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They really tried to imitate, but not rip off, ME1, especially the finale. Didn't have the punch of Ilos though. I didn't care for the final run, really, other than the reveal of the interior of the sphere was a true golden world. Then it became a long gauntlet of guys I've trivialized for hours, and the actual final boss fight, a really, really long one. Though when the worm popped up, I had a Reaper-larva induced smile.
I wonder how much changes if you fuck things up. Can you? I was getting reinforcements and ass-kicking from all the people/factions I'd been helping out, but I know I could have screwed some of them over. Like, would Dunn stay alive after the crash without the asari pathfinder and her freakishly good barriers if I narced her out? Would there be any Behemoths if I saved the scouts?
The game needs a lot of bug fixes. Some more than others. I had few hard issues, only 2 hardlocks, couple infinite loads, and one or two impossible to exit conversations. But the scripting is fucked up bad. I apparently missed the actual finale of the Keri romance, because the game didn't transport me from the bar to her apartment, and also flagged me as somehow "just friends" with her, despite getting the romance dialogue after the ending. So that's bad. Plus a shitton of dialogue was missed, like Tann always repeating the asari ark convo whenever I came back to see him.
Vetra is adorable, and I'm glad she's such a quality option. Sid helps there too. My only complaint, much like with Tali, is that I want _more_ content, dammit, and also the fade-to-black on the sex scene isn't fun. I wanted to see a naked turian woman! Or at least some necking. The hand-holding moment was nice at least, and the cooking thing was a fan-fic trope that makes 100% perfect sense with her.
On that note, there were times I could all but tell there was cut content. The game clearly needed more time, art, rigs, quests, Lexi romance, QA, etc.
It's interesting. I'll call it a flawed gem. It's not ME1, because it's not introducing us to the setting with new ideas and people, it's more taking the setting and transposing it, which is literally the point. The angaran, while quite cute, really don't have much to define them. This was a problem I had with the aliens in general, they didn't feel all that alien, but weird humans. ME1, Tali was _the quarian_, Liara was _the asari_, Garrus was _the turian_, Wrex was _the krogan_. Jaal is _the angaran_, and all I can recall about them as a species is family, emotion, mild electrical powers you see once (?), and dicksucking lips. The lack of fave diversity didn't help, nor the cockblock ending to the angaran fling subplot.
Which ties into another point, the odd regression of sexuality. I wasn't keeping track, but it did seriously seem like at least half of all relationships you're aware of in the game are with lesbians, then a sparse few gay men. I think it's implied Addison is a lesbian even, though I may have been reading into it. Which makes the relative prudishness of the non-LI content, and even then I hear only 3 LIs actually _get_ a scene, disconnecting. Compared to ME1, where the first thing Liara talks to you about is asari fucking, and you can bang The Consort if you're an honest man.
On the plus side, broken scripting aside, I did like how you could have flings that acknowledged your proper LI. Keri was a darling, and I hope that bug gets fixed so I can do her up right on my Insanity run. The angaran, I have no idea if that was cut or not, but given the time and effort it takes to culminate, 2 kisses isn't quite what I expected. Vetra's path was great though, to reiterate. The family dynamic, the cliff climb, the steak, the quips, the post-ending talk (Mama Bird wants to settle down, aheheh), solid "A" rating.
Lotta callbacks to the OT, more than I was expecting. Even had The Shepard in there. And then on Kadara, it got more specific, small galaxy I suppose, but I liked it. Remembered the roots. Justified this crazy AI plan. Hopefully sets up the future, because the codex does note that QEC is basically the only way to communicate with the MW.
I can go on and on, and I will in time, but despite the complains, I can see a good game in there. I enjoyed my time, especially since this lasted me since last freakin' Tuesday. With bug fixes, and solid DLC, I can see "flawed gem" becoming "solid soft reboot." I look forward to playing it more, really, and that's more than I could say about the launch of ME3.
