh, look, you set off the alarm. Oh, look at this. Have you solved my Sudoku puzzle? And it's like, I literally do not care. I think that's one of the issues with this game because I hate to admit it but you are completely right is that if you wasn't sucked into the narrative in the story like I was when I first played it then you might not notice the busy work but if you wasn't sucked in and you were very sort of like what is going on and you see the Sudoku puzzles you start to notice the busy work and you're like oh so I have to scan loads of things and I've got to do Sudoku in space no thank you. Because it is. I mean, when I first saw them, I'm like, okay, it makes sense because again, I'm on my first planet. Sam's still learning the languages. He's learning how remnant technology works. Okay. I get it for the first planet, but every single planet after that, I have to do it three times. I've got an advanced AI in my head. How is it that he hasn't gotten to the point where he's gone? Oh, I now know the language. I don't need to do that, but I if you notice, Chatsun, I like to think it's as headcanon. I don't know if it's true or not, but as you go through the planets, eventually they stop asking you to do the Sudoku puzzles. And eventually by the end of the game, when you're last planet, they don't ask you to do them at all. You just got to scan the glyphs and use the console. My headcanon is that I feel like the designers realize halfway through the game, this is boring. And they just took it out. Again, I don't know that for sure. But a friend of mine mentioned it to me when I played it around the second time. And I was like, Oh, actually, You've got a point. As I go on eventually, the game stops asking me to do Sudoku puzzles. I hadn't noticed because I was that mind numb to doing them. I still have no idea how to do Sudoku puzzle, to be honest. This game hasn't taught me anything.
Gameplay vs. Storytelling in Andromeda
00:40:01
Speaker
But in my headcanon, I was like, they must have realized that this was a terrible gimmick, but it was hard baked into the first few levels. So instead of removing it completely, they just stopped adding it as you went on. I don't know if that's true or not, but it was one of the things when you notice it, you're like, oh, there's somebody must have realised that Bioware have like, yeah, we've got to stop asking to do space to do because it's getting repetitive. Because I mean, even with the first game and comparing it, of course, because this is the first game of well, it would have been the first game of its franchise, you know, as opposed to Mass Effect 1 with the trilogy, but even with things like the Tower of Hanoi puzzle, which I know is the infamous one or even the hacking minigames, you can bypass them easily with the Omnigil and I know you can bypass the Sudoku puzzles with. I can't remember what it is you need specifically. I think it's like a data core, a data cache, something like that. Yeah, but even then you have to go hunting for it and they may get such a pain in the backside to find those kind of things. Personally for me it kills the pacing of the game dead in its tracks. The first time I think I used a data core and I got by it and I thought yeah, know what, this isn't a bad game. But then as soon as I realised that you weren't supposed to use the data core and you had to figure out the Sudoku puzzles, I just lost all interest. I have to say, if there's any remaining Sudoku fans out there, all power to you. It just was not for me. When I replay it now and I'm replaying it for this review, I'll be honest, I just use the guide on IGN just to get through them all. I don't know why, even in an update, why they never put a skip function when the puzzle would come up. You'd give it a go once and then you can skip it if you want or just be like, there's a skip button. Click it, skip, you complete it straight away. There is an achievement to completing like 20 of these puzzles, but you only get like 10 game score. I'll admit this now, I have almost 100% of this game on Xbox. There's only two achievements I don't have, which is one that you can't get. You're meant to uppercut an enemy while they're in the air. It's really, really hard to do. And I think because the game is still a bit broken, you can't do it properly. So I've never got that achievement. And the second one is to get 20 remnant puzzles. Still haven't got it because I can't bother. Like you, whenever I get those data caches, I skip them. I'll be honest now though, I am going to play the game through completion and I'm just going to use the IGN puzzle solutions so I can just get the achievement. But I'll never 100% in the game because that last achievement is broken. But again, it's a lot of busy work. And even with the first few Mass Effect games, there were easy puzzles, like the Mass Effect 1 was Simon Says. Mass Effect 2 was a simple sort of hidden find the emblems. All right, now line them up. And that's it. It was easy. It was simple. It was quick. It didn't ruin the pace and the tour where this is like, Oh, you've got to find the glyphs. Now you find the glyphs. Now you've got to solve them. We're not going to tell you how to solve it. You've just got to figure it out yourself. And if every time you get it wrong, we're going to throw remnant robots at you until you get it right. And that's not fair. And that's better repetitive. Like I get it. We're meant to be in a galaxy meant to find new technology. We're integrating with this new technology. But like I said, you've got a story narrative to it to get rid of that, get rid of the busy work. I've got Sam in my head. He should be able to figure it out and be like, don't worry, Ryder, press your hand on here. I'll figure it out. Let's move on. I would have been happy if they did that in the game where like you did the first glyph and it's like, Oh, and then if they make a comment where she's like, Oh, I thought I had to to sort the puzzle out and Sam goes, oh no, you don't have to worry about that now. I'm a super AI. I figured it out. Don't you worry. Push your hand on it and let's go to the next monolith. That would have been better. But yeah, no having to do space to do not again. Like I said, it never taught me anything because I still don't know how to do Sudoku. If anything, it gives me Vietnam flashbacks.
00:43:21
Speaker
i like oh not again but I mean that is indicative of the problem of this game. The fact that they've tried to focus so much on the gameplay, which again as I said, the gameplay is probably the best out of the three or about out of the four of them, but on the flip side of that It's sacrificing what made Mass Effect to Mass Effect, which of course is the characters and the story. The gameplay wasn't the best than the first one, but at least you got through those moments with Vermeijer, with, as we said, the Citadel moment, Anderson punching Nudina, you know, a wonderful moment, so very wholesome, punching the reporter. Shout out to Marie.
00:44:04
Speaker
But you had all these moments where you kind of remember them and you think, wow, that was amazing. Whereas in Andromeda, you have a handful of them, but we have the beginning, the end, the Salarian arc, a couple sprinkled in. But do you know what the weird thing is though? What? I was thinking back to see the characters that we actually get in this game yeah and see beyond maybe a handful all of them. They are not very strong.
00:44:33
Speaker
Sorry. Yeah, but companions aren't. They're not. I mean, throughout the whole game, and this is something that I can do that I don't think I've ever done in a Mass Effect episode, because I've gone through such detail per character, but I don't even think we can for certain ones. I mean, there's Cora, who was the, well, she was a biotic who was raised by Asari Commandos. Yeah. She was the second in command to ride her. She was meant to be the next Pathfinder. And then she keeps moaning at you throughout the entire game. She's like, I've got no wish of you being the Pathfinder. I was like, OK, then, but I'm going to keep moaning at you because you're the next one. I'm not. I'm like, hold on a second. Yeah, she's just like a child at times. I get why she's angry, but at the same time, you're that way when someone's angry at you and it's like, oh, what's wrong? Nothing. Are you sure? Yeah. And then two seconds later, I hate you. I just think
00:45:23
Speaker
So yeah, she's not that strong. You've got Liam as well. Liam again. Yeah, he's very one note. Yeah, he's the comic relief. Drac, for a krogan, I found him incredibly dull. You know, I thought he was alright, but... I get it. We have Rex. He's the star. He is the best krogan ever, right? I'm sure everybody would agree with me there. I like Grunt, but again, Grunt, he'll never be as good as Rex, but still Grunt. He's an interesting character. He's got a lot to say. And by the time you get to my set three, he's a fully fledged character and we love it. Problem is with Drax is the fact of he's a grumpy old man. I was there for, joined the first contact war. I saw this. I saw that. I don't care about this. Don't care about it. And you're like, why you got a moan? It's what makes me laugh is that everybody in this crew decided to come to Andromeda on their own free will. It's like they're in prison. All they do is moan is the fact of, wow, you know, I had to leave my home. I was like, it was your decision.
00:46:13
Speaker
What made you because there's a lot of very weird choices where it's like, okay, we're obviously going to save the humans, we're going to save the come? Salarians, the Asari, the Turians, you know? I get that. Okay, I get that. But why the Krogan? The council do nothing but, and pardon my language here, do nothing but bitch about the Krogan rebellions and talking about the genophage. Why would you transport this problem to another galaxy? It'd be like, oh, let's bring the Rachni. They're okay now. No! What, do you want to bring one as a pet? I understand why they brought them up because of us fans. We would have been upset if they weren't there, but it is funny because the whole point of the initiative is that we're going to start anew, start afresh. Everybody's going to put their differences aside and we're going to start again in a new galaxy, which again is honorable and fair. But all they do is moan of the Krogan here. What did you think the Krogan did during the uprising? They were the big problem. And now they're on a dune-like desert planet with giant metal sandworms, but they're quite happy and we'll just leave them there. And also, it's like, oh, how do you get over the genophage? It's like, well, actually our clan is a very unique clan. We have a high percentage of surviving the genophage. I'm like, okay, so what are you here for? To find a cure for the genophage. Have you found one yet? No, we're not looking. Again, they probably could explain it of like 600 years and incubation that their immune system has evolved to adapt and has gotten better to surviving the genophage. I don't know, but yeah, I know I see where you're coming from. Why bring the Krogan because you've basically started another problem for you, but you could say the same for the Batarians with the Quarians.
Character Development and Interactions in Andromeda
00:47:55
Speaker
I feel like everybody deserves a second chance. And I feel like, and I know you agree with me, what happened to the Krogan's through the Salarians and the Torrians was absolutely disgusting. And the genoface shouldn't have happened. So I feel like this is a way for a lot of the races, especially the Salarians, because they need to kind of say sorry the most and forgive the most for what they did to the Krogan's of like, well, bring them along to give them a second chance. But as the Batarians, the Krogans don't help themselves. As soon as they realise that things are going to shit on the Nexus, they're like, that's it, we're jumped, shit, we're gone. Can you imagine being in an garden, you know, just in holiday or something, and seeing just this big battle lizard run by you, and being like, what the hell was that?
00:48:30
Speaker
The kett have evolved. Okay, yeah, exactly. You would be absolutely breaking that if you saw a guy coming towards you, you'd be like, what? Even Drax, just a big guy, big armoured bloke with animals, teeth and claws all over him. Just be like, good morning, afternoon. He's like, what? Shebberd. Shebberd.
00:48:48
Speaker
But I mean, on that note though, speaking of endearing aliens as it were, I mean, ironically enough, I would say that the three, again we've only got three left mind you, but the three aliens that I would say are relatively the most endearing are Vetra, who's a Turian, we've got PB, she's an Asari archaeologist and I know somewhere Dan's ears have perked up.
00:49:10
Speaker
Are the other archaeologists lucky? Is there no other roles in the asari? I mean, there's gamers. Yeah. I mean, if you look at the Citadel DLC, there's the one that plays Space Battleship or something. Oh, that's quite cool. At the same time, yeah, you've got that. And then you've got Joel, who is... Honestly, I do like Camaro. He's my favourite. And I have to say, while I did love learning about his culture and his planet and things, that's what I find fascinating. These were the moments when I was like, I am so fascinated to see what your system is like and everything. First contact as well, that moment when you first land on their planet, it did feel like Star Trek. It felt really important. Like, this is first contact. They're the aliens to me, but they're looking at me because I'm the alien. And it felt exactly as it should do. First contact, I can't scan anything. If I tried to scan anything, they'd tell me not to. It could be a web, blah, blah, blah. So it's like, okay, I'm in best behaviour. I'm here to represent the initiative. I'm going to follow them to their leader, you know? And it was, those moments were great, but there wasn't many of them. And it is such a shame because as I said, it was those smaller moments that I found that were really endearing. Although I say that, but I did not appreciate seeing Joel's ass cheeks.
00:50:19
Speaker
Yeah, I've seen the videos. Yeah, and I think I sent a picture through four signs. I just want to point out. Four signs. They're a very bony race. They're very flat. Yeah, very flat bony race. It's like, oh, OK. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But at the same time, yeah, there's like a scene where I think it's Liam takes his clothes off for some reason. Yeah, I'm playing through it now. And usually, I always play as a mail rider for this play from playing as Sarah Ryder. And I'm sitting there thinking, I don't really want to romance any of them. because i as mail rider i've
00:50:51
Speaker
pb of romance chora but i've never really this play from like i like them but i don't like them like them you'd see a character in the first mass game you'd see like liro tally the
00:51:08
Speaker
It's why you're on the episode today, not Dan. But it's one of the things of like, you look at these characters and yet Joel is very fascinating character. I'm very interested in him. But again, it's one of those words. It's the fact of not enough is done with him and his species vetchus. Again, I love it because we have a Torian and I love it that it's a female Torian. Again, unless you played the DLC for my set free, this would probably be your first of actually seeing a female Torian. So again, that was interesting, but it just felt to me, they were playing it safe. They were basically doing what they did in Mass Effect 1 of like, you need a Krogan, you need an Asari, you need a Torian. And we'll just add in that, because we haven't got the Aquarians, we'll add in one of the new race Jarl as a member, then we'll have two humans just to level it out. And again, you have a solarium pilot, as well as a human pilot. Whenever I play Andromeda, I always only ever play with two people, which is PB and Joel. Now, I don't know if you ever played with them too. They have some of the best dialogue. When you're in the Nomad driving around, they have some of the best dialogue. For example, you know what it's like when you're driving the Nomad or the Matiko. It's not easy to control. You're up and down bumps, using the thrusters, boosting, right? It's not a comfortable ride at all. Joel finds it really comfortable and he falls asleep. If you yeah have PB with you while you're driving around, she keeps trying to wake him up and tries to scare him. There's this one bit of dialogue. And I get it, it's quite crude, but I'm a childish, so I can't help laugh. Well, she knows that Giles was pretending to be asleep. So PB's like, ah, that's it, Ryder. Take off all your clothes. I want you. I need you. And then she starts making real sort of awkward sex noises. And you've got Ryder being like, well, what's going on? And then Giles's like, oh, maybe I should give you some room. And PB's like, I knew you was faking it. And Ryder's driving isn't that good. And again, it's little moments of dialogue like that. So I remember when I first found that bit of dialogue by accident, just by driving around the ice planet of old, I think it's called, I was like, yeah. forever, I'm just going to have these two as companions for me because they're both hilarious together. It reminds me of the conversations that Drax and Garish used to have together. Again, I'm not saying it's better than what we got massive at one. And again, a lot of the dialogue with both of these characters is good, but it's not as good as we talked about. But it's those little moments where I'm like, ah, these two other characters that I want, because whenever you take Liam and Cora together, all Liam does is Liam is like a little child. He just asks, and then Cora is like, I don't want to answer any of your questions. Like, yes, I was an Asari Huntress. you know it It doesn't feel like adventure. It doesn't feel like we're on a road trip. It just feels like you're with your mom and your little brother. Whereas with PB and Jarl, it's jokey. It's fun. It's like, oh, you know what? It makes these tedious moments of going back and forth to model this kind of fun and interesting. If you can find it on YouTube, just look for that piece of dialogue. He's really cringy and crude, but it's so funny because it comes out of nowhere and you're like, okay, what's going on? Who started this? I haven't romanced you or anybody, but you're coming on to me. And it's like, oh, no, it's a joke because she wants to wake Jarl up. Because the thing is, i think it comes quite late in the game in terms of, and this again sounds like a weird criticism, but when you're talking to the characters and obviously you're getting to know them, you do their quote-unquote loyalty missions and whatnot, there's a couple of ones that I don't think I got to experience but I did see the videos of them where you have a movie night. That's a lame I think.
00:53:59
Speaker
Yeah, must be. With the rest of the crew and you act out a scene and everything, you know, there's kind of cute moments like that. They're not very memorable. Yeah, they're really not that memorable. Even with the Vetras, I have to admit that was a relatively good loyal to mission we have to rescue her sister and that was the character I think I went for in terms of romancing and thought you know she's alright but again my heart still belongs to Talon back in the Milky Way but even with that I kind of thought yeah it's okay. I didn't think it was amazing but... That's the sad thing. because yeah I can remember, and I'm sure you can, you can remember every loyalty mission to the detail of all the other characters. It's one of those of like, even if you've only ever played Master at once, because those missions are so good and so integral to the characters and to the story that you remember them. Those moments where you take Jack back to where the lab that she was being experimented on when she was younger and you take Miranda with you and you get those extra bits of dialogue and Miranda realizes that what Cerberus is really like and what they did to her and know how she was treated, they can sort of work things out from there. It's little moments like that let you remember it because it's hard-hitting and powerful. Whereas I'll be honest with you, I only really remember PB's loyalty mission, which is where you go to find that remnant data core and that you can either choose to save her enemy, her nemesis, whatever she calls her, save her and get a bit of remnant tech that she's hoarded, or you can let her mate die and take the big data core for yourself. Think from like a pool of lava. And I think if I remember Charles, his was to go back to the ancestral home world, I think. Can't remember, but it's the thing, I can't remember them. I wish I could, but it's one of those where it's a fact of they're not really impactful. it's a real shame
00:55:35
Speaker
because that's the thing as well i'm trying to think of the other crew members because i know you've got the c saladian pirate who i have to say see the c salerian pirate and has co-pilo and kit suve the scottish representation i like it as well. Sorry to interrupt, but yeah, I like the religious tone of it, like how she was religious and how they spoke about that. Cause again, I'm not a very religious person myself, but they don't really use a lot of human, but you always hear about all the religions in all the other races, but they never ever spoke about humans, religion. And I just thought it was fascinating when you had a character who was everything you would think would, she'd be against this idea of meeting of a race is going to a universe is exploring the galaxy, but she's very open-minded. She's like, yes, I have my faith, but just because I have my faith doesn't allow me to not enjoy or to find the universe wonderful. And again, that's an incredible bit of conversation. But to get to that point in the conversation, you have to literally go out your way to talk to her after every mission to learn this sort of thing. It's the same with the pilot. You know, if you want to learn things about him, about how the ship was made and why he decided to come to the Andromeda galaxy in the first place, you have to talk to him.
00:56:37
Speaker
Which is fine, you had to do that in the last series, but because they hid such interesting, fantastic dialogue in the background, and again, the whole busy work and people having to spend a lot of time on other things and manage stuff, I feel like a lot of people wouldn't get to those points or miss those things because they were like, I just want to get on with it. I just want to get on with the story. I'm not going to talk to the pilots.
00:56:56
Speaker
I'm going to talk to my crew, do their loyalty missions, and then just get on with it. Cause I had spoke to a few people that didn't even know that you could talk to Suri about bell religion or anything anything like that. And I'm like, well, no, you have to talk to her a few times before she comes out of it. She's not going to tell you straight away. Cause again, the idea of the characters, they're meant to be real life characters and they wouldn't just come out of it straight away. You'd have to have a relationship relationship with her first, which I liked that. But again, it's hidden away. And like we said with the story, there's a lot of choices that were made here where it's like, Oh, this is great. I'm glad that we can have these sort of moments and conversations, but you actually have to work to find a lot of them. see going back to the religious aspect of it, that was actually something I was going to pick up there and I'm glad you touched on it there. I absolutely adore that as well because it's quite interesting the way that they use that almost as a bridge between understanding the Jardin who seemed to be another ancient race of beings who created life and it's
00:57:49
Speaker
implied that they created the young guardians, the Kent and so on, you know, maybe they're one and the same, maybe they're not. There's that mystery which again unfortunately we'll never get to know about, which is sad but true. But with Suvi, I did a love that and it really took me by surprise when she turned round and you know she talks about higher power and things and brings Christianity into it and it was quite interesting to see because usually you get a very secular view of the Mass Effect universe and I think maybe you get the occasional, oh my god, or that kind of thing. But with Suvi, it's such an interesting thing that they didn't really need to add in, but they did it anyway and it fleshed out her character. But what was also interesting, and I played as male rider, but if you play as Sarah rider, or Fem rider, as it were, I'll never catch on no But if you play as the female writer, then you can spark a relationship with her, which I thought, again, was really cool. But one of the interesting scenes is, and I don't know how you triggered it, but I triggered it somehow where I was talking to her, I think either in my cabin or hers, and she was having a cup of tea. And it's something so simple, this thing that's so simple yet so effective, of where she's drinking the tea and then she tells you how these tea bags and these tea leaves are actually from the Milky Way Galaxy. And she keeps thinking about how if she finishes these leaves then she'll no longer have tea from the Milky Way. And you know as a British person that did hit me really hard I'll make sure. And you think it's just such a simple thing but it really hammers home the idea that they are in a completely different time, they're in a completely different place with no way back to where they came from. It is just such a small yet impactful scene and if the whole game was littered with moments like that then don't get me wrong, I think it would have been really effective. But then you get random characters that pop up every so often, there's a smuggler who works for the next sales you've got girl who's there he's girl you know i didn't even realize he had a loyalty mission i was like okay fair enough and they really tried to push girl onto you like oh it's girl he's the engineer you know girl everybody knows girl Everybody loves Gil. You're like, no. No, Gil, go back. you know He's no Garris. Again, there's some interesting characters. Even the ship's doctor likes her name. The Asari. She's alright. Again, she's there. She does her whole, oh, don't get into too much trouble or I'm gonna have to fix your bones. you know like okay She's no Doctor Chaklas, where you go in and say, hey, let's get wasted on this vintage whiskey. And she's like, alright, bet. I remember I tried to romance her and she basically looked at me dead in the eye. She's like, I don't have relationships with patients. I think I'm more interested in your anatomy than you physically, mentally. I was like, okay. So you were saying there's a chance. Basically. right that was I'm sure that's the sorry way of flirting. And again, apologies on sounding like a broken record, but the characters don't really leave much of an impact. no And I think this is one of my other main gripes of the game in terms of characters. When I played Mass Effect for the first time, and even thinking back to things like Star Wars, Star Trek, and I'm sure you're the same, where when you go into the Citadel for the first time, obviously you meet the two aliens at the beginning and you meet the get, and whatnot. And then when you go into the Citadel, you see a massive amount of different aliens, some which I have to admit have very unique designs. you know It's not just the grave Martian aliens like the Salarians. I know that's what the Salarians are kind of based off of, but it's not just that. You've got big rooting Crogans. You've got the monogendered feminine-looking Asari. You've got the bloating jellyfish of the Hanarii.
01:01:48
Speaker
What? Meeting the Elkhor for the first time and then seeing the Elkhor and then hearing the Elkhor speaking like, whoa, this is different. This is alien. It's like, they speak, it's like the Hana. They speak in like the third person and they've all got very whimsical big names. And it's like, this is alien. This is different. This is what you want. I feel like I understand where you're going with this. Because I mean, you've also got the Volus as well, because I feel as if they would bite my kneecaps if I didn't actually bring them up. They're pretty much like Tarangi from Star Trek. But you know, it's like even in Star Trek, when you see your first alien species in the show, and even in Star Wars, when you see the aliens and whatnot, you want to know more
Alien Diversity and Underexplored Storylines
01:02:28
Speaker
about them. You want to know about why do the Elkhor speak like this. you know, enthusiastically speak like this. Or why the Volus ensuits? Why are the Choreans so requestive? You know, you want to know everything about maybe not the Batarians, that's a whole other round. Yeah, when you get to Andromeda and you've probably predicted this in my life, but there's not really a special… I mean, the Angarins are okay, they're interesting, but the Angarins are not strong enough alone to support the whole Andromeda galaxy. Because I mean, you've got the KET as well, and I think this is probably the perfect time to go into the KET, but the KET are just like genetic mutations. They're very similar to the Reapers and the way they turn people into like husks and berserkers and such.
01:03:21
Speaker
I see it always reminded me of a discount version of the collectors. yeah How they're just like the Reapers. yeah They take what they need from other races, whatever makes them stronger, faster, heal, better, more resilient. They take what they need and they imbue it with themselves and then they get better. But again, it in itself is quite interesting and fascinating because it it leaves that question, well, why would a race modify themselves at this point? And as you go through the story, where you realize that there is something that happened on the home planet in their own system, which led them to be like this, that they wasn't always like this. So they was peaceful at one stage, but now they're very much of like, we have to take all these other our species that we find, collect them, take what we can from them in terms of DNA and then make ourselves better and stronger. Again, fascinating, but you never get an answer. And then you meet the Archon and E is just a wet blanket. There's nothing to him. He is a sponge cake with no flavour. He looks pretty on the outside, but really there's nothing to him. He doesn't do much. He doesn't say much. You kill him so easily at the end of the game. And it's the fact of, well, what was the point? He's meant to be the big bad. He's meant to be the emperor, like the leader of the cat. He's meant to be the most advanced, most genetically modified, the sort of pinnacle of your race. And he went down. you know There was nothing of like, yeah, I beat him. He's like, oh, is that it? Okay. And then depends on your choice in the game. You get a little cut scene at the end with one of his priestesses where she walks off and she's like, Oh, and I'm like, what's that mean? ah What does that mean? knock me her up that could see She's looking at the school, whatever it is, if you saved it or not. And then she just walks away and like, is that a good thing? I was nice to all the way through the game. I made all the nice choices of not destroying her school and not doing this of like, again, this was me being Rosie tinted glasses of like, Oh, there's going to be an Andromeda too. Or I'm like, well, hopefully in the next game, she's going to be my ally.
01:04:59
Speaker
And, you know, we're going to go to the home world and they're not going to be our souls. And she's going to remember all the good things I did for her. So she's not going to do bad. But again, we might never know, but the cat, there's a lot there for them to be interested in. Like, again, it's a fact of we never learn anything. And because again, I know we keep mentioning it because there's a potential entity of not a sequel happening. It's annoying to replay it now and be like, it doesn't matter because I'm never going to learn about them. The ingarin as well. Again, do you want to talk about the twist with the ingarin? we have what, where they're like ket 2.0s. Yeah, but it turns out the Jerahane, the remnant, they created life and the life that they created was the Angaran. I'll admit it, when you first get that moment, that realization is like, oh that's cool. That's fascinating. But it never goes anywhere. The Angaran find out, but then you never see anything happens. They never change. But you'd think if humans learned that an alien race came down and created us,
01:05:49
Speaker
I'm sure there'd be a lot of motion in this planet where the whole planet changes, where religions change, ideologies, all that. I was like, this changes everything. But the Ingharan, it never does. It's like the fact of, oh, okay, we were created by the remnant. This is a surprise, but okay. And I'm like, was
Thematic Exploration in Andromeda
01:06:03
Speaker
the developers just hoping that this game would be enough and that they would answer all these questions in a sequel or DLC? Because if it is, it feels a bit lazy because they should have answered them here and then explored it more in the next one. Because looking back on it, I feel as if there is surprisingly, and I don't think it's something that really you kind of see on the outside or kind of in the first playthrough, but there's definitely that kind of theme of belief and faith in this game. And I mean, actually, in Universal, the faith of the fans.
01:06:34
Speaker
of this game. But more in terms of, as we said, with Suvi, where she has her Christianity, her belief in the higher power, and that's what keeps her going. But then also, you've got the cat who have this very religious themed cast system, organization, whatever you want to call it. The chosen, the acolytes, that sort of thing. Yeah, the chosen, the acolyte, the archon. I'm sure there's a bishop in there. Yeah, priestess and descendant. They've got very sort of biblical names for a lot of their classes in their race. I love that because it shows that whatever happened to them changed them so much that they've led them down this path where we are weak and that to be stronger we need to ascend and to ascend we need to take whatever any of a race has, they're genius. If they've got wings, take the wings, take everything about them that would benefit us and then pull it into ourself and then we can be better than them. And again it's the idea of why the Archon is so fascinated in the remnant because it's like well if we can harness technology whatever the remnant are and we could imbue that with ourselves we could then ascend, which is great and fascinating and really good in terms of character and lore for species and stuff like that. But it never goes anywhere. There's no punching for the ceiling moment. It's just it hits the ceiling, then it stops. And it's like, well, we might find out we might not. Because I mean, the cat are essentially like an organic version of the Borg. Yeah, basically.
01:07:53
Speaker
And again, not to be like a massive trick in their apologies, but it seems as if they take away all individuality and they say, right, you're going to be part of this wider collective and you're going to work for us, we're going to take the best of you to benefit the rest of us.
01:08:10
Speaker
Again, it's interesting, there's an idea there, but I feel as if this game is all literal ideas that just are held together by the repetitive game loop of, oh you go to this planet, oh you set off the monolith, oh you set off the next one, you play some Sudoku, it keeps going on and on and on. and By the time you get to the ending, and granted the ending where you're driving the Nomad and whatever. like That is cool, but again, it's not enough to save it. But here's a potentially controversial slash spicy take for it here. So this is something I was saying to you before we started recording in this episode, but what's interesting about this game is when we were talking about Mass Effect 1, we had our pros for it, but we also had a lot of cons as well. yeah
01:08:59
Speaker
because you know, it was outdated in some respects, whether that was the gameplay, the graphics and so on. But because it got a sequel and then it got a third game in the franchise, you know, we can look back in the first game more favorably. You know, we can excuse certain aspects because we know it's going somewhere. But do you think the same thing could have been applied to Andromeda if we got a second or third game for it? Honestly, definitely. I really do. Like I've mentioned a few times here, I really think that if they had done DLC, if they even if it was just one DLC, just the one, I feel like giving the fans some hope that, look, we did the story of DLC, the big expansion, new worlds, new places, it all linked to the Quarian arc or whatever they wanted to do, or it linked into more learning about the Scourge or whatever, whatever they decided to do. If they did that, And then with it was a huge update with new updates of light features, like being able to skip the Sudoku puzzles, taking the feedback and doing a lot more with it. our copyrights I can't remember a lot of the feedback from way back then, but just taking everything that all the problems that they had, putting them out in one big DLC, kind of like what they did with Cyberpunk. I don't know if you ever played the DLC for Cyberpunk. It's absolutely incredible. It fixes the game and actually makes, like I love it. I love Cyberpunk anyway, but when the DLC came out, it's incredible. And the DLC is what the game should have been at launch because it fixes a lot of things. Anyway, if they had done that with Andromeda, where it's like, we've only got the time for one DLC. So we're going to make it a cracker, right? We're going to make it the best one we can or fix a lot of the issues. It will give a lot more story, answer a lot more questions. And at the end of it, it would have been like, look, we're not giving up on Andromeda. We're going to do a few more patches here and there, but that's it in terms of expansions. And then we're going to make the next one. And I feel like. A lot of fans would have gone, you know what, they went out with a bang, they fixed a lot of the issues, and hopefully it would be like a Phoenix for the next game. If Mass Effect Andromeda 2, for example, if that's whatever what they called it. Whatever the next game would be, it would be, we take everything that was good of the first game, infinite worked, and we're going to improve upon it in the second one. Everything that was baggage, was crap, that didn't work, like the space sudoku, we're going to get rid of it. Kind of like they did with Mass Effect 2. They enhanced in the
Future Speculations for Mass Effect Series
01:11:01
Speaker
story gameplay, they made all the missions more narrative and linear, even the side missions were as important as the main missions granted they got rid of the planet exploration but they kind of made it a lot more sort of seamless and I feel like if they did that here where it's like the second game we talk everything that worked but now we're going to give you the whole Andromeda Galaxy. I'm going to start you off small see instead of going place to place to place all around the shop if they was like oh we're going to go from cluster to cluster to cluster We've got the next generation technology. We can do this. We can even go to more planets and we can have all these different races and blah, blah, blah. If they did the angle where it's like next gen mass effect, we can do all this and that. And you can see things in real time and X, Y, and Z. Then I think a lot of people would be like, you know what? They're still here. They're still giving it a go. They're still trying. Maybe even put the A team instead of the B team, put the A team working on it. that would be great but again they dropped it for anthem and they dropped anthem and all they're really doing now is the new dragon age which again i think it looks okay but a lot of people online who've seen the trailer don't like the way it looks at all and again we've seen in the trailer for mass effect 4 if you look closely in the background it looks like there's an angaran talking to a geth at a bar i'm not sure because it's a bit covered i hope so it'd be nice if it is an angaran because it would mean they haven't given up but it it does go back to what i said earlier it' the fact of whatever the next mass effect game is going to be i just hope
01:12:17
Speaker
they don't ignore and dramada that somebody mentions it or it's brought up or if i'm being honest what i'd love to see and i spoke about you before what i'd like to see but like i've mentioned The Andromeda galaxy is getting closer to the Milky Way. So whatever timeline we're in, in terms of Mass Effect 4, whatever it is, that's what we'll call it. By the time that happens, we would have ReaperTech. We'd be able to travel through dark space a lot quicker than the Initiative could. So who's to say that, say, I don't know, Liara, she'd be an old woman at that stage and a new band and maybe even Rex if he's alive, because I know Krogan lived for a long time and a new band of other members go off to Andromeda of like, well, let's see where the Initiative is. Let's see where all these other races, what they've done. And then the story continues from then. And then you play as, I don't know, shepherd's child, or you play as a new character and you have the riders there, but you don't play as the riders anymore. You play as a new character. You come from the Milky Way. You've landed in Andromeda and you carry on the story that way. You still have the Milky Way. You have everything you love there, but the story carries on because In my opinion, I think we've done everything we can do in the Milky Way. There's nothing much more that there is to do, apart from probably it would be nice to go to Tachanka when it's built. It'd be nice to go to Ranaka and see what the Gef and the Quarians have built. Things like that, you know, fan service, it'd be nice to see how different races survived after the sort of the Reaper war. But I feel like apart from that and maybe even meeting the Alga, seeing what the Alga like, if they've advanced a bit more, if they're now space fair and that sort of thing. But apart from that, I feel like we're done with the Milky Way. We've covered it. We've met all the races. There's nothing more to do. I think the logical step is whatever the next mass effect is for them to go to Andromeda with Reaper Tech. And now you've got the whole human, Asari, Torian, the whole Milky Way force is now occupying one section of the Andromeda galaxy. And then from there, it's like, that's it. The cat, you're going down.
01:14:01
Speaker
remnant were going to deal with it, whatever race or evil, because like it is mentioned that the remnant didn't make the scourge. There was another race that made the scourge because whatever the remnant was doing, this race didn't agree with it. And again, if they're the big bads, if they're like the Reapers or the Profians of this universe. meet them, figure out what's going on. So I feel like logically it just makes sense to carry on the story. Will we? I don't know. They might decide with Mass Effect 4, which we'll add to it. We're going to forget about it. We're just going to stick with the Milky Way. It's set 200 years in the future after the events of Mass Effect 3, maybe. We're just going to start a new story, wherever it's going to be. But yeah, to answer your question, sorry, it was a bit of a long one. Yes, I feel like if they did do that, I feel like the second game probably would have been a lot better because they would have righted the wrongs, but that never happened. But I hope it does happen. That's my long and short of it.
01:14:44
Speaker
I do completely agree with you. It's such a shame that Andromeda hasn't had its moment to redeem itself, because when we think of Andromeda, we don't think of, and again, you know I know they're few and far between, but we don't think of sprawling scenes of space or the worlds that we explore. We think more of, oh, my face is tired, or oh, the glitches, or the really poor writing at some point, or how everybody has to have a quip to reply to one another. It's all the negatives that bog it down greatly and don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of many a game series that have gone downhill. you know Whether that's been Halo, Gears of War for example, you know those kind of sci-fi games that began really strongly, had a great trilogy at the beginning and then once it got to its fourth and fifth and potentially next ones, they were just shelved really. I think the only one out that list is Halo which is technically still going but I mean, Gears technically has one coming up, but again, that's a prequel rather than a sequel. But for Mass Effect Andromeda, it is just such a damn shame that we're not really gonna get, or at least as far as I know anyway, because I was looking at the date for, you know, that trailer that we got ages ago? Oh yeah, for N7 Day.
01:16:02
Speaker
Yeah and it's like the person with the helmet and the jacket and I've seen that so many times but I've heard nothing else about what's supposed to be happening. Is it supposed to be happening in the Milky Way? Is it supposed to be happening in Andromeda as you said? Is there going to be a bridge between galaxies? That would be really cool. Well it would make sense logically. Yeah the galaxies are closer and I would imagine because in the first trailer we saw Liara and older Liara walking up a dead reaper. It goes to say that we would have reaper technology or we would have harnessed it to the point of we can use it to travel through space a lot quicker because again with the mass relays being gone we're going to need that technology to go to different planets now or even to rebuild the mass relays if we ever did. Logically it would make sense to me if they decide to do that or not or don't know.
01:16:46
Speaker
That's one of the things with Andromeda. It left that big of a hole and a stain with fans that it's not only shelved Mass Effect, it almost killed Mass Effect to the point of where me and a lot of fans were terrified of like, this is it. It's now 2024. This game came out in 2017, been quite a few years. The next game from Bioware is Dragon Age. Then they say after Dragon Age, it's going to be Mass Effect, whatever it's going to be. But if you think about it in terms of game design, so I'm going to use my university degree a little bit here. I think the game is meant to come out this year. They haven't given a a release date yet. So let's say for argument's sake, it comes out in October this year. Then it'll come out in October and that there's probably a year or two of updates and story DLC. So there's a high potentiality. We won't see the next mass effect until 2026, maybe 2027 at the latest. That's long time between games. And I don't want to wait that long because I'm going to be 30. You know, I'm going to be old. Wait a minute, snip for yourself here. There's someone over the wrong side of 30 here. Sorry. But yeah, it's one of those where it's like, I'm getting close to being a lot older and it's one of those where I don't want to have be an old man and then be like, oh, I remember Mass Effect when I was a wee nipper, I played it. I'm like, I don't want to be that man. I still want to enjoy it now, not later. I just hope that whatever the next Mass Effect is going to be, whatever they decide to do it, I will still play it, even if they never mention Andromeda ever again. But for me personally, it would just be nice if even it was a bit of dialogue or even if they just want to get one of them advertisement boards and just be like, join the initiative now or something like that, then I would be fine with it. And all seriousness. And again, this is my final no point. Don't worry. Yeah, I do think that it's a fascinating, morbidly fascinating, more than anything, but it's a fascinating decline of the reputation of such an iconic game franchise because Mass Effect in 2007 onwards it has ingrained itself into gaming pop culture and something that I found interesting as well, completely off topic, but I remember going on, I think it was Etsy or something, and typing in Mass Effect accessories, and you get loads of stuff, you get Blasto stuff, you get Quarian stuff, you get Turian stuff, you're Krogan even, you know you get all of the cool stuff. But if you type in Mass Effect Andromeda, you barely get little to nothing. And it just shows that, and again, your essay isn't the beyond end of Reputations for Games, but looking for merch for Mass Effect Andromeda is so scarce. It's you and far between. And as I said, while I did enjoy the book Mass Effect Annihilation, it's just such a shame that that is the legacy that we're left with for this game. Just parroting what you were saying there, I do think that it needs a second chance, at least maybe not to tread the same ground. I feel as if they need some drastic changes, but at the same time, I feel as if if it had a second game or it had a game that was even tangentially, you know, related to it, then hopefully that would fix the problems. But at the end of the day, we can only hope until 2019, until they actually are always set. It'll probably be the same year as the contact war. Oh god, yeah. By the time this comes out, the oo it's all hanging on if Dragon Age, the Vale Guard does well. If that does well in terms of sales and does good and a good reception, then I'm sure EA will want to keep them around. But the worry thing is, if the game doesn't sell well, and or doesn't do well, and we all know EA is like, they fluffed it with Andromeda and they fluffed it with Amphib. This is their next chance. Three strikes, and I don't see EA keeping them around, and that could really potentially doom, or even either doom the whole Bioware and they get shut down, or it could be the fact that that's it. We need another game out as soon as possible. Rush Mass Effect 4. Get it out of the window as quick as possible, then that game gets rushed. I just hope, like I said, I won't pre-order it. I'm not going to get it day one. I'll wait for the reviews. I will get it eventually, just not straight away. But I just hope that the game sells well, does well, works on delivery. And then that game does well. Cause I love the Dragon AC, which I really do. I love those games. And if that does well, then I have hope that whatever the next Mass Effect game is going to be, it's going to cook. It's not going to be rushed and it'll be good. And that's all I'm hoping for is that this new team at Bioware, whatever vision they've got for what happens and coming in next.
01:21:01
Speaker
I think they brought Casey Hudson back who did the first three Mass Effect games. So there's hope that whatever's next, it's going to be good. But yeah, we'll see. It all hangs on whatever Dragon Age 5. Val guard if it's good or not. And I think that's the perfect place to end the episode to say we're hopeful. Yeah.
01:21:16
Speaker
Very helpful. Fingers crossed. yeah Huge fingers crossed that whatever comes next for Mass Effect, to whether it's going to be an Andromeda sequel, whether it's going to be a bridge between Andromeda and the original trilogy, or even if it's going to be a prequel or a sequel sequel, whatever it's going to be, we're hopeful at least.
01:21:34
Speaker
Because
Podcast Promotions and Listener Engagement
01:21:35
Speaker
as of recording this episode, we have literally zero information about it. We've got a couple of screen shots. We've got a person walking down a hallway in the Daft Punk helmet. So you know what? We'll see how it goes. But on that note, Luke, thank you so, so much for joining me in the penultimate episode of Mass Effect Month. No, you're very welcome. It's been an absolute pleasure. Like I said, I'm one of the very few people that actually like and enjoy this game. So to get given a chance to talk about it and not just talk about the good things that I liked about it, but also talk about the, you know, the sort of criticism as well. Cause a lot of people just want to hate on this game. It's nice just to have a conversation of this worked, this didn't, but that's okay for what it is. It's okay, but it it just needed a bit more time in the oven. So it's is an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much. Now, definitely, you were the perfect person to bring on to this episode because I was joking with you and a couple other PolitiFact members earlier, but the fact is that, as you said, this particular game is very much looked down on negatively. It's easy pickings for people to turn around and say, oh, it's the worst game ever. Oh, at least it's not Mass Effect Andromeda. You know, I'm a Sonic fan. I know how it goes.
01:22:43
Speaker
I know the song and dance, so to hear someone at least talk about the positives on that and not just repeat the same talking point, I genuinely appreciated that. Thank you. I appreciate your kind words as well. It means a lot. I try to be positive. I try to see the bright side of the dark side. because there's no point just being overly negative. Give it a go. Plus, that'd be my end conclusion, is the fact of, like we said at the beginning, give it a go. If you're interested, it's on Game Pass. Play it. You ain't got to spend a penny. If you don't like it, stop playing. If you enjoy it, keep going. But just be prepared. We might not get any answers to any questions you might have, but we're hopeful.
01:23:17
Speaker
Before we wrap up, where can these lovely listeners find your content? So, as I said, my name's Luke from the Nerdstalgic podcast. You can find me on YouTube at the Nerdstalgic podcast. You can find me on all podcast platforms as the Nerdstalgic podcast. You can find me on Twitter at Nerdstalgic underscore pod to be updated on i think and anything I do on their books, video games, movies, and that sort of things. You can find me all on those things. I currently do my own sort of mass effect things, looking through the books and the movies. And I think actually as a recording this, I've released my review of Paragon Last. I think you have as well, Chatsu as well. So yeah, so I talk about all things of mass effect, video games, all nerdy things, really. I'm a variety podcast. That's the word I'm looking for. I'm i'm a variety podcast.
01:24:00
Speaker
I can only echo what you were saying there as well. Definitely we go check out Luke's content, especially in Mass Effect episodes because after that I've been listening along to them as well and honestly you do such a fantastic job so yeah go check them out. But yeah if you want to hear more episodes from ourselves as well as more Mass Effect content and as well if you want to hear what Luke and I really think of Mass Effect 1 you can check us out at our website Chatsunami dot.com as well as all good to podcast apps. I also want to thank our Pandaloon patrons as always, Robotic Battles hosted in Sonya, thank you so so much for supporting the show but if you would like explosive access, early access, behind the scenes, all that juicy stuff then you can check us out our Patreon page patreon dot.com forward slash Chatsunami. But before we go I just want to point out that next week we will indeed be going into our finale for Mass Effect Month our finale for season 4 of Chatsunami and our 200th episode. So that is a very exciting episode next week. I cannot wait to share it with you guys. so We'll be of course doing our trademark trivia episode so I cannot wait to share that with you guys. Without any further ado, thank you all so so much for listening. Stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated.