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[GameInformer] Six Fun (Side-) Activities in Mass Effect: Andromeda

D

Dalibor68

Banned
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...ities-to-pursue-in-mass-effect-andromeda.aspx

Mass Effect Andromeda features the series’ largest universe to date. Previous games let us take on small side quests and visit planets for specific missions, but Andromeda is raising the stakes with less linear planets and hub cities, opening them up for greater exploration and more to do than ever before.
Click to expand...

It seems the sidestuff in ME:A will consist of:

1) Loyalty Missions
2) Navigating with the Nomad
3) Tracking Down Drop Zones
4) Taking Out Enemy Bases
5) Epic Optional Fights
6) Scanning

If you check out the article, they have a description of each of those activities. So what do you think? Does it sound like a list of fun activities, or does it seem like it's falling into the same trap as with DA:I?
 
D

Dalibor68

Banned
It should also be noted that they said Loyalty Missions will be "more optional" and grant more background knowledge about your squadmate instead of having bigger consequences or influencing the critical path.
 
R

Ratrat

Member
Dalibor68 said:
If you check out the article, they have a description of each of those activities. So what do you think? Does it sound like a list of fun activities, or does it seem like it's falling into the same trap as with DA:I?
Click to expand...
It doesnt sound as bad, but Im not particularly excited to do any of these things outside the loyalty missions. And those being included were a given.
 
C

Catvoca

Banned
While the points of interest give you a hint of where you want to explore, BioWare also wanted some surprises along the way and to encourage you to go off the beaten path. “We don’t want to just give you map markers to follow,” Gamble explains. “We want you to explore, and find things, and stumble upon them. We really wanted to do that for players because it teaches them to go outside of the roads, and that is what the game is all about and why we give you the Nomad.”
Click to expand...

That sounds pretty cool. Very different to what Inquisition was about.

Even more enticing is that planets also contain their own super-bosses, which are massive creatures that you can often spot from a distance, always enticing you to test out your skills. These aren’t just battles you can expect to win at a low level or without some serious practice and upgrades. “You’ll find creatures and encounters that are so far overleveled to where you’re at naturally on these areas and you can tell right away,” Gamble says.
Click to expand...

This also sounds cool, having levelling actual matter in an ME game.
 
W

Wibblewozzer

Member
My main concern for any game that boasts about side activities is that a lot of it isn't crafted uniquely and instead uses cookie cutter parts to cobble together different scenarios and then doesn't reward the user with anything meaningful as it's just more credits or experience, typically. Considering by its very nature of being side content those rewards mean nothing in the grand scheme of things as you're able to complete the game without diving deep into side content.

Thankfully I expect Loyalty Missions will be crafted but many of the other activities tend to get tedious as they begin to feel the same. Either make the side content very unique or make the rewards or optional content to purchase with the in-game currency earned by doing this extra side activities and I'll be more interested.

I'm hoping for the best as I thought Mass Effect 2 was fantastic and really enjoyed Mass Effect 3 as well. I want this new one to be incredible.
 
xrnzaaas

xrnzaaas

Member
Scanning a fun activity? More like a chore unless they REALLY learned their lessons from DA:I.

The rest - we'll see. I'm looking forward to the superbosses, but I hope each one will be 100% unique.
 
D

Dalibor68

Banned
Personally the article doesn't make me optimistic.

I frankly don't want to capture 0/20 bases or kill these 5 legendary beasts (which just reminds me of Destiny or MMOs which in turn reminds me of DA:I again), I want fun quests (also nonlethal ones) like for example you wander around your base when you notice a smell/weird substance/whatever that leads you around the base down a cellar where you discover there's a monster nest or caves or something under your base that you then explore. Or in the city hubs some city-related quests like a mob-boss trying to extort something from you or other weird, fun stuff.

If the city hubs are just there to place quest givers who send you on scanning or capture x base missions, like most of the stuff in ME3, then I'll be disappointed.

I kinda feel like I want them back into the focused/immersive-sim direction they went with in ME2 but instead, as with DA:I, it seems to be going into an MMO/Skyrim/Destiny-like direction.
 
H

Heckler456

Banned
Lanrutcon said:
When you list "scanning" as a high point the red flags come up.
Click to expand...

This was the question posed:

When we visited BioWare for our cover story trip, we asked what we’d be able to do in these larger spaces.
Click to expand...

Scanning isn't a "high point". Not even the OP says or implies that it's a "high point", let alone the article or its source. The article is just a list of things you can do when exploring "larger spaces". So where are these red flags being raised exactly?
 
L

Lime

Member
iqvIbsmSzHKvK.gif
 
T

Turin Turambar

Member
You can see clearly how poor is the side content when it's only six points, and three of them are things like:
-"driving the vehicle on ground" => that's not real content, that's the way to go from A to B!.
-"Tracking Down Drop Zones" =>going to a point to unlock it as fast travel point/change loadout point. These are the flags in DA:I.
-"Scanning" => no explanation needed here.
 
P

patapuf

Member
I like ME, but i can't help but always be sceptical of the PR.

We'll see. If there's a solid main narrative and the loyalty missions are fun i don't really mind the rest being bad filler stuff. It would be a bit disapointing that they didn't come up with something better, but whatever.
 
D

Dalibor68

Banned
Lime said:
iqvIbsmSzHKvK.gif
Click to expand...

It the things to scan were actually rare, handcrafted and interesting and offered some proper (gameplay-wise as well as narrative) reward I could even imagine it being an interesting mechanic like in Beyond Good & Evil. But looking at DA:I I'm afraid it will just be a "Scan 200 things per planet for minimal payoff" chore. We'll see.
 
W

Wulfram

Member
I'm not really feeling positive about the open world, but if the gameplay is good then the opportunity for some challenging but story-light combat wouldn't be a bad thing. This stuff should be fully optional, though.
 
P

Patison

Member
When a developer lists game's "activities" as bullet points, that's a huge red flag for me and always reminds me of AC's eavesdropping, following, talking etc.

Why not just create unique content? Why not try to surprise us?

I hope they prove me wrong.

Edit: Also, "Taking Out Enemy Bases" sounds like self-parody at this point.
 
T

Triggerhappytel

Member
Sounds a lot like the original Mass Effect trilogy, besides optional bosses and taking down enemy bases. That latter one makes me think of Far Cry...
 
sobaka770

sobaka770

Banned
Personally, I do not like the fact that they took ME and decided to make an accent on exploration which was always the worst aspect of the series. String central story with compelling characters and a focus on small but polished side-missions was the winning formula and you didn't need 100 hours to complete the full run.

Considering how boring everything was in DA:I in terms of exploration outside of main story and some side missions, I'm still to be convinced that this is the right way to go. I love mass effect, I'd want to experience all that I can, but I don't want it to be overly long and filled with chores, this is not what ME was good at.
 
D

Dalibor68

Banned
Something that also kinda worries me is the complete absence of mentioning choice & consequence. I really hope they aren't moving even further away from that in ME:A. Same goes for the watered-down dialogue options in DA:I - let me be evil/an asshole again (like in Alpha Protocol) instead of Funny Yes/Sarcastic Yes/Disappointed Yes/No(Yes).
 
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Lt-47

Member
Sounds like any open world game, for good or bad. I thinks Mass Effect combat alone will carry the game much better than DA:I.

Dalibor68 said:
It the things to scan were actually rare, handcrafted and interesting and offered some proper (gameplay-wise as well as narrative) reward I could even imagine it being an interesting mechanic like in Beyond Good & Evil. But looking at DA:I I'm afraid it will just be a "Scan 200 things per planet for minimal payoff" chore. We'll see.
Click to expand...

What's DA:I equivalent of scanning ?
If they all give you background/codex info like they do in Tech demo I'm totaly fine with that. It's not that far off from the generic scan interaction from the original trilogy

Dalibor68 said:
Something that also kinda worries me is the complete absence of mentioning choice & consequence. I really hope they aren't moving even further away from that in ME:A. Same goes for the watered-down dialogue options in DA:I - let me be evil/an asshole again (like in Alpha Protocol) instead of Funny Yes/Sarcastic Yes/Disappointed Yes/No(Yes).
Click to expand...

Paragon/Renegade is a relic from Kotor that I won't miss. It's seriously limited what you could do RP-wise.
There's been choices & consequence (or at least the illusion of) in every Bioware game I doubt they'll change anything in that regarde
 
R

Ridesh

Banned
What will make or break this game is the quality of the side missions, if they are simple fetch quest like DAI or if there's a lot of well done, well produced side missions like The Witcher 3.

At least this gives me hope
“If you look at the trilogy, you see all the hubs we created and the side content that came off the hubs,” says producer Mike Gamble. “That’s one place to put it, but imagine that side content in a place where you’re not limited to keeping your weapon holstered. There are so many different elements we can bring in by putting it on those planets with exploration areas. It makes the number and the type of side quests that we can do that much more interesting, whereas before if you’re on the hub you’re kind of limited to a fetch quest type of thing.”
Click to expand...
 
P

Par Score

Member
Patison said:
When a developer lists game's "activities" as bullet points, that's a huge red flag for me and always reminds me of AC's eavesdropping, following, talking etc.

Why not just create unique content? Why not try to surprise us?

I hope they prove me wrong.

Edit: Also, "Taking Out Enemy Bases" sounds like self-parody at this point.
Click to expand...

Yeah, pimping out such base-line non-features as exciting, fun, notable activities is a huge red-flag to me too.

Like, who is getting excited for Metroid Prime style scanning, or locating fast-travel points (which double up as Ubisoft style towers, joy), or basic traversal in a vehicle?

Imagine GTA V or something putting out a list like this and including "You can drive from place to place" as a "fun activity to pursue". It's ridiculous.
 
N

Nabbis

Member
Ridesh said:
What will make or break this game is the quality of the side missions, if they are simple fetch quest like DAI or if there's a lot of well done, well produced side missions like The Witcher 3.

At least this gives me hope
Click to expand...

I feel that even in that game the open-world aspect was more of a detriment than a positive addition.
 
L

Lt-47

Member
dr_rus said:
No emphasis on exploration then? Half of those sounds boring as f.
Click to expand...

What's does exploration as a gameplay features entails ? If it's running/driving around unknown pretty place you'll have plenty of that like in most Bioware game (and every single open world ever)
 
H

Heckler456

Banned
Par Score said:
Yeah, pimping out such base-line non-features as exciting, fun, notable activities is a huge red-flag to me too.

Like, who is getting excited for Metroid Prime style scanning, or locating fast-travel points (which double up as Ubisoft style towers, joy), or basic traversal in a vehicle?

Imagine GTA V or something putting out a list like this and including "You can drive from place to place" as a "fun activity to pursue". It's ridiculous.
Click to expand...

They're not "pimping out" these activities as "exciting, fun, notable activities". Two of those words aren't even used in the article. This article is part of Game Informer's drip-feed coverage of Mass Effect. It was probably based on a hands-on demo (if that) and some interviews with the staff. This particular article pertains to the question:

When we visited BioWare for our cover story trip, we asked what we’d be able to do in these larger spaces.
Click to expand...

And as such, whoever answered the question said what you'd be able to do in those larger spaces, from which Game Informer made an article in the form of a list. You're acting like this is all this game is going top be about, or that these features couldn't possibly be fun in the capacity at which they're present in the game.
 
P

patapuf

Member
Lt-47 said:
Paragon/Renegade is a relic from Kotor that I won't miss. It's seriously limited what you could do RP-wise.
There's been choices & consequence (or at least the illusion of) in every Bioware game I doubt they'll change anything in that regarde
Click to expand...

Yes!

The split of paragon/renegade isn't interesting in the ME universe and it was never used to good effect. The most interesting choices of the series aren't a good fit for the two categories anyway.

They can just scrap it.
 
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