Mass Effect: Andromeda

The_Valeyard

I'm enjoying it, but definitely a large part of me misses the old characters and story from ME1-3. Maybe I just hot so involved in the original games this couldn't possibly live up to my expectations.

Still really enjoying it though.

Gbear

Drexel wrote: »

I do like the whole exploring aspect though but kinda wish there were more native plants and animals around to scan. It's piss poor from bioware that there are only 3/4 different animal species in the game(so far but not holding much hope for more variety) .

There's a whole load missing from making the worlds feel lived in.

Even with the animals, they could've used similar AI and animation and just thrown different skins on them.
Or mucked around with the size of the models and made them hunt in packs.
As it is, it's immersion breaking that they don't even try to differentiate them.

They don't really seem to have learned anything on that front since the previous games, or from the bucketload of openworld games that had the important touches that made places feel alive.

Crowds that act like crowds rather than static groups of NPCs hanging around doing nothing, dynamic fauna that look like they're doing animal things rather than waiting for you to wander into them so you can have a fight, weather, time of day... etc.

It's still very very gamey. It looks like an MMO, where you can see across a small plain and there's these non-interacting bits of procedurally generated encounters.

Strides have been made in the terrain, skyboxes and all that and everything looks pretty, but in a sterile kind of way.
There's no forests. In fact there's hardly any trees.
If you look at these screenshots from the Witcher (1, 2, 3) they actually look like real places.

Granted, the Nomad can't handle forests, but you really notice the lack of them and a bit of scurrying around on foot wouldn't do any harm.
The token effort on Havarl wasn't much but it was at least something and the world felt more alive for the setting.

They didn't even need to do it everywhere. They wrote around them with places like Voeld and Eos because of the nature of the terrain, or conceivably, there mighn't be trees everywhere because they mighn't have evolved, but not having any makes it look like something from the previous decade with higher res graphics.
They've made one step from the barren rock with 2 different colour tiles and pre-scripted combat from ME 1.
Now there's basic terrain features and random encounters, but they're still a seriously long way off fully realised worlds.

And if you're not going to do that in this day and age, then I don't see the point of doing it at all.
They could've had the Nomad with more focused settings, fewer fetch quests and spent more time giving the planet-side gameplay the atteion it deserved.

It's becoming the mother of all clichés at this point, but it's a post Witcher 3 world and these lads are still miles behind.

Little CuChulainn

Just finished it there. 71 hours playtime. I'd imagine about 15 of those hours were watching unskippable cutscenes. Ended up with eight quests in the additional tasks folder that can either not be completed or have no quest marker and I cannot locate them.

Overall I'd describe this game as a bit of a chore to get through. Positives include the planet exploration, landscapes and story. Negatives are pretty much everything else to be honest. I have absolutely zero interest in replaying the game. The amount of glitches is unreal and the time it takes to simply travel between planets is inexcusable.

I'll leave you with a link to a picture of me with my chosen love interest that I think summarises my experience.

http://imgur.com/a/RFiuW

baby and crumble

I've played about 20 hours (I restarted because I messed up my character creation and her lipstick was bugging me... :rolleyes:) and I have zero desire to keep playing. I just completed EOS and the characters are all so dull I can't even. PeeBee is just the WORST kind of selfish brat and Vetra has a nice voice but that's about it. Cora is grand but I cannot believe that a woman with THAT hair who spent time in an Asari commando unit doesn't dig chicks. That breaks me out of the immersion more than the actual glitches :pac::pac:

The fact the Asari look SO different this time around is weirdly something I just can't get past.

I'm currently listening to the original trilogy soundtrack in work and TBH I just want to go back and play through them again to get the sour taste of Andromeda out of my mouth.

I might go back eventually and keep playing, but I think I'm going to give it a rest now. Forcing myself to play a game that's boring me to tears isn't good...

Cina

baby and crumble wrote: »

I've played about 20 hours (I restarted because I messed up my character creation and her lipstick was bugging me... :rolleyes:) and I have zero desire to keep playing. I just completed EOS and the characters are all so dull I can't even. PeeBee is just the WORST kind of selfish brat and Vetra has a nice voice but that's about it. Cora is grand but I cannot believe that a woman with THAT hair who spent time in an Asari commando unit doesn't dig chicks. That breaks me out of the immersion more than the actual glitches :pac::pac:

The fact the Asari look SO different this time around is weirdly something I just can't get past.

I'm currently listening to the original trilogy soundtrack in work and TBH I just want to go back and play through them again to get the sour taste of Andromeda out of my mouth.

I might go back eventually and keep playing, but I think I'm going to give it a rest now. Forcing myself to play a game that's boring me to tears isn't good...

I had very similar similar feelings initially, but if you push through, the game does get much better. The characters and story improve massively, but most importantly, and probably annoyingly, Eos is by far the worst planet in the game, it's a big shame it's the very first one.

it took me about two or three weeks to work up the effort to play it enough to get past Eos, but I'm glad I have, the game is much better now!

Little CuChulainn

baby and crumble wrote: »

I've played about 20 hours (I restarted because I messed up my character creation and her lipstick was bugging me... :rolleyes:) and I have zero desire to keep playing. I just completed EOS and the characters are all so dull I can't even. PeeBee is just the WORST kind of selfish brat and Vetra has a nice voice but that's about it. Cora is grand but I cannot believe that a woman with THAT hair who spent time in an Asari commando unit doesn't dig chicks. That breaks me out of the immersion more than the actual glitches :pac::pac:

The fact the Asari look SO different this time around is weirdly something I just can't get past.

I'm currently listening to the original trilogy soundtrack in work and TBH I just want to go back and play through them again to get the sour taste of Andromeda out of my mouth.

I might go back eventually and keep playing, but I think I'm going to give it a rest now. Forcing myself to play a game that's boring me to tears isn't good...

I'm definitely thinking of playing from ME2 onwards again, especially after seeing that Garrus video posted earlier. I just can't deal with the Mako on ME1 again so playing the trilogy is out. The only question I have is whether I should delete ME:A to make room for them on my SSD or should I hold out in the hopes that the next patch might help me clear my quest log.

baby and crumble

That's good to know...

Does the female Ryder voice acting get any less annoying? I feel weird playing as a guy and got lucky with Jennifer Hale in the trilogy. I recently tried playing as MaleShep and MY GOD it was awful!!

Man, I'm picky. :pac:

wyrn

baby and crumble wrote: »

That's good to know...

Does the female Ryder voice acting get any less annoying? I feel weird playing as a guy and got lucky with Jennifer Hale in the trilogy. I recently tried playing as MaleShep and MY GOD it was awful!!

Man, I'm picky. :pac:

You're not picky. I looked at FemShep and instantly decided she looked annoying and went with MaleShep. He wasn't too bad. The only issue (after facial animation) is that MaleShep has very few male romance options. I think it's only 3 but I only came across 2.

PeeBee annoyed the hell out of me initially but she grew on me. Thought I'd like Vectra more but she's no Garrus. Drex is grand as a grumpy auld fella. To be honest, I didn't really bond with any of the characters like I did with the original trilogy.

I was really disappointed with Eos especially that they had a guy called Majordomo Bell-Scott (what a name!) and he was pretty much an NPC villager.

Josey Wales

I finished this last night with a percentage completion of 86%.

Do the missions labelled as Tasks contribute to the overall completion? I don't have any missions left in my journal apart from Tasks.

Little CuChulainn

Josey Wales wrote: »

I finished this last night with a percentage completion of 86%.

Do the missions labelled as Tasks contribute to the overall completion? I don't have any missions left in my journal apart from Tasks.

They seem to be. Not sure if scanning all the planets is too. Unfortunately some of the tasks are bugged such as the Nomad shield one and the Angaran badge one as well as some of the smaller ones on the planets. And one of them cannot be completed if you don't get a certain object before clearing each vault but it will stay in your log.

degrassinoel

still no sign of that multiplayer patch?

Irishbrick

I'm playing it, about seventy hours in, and it just feels unfinished, it's glitchy beyond belief a times, countless cut scenes where a speaking characters doesn't appear and you have to reset to actually hear the conversation, falling through scenery has killed me roughly twenty times! I'm enjoying it mainly as it feels like a familiar glove, but overall so far, I only like the drack character, as I said enjoying it, but I really wouldn't recommend it!

The_Valeyard

I'm noticing a lot of glitches on Aya.

Where the speech does not play, so I have subtitles on. Or when you go to interact with an NPC, they just stand staring at each other for ages, as if it's a school play and they have forgotten their lines.

Maximus Alexander

Finished it this evening, man that was a long game!

I really enjoyed it overall, and found it easily as good as any of the original trilogy to be honest. It had a few flaws, no doubt. Off the top of my head the jarring animations at times were one, and the lack of variety in opponents was another. After the first 20 hours you'd pretty much seen every enemy you'd ever face, and they really could have done more on that front.

Apart from that though, I loved the plot and characters. The sense of exploration was excellent, and story wise everything was so tight. The universe is so consistent, there are no lose ends or plot holes, and there's a ton of background info to dig in to through the side quests and codex.

They did a great job of making the cast feel more like real people than ever before, with realistic attitudes and motivations. Some of the dialog is excellent, particularly the squad chatter during missions and such. The characters were just really well realised, even if I didn't find them all particularly endearing. Drack and Peebee were my favourites for sure.

They also did a great job of setting up and maintaining a bit of mystery. Firstly with the Kett, whose motivations you don't understand for quite a while. Then with the Remnant, who gradually become better understood as you progress, but whose creators remain enigmatic right until the end. And finally with the scourge. You just end up finding out it's purpose; but it leaves you with even more questions. I just think they did a great job with pacing here, slowly unfolding the mystery while drawing all of these threads together as the game wears on. I was always eager to find out more.

I could say a lot more, but it's late. I really hope there's more of this though, they've set up a great launch pad for more games. Hope the bad publicity doesn't kill off the series.

Gbear

A great post here from the ME Multiplayer subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/67yp3d/heres_my_two_cents_on_enemy_ai_and_why_the_game/

It's about how undercooked enemy design leads to relatively bland gameplay.

What you do works pretty well.
The movement is key to this, so while there's foibles about weapon and power balance and the decision to split your quickbar into profiles, the core gameplay you're doing is a good foundation.

However, the above talks about how limited and uninteresting all the enemies are.
To counterbalance that and not just your newfound mobility, everything is a bulletsponge to avoid being trivially easy, even on Gold or Insanity.

A few enemies do their jobs to some extent but whereas in ME3 pretty much everyone had a role, in Andromeda they're all the same with 1 or 2 that do their jobs (Fiend is the best example, and the Observer and Nullifier are grand as well).

Irishbrick

Just finished it there, underwhelmed is all I can say! Twas only alright, far too many glitches for my liking

ItsHoggie

Well, after 65 hrs I finally completed it. I enjoyed it a lot, not as much as I thought I would though, but still thought it was great. Loved that final mission as well, thought it was epic! Hopefully not waiting too long for some single player dlc.

Thought 65hrs seemed a bit short considering it took me 90hrs to finish Inquisition. I've 85% completed so still have a few side missions and what not.

I remember seeing a video before release where Bioware said that while your out doing missions in the galaxy your sibling would be too, but Sara only got on her feet for the first time in the final mission?.

enjoy the brief switch in characters too at the end, if I do end up playing through again might go with Sara this time.

Maximus Alexander

I was suffering withdrawal after finishing this so I decided to have another crack at the trilogy. Mass Effect 1 has uh... Not aged gracefully.

The_Valeyard

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

I was suffering withdrawal after finishing this so I decided to have another crack at the trilogy. Mass Effect 1 has uh... Not aged gracefully.

get the mod on moddb that converts the ME3 textures into the ME1 game. It's amazing.

aaronjumper

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

I was suffering withdrawal after finishing this so I decided to have another crack at the trilogy. Mass Effect 1 has uh... Not aged gracefully.

Have you had to take an elevator yet?

Maximus Alexander

aaronjumper wrote: »

Have you had to take an elevator yet?

I'm never going back to the Citadel! :pac:

Skerries

RopeDrink wrote: »

As for Kadara, definitely the worst planet in the game. Having to travel between the HUB, Slums and the map itself is a nightmare. Get random Q for Kadara > Endure the long flight animations to get there, then load into the slums from the HUB, then run to the station for your vehicle - do quest - fast travel back to the station, run to the elevator to get out of the slums, exit the HUB back to your ship. Nonsensical waste of time. Despite the painful travel system and inability to skip those scenes (I'd literally just tab out when travelling via space-map), Kadara is the only real non-Tempest slog.

You know you can go straight to the ship by holding down Y when you are in the Nomad?

Zero-Cool

New patch live now, seems like a lot of fixes. Haven't put this on in a while, must give it a whir.

http://blog.bioware.com/2017/05/09/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-1-06-notes/

"Because we don’t want players to miss any of the great side conversations with their crew, dialogue options will no longer appear “greyed out” if a character has more to say.

Those of you who have the Deluxe or Super Deluxe edition will also receive two custom Nomad skins, a new casual Pathfinder outfit, and an exclusive multiplayer pack with a high chance of receiving an ultra-rare item."

Shougeki

Zero-Cool wrote: »

http://blog.bioware.com/2017/05/09/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-1-06-notes/

Ha. SAM can f*ck off with his you have new email message catching me every time.

Gbear

Looks like massive changes to MP balance.

It was enjoyable enough as a contest and pretty balanced from a difficulty perspective but the second to second gameplay was a grind.
Damage buffs to guns:

1) Shadow 221% +ramping damage/overheat feature
2) Hornet 220%
3) Valkyrie 191% +clip size & spare ammo
4) Crusader 182% +bullet tracers
5) Mattock 179% +clip size
6) Ruzad 174% 7) Ushior 167% +2xclip size +spare ammo -Weight
8) PAW 167%
9) Halberd 159% 10) Rozerad 152% -Spinup time +accuracy 11) Carnifax 145%
12) Scattershot 145%
13) Dhan 142% +Clip size +spare ammo +crit damage
14) Soned 137% -spinup time +Blind accuracy -accuracy
15) Hurricane 132%
16) Zalkin 130%
17) Disciple 130%
18) Naladen 130%
19) Katana 124%
20) Venom 121%
21) Hesh 119%
22) Valiant 118%
23) Eagle 115% +accuracy
24) Sidewinder 111%
25) Piranha 109%
26) Avenger 106%

Powers have been buffed by as much as 35% apparently.
Combos have apparently been buffed by up to 200% depending of difficulty.

More general patchnotes:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/6admm3/patch_106_notes_balance_changes_10052017/

CatInABox

And it's been put on "hiatus".

EA certainly do have a great track record of taking great franchises and fumbling them into the gutter.

CatInABox

CatInABox wrote: »

And it's been put on "hiatus".

EA certainly do have a great track record of taking great franchises and fumbling them into the gutter.

Dead space being another

They destroyed 3

CatInABox

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Dead space being another

They destroyed 3

Been going on for decades. Westwood, Bullfrog, Maxis, all developers that I loved back in the day. The amount of great developers that EA bought, mismanaged, then closed down is unreal. After a while, you'd think they'd realise that maybe it's not the developers fault, but their own.

Varik

patch wrote:

Fixed issue where player could romance both Cora and Peebee

Well that's going to royally **** my game up.

degrassinoel

some much needed improvements to MP but it's still a buggy mess sadly