Mass Effect: Andromeda

red assassin · Post by **red assassin** » Mon, 10. Apr 17, 22:56

I finished it yesterday. Some thoughts, in no particular order:

I didn't really hit any issues with odd facial expressions etc. Not always the greatest animation ever, but not off-putting. I had the trying to run upstairs glitch and a few minor clipping issues, but on the whole it was fine. Graphics were frequently gorgeous. (I am playing on a reasonable high-spec PC, and it seems like there were more issues on other platforms.)

I love the new combat and Mako (I mean, Nomad). Jetpacks and the more fluid cover are great. Haring around the planets in the Nomad tweaks all the right nostalgia notes from the first game (which for all its flaws might still be my favourite), but with more going on. I felt like they struck the right balance between number of planets and amount of content per planet (compared to the original's one quest at best and a couple of points of interest on dozens of random planets). Also, I love the gun augmentation that brings back the original's ammo system.

This is possibly a minor spoiler if you're less than about half way through the game, and also includes spoilers for the original trilogy:

Spoiler

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The kett are Tesco Value Reapers, and it makes me sad. They're a strict subset of the reasons the Reapers were cool. I feel like this applies to some other stuff as well - I don't know if they tried too hard to make it feel like Mass Effect by repeating themes, only with less imagination.

Mind you, one of my complaints about 2 and 3 is that they never really came close to replicating how well 1's Saren/Sovereign villain duo worked. Maybe the Archon is an attempt to return to having a human (or, well, alien) face on the bad guys, but where Saren was ultimately a relatable, tragic figure, the Archon is just a generic personality-free world-domination type who could have walked off the set of the latest Marvel movie.

Patchy voice acting, as others have said, was disappointing. But likewise I really liked Sara's actor. (Also, the mixture of accents the angara have is deliberate - they have per-world accents - it's just a pity about the average quality...)

Writing had some wobbles too (see spoilered section), but I thought it at worst did the job, and as ever with Bioware games was at its best with some flashes of brilliance with the character writing. I ended up liking Peebee, much to my surprise, and Drack in particular is awesome. In random side characters, Sloane provides some unexpectedly hilarious moments too (pro tip: be overly familiar with her).

Some of the binary choices felt a bit more forced than usual. Case study (minor spoilers for one side quest):

Spoiler

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The "First Murderer" guy. Everyone makes a big deal out of how it turns out he's not actually guilty of murder, so your choice is to a) exile him for a crime he didn't commit or b) free him. Because... somehow attempted murder isn't a crime in Andromeda?

There were a few bits that successfully made me go "holy crap", which was nice. I don't think it ever hit quite the sense of wonder of the first, but I'm a decade older now (and as previously mentioned, have epic nostalgia for that game) so it probably wasn't going to.

I like the new dialogue flavours. More flexibility than the paragon/renegade system.

The UX design is atrocious even by Mass Effect standards. What were they thinking?

The lame soundtrack really disappointed me. The Mass Effect 1 soundtrack is one of my favourite video game soundtracks (I have it on CD!), and I loved the soundtrack from 3 as well.

Upshot: It has its flaws for sure, but I definitely enjoyed sinking 65 hours into it, will play the inevitable DLC, and look forward to the inevitable sequel.

muppetts · Post by **muppetts** » Sun, 20. Aug 17, 10:37

So 5 months in and single player support ended, support will be for the free to play loot box MP aspect of the game.

http://www.pcgamer.com/bioware-is-dropp ... _pcgamerfb

sorry long link on the move

given how much polish and balance most games are given in the first Year after release it seems sad they have decided to just stop. Modern games come out in early beta stage and so many never make it to a legitimate finished format, there is always more to do and I think the effort should reflect a studios investment in the player base to deliver a great game, aside from DLC.

Oh and of course the ever growing MP money for loot box ftp bs that is tagged onto every SP these days, is a real downer IMPO.

Post by **X2-Illuminatus** » Sun, 20. Aug 17, 12:00

A couple of weeks ago, EA already announced that they merged Bioware Montreal with their new EA motive studio. And I think a couple of weeks earlier, they moved a part of the team to their new Anthem project already. So while it's a pity, I feel it's not a big surprise that they abandon the support.

What still confuses me, is how Bioware or EA managed the whole development of ME: Andromeda. Developed by a different studio than the original ME: Trilogy, with key persons leaving the team early in development to work on Anthem instead, which was then announced with an imo rather disappointing first presentation just a couple of months after the release of ME: Andromeda.

Post by **Ketraar** » Sun, 20. Aug 17, 16:21

THis comes only as a surprise to those with short memory imho. There was enough evidence as to how bad of an idea ME:A was going to be as soon as information made it out. The bad facial animations aside and the rather worse look and feel of it that are not as relevant. But I presume they realized midway through that the real money is in loot boxes and the MP ftp cash grab.

Now unlike most I don't really blame them for being greedy, why shouldn't they be? Player keep telling them that's the way to go. EA was not really known for its concerns of morality or its player base. They keep making shit load of money with these cash grabs, Its the FF, Transformers, Pirates, etc of games, if they keep making tons of money than they will make more of these.

When NMS did it, the internet lost its mind. Not condoning it, but at least NMS was a small studio trying to innovate, but with ME:A people found all sorts of excuses.

Inb4 Anthem adds micro-transactions and loot boxes and the internet goes apeshit about it while buying it and make EA shit load of cash, so they can laugh at all the stupid ranting online while Scrooge McDucking hard.

This wont change, people on the internet are loud, but money talk louder, a lot louder.

MFG

Ketraar

Golden_Gonads · Post by **Golden_Gonads** » Sun, 20. Aug 17, 22:21

Reading that article, they seem to have given up on it completely and will finish off the story in a couple of comics... Seems a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

red assassin · Post by **red assassin** » Sun, 20. Aug 17, 23:36

Golden_Gonads wrote:Reading that article, they seem to have given up on it completely and will finish off the story in a couple of comics... Seems a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Yeah, I said this after the first rumours about them killing it off came out a couple of months back, but they seem to have taken entirely the wrong lesson from this whole débâcle. It seems like somebody in upper management has attempted to figure out went wrong, and rather than coming to any conclusion about how the project was mismanaged (because that would involve accepting some fault somewhere), decided in a vaguely baffled manner that something's terribly wrong with the whole franchise. I'm doubly grumpy about it because a) I actually had a lot of fun with Andromeda, despite its flaws, and was really looking forward to the obvious DLC hook at the end, and b) I was really hoping lessons would be learnt and the sequel would live up to the potential properly. Sigh.

Post by **Ketraar** » Mon, 21. Aug 17, 01:22

Just give the rights to Marvel.

MFG

Ketraar

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Mon, 21. Aug 17, 09:33

red assassin wrote:but they seem to have taken entirely the wrong lesson from this whole débâcle. It seems like somebody in upper management has attempted to figure out went wrong, and rather than coming to any conclusion about how the project was mismanaged (because that would involve accepting some fault somewhere)

You know, you could have replaced this entire section with "EA, amirite?" and everybody would have known what you meant.

Post by **korio** » Mon, 21. Aug 17, 10:09

i had read some time ago somewhere a little history about the development of the game and all the problems with it.

It was a really convoluted development, they changed a couple times the "direction" behind the game, changed some key features a couple times too, the studio couldn't make the deadlines and i think 6 months or so before launch date they gave the project again to the studio that did the other mass effect games in hopes they will fix everything in the last minute.

The game is a clear mirror of all the problems they had "in house" and the lack of a strong hand directing everything in the good way.

Despite of all, i enjoyed it and liked the history, but it felt "soul less" nothing like the other mass effect games that take you and immerse yourself in the game, the environment and the history, this one was more a "meh" than a "WOW!" but it was still "good".

Sorkvild · Post by **Sorkvild** » Mon, 21. Aug 17, 12:09

This article says clearly what went wrong with MEA

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/2505 ... -andromeda

To me this game was like a mediocre spinoff rather than a solid continuation. All these rubber faces, bad animations, bland characters and so-so story... Speaking of facial animations, ME from 2007 looks better than this. Anyways I'm glad that Bioware Montreal was put to rest and there will be no more embarrassing Mass Effects.
As a hardcore fan of original ME trilogy I was like doing "sigh" all the time seeing MEA in action and especially hearing all those hilarious dialogues and seeing character' unnatural facial reactions and no more Sara Ryder, I'm glad this shit is over. Rest in Peace. Do not excavate. Praise the trilogy.
Now Bioware (main branch) is working on their next big title called "Anthem". Something tells me this could be hitter like ME was back in the day.

Memnoch · Post by **Memnoch** » Mon, 21. Aug 17, 16:07

As bad as the game may be, this is just another case of EA showing contempt for the buying public. Pull the plug on it the instant it looks like things are going south.

Post by **Ketraar** » Mon, 21. Aug 17, 16:10

But isnt Anthem MMO Desteny "clone"? Not sure why I should feel good for them to shut down a perfectly good universe, they had all the ingredients, all it would have needed is care. Its not a indy-dev with limited resources trying a new thing. This is EA Bioware with an established franchise, regardless of the butchery they did in ME3 they have a huge fanbase that clearly was willing to buy more ME, as you said it lacks characters.

dunkey said it best imho (strong language)

MFG

Ketraar

Jericho · Post by **Jericho** » Thu, 24. Aug 17, 11:55

The thing is, Andromeda had moments of greatness.

1) Trying to solve the murder/disappearance of Jein Garcen (Spelling?) your leader. Discovering that secret room was like "OOOOohhhhh Yes! Finally the game is going somewhere!!!!" Then.... NOTHING.

2) The mysterious benefactor to the mission, started great, then just ended same as the murder mystery.

3) The first vault was so much fun, and felt like you were exploring proper Mass Effect. Subsequent vaults, not so much.

Fighting flying robots just isn't fun. Shooting humans/turians/krogan is far more fun.

When I read the Uprising book before the game came out, the book implied that there were very few exiles from the Nexus, after all the Nexus wasn't holding that many people. Yet according to my stats, I've killed over 1000 humans, and countless turians.

It has never been explained why the PATHFINDERS were supposed to arrive 1 year AFTER the Nexus. What is the bloody point of that? Surely the PATHFINDERS should be on the Nexus and FIND PATHS when they arrive, so that the arcs have somewhere to go when they arrive.

This is the equivalent of the president of the USA arriving by himself in Russia, attending all his meetings, boarding the plane to go home, and then the secret service arrive to serve his inflight meal.

One huge missed opportunity was the Scourge.
They used the magic Quarian FTL telescopes to find these golden worlds, but they didn't know that these worlds were all terraformed. And at some point over the 600 years, those terraforming machines had all broken.

I was expecting to find out that it was our use of the magic FTL telescopes that had broken the machines and caused the Scourge (Unintended side effect of the magic technology on the vaults). I even thought it was being implied in some of the dialogue choices that this is where we were going. instead, it's just "because" like everything else.

This game was such a wasted opportunity.

TSM · Post by **TSM** » Thu, 24. Aug 17, 12:59

@Jericho yep have same feelings about game as you.

Loved ME 1,2,3 they have replayability, I cant see my playing Andromeda again any time soon.

SteveMill · Post by **SteveMill** » Tue, 29. Aug 17, 20:34

Picked it up for £17.

Sure, some of the most stupid bugs have gone but nothing can fix the terrible writing and the at best forgettable and at worst downright annoying characters.

Okay, the shooting stuff side is okay but that's a secindary part of the package.

It's not a bad game for me, just boring.

Jericho · Post by **Jericho** » Wed, 30. Aug 17, 10:56

SteveMill wrote: downright annoying characters.
.

I hate Liam. You can hear the voice actor's cheeks and lips moving around his face trying to get the words out. His tongue is just too big.

I've actually just restarted the game last night, because I'm a hypocrite.

Enjoying the combat. Just trying to force myself to think that it ISN'T Mass Effect, and I might like it a bit better.

Stars_InTheirEyes · Post by **Stars_InTheirEyes** » Thu, 31. Aug 17, 02:27

This best decision I made this year was cancelling my order for this a week before release and instead getting Nier: Automata which came out around the same time.

Jericho · Post by **Jericho** » Thu, 31. Aug 17, 10:02

Stars_InTheirEyes wrote:This best decision I made this year was cancelling my order for this a week before release and instead getting Nier: Automata which came out around the same time.

If I had the willpower, I probably would have cancelled too. I just kept hoping...

I get confused about which one Nier is, as there were two games out at the same time with similar names. I don't google non-work things anymore unless I know the results are safe, the firewall has become 'robust' as of late.

Golden_Gonads · Post by **Golden_Gonads** » Mon, 4. Sep 17, 15:00

I've just completed the trilogy for just the second time and started Andromeda this morning (Picked up a digital download off game.co.uk for £14.50)... And I am really not impressed despite having played only an hour or so. I didn't like ME2 or 3 much (2 because it's all act 1 (gather the party before venturing forth) and 3 because it's just a bunch of mini-adventures thrown together (and the ending ignores what you accomplish ingame)).

I'll have another crack at it tomorrow, but... Not impressed. Even with everything I've heard the last year or so.

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Mon, 4. Sep 17, 17:50

I liked it overall. It got boring about half way through like Dragon Age Inquisition. The combat was better than the previous series. The story not so much. I liked the way previous titles delivered the story and the mystery in them. I also thought ME3 was the low point of the series story wise. The dark matter ending would have been better. I have only 48 hours in Mass Effect Andromeda but I feel it was worth the money I paid.

The open world needs more interesting places/people maybe like the Fallout series? Open world games seem to have some inherent problems.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Mass Effect: Andromeda