What Did We Play Yesterday?

Carrion is a reverse-horror game in which the player controls a monster that has escaped a laboratory and is running rampant through the facility consuming humans and gaining new powers. It's sometimes described as a metroidvania without a map, and whether the lack of a map is a a feature or bug is up to the player.

Before we get started, there's the icon controversy.

When Carrion came out on Nintendo Switch the launcher icon was either hilarious or horrible, depending who you asked (image on left). They have since changed it to the image on the right. I am not sure how this went down but the original icon certainly evokes a sense of bodily discomfort that is latent throughout the game.

Carrion is deeply atmospheric and gory. Gore normally turns me off, but the pixel art makes it manageable here. The play control is interesting because it's both precise (I am sometimes able to flip a switch without harming the human standing next to it) and goosey (running around, especially in the larger bio form, can feel kind of haphazard and weighty, with body parts sloshing all over the place) in a way that emphasizes the body horror component. You have this messy, writhing monster body that's springy and powerful and can easily decapitate and devour humans, and while in theory you can delicately open doors with a carefully-aimed appendage, it's also true that sometimes your body just sort of... gets away from you... and you rip the door off the hinges anyway. When I play this game I feel very much like a horrifying laboratory monster. It's an interesting and surreal vibe, and while there is a level of play control unpredictability that can be frustrating but also keeps things from feeling too samey. I go into a room with a plan but you know what? Sometimes my body does shit I don't want it to do. And I think this is something most of us humans can relate to.

The powers are cool. Carrion eventually evolves to shoot webs (also useful for pulling levers), attack, pull, turn into water worms, turn invisible, and take over human bodies. These powers are not all simultaneous, they are available depending on Carrion's current biomass, so an important feature of gameplay is changing size to be larger (by eating biomass or humans) or smaller (by depositing excess biomass into pools) to change the powers that are available for the current puzzle.

Rather infamously, Carrion doesn't have a map. This is a + for immersion, as an escaped laboratory monster would be unlikely to have a map, but a - for absent-minded human players. I am somewhat torn between appreciating the immersion and ruing all the backtracking I've had to do, but the needle settles on "feature." The game is short enough, atmospheric enough, and immersive enough the lack of map works for it.

Full disclosure, this is the third time I've attempted to play this title on Game Pass. The first two times I played a few hours, got lost, stepped away, then came back and was well and truly lost and shelved it for a bit. Each subsequent attempt I've started over from the beginning and haven't really minded. Carrion is fun to play. The main criticisms of this game are that it is too short and the gameplay is too samey. Both are valid, but I think the game's shorter length works precisely because the gameplay is relatively repetitious and there is no map.

At the final level I found myself having a lot of difficulty with the controls in regards to drone enemies. Drones cannot be attacked directly if you're not at 3rd level biomass, you must use webs or the environment, and I have found this to be incredibly hit or miss--usually a miss in my case. I did get stuck or lost a few times, and had to read a guide at one point (where I learned about an ability I wasn't aware I had), but this was the first time the game became truly frustrating for me. Dying repeatedly against flocks of drones was not fun, but the workaround is to get to the 3rd biomass level so you can spike them. In some situations, but not all, you can backtrack and figure out a way to do this.

In conclusion, Carrion is pretty fun and if you're into body horror I recommend giving it a look. Some people, evidently lacking a frame of reference for how much labor and time is required to make a game like this, take exception to paying $20 for what might be a six-hour game. If you're that sort of person you might want to check this one out on Game Pass. If the idea of a metroidvania without a map makes you break into hives (which is a reasonable reaction IMO), avoid. I think the game is interesting and different, and the short length means it doesn't outstay its welcome, but it does have the capacity to be frustrating in certain areas, especially towards the end.

Jamestown is a shmup that takes place in 17th Century British Colonial Mars. I originally picked this game up back in 2013, and more recently purchased the + version for Switch, which includes DLC and new ships.

Jamestown is kind of an odd shmup, not for the setting so much as the game structure. Each level is modular and once unlocked they can be played in any order. Additionally, the game has a shoppe where permanent upgrades can be purchased. Throw in the AU history storyline with cut scenes between chapters and Jamestown ends up feeling more like an RPG-shooter hybrid than a traditional shmup. There are also challenges (survive x seconds, collect x rings, and so on). Levels are unlocked by beating previous levels on a certain difficulty (Normal, Difficult, Legendary, Divine). Another interesting deviation from formula is Jamestown has up to 4-player coop.

We experimented with coop a bit and my kid prefers to watch this one but I found it enjoyable. One interesting element is after death the player has a few seconds cooldown timer before revival, but this can be circumvented by a Revive power-up that automatically revives all fallen players.

As far as the level design and bosses go, Jamestown is adequate. The bosses are fun but the attack patterns are not novel. The pixel art is quality and the theme is unique. I kept wondering, why didn't I beat this on PC? Then I finished the first 4 levels on Legendary difficulty and unlocked the 5th level, Croatia. This level is different in that it switches over to puzzle shmup gameplay a la Ikagura and requires the player to navigate obstacles like walls and spikes. I'm generally not as interested in this type of shooter-gameplay as it often requires route memorization and I lost interest in it very quickly.

Fortunately since the levels are modular I'm still able to enjoy the other parts of the game. The DLC features two additional Moon levels, Phobos and Demios. Phobos channels Cave, from the insect-based enemies to the boss spider's bullet patterns. It's different from the core levels but a welcome change. The challenges were hit or miss, especially for single-player. Some seemed prohibitively hard but others I managed after a few tries.

The big draw on this one is coop and the highly unusual theme, and those aspects and the more RPG-like design likely make the game more accessible to players who enjoy coop and might not traditionally care for shmups. Genre enthusiasts may not be impressed. I like it well enough, and played through the levels several times to my satisfaction, but generally what drives me to play shmups is a desire to git gud and that feeling isn't present here.

I picked this up this shmup collection for $2 back in 2020 and repeatedly failed to get into it. For one, it looks very much like a Psikyo game, and I have to say outside the occasional Gunbird 2 playthrough my Psikyo days are behind me. Two, the size--a whopping 1.4 GB--really, really bugs me as someone who doesn't use an SD card for additional storage.

But one main problem, on reflection, was that I didn't really understand how to play it. Vasara has a melee attack component that is absolutely vital, as it deflects those horrid little orange Psikyo-style bullets. Additionally, this collection has TATE mode, local 2-player coop in Classic mode, and local 4-player coop in timeless mode. So there is potentially a great deal to love here. I decided to pull my head out of my ass and give it another go. Unfortunately, I never did really grok the melee attack though, so after quarter-feeding to Stage 3 I called it a day.

Mass Effect: Andromeda, like Dragon Age: Inquisition before it, MEA is playable after the endgame and the player is able to continue other questlines after the main storyline is wrapped. DAI ended up having several story DLC, including a true ending DLC. MEA's DLC was canceled to divert resources to Anthem, so the game functionally ends where it ends--with the main villain is defeated, a few hints of what might have been to come, and a number of questions unanswered.

The trope "Everyone you helped joins the fight against the Big Bad!" has been done a million times and I love it every time. I felt like they did a great job of raising the stakes and bringing Ryder's twin into the fray. The final boss battle itself was not particularly interesting, it comprised waves of remnant enemies until bridges could be built, sort of like the "hacking" mechanic but without the radius, and the architect was less impressive after I'd already taken down a few planetside. I was ready for this battle to be over about halfway through.

I did make a deal with Primus and I'm curious to know where that leads. Likewise, I'm curious about the angaran AI (which I destroyed this playthrough but would preserve on a future PT). I was tempted to make Morda the ambassador but I went with August, which seemed like a reasonable compromise. My pathfinder option was Hayjer, which seemed a bit random.

I'm generally not a fan of games remaining open after the main quest is finished. When I get to the end of a 40+ hour journey, I'm ready for a definitive ending, and as a gamer I've been trained to expect ending slides and that sort of thing. The open ending of MEA kind of works, though, and I might actually go back and finish up a few more quests. There are some really interesting messages on the Harbringer terminal about the implications of Meridian and the Jardaan, as well as a teaser for the Quarian Ark, and a bunch of easter egg emails from Dragon Age characters. I liked the return to Habitat 7. I think it's reasonable to assume DLC for the Quarian Ark was probably in the works. If I could have any DLC for this game I think finding the Quarian Ark, exploring the surface of Meridian, and activating the vault at Ryder-I would be awesome.

Given the length of time between MEA and the next game--probably at least 7 years--I think this game is always going to feel a bit adrift from the rest of the series. Some of the questions are handled in the Mass Effect: Andromeda book franchise (the Quarian ark, for example, is covered in Mass Effect Andromeda: Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente). It's worth noting the MEA tie-in books were all released in 2017 and 2018 and work on MEA officially ended with version 1.10 on 07/31/17. Additionally, there has been massive staff movement since 2017 and BioWare has weathered another game crisis: the failure and abandonment of Anthem. I can only assume any MEA sequel will have new writers, new ideas, and new design parameters, so any plans the original developers had might not necessarily be borne out.

A lot of reviewers say things like, "MEA is not a perfect game but..." I'm not even going there, man. There is no perfect game. MEA is great and I liked it a lot. This PT clocked in at just under 50 hours, 80% completion, and nabbed about half of the achievements. The combat and jump-jets are fun, the story and characters are interesting, and the lore was enjoyable to dig into. I can definitely see myself playing through a NG+ before the next Mass Effect game drops, assuming that game ties into Andromeda. The deluxe version of this game has a regular price of $20 and constantly goes on sale for $9.99, which is a ridiculous deal if you like single-player BioWare RPGs at all.

My brain kinda wants to live here a while, but knowing the timeline for a sequel is so far away tempers my enthusiasm a little bit. I don't want to get "too" into MEA and become overly-invested in the franchise like I was with Dragon Age. I'm interested in the tie-in books with caveats (Nexus Uprising supposedly has a lot of tedious bureaucratic incompetence stuff [shitshow indeed], but I had no problem with Jeff Vandermeer's bureaucratic Authority and, also--Sloane fucking Kelly) so there's still plenty of lore to dig into.

Liam's Loyalty Mission and Eos

I kept putting off Liam's loyalty quest for some reason, and IDK man I loved it. It's cinematic, it's fun, it has good jokes. I took Jaal and he has a very good one-liner, but now I'm curious about bringing Vetra. I didn't remember ANY of it, except the upsidedown part, so it was essentially a new experience.

I think I was resistant because the whole "scanning at the Angaran market" quest is kind of off-putting. I haven't taken Liam on as many missions this game, so my opinion of him is still being formulated. From what I can tell he's a Good Dude™ who takes dumb risks--he's got a banter with Vetra where she is chiding him for taking hits to shields as a combat strategy. He reads fairly young to me (I couldn't find a canonical age) and has a strong personal sense of morality that clashes with some of the crew in a superficial way (he butts heads with Vetra, for instance, but it came across as a bit holier-than-thou because Liam doesn't exactly play by the rules either). I think the Aya quest is supposed to annoy or exasperate the player a bit, and I walked away with the sense Liam was the one crewmember I would have to "keep an eye on"--that one guy who can't seem to stay out of trouble. The loyalty mission validates this--Liam gets in over his head, but as a result pledges to be more careful down the line.

I like his relationship with August, and this segued nicely into an opportunity to return to Eos to finish up the weird Kett base thing, which was... weirdly anticlimactic? Some of the voice recordings of Invictus that I found were downright creepy (there's one where he asks a Turian prisoner how much pressure would be required to remove her dermal plates, or something like that) but the confrontation itself happened pretty quickly, without any cut scenes, and the only codex I found was a few messages about Kett having confusing dreams. At first I wondered if I missed something, and went through the base again, but... nope. That's it.

PeeBee's Loyalty Mission

I will preface this by saying, if you take Drack on this mission, the safety bars for the escape pod repeatedly hit him on the head during your descent. It's a funny detail and I think that's the intended tone. The mission is supposed to be lighthearted and fun, just like Liam's, but unfortunately I was already annoyed by how much running-around I'd had to do and this entire interaction got on my damn nerves.

I actually do remember this one! Last time I was romancing PeeBee, and I rolled with it and saved Kalinda for PeeBee's sake, and I don't think I necessarily had strong feelings about it beyond enjoying PeeBee time. This time I got pissed off about how irresponsible the whole thing was. Scott has always taken the path of life-preservation, but I was so aggravated I stepped outside my RP to have Ryder shoot Kalinda. Kalinda tried too damn hard to kill a Pathfinder and crew, going so far as to offer her people extra pay if they ripped out their implants, and it was over an artifact she didn't even understand and apparently only wanted so she could score yet another point of toxic one-upmanship on PeeBee. My Ryder also made PeeBee pay for a replacement escape pod, which seems like a truly small cost considering how things went down.

This mission demonstrates how MEA's combat-centric nature can clash with the stories they're trying to tell. PeeBee says Kalinda doesn't deserve to die for the artifact, but what about the 30-something other people Kalinda just used as canon fodder? If the mission design had involved puzzles or even had some sort of race/timed component where you can strategize to get the artifact first the vibe could have been very different and saving Kalinda would have made more sense. But the developers default to the core mechanic--fighting waves of hostiles while Kalinda constantly taunts from the sidelines--and the resulting decision to shoot or spare her feels like a watered down renegade/paragon choice rather than a difficult choice with actual meaning.

Players take issue with PeeBee and Liam's loyalty missions because both characters make risky or poor decisions that put the Pathfinder in a dangerous spot, but Liam's mission is very tonally different from PeeBee's IMO. Liam is trying to help people, whereas PeeBee's treats extreme risk as a game. Thus, I feel his succeeds where hers fails.

I'm using a multi-romance mod and my Ryder had a casual affair with PeeBee so shortly after that her romance confirmation scene triggers. It's actually very cute (she's not able to express her feelings directly, so she uses the remnant bot Poc to deliver the message) but I laughed because when Ryder says he just wants to be friends the scene ends abruptly, almost like a TikTok where the humor of an awkward scene is punctuated by the clip ending. I'm sure that wasn't the intent, I may have accidentally skipped PeeBee's dialogue, but it was still funny.

On Jaal's Romance Scene, Agency, and Writing Player Characters

I've seen screenshots of this romance on Tumblr so I had a general idea how this might go down (ahem), but Jaal's romance scene had more variability than I expected. You have options to initiate a kiss, have sex, and declare your love. At one point, Jaal asks Ryder what his favorite place in the universe is. If you choose the option "So far? Earth" you get a bit of unexpectedly specific backstory:

Scott: On the east cost of Australia, there's a beach...

Scott: The ocean changes color, like it has a mood. The hours--days--I spent chasing the perfect wave... so addicted. Jaal: Addicted to the ocean. Huh.

This is so different from anything I headcanoned for my Ryder it actually broke my immersion. The voice acting is also a little awkward. I reloaded to check out the second choice ("I haven't found it yet.")

Scott: Haven't found it. It's out there... somewhere.

Jaal: Yeah. I get that.

This one doesn't quite work for me either but at least didn't unexpectedly rope me into a surfer enthusiast background. It turns out the Australia/surfing line is unique to Scott, Sara says her favorite place is a mountain.

Sara: There's a mountain on Earth. Sunny and warm, but there's a crisp wind whooshing through trees, tousling your hair...

Jaal: Well... tousling your hair.

(Both laugh, it's very sweet)

This exchange fits the characters, mood, and moment a lot better, and as it happened I'd formally headcanoned the twins vacationed with their grandparents and did a fair bit of hiking in the Sierra Nevadas. It's a good example of how to write dialogue for player-driven characters that have canonical backgrounds. Sara doesn't get too specific, nor should she--Jaal has no frame of reference, he doesn't know what "Australia" or "California" are--but many people who enjoy the outdoors can appreciate mountain vistas. There's nothing in Ryder's background to suggest they've ever been to Australia, but Alec spent his youth in the Sierra Nevadas and it's not a stretch to think members of the Ryder family did a fair bit of hiking, be it training or recreation. I think it's a good example of the difference between writing a character and writing a character a player will inhabit and make their own.

Anyway, after this Jaal sends an email that confirms he is totally into Scott Ryder's guns. A+ romance.

Also, Jaal's true mother, Sahuna, is a treasure. I've stumbled across a bug where just-read emails vanish from my inbox and never return. And of course, they're never emails from random NPCs, the first ones I lost were from Reyes so I think the bug may be related to the romance mod. In any case, I lost her first batch of emails due to this, so when she sent a follow-up quizzing me about the human birth process, among other things, I was naturally quite delighted. Thank goodness for Wikis, though I'm sorry to say, the Wiki does not have them all so I reproduce her last email here:

Communication from Sahuna, True Mother of Jaal

To: Ryder

From: Sahuna

Jaal refuses to send me answers to the questions below. He says that it's too embarrassing, so I am asking you myself.

• Do you have a favorite weapon that you find particularly effective against the kett?
• What was your homeworld like? Perhaps we can find ways to make you feel more at home here.
• Can you describe the human birth process to me? I'm interested for many obvious reasons.

I'm never embarrassed. That's something you should know about me.

Sahuna Ama Darav

Vetra and "Medicinal Herbs" and the Blast-Oh's Mystery That Wasn't

I feel like I've neglected Vetra, except I'm not sure that's true. Early in the game I explored all of her dialogue options and she was a constant companion on Kadara and came with Ryder to explore the Turian Ark. But Vetra seems to have less stuff overall, especially compared to a companion like PeeBee, who is constantly sending emails and making requests.

H-047c provides an opportunity to hear various companions scream, "Shit!" when Ryder drives the Nomad into a gaping chasm. I took Drack, because of course I did, and he actually fucking loves it. Vetra was mostly just horrified. Drack seemed like a good choice for Vetra's loyalty mission on the basis of their friendship, and I like that he told Vetra he would make sure Sid was okay, and they have a nice sort of "guardians of foolish youngsters" banter afterwards. The mission is fine (it's actually a nice change of pace to have the crew member in question NOT be responsible for a sticky situation) but at one point after clearing out a room of outlaws Sid asks, "Did you have to kill them all?" and I got confused and thought I'd somehow missed something. So I reloaded, and it turns out there's actually no pacifist way to clear the room, whatever you do you end up killing EVERYONE and Sid comments on it. The point is that Sid doesn't truly understand how dangerous Vetra's work is, but it feels like another example of a combat-centric game's mechanics butting heads with storytelling a bit.

I went back to Kadara for Vetra's friendship scene and took PeeBee along because I'd never had them both in my squad before. The Vetra/PeeBee banter is actually kind of great so I ended up driving around Kadara polishing off the last few quests just so I could hear it all. Their friendship is nice and I love PeeBee again.

There is an entire drug trip sequence, documented in the screenshot gallery.

Ditaeon is supposedly Down In the Ass End of Nowhere but IN FACT, Kurinth's Valley in the far northwestern corner better meets the description. There's an Architect out there and the Emergency SOS Mission ended up being well worth the trouble. Apparently when the game launched this questline was broken, but it has since been patched and Ryder can now have herb. Very enjoyable for everyone involved and I'm surprised I haven't seen any sort of gifset for this on Tumblr.

Okay, so the Blast-Ohs. Very early on I saw Vetra was hoarding cereal. I became intensely curious as to WHAT exactly Vetra was doing with this stuff. Scanning identified the cereal as being used for bartering. I kept waiting for a callback on this, but... nope. It's just cereal Vetra is using as leverage, and it is never given another moment of thought. Very anticlimactic, I know, but search engines reveal I'm not the only player to wonder about it.

I'm around 70% completion. Originally I didn't plan to finish all the planetary quests, but I've found a lot of them to be more enjoyable than I expected (just think how easily I could have missed Ryder getting stoned) so I may go ahead and finish the rest to make sure I don't miss anything interesting that's tucked away.

Luigi's Mansion 3 is an adventure game for the Nintendo Switch in which the titular character and his scientifically-created counterpart Gooigi rescue the Mario gang by exploring a huge haunted hotel and exorcising the environs with a vacuum cleaner.

I picked this up to play with my kid, having never played the previous two games. The vacuum/ghost-collecting mechanics are fun and intuitive, there are just enough collectibles on each floor to present a challenge without being overwhelming when you invariably fail to obtain some of them, the level design is creative and the game doesn't overstay its welcome (average playthrough is 15 hours). Aiming the vacuum can be a little wonky but it mostly works out. Some of the boss battles were surprisingly tough and I admit there was a bit of yelling (me barking orders at the kid, the kid barking back) but there was also a sense of accomplishment when we beat a particularly tough foe.

I love how they handle co-op in this game. The second player controls Gooigi and therefore cannot die. The game ends when the first player, who is playing as Luigi, runs out of hearts. This is perfect if you're teaming up with a younger player, because they can run around doing whatever the hell it is their little kid brain wants to do while the more experienced player handles the heavy lifting with Luigi. The only downside is Gooigi isn't available until you upgrade the vacuum, so the very beginning of the game is solo-only.

The game comes with multiplayer options that were a mixed bag for us. Screamscraper is supposed to be online multiplayer, and as local multiplayer we found it prohibitively difficult. The local multiplayer mini games were okay, we played a little bit but the majority of the time my kid wanted to play the main game.

It took us about a month to beat the main game, playing a little almost every day, and I'd had my fill by the time we got to the end of it. I was curious to see if I could trick my kid into becoming a completionist, so some weeks later I broke out the game again so we could search for collectibles we'd missed. The good news is we both picked it back up easily, the "bad" news is... some of those collectibles are hard to find, so we might wander around an entire play session and not have any progress to show for it. We still have fun wandering around but I doubt we'll ever get all the gems.

Just dropping this here: The Gamer recently released an dev article, Mass Effect Andromeda Had Designs For Up To Ten New Alien Species, But They Were Cut For Budget, Scope, And... Cosplay that explains some of the design decision. The emphasis on cosplay seems a bit myopic to me, honestly. It's one thing to make character designs accessible to cosplayers by providing detailed reference images, but designing alien races around cosplayability? Obviously no one asked me.

Anyway, I recently started mainlining Mass Effect: Andromeda with the intent of powering through to the end. Each early morning or late night session I think, "Now I'll finally beat MEA," and of course I don't. I'm not doing all the things, just the most interesting ones--the main questline, ark stuff, companion and loyalty missions, and getting planet viability to 100% (which is incidental if you're doing the other things)--but it seems every time I sit down to play there's a new series of quests that warrant exploration.

The amount of planet-hopping I'm having to do can be a little annoying, because one of the best ways to immerse in this game is to focus on one planet at a time, but I think that's partly my fault because I put off the main quest to build up planet viability and when I finally went after the Archon I triggered a whole bunch of new quests and ended having to run all over the damn place. From a design perspective, I think a solid fix would be to have multiple quest triggers--one tied to the main plotline, and one tied to planet viability or quests planetside, whichever comes first.

I'm finally starting to get into aspects of the game I didn't experience before. Being a four-year-old game, I have been exposed to some spoilers (though not about the main plot--ME fandom has been pretty amazing in that regard!), so I naturally made a point of orchestrating this moment:

Movie Night is such a fun quest. It's a little annoying to run around collecting all the things after the fact, you're supposed to start doing it much earlier on. I also found it funny Vetra talked about bringing popcorn from the Milky Way to turn a tidy profit when you can buy it for like 10 credits. I liked the reflections on nostalgia, which is a theme I was recently trying to explore with fic. It's a genuinely fun bit of fangift (NOT fanbait, it truly is a gift) that works so much better than the comparable scene in DAI (the Wicked Grace game). I love that everyone has something to contribute, though I wasn't sure how Jaal's contribution factored in in a practical sense, and it's one of the best scenes we have of Kallo.

I feel like the two of the best-written characters in this game are Jaal and Drack.

Drack's entire story and his loyalty quest is so satisfyingly written and interesting. Drack is a 1400 Korgan war vetran who has been injured to the extent much of his body is prosthetic and he is down to his last organs. He lived through an extremely volatile period in Krogan history. He is acutely aware of his importance as a reminder of the past while being receptive to the younger generation leading the species forward. His relationship with his granddaughter, Kesh, is heartwarming, and I felt his loyalty quest to retrieve a seed vault, which allows the Krogan to grow special nutrient-rich food for babies, extremely poignant. The whole loyalty mission is well done--exciting, great lore, lots of characterization and development--and it really tied into Drack as a character. Afterward you go on a not-date with Drack (a date, he explains, would involve much more property damage) where he and Ryder have a massive bar fight. Finally, if you don't lock in a romance by the time Movie Night occurs, Drack falls asleep on your shoulder. He is, hands down, one of my favorite Bioware characters ever.

Jaal almost feels like a second main character, so much of the main plot directly relates to his experience and life. The voice actor is phenomenal, and I have to say, as far as temperamentally sweet characters go, I don't think you can really top this guy. From an RP perspective, Jaal's romance ended up being an excellent fit for my Ryder. The scene where Ryder helps Jaal save his family from the Roekaar, and they touch foreheads, sealed it for me. Reyes who? And Jaal really is an excellent foil for Reyes if you're coming at it from a trust and openness angle, at one point Ryder basically says, "I love how you're so open with me," and that was a great moment in my RP because Scott realized he hadn't thought about Reyes in a long time, nor did he particularly want to.

I'd been putting off committing to the relationship until the very end of the game and I somehow didn't realize Jaal would ask Ryder for commitment during the "meet my family" scene. It was such a sweet and surprising moment (in retrospect, DUH, haha, it's a very organic moment that is telegraphed within the scene itself but for some reason Ryder and I, being dorks, did not see it coming).

But I enjoyed that scene SO MUCH I turned the game off early that session, just to savor the feels a bit. This has been a tremendously satisfying RP.

Last PT I really got into Cora and PeeBee. I'm still interested in rolling a Ryder specifically to romance Cora, but this PT I felt like PeeBee was one of the weaker squadmates from a writing and theme standpoint. I found the amount of running around required for her missions was a little annoying, and I found her rivalries to be... weirdly juvenile, though admittedly PeeBee is still young as an asari. I haven't quite finished her questline so I might change my mind.

A lot of the information about the Collective is hidden on Kadara, which makes sense thematically, but I wish some of this stuff was a easier to find. Reyes mentions a Collective base if you ask about contacting the Collective. Another hint about the base's location is found in a hidden torture room the SE corner of the Kadara Badlands map.

SPOILERS, btw.

Collective Torture Room

This room isn't well documented, it's not on the wiki at all, so I took a few screenshots.

There is an abandoned structure at the SE corner of the map. You know you're in the right place because when you enter there's a dark hallway. Inside is a bloody interrogation room that, per the scans, has been used to kill people of every species. The room is creepy as hell and has lots of bloody tools. There is a hidden panel, and when opened you find a dead Outcast and an audio log.

The Outcast's fingernails have been removed. He was killed by a shot to the chest. The audio log reveals a Collective interrogator was seeking information on a missing Collective agent known as Lacerta. The Outcast refused to divulge the agent's whereabouts but did remark that Sloane "doesn't play with her food," which the interrogator took to mean Lacerta was dead. During the interrogation Outcasts arrive and the victim is killed and left in the hidden room, presumably to be disposed of at a safer time.

We know from the Outcast HQ Terminal that the Outcasts break the fingers of those caught stealing, but removing fingernails is a different level and the Outcast alludes to a Collective tendency to torture. This room is probably not documented in the wikis because it's not tied to a side quest, it's only something you find if you're exploring very thoroughly. I only knew to look for it because it was mentioned a few times on Reddit. This room has a fair bit of dialogue and crew commentary, even though it's not connected to any quests or easy to find.

Ryder: Doesn't look like anyone's home.

Drack: Famous last words.

[Scan blood]

Ryder: Is all this blood from one victim?

SAM: Negative, I detect multiple sources.

[Scan door to hidden room]

Ryder: There's something here.

[Door opens to reveal a dead outcast]

Vetra: Outcast colors. This is the Collective's mess.

Ryder: Let's look around. (Ed note: Ryder, the appropriate response is fear.)

[Scan body]

SAM: Multiple contusions on the face and arms. He was restrained for a lengthy period of time.

Ryder: Cause of death?

SAM: A blast to the heart. He likely died quickly.

Ryder: I guess that's something.

[Locate datapad]

SAM: Most of the data has been wiped.

Ryder: Can you recover anything?

SAM: The audio from the final log. Shall I play it?

Ryder: Do it.

Collective Interrogator: If you're thinking, 'This can't get worse,' I assure you it can.

Outcast: Ah! [Painful deep breaths] Fuck you.

CI: Operative Lacerta. Where is he?

O: Unlike you bastards, Sloane doesn't play with her food.

CI: So he's dead. That's unfortun-

Collective Pirate: Caelum! Outcast patrol inbound. Kill the bastard and wipe the logs.

CI: I'll report Lacerta's death to the Charlatan. Meet you at the base in Draullir.

Collective Base

The Collective base is interesting and easy to miss, it can be found in the same cave system as the missing surveyor for the Baryte Rush quest given at Tartarus (and a later Allies quest, Truths and Trespass), and it is also very well documented in the wiki. If Ryder arrives before High Noon they learn the Charlatan has informed the Charlatan representatives at the base not to harm the Pathfinder. This order was filtered down through Charlatan representaitve Crux, so the agents have different ideas what it means. One believes they have been told to "be nice" to the Pathfinder, another believes it means to be on good behavior. I noted there are a lot of angaran Collective agents present, a stark contrast to the Outcasts, which have explicitly prohibited angara from joining. There is a prison where prisoners are actively being beaten. If Ryder questions the beating and orders it to stop, the Collective agents comply.

If you arrive after picking Sloane the remaining Collective agents turn hostile. There is a note indicating the base is to be cleaned of loose ends and the prisoners have all been killed in their cells.

Multiple companions remark on how much cargo the Collective has stashed here and there is another reference to the Charlatan's wealth--a datapad notes he may be collecting scrap from Elaadan and acknowledges the costs of shipping it. In addition to smuggling, the Collective is attempting to train lizards and are growing poisonous mushrooms.

Crux confirms the Charlatan is more interested in results than methods, and states he allows agents handle missions how they see fit so long as the objective is completed.

The base has a meager questline to root out a Charlatan impersonator and a silly mysterious button Easter egg. The size and contents of the base say a lot about how well-established the Collective are, and I think it's telling that if you return after choosing Sloane the Outcasts still haven't found it yet.

Additional: Money, Plausible Deniability, Prolonging the Inevitable

By the Way, Reyes is Loaded

There's an ongoing gag that Reyes never pays for drinks. Reyes never pays for drinks at Kralla's Song, which is in Outcast territory. Topside, Reyes is a smarmy guy who never picks up the tab.

Down below, in the Slums, Reyes not only pays for a private room and drinks at Tartarus, he pays well according to Kian Dagher. Kian infers he knew Reyes' identity beforehand, possibly because of how much money he was spending. Zia accuses Reyes of having a monopoly on smuggling on Kadara, which seems to be circumstantially backed up by the cargo stash at the Collective base and comments post High Noon by dockworkers talking about how much of the Charlatan's cargo they unwittingly shipped. Charlatan representatives guess he's paying a lot to have salvage shipped from Elaaden to Kadara.

Sloane dismisses Reyes as a third-rate smuggler because she knows him as the asshole who never picks up the tab, not the guy who throws down serious bank in Tartarus.

Plausible Deniability

There is this surface narrative that the Charlatan values results and does not micromanage his representatives and does not dictate their methods. Crux says as much this when telling Ryder about the relationship the Charlatan has with Charlatan representatives. When Lynx says the Charlatan has ordered the Pathfinder not be harmed, and Ryder remarks Collective agents still shoot at him in the Badlands, she says that's probably because orders haven't trickled down to the lower ranks. So in game, we have characters suggesting the Charlatan does not necessarily know what his people are up to at any given time, but amongst the Outcasts it is known the Collective tortures prisoners. Reyes, being an information broker, would be aware of these rumors. The result is the player gets to headcanon howevermuch Reyes does or does not know. My personal take is Reyes knows a lot, actually, but it is very convenient for him to be able to say he doesn't know (or control) exactly what his people are up to. I also think this aspect of his network is something that could have potentially been set up to bite him in the ass in later games.

Prolonging the Inevitable

After digging up as much as I could on the Collective and Reyes, I came to the conclusion that Reyes is correct: if Ryder sides with Sloane they are only prolonging the inevitable. Reyes is going to keep coming and eventually he is going to win. He has a ton of resources and he has a vast network, and his ambitions appear to outstrip Sloane's.

A lot of people have speculated that Reyes would have a part in future games, possibly even as a crew member. Others have speculated Reyes was being positioned to be Andromeda's version of the Shadow Broker. MEA's botched launch will shake up any sequels in ways the original developers could not have anticipated, but my pet theory is Reyes was going to be put in a position where he was either usurped or impersonated, and Ryder gets involved to prevent a region (probably Kadara) from being destabilized. I felt like the Collective base quest about a Charlatan impersonator (the Charlatan's Charlatan) was intended to be foreshadowing, since otherwise it's a pretty random single quest tucked somewhat off the beaten path.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. I leave you with a bit of relevant banter I discovered after the fact.

Collective Agent: Scavengers tried to hit the outpost last night. Idiots.

C2: Did you make an example of them?

C1: Sliced their faces.

C2: "The Charlatan's smile." Nice.