Mass effect: Andromeda
Discussion
Have just soldiered through all 3 of the originals. To the user who told me to invest in the Citadel DLC, thanks, it was the cringiest thing i've ever played in the most loveable way i can say cringeworthy. The main quest's twist jumped out a bit too soon for me, but i couldn't hold it against it, the whole not taking itself seriously really prepared me for the finale, all the parts leading up to the final twist are grim and dark, it really gets you involved. Again i have to say that the 3 (4 if we're going to argue) choice ending is an absolute killer though. There are 2 other dlc's worth the time Omega isn't good enough for a thumbs up, but the Arrival with Jarik and The Leviathan added heaps to the story and lore.
After reading through everyone else's posts i might be giving Andromeda a bit more time, i think The Witcher 3 will do for now, a change of pace to some fantasy wouldn't be a bad choice.
After reading through everyone else's posts i might be giving Andromeda a bit more time, i think The Witcher 3 will do for now, a change of pace to some fantasy wouldn't be a bad choice.
Patch 1.05 is out and they have fixed a lot: animations, face textures, eye textures, made travelling between planets skippable, dialogue bug fixes, quests fixes..
The cynic in me says that EA rushed this out the door to hit the financial window, and they have been working on this patch for ages. Far too much for a 2 week emergency patch! They've even fixed the 'farce is tired women'.
The cynic in me says that EA rushed this out the door to hit the financial window, and they have been working on this patch for ages. Far too much for a 2 week emergency patch! They've even fixed the 'farce is tired women'.
Sara Ryder actually looks human now and not in a state of perpetual constipation.
Multiplayer is a bit of a sham now though. Kept all the weapons just as weak but introduced a melee interrupt/stun when shot so no more vanguard meleeing to victory on Gold.
Early days though I guess and a patch (of any sort) after two weeks is a positive sign.
Multiplayer is a bit of a sham now though. Kept all the weapons just as weak but introduced a melee interrupt/stun when shot so no more vanguard meleeing to victory on Gold.
Early days though I guess and a patch (of any sort) after two weeks is a positive sign.
I've enjoyed my time with Andromeda and when it gets it right, it really does feel like the next gen Mass Effect we all wanted. Problem is, those moments are relatively few and far between, saved mainly for the - relatively short - story missions and the loyalty missions.
If I'm honest with myself, it's a 6/10 game. It doesn't hold a candle to the likes of The Witcher 3 or Horizon Zero Dawn, and for a die-hard Mass Effect fan like myself that does sting. I can only hope that the overly negative press Andromeda received at launch won't hurt the chance of the almost inevitable sequel, and that if said sequel does arrive, it will be a massive improvement in all the areas that need it,
If I'm honest with myself, it's a 6/10 game. It doesn't hold a candle to the likes of The Witcher 3 or Horizon Zero Dawn, and for a die-hard Mass Effect fan like myself that does sting. I can only hope that the overly negative press Andromeda received at launch won't hurt the chance of the almost inevitable sequel, and that if said sequel does arrive, it will be a massive improvement in all the areas that need it,
The animations and character models are part of a larger issue, but weren't the reason for scoring it like that and again, as a huge fan of the original Mass Effect trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda has left me feeling deeply conflicted. The list of complaints I have about the game is lengthy, and it seems to be a step backwards for the series, but I still don’t think it’s an irredeemably bad game.
I enjoyed it, I just don't love it, not like I did the Trilogy. Yes, even ME3.
It just feels really lacking in polish, there are so many rough edges that shouldn't be there, so many silly little things that seem to exist only to annoy, aggravate or confuse. Crafting, for instance, being needlessly convoluted. It's the only way to get the gear you really want, but it boils down to mindlessly scanning everything in sight to accrue the correct level of resource, then having to delve into the messy menu UI to research it, then switch to another menu to develop it,then run to the loadout terminal to equip it. The crafting and loadout terminals are at different places on the Tempest as well, so you need to run around everytime you craft something to equip it, and you can't compare weapon stats between your current piece and one you're looking to build on the Tempest because you're in you civvies and the game doesn't recognise your currently equipped gear, which is ridiculous.
Find a weapon in the field? Well, tough luck, you can't just pick it up and use it, you need a loadout terminal to equip it. Plus, the ultra rare mods are just that; ultra-rare. I put one on a Mattock 3 assault rifle when I was level fifteen or something, but I'm now at level 60 and haven't seen another. Essentially, I just wasted it by putting it on a relatively early game piece of gear. So, the lesson is, don't use anything rare? What's the point of having them if they're so scarce and there's no way to recover them? It simply makes you not want to use them for fear of using them on the wrong item at the wrong time.
Silly things like that, in isolation, aren't a problem, but they do mount up.
Most of the missions outside the main story are tedious as well. Far too many of them devolve into "go here, scan something", even the ones that initially seem important, or have an intriguing premise, before asking you to planet hop multiple times to find the next navpoint, scan a crucial piece of equipment, or find a missing datapad. I'm a pathfinder, a trailblazer, not an errand boy. I know this kind of thing was a staple of RPGs, but given how much meat The Witcher 3 put on the bones of its side quests, is it wrong of me to have hoped the MEA might manage to at least be on par with a two year old game in that regard?
These missions aren't all bad, per se, but they desperately needed some editing, or at least a wider variety of gameplay scenarios. Forcing players to repeat the exact same action three times or drive across the map to interact with one prompt isn't fun, it just feels like padding. It feels like sandbox checklist busywork for the sake of it. It's Mass Effect, for goodness sake, not a Ubisoft game!
The campaign and loyalty missions are much better in this regard, but even then I felt the story was too brief. It feels like it is just hitting its stride and suddenly its over. Plus, you have to do sudoku puzzles to access monoliths. Who thought that was a good idea? Yes, you can now buy keys to bypass it cheaply enough, but if its so awful that the player base simply doesn't want to do it, then why is it even in the game?
It feels like Bioware was conflicted when making the game, mistaking depth and richness with complexity and size, a trap many open world games seem to fall into. Even, the combat, which is actually excellent, isn't perfect. Taking away your ability to control your squad mates powers means that its down to chance if you happen to trigger any tech or biotic damage combo other than your own. Still, that feels like a reasonable trade off given how much more open the combat spaces are and how much faster and more maneuverable than Shepard Ryder is.
I could go on, but I won't. Like I said, it's a decent enough game, it just utterly failed to live up to my - admittedly lofty -expectations, and if anything I feel more inclined to go and play the original trilogy again than to do a second run of MEA.
Maybe that says more about me than about the game.
I enjoyed it, I just don't love it, not like I did the Trilogy. Yes, even ME3.
It just feels really lacking in polish, there are so many rough edges that shouldn't be there, so many silly little things that seem to exist only to annoy, aggravate or confuse. Crafting, for instance, being needlessly convoluted. It's the only way to get the gear you really want, but it boils down to mindlessly scanning everything in sight to accrue the correct level of resource, then having to delve into the messy menu UI to research it, then switch to another menu to develop it,then run to the loadout terminal to equip it. The crafting and loadout terminals are at different places on the Tempest as well, so you need to run around everytime you craft something to equip it, and you can't compare weapon stats between your current piece and one you're looking to build on the Tempest because you're in you civvies and the game doesn't recognise your currently equipped gear, which is ridiculous.
Find a weapon in the field? Well, tough luck, you can't just pick it up and use it, you need a loadout terminal to equip it. Plus, the ultra rare mods are just that; ultra-rare. I put one on a Mattock 3 assault rifle when I was level fifteen or something, but I'm now at level 60 and haven't seen another. Essentially, I just wasted it by putting it on a relatively early game piece of gear. So, the lesson is, don't use anything rare? What's the point of having them if they're so scarce and there's no way to recover them? It simply makes you not want to use them for fear of using them on the wrong item at the wrong time.
Silly things like that, in isolation, aren't a problem, but they do mount up.
Most of the missions outside the main story are tedious as well. Far too many of them devolve into "go here, scan something", even the ones that initially seem important, or have an intriguing premise, before asking you to planet hop multiple times to find the next navpoint, scan a crucial piece of equipment, or find a missing datapad. I'm a pathfinder, a trailblazer, not an errand boy. I know this kind of thing was a staple of RPGs, but given how much meat The Witcher 3 put on the bones of its side quests, is it wrong of me to have hoped the MEA might manage to at least be on par with a two year old game in that regard?
These missions aren't all bad, per se, but they desperately needed some editing, or at least a wider variety of gameplay scenarios. Forcing players to repeat the exact same action three times or drive across the map to interact with one prompt isn't fun, it just feels like padding. It feels like sandbox checklist busywork for the sake of it. It's Mass Effect, for goodness sake, not a Ubisoft game!
The campaign and loyalty missions are much better in this regard, but even then I felt the story was too brief. It feels like it is just hitting its stride and suddenly its over. Plus, you have to do sudoku puzzles to access monoliths. Who thought that was a good idea? Yes, you can now buy keys to bypass it cheaply enough, but if its so awful that the player base simply doesn't want to do it, then why is it even in the game?
It feels like Bioware was conflicted when making the game, mistaking depth and richness with complexity and size, a trap many open world games seem to fall into. Even, the combat, which is actually excellent, isn't perfect. Taking away your ability to control your squad mates powers means that its down to chance if you happen to trigger any tech or biotic damage combo other than your own. Still, that feels like a reasonable trade off given how much more open the combat spaces are and how much faster and more maneuverable than Shepard Ryder is.
I could go on, but I won't. Like I said, it's a decent enough game, it just utterly failed to live up to my - admittedly lofty -expectations, and if anything I feel more inclined to go and play the original trilogy again than to do a second run of MEA.
Maybe that says more about me than about the game.
Just to pick up on something there - you can recycle mods. Just deconstruct the weapon.
Agree on a few of your other points though- I'm enjoying is by and large although I agree it probably needed another 6 months being polished.
I also think it was on a hiding to nothing following the trilogy.
Agree on a few of your other points though- I'm enjoying is by and large although I agree it probably needed another 6 months being polished.
I also think it was on a hiding to nothing following the trilogy.
vonuber said:
Just to pick up on something there - you can recycle mods. Just deconstruct the weapon.
Agree on a few of your other points though- I'm enjoying is by and large although I agree it probably needed another 6 months being polished.
I also think it was on a hiding to nothing following the trilogy.
Really? Never even thought to try that, thanks! (But why doesn't the game tell you that?!)Agree on a few of your other points though- I'm enjoying is by and large although I agree it probably needed another 6 months being polished.
I also think it was on a hiding to nothing following the trilogy.
Again, I have enjoyed my seventy or so hours with the game, but it just wasn't all I hoped it would be. And yes, I agree that following the trilogy it was always going to be putting its head on the chopping block. Funny though, how Bioware didn't seem to realise that and thought it was ready to stand up to the intense scrutiny it was always to going to get. Fair to say, I don't think they'll be making the same mistake again, not after the backlash Andromeda got!
Vonuber's done a good job of trying to bring some continuity between this game and it's forebears. It's half sold me after being adamant of not paying EA or Bioware any of my money. Will admit even with his decent posts and pictures the other reviews by users on here has painted one of the biggest missed opportunities for great sci-fi geekery and with a budget to of easily done it too.
Thanks Vonuber and Simian for your long detailed posts.
Thanks Vonuber and Simian for your long detailed posts.
Apparently it only had 40million budget - comparatively small really for a game of this size. And it shows in a few places, especially with some of the filler it has.
I also suspect, based on the amount of patches already released fixing some of the main technical issues, that it was pushed to be released too early and to hit the end of financial year for EA and they knew the issues they had - the developers aren't stupid.
However all that said it does feel like a missed opportunity in some aspects, but as the first game in hopefully a new series it does a decent enough job.
One thing I noted compared to the trilogy is that so far I haven't had a major decision like a virmire survivor type of thing.
Although that does undoubtedly lessen some of the impact this game, it does mean that you are not going to end up with the absolute clusterf
k me2 and me3 turned into regarding decisions where they were all basically retconned or the characters involved were neutered (see Ash for example). They can hopefully put these into a more improved sequel.
I also suspect, based on the amount of patches already released fixing some of the main technical issues, that it was pushed to be released too early and to hit the end of financial year for EA and they knew the issues they had - the developers aren't stupid.
However all that said it does feel like a missed opportunity in some aspects, but as the first game in hopefully a new series it does a decent enough job.
One thing I noted compared to the trilogy is that so far I haven't had a major decision like a virmire survivor type of thing.
Although that does undoubtedly lessen some of the impact this game, it does mean that you are not going to end up with the absolute clusterf
k me2 and me3 turned into regarding decisions where they were all basically retconned or the characters involved were neutered (see Ash for example). They can hopefully put these into a more improved sequel.Bioware scaled down, franchise put on ice for now. Worrying news, but not entirely surprising
http://kotaku.com/sources-bioware-montreal-downsiz...
http://kotaku.com/sources-bioware-montreal-downsiz...
Lance Catamaran said:
Bioware scaled down, franchise put on ice for now. Worrying news, but not entirely surprising
http://kotaku.com/sources-bioware-montreal-downsiz...
Not surprising. I think that Andromeda is quite forgettable (characters and storyline) and I'm certainly not bothered about replaying it. I was excited by the DLC for the original trilogy, not fussed by Andromeda. http://kotaku.com/sources-bioware-montreal-downsiz...
As a side note it is the first time I've actively avoided a character due to their overwhelming annoyance (Liam
). The voiceover sounded like a school presentation read from a script.I still feel that Mass Effect 2 is the best the franchise has produced. I've played that several times, Andromeda has had one play through and will probably be deleted from the hard drive. It was fun and I did enjoy it, but just don't feel the need to play it again.
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