Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!
Today, I'm going to tackle Andromeda's combat, and how it differs from the Shepard trilogy's combat.
Before I start in, I'm going to refer to Shepard as "she", since I prefer the female Shepard, and Ryder as "they", since both Scott and Sara exist in the same playthrough.
When it comes to control over your character, you have more control over Ryder, and not in the ways you'd expect. Yes, Ryder has the jump jets that let them dash and jump around the battlefield, but I'm talking about something different. You see, Shepard automatically draws their weapons when attacked. Whether you holstered your gun or not between fights, Shepard automatically draws. Now, I realize that's a quirk of the combat engine, but it makes sense; Shepard is a heavily trained, heavily experienced, special forces soldier. Like Thane says, Shepard's training is so finely honed that entering combat is practically instinct. But Ryder? You have to tell them to enter battle by drawing their weapons, which, in my eyes, means they're a little scared about battle and have to mentally prepare themselves for a second or two, forcing the player to take action.
Ryder, however, is minimally trained. On Habitat-7, Ryder mentions that they've "tackled a batarian pirate in my day", but Ryder is quite a bit younger than Shepard. Practically first enlistment young; early 20s at the most, compared to Shepard being 29 in her first appearance. And for Shepard, that time between an 18 year old enlistment and her first appearance is spent in a LOT of foxhole situations.
That leads into the class system, too. The Shepard trilogy is all about a soldier and her team entering battle with their own strengths and weaknesses complimenting each other. Shepard spent 11 years refining her skill set to a point where she can handle any situation that comes before her. But Ryder is an explorer. Using Sara as an example for a moment, she moved from basic training into a field scientist role as a Prothean researcher. And while Scott spent his time guarding a Mass Relay, the Ryders spent their early careers learning adaptability. That's why Ryder isn't restricted to one specific class the way Shepard is; they're adaptable for any situation they come across as an explorer.
Now that they lore bits are out of the way, it's on to the mechanics. As I said previously, Ryder is more mobile, with the jump jets giving them speed to get around the battlefield in ways that are impossible for Shepard. But that's not without consequence; Shepard dives into cover at the touch of a button, where as Ryder has "contextual cover", where they automatically take cover if they hide behind something that CAN be used as cover. And while the games are designed around these systems, it takes a bit of time to get used to the difference if you're playing them back to back.
The other biggest difference is how powers are handled. In Andromeda, you don't have the power wheel that Shepard has. You select three powers for use in battle at once, and you can swap them out on the fly through the pause menu. That means you have to think carefully about what you're choosing. This makes Andromeda a little less beginner friendly in terms of abilities, because you have to really understand what you're doing compared to Shepard. That makes builds more important in Andromeda, with the profile system giving you access to different builds on the fly.
And the last thing I can think of is vehicle combat; there is none in Andromeda. I'm forced to play Andromeda the way I played the original build of ME1's Mako; get out of the car and fight there, though back in 2007, it was because you got 25% less xp from shooting with the Mako's cannons than with your small arms. The Nomad has no guns, and if you run over any mobs, IT takes damage. The Nomad is not a tank, it's an explorer's vehicle.
Andromeda is definitely a different beast when it comes to battle, though its fun in its own way. Just familiarize yourself on Habitat-7 before diving head first, and you'll be fine.
Next up will be my analysis of the Tempest crew and comparing them to their Shepard Trilogy counterparts, but until then, stay beautiful freaks!
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