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Mass Effect: Andromeda |OT| Ryders on the Storm

bati

Member
You can set custom armour colours in your quarters on the Tempest, if the purple isn't doing it for you. Although the Heleus Defender set doesn't work quite as well with that as you might hope, as it has an odd iridescent-esque shading on it that looks kinda weird with a lot of colours.

Thanks, not sure how I missed this. I thought it was only for casual wear.
 
1403.gif

Say what you will about ME:A, but using this .gif in even a general context of BioWare is really lame.
 

Kalm

Member
Finished last night at around 85 hours on hardcore. I did every side-quest I came across but ignored most of the [Task] ones after Eos.

I really, really liked it but it's the first ME game that I'm not immediately jumping back into for a second run. Mostly, the game just needs some serious "QOL" improvements to the menus, star map, and quest log. A lot of basic things feel like a slog. For example, I'll never understand why a tiny, seldom-visited place like Aya has 5 fast-travel points but it takes 5 minutes of screwing around and 3 load screens just to get to the actual gameplay area of Kadara. Also: Select Destination->*Pause*->Zoom Out->*Pause*->Travel to Destination->Zoom In->"Whoops, too close!"->*Pause*->Zoom Out->Manually Swivel Planet because you somehow ended up on the wrong f*cking side...areyouf*ckingkidding? Hopefully, a lot of this gets streamlined with updates because it's seriously holding the game back.

I thought the writing was fine and very "Mass Effect'y" aside from a few cringey lines here and there. The main story, loyalty missions and most of the major side-quests were great. The first two squadmates kinda sucked -- in true ME fashion -- but I really liked the rest of the cast. I used Vetra and Drack a lot but PeeBee and Jaal were pretty great too. The only thing that really bothered me with the writing was how the early game pushed the "Nexus Leadership is at odds with eachother!" thing as if I was eventually going to have to pick a side...and then dropped it entirely. Tann / Kandros / Kesh were interesting at first and then didn't really get significantly updated dialogue or story beats for the rest of the game. It was bizarre and felt like some stuff might have been cut. Director "Tired-Face" Addison was terrible throughout -- bad VA, weird writing, and a genuinely awful character. The biggest disappointment I had with ME:A was not being able to eventually unseat her ass after constant f*ck-ups followed by indignant self-righteousness. We need a spoiler thread so I can rant about all the weird sh*t she gets away with over the course of the game because it's straight up crazy.

Even with the gimped squad control, the combat is the best ME has done. Fast and ridiculously fun with biotic builds. Though near the end I went with a Tech/Biotic split using shotgun/melee with Incinerate/Charge/
Remnant VI
(<--Hidden Tech Skill) and it was much more fun than the pure biotics build I played most of the game with. You can spec the
Remnant VI
to constantly prime everything in sight and it's bloody amazing. If you get tired of constantly re-activating Annihilate, it's a great low-maintenance alternative.
It also seems to have better AI than the actual characters as I only used it for around 10% of my playtime and the damn thing still finished the game with more kills than all my other squadmates combined ;)
.
 
Finally started unlocking more Ryder memories, and I'm getting really invested in this sub plot now.

I do have mixed feelings on how they decided to drip feed them though. On one hand, BioWare showed commendable discipline in slowly revealing more of Alec's logs, and tying it to Sara's growth as a pathfinder. Thematically it makes a lot of sense and makes the reveals more satisfying.

On the other hand, if they had outlined some of the Ryder family's more complex backstory right at the start, it could have alievieted the slow and dull beginning, which remains the worst part of the game, in my opinion
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Am I missing something with augs? I researched a bio converter for the health loss instead of a reload but I don't see it when I try to slot something.
 

Grisby

Member
Wow, actually having a bit of a hard time with this major choice. Massive Mission 4/maybe 5? spoilers follow. I'm curious as to what everyone did?

So,
_________save Drack's krogan mates or rescue the pathfinder? Feel like saving the pathfinder is the major thing to do and I actually kind of like the character, but Drack is my bro and these are his clan dudes. Decisions.
 

RoKKeR

Member
On Voeld, regarding the
AI you find underneath the ice... sigh. That whole scene was everything wrong with this game. An ancient and mysterious technology found deep beneath a planet is reduced to an awkward scene where you have to make the *big decision* over whether or not to save some random, nameless angara who mutters "Please... I have a family!" as he is continuously getting shocked by the thing.... and then to cap it all off, when faced with the decision to give it to the angara or keep it with SAM, there is literally ZERO input/dialogue from SAM on the matter, even though he was making hilarious quips earlier in the sequence.

What should have been a cool and classic ME moment was just strange, awkward, and off-putting. At least the combat is fun. Throw + Charge.
 

JeffG

Member
Wow, actually having a bit of a hard time with this major choice. Massive Mission 4/maybe 5? spoilers follow. I'm curious as to what everyone did?

So,
_________save Drack's krogan mates or rescue the pathfinder? Feel like saving the pathfinder is the major thing to do and I actually kind of like the character, but Drack is my bro and these are his clan dudes. Decisions.

Drakes Mates
I am on my second playthrough, I will do the opposite this time
 

keenerz

Member
the game doesnt have the I have to play to know more factor the original trilogy had, I'm finding it hard to come back to play more time after time. I can't place my finger on it exactly but I keep trying real hard to like the game.
 
Wow, actually having a bit of a hard time with this major choice. Massive Mission 4/maybe 5? spoilers follow. I'm curious as to what everyone did?

So,
_________save Drack's krogan mates or rescue the pathfinder? Feel like saving the pathfinder is the major thing to do and I actually kind of like the character, but Drack is my bro and these are his clan dudes. Decisions.

I literally just did that mission and chose the Pathfinder because that felt more important. Doesn't seem like it made much of a difference and it doesn't seem like anything came from it.
 

prag16

Banned

RoKKeR

Member
You guys serious? Those things take like 2 minutes each, max. Less for the basic 2x2 ones..

Just had a few 5x5's on Voeld and it gets annoying to screw up, not see where you messed up, and then have your entire progress wiped and a wave of enemies thrown at you.
 

UberLevi

Member
I literally just did that mission and chose the Pathfinder because that felt more important. Doesn't seem like it made much of a difference and it doesn't seem like anything came from it.

I also saved the pathfinder and I think it made a big difference compared to most other decisions.
 

prag16

Banned
Just had a few 5x5's on Voeld and it gets annoying to screw up, not see where you messed up, and then have your entire progress wiped and a wave of enemies thrown at you.
Eh. I never screwed any up and never took more than a couple minutes.

To be fair I used to do a lot of much more difficult "milky way" sudoku a few years ago, so that is undoubtedly a factor. Logic puzzles have always been a strong suit.
 
The optional puzzle in the
vault on Elaaden
was fucking ridiculous, straight up had to look up the solution online. All the others aren't so bad.
 

Hahs

Member
I love the sense that I'm always moving forward in this game

But I avoid side quests unless it sounds interesting
yeah the side quests seem to nearly branch from thin air...I was so scatter-brained the first time through, I had to start over; going in with the intention of focusing on no more than two major quests..if I encounter a side quest and its in context/along the way of current major quests, I'll go ahead anf knock it out - seems to be working, I'm more focused and not getting distracted..if I miss something there's future playthroughs, and YouTube.
 

rjcc

Member
The puzzles weren't hard to figure out. I got easily confused with what order to do the jump/platform triggers in the vaults though and needed videos for a few of them.
 
Say what you will about how BW decided to fill the levels, but the levels themselves look fantastic. I was especially impressed with Liam's loyalty mission and the trippy sideways design.

So far actual missions have some great visual designs. Mostly by the fact that they are largely unique.

The overworld on planets are boring copy pasted trash. Look at how few elements there really are and how they are pasted at different sizes across the map.
 

aliengmr

Member
Wow, actually having a bit of a hard time with this major choice. Massive Mission 4/maybe 5? spoilers follow. I'm curious as to what everyone did?

So,
_________save Drack's krogan mates or rescue the pathfinder? Feel like saving the pathfinder is the major thing to do and I actually kind of like the character, but Drack is my bro and these are his clan dudes. Decisions.

Did both. Saving Drack's scouts actually seemed better. There are pretty clear differences in the end depending on who you save, how significant they are depends on how much you like Drack. Personally I preferred saving the Krogan.

On Voeld, regarding the
AI you find underneath the ice... sigh. That whole scene was everything wrong with this game. An ancient and mysterious technology found deep beneath a planet is reduced to an awkward scene where you have to make the *big decision* over whether or not to save some random, nameless angara who mutters "Please... I have a family!" as he is continuously getting shocked by the thing.... and then to cap it all off, when faced with the decision to give it to the angara or keep it with SAM, there is literally ZERO input/dialogue from SAM on the matter, even though he was making hilarious quips earlier in the sequence.

What should have been a cool and classic ME moment was just strange, awkward, and off-putting. At least the combat is fun. Throw + Charge.

I think the last part is either a bug or something that is going to be addressed later. Odd that you found SAM's comments funny, when the ancient AI starts lying I couldn't pull the trigger fast enough.

Question:
Does Drack hates you after that :( ?

No, but he doesn't show you something at the end and you have to fight Kett Krogan.
 

kpzero

Neo Member
There is only one hard puzzle in the game but it has no penalty for failing. It was the final one and the 21st one that I did on my playthrough. Has anybody found more than 21? If so, I will have to be more thorough on the next go around.

Personally, I thought the puzzles were more interesting and easier than sudoku with the glyphs and shapes.
 

Zesh

Member
Have people never done sudoku before or something? The majority of the puzzles in this game can be solved trivially. The rest shouldn't take more than a few minutes.
 

hbkdx12

Member
I think (planet spoiler)
H-047c
is the highlight of this game

The look, the feel,
the emptiness
is fucking great


I also finally decided to tinker with crafted weapons and made a revenant with sticky grenade aug. It's weak as shit but the fact that i can dump 110 sticky grenades in one magazine is pretty fucking sweet
 

hollomat

Banned
This new masss effect is complete shit. Fortunately I only paid $39 for it and I can trade it in to Amazon for $33. Was worth the $6 rental but no more than that.
 

DeaDPo0L84

Member
This new masss effect is complete shit. Fortunately I only paid $39 for it and I can trade it in to Amazon for $33. Was worth the $6 rental but no more than that.

Thanks for the contribution.

So I tried the charge/annihilation/shockwave setup...dear god I feel unstoppable.
 
So, after messing around with some builds, I found one that I think is really fun: Adept Tech + Biotic build with the Dhan Shotgun. Explosions. Everywhere.

Energy Drain - damages enemy shields and also primes for combos
Incinerate - damages enemy armor, primes for combos AND is a detonator, so it can combo from Energy Drain
Charge - it can detonate a combo from either Energy Drain or Incinerate

Dhan Shotgun is so damn powerful (especially with Bio Ammo, you will never need to reload, but you lose 5% of your health every time you empty out a clip, but that doesn't matter because we got SHIELDS FOR DAYS). I have the Shield Oscillator on my N7 Chest IV which gives me +25% of my shields for every enemy kill, and I'm specced on everywhere else on my armor for Biotic + Tech recharge and damage.

This is only a level 21 build on Insanity, btw. Looking forward to hitting 30 to be able to max out my Barrier, Tech Offensive and Combat Fitness. I'll post up a video later.

Small update: I decided to switch out my Dhan Shotgun IV for the Ushior Pistol IV (1 bullet in clip), and added an aug so that I get +25% shields every time my clip empties... which is every freakin' time I fire the Ushior (plus, it's a headshot beast that does massive damage). Pair this with the aug on my chest armor where I get +25% shields for every kill, I'm literally unkillable with every action I perform with my current build.

Energy Drain. Shields.
Charge. Shields. Chain Explosions (thanks, Adept!)
Kill. Shields.
Clip empties. Shields.

Bring Drack and Peebee along for massive explosions all over the place every time.
 

Dany

Banned
I don't imagine myself playing through this again unless they make some drastic changes in future updates. like deleting tasks, R/D, pointless scanning and fixing the in game menu and UI. And being able to skip transition animations from system to system. And maybe culling 1/4 of the side content.
 

Alo0oy

Banned
I've played for about 15-20 hours, I'm on my second planet right now (I try to get a planet to as high a viability as possible before leaving).

Planet scanning is terrible, it takes a good 20 seconds to jump between planets, only for nothing to be there most of the time.

And I really don't like how your character can't be a douche/renegade, I really liked doing that in second playthroughs.

Some quests have no markers and they expect you to just explore endlessly until you get lucky.

I also don't like the camera for non-essential conversations, it gets really close and sometimes gets awkward, I prefer the classic RPG camera.

Holstering weapons being mapped to the touchpad is awkward.

Other than that, I like the game, I think the complaints are exaggerated, nothing that can't be fixed in a patch or two.

One question, is there a way to get rid of level 3 radiation? I have a few quests gated behind level 3 radiation.
 

Stiler

Member
Wait, you can change your armor colors? lol, 30 hours into the game and I thought you could only alter your casual outfit colors....
 

alt27

Member
For a mass efffect game released when it was , straight utter garbage . So disappointing . Story was trash , combat was battlefront like , jank is VERY distracting

Felt so "old and behind the times ". Plus just a shitty non tested product

Just shit , don't buy it until it's like 10 or 15 bucks .
 

Alo0oy

Banned
The worst of the radiation on Eos will dissipate, given time.

Real-time? Or in-game progress? The planet's viability was around 85-90 iirc.

For a mass efffect game released when it was , straight utter garbage . So disappointing . Story was trash , combat was battlefront like , jank is VERY distracting

Felt so "old and behind the times ". Plus just a shitty non tested product

Just shit , don't buy it until it's like 10 or 15 bucks .

I think the combat is great, leagues better than the previous MEs, I can't give my opinion on the story yet since I'm still early, but I can say that I dislike not being able to be a dick to everyone.
 
I buckled and bought this cuz I'm a sucker for Mass Effect. I also still have Nier Automata laying around. Next week I'll finally have some time to start playing videogames again. Should I start with this or Nier?
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I just arrived on Kadara and I'm utterly bored shitless with this lameass narrative.
 
For a mass efffect game released when it was , straight utter garbage . So disappointing . Story was trash , combat was battlefront like , jank is VERY distracting

Felt so "old and behind the times ". Plus just a shitty non tested product

Just shit , don't buy it until it's like 10 or 15 bucks .

I guess I'm having a completely different experience, story is interesting so far and combat is the best in the ME franchise, extremely fun if you try new powers, builds and combos.

Sure, the face animation is shit, but I use helmet on the planets so in those cutscenes, I can't see the faces. It doesn't excuse the shitty animations but I just don't care anymore.
 

alt27

Member
Real-time? Or in-game progress? The planet's viability was around 85-90 iirc.



I think the combat is great, leagues better than the previous MEs, I can't give my opinion on the story yet since I'm still early, but I can say that I dislike not being able to be a dick to everyone.

ME3 was 5 years ago , combat has moved on to better things in games , this has not
 

alt27

Member
I guess I'm having a completely different experience, story is interesting so far and combat is the best in the ME franchise, extremely fun if you try new powers, builds and combos.

Sure, the face animation is shit, but I use helmet on the planets so in those cutscenes, I can't see the faces. It doesn't excuse the shitty animations but I just don't care anymore.

I understand that everyone is different experiences , so glad your enjoying it but this for me is a rushed piece of hot mess . Thing that got on my nerves the most is NPC interaction . Fixed camera , and most times can only swivel a little bit , and a lot of the time can't hear the other NPC or your looking at a fucking wall or something . Lazy Dev work , pure and simple .
 
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