One of the few things that Andromeda has done very, very right is change that dynamic.

I mean... you can play ME:A as a straight-up cover shooter if you want to. Sure. In fact that's how I'm playing it. I like playing my Shepard-equivalents as an implacable walking tank carrying a huge arsenal of awesome guns backed up by heavy weapons and occasionally space magic.

But you don't have to do that.

It is both possible and very easy in ME:A to play Ryder as a mobile ball of flaming death. You've got an evade-dash, a jump jet, a hover option, and a million and one weapon modification and power options that you do things like "biotic charge into melee range, which does a ton of damage, then melee the fuck out of the one guy who lived with my giant krogan hammer, which recharges my shields when I hit him, then leap into the air, hover, use my SMG that I modified to have pinpoint accuracy and bigger clips than many assault rifles to rip the shield off the guy in the watchtower, biotic charge into him from my hovering position, then fire a singularity into that squad of guys who think they're in sufficient cover to avoid me before chain-overloading them, which sets off a biotic combo for massive damage. Oh, and I turn briefly invincible when I use my evade-dash, which can also teleport me through obstacles, did I mention that?"

You can also do a stealth build, where you're a ninja of death who floats around the battlefield with their tactical cloaking options, walking right up behind dudes, jamming your pistol right into the back of their skull, and kissing them goodnight.

ME:A isn't a great game. But they should be justifiably proud of the mechanical system undergirding it.

>and how long and tedious the
>DLC missions are. Lair of the Shadow Broker just goes on and
>on, and I don't think I've ever even bothered to finish
>Arrival.

... really? I loved the DLC missions. I feel like I was getting great value for money on them. They were fun and exciting and had great lore and interesting gameplay. The only set I didn't care for were...

>And the vehicle ones are even worse! People bitched
>about how dull it was driving the Mako around in the original game,
>but I will always maintain that moonsurfing with the Mako has nothing
>on the anguish of trying to make any progress at all with the
>Hammerhead.

Yes. That. I don't... I don't understand the logic behind the Hammerhead. I do not.

-Merc
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