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Mass Effect: Andromeda |OT| Ryders on the Storm

I'm so disappointed with how they've handled the Angara. It's utterly vapid and devoid of anything resembling first contact.

I wish there was a language / communication barrier angle that goes on with the Angara, but no... they gotta speak the language right off the bat, all the way from the Milky Way.
 

Jolkien

Member
I wish there was a language / communication barrier angle that goes on with the Angara, but no... they gotta speak the language right off the bat, all the way from the Milky Way.

It's translated, think like with the universal translator in Star Trek. That's why you only get excerpt when you come around letter datapad not enough data to properly translate it all.
 

nOoblet16

Member
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
.
SAM basically translates, that's about it.
And you will get your answer regarding the Archon. There's also the fact that quite a few things you understand by talking to NPCs and doing side content. I've done almost all major side quests (allies and relationships, and locations) and I felt like I got a LOT of story to take in.


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.
Yep this is what it is, the side content in Andromeda is not necessary but even the stupid fetch quests will provide some exposition and world building. Which is where you get the "story" from, the main arc itself is short like it's always been. Mass Effect 2 barely had any arc at all as the entire game was about recruiting people (which were optional) followed by the jump through the omega relay.
 

nOoblet16

Member
oh, a whole year? ah, that explains everything, then! :) ...
Yea the milky way people have been there for like a year and half, it'd be odd if they never met with the dominant species in that cluster even once. I don't know how far you are into the game but there are towns (not settlements that you make) in this game where they are living and working with the exiles from the Initiative.
 

pmj

Member
Pretty sure it is the heart, and the hold hands one is friendship. What're your questions about the bars related to nexus and crafting?

I'm not sure what my questions even are at this point.

Should you bother with crafting at all is one, I guess. Like someone said a bit above on the page, the economy seems weird and imbalanced. It seems oddly expensive to do anything.

I also don't know how to tell if a weapon is any good for my character or not. My last purchase was a gun that turned out to be too heavy and I can't use it, making it a waste of credits. Basically I don't know what is worth spending on, whether in stores or through crafting.

For the nexus, I woke up scientists which will apparently help me be better at the crafting system that I don't engage with, in some way that wasn't properly explained.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Thing is though, it's not first contact. Angarans have met the colonist and traded with them for like a year now.

Ahh, nobody has dropped that yet for me, at least not that I noticed, so there's a weird disconnect between them pandering to "the pathfinder" and dumping errands on me versus what I'm seeing and experiencing for the first time. I knew the Nexus had been around for over a year prior to Ark Hyperion arrival, but yeah.

I still feel they've massively fallen short of what they could have done with this premise, and seem to actively deter you from mystery and surprise.
 

Caayn

Member
The number by the character indicates the number of duplicates you've obtained. Unlike weapons, which get more powerful with duplicates, character duplicates just unlock additional color/customization options.
Thanks for the response.
 

nOoblet16

Member
Ahh, nobody has dropped that yet for me, at least not that I noticed, so there's a weird disconnect between them pandering to "the pathfinder" and dumping errands on me versus what I'm seeing and experiencing for the first time. I knew the Nexus had been around for over a year prior to Ark Hyperion arrival, but yeah.

I still feel they've massively fallen short of what they could have done with this premise, and seem to actively deter you from mystery and surprise.
How far are you? You find towns later in the game where they are living and working with others.

I think the title of pathfinder is a wrong one, they already had evaluated their worlds before hand and the planets already have minor settlements and such (although the latter wasn't the case when they got there). What Pathfinder actually does is facilitate stuff, build diplomatic relationships, evaluate locations viable for settling in within the planet itself (like when you build a settlement in Eos and then decide what kind you want) etc etc rather than finding planets to live in.
 
Well this is dissapointing. Used a Cryo pod on research to get more points to research weapons and armor. The timer only progresses when you are in game, outside of menus or other pauses. It takes 45 or 30 minutes with advanced research for 100 research. If you die or anything else it will move back with you, it also will not progress if you play MP etc. Why didn't they put it on an independent timer like strikes are?

So basically you're returning to your shop every 30-45 minutes or you're sitting there with the game on in the background while doing other things and occasionally checking in to get your points.
 

N7.Angel

Member
I enjoyed it more than I thought after all the critics the game had which are justified for most of them, I'm digging the DA so far, Andromeda looks stunning, kinda like the diversity in the environment and the general looks, really good.

I really like the story too, so far (just arrived to the tempest), I think it's very interesting to follow new people that just arrives in a new galaxy waiting for adventure and shit, the new crew isn't as charismatic as the previous one, but I'm enjoying new heads and especially young ones, Shepard was already a monster when you started to play with him, it's different here and I like it.

the thing is, as much as I like to see Krogans, Asari etc... again the lack of new races in a new galaxy really hurt the game so far, it feels like déjà vu too much and it seems like the game only shows two new one ? it's really low, too low, I really hope we could experiment a new contact thing with one of them, a pacific one too, if not, I'll be really pissed.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
How far are you? You find towns later in the game where they are living and working with others.

I think the title of pathfinder is a wrong one, they already had evaluated their worlds before hand and the planets already have minor settlements and such (although the latter wasn't the case when they got there). What Pathfinder actually does is facilitate stuff, build diplomatic relationships, evaluate locations viable for settling in within the planet itself (like when you build a settlement in Eos and then decide what kind you want) etc etc rather than finding planets to live in.

Not far enough to see that, and I get that's the role of the pathfinder, but yeah. I just think that's a comparatively dull concept, to throw you 600 years / 2.5 light years into an unknown galaxy and have so much potential development already established, compared to what they could have done.

I like a lot of the narrative beats, but for different reasons than what I expected. The entire premise seems exceedingly apprehensive to emphasise discovery and wonder. The first Remnant vault is as close as it's gotten.
 
I only started the game yesterday and just got the Tempest but to be honest... after all the negativity towards the game before launch, I expected a total train wreck of a game, with glitches and animation all over the place. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised and actually really like the game so far. Also I don't think the dialogues are half as bad people made them out to be. Nothing award-worthy, that's for sure, but I really like the more light-hearted approach the game is taking.
 
I just completed 'Ryder Family Secrets':
It confirms that funding for the Andromeda Initiative was at least partially motivated by the looming Reaper invasion. I think the mysterious benefactor is the Illusive Man - he's the only one with that kind of money that believed Shepard at that time. It might also suggest that Cerberus has a presence in Andromeda - which would explain the murder of Jien Garson. There's also speculation that Cora Harper is related to Jack Harper (The Illusive Man).
I'm super interested to see if Bioware does anything with this.

Now, I can't help but wonder if the Reapers are involved with the Quarian Ark. Given that their departure time was delayed and that their distress signal indicates they don't want to be found, I think a few Reapers may have followed them and that they're trying to lay low.
It's a stretch though.
 

nOoblet16

Member
I enjoyed it more than I thought after all the critics the game had which are justified for most of them, I'm digging the DA so far, Andromeda looks stunning, kinda like the diversity in the environment and the general looks, really good.

I really like the story too, so far (just arrived to the tempest), I think it's very interesting to follow new people that just arrives in a new galaxy waiting for adventure and shit, the new crew isn't as charismatic as the previous one, but I'm enjoying new heads and especially young ones, Shepard was already a monster when you started to play with him, it's different here and I like it.

the thing is, as much as I like to see Krogans, Asari etc... again the lack of new races in a new galaxy really hurt the game so far, it feels like déjà vu too much and it seems like the game only shows two new one ? it's really low, too low, I really hope we could experiment a new contact thing with one of them, a pacific one too, if not, I'll be really pissed.
There are actually several reason for that. First off is that it's only one cluster in a galaxy without Mass Relays (which makes it difficult if not impossible to travel large distances like in milky Way for trade and commerce). Secondly the Angarans are hermit and thirdly there is a specific story reason that I won't divulge any information about.

I'm sure we'll come across newer races in the sequels somehow.
 

nOoblet16

Member
Liam's loyalty mission is so good.
It's my favourite because of its tone and the gameplay segments, followed by Cora's. It would've been absolutely amazing if they could've
done gravity shifts in gameplay
. But there was probably a technical limitation in doing so.
 
Yea the milky way people have been there for like a year and half, it'd be odd if they never met with the dominant species in that cluster even once. I don't know how far you are into the game but there are towns (not settlements that you make) in this game where they are living and working with the exiles from the Initiative.

actually, i was being a little sarcastic there - not really seeing a year, or year+, being a whole lotta time to develop a relationship with a completely new species :) ...

so: the milky way people have already fully established this relationship with the dominant species - but no one mentions this to the pathfinder?! because i've completed the eos section, returned to nexus, & still no one's said a word about this :) ...
 

nOoblet16

Member
actually, i was being a little sarcastic there - not really seeing a year, or year+, being a whole lotta time to develop a relationship with a completely new species :) ...

so: the milky way people have already fully established this relationship with the dominant species - but no one mentions this to the pathfinder?! because i've completed the eos section, returned to nexus, & still no one's said a word about this :) ...
It's not long to develop a relationship but it's long enough for translators to work. Most people complain about the translator thing. No one mentions this to the pathfinder because it's not the Nexus that is involved and has established that relationship but the exiles who Nexus doesn't maintain contact with because they are...exiles. The first time the pathfinder meets the exiles is also when you immediately find out that they've been living and working together.

As for why the Angarans didn't mention it, here you go:

IbsPHti.jpg

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This was also the reason for their hostility at first because they had only dealt with the exiles.
 
S

Steve.1981

Unconfirmed Member
After a couple of nights and a few hours with Andromeda, I'm not really sure how I feel. I think I'm 50/50 on almost every aspect of the game so far, it's weird.

It looks beautiful at times. Cutscenes of the Ark, Nexus and Tempest in space were all stunning. The interiors of the ships are cool. Habitat 7 and Eos are both really nice, atmospheric areas to explore, I think, which bodes well.

But the flip side is the characters just look wrong, somehow. Not their designs, I actually like them, it's whenever anyone Human or Asari opens their mouth to speak... The mouths don't move properly, and the eyes never seem to focus on what they should. It's just strange looking. And everyone looks incorrectly proportioned, if you follow me. Like, their bodies are, again, just wrong somehow. Humans all look short and stocky. Turians and Salarians walk and stand in a kind of weird semi-squat position, their legs look bizarre to me. These are really unusual things to complain about, for me, but I think they're glaringly obvious and more than a bit off-putting.

The menu, with the Codex and Inventory and so on, is all very cluttered and unintuitive to navigate through. But I love how much information is buried in there. I'm going to be spending a loooong time customising Sara's profiles, gear, weapon mods, augmentations, etc... And I really like the addition of The Journey So Far. The way it's going to keep track of how Sara approaches and deals with various situations as I progress through the game, that is just cool to me.

I wasn't happy to hear that the Paragon/Renegade system was gone, but I'm already over it. I like the tone options we have for conversations and think it's great that we seem to use them for almost every conversation now. But what's up with the tone icons, with the squiggly lines and stuff?! They remind me of those weird weapon icons from Demon's Souls, that nobody could comprehend at first. Bioware couldn't come up with more recognisable icons for a casual or professional tone?! (This one is a small nitpick that I'm more inclined to laugh about).

Combat feels very good, so far. Hanging in mid-air and popping headshots or landing an Overload chain is my thing, straight away. Love it. Can't wait to see how it develops as I upgrade Sara's abilities. But outside of combat, when I'm in exploration mode, I'm already getting fed-up with the constant noise of my teammates behind me falling over rocks or whatever and shouting out in pain! Patch. That. Out. Please!

I could go on, but think I've made my point. Almost the whole thing is a mixed bag, so far. I can't comment on the main story yet, but I do like that the few side quests I've done have felt worthwhile. I'm hoping that keeps up. The one thing I can say with certainty, without any doubt at all, is that the soundtrack is brilliant. I already love the main title theme.

I feel like a lot of this stuff can be improved with patches. I have my fingers crossed that Bioware are on it as we speak. These days a game can change for the better in ways that would have astonished me even just a few years ago, through good updates. Hopefully Andromeda can.
 

nOoblet16

Member
Yikes.

Despite all issues I wish it sells, I do want more big budget Mass Effect games.

GMG is already selling it for 27 percent off. That doesn't bode too well for sales I think.
Doesn't mean anything, it's GMG. It'd be like CDkeys selling keys for cheap, which they do, meaning the game is doing badly. They dropped the prices before release itself when they saw everyone talking about the animations. They said something along the lines of "We can't fix the animations but we can fix a price for you". It was just them trying to bank by taking advantage of the bad press even before release.
 

Tovarisc

Member
With Ansel you can fly camera through window of your room on Tempest, at least in quite many planetary scenes. Handy for removing glass's effect from screenshots.

masseffectandromedasunky2q.jpg
 
The more I play this game, the harder I find it to square my own experiences with the mixed reviews it's been getting.

I think it's fairly uncontroversial to say MEA is the weakest Mass Effect game, but that doesn't actually make it mediocre. There's still a lot of cool stuff here, even if it doesn't reach the dizzying heights of its predecessors
 

Tovarisc

Member
The more I play this game, the harder I find it to square my own experiences with the mixed reviews it's been getting.

I think it's fairly uncontroversial to say MEA is the weakest Mass Effect game, but that doesn't actually make it mediocre. There's still a lot of cool stuff here, even if it doesn't reach the dizzying heights of its predecessors

Weakest? What? Mass Effect 3 still is clearly weakest ME game out there.
 

Braag

Member
Is there some sort of chest to store items in?
The limited inventory space is extremely annoying. I had a similar problem in DA:I and Bioware eneded up adding a storage chest almost a year later in a patch...
 
Got Eos and Voeld to 100%. Killed two Architects. Lots of fun so far. Playing mostly as Vanguard, currently​ rocking Charge, Backlash and Nova. Combination works really well, though I kinda wanna try replacing Backlash with Annihilation. Have an Adept and Engineer profile for ranged encounters too. Combat feels great.

That said, the game is filled with meaningless filler. If I hear SAM say "find more data so I can construct a navpoint", I'll kill the little robot bastard.
 

Tovarisc

Member
A shitty ending and Kai Leng isn't enough to bring down the emotional heights of things like Tuchanka or a lot of the really strong character moments with your team

Game had quite a bit few more flaws than ruined Illusive Man and RGB ending. Urgency of war against Reapers is constantly rubbed in your face, but it doesn't matter at all because nothing never happens outside of hard coded moments you trigger with specific missions. Game was patched up and content fixed with basically 14.99 DLC which alone is huuuge issue. Relationships with some members of crew were forced upon player, e.g. femShep constantly flirts with Vega without player having say in the matter.

And so on.

Tuchanka works because of your relationship with Mordin over basically 2 games and Quarians because you are invested in Tali over 3 games, on top of you having 3 games worth of lore and stories about those places and background. Point being that BW had basically 2-3 games to build up those moments that are absolutely highlights of whole game.

Outside of few highlights game overall is very weak in my eyes and easily worst Mass Effect game.
 

nOoblet16

Member
Game had quite a bit few more flaws than ruined Illusive Man and RGB ending. Urgency of war against Reapers is constantly rubbed in your face, but it doesn't matter at all because nothing never happens outside of hard coded moments you trigger with specific missions. Game was patched up and content fixed with basically 14.99 DLC which alone is huuuge issue. Relationships with some members of crew were forced upon player, e.g. femShep constantly flirts with Vega without player having say in the matter.

And so on.

Tuchanka works because of your relationship with Mordin over basically 2 games and Quarians because you are invested in Tali over 3 games, on top of you having 3 games worth of lore and stories about those places and background. Point being that BW had basically 2-3 games to build up those moments that are absolutely highlights of whole game.

Outside of few highlights game overall is very weak in my eyes and easily worst Mass Effect game.
This is why I like Andromeda, there is no sense of urgency and while people might take that as a negative I think it goes well with the spirit of things in this game and the tone. The game wants you to go around and find out stories from talking to people but that's an odd thing to do when you are supposedly racing against time. Like in Mass Effect 3 the reapers are attacking while the game is going on and you are going around doing some silly side quests.
Eh that belongs to ME1 to me after just replaying them all.
Gameplay wise sure, but it's the strongest and.most sensible in terms of narrative.
 
Anybody else kind of disappointed with the melee in this game? No over cover grab, No light/heavy, no combos. I had such high hopes when they showed off an arsenal of melee weapons for use in the single player, but I feel like the actual result is much weaker than the toolset is ME3, especially given the variety in ME3's multiplayer.
 

hydruxo

Member
I'm so disappointed with how they've handled the Angara. It's utterly vapid and devoid of anything resembling first contact.

Aya is incredible looking, but then after you get there you have a brief conversation with Efvra and then that's it.
It was definitely disappointing. I expected more flair than that.
 
It's not long to develop a relationship but it's long enough for translators to work. Most people complain about the translator thing. No one mentions this to the pathfinder because it's not the Nexus that is involved and has established that relationship but the exiles who Nexus doesn't maintain contact with because they are...exiles. The first time the pathfinder meets the exiles is also when you immediately find out that they've been living and working together.

As for why the Angarans didn't mention it, here you go:

This was also the reason for their hostility at first because they had only dealt with the exiles.

thanks for this. all something of a serious stretch (the exiles never mention that they're exiles? the angarans never wonder where the rest of them are?), imo, but, hey, so much of mass effect has always been, eh? :) ...
 

X-Frame

Member
Dran Shotgun is the be all end all especially with plasma tracking aug

You augmented your Dhan with plasma tracking? It didn't hurt it's damage at all? I ask because it seems like almost every augmentation (except for the Vintage Heat Sink) worsens the weapons more than their original states.

But with the Dhan since it already had a slower moving projectile I guess I can see how adding the tracking plasma bolts wouldn't really hurt it.
 
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