The last two planets have the best content by far. This is slowly becoming the secret best Mass Effect game for me.
That's because Ryder is not an elite military dude/dudette. They even remark that Fem Ryder did peacekeeping with the Alliance and Dude Ryder guarded an installation or something with their respective careers being cut short because of Dad Ryder's AI work. They're not even close to the level of Shepard. You also get called out by Bradley on Podromos for wearing N7 armor, lol.
Loving every second of it now. If you're not into lots of worldbuilding, flavor dialogue that is pure info, and actually driving around big open areas then this isn't for you. People complain about fetch quests, and there definitely are a lot just like every open world rpg in the last decade or more, but they usually have some dialogue or reactions from the npcs or something that fleshes out the world or specific planet. There's nothing as terrible as the side quests in ME3 where you overheard a conversation and ran errands for people despite the upcoming Reaper invasion.
The game is a slow burn at the beginning but the later planets have some great quests, the loyalty missions have all been varied with some unique setpieces/world mechanics and the character development is pretty strong to me. Some people hate the new crew but they all have better character development in one game than your squad did in ME1.
Haven't found any SJW agendas either. There are gay characters but who cares. Hitting on a straight squadmate as Dude Ryder netted some fun dialogue. Reyes will charm the pants off your Ryder so watch out if your charater doesn't swing this way or that.
The conversation animations are definitely a glaring issue and disappointing that they aren't up to snuff but after a few hours with the game, they haven't impacted the amount of fun I'm having. Go in with the mindset this is more of a pulpy 70s/80s space opera than some ultra grim apocalyptic story and dialogue and you'll have fun.
