A Story Analysis of Mass Effect Andromeda

if there was one way to describe Andromeda it would be average it's no secret that the game was released to mixed reception most of it coming from numerous bugs and questionable facial animations some of that is still present but for the most part it seems alright although I can't be entirely certain if anything has actually changed because like probably many of you I've never actually played Andromeda the reviews were enough to turn me off the game for good and I never had any reason to download it until today having now played Andromeda twice I can say that while its mixed reception is warranted there are some rather interesting parts to this game that I found quite enjoyable and I'd even go as far as to say that they're the best iterations of it in the series but enough beating around the bush we really need to dive into this thing to understand why so without further Ado let's get started so Mass Effect Andromeda takes place 600 years after the original trilogy but many of the events that led to this start within the trilogy in 2185 or around the time of Mass Effect 2 a project called the Andromeda initiative was launched with the sole purpose of making a one-way trip to the engine Andromeda galaxy the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way leaving the charge was billionaire Visionary Gian Garson she's the figurehead for most of the marketing material so it was her job to give people to join the reason why we haven't heard any of this despite the fact that it happened during the trilogy is likely due to the game's development Mass Effect was always envisioned to be a Trilogy so the writers had a plan as to when and what would be revealed the idea about Andromeda in the initiative was likely something they thought of after the release of the trilogy so it would have been impossible for them to plan that far ahead as for why G and Garson decided to start this Expedition but we don't really know why okay that's a lie there is a reason but it's a secret for now which is a problem we'll discuss this more at the end of the video where you'll likely hear more about this reasoning for yourself in game but the fact that we aren't given an actual reason is a bit odd until that secret is revealed the player is told that the initiative started to Simply explore Andromeda it's not a terrible reason to leave the Galaxy it's just not really a great hook for a story but like I said we'll come back to this at the end of the video to get to Andromeda a lot needed to be planned out in advance first was actually making sure Andromeda was even able to be colonized many teams were dedicated to finding so-called golden worlds where the races of the Galaxy could live these teams reported that there was a surplus of these worlds which meant that Andromeda was a good place to go afterwards that we need to figure out how to actually fly there the Milky Way and Andromeda aren't touching one another so they would need to travel through dark space for an unknown amount of time the main Hub of the fleet was a ship called the Nexus which would act as an alternative Citadel once they arrived on the ship were various different races and just about all the Krogan I mentioned the races specifically because following the Nexus were four arcs each one was tailor-made for a specific race the human solarian turian and asari arcs there is a fifth Arc but according to the lore it hasn't launched yet so it'll be some time before they arrive on the ship are all the other races in the game like the hanar drill quarians El core volis Etc basically this is an in-game reason why a large portion of the game's races are missing once the arcs in the Nexus arrived a new group of people called Pathfinders were dedicated to setting up outposts and exploring the new planets the human Pathfinder was a man named Alec Ryder who just so happens to be the father of our main character Scott Ryder unlike the original trilogy though both genders of Ryder are Canon Scott and Sarah Ryder are twins and are both in the game the only difference being who is the twin so for example you can visit Sarah as Scott on the Human Arc but if you're Sarah then you visit Scott on the ark basically one of the siblings takes the role of the main character the other becomes a side character depending on who you pick obviously this is a huge change for this series as this is the first time the protagonist is in Commander Shepard given the events of the trilogy it makes sense why they aren't present in this game but it's still a major change one that immediately split people's opinions personally I like Ryder I think he's a solid protagonist but that's mostly because he's a blank slate I can't really say whether I like Ryder or Shepard more since they're supposed to be vessels for the player so saying I dislike Commander Shepard would kind of just be insulting myself that being said though it is strange to play a Mass Effect game without Shepard and the crew which is something I knew I would need to get over soon if I was even going to remotely enjoy this game once Ryder gets out of cryo and gets checked out by the ship's doctor we're introduced to the new dialogue system it's still the same dialogue wheel as the rest of the trilogy but the Paragon and Renegade morality systems are completely gone this was inevitable given how little importance the system seemed to get over the years and it was only a matter of time until it was gone for good replacing it though are tone indicators in the middle of the wheel there is a symbol that represents the kind of tone you want to convey whether that be emotional casual logical or professional there are also other icons for responses that are questions flirting or ones that Advance the plot this is a major improvement over the original and my personal favorite as it goes back to our early discussions regarding how people would pick options simply because it was Paragon or Renegade and not because they actually wanted to choose that option I know not everyone does that all the time but I can think of numerous occasions where I was conflicted on what to say so I just went with the one that fits my character's alignment at that time Andromeda gives you the chance to choose what you want to say without being weighed down by some arbitrary scoring system that dictated your morality as such though things like speech checks are non-existent in this game but because there's no binary good and evil approach most of the decisions we make are in the gray furthermore that also means we won't be discussing things like Renegade options in this video since those don't exist the game still has choices that we will be discussing just not in the same way that we've been discussing them so far in the series it's been roughly I don't know long enough since we've had something go wrong so let's add that to the mix upon entering the Galaxy the ark hit something strange this mass of thorns and tendrils is called The Scourge this sadly doesn't really play a major role in the overall story but it is something we will periodically bring up like right now as it's currently causing Mass damage to the ship despite the damage everyone is okay except Sarah whose cryopod was damaged I'll be honest I thought she was going to die here I could have assumed that she wouldn't since you're able to customize both the twins before starting the game but I've also played Fallout 4 and had my wife whom I spend hours creating get killed in 20 minutes so nothing was off the table for me thankfully she lives but she'll be unconscious for quite a while this means of her short one on our team though as the Pathfinder doesn't work alone so Scott gets to team up with his Dad and explore the planet they call Habitat 7. writer in the company then meets and get a look at habitat 7 and it's less than ideal the skins of those people made back then were outdated since the trip alone took 600 years so the planets have changed the teams that form up and take shuttles to the planet and hopes of seeing what this world is really about on the way though some of the shuttles including our own are hit by The Scourge and some of the lightning from the planet which means we'll have to crash land this Crash Landing alerted some of the locals and thus begins one of the most important parts of this Mission first contact with other aliens this is completely on the player to do so no cutscenes or QuickTime events it's all on the player to walk forward or stay still sadly it doesn't matter since these aliens will shoot you after enough time anyway but I was wrapped up in the idea that first Contact was extremely important and that shooting should not be the first thing we do in all honesty I was quite nervous to move forward since I didn't want to anger these new aliens we met BioWare did a pretty damn good job at adding the suspense that comes from an interaction such as this these alien creatures are beings called cat they are also and this may surprise you the main antagonist of the game we'll have to talk about the cap more in depth later but just know that they are the main bad guys of Andromeda seeing as the teams are split up and possibly being killed by these cats we're tasked with rendezvousing with everyone this section of the game is where I got shocked back into reality because one of the location locations we can find is a small research base and inside is a hostile robot when we walk near it our crewmate says kill the robots ugh the Geth would love this that sentence like I was some sort of Sleeper Agent practically awoke me because I had totally forgotten up until now that I was playing a Mass Effect game and it wouldn't be the last time this happened either I think the footage alone could explain why I think this but playing this game is a completely different experience since the combat is no longer boots on the ground and so much of this game has been altered the team behind Andromeda did want to make a fresh new experience and wanted to move away from the trilogy as much as possible and they definitely did just that but it was still a shock regardless once everyone comes together they determine that this monolith on the planet is the thing causing the severe weather since it's releasing undirected energy which is being put back on the planet in the form of lightning the team then makes their way inside the building and Alec decides to interact with it using Sam Sam is an AI that is very similar to Edie but the Edie from Mass Effect 2 one that was less self-aware the major difference is that Sam is inside the mind of the Pathfinders via an implant whereas Edie was just talking via radio this is very clearly illegal given how how many restrictions are placed on AI already but to be fair we aren't really in the Milky Way anymore once Alec interacts with the monolith the building activates and removes the harsh weather but it releases this Cloud that shoots the two off the building Ryder's helmet is cracked in the crash and needs to be repaired and Alec decides to sacrifice himself by giving him his helmet and transferring Sam's control over to Ryder so he can have these same functions as he did Alec then passes away and Ryder collapses but that's because the implant was affecting his brain at least until Sam helps him recover seeing his Alec transferred Sam over to Ryder that means he's the new human Pathfinder before things continue though we get a quick look at another cut who seems to be the leader of sorts called the archon he seems interested in this technology but can't quite understand how to use it which leads to him walking away and the game gives us control of Ryder again as a first mission it's pretty okay it functions like a decent tutorial but part of me is honestly kind of shocked that Alec isn't the main character Alec Rudder has so much backstory and oozes Intrigue then I'm surprised this wasn't given to us at the start once we become Pathfinder one of the side missions we get is finding these memories across the Galaxy these then unlock various logs and recordings from Alec allowing us to see a different side of the rider family we learned that Alec was a devoted and determined man he was a former N7 who served in the contact Wars when Humanity first met alien life but he was then eventually dishonorably discharged thanks to him becoming too obsessed with Advanced AI the reason behind this was that his wife Ellen was dying of an incurable disease and he couldn't allow her to pass on that's why he created Sam an AI tasked with curing his wife this sadly wasn't working the council caught on to his AI Antics he was running out of money Elm was already willing to accept her death and his kids barely got to see their father since he was more focused on keeping Ellen alive he was out of options as though he was given an opportunity to join the Andromeda initiative doing so would allow Alex to continue his AI development as they were outside council's space but also give him an opportunity to cryo-freeze his wife while he searched the Galaxy for a new cure it was the perfect plan given the circumstances which is why he joined the Expedition and became the human Pathfinder it's only shocking how all of this information isn't mentioned until the player finds it themselves through a side quest but hearing this kind of makes me want to play as Alec instead or at the very least have him present throughout the game not killed off in the first hour he's a desperate man on a desperate mission to save the woman he loves anyone would sympathize with him but like I said none of this is mentioned hell Ellen's existence isn't even acknowledged until the side quest is complete because the twins discovered that their mom wasn't actually dead like they were told as she's been on the ark and cryo the whole time it's a shocking reveal sure but I would have loved to see this whole story play out differently as Alec this could also provide motivation as to why we joined the initiative because as of right now it's just simply to explore the game could have honestly kept that main idea but have Alex personal goal be something more than just exploring because as the twins the main idea is our personal motivation we're just here to explore which as stated isn't a terrible reason to join the initiative just not exactly a great story and I think in hindsight Alex motivation is much more intriguing and makes for the much better story this could also play into the main narrative is throughout the game it's really just about making sure the worlds of Andromeda are livable when we could have possibly had decisions that affect the progress of a cure or motivate Alec assuming he was alive to do drastic things like betraying the team to get a sample of some plant that maybe contained some sort of cure for Ellen regardless of how this could have played out I think having Alec die in the first hour really ruins a key part of the story since his whole plan is never told to us until much later and by then it's hard to still care about it once Ryder wakes up the crew of The Ark make it to the Nexus and a tier where I started to notice a severe lack of cinematic presentation coming from Andromeda which is really strange as it has these same advantages that Mass Effect 1 had in the first game we were unfamiliar with the Citadel and the Normandy so their reveals were a surprise that's why Mass Effect 3 doesn't Place much importance on reviewing the Citadel because we already know what it is within Andromeda just about everything is new to us so the team has the opportunity to take full advantage of it but they didn't one example is the Tempest Ryder eventually becomes the captain of a ship called The Tempest it's basically this game's Normandy and both the Norman return in Mass Effect 2 and its quick reveal in Mass Effect 1 are leagues better than what Andromeda has the Tempest just kinda shows up it at least has some music in the background which sounds like the bare minimum but you'd be surprised how much this isn't utilized like for example take the reveal of the Citadel and the Nexus [Music] the size of that ship the Ascension Flagship of the Citadel Fleet well sizes and everything why so touchy joker I'm just saying you need Firepower too Ryder good to see you on your feet we're at the Nexus it's the forward hub for the entire Andromeda initiative the asari solarian and turian arcs should be there too let's hope they've had better luck starting our approach now it's almost as big as the Citadel back home next is control this is archive period requesting docking clearance Captain I'm only getting their automated approach Channel not a live person well like it or not we're here take us in thank you that is as Bland as it gets and that's supposed to be the main Hub of the game there is also the one time a decently shot evacuation scene was shown which is great within the bounds of Andromeda but immediately outclassed by most of the trilogy that's not to say though that Andromeda goes without any sort of cinematic direction as there are some wonderful moments that the game takes full advantage of whether it be the Stellar landscape or some wonderful character moments but Andromeda is definitely lacking in this department now some of you may mention that the Nexus reveal is intentional since it's actually shot down and that is a fair point because when we arrive we realize that it's not the welcoming party we were envisioning but this could have been further used to the game's Advantage imagine the reveal of the Citadel this insanely large structure that's just brimming with life only to find out that there is no life at all it would immediately change the tone of the scene and really set in that this beautiful place we saw on the outside is not as beautiful on the inside but due to its Bland reveal the surprise of the nexus's current state Falls flat once we do make it to the Nexus though we can talk to the leaders who are Kesh tan kandros and Addison they're sort of like the board of directors since the Nexus has no governing body like the council although the plan is to establish that eventually there isn't much to say about them other than the board of directors comment besides the fact that tier and kandros the turian is actually a cousin of nyrene once we talk with the leaders we learn why the Nexus is the way that it is the Nexus like the ark ran into the scourge which caused lots of damage to the ship and also killed quite a few of the higher ups the current director of the Nexus is tan while kandros cash in Addison still have some say in the decisions it's ultimately tan who makes it tan is nicknamed eight or the 8th since he was actually the eighth in line to be director meaning the other seven before him also died to make matters worse not only is the ship running out of power and Supply seeing as it's been floating in space for 14 months but this shortage caused the Mutiny some people were angered by all this and thus two sides formed those that were against the Nexus and its leadership rebelled and are now known as Exiles these individuals were forced to leave in axis and never come back or else they'll be shot given the fact that no outposts or anything have been done on these planets we can assume that they the Exiles aren't exactly living the most lavish of lives as if we didn't have enough problems already we're the first Arc to arrive despite the fact that it's been 14 months the Nexus has apparently not gotten into contact with the other three arcs yet since the other arcs weren't responding the Nexus tried to take matters into its own hands and create an outpost on a nearby planet called EOS but those two bases aren't responding either so we're down three arcs filled with tens of thousands of people each half the Nexus has gone due to a mutiny we haven't created a single surviving Outpost or base of operations on any Planet since we arrived the scourge is causing major issues for the arcs and the Nexus and now we have an entire race of aliens that want to kill us we could not be more [ __ ] if we tried thankfully we have one way to solve this Ryder recognizes a strange signal like the one that was on habitat 7. he determines that if the signal is related to the alien Tech they found earlier then that means they might be able to find another one of these buildings and do the same thing they did before this would clear up all the Hazardous environment on EOS and make it habitable to get there though we're going to need a ship which is where the reveal of the Tempest comes in as well as an introduction to the Companions and some of the ship's crew as usual we'll hold off on talking about them for now but just introduce them so you have their names we have Liam and Cora our two human Companions and Vetra a female turian there are more people present on the ship that we won't take on missions but like I said more on them later once we land on EOS we see that the settlement that was first established here is abandoned and discovered that the cat came by and killed everyone the signal then leads the crew to some alien structure it's similar in design but not the one they're looking for these smaller structures are called monoliths what they're actually searching for is called a vault Ryder then attempts to touch the interface before being tackled by an asari research her name is PB and will eventually be our next companion before we can talk with her though we're interrupted by those Killer Robots we found earlier once we deal with them she can catch us up to speed on what she knows according to her these robots she calls Remnant are related to the alien Tech we've been finding furthermore PB is very obsessed with these Remnant creatures and their origin so she's determined to learn more about them which is why she joins our team if the similarities haven't slapped you in the face by now then allow me to put it this way an asari researcher who is interested in an ancient alien race tags along with the protagonist so that she can learn more about them PB is basically Liara if she was more extroverted while Rider attempts to turn on the other monoliths he and the group will run across to Krogan named Drac as you would expect he is also another companion that will join our Squad eventually Rider will open the vault and head inside and while Andromeda may not utilize its presentation to its fullest that feeling of sheer spectacle that comes from the Sci-Fi genre is ever present throughout this game and there is no better example than the underground structures located here in the vault it's a magnificent view that really conveys how advanced this old race of beings used to be after reloading my game because the door refused to open and dying to another enemy stuck on a wall Rider makes it to the bottom and his theory was correct using the Vault activates the structure and removes the dangerous environment that engulfs the planet furthermore that cloud that was present in the previous Vault was not a fluke it is out chasing the squad it's unclear what this is exactly what the team assumes that it's either the vault's way of rebooting itself or it's designed to be a booby trap after the vault is active a map of some kind appears and shows some sort of Central Point the team believes that this could be the control center meaning that planet houses a vault that controls the other lesser volts thus multiple planets can be restored at one time this would easily help the initiative's main goal of colonizing the Galaxy but before we can take our findings to the Nexus we have to make the first big choice of the game now that EOS is habitable we can create an outpost and since we're the Pathfinder We could decide what kind of outpost we want military or science the difference between these two is honestly negligible but one thing I was pleasantly surprised to see was that our companion's opinions actually have meaning this was something I briefly brought up in the Mass Effect 1 video about how the Italian counselor goes against our decision regarding the rack night Queen no matter what we ended up choosing our companions had consistent opinions on the matter but the counselor was the one that didn't he was designed to be an antagonistic Force no matter what we chose which never made sense to me however Andromeda recognized this and made sure to keep the companion's opinions consistent here as well Vetra for example will always pick scientific and Cora will always choose military it doesn't matter who's with them they will always stick to their guns furthermore something I didn't expect is that the game is totally fine with having two companions agree with one another I initially thought that the game was programmed to have the companions disagree so that you'd have to make the final choice but when I brought Liam and PB along both agreed on a scientific Outpost I was genuinely shocked by this as I thought I'd have to bring this problem up again but now I don't have to the only issue I do have though is that we don't get to see more of this as this is the only decision in the game where we can actually ask our companions for their thoughts the rest going forward will never give us the chance to do so as for the outposts themselves like I said the difference is negligible Augustus Bradley is the leader for both outposts and most if not all the missions revolving around the Outpost at least in my knowledge are the same it's only the first choice of the game which is fine so I wasn't exactly expecting anything large but I do wish the actual appearance of the base change at least having a base built around military and one built around science would require different buildings and Personnel but there doesn't seem to be a difference here I also wish we got to see the Camp being built it would make the choice feel more personal to the player on its own this is a small problem but it really starts to stick out once you realize that Andromeda tends to be quite abrupt with things the best way I can explain this is once again with an example eventually Ryder and the other Pathfinders will get together and drink neither of them have had the chance to sit down and relax so they determine that now is a good time they also talk about opening up some aged wine and it seems like the group is ready to relax until the screen goes to Black and that's it we don't see the wine them talking or even giving a hint of an idea that the celebration actually occurred in another example Drac wants to play a Krogan game with Ryder and two other Krogan named Cash and vorn Jack's final line is how he's going to load the mini flamethrowers they use in the game before the others get here but then it ends the cutscene is finished and the mission is over we never see the game or even the other Krogan and it's not like they're non-existent because we meet them multiple times during Drax questline it's just so bizarre not only on its own but also because once again the original games did this much better and this can be seen in just about every single loyalty mission in Mass Effect 3 when we visit Ashley at the Memorial Wall we get a brief scene of her and her sister sitting next to each other or after shooting with Garris the camera pans out and shows the two looking off into the distance these are admittedly very short scenes but they add so much to the game as there's no cut to Black so it's not as abrupt as Andromeda makes it and shows a genuine passage of time from this scene alone we can assume that Garrison Shepard had stayed there and relaxed for a while if Andromeda had just taken the time to show the Pathfinders drinking or show The Outpost being built it would have made the scenes not stick out so much by ending so abruptly once EOS has been established Ryder can go back to the Nexus and report to director tan this is also the first time you're given a chance to do something other than the main quest so feel free to talk with the crew and explore the Nexus the Nexus as mentioned before is this game's version of The Citadel compared to the Citadel and Omega I think this version is my least favorite there are many locations to visit and it's quite small when compared to the others so instead of coming here to taking the sights and explore you're likely just going to come here to talk to a person and then leave a few minutes later it's also not as visually distinct as the other two and I oftentimes found myself getting lost since the arcs in the Nexus look eerily similar speaking of talking with people once you make it back to the Nexus you'll find a group of protesters this is in response to what decision a few moments ago is these people are the family members of the people we didn't pick it's more of a hindrance than anything but I appreciated its conclusion as it slowly makes the Nexus a realistic livable city rather than a location in a game this can also be seen in its actual inhabitants you may notice a lack of alien races on the Nexus this due to the other arcs being missing the only Arc to make it to the Nexus so far is the Hyperion and that Arc houses all the humans which is why there is an abundance of them here sadly though it's not all it's cooped up to be as after rescuing all the arcs I didn't notice much of a difference in the nexus's diversity or density safer the angara mentioning the angara is actually a perfect segue into our next main mission that map Rider and the crew found is showing another planet which they believe to be the core of the network that planet is located in the Onan system but when the team warp drives to the solar system they run right into the cat Fleet the fleet then points all their guns at the Tempest while the archon decides to have a chat with Ryder the archon is obsessed with this Remnant technology and when he saw Alec Ryder activate the vaults without any issue he realized that he needed to find him as we know Alec Ryder is dead so he won't be able to meet him but Alec or not his quest to uncover The Remnant Secrets will be stopped this gives us albeit a small one but a notable idea as to what the archon is doing here it doesn't explain who the cat are but at least we know something about the archon once the crew regains control of the Tempest they speed off into the scourge and somehow manage to make it out alive but out of the frying pan and Into the Fire as they say as the crew runs into yet another alien species thankfully these individuals don't believe in shoot first ask questions later governor of Aya we are the angara these aliens are the angara the second and final new race of Andromeda which is honestly kind of disappointing Andromeda is a completely new location and this game only has two new races there are more Milky Way races in this galaxy than ones native to Andromeda and that's such a missed opportunity I think most of this is due in parts of the game's developments but it could also be explained away with lore despite the fact that Andromeda takes place in the Andromeda galaxy we're only actually in one cluster called Helios for context in the original trilogy we were able to explore most of the Milky Way these dots on the map when names are called clusters so while the trilogy is the whole map Andromeda is just one of these clusters this might seem like a terrible decision since most of the Clusters in the trilogy only have a few locations but don't worry it's proportional the same depth that the Milky Way had in the original trilogy has the same depth as the Helios cluster the reason I bring this up is because this could be a reason as to why we only see the cat in angara one of the most iconic clusters in the trilogy is the local cluster which houses our own solar system in real life even though many alien species exist in the Milky Way you'll likely find most if not only humans since that's our home system this might be the reason why we only see two races in Andromeda or maybe it's just a convenient excuse regardless even if it fits with the story having the start of a new series only introduced two new races is very disappointing especially since they have the same skeletal structure one common complaint levied at the whole series is that most of the aliens are humanoid in the sense that they have two arms two legs with the elkor and hanar being the only actual alien species personally I don't have a problem with this as much as others might but I would love to see more alien-like creatures as it adds a lot of diversity to the Galaxy seeing as we've already met the angara we should probably talk about their backstory but there is surprisingly not a ton of information even though the codex has 15 separate pages on the angara their culture and specific members among the species most of it is unimportant I could get deep in how the angara's economy is similar to our modern day capitalistic society that also employs some informal bartering systems but most of you including myself wants to see what makes the angara so special what separates them from the rest of the Galaxy most of this lack of knowledge is due to the cat destroying a lot of their culture in the process of fulfilling their end goal which we'll discuss soon but once again that could just be a convenient excuse to hide the fact that the team didn't really have enough time to flesh them out the most interesting part about the angara is that they're very open and are Community Driven they're very open with their emotions and oftentimes say exactly how they're feeling the angara also have very large families consisting of various mothers cousins and relatives they also believe in reincarnation in the sense that when an angara dies they are reincarnated and the Soul stays within the family they were born from Furthermore will not a religious figure the most shy of the angara are revered amongst the species before the invasion of the catch the angara had quite a few Moshi but now Moshi sepha is the only one that we know of she is an elder scientist and is the leading researcher regarding anything to do with the cat and the remnant and has gone through Great Lengths in order to ensure her species Survival by using this knowledge but the angara are not without their faults the biggest being the rokar a military faction within the angara while the angaran resistance was formed to push back the ket the Roka or a xenophobic group that wants to drive out any species that aren't angara out of the Helios cluster including the newly arrived Milky Way colonists this is just about all the necessary information that is needed to understand the angara there is one very huge detail about their culture that's revealed later but what it could mean is mostly speculation I'm admittedly a little disappointed that there aren't more unique details that set the Gengar apart especially in the visual Department another strange part about the angara is that not only do they know about the Andromeda initiative and the other species already but that this planet we arrive on called Aya is their Homeworld alright well technically it's not given the info we learned later but still the main Hub where most of the angara reside is Aya the first Contact between us and the cat was much more exhilarating than the one with the angara was we basically just arrived on their Homeworld that are not only paraded through the city but also talked to like we have good intentions in all fairness we do but the angara constantly talk about not trusting us since the last group they trusted was the cat I was personally expecting a bit more hostility and at least some kind of build up when it came to visiting the crown jewel of their society it's also never officially mentioned to my knowledge by the angara no of us before we even meet them but it could be that they found some Exiles that left the Nexus and thus were able to learn more about us before we met still this is the player's first introduction to them and feels rather uneventful back to the topic at hand the reason we're here is to gain access to the vaults but the angara obviously don't trust us so we have to earn their favor by showing them that we mean no harm there are two other angaran planets where tasked with going to havarl and vold once we arrive we must talk to the researchers and the resistance respectively these missions are honestly terrible on their own but there's a reason for this we'll go over this more on the side content section but the main planets we visit are explorable so it's intended that the player go to the planet and do some side missions that are placed there rather than just leaving right away joining us on these missions is jaw and angaran fighter and our last companion for now he's here to observe us and report his thoughts to ephra the resistance leader but once these missions are done he'll permanently join us in our fight against the cat the quest on havarl is super easy as we're tasma going to the main research base and rescuing some of the researchers that seem to be trapped in some kind of stasis field I'm fairly certain that this is the only time something like this occurs in the game which is a shame but getting them out requires us to play some Sudoku once they're free we can return to the base and then head off to the next planet vold has a few more probably because it's four times bigger than it but the main objective is to meet the resistance then rescue some of their members who were captured by the cat while doing this though you'll be given a side quest involving this area to the Northeast this place used to be an ancient angaran city before the ice and the cat took it over getting the shield down is going to require you to eliminate the main cat base here on vold and then enter once the power is shut down inside the base is more angaran prisoners but after talking with one of them we discovered that something is hiding behind the walls and after blowing a hole through it we can find an interface that used to control the City's power grid before it was encased in ice however this is a lie this is actually an AI that was created by the angara the reason she's lying to us is that not only does she not trust us but due to her isolation she may have gone a bit insane she also claims to not know anything about the angara and their ancient history furthermore both jaw and the prisoners have no knowledge of this AI or any AI for that matter with an angaran Society it is possible that she's lying considering she was an AI for an ancient city the angara no longer control but it's also possible that she was made by the Jardin to over see the angara and that's why she has no knowledge of them I know that is a bit confusing since I haven't mentioned the Jardin yet so don't worry I'll come back to this comment later before we're given a chance to talk though one of the prisoners attempts to retrieve her so that they can study her but she decides to kill him so now we must make a choice we can either kill her and save the prisoner or retrieve her and kill the prisoner this is a very rachni queen-esque Choice especially since the AI is showing signs of sentience so it could be a semi- difficult decision to make sadly though there isn't much of an outcome to any of these choices the only difference though comes from saving her if we keep her then we can take her to the angara who help us temporarily in the final mission or take her back to the Nexus where she can occasionally talk to Sam and that's about it this is something I want to talk about more later at the end of the video but since Andromeda is only one game it's hard to discuss the choices of this entry since just about all of them have minimal impact on the game itself I can definitely see the choice regarding the AI coming back to bite us in a sequel but since there's no sequel as of it it's really hard to evaluate it one thing I did appreciate though is that this mission is completely option finding the AI is not something you have to do so there's a chance you'll miss this during your playthrough since the main mission is completed upon rescuing these prisoners to be fair though it's highly unlikely that this will happen since the mission is completed right in the middle of talking with a prisoner who asks you to deliver something to someone who then points you towards the cat base and eventually the AI so the game does drag you towards this confrontation with the AI but the fact that it's not 100 guaranteed is quite bold and extremely commendable as I've always appreciated when developers are willing to make content knowing not many people will see it they could have easily made this a hard requirement for the story but they opted not to which was nice especially because now it means we have three options available one where we save the AI another where we kill her and a third where we never find her once you're finished or bored with these planets you can return to ephra to hear his thoughts on our mission ephra is extremely stubborn but he recognizes that we are a valuable asset during these missions Rider will find out that the Moshi is gone and was taken to a cat facility not only is this just bad in general but it's a lucky break for Ryder as rescuing her would easily make him look good in the eyes of the angara to do this though we'll need to go back to fold and meet up with some of the resistance members who'll be joining us on the mission once we break into the facility though things start to feel off the base is covered in religious structures and scripture we also end up walking in on a ritual of sorts we also see groups of Vanguard willingly obeying the cat which is even more strange the leader of this ritual is a cat called the Cardinal who talks about something called exaltation a little further in is where we see this so-called exaltation foreign [Music] so the cat we've spent hours killing are likely other and garans this rightfully upsets Joel and he's having trouble juggling with the fact that not only are the cats stealing his people but he's been killing his own kind the whole time now we could get into the logistics about whether or not a cat that used to be in angaran is still in angaran but at the very least the angara are being forced to fight their own kind in some way now that we've covered the most important detail about the cat however we should probably talk a bit more about them seeing as they are the game's main antagonists the cat is the first alien race we find here in Andromeda but they do not seem to be native to the Helios cluster since the game is only in one cluster it's hard to determine where they come from but we do know that it's not from this system we also know that there is a chain of command within the cat as the archon who is the main bad guy of the game is just the leader of this task force there are likely other archons and other systems with higher ups existing elsewhere in Andromeda it's unclear what this chain of command is though as like I said the archon is as high as we go in this game in regards to the Helios cluster the cat arrived here around 75 years ago and immediately began fighting the angara since their main goal is the the exaltation of all species the reason they do this exultation ritual is that they're unable to create cat naturally so this is their only method of reproduction this is likely due to the species stagnating over time since they not only exalt beings to create Marquette but also study each species involved in the process so they could take their best traits later in the game we'll raid the archon ship and we'll find some audio logs that are about the Milky Way races and what their best traits are as you would expect the archon took a liking to the krogan's tough physique but he's also quite fond of the asari melding process as it could be an alternative method of reproduction for them he also likes the turgans for their militaristic determination which he thinks could help with obedience the solarion's ability to think walk and talk fast allowing the cat to multitask and as always humans continue to annoy everyone in the Galaxy since their DNA is so diverse it's hard to isolate one specific trait as such the archon determines that only to find a specific Champion amongst the humans in order to get their best traits likely meaning Rider similar to the Reapers we know that they have done this ritual to other species but it's unclear what species specifically and how long they've been doing this since in in combat some of the cat have invisibility and they also have a few animals in their military that they don't seem to be of cat origin and are likely other alien species that they have exalted on that ship we talked about previously is what the game calls a behemoth which is just an exalted Krogan while its form seems to be intentional the behemoth's mind is Warped thanks to the experiments as the Krogan blood rage is interfering with the cat DNA making it a Mindless being who attacks anything on site just from these details alone the cat do sound like interesting antagonists and they are for the most part but what bothers me is a lack of motivation and that this is just once again a rehashing of old ideas the cat taking people and turning them into cat are like the Reapers harvesting people and turning them into Reapers the only difference is their reasoning the Reapers did this so they could gain more numbers in order to fulfill their actual goal of preventing synthetic life from wiping out organic life the cats seem to be doing this because of reproduction but we have no idea what their population is if there are trillions of cat across the Galaxy then it's clear they're only doing this for Pure greed but if there are only a couple million then it's out of desperation the problem though is that we never know how how many there are and we don't even need a real number the archon can just have a one-off line that says the prevention of our own Extinction is what drives us to do what we do because as of right now they're just doing it for the sake of it and while I don't mind a bad guy for the sake of bad guy kind of antagonist Not only would I literally prefer anything but that but I really don't consider them to be of that kind of status the reapers are a large extremely Advanced beings that were very clearly above us in power they could easily have been our overlords due to their strength so if their reasoning was simply just to kill for the sake of killing then that would make sense in fact judging from a lot of forum posts about the game I know a lot of people actually wanted that since their motivation ruined a lot of the mystery the cat though are just kind of like any other race in the game they don't come with that sort of horror that the Reapers impose plus if we were to include gameplay in this discussion then the cat aren't that powerful at all we needed everyone on board to destroy the first Reaper we fought but the cat can easily be destroyed by Ryder's Squad the final mission does have a full-scale War occur which I'll talk about later but from the very beginning of the game up until the end it never felt like the cat were as powerful as the game made them out to be the game wants them to be like the Reapers in terms of power scaling but they're just as strong as the Geth and even this wouldn't even be a problem though if the cat weren't the main antagonist of the game like how the Geth were originally the main threats until we met Sovereign but once again as we'll see with the ending Andromeda gives us no indication that there is anything higher than the cats other than their chain of command this makes it seem like the cat are going to be the main bad guys of the series going forward after dealing with the cat inside the facility we can eventually find the Moshi who's being held hostage by the Cardinal once we defeat the Cardinal we're then given another Choice cutter closing in on the facility and inside this facility is thousands of angarans who haven't been exalted yet the main objective was to blow up the facility and get the most shy out but we can also rescue the angara who are still trapped here assuming we have enough time joining us in this discussion is also the Cardinal somehow since she's not dead but her speech also brings up a really good point about the story and one I wouldn't mind seeing explored the Cardinal claims that just like Rider she too was tainted until she was exalted and now realizes the gift that was bestowed upon her so the Cardinal used to be in angaran or some other species prior to becoming ket this complained to some story beat about how the higher-ups of the cat are brainwashing those beneath them in order to further their agenda and are just disguised against some sort of religious ritual now in all honesty the game gives you zero indication that this is the case and I'm definitely theorizing but I'm really trying to give the main quest the benefit of the doubt here as I feel like one small idea could change the entire story for the better just like the a AI this choice so far only affects the final mission if we destroy the facility then the Cardinal is killed but if we choose to save the angara then we have the option of sparing the Cardinal now I can't think of a single good reason to spare her but I'm definitely open to discussing it in the comments one thing I haven't mentioned though that may have confused you is why the Moshi wasn't exalted if the cat really wanted to break the angara exalting her should have been the top priority but the reason why is because the archon needs her the archon to his own detriment is obsessed with Remnant technology he wants to be able to use it to further the end goal of exaltation that's because he eventually became aware of a place called Meridian the true core of the vaults activating this Meridian would give someone control of all the vaults in the Helios cluster the archon plans to use it as a means of surrender basically either the people of the cluster surrender to exaltation or die due to the vaults ruining the planet's ecosystem the only problem though is that while he knows the location of Meridian he can't access it which is why he wanted to find Alec Ryder the only thing I'm a bit confused about though is how he's going to pull this off since through our knowledge all the vaults are disabled so turning them off would either do nothing since they're already off or we just take the current planet's ecosystem and turn them back to what they were originally were like how EOS had radiation hazards throughout the map before we activated the Vault the Codex does state that the vaults can also cause damage further than just being turned off like how habitat 7 had lightning striking the planet's surface but it was never explicitly stated that the Vault was the cause of the damage if I recall it was something about how the vaults and the cloud was in a feedback loop so it didn't seem like it was the actual Vault being the core problem that being said though if it is possible for the vaults to be damaged like this one then that would indeed be a problem regardless though his obsession with the remnant technology has created a rift amongst the cat as many of the cat both under his command and above him are questioning his intentions and whether or not he's doing this for the good of the cat people his second in command the Primus is even having doubts and will contact us at one point to strike a deal during a side mission so it's very clear that the remnant Tech is either located only within the Helios cluster or is across the Galaxy but the archon is the only one that we know of that actually cares about this technology so now the goal is to find the location of this meridian so we can stop the archon and also use the control center for our own purposes as while it has the chance to destroy all the planets thereon it can also heal all the planets allowing us to colonize the planets quicker to find Meridian though we're going to need to find the archon ship and to do that we're going to need to talk to someone that's willing to give us the information sadly the cat aren't going to talk but according to the Moshi effer has been withholding the fact that the Moshi was not just taken by the kept by pure chance but that nangaran Soldier gave her location to the cat this soldier's name is Van terev who's located on kadara originally an angaran planet that is now home to most of the Exiles from the Nexus but with this Mission finished Jal has officially joined the group and has now become our last companion so let's take a quick break from the main quest to talk about the crew just like with the previous games Andromeda has a list of companions we can talk and interact with but I'm reluctant to call this section companion since Andromeda places a bit more importance on the other crew of the ship compared to previous games the Normandy in the original trilogy was a large ship with an equally large crew the problem though is that many of the crew were unnamed Alliance soldiers that never said a word of dialogue The Tempest on the other hand is much smaller and thus has a smaller crew but now we can talk to every single person aboard the ship that's also why I want to call this section crew because just talking about the companions is basically getting us 90 of the way there anyway as the other four members that are not a part of our fire team are engineer Gail Brody medical doctor Lexi de pero pilot callow and scientist Dr suvi Anwar but since they aren't a part of the companions they'll have less screen time which is why I wanted to cover them now Dr Lexi de perro probably has the least to say on the Tempest but that's because she's committed to her job as the ship's medical doctor when asked she's able to give psych reports on the crew and can also give us opinions on the missions we have embarked on while not incredibly interesting she's nice to talk to and she also brings up a good point about romance in the previous games romance was quite obvious either you flirt with them or you can't in this game you can flirt with Lexi which will turn you down if she wants to keep things professional between you two it's a small change but the fact that we can flirt with her and get turned down is a nice addition as with the other games once you've flirted with them you knew that meant that they were an option in Andromeda though that may not be the case but this doesn't just extend to non-romanceable options but also gender specific options like Gail Brody Gil is only an option for male Rider if you attempt to flirt with him as Sarah he'll turn you down saying that guys like Liam are more his style as I said I'm a really big fan of this realistic portrayal of romance Gill is an engineer of the ship so he'll be in the back making sure things go smoothly however he does start to have some issues with callow Cal was not only the ship's pilot but also one of the few solarians that actually built the Tempest Gill and Calo Clash over this as callow claims that the Tempest was designed to do exactly what it's supposed to do bitco claims that the Tempest needs changing to fit with their current predicament these two will eventually go back and forth before eventually coming to a final confrontation where you get to decide who's in the right ultimately the choice doesn't really change much but it does go back to what I said before about the additional crew having more screen time in this entry kello also has something quite appealing about him that other companions have and that's what I'll call infinite dialogue basically you can ask callow about the ship and its many stories you can ask this as many times you want and even come back at different points in the story to hear more about them drak and Cora have similar dialogue as well but it's about their individual War Stories I really like this inclusion as it can deepen the connection between you and the companion you're talking to now saying its infinite dialogue is definitely a hyperbole but I never found any repetitive lines even after dozen stories so all of it for me was unique returning to Gill he and suvi are the only two of the four that have actual missions since they are romanceable admittedly though they are quite short Gill will occasionally talk about his friend Jill Jill is trying to reignite the first three population effort and is starting it back on EOS Gail is a bit conflicted though but having children of his own as like his dad he always does things without looking back that being said though everything seems to work out pretty okay as it's discovered that Jill is pregnant and wants Rider and Guild to be the kid's dads so Gil is able to get a happy relationship with the person he loves and is also able to care for a child as for suvi she intrigued me from the moment I met her and I promise you it's not entirely because of her voice although Ryder and I are definitely in agreeance on that I'm really glad you volunteered to join our crew by the way I am too you Galaxy and all I'm honored to be here no I mean I think you're cute and I like seeing you up here oh my goodness Ryder also the accent the accent is I mean it's not the only thing but uh okay I should just go over there to the piloting thing kill me what actually attracted me to her though was her interest in both science and Faith most people see it as a sort of either or kind of thing where you either believe God created us or you believe in something like the theory of evolution suvi believes in both science and in faith and has always had trouble explaining that to people her parents got her into the Sciences but she also found a deep appreciation for God since those two often conflict though she was struggling with her beliefs you can of course appreciate her commitment to her faith or poke fun at her for it but assuming you want to romance her you join her on the Nexus for some brief alone time both of these two are nice romance options but their quests are definitely not anything to write home about since there isn't a whole lot that happens I am glad though that BioWare took more time to make additional crew more important and also gave them genuine personalities as while the romances were quite short and we didn't get to talk to them all that much I did take a liking to them and I do hope the next Mass Effect game puts more emphasis on the other crew of the Normandy as for our actual companions let's start from the beginning like every mass of that game our first two companions are both human those two being Liam and Cora Liam falls into the same trap as many of the other human companions but Cora ended up surprising me Liam has a sort of basic human backstory except it's not like in previous games where they start in the alliance or something Liam hopped around different jobs and careers originally going to school for engineering before going into law enforcement he then eventually left that career to join hustle a multi-species crisis response team you can really piece together from your talks with Liam that he's supposed to be the comedic relief and doesn't really think before acting this is reflected in your few interactions with him on the ship Liam wants to know more about Joel and the angaran people so he decides the best way to do that is to swap armor and insult each other Liam had y'all learn our insults and what things offend us and then later Liam took his turn Liam's ideas are always Noble but the methods in which he does them are always bizarre which is a perfect way to explain his character this continues even into his loyalty mission where he learns that some angara that he was communicating with was captured he wanted to bridge the gap between the Milky Way and the angara by being more open with them so Liam decided to share a secret of Nexus data with his contact but now she's captured and her captor has that info this was incredibly stupid of him to do but once again his idea was Noble he was sick of the initiative being seen as The Outsiders and wanted to make Andromeda his home along with the rest of the initiative so he wanted to bridge that Gap but couldn't go through the proper channels which is why he took things into his own hands rescuing his contact verand is really where it becomes clear that he is supposed to be a comedic relief I'm just here blind we don't know where anyone is or how anything was and now we're fighting some [ __ ] who wants everyone chained it's like hitting Andromeda all over again a shield of it don't make this about the whole initiative we're here to help and why am I the one defending your plan I don't know I will not be ignored anymore see total [ __ ] once you finish his mission and rescue his contact though you can talk to Liam and discuss what happened look I'm not a huge fan of Liam I'd say he's probably the worst companion in this game but I did like that his character was built around this guy who's in way over his head trying to do things he believes are good but ends up failing at every step Liam is trying to take all the problems in Andromeda and put them on his own shoulders because it's a part of the Pathfinder's team he thinks every problem is his problem doing this Mission though screws his head on tight he then decides to play an event for the colonists of EOS and I gotta admit a game of soccer is a really good way to get people together the pitch is looking less than ideal given it's all covered in sand but people have played in much worse conditions this is also where you can lock in your romance with Liam and assuming you do the two of you will go into a really tall structure on EOS and jump off together Liam asks you before this mission to make a modified jump jet with some specific schematics and it's discovered that those changes make the air form in the shape of a heart as corny as that is not only does this fit Liam perfectly it is admittedly kinda cute this Mission though is also when drama is next and probably biggest change when it comes to Companions and that's romance missions Romance is not really something we've mentioned much in the series because we really never needed to we all know what happens during a romance scene with Andromeda though romance is more than just a simple sex scene while Leah may not be a great example the other companions are such as vetro who will try to cook dinner for Ryder but realizes she's not that great at it or Joel who takes the two to a secluded hot spring on Aya usually the cast would just be called up to the Captain's Quarters and then they further their relationship in Andromeda the crew is actively going out of their way to do stuff for you so they can show how much they care about you and your relationship together which is really sweet getting back to our order we can now move on to Cora she likes suvi did a really good job of attracting me to her but in this instance it was because of her gameplay when of course skill trees is asari Commando which confused me since she's not an asari thankfully she clears this up and says that her biotics manifested at a young age but since humans don't really have a protocol for these things except the biotic camps like Kaden went to she was treated much differently from her peers people were also nervous to be around her since she was not only powerful but unstable since she had no idea how to control her powers the alliance then sent her to a cross-species initiative and eventually trained as a Huntress anthesia the asari Homeworld if the backstory of a human being an asari Huntress doesn't interest you in the slightest then good luck as this is korra's entire personality it's definitely unique and I was quite fond of her backstory but I don't think there was a single conversation where she doesn't mention something about the asari even her loyalty mission is dedicated to them as she wants us to find the asari arc that went missing one thing I did like about core though is that initially she doesn't like us assuming Alec Ryder followed the chain of command Cora was actually supposed to be the Pathfinder but since we took that position she feels cheated out of the opportunity even questioning whether or not we're worthy to hold that title this may also be why her dedicated spot on the Nexus is the Pathfinder's office when visiting the Nexus we can find the crew and talk to them and Cora's always here in a place that's only supposed to be for other Pathfinders so I'm wondering if this is BioWare showing us that Cora still believes that she should be a Pathfinder and thus thinks that she belongs in the Pathfinder headquarters as for why Cora joined the initiative well unlike Liam she wasn't exactly raring to go she was actually told by her mentor to leave and that the initiative suited her better it's unclear whether her Mentor harbertson Prejudice regarding a human being an asari Commando or if she genuinely meant well but it definitely her Korra a lot thankfully Alec Ryder though saw her potential and gave her a chance that's why she's so hurt about the Pathfinder role because she looks up to Alec as he saw something in her that no one else did and having him not only die but have her Destin roll slip through her fingers due to us being related to Alec really affects her relationship with us after some time though core does eventually come around to realize that we are the best person for the job which is mostly attributed to us stopping the archon but also helping her find the asari arc after quite a lot of waiting researching and talking Cora will eventually find the location of the Ark and want us to save them this is also where I started to get a bit annoyed at her as almost all her dialogue made me cringe when she was speaking about the asari manuals and also how she had to constantly mention that she knows the asari lingo Ryder I hadn't heard you with the asari Pathfinder the last we knew ma'am matriarch ashara was Pathfinder with you acting as her tiamna I served with the sorry Commandos ma'am memorized all your battle manuals pray the power will be enough for FTL I just vdaria I served as a Huntress remember cyrissa's manuals breathe purpose action breathe okay it's the cat the Daria can't face them she's not a Huntress without the trust of her TEAM stands alone she is a tree in the desert bearing only Defiance my own words Lieutenant they're true ma'am it honestly just became way too much for me I went from cringing to just straight up laughing at that last line because I couldn't believe how much bio were committed to this bit I do like Cora's backstory because it is a unique twist that we haven't seen before in a human companion especially since we've already had a few biotic humans already but having it be her whole personality sometimes went a bit over the line the reason she said that last line though is because it's learned that cyrissa got the original asari Pathfinder killed by disobeying her the Pathfinder at the time was matriarch ishara she was attempting to hold her ground and by code sarisa is supposed to defend her since she was her bodyguard cerissa refused though and determined that the cap module she found would help the asari defeat the cat she then abandoned her post in order to make sure the module was Secure so the final choice is deciding whether or not cyrissa was in the right to do so if you believe that she's not fit to be Pathfinder then vaderia the rookie we met earlier becomes the new Pathfinder while the specific person has no impact on the story having the asari Pathfinder at all does so not doing this Mission changes one part of the final mission once you complete her loyalty Mission though Coral will also ask you to join her on EOS as she has a surprise you then learn that Korra has some seeds that she wants to plant with the hope that one day they'll Blossom on EOS her quarters are in the bio room which is covered in planned so it's no secret that she wants to start a garden the two of you can then kiss and make the relationship a bit more than just being friends of course romance Mission also surprised me because we're actually given the option to take things slow Korra claims that there's a problem in the Captain's Quarters and that we should check it out alone obviously this is just an excuse for her and Rider to have some alone time and we'll do what couples do behind closed doors clearly I'm not going going to show any of it because YouTube would have a Fit Plus Andromeda shows a hell of a lot more than I expected regardless that's not the point because instead of doing the deed you can just deny her and so that you don't really want to go further just yet that doesn't mean you're breaking up or anything it's just that you don't want to have sex just yet quite a few of the companions have this option and the romance will change because of this instead of doing the deed both Korra and Ryder stargaze and his quarters it's a really welcome change for those who aren't into having intercourse or for those who want to take things slow there is a chance that you like me will never actually use this option but it's the thought that counts adding more choices is something I'm never going to complain about even if I wouldn't choose those options myself after Liam and Cora though the next three that we meet are Vetra PB and Drac Vetra is a female Tyrion born on Paladin but wasn't really recognized as a part of the culture as she never enlisted in boot camp when she was old enough as we know turians are all about discipline and Military so going against that can have a huge impact on their social life to make matters worse veterans home life was just as depressing her mother only cared about her status in the military and her father was a shady businessman that ultimately left the family when she was young her only true friend was her younger sister Sid before he left though their father took the pair away before leaving them to fend for themselves a few years later this really hardened Vetra and turned her into the woman she is today as the older sister she endured lots of hardship and had to raise Sid on her own despite being only a few years older than her eventually she ran some missions with a Merc group and ended up getting caught by their owner they were stealing from who just so happened to be cash as punishment for stealing veter worked for cash in exchange for her freedom and through that the two developed a mutual friendship this friendship is what led to Vetra and Sid joining the initiative because cash referred them to Nexus command the two then accepted the idea since they wanted to leave everything that happened back then behind just in case it ever caught up with them despite that though vetro is on our ship and not on the Nexus so what gives Liam and Cora were already a part of the Pathfinder team so they were going to be on the ship regardless Vetra willingly came along though that's because Vetra believes she can be of use to us she knows the crew knows the ship and is very good at holding her own after some time vetcher will come to Ryder with an issue though Sid has some information she wants to share which is that some settlers went missing and she wants us to find them Vetra is not convinced though since when asked if the intel was reliable Sid just replies yes she doesn't even bother to explain where she got it from or from who once we arrive at the nav point we realize that Sid was telling the truth but it's too late as the team falls into a trap they like the settlers are now trapped and can't escape the person kidnapping these people is a person named Meriwether who claims to know Vetra this is because Sid was playing the part of Vetra so that she could use her contacts and do some good the mission is honestly quite boring and I wasn't really a huge fan of it but the narrative implications make the whole story of Vetra a lot more compelling Vetra has been trying to raise Sid to be the best that she can be but to do that she needed to do some shady things in order to survive Sid just being a child saw this and was awestruck because she looked up to her sister and wanted to do what she did but veteran wouldn't allow it since she knows the dangers that come from her job but of course you know how this stuff goes the more you're told not to do something the more you want to do it which is why Sid took it upon herself to rescue these people and do things that her sister did this would ultimately catch up to her though with this Mission as she has quite the brush with death before veteran Rider save her Sid and Vetter then get into an argument about the whole ordeal and even though she was moments away from Death Sid chalks it up as a win and actually she wants to continue doing this despite Vetra vehemently disagreeing eventually though you and Vetra can also Advance your relationship by going rock climbing together afterward she'll then surprise you with a steak dinner but it's not too great she apologizes for ruining the moments but Ryder clearly doesn't care and just wants to spend time with her Veteran's attitude completely changes throughout the course of these missions Vetra talks about wanting to be an honest person and doesn't want to be an [ __ ] to people anymore anyone in her situation would want the same if you lived your whole childhood running from people and stealing equipment for scraps all you would want is a life of peace and as her partner you can not only show her the beauty of that life but also be the one to give it to her while veteran may want a different life drak is more than content with his drak is atypical Krogan in regards to his personality but I like the way they implemented this into the game Draco like all Crogan talks about killing fighting and shooting but unlike someone like dagger Reeve where it's overplayed in Bland her Dracut makes sense Drac is over one thousand years old he remembers fighting in the Racine Wars and was there when the genophage was first deployed on the Krogan colonies being stuck in his ways doesn't even begin to describe him fighting for a long time inevitably come with scars and wounds and just like before that doesn't even begin to describe it there is a good chance that Drax body is more synthetic than organic his arm leg hip internal organs and even his spine are held together by implants and wiring he's basically on death's door but somehow this old man is still kicking but he wasn't always this chipper about his life oftentimes the implants he was given wouldn't sink well so he wasn't able to use them so while he would wait for new ones to come in he was in intense pain it dragged him into some pretty dark places and he almost felt like giving up until one of the shaman and his clan gave him a base Krogan the shaman claimed that the girl was going to die and was useless to the clan but drak was determined to prove them wrong so he raised her as his granddaughter until she was able to live on her own the best part is we've already met his granddaughter it's cash going from faded to die to the board of directors on the Nexus is definitely something to be proud of and I'm sure drak feels the same way similar to callow draken shares some stories with us most of which are from his 1000 years of combat experience and as you would expect the retreat to Listen to As for his loyalty Mission drack wants us to locate a guy named spender on the Nexus as it seems like he's been conducting some shady business we get a look at the security footage but not much is able to be deciphered minus a few shots of kedara Ryder and crew then learn that spender has been smuggling things off the Nexus that he can deliver them to the Exiles when they investigate his room and while we don't find much a data pack gives us a teaser of the events to come because after enough time Drac will have some urgent news for Ryder Jack wants us to look into the seed Vault that was stolen from one of the Krogan transports this transport also happened to have a Krogan named vorn on it who's a a botanist and was tasked with making sure these seed vaults operate properly but now he and the Vault are gone Krogan children need these plants in order to survive so this isn't about Drac anymore it's about the survival of the Krogan Dragon Rider then tracked the Smugglers to a remote base and managed to save voran and the Vault while this is going on they learned that the head Smuggler is named arone and Drac realizes that spender is involved again we also get a chance to talk with vorn and realize that he's taking a liking to Kesh something a Drac is taken aback by once the team kills our own and saves default track has a chat with Ryder and mentions how he thinks his time is up the seed vault is going to help new Krogan who are going to have a new future and it's something Jack thinks he shouldn't be a part of he thinks of himself as a relic of the past something that shouldn't be in the present but we can tell him that while he's getting old he can still help those Krogan children enjoy their new life which is something he agrees with afterward though we can meet him on the Nexus and arrest spender he's then arrested or considered an exile whatever you prefer and dracon you celebrate by having a bar fight on kadara playing some Krogan games and even finding out that cash is pregnant Drac is easily my favorite companion in the game he has such a unique personality and backstory that set him apart from the rest of the crew and listening to his past was always something I welcomed whereas Aid sort of embodied that Uncle that told you stories about his past during family gatherings Drac is the grandpa that fought in the old world wars and could ramble on for days about the years he served and has these scars to prove it I really took a liking to him and if there's a sequel I would love to see where his story goes been coming hi PB is the other companion we meet on EOS and as I said before an extroverted Liara is the perfect description for her we first meet her while learning about the vaults and she joins us for that entire Mission she then just like Liara realizes that if they join the protagonist they'll be able to find out more about the species they are studying like all companions each of the crew picks a specific place to hunker down but instead of the med Bay or storage room PB chooses the Escape pod trust is something she struggles with she's always looking for Escape Routes in any situation even if it's as something as mundane as hanging out at the bar it becomes pretty clear though that PB has no intention of staying she says that while the Escape pod doesn't feel like home that's what she likes about it since she doesn't want to have a home BB is willing to help us on our mission but she's really only here because of the remnant during her introductory Mission she'll find a Remnant court and wants to uncover its secrets for a personal project of hers this project is revealed to be Pock a Remnant robot that she programmed to be her buddy she also created one for us called zap that we can use in combat while the two are enjoying the project they are interrupted by Kalinda pb's ex-girlfriend Kalinda seems hostile and will eventually try to sabotage PB but for now we're able to Defuse The Situation after some time PB will start to cause some problems she's starting to feel trapped and stressed out since she's usually not in one place for very long but since she's a part of the crew she's been on the Tempest for a while to cool herself off she usually floats in zero g Chambers so that all that stress can go away but there isn't one on the ship until Sam recommends making the Escape pod into a zero g chamber she happily agrees that the idea and is able to cool off for a bit Ryder can then join her and do more than cooling off and while this does seem quite fast PB is a very flirtatious butterfly plus he says this is simply just a fling no strings attached later on in the game is where we get her loyalty Mission and as you would expect it involves Kalinda PB wants us to find these Remnant pieces across the various planets but while doing these missions she realizes that someone is catching on to what they're doing they learn that it's some Krogan called krannon 2 is tracking them before realizing that he works for Kalinda Calo then calls Ryder and says that someone snuck onto the ship and stole Puck obviously this was Kalinda eventually they'll get parked back but unbeknownst to them Kalinda put a tracker on the bot in case PB finds something like an extremely valuable piece of Remnant technology PB then wants us to go with her to retrieve this Tech but we have to battle through kalinda's forces since she's also here for that technology as well the two then get into an altercation and we have to choose between saving Kalinda but losing the tech or killing her and getting what we came here for either option is viable for completing the mission so it's entirely up to you but I think saving her is the right option as PB believes that people dying over this piece of tech is not worth it as for her romance Mission well it's extremely adorable as she starts to realize that she wants those strings attached as long as it's with us but she can't say it in person so she has Pock play a pre-recorded message while she runs out of the room she then calls a team meeting and apologizes for being so distant and decides that she wants to stay with the team all of them except her offer even though they already did that the moment she joined which makes her feel more comfortable with the whole situation we can also accept her love invitation which sees the two spend some time alone together in Ryder's quarters I found this interaction really sweet as PB the girl who never wanted a home says that she finally found her home in Ryder our final companion is jaw as we know Joel is an angara and as such is able to tell us a bit about the angaran people which is what we talked about earlier jaw really goes through it during the course of this game as his people are always fighting in Wars then he eventually learns that the cat he's been fighting were originally his people Joel is very open about his emotions regarding everything he experiences which gives Rider a chance to be open with him as well jaw is initially quite reserved as at the time he's just here to serve a writer and the crews that he can give his thoughts to ephra but over time he starts to see the crew as a family which makes him feel more at home jaw at one point even opts to make gifts for the group he was going to give Liam his cape and even write a poem for Vetra at one point we asked Joel about himself and the topic of school comes up jaw struggles with his own personal identity because he really doesn't know what he wants to do in life this is made twice as hard by the fact that Angar and families are quite large so jaw Hears A lot of opinions about what he should be Jal also explains how his family comes from a respected lineage of people all of whom have done great things in their life yet Joel doesn't know what to do he knows that he wants to do something because he wants to not because someone told him to but he doesn't know what that thing is yet eventually jaw has writer help him with a problem regarding the rokar as we talked about earlier the rokar are a xenophobic faction dedicated to killing anything that isn't angara the leader of the group is named axul he spent some time in a cat labor camp and even though he managed to escape a year after this experience changed him he swore to save the angaran people by killing anything that wasn't them which is what birthed the rokar Axel's mindset is clearly tainted by this experience and his ideals have had an effect on millions of angarans as the rokar are a large faction Joel eventually gets some more troubling news about axol and it's on that he and The Rock are plan to attack EOS Ryder manages to fend them off with ease with clear that Axel is gunning for him and it's only a matter of time until they meet again Joel after a few missions will then learn that Axel plans to blow up the forge on havarl this is an ancestral birthplace for the angara and blowing this up will make it seem like the initiative did this and start another War upon entering the facility we run into a few rokar members who just so happen to be Jaws relatives two of them are very gung-ho by joining the rokar with the other being a bit more skeptical jal's sister then takes the opportunity to shoot the skeptical relative before realizing she made a mistake as the group pushes into the facility they'll eventually catch up with the relatives and they'll admit that they made a mistake and don't want to be in the rocar if it means going against family axol then arrives just in time to confront us and this is where we're given the choice of shooting Axel or not shooting will give him what he wants EXO wants to become a martyr for the angaran people which means more angara will enlist letting him do as he pleases though sees him shooting jaw he never wanted to kill him but he was hoping to provoke Rider into stopping him before it happened but by not doing anything we publicly shame Axel in front of his men if we do end up letting Axel live he'll email us later saying that while he may never see non-angarans as people he does realize that he made a mistake as shooting jaw like fellow angaran goes against what his original goals were eventually after talking with his family and returning to the ship job will let us know that he's been promoted within the resistance and given his own command this is something that jaw wanted but he ends up denying the position being with Ryder has allowed him to break free of expectations and become a better person which is something he wants more this then leads into Jaws romance where the two go to meet Jaws family as well as confess their love for each other assuming you want to if you do then draw the router go to a remote part of Ayah that has a hot spring and the two relax until the following morning Joel's Quest was fantastic and it really shows How Deeply the cat wounded the angara they're not only Dying by the thousands every day but they're causing infighting amongst their own species the cat ever ruined so much of the angaran culture and history and all they want is for them to stop but the only way to do that is to fight and fighting can be hard especially when you're constantly losing so you lash out and take it out on someone just to feel relief honestly I liked all the quests and all the characters aboard the Tempest even the characters I wasn't too fond of like Liam had their memorable moments I really like the themes that made up each character's missions as each one was something personal whether that be as stuck in his ways old man who feels like his time has come and gone a sister who had to grow up fast to make sure her younger sister had a life that wasn't like hers or a guy who put all the problems of the world on his back as he felt like he needed to all of them had their issues that needed to be dealt with and going through them was a blast and easily my favorite part of the game that being said though Andromeda drops the ball in one way that is detrimental to this story and that's the removal of the ability screen every mass of that game has a wheel of abilities that include both you and your companions abilities Andromeda completely does away with this system which is baffling if any game should have had it it should have been Andromeda because the game introduces primers and detonators some of the abilities can Prime and detonate upon activation for example Singularity a classic biotic skill primes the enemies for damage by tossing them around the charge skill is a Detonator as this does actual damage using a Detonator on an enemy who is primed causes a combo to occur which results in a specific explosion depending on the ability used but since we can't control our companions abilities all the combos basically come from us other than that it's just sheer luck while this is more of a gameplay critique this has some drastic consequences for the story using these characters in combat allows us to deepen our relationship with them I'm sure right now you can think of one character from the series and tell me what their abilities are that's because you use them enough to remember them Garris for example in Mass Effect 2 I believe has concussive shot and overload with his loyalty Mission ability being armor-piercing rounds Kasumi also has that one ability where she goes invisible and does some stealth attacks which I think is called Shadow strike that wasn't even something I wrote In The Script I just remembered that off the top of my head on the flip side though I can't recall a single ability or even weapon that the companions have other than korra's charge and drag shotgun you're allowed to upgrade your companions abilities and skill trees like the previous games but since you can't use their abilities what's the point of customizing it to your liking this is a very integral part of the series that is just gone and while I did ultimately enjoy their missions I never felt that same deep connection I had with the trilogy's crew and this isn't even due to the fact that they had multiple games to star in many people love Garris from the get-go same as me and I vividly remember his abilities as I always used him and by using him in my fire team we grow a deeper connection as I said I really did like the cast despite that glaring issue and if you remember from the Mass Effect 2 video I also said well I love the story of the trilogy what initially drew me to the Mass Effect series was its unique characters all of whom had incredible personalities and wonderful missions and while Andromeda doesn't allow you to fight with them in a cohesive matter I did like talking with them I grew to like this new cast a lot and if this game has a sequel in the future I would love to see how all of them evolve over the course of the story returning back to the main quest we were told by ephra and the Moshi to seek out ten berev he was key in helping the archon kidnap the Moshi who needed her to access Meridian finding the archon and his ship will hopefully mean that we can find Meridian as well ephra tells us that this 10 varev fella is on kedara which is home to most of the Exiles from the Nexus and leading them is Sloan Kelly When we arrive on kadara we meet with one of the angaran contacts named Reyes he said he'll help us out just in case things go south at the meeting with Sloane so we then meet with Sloane and she does well whatever this is yeah Andromeda is quite the buggy game it's not game breaking buggy where it's soft locked my game or remove some of my progress but it's the little things like when Liam shots to the sky during his loyalty Mission there was also the time I fell off the map while running away from the remnant Vault and I respawned in my car despite that not being possible in any capacity I also glitched my HUD by skipping through dialogue too fast while doing side content and my personal favorite completely shattering Rider's body as I said and draw wasn't game breaking buggy at least not by my definition anyway but there were a lot more bugs than I thought there would be thanks to Sloane asserting her dominance over me by merging with the floor I completely fumbled the meeting so she was unwilling to help us meaning I had to go through Reyes instead this really doesn't matter though because you still end up meeting Venta rev anyway it's just whether or not you go through the front or the back door after being honest with him venterev tells us that he got his orders from a cat transponder and he thinks that Ryder can take it and tune its frequencies that he can find out where the order came from we then travel around kadara and find the transponder and come back to the Tempest we then give the transponder to gill who triangulates the archon's location after entering the system we discovered that not only were we correct and this is indeed the archon ship but that he also has the solarion arc Tethered to him we then pick our fire team and land on the ark it seems like the solarians are losing this battle but they are and always have been quite crafty when backed against the wall the team aboard the ship decided to swap the Pathfinder with another Resident so the cat thought they killed the solarium Pathfinder when she's actually been in crime with the whole time it's incredibly smart and was easy enough for us to figure out so we can get her back in the fight the two Pathfinders though will have to split up as they have two different goals the solarium Pathfinder Reika is trying to rescue the rest of her crew while we're here to find the archon and hopefully find Meridian as well on the way though the group gets trapped by The archon Who takes a sample of Rider's blood in hopes of finding out why Ryder is so proficient rather than ask Sam how to get out who says that the containment field only affects living beings zofrada were to temporarily die he could escape the containment field as you would expect he is not particularly interested in dying on the small chance that Sam fails but there doesn't seem to be any other option so Sam stops his heart and luckily revives him this did not come without consequences though as now Sam is more deeply connected to Rider via the implant which will play out later now that we are out we can continue our hunt for the archon's office if you want to you can also take the time to look around and listen to audio logs regarding what the archon is up to this is where you'll learn those details about the Milky Way and what their best traits are according to the archon thankfully the office is right next door and one of the artifacts in his room houses the coordinates for Meridian the archon will then release one of his specimens called the Behemoth that we will have to defeat if you recall our earlier conversation then you'll know this is a modified Krogan as for why there are Krogan here when the archon captured a solarian ship will these Krogan seem to be the scouts that drak lost at one point after leaving the Nexus the game then lets you experience this fight so the choice right after has more impact Pathfinder Reika is about to be overrun and needs our help but if we help her we won't have enough of time to save the Krogan Scouts the consequences for this are either more behemoths in the final mission thanks to us leaving them here or the solarians are down a Pathfinder the only issue though is that just like the asari Pathfinder the original one gets replaced by someone anyway there is definitely a discussion to be had regarding whether or not we're okay with someone who is possibly inexperienced replacing the already familiar Pathfinder but in terms of actual tangible consequences I didn't notice anything different when I saved Reika regardless of who you rescue though Ryder and Company return to the Nexus we learned though that the implant did a bit more than just take a blood sample as it also allowed the archon to appear into writer's memories something that will also have an effect later on with the destination marked we can now head to Meridian but a few of the crew ask us to go visit some new planets which are called elidin and h-047c similar to havarl and vold these are just put here so that the player can have a reason to explore these as the missions aren't long in fact I'd argue there not even missions whereas a viral involved made you at least complete one Quest all you need to do here is land and then go back to the Tempest and the mission is complete I didn't mind how varal involved as I felt like they Blended in with the main content quite well but this doesn't elidin h047c and even kadara provides zero substance to the story the main quest just had you go here because the devs wanted you to explore the rest of the planet you could easily put that mission with event to Rev on a different planet and it changes nothing pavaral and vold are and guard planets and at that point in the story we are trying to earn their favor so it made sense to go here h047c is also completely useless because it's not even one of the five planets we can actually set up outposts for you can clear the entire planet in about an hour and the visual design is lacking and seeing as I'm already rambling about the side content and we're about to approach the point of no return anyway might as well talk about what there is to do when not doing the main quest here in Andromeda site content in Mass Effect Andromeda depending on what we're talking about is honestly quite good the major one being Planetary Exploration as Pathfinder we're tasked with making planets habitable and also building outposts what we did on EOS is basically what we'll be doing on other planets activate the monoliths activate the Vault then build an outpost besides that though there are a ton of other things we can do on the planets if you played any open world game like the most recent God of Wars any Ubisoft game in the past decade and a dozen of other examples I could probably use then you know how this works when comparing and drama to side content to other games like the ones we just mentioned not much is different but in terms of Mass Effect this is the best one we've seen so far that being said though there are a couple things I'm not too happy with the two biggest problems with this system is that some of the maps are just too big and there's no sense of mystery on a lot of these planets the two things Mass Effect 1 Excel that but that the planets ever felt like they overstayed their welcome and that they gave off this sense of loneliness the feeling that we were possibly the only people on this planet at the time and Andromeda though doesn't have this some of the maps are too big for their own good a perfect example is once again h047c which is literally just a giant rock and elidin which while pretty has about 80 percent of its area covered in nothing but sand this honestly wouldn't even be a problem on its own if there was something to explore there but more often than not you'll be driving around for quite a while without anything catching her eye the planets are already big as is so making them bigger and not adding any content there is very confusing to me the planets are also covered in NPCs removing the sense of loneliness Mass Effect 1 instilled even though we aren't a completely new Galaxy with dozens of undocumented planets to explore people have already made it their home EOS is the only planet that genuinely fits all the criteria for a perfect Planet what a coincidence that it's the first one we explore almost like that was intentional it started to feel like the quality was dropping every time I explored a new planet I think the team wanted to make the maps bigger because of the Nomad this game's version of the Mako but doing so also spaced out the content making most of the map feel Barren that's not to say that the planets don't have any mystery to them but most if not all of it is already known to the player the most unique part about Andromeda is the introduction of the remnant vaults but the vaults all look the same minus a few level design changes so once you've seen one you've seen them all and while this next example does eventually get overplayed a bit its introduction was nothing short of brilliant there's a side mission on EOS that has us looking into the planet's seismic activity it seems like a routine fetch Quest until we find the culprit which is this giant Remnant creature I was blown away when I first saw this and I still haven't forgotten that moment now these Remnant creatures do return on elidin volbe and the final mission so its reveal isn't as interesting anymore but that first interaction was incredible Andromeda has the chance to capitalize on all this mystery we're in a completely new Galaxy so we're unaware where the line actually stops which means the design team can go as far as they want with creating as many strange things as possible like these tall Remnant beings but 95 of the planets are nothing special I will applaud the team though for at least making the repetitive content different on each planet go into each monolith completing a Sudoku puzzle and then activating the Vault are extremely tedious on their own imagine having to do that five different times thankfully a few of the planets change things up a bit such as avaro which only has one monolith instead of three but we have to climb this hidden sanctuary in order to do so or hawan kadara before we place an outpost we have to handle the Rivalry between Sloane and the infamous charlatan while still tedious in some ways I at least appreciated the fact that I didn't have to do the same thing over and over again five different times doing these vaults also gives the player a sense of genuine progression on EOS there's a location to the Northeast that I needed to visit as a part of a side mission but when I entered the area the radiation was a level 3 which is practically lethal at that stage once the Vault was active though that place went to level 1 so and I was able to walk there without being killed this happens on all the planets that have some amount of Hazards to them the only issue is that level 3 is really the only damaging level levels one and two can still kill you but takes a long time so it's only areas that have extremely high levels of danger where this would be noticeable which sadly isn't a lot furthermore I am a bit disappointed that we're not allowed to pick our outposts like we did back on EOS all the outposts on the other planets all come predetermined kind of ruins the point of that choice yeah was the first Outpost but still one Outpost isn't going to save the initiative we need all of them and being able to only choose the function of one of them is strange besides exploring planets you can also complete a ton of different missions the bulk of these are the Loyalty missions we discussed in the crew section but the rest are considered helious assignments or tasks Andromeda does a really good job at categorizing these as each type of quest is placed in a specific folder and quests like the assignments have subfolders depending on what planet the mission is located on coming off Mass Effect 3 this was a godsend and made completing missions so much easier the two most important Ally missions besides the ones relating to our crew are the ones with the Primus and the Tyrion Arc these are multi-step quests but basically the premise is that you find some Escape pods on Paladin and then eventually find her way to the Taurean Arc avatus Ricks was the next in line for this role but since the current Pathfinder is now dead he has the chance to take up that role you can either tell him he should or let him decide if he decides on his own though he chooses not to take up the position whereas the asari and solarian missions had backup Pathfinders just in case the current one died in the terrium one it's either avatus or no one as for the other Mission it basically has us teaming up with the Primus the archon second in command I mentioned earlier how the archon was losing support and the Primus is one of those people she's enjoying our side nor does she agree with our ideals but she helps us anyway because getting the archon out will allow the cat to focus on their actual goals all the Primus ends up doing is giving us a kill code for her ship she says that eventually she'll be called upon by the archon to kill us but if her ship is disabled she won't be able to this is basically an enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of relationship because the archon dying proves beneficial to both parties the Primus will be the new leader of the catch and then can bring the cat back in line to focus on their original goal and we can stop the archon from trying to use already in to exalt our species overall Mass Effect Andromeda side content isn't too bad I found the exploration to be fun at first but it was really starting to become a drag after spending hours on one planet just doing tedious tasks I was a big fan though of some of the choices not being delegated to the main quest it creates more depth and also Awards players for going out of their way to do more content now once again the actual outcomes of these choices are small as we'll soon see but I'm glad that there was at least choices at All My Hope Is that this version of the side content stays in the next Mass Effect game BioWare really has something gray here now that we know it's possible to create that Planetary Exploration we've been wanting since Mass Effect 1. I think the core idea of this game's side content is good if the team irons out some of the Kinks we might have the perfect version of this in a sequel now that everything has been discussed we can now return to the main quest and we're roughly at the point of no return since Ryder and the crew have the coordinates to Meridian we can now make our way over there the board of directors though is not happy with our plan and refuses to help us so we have to conspire with some of the other Pathfinders the group decides that if they use this new tech they just made called ghost storm it could confuse the cat's radar sensors allowing them a chance to land on Meridian before things get ugly the Pathfinders though won't be joining us despite the fact that 90 of this was their own plan likely because they're violating a direct order by doing this once we have arrived though we have to actually activate Meridian to do this we have to interface with these two control panels and we discover a lot of important details firstly is that Meridian is not the name of this place Meridian is a completely different structure this places the command center that was separated from Meridian the reason these two objects were separated was because of the Scourge The Scourge is then learned to be a man-made explosion due to something caused by the Jardin and the Jardin are an ancient race of beings that created the remnant the monoliths Meridian and apparently the angara as there is a random angaran in a test chamber additional details are unknown at this time but that is quite a lot to unpack the Jordan could possibly be the reason as to why the angara have very little knowledge of their culture since they were created by the Jardin for his specific purpose once again what that purpose is is also unknown this may also explain the AI unvold which could have been created to watch over them I'm also glad that the scourge got some mention as its appearance in the story has definitely been lacking as of late but once again all we know is that it was an explosion that created it I have some thoughts on this info but we'll have to discuss this in tandem with the final mission which thankfully is about to start soon writer and the crew then have to use some Scourge data that is found throughout the system and then return to the command center in order to find meridian's actual location once that info is discovered the archon then disables Sam as while we were doing this he was attacking the Hyperion the reason he is here is because he realizes Sam is the key to activating the remnant Tech not because Sam has a different purpose than intended but as we'll eventually see if Rudder touches it himself he starts to feel pain Zayn was able to do this without hurting him so the archon is rating the hyperion to take Sarah since she also has a Sam implant in her I find it a little odd that the archon is having no issues with this considering the Hyperion is attached to the Nexus at the moment so there should be an entire fleet of people shooting at him but anyway since Sam is disabled and Sam is deeply connected to writer Ryder collapses we then have to play as Sarah for a bit and reset Sam to my surprise once again Sarah actually manages to live through this in fact she lives long enough to see the credits which is fine I definitely didn't think she would but my question is then why is she barely in this game I figure the cryo incident was used as a way to remove the rider you didn't pick from the game but seeing as she's a part of the story why was she absent for 95 percent of it the only reason that comes to mind is that they would have had to make twice as many lines for these characters since they are technically Main and Side characters which means even more money would have to go to voice acting which they may have not had still if that was the issue why not just kill her off then once she succeeds though Scott is revived and can now walk now that the archon has taken the ark the team is running out of options until Ryder finds a control panel which when activated allows him to control some remnant forces I cannot stress enough how stupid this whole scene is not only is the control panel just out in the open it's conveniently right next to where they landed I have never seen a more obvious deus ex machina in my whole life it's as if the writers just practically gave up at this point but with some of the remnant on their side the team realizes that those forces combine with their allies are enough to fight the archon this then leads into a large-scale war it's very similar to the ending of Mass Effect 3 but unlike that game we actually get to see our choices ephra the Moshi sloaner Reyes the Pathfinders Jaws family vorn Kalinda Drax Scouts and the AI from vold all show up depending on our choices this mission is basically one long combat Arena and at each section a new person may join the team now that doesn't mean we're gonna have a dozen people by the end they just get swapped out for the next group basically all these people serve the same purpose making their current fight easier since there's more people to help their inclusion was such an amazing decision and made the choices feel like they had actual weight to them now am I happy that this is the only change these choices brought to the table absolutely not but that's to be expected I've tried to find some info on this but I've come up with nothing I've been trying to figure out whether or not Andromeda was meant to be a Trilogy it's very clear that the next Mass Effect game will be in the Milky Way and given andromeda's mixed reception it seems like a sequel is out of the question these choices would have probably had more impact in a sequel but since there's only one game at the moment we aren't 100 sure that's the case it's really hard to claim that andromeda's choices suck because if these are considered bad Mass Effect 1 is the worst game in the series think about it what choices actually had outcomes Mass Effect 1 had the rachni Queen the colonists on Pharos Rex's Fate Ashley vs Kaden the council and the human Ambassador only Rex and then Ashley or Kaden were the only ones that actually had outcomes to them the council's decision does have an immediate change but has not until Mass Effect 3 where that really comes into play same with the Ambassador and the rachni queen Mass Effect 1 barely has any outcomes but the reason this didn't bother me is because I knew they'd be touched upon later Mass Effect 1 was just planting the seed with Andromeda that's harder to determine even though those choices didn't have an impact then most people probably assume that the choice with the rachni queen would come back in the future in Andromeda I could only see the AI the leader of kedara and maybe the Cardinal be touched upon later there is also another Choice after the credits end as well which does fall into this category but that's all I can think of I'm sure BioWare could think of some way to include the Pathfinders Kalinda vorn and maybe some others but nothing really sticks out like those do and that's because Andromeda really suffers from a lack of intrigue as after Rider makes it past the combat Arenas he has to fight the archon once he's defeated though Meridian is activated the planets of Helios are now habitable the prime mistakes of her position as head of the ket and the credit's role there is very little Intrigue left in this game because the game doesn't give us a reason to be excited about what's next the dangling plot threads left are the higher ups of the cat the scourge and the Jardin The Scourge despite being important to the story barely gets any mention and any time it's put in as a hazard The Tempest always finds a way around it making it seem like it's not as deadly as it's supposed to be the Jardin are only mentioned by name once and their claim to fame is the remnant vaults but to our knowledge all they do is make planets habitable so what do they want with the angara their relevance to the main plot is practically zero and it seems like BioWare knew this as all the information regarding the jardan and the scourge was revealed at the 11th hour rather than slowly added over the course of the story the Jordan's Tech is integral to the plot but the species themselves isn't whereas in the trilogy the protheans and their Tech were the beacon on Eden Prime is close in comparison to these vaults in terms of the purpose they serve in the story but the beacons told us how the protheans were wiped out the prothean's extinction was a core part of the story as it was done by an unknown race fifty thousand years ago plus species don't just disappear overnight the vaults tell us that the jardan are really nice people that make planets habitable we have no information on them we don't know why they made the angara or what the point of the vaults were other than allowing them to live on the planets that weren't habitable from this information it's not far off to assume that the rest of the series was just going to be us colonizing the whole galaxy by using the remnant Tech and making sure to stop the cat along the way now there could be some crazy twist in the next game but we don't know what that could be Mass Effect 1 perfectly interweaved its current plot and overarching plot in a way that was not only able to expand the world of the mass effect universe but also get us excited as to what would come next we didn't know what was going to happen in the sequel but we knew the Reapers were involved somehow with Andromeda all we know is that the cat are probably still going to fight us and that the main goal will likely be colonizing the Galaxy basically it's the same plot as this game but now at a galaxy-wide scale and look I'm a white American so colonization is deeply ingrained into my blood but the idea of doing the same exact thing over again does not interest me in the slightest the only things we know of that could change the story from what it will eventually become are the Jordan and the scourge both the Jardin as a species get zero mention in this game so we have no clue what their plans are and the scourge also gets barely mentioned it's possible that the scourge could become a new threat as it continually grows reaching out to certain planets meaning if we don't stop it it could wipe out life in the Galaxy but once again it's still a part of the main idea colonizing Andromeda that's the core of the issue having that be the main premise of this series is not very interesting that's what we were told in the beginning of the game that the initiative was started to colonize Andromeda but upon going there we ran into two threats The Scourge and the cat the cat and the scourge are the antagonistic forces of the story because they prevent the protagonist from achieving their goals living safely on Andromeda the game gives us no indication that the story is anything but that and even if there was plans to do that in a sequel it wasn't shown here Mass Effect 1 did this by having the Geth and sarin seemed like the main threat until we met Sovereign imagine if we met Sovereign and Mass Effect 2 that would leave a lot to be desired because then the plot is just stopping a rogue Specter for some unknown reason Andromeda is doing exactly this however the game still has one Lifeline that secret we talked about at the beginning of the video but that might end up actually being the most disappointing part of the whole game in that side mission where we track down the memories once all of them are found we discover the real truth Jean Garson was losing money and losing time she couldn't get enough support for the initiative project until a mysterious benefactor came by and opted to donate as much money as she needs this benefactor also convinced Al Grado to join the initiative likely due to his advancements in AI the reason this benefactor funded the project was because there were some rumors about something coming to the Milky Way which could start a full-scale war these were simply rumors at the time but a well-respected former N7 member made those rumors become a reality yes the reason the initiative was continued was because the benefactor wanted to make sure the Milky Way species had a chance to survive because the Reapers were coming and I mean yeah what else was it gonna be it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that that was the plan all along I may not have guessed it right away but my first thought while playing Andromeda was wow they sure caught a lucky Break by escaping right before [ __ ] hit the fan only to find out that was the whole point the benefactor could have been used to expand this plot more but it was just used as a callback to a previous game in a way that was so painfully obvious it wasn't even worth mentioning that being said it is also learned that the benefactor did Kill G and Garson and cover it up earlier in the video I mentioned how tan was eighth in line for the director Siege because other people above him were killed G and Garson the founder was one of them everyone assumed she died during the scourge attack that killed the others but through some investigation it showed that the benefactor actually had her killed the thing is though killing Gian Garson does what exactly leave a leadership position open for the benefactor to take cool we still have to colonize helius it is also worth mentioning that the benefactor did know about the Reapers before even Shepard news so once again there might be something to salvage here it's just not a a whole lot had the orders of the games actually been swapped in Mass Effect Andromeda was the first in terms of release order then things could have actually been way more interesting here as then Mass Effect 1 would allow us to play as that N7 Soldier they were talking about and learn about these so-called Reapers but since it's the latest game in the series not only did we already know about this but the reapers are finished the war is already over so this secret reveal is just a pointless callback disguised as something deep and mysterious to close the game and this video were presented with one final Choice Ryder gets to choose an ambassador to represent a galactic Council [ __ ] sorry wrong game Ryder then gets to choose an ambassador to represent uh oh no I was right yeah the game rips off the same Choice as mass effect 1. in fact Andromeda is also entering the realm of plagiarism in these last two missions as in both games we find the base that is the answer to all our questions but can't get there because the council doesn't agree so we have to disobey their command and go alone the team then finds that information which expands their knowledge of the ancient race of beings that's been referenced all game and then in the nick of time defeat the bad guy right when they're about to succeed in their plan the game also reenacts the ilos landing scene although admittedly that's in the final mission not the one before it from that alone it's clear Andromeda really wanted to capture the beauty of Mass Effect 1. a game that created one of the most well-known IPS in gaming history and it had the opportunity of a lifetime a whole new Galaxy filled with new lore species disasters and planets that haven't been touched upon yet Andromeda never takes full advantage of this while its cast of characters were likable and filled with personality its main quests lacked both Andromeda wanted to be like Mass Effect 1 but didn't fully understand what made the first game what it is the meeting with Sovereign is still in my opinion the greatest moment the series has ever had and its World building characters and main quest with a cherry on top of that delicious dessert Andromeda has the characters but it's missing that World building and main quest quality the cat have a similar form of reproduction to the Reapers and while I'm all for reusing old ideas Andromeda just copied the original work and also somehow made it worse than the original in the process the ketter also not developed enough as their motivation for exultate Nation are unclear the greediness of wanting to be better than everyone leading to the species Gene stagnating is a really good story beat an exaltation being the way to solve that problem is also a great start but this idea is just shown to us and never developed Andromeda simply shows us that exultation exists but doesn't bother to do anything with it there is no mention of whether or not the cat are going extinct or if the higher ups are hoarding all the good traits that everyone has to fight for the scraps Andromeda had really backed itself into a corner as it's unclear where the story was even going to go in the next title given the information we have but it doesn't seem like that would ever happen anyway due to the mixed reception of Andromeda it seems like its story is either going to be on extended Hiatus or cast off into the MD vacuum of space as the next game will see us return to the Milky Way well I'm not too fond of the idea of killing off this new series just because of one bad title I could see why they would Andromeda is not a good game in fact it's the worst Mass Effect game in the series but underneath all its flaws are some genuinely interesting ideas I've always been one for Second Chances and if Andromeda gets a sequel I will gladly welcome it with open arms as I want this new series to succeed but I'm not the one that gets to make these decisions maybe Andromeda deserves the same fate as the initiative to be cast out into dark space never to be seen again or maybe it deserves a second chance so that maybe it will find some stable footing amongst the gaming industry Lord knows they'll need a Pathfinder to do that though thank you all for watching today and I hope you enjoyed now that we're finally done with the Mass Effect series it's time we moved on to something else I haven't thought about what series our game to tackle yet if I'm being honest but I'll likely update you on a community post soon that being said be sure to like And subscribe if you're new and thank you to my returning viewers for coming back to another video take care everyone goodbye

Channel: Gingy

Views: 516,445

Keywords: mass effect andromeda, mass effect andromeda story, mass effect andromeda review, mass effect andromeda ending, mass effect story, mass effect review, mass effect andromeda archon, mass effect kett, mass effect angara, mass effect archon, gingy, story review, me1, me2, me3, me andromeda, mass effect story summary, mass effect story retrospective, mass effect andromeda companions, mass effect andromeda story review

Id: 01kG91mKgBs

Length: 99min 16sec (5956 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 24 2023