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Mass Effect: Andromeda |OT| Ryders on the Storm

obeast

Member
I've said a million times that I'm waiting for a character creator update before I jump in. Well... if that doesn't come then just another good patch. I'm actually very eager to play Andromeda on my PS4.

So.... I got a question....

How's... ahhh... the romance scenes....?

It apparently depends on who you romance - YouTube has the details... My Ryder (grudgingly) romanced Cora, and was eventually "rewarded" with a hard-R sex scene that was more elaborate than any I've seen in a Bioware game to date.

I hate this approach to videogame romance, though - the idea that your romances culminate in a single sex scene that serves as a reward for the work you've put into the relationship throughout the game. E.g., I had a "fling" with Peebee, which ended with a fade to black, presumably because you have to commit to get the "real" sex scene. This is bad storytelling. I'm not at all convinced that fade-to-black isn't the way to go in general, but if you're going to show me polygonal sex set in the 22nd century, is it too much to ask that it happens organically, and not as a videogamey reward toward the end of the relationship? Shouldn't sexually liberated future explorers meet cute, flirt, have sex, and then get down to the real business of having a relationship - y'know, like real people?

The original trilogy, which had some romantic arcs that weren't all that bad, was awful about this as well.
 
Yeah, it seems like BioWare Montreal decided to stick to the romance formula of the trilogy, which followed that exact same path of talk a lot > sex > nothing.
Inquisition was better at this, romances felt more natural.
 
Finally finished this over the weekend. Clocked in at just over 74 hrs. I played almost all of the main quests and skipped most of the "Tasks". I really did enjoy the game and the characters, though some of the jumping from planet to planet to pick one thing up was a little annoying. The game dragged a bit too - by the end of it I was like "just let me finish this thing so I can move on with my life." The loyalty quests were the best part, and I did really like the characters. Overall I enjoyed the game, and if it wasn't the ME franchise then I would be very happy with the result. I guess I expected more from Bioware, and I'm bummed we probably won't get another one anytime soon.

Spoilers on the ending:
I also though the final mission against the Archon was a letdown. You go in there, they throw a ton of bad guys at you, including an Architect, and then you just turn on consoles until it's over and he's dead? It felt like a total rehash of existing gameplay. I was waiting for some awesome battle between the Archon and all of the Initiative forces, with special powers, new enemies, etc. What happened?
 

Gator86

Member
It's like they are far enough away it should switch over to sound like it's coming through comms, but it doesn't.

If I weren't wearing over ear headphones I'd probably miss the dialog as well.

Yeah, I've got surround speakers so I try to rotate the camera to pick up where the person is talking, but even that doesn't work. This game just feels like it's held together with duct tape and string.
 

JWiLL

Banned
So...I bought this game the first week and haven't come back to it yet.

At this point I'm almost of the mindset to just start over...I went with a female Ryder and discovered the male Ryder is basically bootleg Nolan North, which would be preferable.

Have any of the updates improved the game noticeably? Playing this so soon after Horizon was likely the reason it went cold for me so quickly, might be better now...
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
So...I bought this game the first week and haven't come back to it yet.

At this point I'm almost of the mindset to just start over...I went with a female Ryder and discovered the male Ryder is basically bootleg Nolan North, which would be preferable.

Have any of the updates improved the game noticeably? Playing this so soon after Horizon was likely the reason it went cold for me so quickly, might be better now...

Noticeably? I don't know... They did improve the dead eyes and some of the worst animations that you've probably seen dozen of times on GAF, as well as adding a skip option while traveling between planets on a single system, bigger inventory, but other than that... nothing really noteworthy that I can think of.

But if you're going to start over, might as well wait until the June patch(no date yet), since it should include the improved CC.
 
Ugh... been doing some testing of my sniper rifle range boost mod and it's not working, as far as I can tell, either because the projectiles time out on their way past 150m or there's a damage scaling table that makes them utterly useless beyond that range.
 
Man, Im a good 45 hrs in and I think Im going to start ignoring the planet missions, I know theres a couple of good ones throughout but just way too much quantity over quality, will do loyalty and main from here on.
 
So...I bought this game the first week and haven't come back to it yet.

At this point I'm almost of the mindset to just start over...I went with a female Ryder and discovered the male Ryder is basically bootleg Nolan North, which would be preferable.

Have any of the updates improved the game noticeably? Playing this so soon after Horizon was likely the reason it went cold for me so quickly, might be better now...
Femryder is great - better than discount Nolan north imo

Man, Im a good 45 hrs in and I think Im going to start ignoring the planet missions, I know theres a couple of good ones throughout but just way too much quantity over quality, will do loyalty and main from here on.
100% the way to go. Wish I had played the game that way
 

RedRum

Banned
Man, Im a good 45 hrs in and I think Im going to start ignoring the planet missions, I know theres a couple of good ones throughout but just way too much quantity over quality, will do loyalty and main from here on.

My OCD kicks in when I see missions pop up. I just have to do them. I can't believe there are so much.

However, I'm afraid if I don't do missions for XP that I'll be severely under-powered for larger fights.
 

Cornbread78

Member
My OCD kicks in when I see missions pop up. I just have to do them. I can't believe there are so much.

However, I'm afraid if I don't do missions for XP that I'll be severely under-powered for larger fights.

Same here..



I'm at about the 80 hour mark and most of that time was spent driving around and doing random missions, lol.
 
Man, Im a good 45 hrs in and I think Im going to start ignoring the planet missions, I know theres a couple of good ones throughout but just way too much quantity over quality, will do loyalty and main from here on.
Voeld in particular has a bunch that I skipped and still got 100% viability without them.

On Elaaden, you can skip the ones with the feuding Krogan and the (autistic?) Krogan who's worried about some Angara lady.
 

Rodhull

Member
Fuck yesss we in there. And I actually have time to play tonight.. perfect timing

The patch isn't out yet.

The guy made another video reacting to this and he didn't seem to know about things like the complaints about the gay romances etc and Bioware promising to fix it so it makes him look even worse to me as doing a video criticising Bioware's lack of communication when he doesn't seem to have made much effort to keep in touch with the communication they have made seems pretty sloppy.
 

Ricker

Member
Dont see Liams loyalty mission up, built all outpost.

I think you need additional stuff also like some of his sidequest that involve crafting something for him,that leads to a funny scene,that hopefully has been patched lol,etc etc...? cant remember but his loyalty mission can appear late depending on that...
 
I still can't decide whether to buy this, and ME2 is one of my top 10 of all time.

I would abandom all the filler and just do story / loyalty missions. Bugs don't phase me that much, but I'm worried that the story is merely so-so, and that was a huge draw for th eprevious games.
 

Cornbread78

Member
I still can't decide whether to buy this, and ME2 is one of my top 10 of all time.

I would abandom all the filler and just do story / loyalty missions. Bugs don't phase me that much, but I'm worried that the story is merely so-so, and that was a huge draw for th eprevious games.


There are some definite flaws in the game, but the game itself is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I still have 2 main mission to finish (80 hours in) and would have to place the ME games in the below order:
(This is taking into account the core gameplay, story and features within the game. I don't touch MP for the most part, so that isn't taken into consideration)

1) ME2
2) ME:A
3) ME3*
4) ME1

*Everything about 3 was superior to 1 until the ending..... The ending of 3 is the worst thing ever invented... Fu(king space magic ending still burns me to this day....
 

Stoffinator

Member
Dont see Liams loyalty mission up, built all outpost.

I can't finish it. I need to find some power core or something on a planet. But the required data pad to scan does not show up. This was said in their last patch notes that it was fixed. But his mission is still un fill able for me.
 

Ricker

Member
I still can't decide whether to buy this, and ME2 is one of my top 10 of all time.

I would abandom all the filler and just do story / loyalty missions. Bugs don't phase me that much, but I'm worried that the story is merely so-so, and that was a huge draw for th eprevious games.

The story is not that bad and the loyalty and main missions,plus a few other main sidequest I would call them lol,are pretty good as well...some of the loyalty missions require you do small sidequest to unlock them but those arent filler/collect 10 of type missions...if bugs dont phase you like you said,go for it,especially if you can find it for like 39 bucks somewhere.

Is there a risk to be underleveled if you focus on loyalty and main missions ?

Not really because some loyalty mission unlock after you do some sidequest,for example Liam actually,without spoiling,you need to do a specific thing on each main planet before it unlocks.
 

d3vnull

Member
I still can't decide whether to buy this, and ME2 is one of my top 10 of all time.

I would abandom all the filler and just do story / loyalty missions. Bugs don't phase me that much, but I'm worried that the story is merely so-so, and that was a huge draw for th eprevious games.

I finished Andromeda but I can't recommend it. Especially if you loved the original Trilogy.

Arguably the best thing about ME1-3 was the universe itself, the writing and the characters.
Andromeda sadly doesn't even come close.

Core gameplay is great, though.
 
I still can't decide whether to buy this, and ME2 is one of my top 10 of all time.

I would abandom all the filler and just do story / loyalty missions. Bugs don't phase me that much, but I'm worried that the story is merely so-so, and that was a huge draw for th eprevious games.
If you can get it for $40 or less, it's worth it just for being a non-Star Wars space opera RPG.
 

Cornbread78

Member
I'm pretty close to end, maybe a couple of more missions, I don't see anything to do for him at all in list, checked his emails also.
I just did his mission the other night, lol. It was friggen' hilarious and such a great change in tone for a loyalty mission...


It popped up for me once I finished all the outposts, did everyone else's loyalty missions, then did the
Argon
ship story mission. I came back from Drak's "friendship" mission and Liam sent me an e-mail to hang out with him on Aya, I did so and it kicked off his loyalty mission almost right away.
 

prag16

Banned
I still can't decide whether to buy this, and ME2 is one of my top 10 of all time.

I would abandom all the filler and just do story / loyalty missions. Bugs don't phase me that much, but I'm worried that the story is merely so-so, and that was a huge draw for th eprevious games.

If ME2 is in your top 10 all time, you have to at least give this one a shot. I know some huge trilogy fans apparently hate this game. But personally I would rank this game as better than most trilogy games in most respects.

The huge gulf in story/characters/writing... just doesn't exist. At least I don't think so. The main story is decent enough. The writing is indeed spotty in places. But the characters are largely very good. I like this crew a lot more than the ME1 crew after the first game (none of those characters really hit their stride until later games).

Do the main story, almost everything in "allies and relationships" and then whatever interests you from the "Heleus" missions (you'll need those to "complete" planets and get them to 100% viability, but that's not required; only some of these missions are anything close to mandatory).

On my first run I had 87% completion in 70 hours. For my second run I plan on doing the above; I don't expect it to take more than 40 hours.
 

Madness

Member
I still can't decide whether to buy this, and ME2 is one of my top 10 of all time.

I would abandom all the filler and just do story / loyalty missions. Bugs don't phase me that much, but I'm worried that the story is merely so-so, and that was a huge draw for th eprevious games.

Giant ME fan. In retrospect, I wouldn't pay more than $25 for this game. Is/was a chore to play through, only my love for the series kept me going at times.
 

Stoffinator

Member
Giant ME fan. In retrospect, I wouldn't pay more than $25 for this game. Is/was a chore to play through, only my love for the series kept me going at times.

I'm the same way. Loved the original trilogy. And this game isn't horrible, but is huge disappointment. So many miss steps. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone over $30.
 

Gator86

Member
I finished Andromeda but I can't recommend it. Especially if you loved the original Trilogy.

Arguably the best thing about ME1-3 was the universe itself, the writing and the characters.
Andromeda sadly doesn't even come close.

Core gameplay is great, though.

This seems to be where I landed. I actually just gave up on it about 30 hours in. The gameplay really is great. Unfortunately, they just manage to do absolutely nothing with it. You fight the same handful of weak, generic enemies over and over.

I realized I was done when I opened it to try to push through​ to the end and realized I groaned as it loaded up. I just didn't care about literally anything involving the story/characters/world/etc. If this is the end for ME, I'm okay with that. The gameplay and tech lessons they learn will show up in other stuff.
 

Cranberrys

Member
I still can't decide whether to buy this, and ME2 is one of my top 10 of all time.

I would abandom all the filler and just do story / loyalty missions. Bugs don't phase me that much, but I'm worried that the story is merely so-so, and that was a huge draw for th eprevious games.

I love the original triloogy and ME2 is in my Top 5 of all times, possibly my number one game even and I have a great time with Andromeda, especially now with all the patches.

I kinda understand why some people don't like it (but however I really don't understand the hate) because it's a little overwhelming at first with so many things to do and the optimal order of the various story quests, sidequests, loyalty missions is far from perfect but despite all that, I really love this game and its space adventure feeling.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Christ almighty, this is so much better!!!!! \o/

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http://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectandromeda/mods/208/?
jbEDA3i.gif
 
I still can't decide whether to buy this, and ME2 is one of my top 10 of all time.

In my opinion. If story/characters/conversations is what you loved about the old Mass Effect games, you will find all of that here, and much of it is just as great as it ever was. You just have to fight the interface and the quest design to get to it.
 

mbpm1

Member
I still can't decide whether to buy this, and ME2 is one of my top 10 of all time.

I would abandom all the filler and just do story / loyalty missions. Bugs don't phase me that much, but I'm worried that the story is merely so-so, and that was a huge draw for th eprevious games.
The game starts out being inferior to the originals in almost every way possible except for combat IMO, but then it climbs up to merely middling. Its worth a shot if you don't mind the first few hours.
 
Finished up, around 62 hrs, will continue to do some side stuff before totally putting away, overall it was good, prefer trilogy but the game grew on me the more i played, the dialogue options were pretty awful, they should've just canned it and have a couple of important choices, also way too many missions, just dont need this many, relax, just put in some quality stuff. Not sure what I would score this game, very mixed feelings on it. 7.7 ( I like points)
 

JOKERACN7

Member
It's really sad to see how the amazing combat of this game is so overlooked and writing shortcomings are so highlighted, I'm not saying we shouldn't criticize bad writing, but srsly almost all videogames have bad writing, videogames don't even come close to cinema in terms of writing and storytelling, and I personally get my story and writing fix from cinema.
Point being, I wish ppl appreciated more "gamey" aspects of the games rather than fixating on the things that the gaming industry has not primarily built for.
 
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