Space Magic

The bad news is that lately I haven't had a ton of time to spend gaming.  I've been halfway paying attention to gaming news but haven't seen much of note.  I'm excitedly eyeballing the recent full release of Hades and looking forward to diving back into the roguelike Greek underworld.  For now though, I'm continuing to spend my time playing through Mass Effect:  Andromeda.

Pre-terraformed Kadara is a bit hellish, but still pretty.

Last week I spent time feeling annoyed with some minor design flaws in Andromeda, but this week I am feeling more positive about my experiences in the game.  One of the things that I do enjoy about Andromeda is the beauty of the settings within the game--whether you're in the desert splendor of Eos or the icy, wastes of Voeld, the planets look great.  I've been pondering which planet is my favorite from the game and I would lean toward Kadara.  There's something beautiful about the way they made the planet have a slightly grassy feeling but combined it with an almost aquatic/coral reef type of environment.  I also always have a soft spot for the less reputable planets and settings--they're just more fun!  Sure, Kadara might be crawling with outlaws and criminals, but that just gives it  more personality.

The perennial "hardest decision" in ME games has also rolled around--to romance or not to romance, that is the question.  My former Ryders have struck up relationships with various crew members (namely Liam and Peebee) so I've been trying to branch out to the other romances that I haven't experienced yet.  This time around I decided it was time to strike up a relationship with Jaal, the squishy, pink, Angaran sniper.  I have read that it's one of the sweeter romances in Andromeda, but I'm in the early stages and haven't seen much of it play out just yet.  It always feels a bit weird to romance the alien members of the crew (with the exception of the Asari who are very human-like).

I've also finally got to the point in my playthrough where vanguard has gotten much more enjoyable--my charge ability fully refills my shields so I can blast across the battlefield and shotgun blast almost everything (architects excluded) right in the face.  It's highly enjoyable...would recommend (even though early going vanguarding was pretty painful).  My Ryder is now an official shotgun wielding badass (*although not really much of a badass because I just can't play real "badasses"--paragon all the way).

Overall, I'm having fun with Andromeda.  Sure, there are things you can diss, but when push comes to shove, I generally find that I'm completely absorbed in what I'm doing in the game.  So, if you're one of the people asking "should I play Andromeda," the answer is yes, you should play it (I follow a popular ME fan group on social media and this question comes up all the time!).