Life is Strange: Before the Storm Review. (Light Spoilers)

Note:  This review is going to assume you already played the first Life is Strange since this prequel relies heavily on the player knowing who many of the characters already are.  So with that in mind, I will be spoiling the first Life is Strange to some degree.  I will also lightly spoil this game, mainly about what the game leaves out.

Prequels are almost never that good.  It's hard to tell a compelling story when A. the outcome is already known and B. the plot is forced onto a path that follows the original story's backstory.  Life is Strange: Before the Storm (referred to as BtS from now on because I am not writing that full title out every time) however is pretty good, not quite "really good", but pretty good.  The reason for this is that the game largely ignores much of A. and B.

BtS is squared on Chloe meeting and befriending Rachel Amber.  The game does cover Chloe's grief about her fathers death (WHOO BOY, more on that later), her relationship to David and her mom who he is currently dating, her relationships with Blackwell Academy students and the school itself, and her relationship with Frank.  All of this is....ehhhh it's fine, but I found myself wanting to get through it just to get back to the games core, Chloe and Rachel.  And because that is the core of this game, I was initially apprehensive of even playing it.

The safety of playing as Max is far out of town.

This is for two reasons.  Firstly, you get to play as Chloe who is the most fleshed out character of the original game, even more so than Max since she has to double as the player avatar.  Max has soft personality traits like being geeky, but not TOO geeky, and being an artsy hipster, but not TOO much so that players aren't put off and can feel free to make choices.  Chloe has hard personality traits established like being a "punky bitch" who flirts with varying degrees of criminality and whose sharp edge is dulled by a hidden softer side.  Giving the player choices on her actions could easily derail her into somebody she isn't.  To my surprise, that largely doesn't happen.  I did find myself trying to "play the character" a lot more than I usually do in these kinds of games, "what would CHLOE do" so to speak, but it works out.  Typically choices look like something Chloe would do or say, with maybe a rare part being out of character.

The other reason is because Rachel Amber is a primary character who is a unicorn.  She is too perfect in the first game.  Everybody loves her except Victoria who viewed her as a rival, she has straight A's, she is good at everything she does, and is largely NOT a character.  She is a plot device in the first game, basically a MacGuffin.  Yeah, the player discovers a hidden dark side that even Chloe didn't know about, mainly Rachel's hidden relationship with Frank, but it's played off as "wild child" stuff to make her fit in with Chloe better.  Why would a perfect super popular girl be friends with Chloe in the first place?

Well, in BtS Rachel's mythos is safe because the game actually does a good job of humanizing her.  The most obvious way was to give her flaws which the game pulls off without completely destroying her character traits in the first game.  It's honestly the most impressive aspect of the entire game in my opinion.  I went from, "I'm not sure I want to see Rachel Amber the character," to after the first episode, "....I have a crush on Rachel Amber."  That is quite a turn around.  Respect to the developers.

Damn your charm!

While BtS is not as good as the first game it makes some solid improvements.  It amplifies the strengths of the first game, character development and relationships, while excluding its weaknesses, the supernatural stuff and video gamey-ness.  Obviously Chloe does not have time travel powers so that game mechanic is replaced with a "talk back" feature.  It basically allows Chloe to insult someone into giving her what she wants via sick burns.  BtS also has better presentation.  The animations are noticeably improved and facial expressions are much better.  The game does not have to lean on writing and voice acting* as much as the previous game but these too are really good.  I was surprised to see that the developers used motion capture for the animations considering the probably small-ish game budget, but the use of them made everything so much more natural combined with the previously great parts.

*It's a shame that Ashly Burch couldn't reprise her role due to the strike, which is apparently the longest in history, but she is coming back for a bonus episode featuring Chloe and Max.  The new actress did a great job despite the voice sounding a little off at first and also for being a SCAB (It's union lingo).  You get used to her though.

The game also largely avoids awkward video gamey-ness by keeping the mechanics simple.  It's mostly talking to people and exploring stuff in a space with some light puzzles.  The puzzles are mostly just go get a thing to unlock this other thing.  They work just fine in a grounded real world game.  There are no utterly bizarre stealth sections here.

En fuego utero.  

Where the game really deviates is with its plot.  There almost isn't one for the first two episodes.  Every story needs conflict of course, but the conflict here is so low stakes that it is at once a breath of fresh air and feeling lacking at the same time.  Then, in episode 3, the tension is ramped up out of nowhere to life and death stakes.  It's a bit jarring even if it isn't all that surprising since the first two episodes feature so little "action".  The first two episodes play more like a teenage drama with some sitcom thrown in there.

The game largely ignores a lot of backstory to focus on the backstory the player is more likely to care about, Chloe and Rachel.  Things like, Rachel and Frank's future relationship is (almost) completely ignored, to the point where it seems like a....what's the term for a prequel ret-con?  Is it pret-con?  Ew.....anyway.  There are certain aspects of Rachel that the player will know, but Chloe does not until discovered in the first Life is Strange, making the future narrative VERY bittersweet and not just because Rachel is murdered. 

Since you play as Chloe, it wouldn't make sense to see Rachel getting involved with Frank, Nathan, and especially Jefferson since he isn't even in this game.  Chloe does not know about any of this at this time.  Yet, the player knows these relationships happen later, leaving us to assume this happens after this game.  And the ending is so goddamn bright, excluding one after credit scene confirming Rachel's future doom*, that it is no wonder Chloe gets so upset when she learns about Rachel and Frank's relationship in the first game.  I mean yeah, playing as Chloe, I'd feel betrayed too.  What happens between them after this game considering how strong their friendship/romance is at the end of it?  What leads Rachel into the secrets she keeps from Chloe?

*Unless you are one of the 10% of players (on PC at least) where Rachel meets her mother.  That replaces the dark room scene.  Also, it's fucking horse shit how you get her to meet her mother.  Fucking nobody saw that relationship as "not a romance".  Of course I picked the kiss option in ep 2.  The only way Rachel meets her mother is if you choose the bracelet, which you give to her mother (then I guess FUCKING FRANK gets?  HOW?).  Stupid.

I get the impression that the developers didn't want to go there.  I think they knew that a prequel featuring them would be bittersweet enough so they made a game where a player could almost head canon/fan-fic a completely different future.  Chloe and Rachel live happily ever after if you so choose.  But more importantly the developers wanted to capture a specific time, a friendship/romance between two girls, fate be damned. 

I mean, look at em.  Cliche?  Yes.  Badass?  Fuck yes.

Dear reader, ask yourself this question.  "What do you care about more in your stories?  Theme and evoking emotions, or narrative consistency?"*  Preferably you'd want both but that isn't always possible, and with a Life is Strange prequel, it's pretty impossible.  The only thing that would be interesting in a prequel is Rachel Amber and specifically her relationship to Chloe, and this game nails that.  A prequel could include more darker stuff but instead BtS went with a lower stakes game and more down to earth theme, excluding a specific scene in episode 3.  The game is better off for it.  If you want literally every backstory explained in a prequel, try Star Wars.  It's a cautionary tale.

*Life is Strange: Before the Storm is a decent example but this idea is amplified to a million with a certain movie I saw on the SAME DAY as finishing this game.  Wanna watch it a 2nd time before writing about it.  I also know every, EVERY, argument against it now and the vast majority are...nerds are fucking stupid.  Stooooopid.**

**I'm talking about Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

BtS is a good game, pretty great as prequels are concerned, and a decent lesson for all future prequels.  Do you have to tell the backstory exactly as told in the original or can certain things be left out without it feeling unfaithful?  Did the game have to tell the story of Frank and Rachel?  I don't think so.  I like that people are finally challenging the idea that canon is sacrosanct.  We get stories worth talking about.  Media and art that can provoke an emotion, and/or is more concerned with its theme, is sometimes better than a great logical story.  Logic is helpful but not always REAL.  Life is Strange: Before the Storm is good emotional storytelling even if it's logic doesn't always make sense.

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So I mentioned a thing I'd talk about later with a WHOO BOY.....here is that thing.

DEEP BREATH.......My Dad passed away in early November.  Episode 1 spends a good amount of time dealing with the death of Chloe's father and while I played this before he passed, he was in the hospital at this time.  My life was a roller coaster while he was in the hospital for a month straight so Chloe's scenes dealing with her grief of her father left me with such varying emotions I can't even begin to describe them. 

My experience isn't that relatable to Chloe on the details.  Her dad died in a car accident when she was a teenager.  My Dad died at 80 years old, while I'm in my 30's, because he was a badass.  Buuuuuut, my dad did die from a fall*, something that you beat yourself up over about not preventing, and yeah.  Even acknowledging that a teenager losing her father due to an accident is going to result in significantly different emotions and changes as opposed to a father who lived a long life, this game gave me something to relate too even if it isn't that close.  The "event" may be wildly different, but at least some of the emotions are similar.

  I even had a bizarre dream with my Dad in it too.

*The fall was the spark really.  He died from smoking, drinking, and especially Parkinson's Disease, which caused him to fall in the first place.  But still, with all that stacked against him, he lived to almost 81 (his birthday is in December).  Not too shabby old man.

This game, along with a certain movie that I hope to write about in January, helped me with the grieving process.  (I'm leaving the name of the movie blank as a teaser BTW.  I haven't quite gotten to the point that I can write about that movie and my dad, but I am getting closer.  I've wanted to write it for ages.)

I was hesitant to play episode 2 of BtS just because of how much Chloe's father was present in the first.  But...her father is barely in episode 2 and 3.  It was weirdly reassuring.  He was still there, but not.  It's very hard to explain.  The death of a parent.  I'll let you know if I ever understand these emotions.

Chloe is one of the most actualized teenage characters I have ever seen in media and having her grieve with me as the game was coming out was...thank you.  This makes my whole review look biased as hell but thank you to the developers for making this game, and out of pure serendipity, at the right time.  Hell I'm still sort of critical of the narrative, but I changed man.  I changed.

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Full Spoiler Section.  Additional thoughts that didn't fit into the post.

1.  I'm not sure if I like ep.1 or 2 more but ep.3 is certainly the weakest.  All anybody wanted to do was spend more time with Chloe and Rachel but ep.3 stabs Rachel and puts her in the hospital, effectively removing her from the story.  I get the idea of having Chloe be the hero in the climax but it felt lacking that Rachel wouldn't be involved.  Only one half of the core is present when it should be the two of them tackling the climax together. 

2.  That final showdown with Damon is weird.  Also, Frank killed a guy.  I guess he could get out of it with a "self-defense/defense of innocents" thing but whoa.

3.  How fucking bananas is it now that Frank knows Rachel's mom.  The relationship between him and Rachel just keeps getting grosser and grosser. 

4.  As I hinted at in the post, that future relationship isn't completely ignored.  Frank checks Rachel out in the junkyard in ep.3 and she seems embarrassed.  That's it.  That is the only aspect of that thread visible. 

5.  I gotta stop talking about Rachel and Frank.  I sound like a jealous girlfriend.....

6.  The train scene is probably my favorite, other than maybe the post Tempest play scene for obvious reasons.  Also, how awkward would it have been if Chloe doesn't share her earbuds with Rachel on the train?  Almost nobody picked the option to not share.  What would Rachel do?  Just sit there?

One of the few times I let the whole song play in one of these games. 

7.  Finally, I'd like to discuss the symbolism in these games.  The doe in the first game is obviously Rachel, while the raven in this game is Chloe's father.  The doe watches Max and at times, aides her in the first game.  The raven is present in dream sequences where Chloe's father gives her advice.  While the animal choices seem kind of random, I do like their usage.  The use of fire is a little more vague though.  The motif is certainly a combination of "fire is pretty but destructive" and "the truth hides in darkness, the light can bring it out".  I can't tell if this is in relation to the truth about Rachel's mom or a larger metaphor about the two girls relationship being like a fire that burns bright at first but will eventually burn out.  Or hell, even both. 

There is also The Tempest.  This motif is probably meant to be more than surface level as both ep.2 Brave New World, and ep.3 Hell is Empty, are both in famous lines from the play.  (Ep.1 Awake could be anything though).  I'm curious if it's more connected to the game than I know.  I'm not gonna sit here and claim to know a lot about Shakespeare but from what little I looked up....maybe.  Chloe and Rachel's relationship isn't very similar to Prospero and Ariel, the two characters they perform in the play, unless you take a very broad approach as "When Rachel dies she sets Chloe free".  That doesn't feel accurate at all.  Nor would relating the two girls to Ferdinand and Miranda so....I dunno.  I look forward to seeing possible fan theories about this. 

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Getting ready for my Star Wars: The Last Jedi fight.

Doki Doki Literature Club Review (SPOILERS).

Sigh.

Note:  I know.  It's weird enough that I played this game and felt compelled to write about it.  If you know nothing about this game, the title alone is probably making you think, "Jason?  You okay man?"  No, I don't know what "Doki Doki" means, (according to Google, it's a term meaning a quickening heart rate due to being close to someone you wanna bone down with) and dating sims are about as realistic as shrugging off a bullet wound in an FPS.  However....

After so much word of mouth, the Internet version anyway, seeing this game on several "best of 2017" lists, and seeing it listed in Youtube recommendations, I had to see what the big deal is.  

This game is very interesting and pretty damn cool.  I'm not sure if it's a good game, read below to learn more, but it's unique.  I'm going to spoil the shit out of this game in this review.  I recommend playing it, (IT'S FREE), if you don't mind playing a Japanese style dating sim with a horrifying twist.  That...probably only convinced 0.01% of you to play it but hey.  MAJOR SPOILER WARNING.  

Also, personal stuff got in the way of updating this blog regularly but I want to get back to writing more.  I'm planing on posting about that personal stuff soon because not one but TWO pieces of media I've enjoyed this year relate to my personal stuff.  It's gonna come up.  Oh, and a Dishonored 2 review I've been had mostly done for 3 months.  

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Last Spoiler Warning!!!!!

Game of Thrones Season 7 Review (Spoilers Obviously).

Game of Thrones has always been a show that rarely had its constituent parts meet.  It was easy in the past to write a season review split into different sections by geography as I did in my season 5 review (and had I written it quicker, season 6 too).  Season 7 however has essentially re-formatted the show.  It no longer has the slow drip of information, planning, strategizing, character development, and especially travel.  Everything happens very quickly, creating a different feel for a show that never used to be this conventional.

The largest reason for this is because this season was only 7 episodes long.  Crucial information is delivered in two scenes max and at minimum, even a single line of dialogue.  This means there is a lot to soak in between set pieces and more rewinding for a "what did he say?" than I ever have done before.*  Likewise, it's very noticeable that the writers are working off an outline rather than completed books, thank you very much George RR "slowest writer ever" Martin.  Plot detail is scant, leading to a season that feels more like a Marvel movie than a Game of Thrones season.

*Also, I've never straight up paused so many times to absorb, what would be, 15 minutes worth of information in previous seasons that here is unleashed in, like, 5 minutes.

Not that everything needed more detail.  

Travel is also absurdly fast now.  Dany, in one season, is in; Dragonstone, Kings Landing, north of The Wall briefly, and somewhere on the road between Highgarden and Kings Landing (Granted, she flew alone for one of those locations).  Army movements are unrealistically fast based on this shows rules, ravens are getting information around faster than in the past (except for all that crucial information Bran knows cause he's a weirdo now),  and yet the White Walkers still take all season to reach The Wall.

HOWEVER, I personally don't care that much about the timelines of troop movements in this show at this time.  Fans complaining about this seems to me like nitpicky CinemaSins garbage.  If, instead, Dany spent as much time in Dragonstone as she did in Meereen, I would light myself on fire before her dragons could.  I mean what is the alternative?  Do these fans want more of the excellent Dorne subplot?  You wanna drag that out a little longer?  How about we have a few scenes in Essos checking in with whatever Daario is doing in Meereen to pad things out or maybe the Iron Bank banker doing paperwork in Braavos?  I don't even remember his name.  Did they even give him a name?

You don't know his name either Khalessi.

The sped up nature of the season works well for the battles and holy hell does the Battle of Blackwater Bay seem dumb now.  Way back in season 2, it was rumored but never confirmed that that battle was the most expensive single episode in TV history.  There is no way that is remotely true now as the production value is sky high.  The battle scenes were all great this time around.  No muddy ugliness of the Battle of the Bastards with an inexplicable wall of bodies.  The chaos of the....Battle of the Loot Train?  Really?  Okay....even that battle through all it's fiery smoke was easier to watch.  The Unsullied taking Casterly Rock with a montage* was weird but whatever.

*Is it just me or did this season LOVE montages.

What didn't work so well with this sped up season is with interpersonal stories and character development.  Much of the early episodes seem to be questioning if Dany has a little of the Mad King in her with Tyrion being the only one who can keep her from going nutty.  The answer is to have Dany listen to him and this kind of works?  She listens to his initial invasion plan and to his plan to bring a zombie to Cersei, but she doesn't listen to him when she flies north to rescue Jon and pals.  So I guess it's a wash?  Also, her romance to Jon is weird in multiple ways.  Obviously the incest, which could have been prevented with a raven Bran you asshole, and also that the chemistry isn't really there.  The romance just kinda happens from staring longingly at each other.  It's like a teenager wrote this.

There is also the Sansa, Arya, Littlefinger trifecta of what the fuck?  Even after the finale, I'm still unsure if they were playing Littlefinger all season long.  And if they were, WHY?  Did they need time to make sure the Vale would be okay with this?  This is the timeline I'm confused about.  Also, what was the point in Arya threatening to kill Sansa in episode 6 if it doesn't matter?  Just to trick the audience so that the twist would have more of an effect?  That is horse shit.  If they are tricking Littlefinger, well, the episode didn't show him spying on them.  Are we left to assume he was spying on them OFF SCREEN?  I am so confused.*

*Apparently there is a deleted scene that explains this.  Terrible editing decision.

There are a ton of first meeting and reuniting characters this season, many given one quick scene.  Obviously Jon, Dany, and Tyrion were going to get a lot of time together and so were the Stark kids, but others could have used more.  Tyrion meeting with Bronn, Podrick, and even Jamie felt like they needed more time.  Jamie and Tyrion actually get two scenes with one another (alone at least) and it felt rushed.  Tyrion and Cersei was fine with just one scene though because multiple would have lead me to question how one hasn't killed the other yet (That scene was actually REALLY good, even if it didn't make narrative sense.  I'll always go for a great emotional scene over a good logical one).  Other first meetings like virtually everyone on the expedition north could have used a little more.  I think they were going for a motley crew type feel but it would have been better with the characters interacting with each other more before the battle at the frozen lake.  The Hound saving Tormund should have been more impactful than, "oh, they talked about Brienne once."  Maybe Jorah could have accepted Longclaw (Jon Snow's sword) then given it back with more time.  Maybe Gendry....could.....uh.

He uses a hammer cause he's a blacksmith get it AHAHAHA

Okay.  Why bring Gendry back for that?  His main contribution is running back to Eastwatch exceptionally fast.  Also, they don't show him being there in the finale so Gendry is missing, yet again.  I assume Tormund and Beric died at The Wall (if they survived that, you have got to be kidding me) but maybe Gendry too.  It would almost be fitting if they killed Gendry without giving him one final scene.  Watch him magically turn up at Winterfell next season.

Great set pieces and muddy character development.  Yeah.  This season is a Marvel movie.  But, and this is important, I didn't hate it.  I liked a shitload of it.  I don't mind that the show became more traditional since it is completely out of source material to borrow from.  Plus, the story is wrapping up.  It is ending.  Of course it's going to speed up with little to go off of.  The details are missing and it would be really, really, really weird to throw in tiny character details the author has not yet decided on.  Game of Thrones has always worked closely with George RR Martin.  It would be weird to go too far off the outline.

Most importantly, it was still entertaining as hell.  To be honest, most of my bitching came after the fact.  I didn't notice how stupid the Arya threatening to kill Sansa scene was until thinking about it later.  Instead...lets talk about how Dany fucked her nephew.....

Actually lets not.

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Random thoughts that don't fit into the post.

1.  So....how, exactly, were the White Walkers planning to get past the wall without the zombie dragon?  I assume the Night King has Bran powers since he always sees Bran spying on him and maybe knew a dragon would come to him some day?  But Bran can't see the future, just past and present via warg, so ??????

2.  Despite the sped up season, it still found time for padding with Sam at the Citadel.  He finds only two pieces of information.  The first is that Dragonstone is sitting on a ton of Dragonglass.  Other people pointed out that he must have forgotten this because Stannis tells him this in Season 4.  Oops.  Secondly, he learns about Rheagar Targaryean's annulment which you may notice as having nothing to do with how to stop the White Walkers.  Shockingly, Bran doesn't know this because reasons.  Sam did cure Jorah though so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

3.  Speaking of Sam, remember when he met with his father and they hated each other so then he stole his fathers sword?  Remember how that seemed to foreshadow that they would meet again but instead his dad gets roasted by a dragon?  Yyyyyyyyeah.  I guess that was just to get Sam a Valeryin steel sword?

4.  In the Jon Snow is a terrible military commander department, what did he plan to do at the frozen lake after Dany comes to save him?  Just rush up that hill and kill the Night King with a few thousand soldiers around him?  Why does he keep charging ARMIES by himself?

5.  The trial and execution of Littlefinger genuinely took me by surprise and was a great scene but I'm left with questions.  What was Littlefinger......doing?  Like, what was his plan?  Just getting into HIS head for a sec, but I always thought he was trying to maneuver some sort of massive power grab.  Was it all he ever really wanted was to be with Sansa?  Cause I mean, what?  Wow is he stupid.  Selling her off to Ramsey would lead to him being with Sansa, how?  Getting Sansa to execute Arya would lead to, what?  And if convincing Arya that Sansa may have betrayed the family, like what I assume he did letting her find the scroll, what if Arya gets Sansa executed?  What in the holy hell was his endgame?  Did he even have one?

6.  I am unsure about Jamie's character arc.  The threat of the army of the dead is what broke the camels back?  This might be controversial, but I always thought of Jamie as the abused in an abusive relationship (I'll explain).  Thinking of it like that would explain why he holds on to her despite her psychosis.  Now, there is that completely out of character rape scene in season 5 that the show runners decided to change (this is in the books apparently but it is consensual) for no reason.  Jamie needed to go into villain territory more?  WHY?!?!  That one scene destroyed his character arc and his possible redemption will always look tainted.  Game of Thrones wants me to root for a rapist apparently.  Fuck this show.

Yet....Cersei has all the power.  That GREAT scene with Tyrion in the finale tries to reel her back in but it's way too late for that.  One of her major character attributes is she cares about family A LOT.  Her biggest hang up from going full evil is her unborn child.  So uh...and you can tell the people in charge of this show are men...why are her choices so illogical in that regard?  Jamie is right that the victor of the north is going to kill them all.  I sense some "pregnant women are emotional lunatics" in this writing and it is stupid and sexist.

7.  What is with the Theon side quest?  He's the person who plays a video game, only does the side quests and maybe accidentally does a main story quest.  He probably has one more major story event happen but whyyyyyyyyyyyyYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAHJKGFAJGJHIO ???????????  Nobody cares about Theon.  It's dull as hell.  Literally everyone is concerned about the war in the north, and Cersei backstabbing, but then hey....how about the Iron Isles?  Who gives a shit?

8.  Having a romantic incest scene while ALSO having narration about Jon's true parents was very weird.  I....just wrote that sentence.

9.  Finally....this is a prediction but I have a weird feeling Daario is gonna save Dany and company from the Golden Company.  Like, him ruling Meeren will lead to him learning about it and, yeah.  Especially for this show, if he hasn't even been hinted at being killed, he isn't out of it yet.

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Prey Review (Spoilers)

Note:  I'm gonna spoil the shit out of this game because the ending is the most interesting thing about it.  

Prey is a game that openly shows its influences.  Bioshock is probably the largest as it directly inspires the art design, level design, and even the basics of combat.  The skill tree reminds me of Deus Ex and the weapons are similar to Dishonored.  There is a hidden morality system similar to Dishonored and MGSV as well.  There is even survival horror elements like resource management and the rare poorly executed jumpscare.  All these influences combine to make a game with something of an identity crisis.

I'm not sure what I played.  Prey is not a bad game by any means and I like plenty of stuff that is just a mashup of other properties best ideas, but here those influences don't always mix well.  The paradox that is Prey, is a game that has a great first 5 hours, a great last 6-7 hours, and a middle 12-ish that falls into to many video game design traps.

The game has a major twist in its first hour and its a brilliant one too as it's a twist you interact with as opposed to something you're just told.  The game starts as you wake up to take a helicopter (while listening to this games awesome theme song) to another building to do some tests.  You seem to be failing these tests, which will be important much later, until something attacks the scientists and you wake up back in your room*.  You get up again to find out that the whole thing was a simulation, except for the creature attack.

Looking Glass Studios reference??.....Nahhhhh

*Side note but I only just now realized this is a plot hole.  How did you get back to your room?

The game takes place on the Talos 1 space station where creatures called the Typhon have broken out and are killing/possessing everybody on the station.  You play as Morgan Yu, who has amnesia because of course he/she does, your brother Alex Yu is hiding out somewhere and might be responsible, and a robot with your voice named January is giving you advice.  The Typhon were being used to make Neuromods, a dreadfully painful looking eye ball needle that gives you powers.  Also, other than being a narrative catalyst, the Neuromods double as your ability points for your skill tree and I'm always a fan of skill points having a narrative explanation rather than generic "Level Up".  Good on ya Prey.

Why are those needles coming out of that camera OH GOD NO.

The first act ends once you reach your office and an old video of yourself tells you about why you lost your memory (removing Neuromods resets your memory back to before it was installed, or, when Morgan was on Earth) and what you need to do.  Your mission is to blow up Talos 1 killing everything, including yourself, to keep the Typhon from spreading to Earth.  Easy enough but that doesn't leave much room for story in the middle section.  "Act 2" basically ends up stalling the story for hours until you finally get some twists in the last section.  Sure, the middle section has some decent side quests to deal with and they are much better than the put on hold main story, but it does feel like a drag after seeing what the last section of the game can bring.

The main missions fall into the video game trap of checking items off a list.  You need to go to this area but the door has no power so you go somewhere else, turn on the power, then go back.  The next door you need a keycard so you go get it then go back.  This device you need doesn't work until you go get this item then go back.  So on and so on.  Prey is a paradox in having it's main missions be fetch quests while its side quests, usually, are not.  The side quests feel like real stories while the main missions, until the last 5 hours, are go do the thing so you can do the other thing then do this other thing.  They seem to exist only to unlock areas of the space station so that the second half of the game can be free roaming without any real narrative reason for doing so.

Later, you can freely explore Rapture....I mean, Talos 1.

Well....there is a meta-narrative reason for this stalling.  That hidden morality system is about those side quests which usually revolves around saving the other survivors of the station.  This is juxtaposed to your suicide mission of blowing up the station.  These people are going to die anyway.  When you do these, even January is like, "it's telling that you went out of your way to save these people knowing what their fate will be."  Why you judging me robot?  Step off.  The choices only really effect certain lines of dialogue in the ending but it's still cool to have around....even if it probably shouldn't be?  I'll get to that.

There is also a meta-narrative with the skill tree because Dishonored is also a Bethesda game.  You get three human branches and three Typhon branches.  The game warns you that it's a bad idea to use the Typhon tree so I only unlocked a few.  Yes, this game borrows from Dishonored twice here.  Once with the narrative depending on who you kill and also giving you a bunch of fancy toys you can't use unless you want the "evil" ending.

The main narrative is bogged down with so much running around, reading E-mails about people you are not sure if you will ever meet, listening to audio logs about people you will probably not meet (and cause Bioshock did it), listening to January give you fetch questy objectives and Alex being vague over the radio about what is going on.  The main narrative never progresses until much later because this story doesn't have a 2nd act.  Well, I guess it has a 2nd act but you never know if any of the people you learn about are alive and the few that do actually are pretty good, especially Danielle Sho who gets enough backstory with her relationship to Abigail Foy.  You find Foy's body before finding the still alive Sho, who then requests that you kill the guy who killed her girlfriend.  Good stuff.

The rest of the 2nd acts story is about....the most pointless and boring world building ever.  Why is this story set in an alternate timeline where the USA/USSR secretly cooperated during the space race, for no reason?  There is a ton of stuff about TranStar, the company that owns Talos 1 and who everyone is an employee of, but they are only important on the periphery.  Even the Wikia only has three sentences about them (I checked cause I was wondering if I missed something...nah).  There is also a ton of psuedo-science "tech talk" about researching the Typhon that all leads to a, "hell if we know?"  It's like all this work was put into world building without really relating to anything.

While the story drags, you get to spend your time with the Typhon, the whole 8-ish types.  The first enemies you encounter are Prey's marque enemy, the Mimic, which can transform into a chair, box, coffee mug, desk lamp, whatever.  These black Half-Life head crab looking things are the dominant enemy in the entire game and give the player a mild paranoia about what objects might actually jump out at you and attack.  Luckily they don't do much damage and can largely be killed with a few good whacks from your wrench.  This gets tiresome though as this leads to a lot of combat being focused at looking down at your feet as these things are only about a knee high a lot of the time.  Other enemies are more humanoid Typhons called Phantoms.  They are the generic black one, the fire one, the lighting one, the purple one, and the strangely weak invisible one.  Oh, and there is even a giant one that acts as a mini boss.  They are all palate swapped versions of the same thing like this is a JRPG or something.  You also have two floating squid things that are super tough to take down, one that controls people, and one that controls robots.  Add in a few other flying thingies (see footnotes) and corrupted robots and you have Prey's very limited enemies list.  They are all introduced by the mid-point of the game in which fighting the same things over and over gets boring.

Sorry.  I should have said: "Indistinguishable Blob 1, Indistinguishable Blob 2,..."

I mean, combat is fun...for a while.  Guns don't actually do a whole bunch of damage so you have to stun the enemies first.  The most common way is with the GLOO Cannon which, works exactly as it sounds.  Slow or even freeze them with it then switch to another weapon to deal greater damage.  You also get stun guns, emp grenades (which only work on the robots and electric Typhons), lures, and environmental weapons like turrets.  Add in some offensive Typhon abilities and there are a lot of creative ways to take them down.  You can lure them into turret traps, stun them with a telekinetic blast, and even throw objects at them to knock them down.  However, after a while, you are just going to stick with the strategies that work best, and with the limited enemy selection, combat becomes a chore.  I got really, really sick of whacking at the ground with my wrench for those Mimics man.

A lot...of whacking....the ground.

"But Jason," I hear you asking, "can't you just avoid combat if you want?  Doesn't this game have.....stealth mechanics?"  Oh.  You know me too well.  Of course I'm gonna talk about that.

Prey is NOT a stealth game.  I mean, sure, the stealth mechanics work just fine but....it's boring.  Firstly, the Bioshock level design, that thinks it is Deus Ex level design, doesn't really gel with stealth all that well.  The game outright says that there are multiple paths to get to objectives but that is misleading.  What they really mean is there is one main path but you can build stairs/bridges with the GLOO Cannon to reach other areas.  That's fine, but firing the GLOO cannon alerts enemies to your presence.  How am I supposed to stealth my way around like that?  (Also, I never had fucking ammo for the thing when I wanted to do construction with it).

Not gonna lie.  I want some.

Secondly, there just isn't that many stealth skills.  There is some "make it harder for enemies to detect you while crouched" bullshit that always feels like a waste.  Shouldn't that be standard?  Whatever.  The Typhon abilities include the ability to Mimic, which I did unlock, and is pretty unique.  Unfortunately, I couldn't upgrade it due to the meta-narrative and at level 1 it is almost worthless.  You can transform right before an enemy sees you but as you stay disguised it drains your Psi (mana) pool.  The Typhon have sloooooow patrols so the odds of running out of juice before you leave their line of sight is high.  You can move as an object a little before tipping them off but it was difficult to get down the timing.

Lastly, the large amount of backtracking, added with the fact that enemies respawn when you leave an area (and seem to comeback with a dozen buddies), adds to NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN.  It sucks stealthing through the same areas over and over again.  I did it in some sections but it felt like a waste of time especially when in the late game I found the best method of getting around...just openly sprinting everywhere.  I knew my way around by this point and since I was so sick of combat and stealth I just wanted to see where the story goes as fast as possible.  I had a mountain of health packs so I didn't mind taking a few hits in the 5 seconds I could sprint through some of the hubs (I also maxed out my stamina).

The biggest flaw of the game is that it is too repetitive on a small scale.  As much as I like the Meta-narrative stuff, it probably would have worked better for me had those side quests been more related to the main quests in favor of more set pieces.  Because, wow, those set pieces are great.

They pick up again near the end.  Most of the game tries to convince you Alex Yu is the villain by making him be vague about everything.  Eventually you get to his office and he shows you another video that proves this whole thing is kinda sorta your fault.  That OTHER video was the fail safe plan in case your own stupid plan fails.  It also shows why your relationship with the rest of the Talos staff is pretty rocky.  You were kind of a dick pre memory wipe.  Anyway, Alex proposes a new plan that will wipe out the Typhon with a MacGuffin but leave the station in tact.  Meanwhile, those side quests finally start getting involved in the main narrative as saved people present other options to end the game.*  January, of course, tries to convince you to stick to the suicide mission plan, which you can do, but side characters make it possible to escape the station during the self destruct.  There are multiple options....that lead to only barely different endings but, the final levels are significantly different.

The....the robot is playing God?

*There is also another ending you can access earlier on when you find the keys to Alex's personal escape pod, the only one that works.  It's basically the "fuck everyone, I'm out" bad ending but it's there.

Just when you think the ending is kinda lame, there is an after credits scene that drops a bomb.  You wake up to see Alex and four robots all with the names and voices of the people you saved.  You were playing as a Mimic the whole time, in a simulation based on Morgan's memories.  (That means, the beginning of this game was a simulation INSIDE a simulation can I get a BWWAAAAHH in this mutha!  Yeah!).  Alex shows you that Earth is already taken over by the Typhon and says something like, "I spent all this time tying to make humans more like the Typhon (ie. Neuromods) but I never tried to make them more like us", and yeah.  Cool shit.

Prey on the whole ends up being a game that isn't sure what it is, but thinks it knows.  The aspects that are unique to Prey or parts that are pretty good, the game ends up overusing.  Things that Prey does really well, like the set pieces and the meta-narrative stuff, is jammed into short sections of the game.  It's like the designers made an opening and closing act to Prey but forgot to put in a middle and instead just put Bioshock there.  Prey would have been better suited if its interesting ideas made for a more cohesive whole.

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Follow me on Twitter.  No I have not played Dishonored 2 yet.  I actually just bought it on sale though so....

Couple notes that didn't fit into my post:

1.  Due to some video game law I assume, because this is a game released in the last few years, of course there is a crafting system.  It's mechanically the same as every other one.  It's boring so lets move on.

2.  One part of the ending I HATED was the sudden new villain who is a mercenary sent by your parents to kill everything on Talos 1.  The dude spams military robots and it's extremely annoying.  I just ran past them as fast as I could to deactivate them and/or lead them to a bunch a Typhon where they would fight each other.

3.  There is several parts of the game in zero gravity.  This too the game made boring even though it should have been cool.  There is really only one enemy type in this area which are these little flying radioactive balls that don't do much damage, are easy to kill, but they are fucking legion!  They need to be killed at a distance too since they are radioactive and I hate, hate, hated wasting a ton of ammo in a game where ammo isn't that plentiful on this almost non-threat.  Plus...I'm fighting balls!  They're fucking balls!

Balls!  Fuckin balls!

Wonder woman: Review

First reaction: wow I'm starting to think DC might just be getting it.... Just a little... Maybe... After nearly falling face first with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and then d with Suicide Squad, it would appear as if DC is finally starting to get on its feet.


   The question still remains, is DC trying too hard to be like Marvel?!?! I say yes and no at the same time. Yes because of how they're making their movies and whose in them. I also say no in that I believe that DC realizes that they will never be Marvel... Marvel is ridiculously far ahead of DC in the movie making department and DC (I hope) knows that.

   Wonder woman is by far the Best DC has done in recent memory. Everything about this movie is awesome! Ok maybe not everything, but just about everything. Chris Pine did amazing and I loved the end fight scenes. Gal Gadot did an amazing job as wonder woman continueing her strong performance from Batman V Superman. Ye

   Yes the movie has its rocky points and points where you wonder "does this really need to be in this movie" then it all comes together and yes they belong there, unlike Dawn of Justice where you felt like a ton of the movie could've been cut out Wonder Woman Didn't really have that issues which shows DC is learning.

   Overall well done by DC and all involve with this movie and I'm building excitement now for Justice League where we will see if DC keeps progressing. Discuss.

Video Game Movie Review: Resident Evil (2002)

Despite most (not all) video game movies sucking, I've seen A LOT of them.  And yes, this includes the Uwe Boll ones, which are so bad that anytime anybody claims a certain film is "the worst movie ever" I instinctly want to ask them, "Have you seen Alone in the Dark"?  Plus, many of them are on Netflix, some of them I own, and I need something to write about when I'm having problems coming up with something to write about or playing an 80 hour RPG.  So I figured I'd re-watch some when I got the time and it just so happened that the first Resident Evil movie was on TV my last day off.  Why not start with the most successful video game movie franchise of all time?

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That tagline....blargh.

Resident Evil didn't seem like a major video game movie candidate to spawn 5 sequels, develop a cult following, and become the most successful video game movie franchise of all time.  While none of them did particularly well in the USA, their overseas box office gross was gigantic, and may very well be a precursor to all the dumb action movies that everyone here asks, "Why are they making this?" while foreign nations want more.  What was it that the original Resident Evil movie did so well to establish this franchise nobody saw coming.

Honestly, it's a pretty standard zombie flick that is pretty reminiscent of Dawn of the Dead or even Night of the Living Dead where the movie is focused on a contained area.  Instead of a mall or a house, this one takes place in Umbrella's underground laboratory underneath Raccoon City*.  STARS is sent to investigate why the AI called The Red Queen went homicidal killing everyone in the lab.  To add to the "group of strangers" thing so many zombie movies use, they run into Alice played by Milla Jovovich, a dude claiming to be a cop (Matt), and another dude (Spence).  Alice and Spence both have amnesia due to the Red Queen gassing them, Alice gradually learns that she is a badass, and Spence gradually learns that he is an asshole and the entire reason this movies plot happens.

Why is she wet?.......wait.  Nevermind.

*I'm assuming everyone reading knows the very basics of the Resident Evil universe even without playing the games or seeing the movies.

However, unlike most zombie movies that it emulates, this one is far more of an action movie than a horror movie.  In fact, the parts of the movie that try to be horror are the worst parts.  Fake out jump scares (there is like 6 of them.  SIX!), bizarre music stingers, creepy little girl (who is the AI), and side screen zombie attacks...all land with a cringey thud.  It's almost like Paul W S Anderson, who has directed every Resident Evil movie FYI, just threw these aspects in as nods to the video game series roots without giving two shits about them.  He just wants to shoot some zombies, man.  These horror staples are completely absent in the second half of the film.

The action is actually really scaled down compared to the later movies and I think it's a better film for it.  I haven't seen all of the later Resident Evil movies, but Alice is basically an unstoppable killing machine in some.  She is pretty goddamn normal here, albeit, with a very talented Jason Bourne style soldiering going on in certain scenes.  I...can't believe I'm about to write this but...it was probably better that this stuff got blown out of proportion in later movies rather than her more real "average person in extreme situation" scenes because if there is one thing Paul WS Anderson cannot do, it's Realism.  Well, there are several things he can't do actually but Realism is one of them.

Pictured here.

The story and characters are actually pretty okay.  Yeah, I'm a little shocked I'm writing that too, but it's true.  Maybe it's after knowing what this franchise will turn into makes this movie look good in comparison, I dunno, but it's still more bad than good.  Yeah, Matt (the guy faking being a cop) is really only there to be sequel bait for Nemesis in the next movie and yeah, half the STARS team has one or two lines of dialogue tops so that they can up the death count, but ehhhhhhhh.  Alice is fine.  Spence is fine.  Michelle Rodriguez plays Rain, a character that is so beloved she is in later sequels I didn't see although she died.  She also takes a decade to turn into a zombie from a bite when Spence turns into a zombie in like 5 minutes.  Not uh, not consistent with your rules movie.

There aren't as many plot holes as I remember in this movie.  All major plot relevant things are explained...shocking enough.  The movie uses flashbacks in conjunction with amnesia to explain main character motivations.  Big picture stuff, like anything about Umbrella, is questionable (Umbrella's plan will go from questionable to absurd in just the movies I have seen).  Why Umbrella didn't mission brief their own team about the hallway of lasers guarding the Red Queen is beyond my understanding.  Also, the lasers have a higher body count than the zombies (3 to 1.  The other 2.5 die from the Licker), so Umbrella is really bad at planning or just super evil.  Also...laser hallway?

Pictured here.

All my gripes with the film are pretty minor.  No, I don't know why the Red Queen only has knockout gas in the mansion but can kill everyone in the labs.  I also don't know why the Red Queen decided to fuck with those people in the elevator.  Shit, I also don't know why the Red Queen forgets that it has an EMP strapped to her near the end of the movie when she wouldn't unlock the doors.  The...the Red Queen is dumb.

Finally, I need to mention how gutsy and/or idiotic it was for this movie to end with sequel bait.  It's a video game movie.  They never do well yet so many end like this.  The Super Mario Bros Movie ended with a full blown cliffhanger that will never be resolved.  Mortal Kombat had just regular sequel bait but at least it got a TERRIBLE sequel.  There was no guarantee Resident Evil would have gotten a sequel so ending the movie with a shot of a destroyed Raccoon City was...

Did The Movie Honor Its Source Material?

For the most part, yes.  Umbrella, zombies, lickers, and the T-virus are all here.  The mansion was here too but only briefly.  There isn't any puzzles that require massive backtracking to solve because that would be dumb to put into a movie, but oddly, there is backtracking in this movie technically.  There is even a scene where the characters are running low on ammo.  Not sure if that was intentional but inventory management is always a big staple in the games.  Also, just like the games, the movie isn't really scary as it is more general tension.

The movie does lack the creepy factor of the games though.  Also, the movie doesn't feature a single character from the game series.  They will be included later but ehhhhh.

Conclusion

It's not bad.  It's basically a schlocky B zombie movie but with a good budget.  It was pretty entertaining.  It wasn't confusing, stupid Red Queen aside, and the movie didn't make me hate Alice....yet.  This movie series though...it get worse.  Way worse.

Rating

8 out of 10*

*Before you kill me, this rating is for "video game movies" only.  So if I eventually rate a movie 10/10 I'm NOT saying it's on par with The Godfather okay.  Chill.

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Mass Effect: Andromeda Review

It has....taken me a while to be able to write about this game.  The game has some terrible parts and awful narrative structure, the same narrative structure that has plagued open world games despite this game trying to emulate the Witcher 3 to alleviate this (and The Witcher 3 STILL has issues here).  It's also a game that copied some of the worst parts of Dragon Age Inquisition, although ME:A did it better (not much of a compliment).  Yet, some parts of this game are fantastic, and dare I say, the best in the series.  It's a complicated game.

For those that don't know, ME:A is about Pathfinder Ryder and the Andromeda Initiative.  You are part of an Arc that left the Milky Way around the time of ME2 and arrive in the Heleius Cluster of Andromeda 60 years later (there are no Mass Relays here so you are limited to a star cluster but there is still a ton of them you get to visit).  Once you arrive, shit goes wrong, the other arcs (Salarian, Turian and Asari) are missing, golden worlds that looked good from afar have turned dangerous, there is a weird phenomenon called "The Scourge" which is fucking up spaceships and planets alike, and the Nexus (which arrived earlier than the arcs and has other aliens so it's not ALL humans) is in disarray.  The goal of the game, is to fix everything....and oh yeah, establish colonies on planets to live on.  Lofty goals, maybe TOO lofty, as it leads to a pretty good game, sometimes great game, with a ton of flaws.

Lets get this out of the way....yes, the much talked about animations are awful.  They are weirdly at their worst in the first few hours that are heavy on cutscenes, but get better, not great, as the game goes on.  I'm not entirely sure if I just got used to them, but hey.  There has already been one patch for this and they did get better but I swear main character Ryder is an alien in human skin trying to mimic a human smile.

That's not just one emotion. That is ALL of the emotions

BTW, for a good take on the animations, I recommend this Extra Credits video.  It explains how game animation works and talks about what possibly went wrong here.  Most people seem to think the switch to the Frostbite engine was a major reason, as animation coding needed to be rebuilt from scratch, but Dragon Age Inquisition was on Frostbite and it was fine (...if still a bit stiff at times).

I can live with poor facial animations (I never got the walking animation bugs FYI), but the bugs and glitches however, were terrible.  It has MANY of the same ones I had with DA:I.  Rare crashes during autosaves.  One hard crash while flying around on the galaxy map.  Texture pop-in that got worse as the game went on but only for Tempest take-off/landing cutscenes.   And of course, getting to a part of a map that is impossible to get out of because you are surrounded by death pits but there was a container there of loot so why could I get there if I couldn't get out of it also autosave is horseshit in this game I'm rambling.

For funsies, here is a list of other bugs I encountered...

1. Enemies spawning in mid-air
2. Enemies spawning frozen and not reacting to player attack (sometimes in mid-air).
3. Enemies spawning in rooms that don't exist.  
4. Side Quests that won't let me turn in.  I can go to the quest giver, hold E to talk, and nothing.  
5. Side Quests that just stop working in the middle of it.  
6. Side Quests that disappear from my journal.
7. Vetra's loyalty mission went into limbo after I bumped an enemy into the glitchy void during a "defeat all enemies" section.  I had to load a previous save.  
8. Lexi's talks after finding memory fragments stopped working all together. 
9. I had an audio bug on the ice planet Voeld. As Ryder started doing the cold, shivering, whimper audio, I started a Priority Op mission which took me too a stand alone level.  The sound effect carried over and I had to listen to that through the entire mission.   
10. And finally, I accidentally jumped into some flaming wreckage which then triggered a cutscene.  I talked through that cutscene, while on fire.  (this one was funny at least).  

The game lacks polish and it is by far its biggest flaw.  One patch has already come out and some of it works better, but that's not the point....

EA....just....just delay it again if it needs more time.  The QA team was obviously ignored since these bugs are so blatant.  They are weird, in that I can go 6 hours without a single one then have 5 glitches in one hour, but come on.  This feels like a game a couple months from release but, you don't care do you EA.  It will all be fixed in patches, maybe, assuming DLC doesn't take up more time, which it will.

The animation is fine a lot of the time too.  It isn't constantly garbage.

Anyway....I still like this game.  I think some of the complaints are not warranted.  Some people complained about the UI.  It's fine.  It is needlessly complicated but it's fine.  Some people thought the crafting system was confusing.  It's fine.  You just got to craft things twice, once with "science points" and then again with traditional resources.  It's dumb as hell but I understood it.  Some people thought the dialogue was awful.  It's fine.  It.....okay.....

The writing.  It....it's complicated.  There are times when it is so bad I want to force Bioware into hiring me as a writer because even I am better and I fucking suck at writing dialogue.  However, sometimes, especially late in the game, this is the best dialogue in any Mass Effect game.  I don't understand.  It's like two different teams wrote each half of the game.  Just how much did the Dragon Age team help with this game because a fuck load of the bad dialogue feels like Dragon Age.  I like....er, I am lukewarm on Dragon Age but a lot of the dialogue there always feels forced and exposition heavy.  Same thing with ME:A.  The first few hours are horrendous mostly due to hours of exposition and forced drama in characters we just met. Of course some spoken exposition is always going to be needed but this went wayyyy overboard.

Everything is explained like you are an idiot and the dialogue goes out of its way to explain certain things on the map are optional.  How about not putting side quests in the opening act?  In the part of the game you want to have tight pacing, this is terrible.  This is a crisis situation and you want me to check out some alien lab?  Why?!?!  Can't I come back to this?  (You can't).  The pacing for the entire game is all over the place depending on how you played it (By far the longest standing issue with open world games and yes this one is) but the first few hours is really bad.

After a rocky opening action mission and getting a mountain of side quests as you run around the Nexus (this games version of The Citadel)*,  the game finally gets better once you get on the Tempest (this games version of the Normandy) and go to the first planet, Eos.  Here you really see the structure of the game and again, it's mixed.  They did try to copy Witcher 3 here with "secondary missions" being just as good as the "main missions" and yes, holy shit, actually relate to each other!  It...it's entirely in the narrative though, doesn't really effect gameplay, but it's better than nothing.

*This is oddly similar to previous games where your first time on the Citadel led to unlocking dozens of side quests.  It is something I wish the series would tone down.  Don't have to go blank slate but right now it's a bit much.

I can't tell if the design is paying homage to the Citadel or just being a lazy, slightly altered copy.

Priority Ops are the main story missions and they are generally great.  Allies and Relationships is almost a copy of Witcher 3's secondary quests, where you get missions for your squadmates, various other important characters, as well as finding the missing Arcs.  Here is also where you get the Loyalty Missions which are fantastic and easily some of the best missions in the game.  Most of the stuff in this section is just as well produced as the Priority Ops as well.  The Heleus Assignments section is pretty good and what I wish ALL side quests were like.  They have decent stories themselves, some pretty good even, although they don't quite have as high a production value as the last two sections.

Then....there is the Additional Tasks section where, I mean, come on.  "Additional Tasks".  It's in the name!  These are busy work fetch quests, some of which take a long time to do, some stretch across multiple planets, and the rewards are pathetically useless by the time you complete them.  There isn't even any good story bits.  Unless you are a completionist, you're better off skipping these.*  Why in the hell does game after game feel the need to do the "Ubisoft open world bullshit side quest" thing? It's driving me crazy.  At least here, not all of them appear on the map cluttering it up, but some do.  This is a bit of a Catch-22 though as if you decide to finish up a task later, goooood fucking luck finding the area you need to do it in.  Also, the map is pretty cluttered anyway so, why even?

*Important note:  The Allies and Relationships mission, "Unlocking SAM's Memory Triggers" sure LOOKS like a pointless fetch quest but please do this one.  The payoff is pretty good (if a bit predictable) and has a lot more story involved than scanning fucking rocks.

Even with a legend, it still took me a while to know what all these icons are.

The meat of the gameplay though is very good.  Combat is the best in the series.  It's even more fluid now, allied AI seems better (or, at least I didn't see the AI do something egregiously stupid, only glitchy stupid stuff), and enemy AI, IMO, is a lot better.  They actually try to flank you now!  Snipers stay far away.  Krogan enemies act like tanks.  They use fucking grenades (what a thought!) to flush you from cover.  You can't just stop and pop an entire fight anymore.

You are given a jetpack like jump/dodge which really helps even if it leads to a tendency (for me anyway) to start hoping around like an idiot if you get in trouble.  Guns come in three flavors; the thermal clip ones, the plasma clip ones, and the energy beam cool down ones.  I....stuck with the N7 Valkyrie the entire game lol.  What can I say?  It's low-medium weight and like the strongest assault rifle in the game.  Don't judge me.  You can also mix and match abilities as classes are gone*.  You can have combat, tech, and biotic powers all in one build.  I...basically just made an Engineer because it worked for me all game.  Again, don't judge me.  Overload/Incinerate/assault turret or Remnant VI?  Come on.  Your defenses are useless against me!  (Though it is weird I went that route.  My first play through is usually biotic heavy).

*The classes are now profiles which you can equip according to what skills you have unlocked for passive buffs.  They feel kind of pointless.  I had the Engineer combat drone passive and I don't really know what it did.  It is nothing like previous games combat drones.  It just hovers over my head and sometimes explodes.

Exploration is good.  For all the bugs and glitches, the game still looks very pretty.  It's not open fields of nothing like DA:I but there is a little bit of that.  You also get the Nomad, this games version of the Mako, which thank the gods, is actually really good.  It can climb mountains Mako style if you want but the important part is that it is a lot faster, upgradeable, and actually handles smoothly.  It's NOT a tank like the Mako, so it has no guns, but you can still run over enemies which is always fun.

Some of the visuals are really great.  

The crucial pillar to the Mass Effect series has always been its story and characters. It's....complicated, just like mostly everything else in this game.  The story is pretty good, great at times, but awful in the first few hours.  I don't want to spoil anything here so I'll write a second spoiler filled post, but just know that this is very much a story setting up a trilogy.  Some stuff does get a resolution but bigger picture things do not.  IMO, it walked that tightrope pretty well, unlike a lot of universe building movies, but mostly because this game is like 80 hours long.  Movies don't have that kind of time.

There are three new aliens.  The Angara, the Kett, and the Remnant (....sort of).  The Angara are the new friendly race and their big things are; they don't hide emotion (leading to some weird acting), they have large convoluted families, they are missing a lot of their history which feels highly improbable even with the explanation of The Scourge fucking things up, they have been fighting a war with the Kett for eons, and they are designed like the Twi'lek from Star Wars only with the head tentacles attached and some have cat faces.  A major character, the Angara called The Moshae, has a creepy doll face instead.

I think she was in a horror game.

The Kett are the new villains.  I didn't like their design at first but that grew on me.  They are kinda Collector-ish, not as much as I previously expected going into the game, but it's still kind of there.  I like that they are kind of a Theocracy which is a government system not yet used in these games.  The main villain, The Archon, is a Kett and decent enough for a villain.  I actually think the game needed more time with him as the potential was there for a great villain, especially after you learn more about him, but much of the game ignores him.  He is there for key moments, and those moments are pretty good, but without enough development he just ends up being kind of forgettable.

They always scowl.   

The Remnant are sort of villains, sort of benign, and definitely robots.  They are not the Geth as they act more like VI's than AI's, which is probably a good thing.  Most of the mystery around the games story deals with the Remnant.  Also, luckily, they aren't that similar to the Protheans, thank your mother, but Ryder is the only one who can use their technology and Shepard was the only one who could read Prothean beacons........yeah.  Fucking plot convenience.

The characters range from pretty average to really great.  The game actually tries to involve NPC's a little more despite most still being exposition dumps.  You can talk to a lot of randos in outposts but it's always a "What brought you to Andromeda?" and "How are you doing?" type of small talk that starts to get grating after a while.  Major NPC's sometimes have quests relating to them and range the spectrum of great to goddawful.  I will say that a lot of them have far more character than previous games in the series.  The Angara, the Nexus leadership, other Pathfinders, Krogan exiles, and Kadara exiles have personality.  Some are heavily related to the B-plot and some just send you on fetch quests.  Overall though, it's more good than bad.

The Tempest crew and Squadmates are good.  Not great, but good.  Kallo is fine but he is no Joker.  Suvi has a nice accent but is boring scientist lady who is also religious?....uh, trying to break archetypes Bioware?  Gutsy.  Not sure if it worked here.  There is also Gil, who is alright.  He is kinda characterized as the "normal guy" but he's not that boring.  His character goes to some weird places later on.  The ships doctor, Lexi, is I dunno.  Gotta take a rain check on her because she was so bugged out for me.

I like, even love, all of the squadmates except Cora.  Cora needed more.  She loves, loves, LOVES the Asari Commandos, to the point where I wanted to ask her what the hell she is doing here and why she didn't just move to Thessia or Illium.  In the next game, I want a subplot where I can get Cora and Lexi hooked up (Peebee doesn't seem her type).  Maybe then she will stop talking about it.

I like your hair though.

The other problem with Cora is, if I had to guess, a dropped subplot about Ryder becoming Pathfinder.  Ryder's dad Alec dies, Ryder becomes pathfinder, and Cora is like, "as his 2nd in command I'm totally okay with this 100% even though I shouldn't be what is this nepotism bullshit?"  Later on, Cora confides in you that she was pissed at Alec for passing her over for Pathfinder but not pissed at you, then, the plot just vanishes.  Poof.  Gone.  What happened?

Why didn't she seem more pissed off about this or hell, she SHOULD have been pissed at you even if that isn't logical (but would still be a normal emotional human response).  Obvious story potential never explored.  Ryder! Could! Have! Had! A! RIVAL!   There is soooo much potential drama there to make for a great story.  Something I want Mass Effect to try to get away from is the "everybody loves Shepard" trope.  Cora could have been easily a rival that you have to win over.  Some of the early game stuff makes me think this was intended but eventually scraped, yet parts of it were left over in the finished game.  Damn man.  That would have been cool as shit.*

*I should note, that a lot of Cora's characterization fails due to plot and not from scenes intended for character development.  Cut scenes with her are okay.  Also, her loyalty mission is really good, even if it takes her Asari worship to agonizing levels.

Liam is great though.  I'd argue he's better than Kaidan and Jacob.  Probably a little better than James even.  He is kind of just in it for the adventure, he's got jokes, he's more laid back, and tries to bring normalcy to the crews new home, aka, movie night.  Also, he brought a couch to Andromeda.  He's great.

Yeah.

Vetra is solid.  I was a little worried she would be female Garrus but nah.  They play up her femininity with a surprisingly good sister story arc* while also making her a badass mercenary who may or may not be doing things legally.  She kept me in the dark about her work and I let her.  She also has a lot of too cool for school going on which is always appreciated.

*Some of it was from world exploring banter.  Peebee and Vetra have a good discussion about this in the Nomad.

....I don't know what her visor does.

Peebee is almost the exact opposite of Liara.  Reckless, not all that committed, quirky, and a tech geek.  She is basically a Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope but with a smart dork twist.  I know "Remnant Tech Expert" is kind of close to Prothean expert a la Liara, but it's pretty much the only similarity.  Also, I'm glad that "Peebee" is a nickname for Pelessaria B'Sayle (sorry spellcheck) because that name would be so stupid otherwise.  Well...it's still kind of stupid.  I picture a bee taking a piss.

I wonder if the eye paint works like eye black.

Drack is awesome.  No offense to Wrex, but I like having a Krogan around that doesn't talk about the Genophage constantly.  Drack doesn't seem to care, which ties into him being old as shit.  Him being old as shit though.....I'm a little worried he is gonna die at some point in the series.  Seems obvious, but then again I thought the Cora thing was obvious so....meh.  Also, while not on the level of "shoot Wrex", there is a pretty tough decision to make with him later in the game.  It uh, it doesn't really matter but hey it's there.

His armor looks beat to shit.

And of course, Jaal is the super newbie as also being Angaran, which makes him the hardest character to get down.  Jaal ends up being just okay to me.  The whole "showing emotion" thing sometimes leads to some weird acting, as well as the actor and animation teams forgetting that they are supposed to show emotion.  Its a bizarre mix of acting too human or not human enough.  Jaal does have some great moments and can be really comedic at times though.  His loyalty mission is outstanding as well.  It had the same kind of feels that ME2's loyalty missions did.

That is a lot of collar.  

As for how you talk to characters, well, I had already played Dragon Age: Inquisition so I didn't mind the "new" dialogue wheel.  This is practically a carbon copy.  Paragon/Renegade is gone, which is a good thing as you no longer feel compelled to max out points to unlock later options.  You can mix up response styles without damaging a later option.  The options are relegated to emotional vs logical and sarcastic/joking vs "stale seriousness".  Sometimes you can pick one of all four, sometimes only two.  It's mostly fine but occasionally the phrase prompt doesn't seem to match the dialogue that comes after.  Like, "I didn't mean to say that".  I noticed it happens more often during the pick 2 options which is frustrating.  Not a huge gripe with me but I see people complaining about this a lot.

It's adequate. 

So....why is this game so complicated?

The story and characters, Mass Effect's strengths, are good but lacking.  The gameplay is better than its ever been but the lack of polish makes it not always work correctly.  Every single aspect about this game is "it's bad, but" or "it's good, but".  It's just so damn conflicting.

I think a good example might be all the random enemy camps strewn across the maps.  They are just small areas where you fight a group of baddies, many actually have a task attached the first time, but enemies respawn when you leave the area/planet.  These are the equivalent of DA:I's rifts in number and luckily, aren't all grouped into one massive fetch quest and don't appear on maps.  They only seem to exist, after the initial task (if the camp even had one, some don't), for xp grinding, for making the worlds populated, and for....I dunno, getting into a random fight if you are bored?  Their existence from a developer standpoint seems to be so that the planets aren't just large empty expanses, and that is a problem.

The game does have a meta-point to these camps, "make the worlds safer for colonists", but it damages the main structure of the game.  It's hard to make it feel like you are accomplishing anything when the Kett always return.  Sure, large set piece areas don't respawn, but it never feels like the colonies you set up are safe.  This might just be how things are narratively, the Angara have been fighting the Kett forever, but from a gameplay standpoint it's unfulfilling.  In the second half of the game, I am blowing by the enemy camps in the Nomad because I got places to be...but I shouldn't be doing that.  There is an enemy presence here that needs to be dealt with.  Yet, I have no incentive too, knowing they'll just come back.

I don't really have a possible solution to this without making the worlds smaller and/or more linear.  Probably a majority of the game is these camps, even though the disparity isn't nearly as bad as it was in DA:I, but the game might have been better if they were reduced in favor of more attention to the set pieces (or, you know, QA).  It's a dangerous argument to make in gaming because everyone and their mother rips on games being too short, even if they should be a short, but Mass Effect Andromeda might have been better as a shorter game.  It took me around 80 hours to complete.  I think the game could easily be dropped to 60 hours and be better for it.  Less filler, more awesome.

Or just burn the down.

One thing Mass Effect Andromeda did really well is get me excited for a part 2.  There is a lot of potential here with plenty of left over questions for the narrative to explore in future games.  As much as I ripped the first few hours of the game, the last few are the complete opposite.  They are fantastic.  Mass Effect usually "brings the epic" with the last mission and this one too is great.  Hell, it even addressed a minor complaint of ME3's final mission, which was genuinely shocking to me.

As it stands, ME:A is a good but heavily flawed game.  I think some of the hate is overboard especially with the voice acting and writing (there is like a gajillion lines of dialogue so of course some lines are gonna suck).  The game is not a masterpiece either where even the most hardcore of fans must admit there are parts to the game that could be better.  I still enjoyed the game, even though I am biased, but it doesn't measure up to the original trilogy.  Hopefully, Bioware/EA learns from the mistakes, because if part 2 repeats the same mistakes, I might not be so forgiving.

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