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On Mass Effect Andromeda

On Mass Effect Andromeda

Posted by on Oct 2, 2017 in Commentary, featured, PS4 |

Mass Effect: Andromeda is a half-baked mess. What was supposed to be a new and exciting adventure turned out to be a broken, limited game with lackluster characters and no compelling story. It’s like Bioware suddenly forgot what makes Mass Effect what it is after releasing the original trilogy.

I’m going to start with what they got half-right: the action. Combat in Mass Effect features third-person shooting mixed with the spellcasting. The game does not call it spellcasting, of course, but when characters are throwing fire and lightning from their hands then it’s just semantics. Andromeda got rid of character classes so players can buy any ability they want, which is great because mixing and matching abilities is something the series has never done before.

The problem is that the game limits usable abilities to three. Yes, only three. This design choice does not make any sense. First, what was the point of making all abilities available if you can only use three of them? Second, previous Mass Effect games had no such limit, even while running on last-gen consoles! Dragon Age Inquisition, another Bioware title, also allowed multiple ability usage.

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Mass Effect Andromeda: A Ryder Ring Build

Mass Effect Andromeda: A Ryder Ring Build

Posted by on Jul 31, 2017 in featured, Guides, PS4 |

This build for Mass Effect Andromeda focuses on creating an infinite offensive loop around your powers and weapons. By combining skills and mods, it’s possible to make Ryder self-sufficient, removing the need to resupply on ammo and health. I’m calling it a Ryder Ring. And yes, this build works on Insanity difficulty.

Powers, Skills and Augmentations

Lance: Damage & Force, Anti-Shield, Shield-PoweredAllows Lance to be spammed as long as shields are available. Hold off on the last upgrade until shield regen is at a decent level.
Energy Drain: Recharge Speed, Extended Drain, DamageYour go-to power for taking shields down. Also restores your shields, making this better than Overload for this build.
Barrier: Unyielding Barrier, Biotic Alacrity, Active BarrierMore shields.
Incinerate: Radius, Anti-Armor, Double IncinerateYour anti-armor power. Also works wonders on unprotected foes.
Offensive Biotics: Amplitude, Detonation, Biotic ExpertBoosts the raw and combo damage done by Lance.
Team Support: Support, Team Recovery, Life SupportHeals you when you use tech powers. The heal works even when you don’t hit anything.
Weapon: Dhan Shotgun with Bio-Converter and Seeking Plasma augmentationsReloading draws from your health instead of your ammo stock, which you heal by using your tech powers.
The seeking plasma aug turns the shotgun into a pseudo-rocket launcher.
Note: Using a Shield Oscillator mod on your weapon will restore shields per reload but will not provide infinite ammo. No infinite ammo, no Ryder Ring.
Armor: Remnant or Pathfinder Chest with Shield Oscillator augmentationRemnant boosts health and shield regen while Pathfinder boosts power restoration and defense. Choice is up to you.
Shield Oscillator aug restores shields per kill.

 

 

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Mass Effect 3: The Ending and Damage Control

Posted by on Apr 6, 2012 in Commentary |

This is another “late to the party” post because I didn’t really have anything to say about Mass Effect 3’s ending that hasn’t been said already. But with the news of Bioware releasing a DLC pack to address exactly that, I don’t think there’s any point in withholding my reaction.

I like to think of my reaction to the ending as relatively mild compared to what I’ve seen online. I made a backup copy of the auto-save as soon as I got to the Crucible, then chose the Synthesis ending. After viewing that I loaded the backup and viewed the other two outcomes (the fact that I could choose an ending is disturbing enough). I was disappointed with all three, thinking “that’s it?!?!” and found myself in disbelief over what I just saw. I didn’t touch Mass Effect 3 for a week after that, opting for Dungeon Defenders and SFxT instead. It actually felt good to see that the reactions I read online expressed the same disappointment, with varying degrees of added fury.

If you want to know where the disappointment comes from, you can check a previous post about the subject. To elaborate further, let me tell you my story about Commander Shepard.

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