<\/div>The idea of a warmongering Krogan leader makes sense. Having said that, I really hate this character. She doesn’t feel like a Krogan to me. She comes of as snarky, sarcastic, and whiny. She has a lot of passive-aggressive lines, which makes no sense to me. Passive aggression is for people who are afraid to be overtly aggressive and confrontational. If anyone should be comfortable with aggression, it’s a Krogan.<\/p>\n
On top of this, her vocal performance is really odd.\u00a0She’s not fearsome, she’s catty<\/em>. She doesn’t sound like a queen or a war chief. She sounds like an entitled diva. The last female Krogan we met was in Mass Effect 3. She came off as very wise and practical. Morda doesn’t seem have either of those attributes. I never felt like she was particularly cunning.<\/p>\n Shamus, it’s not like the Krogan are limited to\u00a0 a single personality! What’s wrong with mixing things up a bit?<\/strong><\/p>\n I can believe that occasionally a Krogan might act like Morda. What I find hard to swallow is that the other Krogan tolerate her as leader. If these guys are impressed with Morda then they should be begging Drack to take over. He’s smarter, more experienced, stronger, has a more impressive list of accomplishments, and has a more Krogan style of leadership. The writer doesn’t give us anything to explain why she’s in charge or why anyone is following her.<\/p>\n More importantly, in a story where all the aliens seem to be off-brand and out-of-character, Morda seems less like the writer is mixing things up and more like the writer didn’t have a handle on the setting they were working with.<\/p>\n Morda is a foil for the player and the most important character on Elaaden, so she really ought to be more impressive. We should find her imposing, not annoying.<\/p>\n Out in the desert, there’s a crashed remnant spaceship. Morda wants the drive core. On one hand, she says she wants it to power her colonyHang on, isn’t power a solved problem? None of the other outposts, colonies, or cities need exotic Remnant technology to make electricity. Morda’s base seems to have working lights and things, so she already has electricity. What’s driving this particular need?<\/span>. On the other hand, it could easily be turned into a weapon of mass destruction.<\/p>\n Ryder goes out to retrieve the drive core, only to find Strux has already obtained it and hidden it away. You recover it without his knowledge and then go to meet with both Strux and Morda.<\/p>\n Strux blames the theft on Ryder. He accuses Ryder of stealing the drive core, announcing that his clan will “recover” it. He’s hoping this move will rally everyone behind him so he can depose Morda. But then you announce that you have it, and this turns the conversation in your favor?<\/p>\n He accused you of stealing it, and to clear your name you announce that you… have it? What?! Strux does sort of incriminate himself at the end, but this scene doesn’t make sense as written. He accuses you of stealing the drive core, and is then outed as a liar when it turns out that he’s telling the truth. From Morda’s point of view, nothing is said that should exonerate you. It’s your word against Strux, and she’s got a huge prejudice against\u00a0everyone from the Initiative. Ryder only wins here due to writer fiat.<\/p>\n Anyway, Morda and Strux have the most hilariously awkward fistfight<\/a> since that time Kirk karate-chopped the Gorn<\/a> in 1967. Morda wins, and Strux runs off.<\/p>\n In the end you can either choose to give Morda the drive core, or you can keep it. She promises war if you choose the latter. This isn’t a bad choice on paper, but by this point in the game I didn’t have any trust in the storyteller and I didn’t feel like I had enough information to make an informed choice. The drive core itself is a random macguffin and you have no way of knowing what it can do, how badly the Krogan need its power, or how hard it would be to turn into a weapon. You don’t know the details or timeline of the Nexus rebellions. Morda’s personality is so strange that I couldn’t get a feel for how seriously I was supposed to take her saber-rattling. Instead of trying to make this decision using my knowledge of the world, I found myself thinking, “I wonder what the writer plans to do with this.” Everything is so vague you could easily justify any outcome.<\/p>\n I realize this game was unpolished and barely came together at the last minute. So it’s not a big surprise that the crafting system ended up just as dodgy as everything else. Still, they picked the least interesting way to break it.<\/p>\n When you’ve got a pure power-building system like this in your game, there are two different ways it can be broken:<\/p>\n 1) Unbalanced. You can use the system to gain absurd levels of power that trivialize the game. Essentially, the system gives you too much power for too little cost.
<\/div>Drive Core<\/h3>\n
<\/div>
<\/div>Crafting System<\/h3>\n
<\/div>
\n2) Pointless. The system doesn’t give out enough power to make it worth the player’s time.<\/p>\n
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>