Rework: Mass Effect Andromeda - Part 3

Gabe again, welcome back to me slicing and dicing Mass Effect Andromeda for the sake of narrative exploration. Shout out to my blog partner, Ben, who left me this lovely comment while proof reading this segment:

"Gabe sucks jk"

Stay beautiful, Ben.

Characters: Fine Tuning (Cont.)

*Cracks knuckles* Alright, let's start getting to work on the bread and butter of Mass Effect: our alien squad mates.

OLD VETRA: Our smuggling Turian squad mate made a great impression on me when we first boarded the Tempest (our pathfinding space ship). I got the feeling she was someone who routinely circumvented regular routines from her demeanor and actions. Vetra's resume comprises a slew of contacts she somehow fostered in a new galaxy that enables to get her hands (talons?) on a variety of resources and tools that suit your needs.

In practice, she doesn't actually get you anything specific. She just says she can. This breaks a cardinal rule of story-telling (show don't tell) but really, that's not Vetra's biggest writing foible. I've seen many people say she's a watered down version of our previous Turian buddy, Garrus. Minus a few quirks and similarities (add in the fact Turian culture prioritizes uniformity and adherence to discipline and doctrine) I don't spot much of a resemblance.

Vetra's largest issue, from a writing stand point, is that she doesn't have all that much content to gleam her personality through. Her mother was a heartless bitch and her father owed money to the wrong people. This led Vetra to act as a parent to her younger sister at the age of thirteen. This leads most of Vetra's content to revolve around, you guessed it, her sister. It's not written badly, merely uninspired.           

NEW VETRA: My change to Vetra: use her as a game mechanic. Instead of having mindless filler populate the game world, why not cut half of these irrelevant tasks and have Vetra introduce them as opportunities to gather resources? Think ME2's mechanic of upgrading the Normandy's shields, weapons, probe capacity, armor and just apply it here as necessary. Why limit it to the Tempest? Upgrade the Nomad you use on the ground, send resources to outposts you establish on various worlds, have outposts actually perform functions and use said resources so that our choice to build them isn't just a statistic.

The main point of this addition (aside from fixing the asinine quest structure of jumping world to world for a one minute scene) is to offer a glimpse into what Vetra actually does all day. These negotiations would highlight the lengths she goes to get the job done. Vetra implies she has a long litany of suspicious contacts that she barters favors with but why not dive deep into a glimpse of that world? Take us through a day in the life of Vetra and let's find out what makes her tick.

Yes, I know, it's her sister. But more than that please? Miranda already gave us a chance to save her sister in ME2 and it's used as a way for her to understand her own relationships and ability to be vulnerable. Vetra just needs to loosen up and be more flexible as parent, according to her loyalty quest. Some more reach couldn't hurt either.              

DRACK: I like Drack. He's probably the best written character on the team. And honestly, he's just an older, more tired version of Wrex. He's a practical guy who came to Andromeda to safeguard a future for the Krogan, via his granddaughter. He knows due to his age and history of brutal violence, there likely isn't a place for him in the future he's helping to build. But more than that, he's a character who understands his own flaws immediately.

There's a scene in the game where Drack gets a medical exam. You discover Drack's body and back up organs are on their last legs as he's been fighting tirelessly alongside you. He's an old alien with countless prosthetic pieces and replacement parts holding him together. He contemplates how a handful of grenades destroyed his life (as a Krogan who can't fight or prove your self-worth, there's not very far to go after that. Unless you don't mind being a humiliated mess ala Patriarch in ME2).

A shaman places his granddaughter in front of him and shows him how something worthless can still find reason to live. Drack dedicates his life towards that little girl's dreams for as long as he's able. He doesn't boast about it, he doesn't question his role (until he's neck deep in his own quest arc), he simply does his job... which is murdering everything in sight. He's not an innovative character, but he is an inspiring one.          

PEEBEE: In terms of content, Peebee has a good amount. While cliched, her character makes sense for the plot. She's an impetuous and reckless version of Liara included with some social awkwardness. Her awkward quirks aren't as cringe as ME1 Liara but they seem more deliberate this time around whereas Mass Effect felt like it was checking off a box of young male science fiction tropes. 

Peebee hates commitment and so she joins your team (in a non-committal fashion) in order to study Remnant tech. She somehow becomes an expert on this thing no one knows how to decipher besides SAM (she didn't even know Angarans existed until she met them with Ryder), which is why she's useful but I would have her go harder on the fictional science. She seems to explain science through buzz words that sound cool but don't actually mean anything. She guesses more than she understands, which is part of the scientific process, but I wish they seemed more like educated guesses.       

Her loyalty quest on the other hand, is trash. The level design is cool and the mechanics are solid. But those aren't why I started playing Mass Effect. Long story short; her old flame, Kalinda is undermining her efforts to study Remnant at every turn. Kalinda attempts to murder us at every possible interaction point for profit. She even sneaks on our ship somehow to steal from us. I don't know how this was physically possible, at all.

And then, during Peebee's loyalty quest, Peebee has to choose between a vague piece of Remnant technology that could be really important or saving Kalinda. She tries to save Kalinda automatically. I don't understand the logic here at all. For someone who proposes to not like getting attached, she sure is really attached to that murdering bitch. The option for Ryder is to shoot or not shoot Kalinda while Peebee is saving her and that's disgusting from a moral point of view. I know I'm here to talk about writing but it must be said. The idea that we are here to help Peebee, followed by Peebee choosing to the help the one-dimensional bad guy instead of her own goal, and then the idea of Ryder undermining that ridiculous effort, not by saving the device but by murdering the bad guy is a gross misunderstanding of narrative structure.

The structure could go as thus if you wanted a sympathetic story:
1. Kalinda undermines Peebee at every turn for seemingly no gain
2. Twist on the motivation shows Kalinda is actually trying to be closer to Peebee but can't express herself properly, creating sympathy and thereby back clash when Peebee seems too cold.
3. Kalinda arrives at the loyalty quest, holding the device hostage, threatening to kill herself unless Peebee gives up Remnant tech (the idea here is Kalinda got away from her old life for unconstrained freedom. Peebee's obsession for technology is a type of self-control that narrows her perspective)
4. Ryder gets to help Peebee choose between important technology or saving a desperate woman from herself.

Ending A) If Ryder agrees with Peebee's mentality of not forming attachments, then Peebee grabs the device, advances forward with her life in honor of those who's sacrifices build the future.

Ending B) Peebee gives Kalinda closure, stating the truth of their unhealthy relationship and owning up to equal blame on each side. Peebee loses the device but softens up enough to understand what exactly she's fighting for in the here and now.

Also that attachments don't have to hinder progress, they can inspire it. Also that her obsession was a form of attachment. Either way, you now have structure that lends weight to Kalinda's sympathy value and Peebee's critical path.                           

Lightning Round!

GIL & KALLO: Our engineer and pilot, respectively. Their interaction reminds me of the encounters we had in ME2 where two people would argue after their loyalty quests finish. Except here, it happens throughout the whole game. It's a great expansion on an earlier idea in the series. They have a natural friction with two real, opposing ideas that you can take sides on ( I side with Kallo btw). Individually, they're written decently and can be fun characters to talk to.     

*Gil is cool but I liked Dorian better in Dragon Age Inquisition*

SUVI: Our scientist seems like she was inspired by the 2012 film, Prometheus, from the Aliens franchise. She's a scientist who believes in god, possibly creationism, (which is pretty common in real life) and waxes poetically about our mission. Her romance with fem-Ryder reinforces some of the game's cringe aspect but it's pretty self aware. She's genuinely interesting to talk to with her perspective and considerations on the universe, to the point where I feel like she represents the grander sense of awe and discovery in Andromeda.     

LEXI: Ignoring that most of the asari in Andromeda have reused face models... I would replace Lexi with a batarian doctor. There's no batarian ark but his/her existence would imply a level of skill that goes above species preference. And a batarian in Andromeda would work perfectly with the idea that the batarian government is one worth escaping. But I guess the writers don't care about highlighting the struggles of alien minorities. Sorry, I don't mean to sound so scathing. It's far more likely that a batarian character never even crossed their minds. It's just frustrating when writers continually choose to ignore or blind side certain parts of their creations in favor of one dimensional flavor species, never to be celebrated for their potential merits. Lexi is fine enough otherwise, just simply nothing we haven't seen before.          

JAAL...

What's this? Jaal's space is blank? But that means...

We're saving Jaal for a larger discussion of factions and species, including the Angaran?! Well... I guess I'll see you guys next time. Bye! Tune in next time!

- Gabriel A. Franco
Writer, Gamer, Proud member of Huffle N' Stuff
@Gabenstuff