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[arts&crafts]

At least the AI for squad mates seems pretty decent. They tend to fight pretty well and aren't going down and needing revived as much as in ME2 and 3 for me. So leveling them up still makes them more powerful and has them help more in combat.

I get the disappointment for people who like issuing squad commands, but I liked that was one are it was simplified as I dislike worrying about more than controlling the my character in games.

All I know is Cora dies a lot and I maxed her health to max. Drak never dies and destroys all.

 

[Madness]

Thanks for the reply

It's a interesting choice considering the history of Eos and the initiative original goal.

Spoiler

I think the more you play and learn about the Initiative, it would be stupid to think wanting a military outpost first means you are galactic invaders or conquerors. Especially with the history of the Kett and the Angara. I hope in the sequel, your choice means you either get wicked scientific tech, or powerful military hardware as Eos grows and becomes a viable planet. Keep in mind Eos had two sites fail on Eos already.

 

[Iberian]

All I know is Cora dies a lot and I maxed her health to max. Drak never dies and destroys all.

I must be really bad speccing my allies. I've seen Drack dying pretty often at Havarl at the hand of the Angaran rebels... in fact, those angaran snipers are hell; and I'm at hardcore level, not even insanity.

 

[Ralemont]

Anyone else bummed by the galaxy map music being so forgetble. It's playing right now and I'd have tourble humming it back if I turned it off.

I can't remember if it was in 1, but the Galxy Map music in 2 is so damn atmospheric.

Compare it to this, so bland in comparison. It sounds like a poor knock-off.

I think the map music is great. I mobile surf all the time with it idling in the background. Ditto for the main menu music.

 

[dankir]

Can you guys let me know if anything gets locked out if you don't complete it over time. I'm 7 hours in and exploring EOS. All these side missions, it's pretty overwhelming at least compared to previous mass effect games.

Do I play through the main story missions first and worry about this other stuff later? Or do these planets get locked out if I don't make them viable ASAP?

thanks

 

[arts&crafts]

Can you guys let me know if anything gets locked out if you don't complete it over time. I'm 7 hours in and exploring EOS. All these side missions, it's pretty overwhelming at least compared to previous mass effect games.

Do I play through the main story missions first and worry about this other stuff later? Or do these planets get locked out if I don't make them viable ASAP?

thanks

I spent way to long on all planets, 30% done story and 30 hours in. I am 99% sure nothing gets locked out as I just came back to Eos for the first time to get to 100% viability.

 

[yankeehater]

Does anyone know if the juggernaut shield in mp only boosts shields? I bought one this morning but I noticed the description after I bought it said it boosts shields by 10%, does that mean it wont do anything for my biotic characters since they dont have shields they have barriers?

 

[witness]

Tweaked my build and am running tech primarily and another 42 points dumped into combat at level 27 for assault rifles, turbocharge, barrier, and combat fitness. When I run around in my soldier loadout I use energy drain (rank 5) with turbo and barrier and it's incredibly effective with all the other survival boosts from combat fitness and the tech trees. It's a very fun build, just wish I could switch armor as well when I change the loadout since I have two sets of gear now.

 

[Lime]

I can't remember if it was in 1, but the Galxy Map music in 2 is so damn atmospheric.

ME2's Galaxy Map music is the exact same as ME1. One of the better pieces that survived that change in musical direction that Casey Hudson wanted in ME2 (more action and orchestra, less ambient synth).

ME:A's galaxy map theme is so understated and restrained though that it lacks any punch and texture. I agree that it could be a lot better.

 

[Zakalwe]

ME2's Galaxy Map music is the exact same as ME1. One of the better pieces that survived that change in musical direction that Casey Hudson wanted in ME2 (more action and orchestra, less ambient synth).

ME:A's galaxy map theme is so understated and restrained though, but I don't have any particular problems with it.

ME:A's is fine, it's good background music, but the one from the original trilogy was instantly incredible and I'd sometimes find myself just opening the map to listen to it.

 

[Steve.1981]

Spoiler

I fought the Architect on Eos last night.

It was awesome. It was the end of a small, seemingly pointless filler side-quest as well. How about that.

 

[masterkajo]

Quick question as I will start the game in a couple of weeks when my new Pc capable of handling it comes to life.

What is the consensus on reading the Mass Effect Nexus Uprising novel before playing the game? Would I spoil myself a lot of the game or is it better to read it after having played the game? I am asking since I just got the book but have to wait for the PC parts to arrive.

 

[arts&crafts]

Spoiler

I fought the Architect on Eos last night.

It was awesome. It was the end of a small, seemingly pointless filler side-quest as well. How about that.

Spoiler

Found one on Voeld as well last night before I went to bed. Didnt kill yet, but it was awesome to stumble upon. Felt like a Borderlands boss.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

I found those on Voeld and Eos so far, but noped out of them. Too long of battles, after dying a few times to the one on Voeld I decided to go back to them later when I'm much higher level.

 

[Fata1moose]

Upon the conclusion of Ryder family secrets:

Spoiler

It's disappointing you can't talk to your crew mates about the Reapers, or the fact your mother is still alive. At least it's not immediately a point of conversation. You'd think there'd be an option with Cora since she your father was her mentor, but nothing of that ilk. The ME3 conclusion is of course kept vague, but it's interesting they almost go with a bleak outlook. I wonder if the Initiative would avoid making contact so they don't risk drawing Reaper attention.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

All I know is Cora dies a lot and I maxed her health to max. Drak never dies and destroys all.

I've mostly been using PeeBee and either Drak or Jaal. PeeBee has gone down a few times, but mostly several hours back. I'm only playing on Normal though. Still, I die way more than my squad mates.

 

[Steve.1981]

Spoiler

Found one on Voeld as well last night before I went to bed. Didnt kill yet, but it was awesome to stumble upon. Felt like a Borderlands boss.

I found those on Voeld and Eos so far, but noped out of them. Too long of battles, after dying a few times to the one on Voeld I decided to go back to them later when I'm much higher level.

Yeah it was an epic fight.

Spoiler

Blew me away, to be honest, the way it unexpectedly came bursting up out of the ground. So there are more on other planets? I thought as much.

Very cool.

 

[Fatalmephisto]

Editing my post cause I was wrong with something in my post.

yeah its just a theory and more then likely 1000% wrong on this aspect but hey, this is why I love this series.

 

[Megasoum]

Anybody knows if there's a way to increase the sensitivity when using the scanner with a controller on PC? It's so fucking slow.

 

[eot]

The problem with insanity in ME2 is that it simply makes the majority of your abilities useless and turns you into a gimped soldier. Having armor, shields, or barriers on any enemy means that if you're an adept there's only one ability you should ever use, warp, due to the fact that it can hurt armor and barriers. Even then, against shields, all you can do is play it like a soldier and shoot. It's why weapon damage builds are ridiculous in me2, since weapons are effective against everything whereas powers are heavily limited in what they can do. Adepts can't even use biotic combos since the me2 versions are incredibly rigid and require you to use warp on a lifted enemy, which is simply slower than just shooting the enemy, and is also not feasible when fighting bosses. It also heavily restricts what squadmates you should bring where certain squadmates (jacob, jack, tali) are terrible and miranda is damn near necessary since she can deal with anything as she has both warp and overload.

Combos are not slower than shooting enemies since they do splash damage, and your squad's warp triggers instantly when they're off screen. It's also not true that the only ability you should use is warp, when there's singularity, statis, energy drain, flashbang etc. You're right that against shielded enemies you have to shoot more, but I don't see that as a bad thing. In ME3 I barely use my weapon at all because my cooldowns are 2s long and I can lift most things. Even on Insanity Husks are a joke because they can't touch you. Having to use your gun in a shooter isn't bad, I found only spamming powers to be boring. It also means that your weapon choices matter, and someone like Zaeed is useful because of Squad Disruptor Ammo.

You're right that certain squad members are terrible, but that is a problem with their design and not the design of the difficulty level. I like that not every power is equally viable.

 

[Caboose]

Music in this game is so disappointing.

 

[Fatalmephisto]

Music in this game is so disappointing.

Yeah I wish it wouldn't cut out every few mins.

 

[Bisnic]

I found those on Voeld and Eos so far, but noped out of them. Too long of battles, after dying a few times to the one on Voeld I decided to go back to them later when I'm much higher level.

Don't forget to scan the planets again after you defeated them, they're

Spoiler

hanging out in space lol.

 

[TheMan]

Where can I find merchant who sells platinum?

 

[bonesmccoy]

Do I have to set up an outpost on Voeld? That place is a frozen shit hole.

 

[CommandThrower]

"Heeey Ryder"

Vetra is cute :3

She is! When you give her the first romance dialogue:



Ryder: Do you have anyone special in your life?

Vetra: Aside from Sid? No.

Ryder: That's not what I mean.

Vetra: Oh you mean somebody who....oh.

 

[foxdvd]

I know it has been said..and I know they are sort of just another version of Klingons...but man I love Krogans in these games. They honestly should make the next game with you playing as a Krogan.

"I AM KROGAN! A Mass Effect Story"

 

[Tovarisc]

I know it has been said..and I know they are sort of just another version of Klingons...but man I love Krogans in these games. They honestly should make the next game with you playing as a Krogan.

"I AM KROGAN! A Mass Effect Story"

DLC where you play as Drack during Krogan Rebellion, I would be all over that.

 

[Knuckle Sandwich]

My favorite build is Exploror with backlash, singulary, push, an smg and Scorpion. The combat is so good. If the writing wasn't trash and the story/characters weren't bland I'd be in heaven.

The time it takes to fly to planets to scan them is fucking terrible. I'm not even going to bother anymore.

 

[Zakalwe]

The input lag is starting to bug me quite a bit.

This isn't likely to be patched, right? I don't remember being it this bad in the trilogy. Feels like the deadzones are too large, too.

 

[Stalactite]

My favorite build is Exploror with backlash, singulary, push, an smg and Scorpion.

I was so happy to see that the Scorpion was included in this game. I have so many fond memories of ME3 Multiplayer cloaking as Salarian Infiltrator and leaving sticky bombs everywhere. Cackling may have been involved.

I'm on

Spoiler

H-047c

now, just driving around in the Nomad, taking the scenery (and music) in, then I happened to hit a small rock near the path. Drack starts

Spoiler

yelling out "Shiiiiiiiitttt!"

, and I'm like 'you big baby', this is nothing like

Spoiler

the chasm I unsuccessfully tried to jump

. It was glitch in the audio, obviously, but it was very funny.

 

[Knuckle Sandwich]

I was so happy to see that the Scorpion was included in this game. I have so many fond memories of ME3 Multiplayer cloaking as Salarian Infiltrator and leaving sticky bombs everywhere. Cackling may have been involved.

I made some noise when I saw the Scorpion in R&D. That gun is my shit.

 

[Zakalwe]

The Claymore shotgun isn't in the game, right?

Making me sad if not. ;_;

 

[UltraMav]

Feels like the deadzones are too large, too.

They are, makes the combat way too floaty and annoying when compared to the tight aiming from the OT. If they fix it, though, I think the combat would be perfect (though I'll always miss the power wheel).

 

[ThatGuyfromMars]

Question about Vetra romance:

Spoiler

is it true that her original woohoo scene was cut?

Spoiler

Yes. No source but apparently she was supposed to be straight then was changed last minute to be bisexual. A fellow on youtube, The Crown Calls, found and posted Vetra's recorded sex noises, and says in a comment she has a animated scene file for sexytime with Guy Ryder but not Lady Ryder

 

[DeadlyParasite]

You know I was just watching a video about the

Spoiler

Jardann

and it got me thinking. What if the

Spoiler

Jardaan, is the Benefactor. If you read the codex for the Jardann, there was a conflict with him. Perhaps maybe he came across the reapers and saw them as a huge threat cause he might of found out there plans for the Milky Way ( I would write out more but it would be long and TL,DR aspect). So Jardann would then leave the Heleus Cluster and managed to find a way to contact someone and it happened to be Alec Ryder and things just took off from there. Cause remember when you watch the last Memory fragment at SAM node, Alec alludes to that aspect about "Salvation" like the Benefactor new a reaper attack was coming

yeah its just a theory and more then likely 1000% wrong on this aspect but hey, this is why I love this series.

Erm, I'm not sure what you're referring to, the Codex directly states that

Spoiler

The Jardaan were a faction and/or race that created the Remnant, not an individual.

ME2's Galaxy Map music is the exact same as ME1. One of the better pieces that survived that change in musical direction that Casey Hudson wanted in ME2 (more action and orchestra, less ambient synth).

It isn't actually, similar yes and relatively indentical but Mass Effect 2's galaxy map music has several sections of different tones and is about a minute longer.

Mass Effect 1

vs

Mass Effect 2

For example, in the Mass Effect 2 version starting at 1 minute 49 seconds it has a subtler synth beat that the Mass Effect 1 version does not.

 

[royox]

I was on Eos, talking with an npc and suddently some Kett spawned and Killed me DURING THE CONVERSATION. Now I can't load my save game. Thank you Bioware.

 

[Starfield]

MAJOR STORY AND PLOT SPOILERS!!!

Spoiler

Audio recordings of Vetra's noises during her cut sex scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ5waeCv5lk

Enjoy.

 

[thepenguin55]

It doesn't matter because the last missions don't take place on that world. Past this point the colonization story line becomes separated from the kett storyline.

As someone who hates the Kett story I almost wonder if it would make sense for me to just hammer through all of those missions ASAP

 

[Maledict]

So I just finished it. The last mission had far higher production values than the rest of the game. It was pretty neat seeing so many characters from earlier show up, though the pacing of this mission was so fast and the dialogue flew by so quickly that it was hard to really care about who was doing what.

It really speaks to the strengths of the combat mechanics that such a blandly designed mission was still pretty fun (wave after wave... yawn). Would have been nice to have some kind of hand crafted final encounter though.

The story was barely there for 90% of the game, and then a bunch of revelations and developments are thrown at you very quickly towards the end. A whole lot of things happen very fast without much time to linger on any of them or for some of them to even make much sense. How did the kett

Spoiler

board the Nexus or only just the Hyperion (what?)

? What was with the thing that the Archon

Spoiler

injected into Ryder

? How exactly was Ryder able to

Spoiler

control the remnant without SAM

? These questions are just scratching the surface.

One major aspect of this game which is very important to storytelling (beyond the lackluster animations/faces) that I want to touch on that I haven't seen anyone mention is the horribly regressed (from the previous games) scene direction and editing (can't really call it cinematography). This game is completely lacking any kind of "cinematic" quality. Even the most important cutscenes are mostly just boring reverse angle dialogue or poorly animated static shots at flat angles. This was not the case with the previous trilogy. You could tell that Bioware wanted ME1 to really feel like some kind of lost 70s/80s scifi film and whoever was responsible for directing the cutscenes clearly had some kind of film background.

The ME1 opening scene, for example. Aside from the music being perfectly synced up with the opening text and the overall editing, Shepard is introduced via a scene that emulates a cool handheld shot following him/her through the ship. Sure, it's not Scorsese, but as far as games go, this actually looks like how someone would shoot a scene in a film instead of a stilted game cutscene. Most of the scenes in Andromeda aren't anymore stylish than what Bioware did with KotOR.

This edited together series of scenes of Sovereign attacking the Citadel have vastly superior camerawork and framing to anything in Andromeda. The shot of Sovereign at 2:02 is something straight out of a classic scifi film.

Comparing similar scenes, how about the laughably awkward direction of the Archon

Spoiler

grabbing Ryder's blank face (with clipping) and injecting him/her with whatever at a flat angle with no music or excitement on his flagship

to Shepard and Saren on Virmire. Specifically starting at 4:20 in this scene. This has actual editing and excitement! There's a cool alternating first person shot from Shepard's view and then Saren's as he gets punched.

There are a lot more examples that could be posted and these are just from ME1. Not sure if anyone else actually cares about this lol.

I just wanted to say, thanks so much for posting these links. I know I complain about Me1 a lot, but it's easy to forget how much it did right. As you highlight, the cinematography for the time was light years ahead of anything else on the market, and still compares incredibly well to the biggest, newest blockbuster. The ending of Mass Effect 1 was the first time I ever felt like I was in a sci fi movie or episode of my favourite TV show in a game. I'd never felt so caught up in the action and the story and the cinematic quality of a game before.

There are so many classic, amazing well shot and designed scenes in the series, particularly in the first two games. It's a really subtle but important point - some of the people working on those original games *loved* Sci-fi films, and spent a lot of time making the games reflect those, and that's absolutely been lost in the new game.

 

[bati]

Holy shit is the Contagion quest pants on head retarded. A woman traversed half the galaxy in a shuttle that had progressively failing critical systems and hull integrity. In what universe does this even remotely make sense? Whoever wrote this should be slapped around.

 

[diaspora]

Holy shit is the Contagion quest pants on head retarded. A woman traversed half the galaxy in a shuttle that had progressively failing critical systems and hull integrity. In what universe does this even remotely make sense? Whoever wrote this should be slapped around.

No. The game takes place in a cluster.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

There are so many classic, amazing well shot and designed scenes in the series, particularly in the first two games. It's a really subtle but important point - some of the people working on those original games *loved* Sci-fi films, and spent a lot of time making the games reflect those, and that's absolutely been lost in the new game.

The conversation custscene work and staging in both ME2 and ME3 is outstanding and IMO under-appreciated. Even reasonably mundane conversations could have some pretty striking framing and the characters would move around through the environment during the conversations.

ME:A's conversation moments are really mundane in comparison.

 

[Sterling's_Gold]

I just wanted to say, thanks so much for posting these links. I know I complain about Me1 a lot, but it's easy to forget how much it did right. As you highlight, the cinematography for the time was light years ahead of anything else on the market, and still compares incredibly well to the biggest, newest blockbuster. the ending of Mass Effect 1 was the first time I ever felt like I was in a sci fi movie or episode of my favourite TV show in a game.

There are so many classic, amazing well shot and designed scenes in the series, particularly in the first two games. It's a really subtle but important point - some of the people working on those original games *loved* Sci-fi films, and spent a lot of time making the games reflect those, and that's absolutely been lost in the new game.

Yeah, you could really feel the love for classic scifi that the team had. I remember seeing interviews with Casey Hudson from back then where he talked about all kinds of lesser known scifi films/tv that he loved as well as his collection of retro scifi art. I seem to recall the art team from ME1 referencing classic NASA artwork from the 1970s. There is also Jack Wall and Sam Hulick referencing Blade Runner and Dune as soundtrack influences.

 

[bluecapsule]

I've been enjoying the game for what it is (a decent third person shooter RPG with cool powers), and I think it's a solid 7.5 or 8 out of 10. If it wasn't called Mass Effect, I'd probably be singing this game's praises and calling it an underrated gem. But ugh, the writing in this game is just so lacking compared to when Drew Karpyshyn was manning the helm.

For example, a lot has been said on the terribly written "First Murder" quest, including an entire Kotaku post dedicated to it, so I won't go into that. But even some of the loyalty quests have just terrible writing. Jaal's loyalty sidequest completely lacks any of the subtlety or decision making of previous Mass Effect games.

Spoiler

The whole point of Mass Effect is that it's supposed to present you with tough and meaningful decisions. The end of Jaal's loyalty mission has NONE of the series subtlety, and instead presents it as a binary morality - killing Akksul is wrong in every possible way, and letting him live is simply the "correct choice." In previous Mass Effect games, you could fail loyalty quests by placing the greater good over their desires or make questionable calls without a clear right or wrong answer. Instead, here it's presented as simply "hurr durr Humans evil" if you kill the terrorist who's spent the entire game trying to commit genocide. Killing him is simply wrong in every conceivable way according to ME Andromeda.

So if you spare him, and when Ryder goes "umm, we let this guy who has been trying to kill my entire race go free," Jaal just says "but his PRIDE will keep him in the shadows." Thanks Jaal. Humanity can sleep safely now. This is just fucking awful writing. And to make things even sillier, killing him results in you getting Jaal's loyalty anyways! What's even the point of these "loyalty" missions if your decisions have no impact on your companions loyalty?

People gave Fallout 4 a lot of shit for having meaningless conversation options, but ME A is just as bad. It saddens me to see so many people in this thread try to crap on the writing in ME 1-3 as if that somehow makes the writing in this game OK. Sure, the older games had their problems, but Drew Karpyshyn's work on KOTOR and ME1-2 was universally lauded and beloved by both critics and fans. This new narrative that "Mass Effect writing has always been bad and you're just complaining about nothing" is so off-base and annoying.

 

[bati]

No. The game takes place in a cluster.

Cluster, whatever. Tempest has to (judging by the animation) engage its mass effect drives to travel between systems. Since when can shuttles that are on brink of destruction do the same?

 

[sangreal]

Holy shit is the Contagion quest pants on head retarded. A woman traversed half the galaxy in a shuttle that had progressively failing critical systems and hull integrity. In what universe does this even remotely make sense? Whoever wrote this should be slapped around.

who cares about the dumb narrative when you have to spend 20 minutes traveling around to complete the quest

 

[CrichtonKicks]

People gave Fallout 4 a lot of shit for having meaningless conversation options, but ME A is just as bad. It saddens me to see so many people in this thread try to crap on the writing in ME 1-3 as if that somehow makes the writing in this game OK. Sure, the older games had their problems, but Drew Karpyshyn's work on KOTOR and ME1-2 was universally lauded and beloved by both critics and fans. This new narrative that "Mass Effect writing has always been bad and you're just complaining about nothing" is so off-base and annoying.

The moment to moment character writing in ME2 was fantastic (ME1 less so but still really good) but people have been complaining the about the plot issues in ME1 and 2 since the day they first released. It isn't a new narrative or revisionist thinking.

 

[bluecapsule]

who cares about the dumb narrative when you have to spend 20 minutes traveling around to complete the quest

Agreed. The whole point of the quest is to waste your time. So many elements and quest design seem so stupid and pointless. On a planet? Quest tells you to go to your ship to check your email. What does the email say? Go back to the planet and talk to the person who sent you that email. I've never played a modern RPG that has so little respect for my time.

 

[Sterling's_Gold]

Agreed. The whole point of the quest is to waste your time. So many elements and quest design seem so stupid and pointless. On a planet? Quest tells you to go to your ship to check your email. What does the email say? Go back to the planet and talk to the person who sent you that email. I've never played a modern RPG that has so little respect for my time.

We see omni tools used for video conversations in ME3 but they are unable to check email