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2020-08-08, 09:47 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2013
Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
I passed when ME:A originally came out but recently decided to pick it up during a steam sale. From what very little I know, people had very mixed feelings about the game and it was known to have some bugs. But whatever, right? It's been a couple of years, surely they'll have fixed it by now, and the grumblers are usually the loudest.
I'm about 15 minutes into the game and am starting to wonder. So far the audio has cut out twice at the same scene (after restarting) and I've been staring at a loading screen for maybe 10 minutes after leaving the bridge (to go to the first planet I think?). What is going on here, am I going to hate this game? Not for the gameplay mind you, but for the constant errors/bugs, and perpetual load times?
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2020-08-09, 03:02 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2017
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
I didn't experience anything like that when I pretty much played the game day 1, before any patches started fixing the worst issues, so this certainly isn't typical of the experience in my experience. Is there any chance this is down to issues with your computer?
Jasnah avatar by Zea Mays
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2020-08-09, 06:35 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2013
Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
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2020-08-09, 07:05 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2011
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
You're in for a bland time with dumb writing.
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2020-08-09, 09:48 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
You can kind of break Andromeda down into three portions.
Combat. This is overall the strongest part of the game, with satisfying weapons and a good movement system. If somebody picked this system up and dropped it into a game with well designed levels and enemies, I'd play the hell out of it. As it is, combat is held back from greatness by a couple factors.
Two of these are joined at the hip of bad open world design. Because Andromeda is mostly open world (see below), a lot of the fights are open world filler fights; shoot this group of dudes in this prefab building to check off this objective marker. The game is very short on memorable encounters. It's also short on good enemies to shoot; you have boring mushroom aliens, occasional bandits, a depressingly small variety of robots, and like three kinds of generic space monster. None of these are particularly enjoyable to fight, since they don't have a lot of interesting mechanics or AI, and have to present a generic level of challenge in an arbitrary environment. I like the combat in Andromeda, I just can't remember hardly any of it.
The other problem is because Andromeda is an RPG, it has to have your numbers go up, because we're all just rats in a box and seeing +50% damage makes our brains squirt happy juice. To it's credit, Andromeda has a delightful heap of space guns. To it's detriment, these guns come in strict power tiers (Space Gun I < Space Gun II < Space Gun III), and if you're fighting enemies scaled for Space Gun III with II or I, you're in for a bad time. Understand that these are not functionally different Space Guns, III just has bigger numbers than II, so it's just RPG number bloat without any interesting mechanics to interact with. So you kinda need to use the highest tier equipment that you have, which you can either get through the mercies of RNG, or by crafting. Upgrading a weapon usually requires some pretty rare resources, which means that you essentially get locked into particular guns as the game goes on. Even if you want to switch to a new type of gun, upgrading it will make it a lot harder to upgrade your current gun to the next tier.
Next up there's Exploration, which is bleh.
Andromeda is open world(s), in a clear attempt to build on the exploration bits of ME 1. In theory this is fine, heaven knows the uncharted worlds in 1 needed some iteration and maybe actual content. But they were for the most part optional; exploring planets in Andromeda is not. It's also extremely dull. You visit a variety of lifeless wasteland planets (desert, ice, another desert) to grind out fetch quests until a meter gets large enough. Then you make a choice that doesn't matter, and unlock a new pile of fetch quests. Not infrequently the main quest will be indistinguishable from the side quests. If you've played literally any game Ubisoft has produced in the last decade, you've played a more enjoyable version of this. This is because for all of the UbiFormula's myriad failings, it has one great leg up over Bioware's take at the formula: Ubisoft games contain far less
Writing. This is mostly below average, not infrequently awful, and very occasionally rises to the level of 'ok'. But being an RPG there sure is a lot of it. Every time you fall into a pleasantly mindless open world fetch quest groove where you're rumbling around murdering things and claiming their mineral rights so you can upgrade your space shotgun, you'll end up having to listen to somebody yarp on about something or another. Usually about how you need the Space Noun to Space Verb the other Space Noun to prevent the Space Adjective Space Noun from happening. What I'm saying is that it is boring, there's a lot of it, and you have to sit through it. At least in Ghost Recon the terrible writing occupies like 3% of the playtime.
There's also writing that's supposed to be about characters. In theory the Andromeda Initiative is supposed to be made up of the best and the brightest. In practice you rapidly start to suspect the whole thing was a very expensive stealth eugenics project to offload the Milky Way's stupidest and worst. Everybody is terrible at their jobs, the spectrum of personalities ranges from smug tool to smarmy tool, and any traces of likability anybody has are rubbed off from the ME1 characters they're clearly copying. This extends to Ryder, who's dialog options are generally smug tool or smarmy tool, and who's only distinguishing characteristic is having a hotline to a Magic Space Computer in their brain. Naturally, your Magic Space Computer is also annoying, and talks way too much. Again, wouldn't be a problem in a game that didn't spend so much time making you listen to the writing. Halo is basically a game about wandering around shooting things because your Magic Space Computer tells you to; but Cortana just sort of points you in the right direction and lets you rip. SAM never shuts up.
Overall Andromeda is highly mediocre. I know some people say that if it wasn't a Mass Effect game it'd be judged less harshly, but I was never particularly in love with ME in the first place, and I was still disappointed as hell. The boring story, bad writing, unlikable characters - who are all supposed to be likable and so just end up cringe-inducing) and second rate open world game design would be there no matter the IP on the box. It's simply a case of a game not being made all that well.Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman, 1906.
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2020-08-09, 12:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2007
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- San Antonio, Texas
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
I enjoyed it. While exploration can be a bit tedious (there's a lot of planet to explore), and there were a couple broken or incomplete quests, combat was fun, the characters were interesting, and I liked the main questline. Compare to ME1-3, you're in a tiny slice of the galaxy (no jumpgates to allow instantaneous transport across interstellar space), but I also found the planet exploration to be a lot more DOABLE in MEA than ME1 (driving requires less patience and pixel-bitching), and the galaxy exploration is comparable to ME3.
I liked the "Choose your powers" character creation system. I didn't use much of the combat powers (mostly "Improve the weapons I was already using"), but I wound up having to respec to make who I wanted, and the Charge+Detonate distinction made for some fun combos.The Cranky Gamer
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude; the appearance of truth within the framework of the game.
*Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
*Mutant Dawn for Savage Worlds!
*The One Deck Engine: Gaming on a budget
Written by Me on DriveThru RPG
There are almost 400,000 threads on this site. If you need me to address a thread as a moderator, include a link.
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2020-08-10, 09:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2008
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- Carlisle, Englund
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
"Three blokes walk into a pub. One of them is a little bit stupid, and the whole scene unfolds with a tedious inevitability." - Bill Bailey
Androgeus' 3 step guide to Doctor Who speculation:
Spoiler- Pick a random character
- State that person is The Rani
- goto 1
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2020-08-10, 10:03 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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- Manchester, UK
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
Which is an experience you ought to be familiar with if you've played ME3 or any of the main quest in ME2, of course. (As I always say when I bring this up, I'm not talking about the *side* quests in ME2 here, which are genuinely some of the best material Bioware have ever produced).
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2020-08-10, 01:17 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2007
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
ME:A is fine. The writing has rough spots, but the trilogy has those as well. I think the initial bug-ridden launch just knocked off the nostalgia glasses for a lot of people. The development was also hurt by the Frostbite engine being forced on the dev team and Anthem constantly stealing personnel.
As for the gameplay... The game does a good job of itterating on the trilogy's mechanics for the most part, but suffers from the open worlds being rather bland (Probably because they were rebooted twice during development. You may be sensing a theme in my criticisms ). My biggest complaint is probably the unnecessary choice of active powers in the single player game mode; I really don't see why the power wheel had to go.
Overall... It's fine. More rough spots than the previous games, but then, Bioware and EA leadership made some really poor choices.Steam ID: The Great Squark
3ds Friend Code: 4571-1588-1000
Currently Playing: Warhammer 40000, Hades, Stellaris, Warframe
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2020-08-10, 02:42 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
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- Tail of the Bellcurve
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
I'm not sure the Andromeda story had rough spots so much as it was a giant rough spot. I think it's worth comparing to ME 1 since they're both supposed to be introductions.
In ME1 you are the first human spectre. This establishes that you are highly trained and capable, but you've got a lot to prove and learn still. You have an unsettling vision, fight some alarming space zombies, see a stupid huge ship, and get tasked with investigating. Who you are and what you need to discover is made clear from the get go, what isn't clear us the answer. The only time it cheats is having the player see Saren shoot whatshisface, even though Shepard doesn't.
In Andromeda you get woken up, crash on a planet, shoot some mushroom aliens, see some space magic, and get promoted to Special Person via the sensible method of nearly dying and having a computer plugged into your brain. Then you meet some stupid people, learn there's been a rebellion recently, and get sent to a completely different irradiated desert hellscape. At least to me basically none of this fits together into a coherent whole, or makes me want to see what happens next. I don't have avillson like Saren to dislike, a mystery like Sovereign to investigate, or really much of anything. I'm just going to the place the annoying person told me to because it's the next quest.Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman, 1906.
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2020-08-10, 03:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
MEA had a lot of potential but it ended up very disappointing. It's not a bad game, but the missed potential is all over the place. I've seen the "Blandromeda" label thrown around a lot and with good reason.
Spoiler: GrievancesBW seemed to have a lot of trouble deciding on whether the tone should be hopeful and thoughtful exploration or the high-octane gunplay the series has been known for since ME2. They tried to have it both ways, contriving a war that our (mostly civilian) colonists got thrown into against an enemy that was impossible to reason with so that we wouldn't have any qualms about whipping out our guns all over the place, as well as having a very disproportionate number of the natives and the colonists themselves basically be axe-crazy.
Focusing on the combat itself only served to highlight how lacking it was compared to ME3. The addition of a third dimension had a lot of potential that wasn't realized (the folks who could have jazzed it up having been inhaled by the Anthem team, is my theory anyway), and even a large number of existing aspects were removed. ME3, especially the multiplayer, had such a wide variety of combat styles that didn't make it to MEA at all, such as the N7 classes or tanky builds or even the guns being less weighty and impactful than ever before - and the vast majority of enemy types were just humanoids with a single weapon and/or gun type. The powers and combos felt much less interesting and impactful too, even after they buffed them to keep the casters from hitting like wet noodles on higher difficulties.
If you compare that to ME3's combat/enemies, the difference is striking - bombing drones, rocket-snipers and shotgun hunters, multiple insta-kill mechanics to avoid, multiple giant bruisers that necessitated different tactics like the Brute/Prime/Atlas, and then they added the Collector faction which had cool enemies like Seeker Swarms and Praetorians... in short, a lot more variety than MEA had. Throw in ME3 tactical powers like They had the opportunity to build on all of that and bring in the verticality of the new combat engine, but they didn't.
The other big complaint i had was the roleplay. I could understand them wanting to ditch the Paragon/Renegade alignment system for more of a gray morality, but in its place we got basically nothing. Whether your Ryder was Logical or Emotional or Casual or Professional changed literally nothing about how the story played out nor even how squadmates or most NPCs would treat you. Your "choice" for how each settlement you established in Heleus would structure themselves also made no difference to the narrative.
And speaking of the squadmates, I found most of them dull. The humans were the worst as usual, but Liam and Cora somehow managed to plumb new depths compared to their predecessors (I would have definitely kicked Liam off the ship entirely if the game had let me.) Peebee's premise as the anti-asari asari was an interesting starting point but it never really went anywhere - she was the same character at the end as she was at the beginning. Drack got entertaining lines as all the big tough "team Krogan" archetypes usually do, but lacked Wrex's depth or Grunt's insecurities/unique perspective on his culture, he was just there to introduce the Krogan to a potentially new audience and be a stand-in.
Jaal and Vetra were the standouts though, I found both quite compelling.
Most of the technical issues have been fixed though, so you won't have that getting in your way like us early adopters did.Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
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2020-08-10, 05:00 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
People keep trying to do it, but I think there's a rather substantial challenge in putting a jetpack in a cover shooter. In a cover shooter you evade damage by hiding behind your friendly neighborhood chest high wall. If you are jet packing, you aren't in cover, so you'll be shot and punished for using your jetpack.
This is worse with modern games built around hitscan or nearly hitscan weapons, since you can't meaningfully evade fire in the air. Most games being built around slower-aiming thumbsticks doesn't help, since in order to be able to fly and shoot effectively, you need to keep a relatively low angular velocity between you and your targets. This translates into slow flight when shooting, and even less ability to evade.
In other words there's a reason that the granddaddy of jetpack shooters, Tribes, is built for keyboard and mouse, and combined super-fast player movement with relatively low speed projectiles. Also why every gameplay video of Anthem I've seen has the enemy dudes just sort of standing there and not shooting very much.Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman, 1906.
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2020-08-10, 07:48 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
Plague Doctor by Crimmy
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2020-08-10, 10:07 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
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2020-08-10, 10:59 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2007
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
The Cranky Gamer
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude; the appearance of truth within the framework of the game.
*Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
*Mutant Dawn for Savage Worlds!
*The One Deck Engine: Gaming on a budget
Written by Me on DriveThru RPG
There are almost 400,000 threads on this site. If you need me to address a thread as a moderator, include a link.
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2020-08-10, 11:57 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
To paraphrase Yahtzee: "Mass Effect 2 was a series of shooting galleries broken up by interludes of going back to the ship to play with your train set."
Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
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2020-08-11, 01:13 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
I liked ME:A. Andromeda reminded me a lot of Mass Effect 1, having plenty of faults but leaving me looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. Oh well.
"I don't approve of society, so I try not to participate in it."
=====
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2020-08-14, 07:40 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
Put me down for Andromeda is a decent game, but it should of better than what it was by a fair margin. The biggest offender to me is most of the side characters and companions just dont really seem to click. Theres nobody who resonates with me. I cant even really remember the names of the companions just general things about them like there was an old krogan, an asari and a whatever the new aliens are called who did.... something? I do remember Liam though, mostly because he turned into an annoying idiot as his companion quest progressed but thats not something the writers should be proud of really.
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2020-08-24, 07:26 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2006
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
I think the most fair summary of Andromeda I can think of is that I don't think much of anyone would be talking about it if it wasn't a Mass Effect game.
My FFRP characters. Avatar by Ashen Lilies. Sigatars by Ashen Lilies, Gullara and Purple Eagle.
Interested in the Nexus FFRP setting? See our Discord server.
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2020-08-24, 08:27 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2007
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
The Cranky Gamer
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude; the appearance of truth within the framework of the game.
*Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
*Mutant Dawn for Savage Worlds!
*The One Deck Engine: Gaming on a budget
Written by Me on DriveThru RPG
There are almost 400,000 threads on this site. If you need me to address a thread as a moderator, include a link.
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2020-08-25, 04:16 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
Honestly I actually think it might of performed better if it wasn't a Mass Effect game with the Bioware name behind it. If the Montreal studio that worked on it hadn't been declared a Bioware substudio by EA it probably would of been called a good first attempt by a new studio.
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2020-08-25, 06:46 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Mass Effect Andromeda, am I in for a bad time?
Last edited by Morty; 2020-08-25 at 06:47 AM.
My FFRP characters. Avatar by Ashen Lilies. Sigatars by Ashen Lilies, Gullara and Purple Eagle.
Interested in the Nexus FFRP setting? See our Discord server.