• 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

Vico

Member
Yeah, totally thought the worm was an architect until I received a new page in the codex called the Abyssal. Made it much more interesting.
I was sure I'd get to fight it, though. A bit disappointing.
 

Amory

Member
So I just finished my single player playthrough. I completed just about every non-task mission I could find. Play time probably in the 60-70 hour range.

Warts and all, I really, really ended up liking this game. A lot. It's far from perfect and some of the mission structure was unbearable at times, but I ended up enjoying the characters (even Ryder himself) as much as I liked everyone in the original trilogy. I'm a little sad it's over, and I very rarely feel that way about a video game.

I'll mess around with the APEX mission stuff, which I haven't touched yet, and maybe get into the multiplayer if it grabs me. And I'll definitely be there if any legitimate story DLC gets released.

I hope any speculation that this could be the last game in the ME universe is just an overreaction from disappointed fans, because these are cool games.
 

Madness

Member
It is more about the capability to make the next game. There was a large departure from BioWare Montreal after this game. Edmonton is deep at work of their new IP. Austin can only help in limited numbers. Montreal is probably just now back from vacation post-crunch and working on patches and post-launch plans ie. MP and possibly single player dlc. I wouldn't expect a sequel anytime soon. If Edmonton new IP is a hit, they will continue with that.

I honestly don't want another also-ran type of game. Unless they can give it AAA quality polish and development, they may as well hold off.
 

karasu

Member
Maybe it's only because I'm a couple of hours in. But this doesn't really feel like Mass Effect. Everything is just a little off and the combat feels alien to me. Auto-cover is worse than auto-dialogue.
 
I didn't really give my opinion after completing the game. I generally liked it, specifically the aesthetics and general design. However there is far too much toing and froing from one side of the cluster to the other and it gets pretty dull doing that again and again.
I also felt there was a lack of urgency or actual threat in the game until right at the end. And I also felt there wasn't really anything at stake or anything to lose. Most of the time the story (and sidequests) left me shrugging my shoulders.

I generally liked the characters too, though I tend not to care much for the characters.
So the game was okay 7/10, yadda, yadda. There is life in it but it needs better focus, more drama (and actual decisions to make) and a sharper, more concise story.
 
I finished this game last night and wanted to post some thoughts and opinions. It'l be long, and probably tl;dr for most people. But whatever.

First off, I just want to say that I didn't experience any major glitches, but I started playing after the first patch so that could be a reason why. There were no glitches or technical issues that ruined the experience for me. I didn't even skip the planet to planet cut scenes, I really enjoyed them because they looked great and it was fun taking screenshots on PS4. Now that that's out of the way, here we go.

The game isn't as bad as the internet made it out to be. is it great? Nope. Is it as good as the original trilogy? Nope. It's worse in most aspects. But does that make it a bad game? Subjectively, no, objectively, no. The way the internet reacted to this game you would think it was as poor in quality as something as Two Worlds 2. But it's a pretty decent game that's pretty fun to play.

Crew

PeeBee, Cora, Drack, Jaal and Ryder are all great characters. The rest, I didn't love, but didn't hate. VA's were pretty great and well suited for their characters.

Story

The writing can be bad at times, but the story isn't. It's certainly not original but it's still enjoyable enough. You can tell early on that this game has mediocre writing when poppa ryder gives you his helmet and sacrifices himself for you. Guess they forgot about helmets without such easily breakable visors? Of course they didn't. Ammo crates for Milky Way weapons deep within vaults where no one from the Milky Way has ever been? Brilliant.

Music

The music, it's very much placeholder music, it's serviceable, it's not all terrible but I can't hum a single tune from the game, the OT trilogy on the other hand, there are dozens of songs that I can hum right now off the top of my head and I haven't played any of those games in a few years. Some music was pretty good, like the menu theme and galaxy theme, but overall it was very forgettable and at times garbage. The final battle in Meridian, that wasn't music, it was instruments making suspenseful noise. Fine for a 30 second clip in a movie, horrible for a 15 minute game sequence when it's on repeat the whole damn time. Also, too many areas or moments without music.

The audio mixing is bad. I had to turn down the SFX volume to half and only then could I hear the open world ambient music, but even then it was hard to hear over the roar of the Nomad.

Combat

I loved the combat and movement and it's what I enjoyed most about the game, it had some issues but overall it was good. I didn't like that they removed the ability to order squads outside of telling them where to go and who to attack though. Abilities were fun as usual, weapons were fun, armor and crafting was also well done. Felt good to be able to holster your weapons again, and the movement system was mostly fantastic. I had an issue with two of my favorite abilities, pull and throw. You pull and enemy, throw them for up and off into the distance yet they take no fall damage.

Visuals

Graphics are fantastic, but the visuals are very uninspired. The remnant vaults, I can name a few games where I've seen similar, dark, triangular vaults with blue lights. AC series, Horizon, I know there are others out there I just can't remember right now. Too many vaults. 3 max, 10 is overkill. Same goes for planets. We've traveled so far from the milky way and that's the best you can do? Mushroom trees, sand, sand and more sand....Avatar world....Really, just boring ass looking environments. Beautiful, but lacking in imagination. Same goes for new species. The Angara, Cobra heads with Minotaur legs, sooo weak. The idea of Meridian
being an inverted planet was awesome though and I really hope it can be explored in the second game

Missions

Main missions and loyalty missions were great, some of them are really really great. The rest, for the most part were not. The amount of filler missions is massive, yeah, they're not all terrible but they're not great either. The next game should have at least 30% more main and 50% less filler. Even if it means less content overall.

Multiplayer

It's more or less the same as ME3, but for some reason not as fun. I put 100 hours into ME3's MP, I put about 15 in this one and don't see myself putting in much more.


Overall I had fun with the game and think the series has a lot of potential. Few things I really want for the next game, take some risks, especially in the design department. I loved the Nomad, but hated the 6WD gimmick, just let me go up hills ffs, we got flying vehicles and you're making me slog around this thing. Work on the writing, remove the filler and finally, get yourself a video game composer, not a film composer and give us some proper music. Perhaps someone from the OT. Jack Wall, Sam Hulick etc.

I want more of this, this, this and this and less silence and cinematic music that's only good in small bursts, like cutscenes and not gameplay.

A solid 7/10 game in my opinion.
 

Arklite

Member
...and finally, get yourself a video game composer, not a film composer and give us some proper music. Perhaps someone from the OT. Jack Wall, Sam Hulick etc.

I want more of this, this, this and this and less silence and cinematic music that's only good in small bursts, like cutscenes and not gameplay.

A solid 7/10 game in my opinion.

More prominent music would've done a lot for the tone of each planet, towards letting them have personality. What's there is very low key, mixed in at low volume by default and used so sparingly, or even absent in many cutscenes. It's a point of odd design or aesthetic choice that can leave Andromeda feeling flat.
 
It is more about the capability to make the next game. There was a large departure from BioWare Montreal after this game. Edmonton is deep at work of their new IP. Austin can only help in limited numbers. Montreal is probably just now back from vacation post-crunch and working on patches and post-launch plans ie. MP and possibly single player dlc. I wouldn't expect a sequel anytime soon. If Edmonton new IP is a hit, they will continue with that.

I honestly don't want another also-ran type of game. Unless they can give it AAA quality polish and development, they may as well hold off.

With the Star Wars license at EA, it seems only a matter of time until Austin or whoever leads a new KotOR-esque (but not actually old republic) Star Wars RPG. James Ohlen and Drew Karpyshyn are at Austin, after all.

There is also the matter of Dragon Age 4, which everyone seems to forget about it.

I'd be shocked if we see another ME anytime soon. Maybe next set of consoles will see another "reboot." I'd actually like for them to take the foundation of Andromeda and jump another 100+ years so that the Heleus Cluster is built up with more actual cities and settlements. Maybe they've started to build Mass Relays. There are more intricate politics and history native to Andromeda that have accumulated over the century+. Now we have a reboot closer to ME1 :)

Aside from my ME1 fanboyism, I would also like this since I really don't like Ryder at all and would prefer to play as a new character.
 
Beat the game, I'll post some thoughts later. I enjoyed the last mission quite a bit.

As a side note, does anyone else dislike the camera position in hubs like the Nexus and Tempest? I wish it was zoomed out a bit more, I hate how it covers half your body. It's been like this since ME2.
 
You know what, I'm tired of making excuses for the shitty QA in this game. I just sat through the ending cut scene for Drack's loyalty mission and it was completely fucked. Animations weren't happening, characters were floating out in the middle of nowhere, dialog was screwed up. Completely inexcusable. It was a really fun section of the game that was completely ruined by the game totally shitting the bed in the end.
 
More prominent music would've done a lot for the tone of each planet, towards letting them have personality. What's there is very low key, mixed in at low volume by default and used so sparingly, or even absent in many cutscenes. It's a point of odd design or aesthetic choice that can leave Andromeda feeling flat.

Yep, that's something I really miss. In all 3 previous games nearly every location had it's own music. Even small missions like exploring the Normandy crash site. This really added an eerie feeling to it. It was fantastic. Doing side missions in The Wards or The Presidium. It made me want to be there. The Nexus on the other hand. I'm sprinting from A to B because it's boring to look at and boring to listen to. Even dying had it's musical perks.
 
Yep, that's something I really miss. In all 3 previous games nearly every location had it's own music. Even small missions like exploring the Normandy crash site. This really added an eerie feeling to it. It was fantastic. Doing side missions in The Wards or The Presidium. It made me want to be there. The Nexus on the other hand. I'm sprinting from A to B because it's boring to look at and boring to listen to. Even dying had it's musical perks.

Bioware these days doesn't seem to understand just how important background music is...

I remember being hooked on the trilogy right from the start with this, just walking around the ship.

Hubs just aren't the same without stuff like this or this.

And yeah, it was awesome hearing Saren's theme when you died. Just a genius idea. I'm sure there are other games that play the villain's music when you die but none are coming to mind atm.
 
Finished P5, so I figured I would jump back into this on Insanity. Trying to do a few opposite actions this time and ignoring some of the tasks unless it's convenient, and I've already noticed a few things.

- First time on Eos, I found and scanned one of the missing/broken drones (task: find 6 and repair); because I did that before checking at Prodromos, I had to actually look everywhere for them by driving around and searching random areas. This time, activating the quest before I touch any of them, they are highlighted on the map. So, obviously, you're meant to just do everything in a straight order to reboot the planet, leave, then do anything else (exploring) once the radiation clears.

- Messier was different this time; this is the blond guy standing behind the mayor in Podromos, who asks you what he should do to help. First game I told him about the Kett, ending up saving him from them, and he went back to the outpost. This time I told him about the Remnant, so I found him at the Remnant, so I rescued him... only for him to go to the same Kett area, where he needed to be rescued again. So I wonder, if you tell him the first option, about fauna, does he move at all or would he need rescuing three times?

- Planet order - First time I went to Voeld, then Havarl. Reversed that this time, and I've gotten a couple of new conversations from everyone in groups after I'm back onboard the Tempest. The Info Board in the quarters has a message I didn't get last game and the emails are consistent (i.e. characters being referenced before showing up on ship aren't happening now), though now SAM decides to tell me I have email everytime I cross between the r&d/shop/apex kiosk and the cockpit.
 

8bit

Knows the Score
All my exes live in Nexus.

This made me laugh, just wanted to mention it didn't go unnoticed.


Anyway, have been enduring with this game as I paid for it and enjoyed the previous games, it's still a chore but I am either slightly enjoying it or got Stockholmed somewhere along the way.

Drack's post loyalty mission was probably the most enjoyable part of the game so far. Have dispensed with the find x number of things because they're time sapping and have been sticking to the core stuff instead now. The game is far too flabby and needed to be reduced to the main missions and loyalty, imo.
 
Bioware these days doesn't seem to understand just how important background music is...

You're right about that. Dragon age is another example, Origins has amazing music all the time, the later games, not so much. Ubisoft is the same. The older Assassin's Creed games had amazing ambient music and just music that played in every location, all the time, outside of Black Flag, the new ones don't. They're all silent and it makes exploring their cities incredibly boring. I went from going from A to B on foot just to enjoy it all to using fast travel as much as possible in the newer games, they're all the same thing, silence.

Same goes for Andromeda, I fast travel ALL the time.

I hope Bethesda doesn't follow, because ES without music would be tragic.
 
I really loved ME trilogy (except the ending), but still haven't played Andromeda.
Should I buy it now or wait for more updates?
Wait IMO.

In addition to any patches, I'm guessing any DLC will be beneficial to the overall experience if they do as good of a job with it as with DA:I's DLC or the better DLC in ME1-3.

I didn't absolutely love all of ME2 or 3's dlc, but even the weaker stuff was still fun for the most part and added new characters, weapons, or experiences to the game (like the hovertank levels in ME2).

And of course it'll be cheaper over time too, which is always a plus.
 
I finished the main campaign a week ago, and overall, I really liked my time with the single player. I didn't spend my time doing the Tasks, or sidequests that I thought seemed fruitless. Instead, I explored the planets a bunch, got them all to 100% viability, did my squad's loyalty missions, and then just blazed through the main story missions.

Overall, the main story's a little weak(and short!), but the final sequence on
Meridian
I thought was really, really strong. I wouldn't mind replaying the game and reliving that sequence. I enjoyed every loyalty mission I did--those were the best part of the campaign.


I really liked the Pathfinder's crew. Jaal and Drack are strong characters--Drack in particular I really ended up liking. He may be my favorite Krogan squadmate. Wrex was a very bitter Krogan in ME1, who then got turned into the savior of his people in ME2 and ME3. Grunt was just a bloodthirsty youth going through Krogan puberty. Drack first seems like just another rough and tumble Krogan(and he is), but over time, you find out that there's deeper meaning to why he fights. He actually has people he cares about and people who care about him, and that gives him the purpose to continue living, fighting and enjoying it. I liked Drack's overall character more than I do Wrex, but Wrex probably has the better character arc.


Overall, I'd say that ME: A is on par with ME: 3. I enjoyed myself very much, and I'll keep my eyes out for future DLC.
 
Wait IMO.

In addition to any patches, I'm guessing any DLC will be beneficial to the overall experience if they do as good of a job with it as with DA:I's DLC or the better DLC in ME1-3.

I didn't absolutely love all of ME2 or 3's dlc, but even the weaker stuff was still fun for the most part and added new characters, weapons, or experiences to the game (like the hovertank levels in ME2).

And of course it'll be cheaper over time too, which is always a plus.
You're right.
Still haven't played Nier and Nioh and maybe I should play them before Andromeda getting some updates and DLCs.
 

hollerphonix

Neo Member
Sooo just finished this tonight. Gotta say not bad I generally enjoyed my times with it and only had a few technical hiccups that didn't really break the game overall. Definitely wasn't as bad as I imagined from reviews etc. The main story is nice and all the loyalty quests were really nice overall.
My complaint at this point is the matchmaker trophy seems to have glitches on me somehow.

messed around with peebee and Reyes got with Cora with strings attached when the trophy didn't pop got with Keri also
and yet still no trophy any ideas?
 

KJRS_1993

Member
I finished this yesterday.

Easily the biggest negative of the game is the huge, huge amount of low quality meaningless shit busywork the game asks you to do. More is absolutely less in this instance. I never thought a patch should remove 'content', but as this is literally so bad and there's so fkin much of it, I'd say a significant proportion of it needs to be nuked to the benefit of bringing some focus back to the game. "Drive around and scan ten things" is not fun for anybody. Neither is visiting one planet, chatting to somebody, then needing to leave for another planet to chat to one person, and then flying back. That's a whole lot of loading screen.

I recommend the best way to play this game is to completely ignore all additional task missions. Complete the location specific side quests only up until you have that region at 100% viability, and then stop. Complete all Allies side quests, as they're actually okay. And then move forward with the Priority ops.

I grew to quite like the characters, the combat encounters are pretty good, and I legitimately got into the ending, but it's difficult to recommend this one. Andromeda isn't "bad" as such, but for Mass Effect, it's definitely not good enough either.

There's a part on the last planet where
two Krogan have a fist fight. I genuinely laughed, it's that bad.
 

Black_Wolf

Neo Member
For people who have beaten the game, is there any satisfaction gained from the non-loyalty mission quests?

I'm enjoying the game but I'm also worried to get burnt out as I keep doing tasks (some are fun, like memory fragments, but some feel like busy work). It feels like Inquisition - I enjoyed the game but tried too hard to do all the smaller quests and it resulted in me spending ~100 hours in game when I feel like I would've enjoyed the game more and avoided the burn out if I'd finished at maybe ~60 hours.

Just wanted the two cents of someone who's gotten further into the game than I did.
 

Karu

Member
Focus specifically on all Priority Ops and all quests under Allies & Relationships. Skip all Tasks, do location-based quests till you get 100% Viability for a given planet. If any location-based quest still catch your interest - your are able to do them after, so you prevent burning out before the end of the story.

If you do all this, you should be pretty good and get at least 40-50 hours out of the game.
 
Just finished this yesterday. Last fight is awful. Nothing enjoyable about it. Ending is nonexistent. Yuck. While I really like femRyder, she's adorable and a way softer person than femShep, and most of the crew (fuck Liam though, he's awful), I don't think I'll ever play through this game ever again. I don't regret buying and playing it, got it cheaper than retail, but I sure as hell hope a potential sequel tightens up mission design and either reduce the size of planets or give us better means of traversing them (fuck the nomad, slow piece of crap).
 

Black_Wolf

Neo Member
I get you about planet size - the game could've been smaller with tighter "level" (if you even want to call it that) design. Still, I felt the planets weren't as big as Inquisition zones (or perhaps the faster means of traveling made them feel smaller).

In my opinion side quests in Fallout 4 are better than the side quests in Andromeda. Cogitate on that for a moment.

Only played Fallout 3 and New Vegas - never got a chance to play Fallout 4 yet.
 

Arklite

Member
Just finished this yesterday. Last fight is awful. Nothing enjoyable about it. Ending is nonexistent. Yuck. While I really like femRyder, she's adorable and a way softer person than femShep, and most of the crew (fuck Liam though, he's awful), I don't think I'll ever play through this game ever again. I don't regret buying and playing it, got it cheaper than retail, but I sure as hell hope a potential sequel tightens up mission design and either reduce the size of planets or give us better means of traversing them (fuck the nomad, slow piece of crap).

I feel the last two or so story missions along with the final battle are far and away the strongest parts of the game, with the finale being surprisingly well executed (for Andromeda). Agreed on the game's structure needing a tighter focus. The team aimed for a grandiose stage but it's not that compelling and dilutes the better focused content.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
Just finished this yesterday. Last fight is awful. Nothing enjoyable about it. Ending is nonexistent. Yuck. While I really like femRyder, she's adorable and a way softer person than femShep, and most of the crew (fuck Liam though, he's awful), I don't think I'll ever play through this game ever again. I don't regret buying and playing it, got it cheaper than retail, but I sure as hell hope a potential sequel tightens up mission design and either reduce the size of planets or give us better means of traversing them (fuck the nomad, slow piece of crap).

I was surprised by the last battle considering they got criticized because ME3 didn't have a final boss but waves of monster while you wait to push a button and they did the same thing again.
 

MBison

Member
I finished at 95% at 66 hours.

Overall I enjoyed it specifically the linear missions like loyalty quests etc. didn't really enjoy the filler even though I was too OCD not to do them all.

But future games should be more like the OT. My Mass Effect 1 completion time is 19 hours and I did everything. Much better.
 
Top Bottom