Mass effect: Andromeda
Discussion
SimianWonder said:
Yeah, I'd agree with that. Once you get a bit of freedom in where you want to go the game does improve considerably. The very first planet where Alec is leading you was just so, so dull.
Definitely. Not getting sidetracked with all the busywork helps as well, but that is a complaint in many games nowadays.Patch 1.08 is out, and the game is getting closer to how it should ahve been released:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJbTixZso8s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJbTixZso8s
Finally went ahead and bought the game. Despite being a massive fan of the trilogy, I'm about 6 hours in and to be honest so far I'm just bored with nothing holding my interest. Facial animations seem to have been improved but certainly aren't good - Cora seems to be scowling at me most of the time, and for the first conversation with Peebee she was baring her teeth in a rather disturbing manner.
I can tell you one thing they haven't fixed though - the bug on the Eos mission where the prompt to activate the generator doesn't appear, forcing me to restart. FFS.
I can tell you one thing they haven't fixed though - the bug on the Eos mission where the prompt to activate the generator doesn't appear, forcing me to restart. FFS.
I'd say the first ten hours are the worst part of the game to be honest. It's rather odd as I suspect it puts a lot of people off.
Once you are off Eos it really opens up and gets good in my opinion. But those first ten hours are a bit bleh, bery similar to ME1 in that respect. In fact it feels a bit of a homage in places.
One thing that helps I found is to ignore (unless you fancy) most of the stuff under 'Tasks'. They are not necessary and just fairly mundane collection quests to get you to explore, which is why they are all filed in one place I suspect. The other is upgrading the speed on the Nomad asap.
Once you are off Eos it really opens up and gets good in my opinion. But those first ten hours are a bit bleh, bery similar to ME1 in that respect. In fact it feels a bit of a homage in places.
One thing that helps I found is to ignore (unless you fancy) most of the stuff under 'Tasks'. They are not necessary and just fairly mundane collection quests to get you to explore, which is why they are all filed in one place I suspect. The other is upgrading the speed on the Nomad asap.
I still keep seeing a lot of odd animations, like guards on the Nexus taking cover for no reason, or NPCs warping/running across the room to talk to me. Something else I've noticed is the voice acting is very erratic - most of the main cast are fine but some secondary characters are awful and seem to be having a stupid accent competition. That female Korgan just sounds like a really camp man, but looking on IMDB it's the same actress who played Josephine in Dragon Age Inquisition so I've no idea what went wrong. I actually laughed out loud at the "my face is tired" lady, not just because of her terrible delivery by the fact the dialogue is written in a way that no person would ever talk like. Romance options are rubbish as well - I get the need for diversity, but play as male Ryder and there is a only a single human female you can date, and that's Captain Tumblr.
Planet scanning was always one of the worst aspects of the original trilogy, but somehow they've made it even more boring. Who thought it would be a good idea to have a transitory animation every time you switch planets? Why do the Angara all walk as if they've crapped their pants? And why do I have to hold the interact button for a second instead of pressing it? Lots of little things, but they add up.
One thing I do like though - you can change your appearance as often as you want. Always used to bug me how the original trilogy gave you an entire galaxy to explore, but it didn't contain a single hairdresser.
Planet scanning was always one of the worst aspects of the original trilogy, but somehow they've made it even more boring. Who thought it would be a good idea to have a transitory animation every time you switch planets? Why do the Angara all walk as if they've crapped their pants? And why do I have to hold the interact button for a second instead of pressing it? Lots of little things, but they add up.
One thing I do like though - you can change your appearance as often as you want. Always used to bug me how the original trilogy gave you an entire galaxy to explore, but it didn't contain a single hairdresser.
Bought in the summer PSN sale, downlaoded all the updates and played the first couple of hours, and...... I'm really enjoying it! I seem to be in the minority but there you go. Was always my plan after initial reviews: wait for a few months for it to be heavily patched and updated and give it ago. Mass Effect was probably my favourite series of the last gen (hard to say as it was such a great generation) so I was always going to get it at some point.
Hopefully it won't go sour.
Hopefully it won't go sour.
The studio responsible for Andromeda, Bioware Montreal, is soon to be no more. EA have taken the decision to merge the team with a younger, less experienced team, which means any further support for Andromeda is unlikely.
It's a pity we'll probably never get the sequel that lives up to Andromeda's initial promise, but business is business and Andromeda, at launch, simply wasn't good enough.
It's a pity we'll probably never get the sequel that lives up to Andromeda's initial promise, but business is business and Andromeda, at launch, simply wasn't good enough.
SimianWonder said:
The studio responsible for Andromeda, Bioware Montreal, is soon to be no more. EA have taken the decision to merge the team with a younger, less experienced team, which means any further support for Andromeda is unlikely.
It's a pity we'll probably never get the sequel that lives up to Andromeda's initial promise, but business is business and Andromeda, at launch, simply wasn't good enough.
Unfortunately video games must be the only medium where it's seen as acceptable to release a faulty or unfinished product with the promise of fixing it later. It's like releasing a film with placeholders for the special effects, then releasing a fixed version into cinemas a few weeks later. It's a pity we'll probably never get the sequel that lives up to Andromeda's initial promise, but business is business and Andromeda, at launch, simply wasn't good enough.
Bioware confirms there will be no further patches and no more single player content
https://www.masseffect.com/news/mass-effect-androm...
So the game has been abandoned after barely 6 months and will never work properly. Shame to see such a great series go out with such a whimper. I finished the game a few days ago, more out of determination to get my money's worth than any desire, and my initial impressions of it being a 6/10 game remain. It's not terrible, and there are those brief moments where everything clicks and it feels like a proper ME game, but it really does feel like something knocked out in 18 months, not the product of a 5 year development cycle.
https://www.masseffect.com/news/mass-effect-androm...
So the game has been abandoned after barely 6 months and will never work properly. Shame to see such a great series go out with such a whimper. I finished the game a few days ago, more out of determination to get my money's worth than any desire, and my initial impressions of it being a 6/10 game remain. It's not terrible, and there are those brief moments where everything clicks and it feels like a proper ME game, but it really does feel like something knocked out in 18 months, not the product of a 5 year development cycle.
I can't say I'm surprised, this has been coming for a few months.
It wasn't a truly bad game, but hopefully the industry as a whole will learn that you cannot sell a game solely on branding. If the game underneath isn't up to scratch, don't be surprised if the critics or the paying public call you on it.
It wasn't a truly bad game, but hopefully the industry as a whole will learn that you cannot sell a game solely on branding. If the game underneath isn't up to scratch, don't be surprised if the critics or the paying public call you on it.
What annoys me is that some of the really interesting bits - the murder mystery, the identity of the benefactor etc - are basically just left hanging. To say nothing of the Quarian Ark.
Shame, and I think this is the end of Mass Effect - I also think that it's largely the end of Bioware doing single player RPGs. It's mainly going to be nline multiplayer now I think like Anthem.
Oh well.
I was doing a second play through but now really can't feel the incentive.
Shame, and I think this is the end of Mass Effect - I also think that it's largely the end of Bioware doing single player RPGs. It's mainly going to be nline multiplayer now I think like Anthem.
Oh well.
I was doing a second play through but now really can't feel the incentive.
RobGT81 said:
A game killed off by whinging millennial kids who get upset when they don't get everything their own way. Sad way to end the series.
Alternatively, a game killed off by staggeringly bad mismanagement of the project. How they thought they'd get away with releasing what they did in the state it was in I don't know. They were rightly publicly shamed for their hubris.Durzel said:
Alternatively, a game killed off by staggeringly bad mismanagement of the project. How they thought they'd get away with releasing what they did in the state it was in I don't know. They were rightly publicly shamed for their hubris.
True, the release version was bad. However as it is now it is how it should have been released; how they shipped it knowingly in that state is ridiculous.
Well my first impressions remain. Loving it. And it's been totally stable for me. Some animations could be better and dialogue/voice acting is hit and miss but I can live with that. Combat is good, it looks fantastic and I've connected with some of the characters, though the human crew members are fairly bland.
For me it's been far more stable than fallout 4, which I ended up giving up on as it was so buggy I couldn't play it.
For me it's been far more stable than fallout 4, which I ended up giving up on as it was so buggy I couldn't play it.
vonuber said:
Durzel said:
Alternatively, a game killed off by staggeringly bad mismanagement of the project. How they thought they'd get away with releasing what they did in the state it was in I don't know. They were rightly publicly shamed for their hubris.
True, the release version was bad. However as it is now it is how it should have been released; how they shipped it knowingly in that state is ridiculous.
Durzel said:
RobGT81 said:
A game killed off by whinging millennial kids who get upset when they don't get everything their own way. Sad way to end the series.
Alternatively, a game killed off by staggeringly bad mismanagement of the project. How they thought they'd get away with releasing what they did in the state it was in I don't know. They were rightly publicly shamed for their hubris.I don't know what "whinging millennial kids" has to do with it - as you say Durzel, it's the terrible decisions that killed it, and it's not just the decision to release it early; there are core, fundamental decisions that will never be fixed which have been mentioned many times in this thread, including bland, cutout teammates, poor voice acting, shocking filler sidequests, no (illusion) of choice or consequence...etc etc.
the only thing they did right was the combat, and to a certain extent, the graphics/design was decent too. But Mass Effect has always been about the the story, but mainly the characters, their development and the relationships...and boy did they fail to deliver on that.
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