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Mass Effect: Andromeda |OT| Ryders on the Storm

B

BananasWithGuns

Member
Well, finally finished the game after 86 hours played. Ended at 98% completion with only 3 tasks left in my journal, two of which are bugged and can't be completed and the other being the Remnant Data Cores one where I just happened to miss a couple that I can't go back and get.

Overall I enjoyed it and personally I think it holds up pretty well to the other Mass Effect games. Definitely a far cry from what I expected going into it after all the negative impressions. It's probably a bit more bloated than it needed to be and while the open world style made some planets drag on a bit too much I still had a lot of fun overall.

The biggest negative for was just how buggy the game is. Quest objectives not triggering, cutscenes being glitchy with character models out of place or just not appearing at all. Andromeda as a whole is just inexcusably buggy. At least that can be fixed, I just hope the development team makes it a priority.

I do hope they continue with what Andromeda built for future games though. I liked the overall story quite a bit (although I wish there had been more of it) and I found most of the characters enjoyable, especially the crew. I think it just might be the strongest crew out of all four games to be honest. But yeah, I think the game set up a really nice foundation for the future so I hope they continue on with it because I'm already finding myself craving more.
 
S

Steve.1981

Unconfirmed Member
Agent_4Seven said:
About R&D. Am I the only one who exclusively used only Milky Way weapons and armor the whole game? The main problem for me with weapons and armor from Andromeda is that I really don't like the design of them at all.
Click to expand...

As an Engineer, in the end I mainly went with the Angaran Commando armour. Gave me some great buffs and I thought it had a cool alien look. I coloured it black with a white tint. Though I did love the Heleus Defender set as well, switched over to it from time to time, when I was just out exploring for a bit.

And the Equalizer SMG was always at my side, augmented with electric streams (force lightning unlimited powah!). Great for crowd control.

BananasWithGuns said:
Well, finally finished the game after 86 hours played. Ended at 98% completion with only 3 tasks left in my journal, two of which are bugged and can't be completed and the other being the Remnant Data Cores one where I just happened to miss a couple that I can't go back and get.

Overall I enjoyed it and personally I think it holds up pretty well to the other Mass Effect games. Definitely a far cry from what I expected going into it after all the negative impressions. It's probably a bit more bloated than it needed to be and while the open world style made some planets drag on a bit too much I still had a lot of fun overall.

The biggest negative for was just how buggy the game is. Quest objectives not triggering, cutscenes being glitchy with character models out of place or just not appearing at all. Andromeda as a whole is just inexcusably buggy. At least that can be fixed, I just hope the development team makes it a priority.

I do hope they continue with what Andromeda built for future games though. I liked the overall story quite a bit (although I wish there had been more of it) and I found most of the characters enjoyable, especially the crew. I think it just might be the strongest crew out of all four games to be honest. But yeah, I think the game set up a really nice foundation for the future so I hope they continue on with it because I'm already finding myself craving more.
Click to expand...

Agreed! There's a great game under the bugs and bloat. I'm looking forward to seeing where Andromeda ends up after some more patch work, and I've got my fingers crossed for some really good character/story driven dlc.
 
B

Bittercup

Member
Razgriz-Specter said:
Quick romance question
I accidentally kissed Suvi and lost the flirt options with Peebee...
Am I screwed?
Click to expand...
I'm not really sure, but I think so.
You can have a fling with some characters without locking other romance options but not two serious relationships. Peebee should be available for a fling but if you were going on the full relationship route for both you are probably at a point with Suvi where it's locked in and other options are disabled.
The same happened for me when I was romancing Reyes. When it got too far I couldn't flirt with Peebee anymore.
 
R

Ricker

Member
Got the weirdest looking bug last night,the first really glaring one I must say,that lasted the whole cutscene...it involves Jaal,Liam and yourself...I wont spoil it,even if its a real minor thing but basically there was 2 Jaal's,clipping into each other and all and due to the nature of the scene,it was even eerier lol...

100% on Eos,finally beat that Hammer quest,
it was a pretty cool fight..
...now working on Voeld,37% of the needed 40 to create the Outpost...still a little annoyed with the environment causing damage for so long though but at least it stopped on EOS now but I have nothing left to do there lol.
 
A

AusRoachman

Member
So I am only about 30 mins in ans my main impression is , is there really no way to holster a weapon without accidentally pulling out your scanner (Xbox here) ?

Going to annoy the shit out of me I just know it
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
AusRoachman said:
So I am only about 30 mins in ans my main impression is , is there really no way to holster a weapon without accidentally pulling out your scanner (Xbox here) ?

Going to annoy the shit out of me I just know it
Click to expand...

On PS4 it was hold down the touch pad for a couple seconds. Not sure if the Xbox 1 has similar button command.
 
R

Razgriz-Specter

Member
Bittercup said:
I'm not really sure, but I think so.
You can have a fling with some characters without locking other romance options but not two serious relationships. Peebee should be available for a fling but if you were going on the full relationship route for both you are probably at a point with Suvi where it's locked in and other options are disabled.
The same happened for me when I was romancing Reyes. When it got too far I couldn't flirt with Peebee anymore.
Click to expand...

Damn.


Edit: Well, looks like im jumping back 4+ hours at least.
 
arhra

arhra

Member
Dany said:
https://twitter.com/masseffect/status/855813498881925120

Like what does this matter? I don't remember it changing anything later in the game? Also this "choice" being limited to Eos but not the other outposts? whut?
Click to expand...

There's one small sidequest with military types protesting on the Nexus if you choose science (haven't got far enough in my second run to see if that disappears, or just swaps angry troops for angry scientists if you pick military).

Choosing military apparently also has the Prodromos people show up for a cameo in the final mission.
 
M

MrAnderson

Member
I feel like a lot of the cast and ideas in Andromeda have been recycled from the original trilogy. Remnant are Promethians, Peebee is Liara, Cora is Ashely, Liam is Jacob, SAM is EDI (they are both TLAs even..) etc etc. Saying that
I bet SAM gets a body eventually too. When you find out that the Remnant created the Angara I was like, heeeeeey SAM will eventually become a biological thing too!

I really liked the majority of the game overall, but I'll be really pissed if we don't see the
Quarians before the next game. I will quit Bioware games forever if we don't get a female Quarian love interest that we get to see sans mask. I was more upset over that than I was the crappy original ending of the trilogy.
 
D

dreamer3kx

Member
Im done until patched up, around 25 hrs in and its just too buggy, couldnt complete a mission because enemy stuck in object, second time this happened, enjoying but jeez.
 
F

FLEABttn

Banned
Besides that this game plays too much like ME1 for my liking, I've still been enjoying myself. However, there was a side quest on Kadara that really demonstrated the lack of thinking went into some of the quest design.
I found a camp on Kadara that had its own aquifer of untainted water. However, daily tests determined that it was slowly becoming impure and toxic. The band of refugees weren't sure what to do and one of them had been bitten or stung by something that made them sick and they required medication. So what's the quest here have me do? Realign a satellite dish like I'm some intergalactic DirecTV installer so some Asari could talk to her mom. What a waste of an opportunity.
 
S

SirPinkyNose

Member
arhra said:
There's one small sidequest with military types protesting on the Nexus if you choose science (haven't got far enough in my second run to see if that disappears, or just swaps angry troops for angry scientists if you pick military).
Click to expand...

You get them either way.
 
G

Gamer @ Heart

Member
FLEABttn said:
Besides that this game plays too much like ME1 for my liking, I've still been enjoying myself. However, there was a side quest on Kadara that really demonstrated the lack of thinking went into some of the quest design.
I found a camp on Kadara that had its own aquifer of untainted water. However, daily tests determined that it was slowly becoming impure and toxic. The band of refugees weren't sure what to do and one of them had been bitten or stung by something that made them sick and they required medication. So what's the quest here have me do? Realign a satellite dish like I'm some intergalactic DirecTV installer so some Asari could talk to her mom. What a waste of an opportunity.
Click to expand...

Nope. Those two other scenarios are their own little quests.
 
T

TC McQueen

Member
FLEABttn said:
Besides that this game plays too much like ME1 for my liking, I've still been enjoying myself. However, there was a side quest on Kadara that really demonstrated the lack of thinking went into some of the quest design.
I found a camp on Kadara that had its own aquifer of untainted water. However, daily tests determined that it was slowly becoming impure and toxic. The band of refugees weren't sure what to do and one of them had been bitten or stung by something that made them sick and they required medication. So what's the quest here have me do? Realign a satellite dish like I'm some intergalactic DirecTV installer so some Asari could talk to her mom. What a waste of an opportunity.
Click to expand...
One of those is solved by going to the Vault, so you don't actually need a separate side quest for that. The other probably is an additional task.
 
R

Renekton

Member
Hmm lots of Halo in the designs such as Remnant architecture and Angarans.

Havarl is bit of a disappointment:
- MMO-esque random mob aggros
- You killed the Roakaar boss's team and he quickly let that slide, wow dude
- The sages might as well not be there, they didn't get much lore development and your efforts in fighting your way there just got a princess is in another castle
- Great scenery though! I wish I had a stronger PC
- Exploration is very unrewarding. No point in open exploration if you can't GTA or Zelda them.
 
G

Gamer @ Heart

Member
FLEABttn said:
Is that something I get later? Cause the one was the only thing available to me there.
Click to expand...

Yup. If you explore you will find someone who needs a thing, that will get you another thing that will complete the original you mentioned. Just keep exploring every little outpost. It's all kind of casually connected since it's a 'task' quest and not a prominent one with a marker
 
R

RoKKeR

Member
Just did the first big
Meridian
mission... that's what I'm talking about, Bioware! A focused, driving narrative with interesting reveals + fun play spaces/encounters + neat environments + polished (relatively) cutscenes... this is the stuff I love about Mass Effect. It makes me want to ignore everything but the main missions, which I might end up doing at this point. (+ the loyalty missions)

Overall, I'd say the game just needs more "focus". It is on display in the story missions, and that is where the game shines the most. I know every moment of the game can't be like those missions, but there needs to be more of that and less of the vapid, aimless, bug-riddled and generally boring open world exploration.
 
M

Madness

Member
FLEABttn said:
Is that something I get later? Cause the one was the only thing available to me there.
Click to expand...

It is bugged for a lot of people. Me included. All you will do is the satelitte realighnmemt and you will get the UV bulbs but won't be able to help the Turian.

The Eos settlement decision will be a big one in future games guaranteed. I hope it is. You never know though.
 
Agent_4Seven

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Hey Jaal! What's up? (^__^)

0DJuX2y.jpg
Click to expand...
 
M

MCD250

Member
There's a kind of strange feel to the "structure" of the game, I think. On the one hand, it has "episodic" missions in the style of ME2 (loyalty missions, main story missions, etc.). These missions have a set beginning and end, they don't take place in any areas that you can revisit before or after the missions are done, and they're all replayable. This is exactly how missions worked in ME2, and by and large these are the best parts of the game, in my view.

On the other hand, you have the giant open world style areas which ressemble the UNC worlds of ME1, except since you have to keep revisiting them, and doing fetch type quests within them, and since some of them contain the starting point of the aforementioned episodic missions as well as multiple characters and quest givers to interact with, these planet areas can also somewhat feel like really oversized, bloated versions of the traditional ME hub areas (e.g., the Citadel, Tuchanka, etc.), although slightly more traditionally sized versions of these exist in the game as well (e.g., the Nexus, Aya).

Then you also have a couple of planets like Kadara and Havarl, which are different in their own way (Kadara with its combination of UNC-style open world and traditional ME hub, Havarl with its somewhat inbetween design) and involve (at least in the case of Kadara) quests where you interact heavily with NPCs like Reyes and Sloane Kelly who are sort of...weirdly major despite not being part of your squad, the angara or the Nexus.

And of course there's your ship, which works much the same way as it did in previous games.

I dunno. The way the way all these parts hang together just feels strange, to me. Almost disjointed or cobbled together, in a sense. And the sensation is so strong that if you told me that, say, BioWare Montreal, BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin all worked on different parts of the game on their own and then put them all together at the end of the production cycle, I would be inclined to believe you. It's like this weird soup of game design styles and structures that don't necessarily gel well together.
 
D

DOT DASH DOT

Member
Any good tips for getting a v sync'd 60 lock? I'm running a 1080ti at 4K, without v sync its in the 50's but locks to 30. Does adaptive v sync work through control panel for ME?
 
O

Omni

Member
alexanderftw said:
Previous ones were 20 hours ish, not that long. MEA is 60+.
Click to expand...

Dunno what you were doing to rush through previous ME games in 20 hours.

Might be the exception but I sunk 60+ in each of the other ones on my first play through. This one definitely feels longer but that could just be because it's kinda dull hmmm
 
S

Springy

Member
Omni said:
Might be the exception but I sunk 60+ in each of the other ones on my first play through. This one definitely feels longer but that could just be because it's kinda dull hmmm
Click to expand...

I can say with confidence that you are in the minority.

Andromeda is much more of a time sink. Personally, I took 30-35 hours in each of the trilogy's entries (full completion), and it took me 94 hours to get to 99% completion in Andromeda.
 
R

Rodney McKay

Member
Omni said:
Dunno what you were doing to rush through previous ME games in 20 hours.

Might be the exception but I sunk 60+ in each of the other ones on my first play through. This one definitely feels longer but that could just be because it's kinda dull hmmm
Click to expand...
After the first playthrough and you learn the structure, the first 3 ME games can be done pretty quickly while still doing all the companion missions. Even the first playthrough (without dlc) I probably got through them around 30 hours.

If you spec right in ME1 I remember you can basically be invincible in combat in NG+ and you can pretty much blow through most of the combat. Ive lost count of how many times I've played through ME1 and 2 (multiple times across console and PC) and I could go through those really quickly and still get 100% (or at least as close as I care to get).

The DLC does add a couple extra hours to the total, though.
 
M

Madness

Member
That is what I have been saying too. Things like combat, sidequest and mission design for non critical path or loyalty missions, the vaults and platforming, and then outposts and golden worlds versus Aya, Kadara and Nexus and Tempest all feel so disjointed. I agree that it is the other studios being brought in, first time developers for such a massive game, and 5 years is the reason for it.

I honestly think for next game, cut down on the massive open worlds, have 10+ that you can land on and explore but on a smaller scale. Eos, Voeld, Kadara and Elaaden are too big for anything. Add more linearity as well. Increase hub worlds, NPC and interaction with dynamic changes. And increase loyalty missions to have 3 parts, all similarly sized. So rather than have missions start with an email and then be put on hold, or take squadmate here to trigger conversation and hold and then finally end mission which is long. Let's have all 3 parts be long, almost self contained stories in themself. This gives people more chance at getting to know/use a squadmate they otherwise wouldn't have, as well as allow for greater storytelling.
 
P

pmj

Member
After finishing the game I felt pretty drained, so it took me a while to find the strength to go back in to work on the remaining trophies. I thought I was finally ready, but now I discovered that I never got a bunch that I should have.

Despite completing the game I never got the trophies tied to the second half of the story. "Activation", "Liberation", "Alliance", and "Building Bridges" are missing. I did get "Mission Accomplished" though. I didn't get the "All Clear" one for getting the planets to 100% viability either, despite working through so many shitty missions to get there.

So do I start over on a new character, or hope that a patch will check your savegames and retroactively pop the trophies the player is owed?

I'm so tired of this.
 
A

alexanderftw

Banned
Omni said:
Dunno what you were doing to rush through previous ME games in 20 hours.

Might be the exception but I sunk 60+ in each of the other ones on my first play through. This one definitely feels longer but that could just be because it's kinda dull hmmm
Click to expand...

I did not rush anything. Always did it to full completion on the below insanity difficulty. I have no idea what you did 60 hours in each Mass Effect. Maybe roaming aimlessly in ME1 I could maybe understand but in ME2 and 3 where its basically linear progression, theres no way it took you 60 hours as a normal play through without wasting a lot of time.
 
sobaka770

sobaka770

Banned
alexanderftw said:
I did not rush anything. Always did it to full completion on the below insanity difficulty. I have no idea what you did 60 hours in each Mass Effect. Maybe roaming aimlessly in ME1 I could maybe understand but in ME2 and 3 where its basically linear progression, theres no way it took you 60 hours as a normal play through without wasting a lot of time.
Click to expand...

I finished a 99% run off ME 1 Just a day ago (only didn't find all the minerals) and it took me 22 hours. And I listened to the dialogue.

Now I know that it's my 4th time paying through the game, I don't need to discover things, but 60 hours sounds unreasonable I agree. There's just not enough content.

Mass effect 2 I beat on insanity at 100% in 30 hours. Once again, there's just not enough content for another 30.

PS. And that's fine!! I'd rather go through ME 2 with it's tight encounters, missions and variety of classes several times than through open world 100 hours of fetch quests once with a single character. I wish companies saw that.
 
prag16

prag16

Banned
Yep, I'll echo what's been said. My 100% (or close enough to it that it doesn't make a difference) no-DLC runs of ME2 were around 25 hours. ME3 may have pushed closer to 30, but no more.

Andromeda's FLOOR is the size of both combined. My first playthough was 87% in 65 hours. I expect NG+ will be 40 or so once I cherrypick the content I want to complete. Still somewhat longer than the trilogy games.
 
R

Revas

Member
Finished the game, took 80 hours on insanity. Andromeda is flawed for sure, hopefully BioWare and EA are satisfied with sales enough to build on the games strengths and weaknesses because there's a good game here, but it isn't focused and should be more satisfying than it is.
 
M

mbpm1

Member
alexanderftw said:
Previous ones were 20 hours ish, not that long. MEA is 60+.
Click to expand...

I was wondering if it was longer or if I was just misremembering.

I definitely took longer than 20 hours for the previous MEs I think, though not 60 hours. But here I'm rounding out on 50 hours and still got a bunch to do (and I'm ignoring most of the additional tasks too).
 
T

TeamGizzy

Banned
Maybe I'm a crazy person, but I think the game is a blast. 32 hours in. Don't mind the task missions at all. I take em in stride and enjoy the dialogue and scenery. Great cast. Combat is pretty cool.

This game seems to have been stuck needlessly with the hyperbole stick.
 
M

mbpm1

Member
TeamGizzy said:
Maybe I'm a crazy person, but I think the game is a blast. 32 hours in. Don't mind the task missions at all. I take em in stride and enjoy the dialogue and scenery. Great cast. Combat is pretty cool.

This game seems to have been stuck needlessly with the hyperbole stick.
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing a couple of hours ago.

Now I'm just edging towards agreeing more with the majority and wanting things to be done, disappointed.

Somewhere in between.
 
Arjen

Arjen

Member
Finished the main story today and did all the major stuff. Im conflicted. When the game is good,it's really good, when it's bad. It's really bad. The game needs some serious trimming. One example of what I hated for example was the memory triggers, making you climb some goddamn rock for way to long. Fuck that shit, i hated myself doing that fucking stuff. I lost way to much time with some quest that had you going to a million loading screens. Stop that shit, im a grown ass man, i have better ways to spend my time.
But when it hit the highs it was amazing. Loved every minute of the main story and loved most of the squad.
 
D

Drewfonse

Member
Really, really enjoying this. Only 6 hrs in, but I'm into it. I'll probably do mainly the critical path, but so far so good. And honestly, I had more fun in 2 MP matches than I did in the entirety of BOTW. Different strokes.
 
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