The reviewers got this game wrong. Way wrong. And it's b/c they expected it to be the size of the previous games, when it's even bigger than Fallout 4. I've gotten 100% viability on Eos and Voeld, and I'm working back through Havarl after a short pit stop earlier. The game is absolutely massive in scope, and takes a while to get used to the combat mechanics and the various options for crafting, mining, research, etc. Reviewers didn't put in enough time to really appreciate it.

Yes, some of the animations in dialogue scenes are out of sync. But aside from that, this is a tremendous game.

Bonus points to my Ryder for going up to a kett Cardinal and telling him in a slow, measured tone that, "Because I will...****...your shit...up." The most badass thing I've heard in a Mass Effect game since:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TdVThySn2cw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I have put in about 10 hours so far and like it a lot. They took a couple annoying things from the first two games (driving around and planet scanning) and incorporated them while making the processes better. Driving around isn't as bad because of the various environments and you can use fast travel points on the map to get around. The planet scanning has been condensed a lot and is nowhere near as tedious. I like the combat mechanics. I am going almost full biotic and that has been fun so far.

The planet where it's always dark with the giant canyon where you have to jump all over the place can eat a dick. Too bad I can't get Ripley to nuke it from orbit when the mission is done. :#

That hopping around shit is getting old.

Grabbed this last Thursday and played the living shit out of it since then. It has most of the annoyances of the rest of the series. For me, that's seriously long stretches where you are doing nothing but running around talking to people.

It has some really janky animations, like the reviews said. It has some seriously bad issues when you talk to someone and it freezes your view looking at the side of your head or at the corner, or anywhere other than where you should be looking. If you got to the person you are talking to before your companions caught up to you, they will still sometimes have important things to say, but you can't hear them because they are 20 yards away. Scanning kinda sucks balls.

Almost everyone has bad skin. Apparently in the future, eczema is a real problem.

But I'm still playing the shit out of it. The combat is fun, the best in a series that has had pretty decent combat. The story keeps you fairly interested. The side quests are pretty decent. At least it's not some tired ass elf droning on about some generic fantasy magic. The combat is fun. I said that twice, because it really is.

If you liked the other Mass Effect games you will probably like this.

Finally got off the dark annoying jungle planet and back to Eos for some therapeutic side quests. Very much prefer driving the dune buggy thing around the desert. I'm much happier now.

Voeld is a pretty cool planet. That pun just writes itself. Upgrading the buggy suspension, handling, boost and vertical jump make it pretty awesome. I highly recommend it.

The dark jungle planet was kind of a pain in the ass, mostly because of the dark part. But it was the smallest planet by far unless it opens up more like EOS did once the radiation faded. But I don't think it does.

You can bang multiple female characters but you can only bang the ginger if you're a fem Ryder. Game was awesome. Had to switch to veteran from insanity difficulty on the last part.

Loved how I didn't have to be all "goody goody" to get the best ending and I could be a more realistic character who judges each situation and makes the call I would make IRL.

Fantastic game. Cant wait until I go back in as Fem Ryder and make different decisions to see how it plays out. Definite lesbian action incoming.

Denuvo encryption cracked within 14 days of launch. LOL...

I'm getting sick and damn tired of being teased with awesome tech that I don't have the elements to construct.......

**** you, Uranium. Also, **** you Remnant cores.

Did you scan all of the planets and anomalies? I'm drowning in that shit after taking an hour to to do it. Also, upgrade your mako (or whatever they call it now) to be better at finding planetary materials and always have the radar up when you're riding around a planet.

Apex missions (strike teams) also reward both research and materials. I've still barely played the sp campaign and I'm swimming in mats.

Game's been really buggy lately - crashed on me three times today.

And while I have for the most part enjoyed it, I don't know that I'd ever replay it. Certain aspects of it are relentlessly annoying. Getting through those goddamn vaults is about as much fun as a tax audit.

The vault on Voeld was a real pain in the ass. With the level 2 cold environment kicking your ass and a crazy number of control panels and moving stairs, I just gave up on trying to get the bonus cache and just did the deed and got the **** out.

Other than that, the vaults weren't particularly difficult, but yeah not exactly Coney Island.

I also enjoyed it for the most part. A lot of that is because they did a good job with the combat and that goes a long way with me. I have played about 35% of a new game+ trying out some different weapons and stuff.

There was none of the trademark "Hold the line" type speeches or devastating choices or consequences. It was fun, but didn't have any emotional depth to speak of. In all of the Mass Effect games I always get a bit tired of the very long stretches where you do nothing but run around talking to people. There are reams of worthless dialogue for a ton of characters and you feel like you have to ****ing talk to all of them and listen to all of their stupid shit so you can trigger whatever the **** it is that dispenses the pellet.


Whoever dreamed up the scanner mechanic can kiss my hairy white ass.

Can't say I really disagree with any of that. I kept freezing in that damned vault until I finally figured out that you had to reset the power. Certainly wasn't an obvious thing to do, when elsewhere you keep running from warm zone to warm zone to survive. To me those vaults seem like they were designed by an angry woman who just got dumped and got her period at the same time.

I've played though most of it at this point. I'm level 50-something. Finishing it has become less about enjoyment and more about completing an endurance test. It's all very repetitive at this point, except the things that irk me are growing more irksome. Sick of having finding precise routes to hop to objectives which become increasingly hoppier, or having to hit the boosters and shift just right to get up to the top of a mountain to find a chest that contains the same old shit the last 10 chests held (and I'm too OCD to just let them go).

Barring a wonderful resolution, I'd have to rank this far below ME2 and ME1, and even ME3 before that godawful ending ruined the whole damned thing. And none of the supporting characters are half as interesting as the ones from previous games. My kingdom for a Miranda Lawson sighting. And while I realize that the entire series is called Mass Effect, it does strike me as odd that there are no Mass Effect relays in the game. It's like a movie called "Terminator: Something" set in the Terminator universe without any terminators in it.

This isn't even in the same ballpark as the Bethesda games or Witcher 3. And as soon as I'm done with it, I'll go right back to playing one of those.

I would use this game as an opportunity to curb your OCD. I was level 64 when I went ahead and finished the main campaign and there were still several quests I hadn't done and I probably only picked up 1/16 of those secret chests that show up when you get that perk from the AVP. And for that matter, you can go back and finish just about everything after you have completed the main quest if you want to.

100% on this game would be far too tedious for me.

That's sound advice. Let's see if I can follow it. :D

I finally found a dude on Havarl that sells Uranium. But I'll be damned if I can find any Remnant Cores. I cleared several vaults before I found out that the vaults are where you find them. Not sure how I cleared the vaults and missed them, but I did. And I guess you can kill the Remnant Architects to get them as well. But I spent an hour taking one down, and it didn't ****ing drop a Remnant Core.

After it's dead you just go to the mouth and it should be right there.

The Architects should drop cores. Did you loot him at his head after he fell?

No, it wasn't included in the loot. I got some killer loot. But no remnant core. I read online other people saying "Yeah, just kill an architect." I was pissed when I spent all that time and nothing...

Sounds like a bug. I had a crash while I was trying to complete a really minor side quest (sending messages from Aya to Nexus) , and now one of the messages I need pops up as read but won't clear as a step in the quest. Because it's minor I don't really give a shit, but if a bug can happen there it could happen elsewhere.

There's probably a script command to get past it, though.

If that's the case, I'm going to curb stomp some puppies.

I've already had several glitches requiring me to load a previous save point, but I only ended up losing 5-10 minutes of play. If this is a glitch that can't be fixed, I might as well start over. ****....

Check this out. Maybe it will be helpful.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/1686...omeda/75229808

I've completed the main vault on Eos. I clearly remember Peebee talking about it when she split up from the group. I currently have 0 Remnant cores, and that mission was about 18 levels back. ****.

Man this game is glitchy as hell... So I decided to give up on the Remnant Cores, and just play on. I ended up getting the Reconnaissance AVP perk, which shows locations of hidden caches of awesome loot on your map. So I was tracking down the chests of awesome loot, and ended up finding 4 Remnant Cores in one single hidden container. Which then immediately started a new quest to search for the remaining Remnant Cores. No clue what tripped that off. But I have my cores and able to craft the Heleus Defender armor finally.

PBJ

There are definitely issues with the Tasks. I am stuck on 97% completion because a lot of quests won't generate the required information. I spend almost an hour driving around Elaaden looking for corpses to scan or datapads for the Little Mouse quest, only to find nothing, and despite crafting every possible upgrade for the Nomad, the Shield Regenerator Task won't complete.

I hope some of that is fixed with a future patch, because I would like to get the 100% achievement.

Had the same issue with the shield regenerator. And I truly hate that research/development thing. I researched all this cool shit for armor and then there's no way to use it. :#

Finally finished the main story line last night. Still have lots of other shit to wrap up, some of which I can finish, and some of which I apparently can't because of multiple glitches. Not even sure if I'll bother at this point.

Overall, while the game certainly had it's moments, the annoying shit, bugs, clunky interface and rehashed storyline (this was basically the Force Awakens version of ME2) left me largely unimpressed. I guess I'd give it a 6 on a 10 scale. Should have been much better.

I think it's time to read a book or two.

The three of those quest lines are unachievable until a patch. Bothers the shit out of me.

These ****ing Remnant Cores, LOL...

So I went from not being able to get any, to now having more than what's supposedly available in the game. I now have 17 of the damn things, when there are only supposed to be 9 total in the game...

https://i.imgur.com/ZChYtyh.jpg