Mass Effect: Andromeda

This game should be re-titled to Mass Boredom. I have just gotten down to my first planet and everything is boring as fuck all. Dialog, graphics, controls, customization, Kett, objectives.
How people can like this game is beyond my comprehension. I will give it another 2-3 hours but that is it then. :mad:
If exploring is boring to you, then you shouldn't have purchased the game in the first place. The whole point of the game is exploring a new unknown galaxy. I'm sorry but I don't know what were you expecting? The graphics on the first planet is actually brilliant. The dialog is what you'd expect after crash landing on the planet, how can you find something to criticize there is beyond me. The objectives are pretty cookie cutter, but you're not a hero here, you're a grunt, your objectives can't be "save the known galactic civilization".
 
"try again"? That's the best rebuttal you can come up with? Well right back at you then. Try to at least address some of my points if not all. I never claimed the game was perfect, my review is a perfect testimony to that. But most things you brought up were just unfair nitpicking.
Compared to other games I recently played I enjoyed Andromeda more. Other games that got no negative reception at all. It's quite a bit unfair that people go out of their way to point out the problems or missed opportunities here and ignore everything that's good about a the game. And I'm not saying you're doing this, but the general public clearly does.

Open the spoiler.

This game should be re-titled to Mass Boredom. I have just gotten down to my first planet and everything is boring as fuck all. Dialog, graphics, controls, customization, Kett, objectives.
How people can like this game is beyond my comprehension. I will give it another 2-3 hours but that is it then. :mad:

Its not that bad. And the graphics are very good. Eeos is an ugly planet, but the first part of the planet looks decent enough. When you come back (after 10-15 hours give or take) more of the map opens up and that is barren, empty and dull. But the other worlds look prettier. Even Elaaden looks nice.

If you're getting bored, just do the main missions, loyalty missions and some of the main quests that appear under a planets name. Skip "tasks".

I actually found settling the first planet to be the most interesting. After the first one it wears off, and you more or less chase missions which get you a settlement. First planet was the only one that felt like exploring.
 
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Open the spoiler.
Sorry, I had no idea you'd reply inside the quote tags of the previous message.

You're a nobody and they just happened to name an entire planet after you. Right, a nobody. Noway the story could've been written differently in which you had some say in how the governing body would setup and influence possible sequels. Right, throw in the towel, play as a nobody who just goes from A to B. Talk about shooting for meritocracy.

You're a nobody at the beginning, who gets a name for himself by the end of the game. Which could be as far as a year later judging by the lore, you wage guerilla war on multiple planets, you set up multiple settlements, you traverse an entire star cluster. I don't see anything wrong with that. And getting a planet named after you is not that big of a deal anyway. Since many planets are named by or after exiles who first discovered them.

And why don't we know the details? That was important, interesting stuff. Should have been in the game itself. Part of the story that picked up was right before you board the Tempest. Shame we didn't get to come back and help influence what could come to be in Andromeda. Because we were a no one throughout the game. They picked out name out of a lottery for the planet, right?

The game is already 70 hours long by a conservative estimate. So it's not as if it's not enough. I wanted the game to start with the preparations in the Milky Way, that would've made the opportunity for tons of cameo appearances. But you're not even from the nexus you'd not have been part of the uprising even if the game picked up earlier.
Applying the same thinking to the trilogy there are dozens of missed opportunities in the previous ME games as well, that you only hear but don't see played out. Just because you assume what you don't see might be better what you see, doesn't mean anything. There are side stories in ME2, ME3, even ME1, or many of the official novels of the trilogy that I wish were part of the games but they weren't. But I'm not slagging off what is actually in the games because of that.

And the number that you meet that just want to live their lives are few and far between. The majority freely run back and fourth to the Nexus, and others are allowed to collaborate. Again you're missing the point. Why even exile them if they can run freely back to the Nexus? Why exile them but allow your citizens to go back and fourth? Freely trade with them? The whole situation around the "exile" as presented in the game was done poorly.

Well maybe you just don't have run ins with those who just want to live their lives. Most people living on Kadara port doesn't bother you at all and they're friendly enough. I still don't know where do you get this "majority freely run back forth to the nexus" part. I don't remember any exile going to the nexus or even talking about that. They're exiles because they've been exiled from the nexus therefore they're not allowed to go back. Are you perhaps mistaking them for actual nexus citizens, who weren't exiled, but go out to explore on their own anyway? Like Peebee or a few others you meet during your travels. Trading with exiles doesn't break any rules, but I don't remember if that happened either. I'm not saying it didn't but If it did I didn't take note. The only exception is the corrupt security chief who secretly collaborated with the exiles. That one I remember, but those were all under the table dealings.

The Korgan they seemed to have brought, for the most part, want to act like they did back in the Milky Way. Again, seems like a poor choice of Krogan to choose regardless of what happened during the uprising. You know they wanted to hit the nitty gritty feel of the 2nd game and have frequent run ins with smugglers and the like, but it all just fit in so poorly. They tried to capture the success of the previous games, and that meant outright copying themes without thinking it through and it shows.

You can't say regardless of what happened during the uprising. They were betrayed the same way as they were betrayed during the rachni wars. They were asked to quell the rebellion, which they did and then they didn't get what they were promised. No I don't know and I didn't see it as if they were copying the previous games. It's not about making it gritty, the whole exile as a plot device was made up so you can meet council species out there, and not just angara. If there is anything we should be upset about is that there was only a single new species to meet. The Kett are irrelevant in this as they're no more than the husks from ME1, you wouldn't call those a species either. I agree it could've been handled better, but it's not the worst.

Did you play the game? Or do you just not remember what happened? The first 1-2 hours of gameplay the main character is constantly moping on and on about how the conditions were not ideal, the first alien species they met were hostile. What did they expect? Alien lifeforms to immediately be friendly? Do they not remember what happened when humans met the Turians? That everything would go exactly as plan? No one seems to be mentally prepared for anything but ideal situations. You can't play the game and not think "well these guys are all idiots for not anticipating problems".

I don't see that as unrealistic at all. Of course they feel bad about a botched first contact yet again. I don't even know why do you think that's a negative. You'd have to be a sociopath not to mope about a bad first contact experience and be fine and dandy with staring a war. This is what I mean when I say nitpicking. You're trying to criticise things that are perfectly reasonable behaviours.
I agree that not having contingencies and not being prepared for a fight is stupid. But not the actual feelings about having to fight. I already had a disagreement about this with Dan, and he said they came unprepared to fight because they're not the military and they didn't want to provoke anyone. But risking the whole project just in case it might accidentally provoke someone is terribly naive and stupid. This is part of the SJW influence on the story I'm sure of it. As is the thing if you make the logical decision on EOS and create a military outpost the game will do nothing but spite you for it even 50 hours later. As I've said the game is not perfect but far from worthless.


That doesn't explain why they are still running around like idiots for decades. Their regard for alien life is essentially nothing. It would make much more sense to bombard them from orbit and take the stragglers. They clearly did not need every single Angara; they only needed ideal candidates. But instead they run around chasing them on foot. For decades. And the Angara were far from defeated. As far as Remanent tech, few of the sites have had any presence by Angara. I think only a single one we encounter in game on Havarel did...

Since the Angara were created by the Remnant, most of the unique remnant tech is concentrated on the worlds occupied by the Angara. It seems to me that you're deliberately trying to create scenarios that are irreconcilable with what the game tells us. Instead of letting suspension of disbelief work and imagine the scenarios that works best with what we are actually told.
As for not bombarding the planets maybe the Kett also have plans for the planets, I'm sure they built their power generators on Eos for a reason. It's easy to create an explanation that works, instead of trying to see everything as "it doesn't make sense". Find a scenario where it makes sense, it's only up to your imagination.


The Reapers were touched on a lot more. We knew their plan and goal by the end of the first game. We only know the Jardaan built terraforming technology, deployed a weapon, and then mysteriously left. What role they or the Kett play in the grand scheme of things are entirely unknown. They're just religiously driven crazies trying to better their race... fair enough, but dull. There wasn't much lure to care about them other than shooting them in the face. There wasn't a mystery to be gradually revealed like why the Geth were working with a Rogue Spectre.

I agree that the reapers were far better villains than the Kett. That doesn't make this a bad game. Well the mystery was that the Kett soldiers were actuallly formerly Angara, and he Angara didn't evolve but created. So there is mystery there, even if you don't care much for it. I'm not saying I prefer Andromeda's story over that of ME1, but compared to the average games Andromeda is still very very good.

That is the most interesting part about the ending to me. We'll see in a sequel, hopefully.


On that part I agree, that is the part I was most interested in, only to reveal a big nothing.

It was fairly clear that the Angarans on Aya had never seen humans, or other Milky Way species for the first time. Yet considering Angarans regularly went to Kadara, Harvel, ect. there is no reason why it should have come as a surprise.


I didn't notice that as a problem, and I certainly was on the lookout for plotholes. I vaguely remember something about travel restrictions and shortages.

I found the Kett to be dull. I don't think you could have made a less interesting enemy.


Except for the archon yeah they were pretty dull. But I don't think the Kett was the main attraction to the game, they were just the distraction. The main attraction at least to me was the exploration.

You misread. I said for an average game, the story is decent. But compared to other Mass Effect titles it is poor. There are only three other Mass Effect games (ME1-3) and all of those, even with their flaws, were better than this. Yes, even the thin story of 2 and the not so good ending of 3 were better than what ME:A had to offer. Not just the main story, but even the diolgue. Take talking to Suvi as an example. You can either outright agree with her religious stance or be an inconsiderate asshole. No in-between and your character's responses are fairly shallow. I even read a review which noted similar.

I think it's a mistake to try to compare it to the trilogy. It's a vastly different game, selling a different experience. I think it should be compared to DA:I before it is compared to ME1-3. And compared to DA:I I likved it much better, even the story.
 
Thanks for comments. I don't know how a different opinion can be called trolling. :rolleyes:
Anyways, I will continue for a bit. If this thing doesn't take off then it will get shelved for now at least.
 
I enjoyed the hell out of the game for about 100 hours, did the multiplayer for all the non-ultra rare for about another 100 hours. have not finished the game, probably a bit burned out on it. MP btw is now superior to when I was actively playing it, although with the nerfs/buffs my adept has become a bit of a glass cannon.
 
Open the spoiler.



Its not that bad. And the graphics are very good. Eeos is an ugly planet, but the first part of the planet looks decent enough. When you come back (after 10-15 hours give or take) more of the map opens up and that is barren, empty and dull. But the other worlds look prettier. Even Elaaden looks nice.

If you're getting bored, just do the main missions, loyalty missions and some of the main quests that appear under a planets name. Skip "tasks".

I actually found settling the first planet to be the most interesting. After the first one it wears off, and you more or less chase missions which get you a settlement. First planet was the only one that felt like exploring.
All the radiation on Eos actually clears after you visit Nexus the first time. So it can take as little as 5 hours from the start of the game to open up the whole map if you listen to all the dialogue. There is a good 2 hours of dialogue in that time, so skipping all the dialogue can open up Eos in as little as 2-3 hours.
Thanks for comments. I don't know how a different opinion can be called trolling. :rolleyes:
Anyways, I will continue for a bit. If this thing doesn't take off then it will get shelved for now at least.
My advice is to complete the main mission on Eos first as soon as possible and then move on. The game actually opens up a whole lot more after Eos. And as I said above, you can explore the entire planet after setting up the outpost and visiting Nexus once. Consider Eos the tutorial planet.
 
Thanks for comments. I don't know how a different opinion can be called trolling. :rolleyes:
Anyways, I will continue for a bit. If this thing doesn't take off then it will get shelved for now at least.

You're not alone. I was interested enough to finish the main story but was glad when it was over. After the first couple planets I just started doing main story and loyalty quests only. The dialog/enemies/squad were boring and the story never hooked me enough to care about side quests or exploring. If you thought what you did on Eos was boring, prepare for more of it, you'll be doing the same thing on the others. The game had it's moments but they were few and far between. This one was an immediate uninstall after beating which is a shame since I love the OT, they're my most played single player games to date (7-8 playthroughs each).
 
Any good performance tweaks? I can't run my 980 at any oc without the frostbite engine getting fussy. Yes I still have a 2500K at 4.4. I know, upgrade. Soon. Waiting on the intel refresh.
 
The game runs great when it runs great. The Tempest and a few areas give low frame rates... outside of that I got a smooth 55-60 frame rates on my PC at 1440P. 4670K @ 4GHZ, GTX 1070, 16GB RAM on an SSD. Roughly similar to what you have. Wait for further performance patches, but you should be getting good frames as is? What res are you on? Try turning off HBAO+ (or whatever the highest is). Not much of a performance difference on my end, but it did net me 2-3 frame rates. Mainly helped in the Tempest, which got better with recent patches. But still some optimization to do.
 
Man this game is long... I'm at almost 60h and still got stuff to do. All the planets are completed though, now I'm just chasing the main story. There are a bunch of miniquests left but I can't be arsed with them. I still haven't completed a bunch of "scan this, collect that" tasks. I think I only have Pebee story left. After that I'm visiting Meridian.
I'm a bit disappointed with the enemies, unless there's something nice near the end. And I also don't like Jaal.
 
This game should be re-titled to Mass Boredom. I have just gotten down to my first planet and everything is boring as fuck all. Dialog, graphics, controls, customization, Kett, objectives.
How people can like this game is beyond my comprehension. I will give it another 2-3 hours but that is it then. :mad:

Dude, keep playing. It picks up after the first planet.
 
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Oh man whoever wished the uprising was in the game, doesn't know what a bullet we dodged there, if the novel is any indication. I haven't finished it yet, maybe 15% trough it, but I already hate it. The writing is terrible, albeit not as bad as Deception. But the cringe. If you think the game has cheesy dialogue and social justice in it, think again. The novel is ten times worse. Apparently Salarians are the equivavelnt of white people in the novel becuase it seems OK to be openly racist against them. There are clear parallels. Apparently all salarians are jerks because they made the genophage 1000 years ago, which is about 500 generations in salarian lifespan but leave it to an SJW to hate an entire race for what members of their race did ages ago. And since they made the genophage it's OK to be racist against them.

And every character is more concerned with their own feelings and their apparent status, as opposed to the actual situation. Well except for the salarian who we should hate. And then there is the Turian who is a representation of "toxic masculinity". I almost vomited as the two female characters talked as if Turians are tools to be used, and not actual persons.
The main character we are supposed to be sympatetic to, does nothing but bitch about everyone else while getting upset at everyone who doesn't share her views. And not as if the character is doing anathing useful, besides breaking her toe on a thin glass that was supposed to be easily breakable anyway, and then moan about her hurting toe for 5 chapters staright.
And her favorite past time is disregarding chain of command and protocol.

And it would seem that the people who actually use logic and reason are only scolded. How dare they not base their decisions in life or death situations on feelings, but actual logic?
As if the whole book was an SJW handbook in disguise. Where logic and reason is always wrong, and there is always time for bashing in some male heads on the altar of feminism.
I'm not exaggerating there was a part where they go out of their way to show the reader how the one who used logic turned out to be wrong, and the one who suggested the stupid rash idea was right in hindsight.

The book also goes on and on about irrelevant details over and over again. It's OK to set up the premise once at the start, but doing a full accounting of all the damage each time the action switches to another room is fucking annoying and boring as hell, OK we get it that the Nexus is in bad shape no need to do a full inventory of every bent pipe or picture frame misaligned on a wall in every damn room. I assume the writing contract declared a minimum amount of words for the novel, and this is how they bloated it.

The writing is all over the place anyway. One chapter is 3-4 pages then the next one is 30 pages.

I don't know if I'll even be able to finish it.
 
way too many posts defending the game at all costs...I haven't played (yet) but I think valid criticisms of the game should not be attacked or rebuked at every turn...the game obviously has flaws and both positive and negative opinions should be welcomed
 
As someone who loved the ME trilogy, I'm having difficulty liking this game. I just don't feel invested in the characters like I did in the other games. I loathe all the random, pointless quests. What, the Nexus in dire need of supplies, the "Pathfinder" can take time off to rescue stupid people, or scan some minerals, or w/e other bullshit they have me doing instead of finding viable planets.

I watched a review on YT that made an interesting point. In ME:A, humanity (and the other Milky Way races) have become the Reapers. We just come to a new galaxy, and take what we want. They could have made this game into something extraordinary. They could have made this into a colonization game with strong RPG elements. Find resources, decide on what buildings a colony gets, etc.

The fact that the characters are bland and horrible to look at, the voice acting is pretty weak, and the quests suck could all be forgiven if it has a strong story. That's what made the original ME so great. Even with its flaws, you either loved the characters, loved the story, or both. I'm sure some people played it for the combat, but I think there are much better sci-fi combat games out there.
 
way too many posts defending the game at all costs...I haven't played (yet) but I think valid criticisms of the game should not be attacked or rebuked at every turn...the game obviously has flaws and both positive and negative opinions should be welcomed
About the only person defending the game at all costs is Dan :-D
If a criticism can be rebuked then it's not valid.
 
subjective opinions cannot be rebuked...
Opinions are not criticism. Noone tries to rebuke you if you say I don't like this. But if you say "why don't the kett just level entire planets from orbit" that can be. Because it makes sense in the context of the known story why they don't go for genocide. As for the Kett being dull I completely agreed. If I were trying to defend the game at all costs I wouldn't concede anything.

If you have a problem with something that was said point it out, don't make blanket statements, because it's not true that we are trying to defend the game at all cost. Just look at my review where I take the piss out of the game for whatever it deserves it for.
 
Well, I've got 4 games to play:

Mass Effect: Andromeda
The Witcher 3
Horizon
The Last of Us

I have not finished any of those. Maybe about 5 hours in Horizon, 30 hours in The Witcher 3 (over the course of like 2 years), 30 minutes in The Last of Us.
So far I have 60 hours in ME:A and counting and it's actually the game I prefer to play. Mass Effect games are fantastic. Yes ME:A is not on par with the previous 3 games and I have not finished it yet, but it's holding my attention better than the other 3 games (which are considered to be some of the best games). I hope ME:A is an introduction story for something bigger.
I'm also a huge sci-fi space exploration junkie. It's hard for me to dislike something sci-fi.
 
Well, I've got 4 games to play:

Mass Effect: Andromeda
The Witcher 3
Horizon
The Last of Us

I have not finished any of those. Maybe about 5 hours in Horizon, 30 hours in The Witcher 3 (over the course of like 2 years), 30 minutes in The Last of Us.
So far I have 60 hours in ME:A and counting and it's actually the game I prefer to play. Mass Effect games are fantastic. Yes ME:A is not on par with the previous 3 games and I have not finished it yet, but it's holding my attention better than the other 3 games (which are considered to be some of the best games). I hope ME:A is an introduction story for something bigger.
I'm also a huge sci-fi space exploration junkie. It's hard for me to dislike something sci-fi.
Last of Us has a great story, but the gameplay is infuriating. Or maybe it's just because of the damn controller. I just kept dying in it unable to aim, unable to do anything with any kind of efficiency. It took most of the fun out of the experience.
 
Eh, while this likely means Mass Effect won't have a sequel within the next 2 years, downsizing teams after launch seems to be normal.
I actually don't mind waiting more than two years for a sequel if it means things like the writing is much better than ME:A and the various technical issues encountered (and at least some patched) are addressed better before release. Three to five years between releases would actually work for games like Mass Effect.
 
I actually don't mind waiting more than two years for a sequel if it means things like the writing is much better than ME:A and the various technical issues encountered (and at least some patched) are addressed better before release. Three to five years between releases would actually work for games like Mass Effect.
It's not as if writing of ME:A was time constrained. They worked with 2 years between releases for ME1-2-3. And there was no trouble with writing (except for the ending, but that's not due to rushing either)
 
So I just got a 50% code from GMG for it but based on all the loudest feedback I think I'll pass.
FTFY

ME:A Is a very good game, that has some flaws that would've went completely under the radar for any other game.
You think lipsync and animations are bad? It still beats any bethesda rpg by two football fields.
You think characters are dull? It still beats any bethesda rpg by 2 parsecs.

The notion that it's a bad game is completely false. The worst you can say is that it's not nearly as good as the trilogy.
 
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So I just got a 50% code from GMG for it but based on all the feedback I think I'll pass.

I'm enjoying the game so far. I think if you can get past some of the dialogue and acting, it's worth a play through.
 
Yep I just jumped on that 50% off deal as well. I've just finished a full new play through of the original trilogy with the intention of getting Andromeda on release, but held off due to the mediocre reviews. For $30 I figure I can't go wrong though.
 
I was gonna delete my save games and go back to the beginning, but for some reason, Voeld looks like complete shit to me atm. I have no clue if somehow my memory decided that Voeld looked better 2 months ago, or if some wonky graphics driver thingy decided to fuck with me.
 
The notion that it's a bad game is completely false. The worst you can say is that it's not nearly as good as the trilogy.

This sums up exactly what my feelings are with the game. It's good, but it doesn't reach the heights of the original trilogy. It's quite a shame, because I think it was on the cusp of something great if only they had: (Spoilers for the story below)

1. They should have, in the first few hours, revealed that Jien Garson was murdered. This could have been a motivating storyline alongside some of the more hum-drum tasks/quests like activating terraforming vaults and solving Remnant Sudoku. If they had done it this way, every interaction with the Nexus Brass would have had the subtext of you wondering whether that person/Salarian (hint hint) had a hand in Garson's murder. The unlocked memories would then have the added benefit of slowly trickling more evidence one way or the other. The end of the game could then have had you make an accusation (based on what you think happened) which would have ramifications in the next installment.

2. Revealing, near the end, that the Reaper threat twas the reason the Andromeda Initiative left the Milky Way was idiotic. Any fan with passing interest in the Mass Effect series would have guessed this before the game went up for pre-order. Now, revealing that, perhaps, the mysterious Benefactor is involved with the Reapers? That would have piqued my interest. Basically, if they had come up with any other reason for the initiative leaving, it would have been more of a surprise.

3. Now, this is my own personal opinion, but I think Bioware should have brought the Reapers back. I loved them as villains. Maybe a Reaper followed the initiative through Darkspace. In ME1 it was revealed that they hibernate in Darkspace for 50k years in between cycles. It took the Andromeda Initiative 600 years to get to Andromeda. Who's to say the Reapers aren't there.

4. Every single outpost should have come with a choice like EOS (making it military/scientific).

5. I still think they should have chosen a canon-ending for ME3 and stuck with it. Regardless of what Bioware would have chosen, it's been 600 years since those events. Could milky-way species still exist? Where are they now? Could they be in Andromeda?

All-in-all, ME:A feels unfinished. It's like the devs had plans to include much more, but were cut short for whatever reason (engage tinfoil hats). I just hope that there's some DLC in the pipeline to address some of the plot points that were left unresolved.
 
I agree with a lot of the above post. 3 is the only point I disagree on and even then I'd agree if done correctly. 5 I sort of agree with but again only if done right.
 
It's worth $30. I only play it in 10-15 minute bites. Kind of like reading a bit of a good book before going to sleep. I enjoy it. Something new every time I play it. I can understand it getting repetitive if you play for a couple of hours straight. Compared to most any other recent game though, the only single player I have played more of is witcher 3 and gta v.
 
I agree with a lot of the above post. 3 is the only point I disagree on and even then I'd agree if done correctly. 5 I sort of agree with but again only if done right.

Exactly. If they did follow through with those points, it would have to be done with the utmost finesse - even then, some people would be pissed just because. If I were in charge of the project, I'd probably hire a seasoned sci-fi novelist/writer to, at the very least, consult on the story.
 
Hmm I got this and started playing it last month. But didn't play it for a couple weeks. I got another big update last night. So at least they are still patching/fixing things which is great.

Its a decent game, having fun with it.
 
I agree with a lot of the above post. 3 is the only point I disagree on and even then I'd agree if done correctly. 5 I sort of agree with but again only if done right.
I don't get point 3. I don't remember them revealing that as a cause for the initiative.
 
Exactly. If they did follow through with those points, it would have to be done with the utmost finesse - even then, some people would be pissed just because. If I were in charge of the project, I'd probably hire a seasoned sci-fi novelist/writer to, at the very least, consult on the story.

Drew Karpyshyn should have been brought in on it. He's already back at BioWare with his talents being wasted on the Star Wars The Old Republic MMO.
 
Drew Karpyshyn should have been brought in on it. He's already back at BioWare with his talents being wasted on the Star Wars The Old Republic MMO.
In all likelihood MEA story was all but finalized by the time they brought him back. But he still can be involved with any story DLC, right? Pretty please?
 
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