• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Mass Effect: Andromeda |OT| Ryders on the Storm

Madness

Member
Main questline spoiler question -
Just did the mission where you meet the Archon in person and find the Salarian ark
. Wondering how far through the main quest I am roughly?
Almost at the very end in terms of main mission. So try and clear up as many side missions and loyalty missions as you can
 

Dingobloo

Neo Member
Who ever had the pro tip to just use the map to swap quests has probably saved me from immense frustrations. I wish I could do that in witcher 3 if I'm honest. Gets a bit messy on
harval though with the multiple layers of tower.
 

UberLevi

Member
Anyone here tested a build with Turbocharge and Tactical Cloak? Seems like it would combo nicely with the Rank 6 Cloak evolution. Just pop Turbocharge, pop Tactical Cloak, and unload hell for a few seconds. Haven't bothered levelling them up enough to really feel the benefits though since I'm focused on Overload + Lance with a Sentinel profile.
 

Rozart

Member
Has anyone tried out the Black Widow Sniper rifle? Is it any good?

And is anyone playing as a full on infiltrator/sniper? I was thinking of going that route but honestly, it doesn't seem as fun as playing as biotic, sentinel or vanguard because you won't be taking advantage of the new boosting/dodging mechanic as much.
 

Rozart

Member
It seems like the best sniper rifle in the game.

I was unsure about it because it only holds three shots but its damage output is really good. The only material that I'm missing right now is Berylium and hopefully that wouldn't be too hard to find.
 

Zesh

Member
Absolutely the Dhan Shotgun. Can be found in the wild from the specialty loot crates (where I found mine) but also can be crafted. I'm personally waiting until I am level 30 and crafting a Dhan Shotgun V and speccing it fully out with augmentations and mods.

The thing's damage exceeds 1,000 and fires somewhat of a single slug so range is longer than other shotguns.

Btw here is a nice guide that someone made today on Reddit for Vanguards:

Novaguard Build - Level 20 (Reddit)

Thanks for the advice. I'm kicking myself for not trying that shotgun out earlier (I'm 50+ hours in). This thing can one-shot enemies on Insanity; it's crazy. I'm using a similar build as the one in the link and I'm clearing entire groups in seconds on Insanity. Pretty nuts.
 
I don't think I've laughed as much with this series ever than with a gag that is easily missable. There's a mission that you have to drop down into a planet on the escape pod, and if you bring drack
it shows your Ryder putting on the safety lock device over his head like in Rollercoasters while with drack since his head and body are too big it just keeps falling up and down up and down throughout the whole conversation because it can't fit. God dammit.
 

Grisby

Member
I think Voled is my favorite planet so far. It also helps that it runs a lot better on the PS4 than Haval.
I just saw alien butt
I couldn't press the share button fast enough. Took me by surprise.
Mass effect has never gotten the beginning of the game terribly right, all three of the predecessors suffer from mediocre or beginnings that stretch way too long.
I thought all 3 were pretty good although 3 was the weakest because of the "boy".

Andromeda takes the crown though. Not terrible but I felt like there should have been more mystery or more deeper character interactions in the beginning..or maybe some big choice. Not a
little section of the ship's gravity going haywire and playing repairman.
 

J_Viper

Member
My backlog is crazy, yet I still bought this since I could grab it for $43. I'm gonna hope for the best, despite the mixed reception.

If this turns out to just be a sci-fi Mad Max at worst, in terms of open-world/side-quest/crafting-collectathons games, I think I'll be alright with it.
 

Jharp

Member
Nothing will ever fill the Wrex shaped hole in my heart, but Drak is off to a great start. One of the best characters in an otherwise mostly-boring cast.
 
Hey guys, sorry for lateness, but here is my Vanguard Build that was requested a few times!


http://imgur.com/a/nadAC


LOT of images, wanted to detail everything, but here's the gist of it for those curious:


-Dran Shotgun
-HyperGuardian Chestplate
-N7 everything else
-Biotic Amp weapon

Your goal is to maximize shield gain, drain from enemies, and melee damage.




3D34Gtk.png
 

jtrov

Member
Is there some trick to the Voeld Vault that I'm not getting? I've done every console combination I can think of, but I can't interact with the quest marker to finish this damn thing. I don't know if it's glitched or what... I watched videos and did exactly what others have done, but I can't interact with the last console to undo the lockdown.
 

nOoblet16

Member
I was unsure about it because it only holds three shots but its damage output is really good. The only material that I'm missing right now is Berylium and hopefully that wouldn't be too hard to find.

You can make it 4 shots actually with armor perks. Berylium you can probably just buy from the kiosk next to R&D lol
Wow...okay. I was thinking I was around halfway maybe :/

Eh? How would you come to that conclusion? Unless you raced through the main quest.
This was me when I finished that mission...I was almost 61 hours when I did it, granted I held onto that mission for a while but I was still around 40 something hours in when I got that mission after which I ended up doing the major side quests, loyalty missions etc. It's felt like a long journey to me with tons of interaction with characters and th epeople in this world as well as my ship.

dQBKHKn.jpg
 
Has anyone tried out the Black Widow Sniper rifle? Is it any good?

And is anyone playing as a full on infiltrator/sniper? I was thinking of going that route but honestly, it doesn't seem as fun as playing as biotic, sentinel or vanguard because you won't be taking advantage of the new boosting/dodging mechanic as much.

It was my favorite until I got the kett explosive sniper rifle. Doesn't do as much damage per shot, but it explodes and catches shit on fire. Not as effective as a sniper rifle, but I already have a precision single shot automatic rifle and a fully automatic shotgun that whoop ass, I need something to drain armor and shoot people from far away.
 
Nothing will ever fill the Wrex shaped hole in my heart, but Drak is off to a great start. One of the best characters in an otherwise mostly-boring cast.

I think his charm comes from the previous trilogy giving us a relatively normal krogan badass, and a young krogan warrior. This gave us the wise 'I'm too old for this shit' and calm krogan. Like an old army grandpa who still kicks ass. I love him.

What!? This
Meridian
mission is the last mission then? What the hell I thought the story was just getting some proper momentum. Ugh.

I think he meant that's the second to last. Honestly it makes sense. I have done every single loyalty mission, did every outpost and got a nice little nod when I got them all to 100%, and I'm out of ally missions outside of the memory one I don't give a fuck about. It'd make sense there isn't much left.
 
How do people feel about the new weapons in this game? I'm having a hard time finding anything non-Exile that's any good at all. Projectile weapons > *.
 

Rozart

Member
Thanks for the insight on the sniper rifles, guys. 4 shots with the Widow sounds excellent. I don't think I have the blueprint for the kett sniper rifle. But so far, my Ryder's Incinerate has been doing a good enough job against armoured foes.

I just realised that in the codex, under the Ryder tab, there's actually an account of what your Ryder's personality like based (I'm assuming) on what dialogue choices you tend to gravitate to. That's a honestly a really nice touch.
 

Madness

Member
What!? This
Meridian
mission is the last mission then? What the hell I thought the story was just getting some proper momentum. Ugh.

There is a reason people criticize the story lol. But try your best to do all loyalty missions,
make sure you have 3 other pathfinders, find the other arks. Itnis very abrupt as well.
.
 
There is a reason people criticize the story lol. But try your best to do all loyalty missions,
make sure you have 3 other pathfinders, find the other arks. Itnis very abrupt as well.
.

The worst part is that I don't even care. I am so uninspired to do the remaining loyalty missions. I'm only at 40% completion at 28 hours and I mostly just want the main story done so I can trick myself into stopping with the game. I want it out of the way so I can go back to ME1/2 and that kills me. It kills me that I'm so disinterested in all the story stuff. The first two games are some of my all time favorites and playing this game feels like such a chore and I hate that I feel this way.
 

Madness

Member
The worst part is that I don't even care. I am so uninspired to do the remaining loyalty missions. I'm only at 40% completion at 28 hours and I mostly just want the main story done so I can trick myself into stopping with the game. I want it out of the way so I can go back to ME1/2 and that kills me. It kills me that I'm so disinterested in all the story stuff. The first two games are some of my all time favorites and playing this game feels like such a chore and I hate that I feel this way.

Same. I would have honedtly just preferred this as some novel or something. It was an interesting premise destroyed by poor mission designs and story and writing.

One of the main things is, I had dreams of ME 1 and ME2 when I played. That is how subconsciously I was into the game. I would think about whst comes next. With Andromeda I don't care. Make it one and done.
 

Trickster

Member
Eh? How would you come to that conclusion? Unless you raced through the main quest.
This was me when I finished that mission...I was almost 61 hours when I did it, granted I held onto that mission for a while but I was still around 40 something hours in when I got that mission after which I ended up doing the major side quests, loyalty missions etc. It's felt like a long journey to me with tons of interaction with characters and th epeople in this world as well as my ship.

It was estimate based entirely off where I felt the story was at, after finishing that quest. But apparently it's almost over? Hearing that leaves me wondering how on earth they're gonna manage to finish the story in that short a period, considering where the story is at, at this stage.

I mean, you're telling me that there's 2 missions left of the main storyline. And still the game has not explained
a thing about who the Remnant were/are. Why SAM being in my head allows me to interact with their tech. Who the Archon is other than being the boss of the Kett in Heleus, or why he's so focused with Remnant tech
.
 

Indrid Cold

Unconfirmed Member
Is Peebee's quest broke? I'm trying to
get the relic
on
harvarl
but there's no enemies when there apparently should be and the quest keeps glitching and telling me to go whee I am again. I've reloaded like 7 times now.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
A direction I'm not overly fond of with Andromeda, or I should say disappointed with, is how the return to Mass Effect 1 style exploration and open worlds is a bit undermined by how populated and established the open planetoids are (so far). I still really enjoy them and I'm stoked to see BioWare give the concept another crack, as it's a component of the series I actually feel betters it, lamenting their loss in ME2 and ME3. But unlike Mass Effect's sparse planetoids and nothingness, Andromeda's planets are everything but. They're not uncharted worlds for anybody other than yourself, and while I still like exploring them, landing on a planet guarantees you're going to see and experience structures, creatures, and events that have an existing presence. Aliens have already visited, establishes research outposts, bases, and so on. There's always a presence of a sentient species who've long made themselves home.

For a premise that has you travelling so far into the unknown, to breach the unseen, the game is sorely lacking actual feeling of agency in being a pioneer. Now that I've been familiarised with the locals and the core mysteries, landing on a planet guarantees I'm going to engage with these things right from the onset. I'll land, and there will be some story introduction, some kind of setup to the planet, involving the Kett with Remnant and/or Angara. And it's cool, I like it, but there's yet to be moment where I land on a planet and the game just says "go", the planetoid itself a silent mystery for me to explore and uncover at my own pace, with an atmosphere of loneliness and solitude.

Or in short; I feel Andromeda is definitely doing some great things with the game design concept of Mass Effect 1's open worlds, of which modern technology permits, but it's yet to even come close to the atmosphere and thematic devices of the aforementioned in its execution of these open, uncharted worlds.
 

Ascenion

Member
What!? This
Meridian
mission is the last mission then? What the hell I thought the story was just getting some proper momentum. Ugh.

You act like any Mass Effect game is long. ME3 is the longest one. ME1 you can beat in 8 hours. All you have to do is Eden Prime, Therum, Feros, Noveria, Vermire and Ilos. That's 6 main missions, and they don't take long really. ME2 is Freedom's Progress, Horizon, the derelict reaper, the IFF and then bam jump through the relay hello collectors. The only reason it seems long is because it's padded to hell with loyalty missions and shit. It literally has almost no meaningful story progress. In fact if you skip from Mass Effect 1 to 3 you don't even miss all that much. That's how irrelevant ME2 is.

Andromeda is Dragon Age Inquisition without the arbitrary gating system. It's less about the main plot and more about the exploration and characters.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Structurally the Mass Effect games are indeed unusual. The critical story arcs in Mass Effect 1 and 2 are really very short, the total playtime significantly buffered by secondary content. Mass Effect 2 is the most unusual, as the secondary content is compelling in such a way that it feels necessary as part of the main arc, and serves a purpose in retaining companion loyalty for the climax, but in reality are still entirely optional.

Mass Effect 3 on the other hand has by far the longest critical arc of the original trilogy.
 

TheFatMan

Member
Does anyone know how the mining operation perk (and all the other resource gathering perks by proxy I guess?) from AVP actually work?
Does it keep collecting resources until I pick it up or do I have to visit every 45 mins?

I'd like to know this too. I have a feeling you have to pick it up every 45 minutes. Which is annoying.

But once you activate the AVP on Nexus a panel to access the same screen appears on the Tempest near the Strike team/merchant panels.
 
I'm on Voel at a frozen, ruined, on fire
Remnant base and there's a locked door that I can open 'if I can find the power source.' That power source leads to another locked door. there's an interactable object nearby, but it doesn't seem to do anything at all. What am I doing wrong.
 

Alucrid

Banned
I'm on Voel at a frozen, ruined, on fire
Remnant base and there's a locked door that I can open 'if I can find the power source.' That power source leads to another locked door. there's an interactable object nearby, but it doesn't seem to do anything at all. What am I doing wrong.

it's a side quest later on
 

diaspora

Member
A direction I'm not overly fond of with Andromeda, or I should say disappointed with, is how the return to Mass Effect 1 style exploration and open worlds is a bit undermined by how populated and established the open planetoids are (so far). I still really enjoy them and I'm stoked to see BioWare give the concept another crack, as it's a component of the series I actually feel betters it, lamenting their loss in ME2 and ME3. But unlike Mass Effect's sparse planetoids and nothingness, Andromeda's planets are everything but. They're not uncharted worlds for anybody other than yourself, and while I still like exploring them, landing on a planet guarantees you're going to see and experience structures, creatures, and events that have an existing presence. Aliens have already visited, establishes research outposts, bases, and so on. There's always a presence of a sentient species who've long made themselves home.

For a premise that has you travelling so far into the unknown, to breach the unseen, the game is sorely lacking actual feeling of agency in being a pioneer. Now that I've been familiarised with the locals and the core mysteries, landing on a planet guarantees I'm going to engage with these things right from the onset. I'll land, and there will be some story introduction, some kind of setup to the planet, involving the Kett with Remnant and/or Angara. And it's cool, I like it, but there's yet to be moment where I land on a planet and the game just says "go", the planetoid itself a silent mystery for me to explore and uncover at my own pace, with an atmosphere of loneliness and solitude.

Or in short; I feel Andromeda is definitely doing some great things with the game design concept of Mass Effect 1's open worlds, of which modern technology permits, but it's yet to even come close to the atmosphere and thematic devices of the aforementioned in its execution of these open, uncharted worlds.
Yeah, I miss Metroid too.
 
A direction I'm not overly fond of with Andromeda, or I should say disappointed with, is how the return to Mass Effect 1 style exploration and open worlds is a bit undermined by how populated and established the open planetoids are (so far). I still really enjoy them and I'm stoked to see BioWare give the concept another crack, as it's a component of the series I actually feel betters it, lamenting their loss in ME2 and ME3. But unlike Mass Effect's sparse planetoids and nothingness, Andromeda's planets are everything but. They're not uncharted worlds for anybody other than yourself, and while I still like exploring them, landing on a planet guarantees you're going to see and experience structures, creatures, and events that have an existing presence. Aliens have already visited, establishes research outposts, bases, and so on. There's always a presence of a sentient species who've long made themselves home.

For a premise that has you travelling so far into the unknown, to breach the unseen, the game is sorely lacking actual feeling of agency in being a pioneer. Now that I've been familiarised with the locals and the core mysteries, landing on a planet guarantees I'm going to engage with these things right from the onset. I'll land, and there will be some story introduction, some kind of setup to the planet, involving the Kett with Remnant and/or Angara. And it's cool, I like it, but there's yet to be moment where I land on a planet and the game just says "go", the planetoid itself a silent mystery for me to explore and uncover at my own pace, with an atmosphere of loneliness and solitude.

Or in short; I feel Andromeda is definitely doing some great things with the game design concept of Mass Effect 1's open worlds, of which modern technology permits, but it's yet to even come close to the atmosphere and thematic devices of the aforementioned in its execution of these open, uncharted worlds.

I agree with this 100%.

I actually loved how sparse the uncharted planets were in ME1 because of their atmosphere and sense of isolation. It really felt like we were discovering these worlds. I know that a lot of people found them boring and empty though.

With Andromeda, Bioware really pushed the quantity of content above other concerns. I mean, it's cool that there is so much to do and so many things to discover. However, I would have liked for a little more empty space. The planets start to feel more like themepark MMO zones rather than planets that I'm actually exploring/discovering. More SWTOR than ME1. I'm not saying this is good or bad (it's subjective) but the structures and camps around every corner somewhat undermines the idea of "pathfinding".
 
I love how the side quests are
exposing more of the initiative's origins, as well as the Kett and Archon's history and military/organizational structure.
 

Madness

Member
Same. One of the things with Mass Effect 1 was that I was always on edge full of wonder and terror at what would come next. Some random sidequest to infiltrate a pirate hangout on a near empty workd you struggle to find but when you do, you open a can of whoop ass on them etc. The trek on Noveria with the Mako etc.
 
Top Bottom