You probably put more thought into this than the writer(s) did.
I was going to write the second part of this summary after finishing reading Nexus Uprising, but the book forced me to do it now. I'm at the halfway point and the amount of "wonderful things" is just becoming more and more overwhelming with each chapter. I blame Jarun Tann for that. Why, you ask?
Take all the things that annoyed you the most in Mass Effect like for example, Udina, ME ending or Kai Leng. And now imagine you being the author and taking out all your hate on one character - Jarun Tann.At the beginning I thought everybody hates him because... dunno. They are all stressed out, because of the dangerous situation they are in, and suddenly this Salarian takes over command from Jien Garson.Maybe that's it.
No. The writers didn't bother themselves with providing a good reason why am I suppose to dislike this Salarian. Meanwhile he is being treated like the worst person on Nexus from the moment he opened his eyes.
Everywhone (especially Sloane Kelly) blames him for everything (when it's not his fault). And if he wants to implement an idea they do not approve of they just block him outright. And of course when something goes wrong it is of course Jarun Tann's fault - no matter that he can't actually do anything. But it goes further than that. They have thoughts like "there is danger up a head - I bet Jarun Tann would shit himself with fear." Jarun Tann that, Jarun That this. And the worst thing about this is that within the 3 (4 if you add Kesh) people rulling over Nexus he is the only one with ideas based on actual logic. But no! Screw Tann. You are going to hate him and that is final.
1. Nexus is in danger?
Tann - "let's take one the shuttles and check out nearby planets. Maybe we can find some food and water there."
Sloane Kelly - "Are you insane? No! We have to sit here on our butts and fix the Nexus! And if the Nexus is in danger how will we escape?! Huh?!"
Tann - "..."
2.
Tann - "If I have to sacrifice ten people to save 10k I will.
Sloane Kelly - "Starts barking at him that he is nuts and all that stuff"
3.Nexus had a malfunction and only 2 people know the code that can defrost the remaining 19k colonists.
Tann - "Listen, there's only 2 of you, if someone happens to you we will lose the codes, it is wise to let more people know it. Share the code with me.
Kesh and Calix - "Are you nuts?! Are you ready for such responsibility!? Fine, we will compromise, we will encrypt the codes in Sloane Kelly's files so there will be 3 people with that knowledge and fuck off. She said she doesn't give a fuck, and she won't even look at them, but we are going to do it just to so you can have your shitty compromise."
Tann - "..."
4. Addision is going through a depression, because she is feeling useless on the Nexus.
Tann - "Sloane, listen. Addision is feeling down, as a Salarian that doesn't fully understand human females I could say something stupid. You are a human female too, can you talk to her? Cheer her up."
Sloane - "proceeds to bark at Tann (because she is cool and doesn't give a fuck yet again). You think I did not notice!? Blah, blah, blah I noticed like ages ago, geez, fine I'll do it."
Tann - "..."
(and yet Sloane still didn't talk to Addison)
No, seriously. I sometimes feel really sorry for him. Sloane is too cool for school, Addison is useless - if she wasn't in the book nothing in the plot would change. Tann wants to use logics but nobody really cares. And for some reason everyone idolizing Sloane... and Kesh who just keepks crying that nobody is thanking the Krogan for what they are doing and it's hard work (really, bitch? everyone loves your job).
Besides that, the writers seem to be tired or bored with going into Sloane's mind (but what can you do with someone who is always a badass and uncaring?) So they, are throwing in a plethora of random characters. That do nothing, disappear just fast as they appeared or just die. But hey, we get these flowery descriptions that this guy is like that, and this guy is like this. We even have a married gay couple, but their relationship is in troubled, but they still love each other! It adds nothing, but look! DIVERSITY!
There are also mini story arcs like those shitty 10 minute side-quests that Shepard did. Suddenly an evil Salarian appears! And he is very effective! Evil Salarian without any good explanation wakes up another 10 evil buddies! Sloane has to stop those 11 degenerates, or else they will get away with hostages on a shuttle! To where? How am I suppose to know? They just want to leave the Nexus! No matter that no one ever left it and they don't know what's outside. They are just escaping. So when the fightning starts and Kelly's men are fighting that evil Salarian. To me it looked like this:
Kelly is suddenly fighting against a female version of Dolph Lundgren. A walking wall of muscles and not much else. A behemoth! That's a huge bitch! And their flawless dialogue looks kinda like this:
Sloane Kelly - "Bitch, you're extra thicc! Tell me your secret!"
Extra Thicc Monstrostiy - "I was lifting heavy cargo for like 7 years".
Then Kelly defeats the thicc evil bitch.
Oh, and I almost forgot. 90% of men on the Nexus are acting like retarded cucks. They are entirely devoid of even the smallest trace of testosterone and their king is William Spender.
"Wonderful" book. And there is still half of it left. It is all Jarun Tann's fault.
How to save Mass Effect Andromeda
"What's past is prologue."
The details of Mass Effect 3's ending controversy need not be recounted, as it remains one of gaming's most pervasive disappointments. The damage it did to BioWare's reputation is still, rightly or wrongly, part of the ongoing conversation about the developer.
The long-awaited Mass Effect Andromeda needed to be near-perfect if it was to have any hope of restoring the series to the acclaim it once enjoyed, and while it's nowhere near as bad as some quarters insist, even its most ardent supporters can't escape the conclusion that Andromeda left a lot to be desired. A lot. Tonnes.
So Mass Effect is still down, but it's not out. While it hasn't won everyone back, Andromeda might well have nudged Mass Effect to a place where it could, by learning the right lessons from its past and embracing the distance it has travelled. But what are those lessons?
What's the background? The first Mass Effect was a revelation upon release. The Xbox 360, the greatest console of all time until it wasn't, was in its honeymoon period. The generational leap from the CRT era into a new age of enormous, pin-sharp, flat-screen televisions - and the requisite GPU power to drive them - represented the kind of foundational shift in gaming that hadn't been seen since the advent of textured polygons. To the contemporary observer, Mass Effect looked a bit like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, a film which - while rubbish - is considered something of a watershed moment in reaching, if not quite escaping, the uncanny valley. Except now it was running in real-time on a home console. The future had arrived, in glorious 720p.
That's probably why it took a few months for the cracks to show. The gunplay was a bag of arse, the conversation system was as stilted as conversation systems ever were, and driving that daft space-car around? Good lord, how did we ever cope.
Sound familiar? Aside from its combat, which retains the slickness of the sequels, Andromeda has resurrected many of the original game's issues.
Mass Effect 2 arrived in 2010, having expelled much of the guff. Its RPG systems were simplified, as were its environments. That infamous space-car, the Mako, had been consigned to the dustbin of history along with the sparse planetary surfaces it had trundled across. The game's cutscenes and conversational sequences were noticeably more cinematic, at a time when that was yet to become a dirty word. They had camera moves and walking and all sorts. Its stages were more tightly orchestrated, and the narrative device of an urgent suicide mission kept the pace up with an unprecedented sense of momentum. Mass Effect was a Ridley Scott film, and Mass Effect 2 was its jarhead James Cameron reinvention.
Mass Effect 2 was shorter, sleeker, and tonnes more fun. Accusations of dumbing-down or becoming too much of an action game bounced right off it, and to this day it's by far the collective favourite.
Andromeda introduced a lot of guff of its own. In particular, its crafting system is a convoluted mess which requires two separate screens and more currencies than a Bureau de Change. On top of that, we have to drive around planets again, this time in a vehicle that handles like a Volvo estate and has even fewer guns. Objectives are spread thinly over miles, and there aren't any Thresher Maws to break the monotony.
The result is a lot of bloat that obscures much of the genuinely good stuff Andromeda has to offer. So here's a starting point, then: any sequel to Andromeda needs to take heed of Mass Effect 2's relentless un-guffing of the format, drop any pretensions of being a Proper CRPG and get back to letting us Vasquez the shit out of impossible odds. Give us a load of big guns. Motivate us with a big red countdown to doomsday. And cut the crap.
Next? Ditch the open worlds.
Dragon Age: Inquisition did much to get Bioware's other flagship series back on track after it flunked a sequel. However, it is responsible for much of the guff in Andromeda's atmosphere. Drawing unfavourable comparisons to bloated MMOs, Inquisition focused heavily on delivering huge play areas, having been directly inspired by the open world of rival Bethesda's Skyrim, which was said to have "changed the landscape of role-playing games" by Dragon Age's executive producer Mark Darrah in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz back in 2014, citing its enormous sales figures.
He certainly had a point. Skyrim's runaway success has seen it become a mainstay in the charts for six years - an eternity as far as the games market is concerned. At one point, after it was remastered, it occupied two places in Steam's top ten. Couple that with the extraordinary critical and commercial success of The Witcher, which made the jump to open world with its third game and became regularly touted as the best RPG ever made by every Tom, Dick and Harry you never asked, and it seems like a no-brainer for BioWare to follow suit.
Except BioWare is, demonstrably, not very good at open worlds (granted, the jury's out on whether Bethesda is either). Between Dragon Age and Mass Effect it's had two cracks of that whip, and on both occasions we ended up spending a lot of time fannying around doing busywork when we should have been saving the galaxy/continent/spirit realm.
With Mass Effect 2, the first game's arduous exploration parts were replaced with curated, action-heavy vignettes. We still travelled the length and breadth of the galaxy, but every planetfall started a mission, not a sunday drive. Hub locations were compact, and packed with interesting diversions.
It demonstrated, as other BioWare games have, that there are plenty of ways to show us a big universe without having us meander through every inch of it. Andromeda 2's de-guffing should start with re-discovering them.
Now, let's talk about tone. And let's talk about Joss Whedon.
Barely any dramatic tension in Andromeda goes unbroken by a quip. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Whedon, the filmmaker behind seminal 90s sitcom Buffy the Vampire Slayer is reported to have said of superhero movies: "Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke."
He was onto something, as the capacity to crack a smile (or lack thereof) has become a focal point in the ongoing war between Marvel and DC's respective movie franchises, wherein the former has a house style defined by auteur Whedon, who likes fun, and the latter is helmed by auteur-ish Zack Snyder, who apparently doesn't. As far as critical reception is concerned, they're not in the same league.
The problem with Andromeda's jokes is that few of them are particularly funny. Most are just weird, appearing out of nowhere and skewering the tone like a pool cue ripping felt. Giving levity to the serious matter of Space Bullshit is not an easy thing to do. Writers like Whedon make it look easy, but it's an extraordinarily hard thing to balance giving the audience a break with keeping them in the moment.
It's not as if Mass Effect doesn't provide enough pause to work in some frivolity. Between missions, there are extended sequences on board a spaceship where the player is encouraged to kick back with the crew, and it's in these moments where Andromeda's playfulness is given enough oxygen to work. The Tempest is host to some great character moments, like the bizarre Movie Night sequence which requires a near endless string of galaxy-spanning tasks to be completed before it can be triggered, absurdly taking fifty hours of gameplay to get the crew together on Ryder's couch in a possibly accidental but nonetheless brilliant send-up of the laborious nature of RPGs. It's a cruel joke, but it's worth the effort.
BioWare's writers have one of the hardest jobs going, but unless Whedon joins the staff, they're not equipped to do what he does. Fortunately, Mass Effect is built in such a way that they don't need to.
Finally, how's that branding working out?
Laying Mass Effect to rest, instead of keeping it upright in its current Weekend At Bernie's state, may be the only way to preserve its legacy. Andromeda certainly doesn't need to constantly remind its players of older, better games; it has plenty of battles to fight without having to compete with its own nostalgia.
Of course, it could never completely remove itself from its parent franchise. But by removing the Mass Effect branding and becoming known simply as 'Andromeda', it can move forward with the implicit intent of becoming its own thing. The first game already made great progress in this direction. It's separated from its predecessor by millions of light years and a six centuries, while key features like the paragon/renegade system have been unceremoniously jettisoned - one of the few changes that internet commentators weren't immediately averse to.
However, it caters amply to those with longings for its past with audio diaries, Citadel flashbacks, and a smattering of other side-content that calls back to the Milky Way. Relatives and colleagues of the original's minor characters are disproportionately represented in the Andromeda Initiative which, for a galaxy with a population in the tens of billions, feels like a stretch.
Andromeda 2 needs to cut the cord, decisively and forever, if it is to have any hope of escaping the expectations - good and bad - set by its origins. Travelling to the other side of the universe may have been conceived as a convenient escape from having to address ME3's cul-de-sac of an ending, but it now provides an excellent opportunity to outrun ghosts of the past.
If Bioware wanted to rely wholly on brand nostalgia to buff the nerdy spaceship side of their business, it might be better advised to throw Andromeda in a skip and make KOTOR 3 instead. Indeed, if Mass Effect fans are looking for hope, they need only look to Star Wars - the behemoth property to which Mass Effect quite directly owes its existence - which had its own wilderness years in the not too distant past.
That's not to say the methods which revitalised Star Wars will work for Mass Effect; obviously, the comparison only works at a glance. Nevertheless, the older saga stands today on the cusp of a second golden age, shepherded by a new generation of creators as living proof that what is loved endures.
Mass Effect is loved, and it can endure.
The guy who thought Jurassic park was sexist.. mmhmm..
I was going to write the second part of this summary after finishing reading Nexus Uprising, but the book forced me to do it now. I'm at the halfway point and the amount of "wonderful things" is just becoming more and more overwhelming with each chapter. I blame Jarun Tann for that. Why, you ask?
Take all the things that annoyed you the most in Mass Effect like for example, Udina, ME ending or Kai Leng. And now imagine you being the author and taking out all your hate on one character - Jarun Tann.At the beginning I thought everybody hates him because... dunno. They are all stressed out, because of the dangerous situation they are in, and suddenly this Salarian takes over command from Jien Garson.Maybe that's it.
No. The writers didn't bother themselves with providing a good reason why am I suppose to dislike this Salarian. Meanwhile he is being treated like the worst person on Nexus from the moment he opened his eyes.
Everywhone (especially Sloane Kelly) blames him for everything (when it's not his fault). And if he wants to implement an idea they do not approve of they just block him outright. And of course when something goes wrong it is of course Jarun Tann's fault - no matter that he can't actually do anything. But it goes further than that. They have thoughts like "there is danger up a head - I bet Jarun Tann would shit himself with fear." Jarun Tann that, Jarun That this. And the worst thing about this is that within the 3 (4 if you add Kesh) people rulling over Nexus he is the only one with ideas based on actual logic. But no! Screw Tann. You are going to hate him and that is final.
1. Nexus is in danger?
Tann - "let's take one the shuttles and check out nearby planets. Maybe we can find some food and water there."
Sloane Kelly - "Are you insane? No! We have to sit here on our butts and fix the Nexus! And if the Nexus is in danger how will we escape?! Huh?!"
Tann - "..."
2.
Tann - "If I have to sacrifice ten people to save 10k I will.
Sloane Kelly - "Starts barking at him that he is nuts and all that stuff"
3.Nexus had a malfunction and only 2 people know the code that can defrost the remaining 19k colonists.
Tann - "Listen, there's only 2 of you, if someone happens to you we will lose the codes, it is wise to let more people know it. Share the code with me.
Kesh and Calix - "Are you nuts?! Are you ready for such responsibility!? Fine, we will compromise, we will encrypt the codes in Sloane Kelly's files so there will be 3 people with that knowledge and fuck off. She said she doesn't give a fuck, and she won't even look at them, but we are going to do it just to so you can have your shitty compromise."
Tann - "..."
4. Addision is going through a depression, because she is feeling useless on the Nexus.
Tann - "Sloane, listen. Addision is feeling down, as a Salarian that doesn't fully understand human females I could say something stupid. You are a human female too, can you talk to her? Cheer her up."
Sloane - "proceeds to bark at Tann (because she is cool and doesn't give a fuck yet again). You think I did not notice!? Blah, blah, blah I noticed like ages ago, geez, fine I'll do it."
Tann - "..."
(and yet Sloane still didn't talk to Addison)
No, seriously. I sometimes feel really sorry for him. Sloane is too cool for school, Addison is useless - if she wasn't in the book nothing in the plot would change. Tann wants to use logics but nobody really cares. And for some reason everyone idolizing Sloane... and Kesh who just keepks crying that nobody is thanking the Krogan for what they are doing and it's hard work (really, bitch? everyone loves your job).
Besides that, the writers seem to be tired or bored with going into Sloane's mind (but what can you do with someone who is always a badass and uncaring?) So they, are throwing in a plethora of random characters. That do nothing, disappear just fast as they appeared or just die. But hey, we get these flowery descriptions that this guy is like that, and this guy is like this. We even have a married gay couple, but their relationship is in troubled, but they still love each other! It adds nothing, but look! DIVERSITY!
There are also mini story arcs like those shitty 10 minute side-quests that Shepard did. Suddenly an evil Salarian appears! And he is very effective! Evil Salarian without any good explanation wakes up another 10 evil buddies! Sloane has to stop those 11 degenerates, or else they will get away with hostages on a shuttle! To where? How am I suppose to know? They just want to leave the Nexus! No matter that no one ever left it and they don't know what's outside. They are just escaping. So when the fightning starts and Kelly's men are fighting that evil Salarian. To me it looked like this:
Kelly is suddenly fighting against a female version of Dolph Lundgren. A walking wall of muscles and not much else. A behemoth! That's a huge bitch! And their flawless dialogue looks kinda like this:
Sloane Kelly - "Bitch, you're extra thicc! Tell me your secret!"
Extra Thicc Monstrostiy - "I was lifting heavy cargo for like 7 years".
Then Kelly defeats the thicc evil bitch.
Oh, and I almost forgot. 90% of men on the Nexus are acting like retarded cucks. They are entirely devoid of even the smallest trace of testosterone and their king is William Spender.
"Wonderful" book. And there is still half of it left. It is all Jarun Tann's fault.
So Tann is the Wladimir Putin of the Nexus? Modern day writers are as retarded as a lot of mainstream journalists?
