How many fucking factions of Milky Ways people are there? Like seriously, in one year there are half a dozen of factions from Nexus people. When you arrive at the Nexus for the first time it's like there were barely a hundred of folks. But you find Nexus exiles on pretty much every planets as if there were thousands of them who were awoken just to be exiled because reason. And they are linving as if they were here since few years.
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Mass Effect: Andromeda |OT| Ryders on the Storm
- Thread starter Blue Ninja
- Start date
There's a reason the review thread was locked and rebooted.
Inconsistent and flawed but ultimately still very enjoyable.
That's how I would overall describe my time spent with Mass Effect Andromeda.
Pros
1. Planet Exploration and the Nomad - This is something I've sorely missed since ME1 and for me it brings back that sense of grandeur and adventure I've felt was missing from ME2/ME3. I love driving about the planet surfaces, getting into firefights, looting random locations and just generally taking in the atmosphere of the locations. I like how they all offer something different as well in terms of weather be it snow, tropical, desert etc (I guess you could say that's a standard template for varying locations). A lot of folks find driving over just sand, snow etc boring but I love that. Just taking in the planet and pottering around.
2. Combat - The best the Mass Effect series has ever been for my money. I loooooove the combat in this and the jet pack/biotics boosting is such a joy I can't help but love zipping around the battlefield like a madman
3. RPG systems (crafting etc) - I'm one of those mad bastards that enjoyed the RPG aspects of ME1 and all of its inventory sorting so I enjoyed the hell out of this too. Crafting new weapons and armour with augmentations is something I genuinely enjoyed doing a lot and experimenting/messing about.
4. Graphics - It's a very pretty game and again one of the reasons why I enjoy pottering around the planets so much. Get yourself onto a nice hill overlooking an area and it can look very nice
5. Main crew (except for Liam) - At the start I wasn't sure what to make of the cast. I was desperately missing my boy Garrus and wasn't sure if any of the cast would live up to him. None of them do but Drack comes VERY close to it. I love that grumpy old grandpa Krogan. Drack and Jaal became my go to characters. As the game progressed I warmed up to the cast overall a lot more over the course of the game. Some of the dialogue between them is great and genuinely made me laugh and start to warm to the characters more. I guess it's a case of your mileage might vary, I ended up liking the cast a lot but from reviews obviously others didn't feel the same way.
6. Male Ryder - Only reason I'm specifying male Ryder here is because I've not played as female Ryder yet. I loved Ryder, with my style of always being a smartarse and the constant one liners I couldn't help but smile whatever situation I got myself into. He's essentially the antithesis of Commander Shepherd and it leads to a generally lighter tone in comparison to the original ME trilogy. This is something I loved, for example I loved Bad Company due to its Kellys Heroes lighter natured vibe as well. In a way it kind of surprised me as with the story the way it is I was expecting something more serious (and I guess you can answer more straight laced/professional if you want) but I'm glad it is the way it is. Not Nolan North did a great job IMO.
7. Loyalty missions - Genuinely enjoyed all of these, they aren't up there with the best in the ME trilogy but they're still a cut above a lot of the other missions in the game.
8. Main story - It's doesn't compare to ME1s story but I enjoyed more so than ME2s main story. There's nothing really here you haven't seen before, no huge surprises, but I won't lie - being a smartarse to the big bad is never not entertaining. I enjoyed the Loyalty Missions more but I thought the final story mission was a blast and really well done, far more polished than anything else in the game.
9. Multiplayer - I think this is a big plus, especially if you like the combat. It's really good fun and can be quite manic. I had only played a bit of ME3s multi but this seems even faster and chaotic.
Cons
1. Bugs and glitches and clearly unfinished - This is a very big negatiive. ME:A is one of the buggiest games I've played in ages, like far more buggy than any of those creaky eurojank RPGs I love so much. So many things going wrong - enemies standing still so you can just shoot them, monsters coming at me with no animations, having to change the FOV back to normal so as you can scan something to get past a part in the game (eg Peebees loyalty mission), randomly hearing bits of dialogue to events that haven't even happened, when using a controller your character is stuck running and you can't scan anything until you restart the game, having characters start to speak and then just randomly stop/get cut off for no reason and countless others. I can forgive things like this in janky eurorpgs, to an extent, but I honestly don't expect to see these things in a AAA game released by EA in this day and age. I was lucky that I never had anything game breaking but there's plenty of evidence to support this with folks getting stuck at quests, not being able to continue some etc.
2. Inconsistent writing - I don't think it's terribly written overall but it is very inconsistent. Sometimes you'll just roll your eyes at something that's been said and go 'for fuck sake' and sometimes you'll just laugh at it. Other times I thought it was quite decent and genuinely enjoyed it. For example I quite liked most of the dialogue between the crew and Ryders one liners as well as finding the emails to be genuinely hilarious at times. Other times you'd be talking to characters on the planets and rolling your eyes into the back of your fuckin head.
3. Animations - It's been done to death mockery wise but it still stands that yes some of the animations can be fucking dreadful. I've had times where Ryder is looking about during a cutscene like a fucking madman who's about to bring out his axe and all kinds of sloppiness from mouth animations, eye animations etc not looking right.
4. Transitions - I'm sorry but as cool as it is I don't need to see me travelling in the first person every. fucking. time. when going between planets. I got used to it but after the 50th time you'll get fed up with it. Yes Bioware it's a cool thing but give me a skip button please ? Especially for quests that go between multiple planets, the number of times I had to watch a landing video or a takeoff video and then watch the transitions of flying between planets.
5. Scanning - Is still shit. It wasn't particularly fun in ME2, it wasn't particularly fun in ME3 and it's not particularly fun here either. Now thankfully you can bypass a lot of it as you can buy minerals etc from vendors and unlock Nexus perks to buy them all but it still stands I don't find it a very fun activity to do. Of course being a plum, I still did 100% in every planet in Heleus
6. Music - The music in this is barely noticeable and what's there isn't particularly memorable either. For me ME1 had the best soundtrack with ME2/3 not being as good but here it's barely noticeable at all.
Those are just some of the random thoughts going on in my head, I apologise for some of it being badly written (like ME:A eh eh.....i'll get my coat
) but I'll blame that on it being a lazy sunday afternoon.
That's how I would overall describe my time spent with Mass Effect Andromeda.
Pros
1. Planet Exploration and the Nomad - This is something I've sorely missed since ME1 and for me it brings back that sense of grandeur and adventure I've felt was missing from ME2/ME3. I love driving about the planet surfaces, getting into firefights, looting random locations and just generally taking in the atmosphere of the locations. I like how they all offer something different as well in terms of weather be it snow, tropical, desert etc (I guess you could say that's a standard template for varying locations). A lot of folks find driving over just sand, snow etc boring but I love that. Just taking in the planet and pottering around.
2. Combat - The best the Mass Effect series has ever been for my money. I loooooove the combat in this and the jet pack/biotics boosting is such a joy I can't help but love zipping around the battlefield like a madman
3. RPG systems (crafting etc) - I'm one of those mad bastards that enjoyed the RPG aspects of ME1 and all of its inventory sorting so I enjoyed the hell out of this too. Crafting new weapons and armour with augmentations is something I genuinely enjoyed doing a lot and experimenting/messing about.
4. Graphics - It's a very pretty game and again one of the reasons why I enjoy pottering around the planets so much. Get yourself onto a nice hill overlooking an area and it can look very nice
5. Main crew (except for Liam) - At the start I wasn't sure what to make of the cast. I was desperately missing my boy Garrus and wasn't sure if any of the cast would live up to him. None of them do but Drack comes VERY close to it. I love that grumpy old grandpa Krogan. Drack and Jaal became my go to characters. As the game progressed I warmed up to the cast overall a lot more over the course of the game. Some of the dialogue between them is great and genuinely made me laugh and start to warm to the characters more. I guess it's a case of your mileage might vary, I ended up liking the cast a lot but from reviews obviously others didn't feel the same way.
6. Male Ryder - Only reason I'm specifying male Ryder here is because I've not played as female Ryder yet. I loved Ryder, with my style of always being a smartarse and the constant one liners I couldn't help but smile whatever situation I got myself into. He's essentially the antithesis of Commander Shepherd and it leads to a generally lighter tone in comparison to the original ME trilogy. This is something I loved, for example I loved Bad Company due to its Kellys Heroes lighter natured vibe as well. In a way it kind of surprised me as with the story the way it is I was expecting something more serious (and I guess you can answer more straight laced/professional if you want) but I'm glad it is the way it is. Not Nolan North did a great job IMO.
7. Loyalty missions - Genuinely enjoyed all of these, they aren't up there with the best in the ME trilogy but they're still a cut above a lot of the other missions in the game.
8. Main story - It's doesn't compare to ME1s story but I enjoyed more so than ME2s main story. There's nothing really here you haven't seen before, no huge surprises, but I won't lie - being a smartarse to the big bad is never not entertaining. I enjoyed the Loyalty Missions more but I thought the final story mission was a blast and really well done, far more polished than anything else in the game.
9. Multiplayer - I think this is a big plus, especially if you like the combat. It's really good fun and can be quite manic. I had only played a bit of ME3s multi but this seems even faster and chaotic.
Cons
1. Bugs and glitches and clearly unfinished - This is a very big negatiive. ME:A is one of the buggiest games I've played in ages, like far more buggy than any of those creaky eurojank RPGs I love so much. So many things going wrong - enemies standing still so you can just shoot them, monsters coming at me with no animations, having to change the FOV back to normal so as you can scan something to get past a part in the game (eg Peebees loyalty mission), randomly hearing bits of dialogue to events that haven't even happened, when using a controller your character is stuck running and you can't scan anything until you restart the game, having characters start to speak and then just randomly stop/get cut off for no reason and countless others. I can forgive things like this in janky eurorpgs, to an extent, but I honestly don't expect to see these things in a AAA game released by EA in this day and age. I was lucky that I never had anything game breaking but there's plenty of evidence to support this with folks getting stuck at quests, not being able to continue some etc.
2. Inconsistent writing - I don't think it's terribly written overall but it is very inconsistent. Sometimes you'll just roll your eyes at something that's been said and go 'for fuck sake' and sometimes you'll just laugh at it. Other times I thought it was quite decent and genuinely enjoyed it. For example I quite liked most of the dialogue between the crew and Ryders one liners as well as finding the emails to be genuinely hilarious at times. Other times you'd be talking to characters on the planets and rolling your eyes into the back of your fuckin head.
3. Animations - It's been done to death mockery wise but it still stands that yes some of the animations can be fucking dreadful. I've had times where Ryder is looking about during a cutscene like a fucking madman who's about to bring out his axe and all kinds of sloppiness from mouth animations, eye animations etc not looking right.
4. Transitions - I'm sorry but as cool as it is I don't need to see me travelling in the first person every. fucking. time. when going between planets. I got used to it but after the 50th time you'll get fed up with it. Yes Bioware it's a cool thing but give me a skip button please ? Especially for quests that go between multiple planets, the number of times I had to watch a landing video or a takeoff video and then watch the transitions of flying between planets.
5. Scanning - Is still shit. It wasn't particularly fun in ME2, it wasn't particularly fun in ME3 and it's not particularly fun here either. Now thankfully you can bypass a lot of it as you can buy minerals etc from vendors and unlock Nexus perks to buy them all but it still stands I don't find it a very fun activity to do. Of course being a plum, I still did 100% in every planet in Heleus
6. Music - The music in this is barely noticeable and what's there isn't particularly memorable either. For me ME1 had the best soundtrack with ME2/3 not being as good but here it's barely noticeable at all.
Those are just some of the random thoughts going on in my head, I apologise for some of it being badly written (like ME:A eh eh.....i'll get my coat
) but I'll blame that on it being a lazy sunday afternoon.
arhra
Member
I haven't quite finished yet (just got done with the
Archon's ship and saving the Salarian Ark
I think your cons #4/5 are related, though - if moving from planet to planet was as quick as it was in ME1, the scanning would be fine. Occasionally finding one anomaly to scan is a far cry from ME2's awfulness. It's just those interminable transitions between planets that make getting 100% in a system a chore.
I'd actually add one more gripe, though - they seemingly didn't bother running things past an astronomer/physicist, and there are a few glaring screw-ups as a result. I'm fine with suspending my disbelief when it comes to space magic/FLT drives/mysterious cosmic anomalies, but when you describe something entirely realistic using actual physics, but get it wrong, that's not something I can just ignore because it's science fiction, not science fact.
For example,
Elaaden
oneils
Member
Many bugs still persist. If they fix them, it might help. If they wait too long, no I don't think you will see a resurgence similar to destiny.
I'm going to make sure I don't ever pick those quests up next time. I don't even want them on my map. If only we could abandon quests ..
30 hours in I decided I couldn't stand anymore "side quests" after only converting two planets to settlement level.
I started the Meridian quest and the game tells me I can play on after the quest..does this mean its the final story quest...my save game only says I'm 48% complete
As far as sidequests go follow the main chain on each planet and ignore the other ones. Then of course do all the loyalty missions and quests under the ally and relationships tab. Generally the ones you get via email are significantly too.
You really don't have to do much to get planets to 100%. Doing the vault, doing the main quest chain and settling generally gets you most of the way there. Taking out architects and main kett base if planet has one will get you the rest of the way most likely. There are half a dozen or more less interesting quests on each planet you can safely ignore for the most part.
His Majesty
Banned
Finished the game. I have seen many people praise the ending mission but to me it is really disappointing.
Also movie night never triggered for me despite doing all the dumb fetch quests.
I'll write my conclusions later but the game is really a mixed bag, 6/10 would be my final score I think.
Also movie night never triggered for me despite doing all the dumb fetch quests.
I'll write my conclusions later but the game is really a mixed bag, 6/10 would be my final score I think.
AlexFlame116
Member
If there's anyone here who's looking into this game and wants to buy it, Target is having a Cartwheel deal where it's 15 percent off.
Disheveled_Zen
Member
Does everyone's companions die nearly as much as mine? I feel like any time I get into a a heated gunfight, they just get blasted out of existence and I wind up having to either run around like crazy and revive them, or just finish the fight myself.
Had an instance when fighting an architect where my companions literally both charged the leg at the same time and died to the shield surrounding so I couldn't rez them at all.
Had an instance when fighting an architect where my companions literally both charged the leg at the same time and died to the shield surrounding so I couldn't rez them at all.
Peroroncino
Member
Yup, same with rocks and plants, I'm gonna avoid the whole scientific section on NG+, thank you very much.
I still remember Shepard executing in cold blood that Asarí doctor in Virmire. Or making that other Asari in the Thorian level kneel and proceed to dispatch her with a shot in the back of the head. That stuff was hardcore. The guy was close to war criminal.
Ryder is kindergarten level in comparison.
Ryder is kindergarten level in comparison.
semiconscious
Member
great post! with which i agree, for the most part. as i've mentioned elsewhere, after 30+ hours at this point, it's definitely the technical problems that're weighing down the experience for me above all else: perma-load, hard crashes, glitched missions, stuff that ends up making the bizarre facial stuff, or the occasional 'go here to go here to go here' stuff, seem mild by comparison
...Mine are dead 95% of the time, including the Krogan. I don't bother reviving them since they are of little use. I miss being able to trigger their power to prime enemies for effects.
Yeah I felt that way too. That prop is seem multiple times in remnant locations and the void in the remnant location where it was supposed to be does not match what it ends up looking like. Should have just left it in a large cargo container.
great post! with which i agree, for the most part. as i've mentioned elsewhere, after 30+ hours at this point, it's definitely the technical problems that're weighing down the experience for me above all else: perma-load, hard crashes, glitched missions, stuff that ends up making the bizarre facial stuff, or the occasional 'go here to go here to go here' stuff, seem mild by comparison
It absolutely reeks of 'get it out for end of financial year regardless of quality' I understand that there's probably not much they can do now for overall writing or animations but fuck me, release it in a state so folks who enjoy it can do so without shitty bugs.
sobaka770
Banned
A lot of people still think Destiny is utter shite. Nier Would be a better example, I assume?
bati
Member
This is what bugs me too. And what kind of screening/selection process did Andromeda Initiative have anyway? Half of these people are ruthless mercs who'd kill you for your boots.
HarryDemeanor
Member
I laughed at that too.
I was expecting some cool looking thing and all I got was two of those remnant sticks that they tried to glue together.
mercenar1e
Member
Just when I think I'm near the end game 7 more clusters pop up with worthless planets that needs scanning. It's one of the worst things about the game.
JeffG
Member
ummmm...don't scan them. easy solution
semiconscious
Member
don't get me started
...mass effect: andromeda - the game wherein a lot, & i mean a whole lot, of shit can happen in just 12 months...
Humans do everything fast in this series. What in the milky way humans went from being alone in the universe, to founding a permanent colony on mars, to fighting two wars with significantly more powerful aliens and winning one, and getting a seat on a governing body of a universe wide government in like 40 years.
prag16
Banned
Well, what type of people are trying to get away from it all, a fresh start? People with checkered pasts are going to make up a nonzero percentage. They allude to this in the game, and expand on it in the tie in novel.
And there aren't "six factions". There are the exiles who got booted after they revolted on the Nexus over a year before the game started, and then an offshoot led by this Charleton character that rises up to oppose the exiles/outcasts as a result of Sloane Kelly being a power hungry tyrant dickhead.
Yeah, the setup was kind of convenient in terms of allowing them to sort of retread ground covered in the trilogy. It would be cool if they had tried to break more new ground instead. But all in all it's plausible enough the way it's presented in game.
Seriously. I finished the game without scanning a single planet and always had enough crafting materials on hand.
bati
Member
If your goal is to set up a foothold in a new galaxy and you can only bring 20 000 people then at least in human case you make sure that these individuals are a) psychologically stable (which includes screening for criminal past) and b) not related to each other to ensure greater genetic diversity. Especially the latter point bugs me because every other quests involves a family member of the quest giver, it's ridiculous.
Thank goodness! I thought I was the only one who went "huh?!" when that part came up.
salty_Josh
Member
Any multiplayer tips for someone just starting out?
Stalactite
Member
Driving around with Drack and Liam, Liam brings up their age difference and Drack's seen-it-all attitude and Drack says
Ice cold.
"Look kid, I'm sure you're worth knowing but all I see is a skull."
everyday math
Banned
Heh
CrichtonKicks
Member
don't get me started
mass effect: andromeda - the game wherein a lot, & i mean a whole lot, of shit can happen in just 12 months...
To be fair that's no more shocking than humans doing in 40+ years what it took hundreds and thousands of years for other races to do.
Somebody has to have a serious talk with the series writers about realistic time scales.
Dre_G_Writer
Member
UGH! The bugs gets on my fucking NERVES! One thing I fucking hate about playing vanguard is that bullshit that wont let you charge for what ever reason.
Look at this bullshit. I nearly died because the damn skill wouldn't activate.
Look at the skills, you can clearly see I was spamming the shit outta charge, but NOPE, CANT CHARGE PEOPLE THAT STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKING NO WHERE OUT IN THE OPEN JUST FEET AWAY FROM YOU!!!
I've died more times in this game because for some reason I could not melee, or could not charge than the enemies actually getting the better of me.
Look at this bullshit. I nearly died because the damn skill wouldn't activate.
Look at the skills, you can clearly see I was spamming the shit outta charge, but NOPE, CANT CHARGE PEOPLE THAT STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKING NO WHERE OUT IN THE OPEN JUST FEET AWAY FROM YOU!!!
I've died more times in this game because for some reason I could not melee, or could not charge than the enemies actually getting the better of me.
moustascheman
Member
Is there no option to spare
knight?
I got the implant for her son, yet no matter what I say, she still gets sniped in the middle of the nexus, while her son still sends me that email.
His Majesty
Banned
Finished the game after 60 hours of play. Some positives and negatives:
+ Combat is undoubtedly the strong point of Andromeda, a large upgrade over the OT.
+ Planets look beautiful.
+ Companions are overall pretty good.
+ Side-quests are better than in Inquisition.
- Technical issues galore
- Bad performance
- There are some serious problems with the writing. The biggest issue is that the game is too optimistic. You are stranded in an unknown galaxy,
and you are under attack by another race. On top of that
. A darker tone would have been much more beneficial to getting the message of hopelessness and desperation across. Instead, NPC's prefer to spout edgy one-liners and make jokes. It never seems like the game takes the scope of rebuilding the Initiative seriously. The focus is immediately shifted to
and a stereotypical villain.
- No overarching themes in the narrative. Everything feels so disjointed from each other. What a shame because the set-up of colonising a new galaxy is perfect to tackle some really interesting issues.
- The Angara feel too familiar to other races. Andromeda doesn't really feel like a new start.
- A lot of small inconveniences. Doors on Kadara taking 5 seconds to open. Planet hopping takes really long. A lot of quests taking place over multiple planets for unnecessary reasons. Can't jump from large cliffs. In the end it all adds up.
+ Combat is undoubtedly the strong point of Andromeda, a large upgrade over the OT.
+ Planets look beautiful.
+ Companions are overall pretty good.
+ Side-quests are better than in Inquisition.
- Technical issues galore
- Bad performance
- There are some serious problems with the writing. The biggest issue is that the game is too optimistic. You are stranded in an unknown galaxy,
other species are unaccounted for
your father has just died and your sibling is in a coma
the Remnant
- No overarching themes in the narrative. Everything feels so disjointed from each other. What a shame because the set-up of colonising a new galaxy is perfect to tackle some really interesting issues.
- The Angara feel too familiar to other races. Andromeda doesn't really feel like a new start.
- A lot of small inconveniences. Doors on Kadara taking 5 seconds to open. Planet hopping takes really long. A lot of quests taking place over multiple planets for unnecessary reasons. Can't jump from large cliffs. In the end it all adds up.
everyday math
Banned
Reyes is my love.
UGH! The bugs gets on my fucking NERVES! One thing I fucking hate about playing vanguard is that bullshit that wont let you charge for what ever reason.
Look at this bullshit. I nearly died because the damn skill wouldn't activate.
Look at the skills, you can clearly see I was spamming the shit outta charge, but NOPE, CANT CHARGE PEOPLE THAT STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKING NO WHERE OUT IN THE OPEN JUST FEET AWAY FROM YOU!!!
I've died more times in this game because for some reason I could not melee, or could not charge than the enemies actually getting the better of me.
This keeps happening to me, I always thought maybe the enemy is too far away, or my squad are blocking it or something.
deafmedal
Member
Just finished up, PS4 Pro, ~90 hours, ~85% complete. A few (several) thoughts...
The original trilogy was my favorite "game" and may continue to be, possibly forever. Mass Effect was the first game I restarted immediately upon completion (as far as story type games go) and after ME2 I was sooo hyped for ME3, the wait was brutal. I am one of the weirdos who wasn't deeply offended by the ending (kinda stumbled into the green beam on my "initial canon" run, couldn't kill the geth...). I was annoyed that there was little to no closure for my squad and the galaxy at large but I was fine with the contrived reasoning behind Shepard's choice/sacrifice. The extended cut fixed a lot of that (for me) save how the Normandy landed during the final run to the conduit- that was handled better in the original cut.
So I'd been waiting for this gen's ME game anxiously. I fell in love with ME3MP, pouring almost a thousand hours into it having a blast. This kinda surprised me and as a result, I was actually looking forward to MP more than SP in ME:A. I figured if I loved the campaign that would just be the icing on the cake. When the early impressions started rolling in, then the reviews I wasn't upset or surprised. At least I'd still have multiplayer to fall back on, right?
Well, I enjoyed the hell out of it, even with the wonky animations, over abundance of quests, long ass loadings and planet hopping that occurs later into the game. The game has some definite jank, so did the other three. Hell, I've played all four in their release day state and I'm pretty sure ME:A is the only one that didn't crash on me- I had one load hang which a quick close and restart fixed. The choppy frame rate (seems this plagues most games I play, H:ZD and Destiny not withstanding), shitty pop in and wonky collision didn't hamper the experience too much and felt par for the course with my Bioware experiences. ME:A was nowhere near as "unplayable" as say, Fallout: New Vegas (which I DID play in it's final form on PS3). Now that game should not have been released for that console and the devs should feel bad for selling it, just a fucking mess for me. Which is a shame, as I loved what I played of the game, just could not finish it.
I enjoyed the tonal direction and love the new crew. The combat is engaging (if not too easy) and the writing has it's ups and downs. I don't expect Hemingway in my ME so my expectations were met. "Saturday morning cartoon level" is not an insult in my book, and might even be a plus for me. If TW3 is the high mark for RPGs then I am fine with ME being the low bar as TW3 didn't click with me. Sure, some things could be learned from others but I don't think I'd play too many RPGs if they were all like TW3, all that polish and consequence doesn't mean much if I don't have fun. And it's fine if others feel opposite to how I feel.
ME:A has a somewhat "last gen feel" to it and that may have to do with the scope of the game although this bothers me less than most. Maybe it's too big for it's britches and as a result it feels off for some (most?) I'd like to see more missions in the vein of the loyalty missions, the vaults, and the finale with smaller explorable worlds with less going on- a mix between the emptiness in ME and what's on offer here. Space sudoku was fine, these games always have some dorky mini game. Not like you have to do it near as often as say, lock picking (my wife claimed that every time she saw me playing Fallout/Skyrim I was picking locks).
SAM needs to be toned back. Seriously. And what is up with the big box that pops up ever so often to tell me the same fucking shit it's told me many times? I got it, I already figured out your crafting system which, by the way, you really didn't offer too much insight into, so I think I know I can push down on the d-pad to scan. Other times you just get the rumble to let you know there is something near by but thanks to the horrible dead zone on the right stick (esp zoomed) sometimes shit is hard to find. You spend most of the game scanning big ass orange things that jump right out but ever so often it's something really small. I recall a couple of times it was some foot prints. Ok, I've done this plenty of times... but in those other games they told me to look for foot prints, you could be a little more specific SAM. The color for foot prints needs to be the same (why are they lighter?) as objects and the "pick up area" needs to be larger. At least I could walk at normal speed while scanning.
I liked the fact that I could turn off quest markers and just stumble upon the quests. I could set off in a general direction of the map, usually toward the planet's mission, and go do a quest using the codex and on screen prompts WITHOUT the giant floating quest marker. Fucking fantastic. It would suck to have the over whelming urge to clear all the hexagons in the first visit, if at all even. You don't have to do all the things and the game is probably better if you don't unless that sort of grind doesn't bother you.
I hope to see more of this story and crew, sure it's not super mysterious but I'm curious as to the fate
along with what ever political consequences there are (if any) for the choices I made...
It's Mass Effect, no doubt. We can all sit around and talk about how the OG3 did this or that but this is Ryder's time and a bit of pathfinding was in order for all of us: Montreal's first full game, new crew coming in after Cmdr. MF Shepard, and us and our expectations for a "next gen" Mass Effect. Sure, things could be better and hopefully they will but it is still a solid Mass Effect game. They didn't surpass the OG3 but that doesn't mean they can't... and that's alright.
Will try to wait for some patching before doing my Sara NG+ Insanity run but I may just get the beginning out of the way.
Time to start getting into what I bought the game for now, hopefully max my manifest before D.2...
ok?/10, will bang again.
The original trilogy was my favorite "game" and may continue to be, possibly forever. Mass Effect was the first game I restarted immediately upon completion (as far as story type games go) and after ME2 I was sooo hyped for ME3, the wait was brutal. I am one of the weirdos who wasn't deeply offended by the ending (kinda stumbled into the green beam on my "initial canon" run, couldn't kill the geth...). I was annoyed that there was little to no closure for my squad and the galaxy at large but I was fine with the contrived reasoning behind Shepard's choice/sacrifice. The extended cut fixed a lot of that (for me) save how the Normandy landed during the final run to the conduit- that was handled better in the original cut.
So I'd been waiting for this gen's ME game anxiously. I fell in love with ME3MP, pouring almost a thousand hours into it having a blast. This kinda surprised me and as a result, I was actually looking forward to MP more than SP in ME:A. I figured if I loved the campaign that would just be the icing on the cake. When the early impressions started rolling in, then the reviews I wasn't upset or surprised. At least I'd still have multiplayer to fall back on, right?
Well, I enjoyed the hell out of it, even with the wonky animations, over abundance of quests, long ass loadings and planet hopping that occurs later into the game. The game has some definite jank, so did the other three. Hell, I've played all four in their release day state and I'm pretty sure ME:A is the only one that didn't crash on me- I had one load hang which a quick close and restart fixed. The choppy frame rate (seems this plagues most games I play, H:ZD and Destiny not withstanding), shitty pop in and wonky collision didn't hamper the experience too much and felt par for the course with my Bioware experiences. ME:A was nowhere near as "unplayable" as say, Fallout: New Vegas (which I DID play in it's final form on PS3). Now that game should not have been released for that console and the devs should feel bad for selling it, just a fucking mess for me. Which is a shame, as I loved what I played of the game, just could not finish it.
I enjoyed the tonal direction and love the new crew. The combat is engaging (if not too easy) and the writing has it's ups and downs. I don't expect Hemingway in my ME so my expectations were met. "Saturday morning cartoon level" is not an insult in my book, and might even be a plus for me. If TW3 is the high mark for RPGs then I am fine with ME being the low bar as TW3 didn't click with me. Sure, some things could be learned from others but I don't think I'd play too many RPGs if they were all like TW3, all that polish and consequence doesn't mean much if I don't have fun. And it's fine if others feel opposite to how I feel.
ME:A has a somewhat "last gen feel" to it and that may have to do with the scope of the game although this bothers me less than most. Maybe it's too big for it's britches and as a result it feels off for some (most?) I'd like to see more missions in the vein of the loyalty missions, the vaults, and the finale with smaller explorable worlds with less going on- a mix between the emptiness in ME and what's on offer here. Space sudoku was fine, these games always have some dorky mini game. Not like you have to do it near as often as say, lock picking (my wife claimed that every time she saw me playing Fallout/Skyrim I was picking locks).
SAM needs to be toned back. Seriously. And what is up with the big box that pops up ever so often to tell me the same fucking shit it's told me many times? I got it, I already figured out your crafting system which, by the way, you really didn't offer too much insight into, so I think I know I can push down on the d-pad to scan. Other times you just get the rumble to let you know there is something near by but thanks to the horrible dead zone on the right stick (esp zoomed) sometimes shit is hard to find. You spend most of the game scanning big ass orange things that jump right out but ever so often it's something really small. I recall a couple of times it was some foot prints. Ok, I've done this plenty of times... but in those other games they told me to look for foot prints, you could be a little more specific SAM. The color for foot prints needs to be the same (why are they lighter?) as objects and the "pick up area" needs to be larger. At least I could walk at normal speed while scanning.
I liked the fact that I could turn off quest markers and just stumble upon the quests. I could set off in a general direction of the map, usually toward the planet's mission, and go do a quest using the codex and on screen prompts WITHOUT the giant floating quest marker. Fucking fantastic. It would suck to have the over whelming urge to clear all the hexagons in the first visit, if at all even. You don't have to do all the things and the game is probably better if you don't unless that sort of grind doesn't bother you.
I hope to see more of this story and crew, sure it's not super mysterious but I'm curious as to the fate
of the Quarian ark and who the Benefactor are
Sry GAF, Reyes got shot in the back
Will try to wait for some patching before doing my Sara NG+ Insanity run but I may just get the beginning out of the way.
Time to start getting into what I bought the game for now, hopefully max my manifest before D.2...
ok?/10, will bang again.
everyday math
Banned
Reminds me of that Dane Cook skit about that group of friends and how there's always that friend no one wants around. That's Liam.