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Mass Effect: Andromeda |OT| Ryders on the Storm

About 15 hours in and I'm loving it so far. I think the whole facial animation thing is blown way out of proportion. Besides a few animations here and there and one really awful looking character (Addison), I think their fine. Not great and they could/should be better but I just stopped noticing them after a bit (just like the OT). I also like most of the writing. It seems more light hearted than the OT. A lot of joking around and sarcastic remarks. I enjoy it.

This game also manages to make me feel like a small insignificant being in this huge galaxy. Something ME1 did really well.
 

sangreal

Member
Um, from their perspective it is. They've been sleeping for 600 years, not designing ships.

They are not pretending, it IS state of the art...for Andromeda. The Milky Way tech being 600 years newer doesn't mean anything. That's like saying nothing in Milky Way could have been state of the art since the Reapers had superior technology. For the people in Milky Way it's been 600+ years of advancements but for the people in Andromeda it's been like a few days/weeks since they left Milky Way. It's all about point of reference.


Imo it was a really clever way to make an entirely new start but have the same level of technology seen in previous game.

Yes I understand from the initiative perspective it makes no difference because their frame of reference hasn't changed. But they aren't alone -- the inhabitants of the andromeda galaxy have continued to advance during those 600 years and they started off ahead of humans. The Angara which are described as "Remarkably Advanced" technology wise were space faring and settling the galaxy hundreds of years ago. The Tempest was built less than 75 years after the humans managed their first off world settlement. Despite this Angara ships are described as "keeping pace" with the initiative
 

Jaraghan

Member
Not a fan of the travel times when in the galaxy map. I want to immediately go from planet to planet.

Is there anyway to hide the "hide UI" prompt in the galaxy map? I'd love to take screenshots of the galaxy/cluster but that damn prompt is in the way.
 
Yes I understand from the initiative perspective it makes no difference because their frame of reference hasn't changed. But they aren't alone -- the inhabitants of the andromeda galaxy have continued to advance during those 600 years and they started off ahead of humans. The Angara which are described as "Remarkably Advanced" technology wise were space faring and settling the galaxy hundreds of years ago. The Tempest was built less than 75 years after the humans managed their first off world settlement. Despite this Angara ships are described as "keeping pace" with the initiative

I'm not super far in,
but didn't the Scourge knock them back vastly? They don't even know their history to a quarter of the extent humanity does in our modern day and age.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
Is it me or is this one of the best looking RPGs out? It's not Horizon, but is there anything else I'm forgetting?

There isn't much else to compare to in the Sci-Fi RPG category. Exteriors environments looks really great but some of the NPCs are truly horrifying to look at. The best part is looking at landscapes from a vantage point. It also really nice to run it at 60 FPS.

--

I'm about 25 hours in and frankly I feel it's pretty boring so far. I don't mind the animations or the jank much but I miss the set pieces of the original trilogy. This game really likes to waste your time. Especially the quests requiring you to keep doing the same stuff again and again and finding more spots while SAM says he needs more data or some loyalty quests where you track signals with a bunch of fake markers all over the map to make sure you fall asleep before completing it. There is even an enemy to replace the DAI's trademark "there is a dragon to beat on every map" except here they all look the same so far. You drive around and you see the same copy pasted kett buildings or remnant site or burning debris all over the map while Ryder jokes about running over wildlife or mimicking the kett leader in the area.

Plotwise I just don't feel the Andromeda Initiative makes much sense and when NPCs explain to you why they joined the nonsensical project they all have cookie cutter replies like it was a no big deal decision. The games doesn't try to explain why it was possible in the first place outside of "it's because of the AI". As the plot progresses you have protesters and naysayers being angry at you for your choices and it feels really laughable to me considering they accepted this poorly thought trip in the first place.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
the opening hour is so bad. the story, the pacing, the cheesy dialogue, the gameplay. ugh. i'm getting flashbacks to killzone shadowfall.

I think the planet after that is even worse. Like the dialogue in the vault is ear-wreckingly bad. PeeBee just babbles inanely throughout the entire thing. And the environment itself was giving me Battlefield Earth flashbacks.

It got better once I left that shit pile, thank god.
 

Enclose

Member
Lots of Crashes without Errors and Rubberbanding in MP Matches on PC. Bioware should be ashamed to release such an broken mess of MP.
 

Madness

Member
So do all of the asari other than Peebee have the same face with different tattoos/facepaint? Kinda lame

No kidding. Almost all the npc look so similar too. You can see Suvi with a different shade of hair and black instead of red uniform everywhere. That same bald merchant style guy. The same generic marine. Exploration very limited. Generic planet scanning etc. All the asari except for PeeBee look similar. And this game was in development about as long as the time from ME1 launch to ME3 launch. Think about that.

I almost agree with the reviewers who say this isn't an AAA game but an almost indie fan attempt at making a ME1 remake/style game.
 
Man I don't know about this game. I just did the whole "murder mystery" quest line which involves way too many loading screens and running around and at the very end, when I made my final decision what to do with the prisoner (exile him), the quest line just ended abruptly and I got nothing for it.

Was the story supposed to be the reward? Because it wasn't even close to being worth it.

It's not the only one that ends like that. I did one last night that was all over Eos and then it ended, apparently, and the only way I know it ended is because it showed up in the "completed" folder. I was completely baffled and thought it must be glitched, but if there are others like it, that end with "nothing" then it just must be more sloppiness.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
No kidding. Almost all the npc look so similar too. You can see Suvi with a different shade of hair and black instead of red uniform everywhere. That same bald merchant style guy. The same generic marine. Exploration very limited. Generic planet scanning etc. All the asari except for PeeBee look similar. And this game was in development about as long as the time from ME1 launch to ME3 launch. Think about that.

I almost agree with the reviewers who say this isn't an AAA game but an almost indie fan attempt at making a ME1 remake/style game.

At its low points it reminds me of the type of free-to-play open worlder I would download, play for an hour, then make haste to the delete button.
 

Pandaman

Everything is moe to me
I hope there's a scene where we get to tell Jaal about the first contact war. Bond over how shitty our species first interaction with aliens were. Plus it'd be interesting to get his take on how well humans and turians get along now.
 

Laekon

Member
Does the crew ever change armor/outfits? It seems weird Peebee is just going to be running around every planet in a leather jacket with her stomach showing.
 

nOoblet16

Member
Yes I understand from the initiative perspective it makes no difference because their frame of reference hasn't changed. But they aren't alone -- the inhabitants of the andromeda galaxy have continued to advance during those 600 years and they started off ahead of humans. The Angara which are described as "Remarkably Advanced" technology wise were space faring and settling the galaxy hundreds of years ago. The Tempest was built less than 75 years after the humans managed their first off world settlement. Despite this Angara ships are described as "keeping pace" with the initiative
Several points here:

- First of all, the Angarans are not what they were decades ago because of the Scourge, Remnents and Kett. They have regressed.

- Secondly yes they have had 600 years and they were colonising planets before humans but it's been stated time and again that Humans are a huge anomaly in this universe. How do you think humans managed to be almost on par with the Asaris within a few decades despite the fact that the Asaris have been space faring for thousands of years? If you bought that, then you should be able to buy this. What others achieved in 1000 years, humans did in like 50. It isn't that big of a deal to see how humans who are so quick can collectively make stuff along with other advanced species of milky way that keeps pace with the technology of a society that has regressed due to several factors, despite that society existing for longer than humans.

- The Salarians designed the Tempest
 
Is it me or is this one of the best looking RPGs out? It's not Horizon, but is there anything else I'm forgetting?

Environments, yes. Characters models, certainly not.

The game looks fantastic at times, especially while exploring. And that first dungeon looks more impressive (and much bigger) than Horizon's cauldrons imho. I also love the little touches like the nomad tracks in the sand, screen effects due to hazards, etc. The characters models look atrocious and so last-gen, they're actually bringing the overall feel of the game game down.
 
I am very salty that I can only bring two people with me on missions mostly because of the banter

I want more of it
I want all of it
Gimme
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Environments, yes. Characters models, certainly not.

The game looks fantastic at times, especially while exploring. And that first dungeon looks more impressive (and much bigger) than Horizon's cauldrons imho. I also love the little touches like the nomad tracks in the sand, screen effects due to hazards, etc. The characters models look atrocious and so last-gen, they're actually bringing the overall feel of the game game down.

Disagree completely about the cauldron comparison. Cauldrons look much better to me because the art direction is much better, not so gaudy and draped in cheap-70s-SF tones.
 

Dubz

Member
Is it me or is this one of the best looking RPGs out? It's not Horizon, but is there anything else I'm forgetting?
What are you playing on? I would say Witcher 3, Horizon, Dark Souls 3, and probably a lot more look way better. The character models, animations, and poor performance on anything but a top level PC bring aren't really helping the games "looks"
 
Is it easy to miss a loyalty mission. I'm still early on
just got to Nexus and doing some side mission here
and want to do all of the loyalty missions.
 

Lime

Member
Does the crew ever change armor/outfits? It seems weird Peebee is just going to be running around every planet in a leather jacket with her stomach showing.

They'll be DLC

They're not in because of the game's development troubles
 

Zesh

Member
Okay I need to get this off my chest after being about 30 hours in. So far, my main complaint is definitely the open world exploration. The worlds are beautiful and vast, but hardly anything feels exicting or rewarding to find. It's definitely got that DA:I feeling to it, which is not a good thing in any way.

The worlds are full of Kett and Remnant camps and structures. But these all are little more than places for you to fight some Kett or Remnant, gather some minerals or open random chest or two.

Even the bigger remnant structures that are actually marked on the maps as points of interest, are no different than all the small unmarked camps and structures. It's litterally the same case of "go there, kill some fodder enemies, loot a chest with some random crap in it and move on".

What's worse is that sometimes it feels like the game actively sets you up for dissapointment. What prompted me to post about this now is that I found what looked like a small abandoned structures, very small nothing you'd really expect anything from. But then Ryder goes "what's this" in this way that would normally be a clear case of "oh shit I found something". Well, what I found was a scannable container with zero kind of followup, litterally just a random fucking container.

I share exactly the same sentiments after about 30 hours. There's nothing to find in the worlds other than enemy camps. I've actually liked Havarl the most so far, because it was smaller and felt more focused and dense than the other planets. Felt a bit more like an ME2/ME3 level to me.

The open world is especially disappointing when coming off Breath of the Wild, which had very satisfying exploration. A shame.
 

FiraB

Banned
*sigh* Game is starting to give me trouble with loading after I die it seems. Twice now the game just gets stuck in the loading screen forever

Yeah it's happened to me like 12 times now. I'm reaching the point where might actually give up on a game for the first time in years out of share frustration at the bugs. I can normally play through issues like this because they are so intermittent but this is just constant issue after issue.
 
This is one of the few games where the console frame rate really bothers me. Just feels so sluggish. (PS4 Pro)

The last game to feel like this was Dishonored 2, and I put it down after an hour or so.
 
Seriously my biggest issue with this game is that damn planet animation. Every single time. I can look past most of the other stuff, but seriously that animation is so so horrible.
 
I ordered this but I don't quite know why.

I still haven't finished Zelda and I'm doing a trilogy playthrough before I play this (just finished ME1).

I don't even know how long it'll be before I play it but I just felt... bad about the dog piling and wanted to show some kind of support. Probably stupid and misguided, but I just think the way this whole "controversy" was handled has been terrible. Additionally, Mirror's Edge Catalyst scored similarly with this on metacritic and that was easily one of my top games last year.

Anyway, on topic - I'm installing ME2 now, really excited to replay that as it's been a while. One thing I noticed when playing ME1 was there wasn't really much in the way of towns - can anyone say if there are more "towns" in this?
 

TitusTroy

Member
any chance the first major patch hits this week?...Bioware has had some extra time with the EA Early Access to address and hopefully fix some of the major issues
 

dEvAnGeL

Member
I ordered this but I don't quite know why.

I still haven't finished Zelda and I'm doing a trilogy playthrough before I play it (just finished ME1).

I don't even know how long it'll be before I play it but I just felt... bad about the dog piling and wanted to show some kind of support. Probably stupid and misguided, but I just think the way this whole "controversy" was handled has been terrible. Additionally, Mirror's Edge Catalyst scored similarly with this on metacritic and that was easily one of my top games last year.

Anyway, on topic - I'm installing ME2 now, really excited to replay that as it's been a while. One thing I noticed when playing ME1 was there wasn't really much in the way of towns - can anyone say if there are more "towns" in this?
Worst thing you can do is play all 3 previous games before this one, even though ME:A is a great game IMO i believe it lacks strong characters, none of your teammates are particularly "great" so playing the trilogy before this one will one make this problem much more obvious
 

Megasoum

Banned
Anybody's been able to get a refund using the EA Live Chat on Origin's website? I've been waitinf for like 4 hours now with the pop-up open but still nothing.

I'm not seeing the game under my account on the Refund page...
 
Worst thing you can do is play all 3 previous games before this one, even though ME:A is a great game IMO i believe it lacks strong characters, none of your teammates are particularly "great" so playing the trilogy before this one will one make this problem much more obvious
Like I said it'll probably be a while before I get to ME:A, and Mass Effect 1 & 2's characters are already permanently etched into my brain so I would be comparing them even if I hadn't played them recently. :p

(I've only ever played ME3 once so don't remember much about that).
 
Yes I understand from the initiative perspective it makes no difference because their frame of reference hasn't changed. But they aren't alone -- the inhabitants of the andromeda galaxy have continued to advance during those 600 years and they started off ahead of humans. The Angara which are described as "Remarkably Advanced" technology wise were space faring and settling the galaxy hundreds of years ago. The Tempest was built less than 75 years after the humans managed their first off world settlement. Despite this Angara ships are described as "keeping pace" with the initiative

As someone else in the thread pointed out, there are no Mass Relays in Andromeda. That is going to vastly limit the cross race sharing that the Milky Way enjoyed and therefore their technological progress.
 

Jolkien

Member
So I'm trying to do a Monolyth, I found two glyph and now it tells me to use the console but it doesn't work. Sam tells me it's inactive, am I missing something ?
 
So I'm trying to do a Monolyth, I found two glyph and now it tells me to use the console but it doesn't work. Sam tells me it's inactive, am I missing something ?

On Eos? Do the monolith next to the landing site first.

No idea how that went through unchecked it happened to a bunch of people myself included.
 

Zesh

Member
Anyone else constantly get this glitch when you die, where the game just continues as if you're alive? Just had to exit to desktop due to it.
 
Hit the 15hr mark and I'm still on Eos lol. Left once to pick up Jaal while I was waiting for the radiation to clear, and I'm now back there and got to 98% viability.

I can see this easily being a 75hr+ game, for me.
 
how are people able to freely explore Eos? Radiation everywhere for me thats too strong

Finish the main quest on Eos first, and try not to fight outside of the nomad too often, run and gun is the better option for Eos.
Radiation slowly lowers with game time.
Also make sure you have plenty of forward stations on the planet as well.
 

nOoblet16

Member
It's not the only one that ends like that. I did one last night that was all over Eos and then it ended, apparently, and the only way I know it ended is because it showed up in the "completed" folder. I was completely baffled and thought it must be glitched, but if there are others like it, that end with "nothing" then it just must be more sloppiness.

Man I don't know about this game. I just did the whole "murder mystery" quest line which involves way too many loading screens and running around and at the very end, when I made my final decision what to do with the prisoner (exile him), the quest line just ended abruptly and I got nothing for it.

Was the story supposed to be the reward? Because it wasn't even close to being worth it.

Actually there is further story and it's almost never "nothing" atleast for the side quests in allies and relationships as well as the side quests in locations (the ones that are prefixed with "Tasks" are mostly fetch quests with filler stories, the others aren't). They will either have a chain of story going from one to another (sometimes you'll have to wait for the right time, sometimes it's immediate). OR if they do end then you'll get either some form of interaction with them later to see what they've been up to. It's just that unlike many games it's not in your face as in you don't see the consequences of it immediately and at times you do have to explore to know more. For that particular quest, if you choose to let him go about his life then after a short while you'll find him in Hyperion's Cryo Bay where he is speaking to a doctor asking him to freeze him. You can interact with him there and talk and he tells you that since he was released from custody everyone looks at him like he is a murderer and even his wife left him after she found out, and he can't bear all of it anymore.

Even little mundane stuff like random conversations will get you correspondence, there was this random woman who I spoke to and she talked about how she is worried we are letting the aliens in so easily in the Nexus now...you can tell her to not be worried and give them a chance by talking to them and she says she will. A short while later I receive an email from her thanking me because she gave them a chance and spoke to them and liked it.
 
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