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Mass Effect: Andromeda |OT| Ryders on the Storm
- Thread starter Blue Ninja
- Start date
This is what I figured. I've already played through a few games this year and could use a break so I'll wait.
Thanks!
prag16
Banned
Yeah there's a litany of things they say they'll be working on until June. Once that's all wrapped up they'll probably feel "safe" talking about DLC around E3 timeframe. Wouldn't want to talk about paid DLC now before they address the other stuff.
Anyone got a link of the questions from said survey? I'm curious.
The new windows update which brought native hdr support for windows has completely broken HDR in mass effect on pc. I cannot get HDR10 it to display correctly in game anymore. Anyone who has found a solution to this problem? Very sad since mass effect in hdr looked amazing before
xCaptainCanadax
Member
Finished this game last night after about 70 hours and I definitely enjoyed it. The game feels very much like a Mass Effect game. Its a solid 7.5/10 for me and I feel like it just needs some bug polish and character animation polish to bring it up. I didnt really have a problem with the story either. The only quests that were semi annoying to me were the ones that had me traveling to a planet to pick 1 thing up and then go to another planet to talk to someone, and then back again. Towards the end I found those style of quests a little long in the tooth but otherwise great game.
General Lee
Member
I just finished at 75 hours with 93% completion. What a shitshow this was with so many bugs. Overall there was some good in it, but that was diluted by countless hours of open world bloat and massive amount of jank. It saddens me to see so much work and potential squandered. It did get a bit better by the end, and I started to slightly care about the characters, but not much. Never did I expect Bioware to botch this game as badly as they did, but I guess I was never aware it was a b-team job. I do hope they can salvage it and this isn't the end of Mass Effect, but it's going to take some serious effort for me to come back to this game. Whatever the next Bioware RPG will be, I seriously hope they've abandoned this Inquisition/Andromeda open world design by then.
Here's my Nomad inside one of the vaults. Because who the fuck wants to walk, right?
And here's my beautiful character during the movie night (spoiler!). I teared up when I saw it the first time, though perhaps for the wrong reasons...
Here's my Nomad inside one of the vaults. Because who the fuck wants to walk, right?
And here's my beautiful character during the movie night (spoiler!). I teared up when I saw it the first time, though perhaps for the wrong reasons...
Same happened to me here. Also happened at one of the Alec memory scenes. I almost injured myself laughing at the movie night one.
Though, Suvi? Eww.
General Lee
Member
I just kind of ended up with her before I even realized it. I was planning on romancing Peebee and thought the game would be a bit more clear when you're going exclusive. But now that I've seen all the romance outcomes and scenes, it doesn't really matter, they're all kinda disappointing. Half of my choices for this character ended up being just "whatever, let's go with this because I don't really care". Which is sad too, since despite the awful character creator I did manage to create a face I really liked and it fit the female VA perfectly imo. I also went for the sarcastic option for the most part, and somehow it did mesh quite well with the overall ridiculousness of the game.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Honestly this is exactly what I expected from the Destiny campaign before that disappointment actually released
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
Something tells me they wont. See, this new IP from A-team they're talking about in the last couple of months,... it sure does sounds like another The Division / Destiny style open world game and if it is,... I don't care about it already, cuz it's not THE BioWare, it's BioWare that wanting to be like everyone else.
I dunno, they might never do an Ultimate Edition (This game...won't be getting any GOTY awards) They didn't do one for the other Mass Effect games. The Trilogy back then didn't even have the DLC for the PC and 360 versions.
prag16
Banned
I just don't have the time (or inclination) to get involved in this type of game at this point in my gaming life. I selfishly see it as a monumental waste of their A-team.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Why does half the crew not have protective gear at all?
Its almost ridiculous at points.
Its almost ridiculous at points.
S
Steve.1981
Unconfirmed Member
I selfishly feel the exact same way. But it is what it is. If it's a success, fair enough, good on them. I mean that sincerely.
I enjoyed reading your Andromeda review by the way, on the other page. I kind of agree with you there as well. Though I just can't say it's a 9 out of 10 for me too (sorry!), I do think there is a lot to love about the game.
John Petrucci
Member
Has anyone else had a thought like this about this game?
"I've tried, and I've tried to give this game a chance to get better...there are glimpses of a good game...But this game is just bad." It is just such an unbelievably trying slog to get to somewhat interesting parts. Trust me I wanted to love this game as much as any game that has come out in the last 3 years.
That's the conclusion I've come to. Never felt even close to like this about a Bioware game...I was counting on MEA to give me a ton of replays and fun (DAI absolutely delivered on this in a huge way for me) I won't be making it through even one play through. DA: Origins came out at just the right time for BC on EA Access I guess.
In the grand scheme of things of course it's no big deal. I hope Bioware gets another chance with this IP.
"I've tried, and I've tried to give this game a chance to get better...there are glimpses of a good game...But this game is just bad." It is just such an unbelievably trying slog to get to somewhat interesting parts. Trust me I wanted to love this game as much as any game that has come out in the last 3 years.
That's the conclusion I've come to. Never felt even close to like this about a Bioware game...I was counting on MEA to give me a ton of replays and fun (DAI absolutely delivered on this in a huge way for me) I won't be making it through even one play through. DA: Origins came out at just the right time for BC on EA Access I guess.
In the grand scheme of things of course it's no big deal. I hope Bioware gets another chance with this IP.
prag16
Banned
Calling it "just bad" seems maybe a little harsh, but it's subjective obviously. What doesn't make sense to me though is the part about DA:I. That game also had a ton of mediocre to bad filler crap (and even worse, gated main story progression behind it to a significant degree, which ME:A did not do). How was that not a slog for you?
I stand by the opinion that if DA:I launched in 2017, it would have been eviscerated. Every review would have been almost entirely about the horrific side content how TW3 nukes it from orbit in almost every way..
BrassDragon
Member
I don't think I've ever been as forgiving and patient with a game as I have been with Andromeda: slogging through 80 hours of it, digging for nuggets of engaging story in a sea of cringe, listening to grating, unbelievable characters, working around bugs and ignoring jank. That's the power of fandom, I guess. But by the end, even the okay combat started to wear very, very thin. Really wanted this to be good and a turning point for a game developer that's been slowly but surely slipping behind its competition.
No, it's still a disappointment, a forgettable experience that adds nothing of worth to the game's universe except some improved shooting.
After about 20 hours into the game and giving it everything I had, I uninstalled.
ME2 is my personal favorite SP game of all time, and I really liked 3 as well. That's quite telling of how disappointed I am with Andromeda.
Some of the planets / locales look nice. The combat is well made, even if I don't exactly know if this jump and boost -gameplay fits the ME formula. For me, the cover shooter mechanics were just fine and very enjoyable.
And that's all of the semi-positives. The story is incredibly bland. The characters lack a single one who'd make me go "I want to spend more time with this one". The writing is mediocre at best, absolutely cringe-worthy at worst. Voice acting ranges from ok to bad, and feels throughoutly unmotivated on part of the performers. Gameplay systems outside of combat are bland, overly complicated and laborous. Space exploration is "well, I guess we have to have this in there"-caliber. Generally speaking, there is just an over abundance of content while so little of it is A-class that it's not worth digging it out by forcing myself. Hell, this doesn't really even feel like a bad Mass Effect game to me - it feels like a less interesting, less polished scifi-themed DA: I.
Such a shame. If this is the amount of effort and/or skill that Bioware/EA have left for the franchise, just give me remastered ME1/2/3 with some improved graphics and call it a day for the franchise. I'm bummed. Meh! Bah!
ME2 is my personal favorite SP game of all time, and I really liked 3 as well. That's quite telling of how disappointed I am with Andromeda.
Some of the planets / locales look nice. The combat is well made, even if I don't exactly know if this jump and boost -gameplay fits the ME formula. For me, the cover shooter mechanics were just fine and very enjoyable.
And that's all of the semi-positives. The story is incredibly bland. The characters lack a single one who'd make me go "I want to spend more time with this one". The writing is mediocre at best, absolutely cringe-worthy at worst. Voice acting ranges from ok to bad, and feels throughoutly unmotivated on part of the performers. Gameplay systems outside of combat are bland, overly complicated and laborous. Space exploration is "well, I guess we have to have this in there"-caliber. Generally speaking, there is just an over abundance of content while so little of it is A-class that it's not worth digging it out by forcing myself. Hell, this doesn't really even feel like a bad Mass Effect game to me - it feels like a less interesting, less polished scifi-themed DA: I.
Such a shame. If this is the amount of effort and/or skill that Bioware/EA have left for the franchise, just give me remastered ME1/2/3 with some improved graphics and call it a day for the franchise. I'm bummed. Meh! Bah!
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
Same. I only put around 90 hours into Destiny, so it wasn't the huge time sink for me that it was for many. Still, those games just aren't my cup of tea. Hell, after Personal 5 I'm going to avoid long games in general for a while as I'm just burnt out on them after FFXV, Gravity Rush 2, Horizon, Zelda, ME:A and and P5. Going to chill with some pick up and play stuff like Puyo Puyo Tetris, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2 etc. through summer.
I doubt I'll ever play another Destiny-like game though. Just too much repeating content hoping for better loot, too many parts that require taking time to coordinate playing with others etc.
prag16
Banned
Yeah that's the issue here. It's the repeating content grinding for better loot. That's the entire loop of games like Destiny and The Division. Maybe Bioware will bring something truly new to the table with a different/better take. But I'm not holding my breath.
What it most l likely comes down to is that EA wanted a piece of that MMO-lite microtransaction pie.
Just did the first Ark quest and it was great,in fact the whole game is still great to me,besides a few glitches here and there....I think I am like 35 hours in,almost at the % needed on Voeld to make an outpost...cast is pretty good also,the banter amongst the one you choose to bring along is entertaining most of the time...
FrontalMonk
Banned
It only gets better. Ignore the haters. The final act is excellent.
General Lee
Member
I think in this particular case the jump to space is just a loading bar, which you would have regardless of whether the loading screen shows you going to space or not.
Of course in terms of immersion it's awful, just like any of the quests where you have to travel to a dozen different planets to press a button, collect an item or have a conversation that lasts 30 seconds. One of the biggest reasons why I hate open worlds in general. Fast travel is something games should use as sparingly as possible. It's a convinience that's unavoidable to some degree, but a game should try to provide more immersive means of getting from one place to another.
I can't wait for games to finally reach a truly seamless game world without long loading screens. I think when they were prototyping this game they had those sorts of ideas too, doing it like NMS, but realized it wasn't going to happen.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Just found there is an option in the settings...
WTF why the hell are oxygen masks and helmets set to default off at all times for the crew?
So we can see their beautiful faces
Noticed something pretty cool today - never noticed before, but I'm going through the game again on insanity trying to
.
I encounter a lone kett wraith chilling on the far end of a hallway...I take aim with my Blackwidow and the first shot takes a huge chunk out of its head, but doesn't kill it, the second shot does the job, but upon examination I can actually see the bullet holes...
It's the little things, but they're so far and in between (still having fun however)
EDIT:. shit after talking to Drak about combat advice - he mentioned how sneaky​ wraiths are and their tells before an attack.
Then he mentions shooting off their head plates and go for the kill - exactly what happened in the description above...still a nice touch IMO
free the Moshae
I encounter a lone kett wraith chilling on the far end of a hallway...I take aim with my Blackwidow and the first shot takes a huge chunk out of its head, but doesn't kill it, the second shot does the job, but upon examination I can actually see the bullet holes...
It's the little things, but they're so far and in between (still having fun however)
EDIT:. shit after talking to Drak about combat advice - he mentioned how sneaky​ wraiths are and their tells before an attack.
Then he mentions shooting off their head plates and go for the kill - exactly what happened in the description above...still a nice touch IMO
Amory
Member
I've finally reached that tipping point where I'm familiar with the systems of the game, reasonably speedy about completing missions, specced my character the way I want him, and have powerful enough weapons that battles are fun but not very challenging. Now I can just zip around getting shit done and enjoying the gameplay with no hindrances
This is the point in games where I get obsessed and play them too much. The learning and setup is done. I hate the "work" of getting familiar with everything.
Anyway I'm around level 40, about half of the loyalty missions done, and I have an assault rifle that shoots sticky grenades and a pistol that does 1100 damage per shot, and a Krogan hammer.
Life's good
This is the point in games where I get obsessed and play them too much. The learning and setup is done. I hate the "work" of getting familiar with everything.
Anyway I'm around level 40, about half of the loyalty missions done, and I have an assault rifle that shoots sticky grenades and a pistol that does 1100 damage per shot, and a Krogan hammer.
Life's good
prag16
Banned
Yes, you can. In fact, there is actually a small handful of activities that ONLY open up after you complete the story.
Probably also to avoid cutscenes where people drink through their helmets and whatnot like you used to see in the old games.
Arjen
Member
Awesome news, thanks!
John Petrucci
Member
You're right. That is kinda harsh. I guess it might be more hurt by the greatness of the trilogy than actually being truly "bad" for me. I also wonder if I just may not have the patience I once had for games, but I sure as hell very willingly put 100's of hours into DAI's open world recently.
DAI was possibly not a slog for me as I think it was actually my first open world experience on that level, and I had never played MMO's either (I know a lot of people say DAI is very MMO-ish) It felt very new to me in a lot of ways. I also really enjoyed the combat in DAI so that kept things fresh for a long time. Even if I was doing a simple fetch quest, I was having a blast because I loved the combat, the game was beautiful, and I felt attached to the characters. I would agree about the gated, "power" based story progression not being a thing I liked in any way.
prag16
Banned
I can understand that actually. My first true MMO type experience was SWTOR. I played it for around 2 months at launch, logging over 100 hours. Since that type of game was new to me at the time, and I love Star Wars (and KOTOR) it was awesome for a while.
But then I came to the realization somewhere past hour 100, "Wait, this actually sucks."
So that type of game had run its course for me right then and there. As for the combat, DA:I combat didn't do it for me; ME:A is much better imo, but again, subjective. ¯\_(ツ
_/¯I totally agree w/ prag16 that DA:I and ME:A suffer to a large degree from the same problems with open-world bloat and underwritten or poorly presented questlines.
I'll float a couple thoughts, though, on why DA:I might feel a little less like a chore for some players. First, travel between zones is faster and easier, and quests are usually contained to one big region. ME:A made me go "fuck, back to (e.g.) Kadara, again?" quite a few times, and that required travel back to the ship, then out of the system, then into the other system, then into orbit, then onto the planet, then into the slums, and then finally into the zone I needed to be in. In DA:I I'd just fast travel and sit through the loading screen, and it was a rare quest that required me to hit multiple areas in the first place.
This issue gets worse later in the game when your quest density starts to decline, making it harder to efficiently chop off many quests simultaneously in one place.
Also, while DA:I's decision to gate story points behind "power" or whatever it was called was indeed stupid, it was in my playthrough(s) nearly irrelevant - I found that it was very, very easy to hit the thresholds necessary to advance the story, should I wish to.
Lastly, and much more subjectively, I found DA:I's environments somewhat more varied and interesting; others may disagree. I didn't love DA:I, though, for all the normal reasons. I'd rate it above ME:A, but not by very much, and its filler was indisputably more underwitten than ME:A's. They essentially didn't even try to tell a story in a lot of quests.
arhra
Member
That's been a problem the whole series. I think ME1 let you get back on the ship without taking off some of the time, but in ME2/3 going back to the ship would always put you back in orbit.
Although in Andromeda specifically I can see how it might be more difficult due to the design of the Tempest. All the windows showing the exterior would mean they'd need to keep a version of the planet surface loaded, I don't think the interior would actually fit inside the external shell, so scaling those exterior views correctly could be an issue, and the entrance/exit being the ramp rather than an airlock reduces the opportunity to seamlessly mask loading (IIRC in ME1 when you could go back to the ship without taking off, you'd be stuck in the airlock for "decontamination" while it loaded the ship interior).
Still shouldn't have been anything they couldn't have worked around, though - the external views wouldn't have to be super high-detail, matching the external scale of the ship to the internal should have been something they thought about from the start, and the loading could be hidden with a short cutscene of the ramp raising/lowering.
TC McQueen
Member
Actually, ironically, the Tempest's interior is actually smaller than the exterior (that green bit is the bridge):
It's got the opposite problem of the Normandy, where the interior was possibly too big for the exterior (or at least scaled incorrectly).
arhra
Member
Actually, ironically, the Tempest's interior is actually smaller than the exterior (that green bit is the bridge):
It's got the opposite problem of the Normandy, where the interior was possibly too big for the exterior (or at least scaled incorrectly).
Huh. I was going by the fact that the interior of the bridge clearly feels too big to fit into the nose of the ship, but yeah, now you mention it the distance from bridge to cargo bay doesn't match the exterior either.
I guess they just screwed that up in multiple ways. Really wish that for once, people designing spaceships for games would do it properly, and design the interior/exterior in conjunction with each other to avoid this kind of thing.
Mister_Bubbles
Member
See: Star Citizen, I guess.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I'm going to try to beat it this weekend. I think I'm pretty close to the end from what I've read (maybe a few hours out?). My squad are in their level 40s and I've done most of the planets / locations so I think I just have to do the archon's ship mission and associated "end game" stuff.
It's been a pretty fun game overall - it reminds me of ME1 a lot (which I liked) but it is definitely janky and I've encountered a lot of bugs (PS4 version, playing on a Pro).
It's been a pretty fun game overall - it reminds me of ME1 a lot (which I liked) but it is definitely janky and I've encountered a lot of bugs (PS4 version, playing on a Pro).
Doors take too long to open in the port and you want fast travel to forward stations in the outlands without taking the elevator down and leaving the slums.
Neolombax
Member
I'm at the 50% mark, somewhere around there, 53 hours in. My squad is about level 48. The game does feel stale at times. There are times when you get to see hints of good dialogue in the game, but i feel whats really lacking in this game is the impact of the choices or lack of thereof. In previous mass effects games, I'd replay the game just to see the impact of the choices I made, but this game seems to funnel choices to almost similar outcomes. At least that's how I feel so far.
Also, SAM being this omniscient AI that knows just about everything is starting to annoy me. There's this side mission where you need to track this lady who supposedly has a deadly contagion.
Also, SAM being this omniscient AI that knows just about everything is starting to annoy me. There's this side mission where you need to track this lady who supposedly has a deadly contagion.
By the end of it, you find a datapad saying this contagion doesn't affect Anggarans. And SAM magically verifies this to be true, despite being designed by humans from the Milky Way galaxy who don't know jack about Anggaran biology. How the heck does SAM know that?!
I don't know if they're pulling punches for DLC or whatever but as of now the details behind the
have ended up being a big disappointment. I'd forgotten about it entirely until I finished the memory trigger fetch quest post ending. Despite it not really telling you anything at least the paranoia and guarded responses seemed like they'd lead somewhere. Nothing but quips and haughty dailogue. The supposed
did nothing, and despite them apparently being one entity there's no change. More confusing, visiting SAM node post ending you'll find its terminal isn't even in the room anymore. Odd, and the whole idea feels like a wasted plot development.
I remember that mission. Andromeda has this knack of fainting an interesting difficulty of choice, putting you on the spot but then delivering bland conclusions.
Angaran AI
SAM AI merger
I remember that mission. Andromeda has this knack of fainting an interesting difficulty of choice, putting you on the spot but then delivering bland conclusions.
Neolombax
Member
I was actually fully prepared to put down that lady...I guess in the end everything in Andromeda has a happy ending...sigh.