Mass Effect: Andromeda

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Kaiser-Kun

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I'm embarassed cuz I'm stuck on one of the first missions. New beginning or something. I want to activate the third monolith but the consoles won't let me activate the platforms. As in, I won't even get a button prompt when next to them. Did I miss something?
 

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Zoombie, you HAVE to do the "Finding Memory Fragments" side quest (okay, you don't actually "have to," but you'll really be missing out if you don't). It unlocks little by little as you open up new planets but the pay-off, while not huge, is totally worth it, IMO.
 

Zoombie

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I am, don't worry.

I'm also playing Dungeon Siege at the same time.

"Why are you playing Dungeon Siege, Zoombie?"

Cause I can't watch History of the Power Rangers while playing Andromeda, that'd just be silly!
 

Opty

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Finally finished it! I did as many side quests as I could and completed the main story.

They reused a lot of the old plot tropes from past games like this, but I didn't mind.

I was satisfied at the end and can't wait for some DLC!
 

Albedo

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Man, reviews for this game are really, really, really mixed. I don't know what to do. Maybe wait until it's on special (I shouldn't be sinking 80 hours of my life into an RPG before exams, anyway.)

I'm disappointed at the absence of some of our favourite species from this game. Playable Geth and Volus were the best thing in ME3's multiplayer. Not to mention no Elcor. I was hanging out for Elcor tanks.

Reports on the writing seem especially mixed.
 

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I'll admit that it's not the strongest writing of the series. Unfortunately, the strongest writers from the ME series left it to work on DA:I and SW:TOR, and it kind of shows. Now that Drew Karpyshan (original SW: KOTOR, ME1, and ME2 writer) is back with Bioware, I really, really hope that they get him involved with the ME:A series at some point.

The writing in ME:A has weak points:

1) It gets off to a slow start (but so did other great RPGs like ME1 and Witcher 3).

2) They somewhat lazily fall back on some trite story cliches and tropes that have already been used in several Bioware RPGs (I sometimes wonder if their major franchises are all based on the same plot template that they just fill in with new species and settings like some sort of RPG-plot Mad Libs. An obvious example is the fact that Dragon Age: Origins and ME1 are essentially the exact same game but one's in space and one's got dragons).

3) They try so obviously and desperately to write "young, hip, cool" dialogue that it sometimes sounds like it was written by a teenager...or a hopelessly out-of-touch adult trying to write like a teenager. They also drop the F-bomb a lot throughout this game. Actually, the characters cuss a lot. I have no problem with that, but after a while it comes across in some scenes that they were forcing cuss words into the dialogue just for the sake of shock value or "just because."

4) They were criticized for the lack of character/relationship moments in ME3, curiously claiming that they didn't realize that players would want to spend that kind of quality time with these characters that they'd built relationships with over the course of hundreds of hours across 3 games. They then fixed this oversight with the patched ending and then superbly made up for it with the Citadel DLC. It seems like they tried to do the same thing in this game - with small, more intimate character moments - but in some ways it came across to me as forced. It's like they missed the point; the reason people wanted those little moments was because they'd spent so much time with those characters. In this game some of them feel awkward because we haven't had that same amount of time to build up the same type of connections with these characters yet. We love Garrus, Wrex, Tali, and even Legion because we spent multiple games with them. We haven't done that for Vetra and Liam yet, so those small moments just feel misplaced and like they come out of nowhere.


However, it also has some strong points:

1) The major plot beats are familiar but they still work (for me) and I still liked the way they played out, even if they are a bit trite.

2) The amount of side quests is almost overwhelming, but most of them are good.

3) There are some cool, fun, and - in one or two cases - very interesting nods to the original trilogy that I can't discuss until people have finished the game, but I enjoyed them very much.

4) Although a few of the characters that were supposed to be good turned out to be wholly uninteresting, there were a few characters that I really liked. Drack, Jaal, and Peebee were really entertaining.

5) Even though I said the dialogue is painfully bad in a few spots, there are some genuinely funny and sweet moments in there, too. Generally, the bad dialogue and good dialogue are consistent across certain characters and missions, which suggests to me glaring differences in the writing abilities of the person(s) who wrote the bad versus who wrote the good.

6) Without going into specifics (because spoilers), several decision-related and plot-related things that they were criticized for neglecting in ME3 are executed well in this game, and I was glad to see that they'd made an attempt to make up for past mistakes.

Overall, I could see what they were trying to do and I think they largely succeeded. It's gotta be tough to follow up the original series, especially given the good and bad things about ME3. There's no way they could've made everyone happy.

I strongly feel that, while some of the criticism ME:A received pre-launch (regarding horrible facial animations, bugs, and seemingly intentionally ugly female characters) is well-deserved, that the criticisms about story and game play are largely unfair and not rooted in reality or an attempt at being objective/fair. I think some of the harsh reviews were examples of people wanting to hate on something just to hate on it, because apparently unfairly, hyperbolically trashing things is the cool thing to do now.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game. Maybe not as much as my memories of the original series, but I think that's because this one is still new and, even though ME2's story was killer, we might all be looking back on the trilogy with somewhat rose-colored glasses. It was great, but it also had its own problems.

I liked how this one ended, I liked some of the characters I got to know, I loved the improved combat, and I really like how they've set up this new series. Lots of potential, though it is obvious (despite what they've been saying) that this was deliberately designed to set up sequels. Some of the most interesting plot/story elements were left as unanswered, loose threads at the end of the game. I still really enjoyed the game, but was disappointed that some of the more interesting stories were left unresolved.
 
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Kjbartolotta

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Started playing this, glad I did, every criticism you've heard is valid and yet the game is still a fun way to suck up your time. Moving forward though, I wonder if Bioware (and BethSoft) might have a lot of catching up to do in this post-Witcher world of ours. YMMV is you didn't like the Witcher.
 

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I am actually more forgiving than not, although I don’t want to say that aloud because I don’t want BioWare to get any ideas.

But… I’m forgiving a lot because this game was developed by BioWare’s support studio. BioWare has several different studios, and usually the main titles are developed by the Montreal studio. ME: A was developed by the Edmonton studio. Like I said, if they charge €60 for a game, they have no excuse for some of the things they did, but still… I’m in a forgiving mood.

I keep reminding myself that Garrus and Ashley and Kaiden wasn’t particularly well developed in ME 1, and maybe some of the characters will grow on me. I just got the game, because the release date was two days after the US launch. I’m only about 15 hours in.

Also, I think that as with Dragon Age 2, if this game had been independent of any of the franchises, their reception would have been much better. So, I’ll just say, it’s just good to be back in this universe again.
 

KateSmash

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BioWare has several different studios, and usually the main titles are developed by the Montreal studio. ME: A was developed by the Edmonton studio.

Other way around. ;) The Montreal studio came about for the me3 multiplayer.
 

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On a side note, I'm going through my first playthrough as a rather 'Kirk-like' character, fearless, intelligent, affable, and kind of a douche. Turning out very very, enjoying the character more than I expected. For all it's flaws (and every Biogame's flaws), I love the way you start with a blank slate and watch the character develop in a way that feels emergent and organic, not due to any railroading on part of the script. That's why they get my $$$.
 

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I find my ability to keep playing this game ebbing...I'll boot it up, play it for like 20-30 minutes, then save and quit.

I'm not sure what it is, but somethings bugging me.
 

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Hurry up and finish so we can start critiquing and talking about spoilers! :p
 

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Okay, so no spoilers. Though I have so much to say about this game! Forgive me if I'm too long-winded :O

I finished the game twice through, once with each twin, now on a new game + with the male. It was meh for me, 5 out of 10. I love the universe, I've become a pretty diehard fan, and I'd say there was a lot of disappointment for me, personally. I'll go into detail (no spoilers of course) about why:

1) the game is 90% side missions, and a large number of those side missions involve back and forth exchanges between planets and loading screens. To investigate this mystery I have to go to the Nexus, then this galaxy chasing a shuttle, then this, that, this, and that galaxy. Then I have to land on this planet, go to all 4 corners of the map to find out it's just a red herring and the real issue is back on the Nexus. A lot of the missions are tedious chain-yanking, IMO. I'd rather have more substantial story and narrative. I'm a pathfinder, and pathfinding is important. When Ryder gets to the Nexus and the human ark is the only power for it? Those are life and death stakes, just like the reapers. Succeed or die. But the game shrugs those off as no big deal, and so does the player as a result. Addison just sounds like a thorn in your side, not like she has realistic concerns. Addison rails on you all game about getting more outposts and surviving, but it never really feel like there's any stake in the game. The game doesn't take many things seriously, the side quests aren't serious (broadly speaking-- a few good ones are), and Ryder is usually not serious. The latter isn't necessarily a problem, but even logical Ryder was less serious than I expected him/her to be at times. S/he and his/her squadmates sometimes stumble when they should be standing tall, so to speak.

As much as I empathize with the guy who needs my help stopping power shortages on the Nexus... it's his job. Why is he making me help him? These rather unimportant side missions seem like the devs wanted to pack the game with filler. It's like going back and watching the originally Dragon Ball Z and seeing 5 episodes of trees blowing in the wind before getting to the fight. This was the reason I stopped playing DA:I-- I got lost in side missions and it really bugged me. The trend of late in many games seems to be sandboxy, like this game is, but, perhaps it's the genre fiction reader/writer in me, I want a plot first. ME1 and 2 had that-- stopping the geth was urgent. We had to stop them.

2) The main plot is not only short, it's... meh. The Kett are more or less a reincarnation of an old enemy from earlier in the series. By the time you finish the game, you'll probably know what enemy I'm talking about. I feel like the parallels are quite obvious. It's like Opty said-- trite cliches abound at times.

3) Some of the dialogue is pure cringe-worthy. There are times when Ryder or another person says something, and I react like Kallo in a certain famous clip of fem Ryder showing interest in Suvi: "Kill. Me. Now."

4) I was super excited about the multiplayer, actually. ME3 was great and had fantastic replayability. I know it's still early, but from all the DLC packs and everything they learned from ME3, this game feels like several steps backwards. Biotics (RIP Warp) and even most tech power combos seem to do no damage. The Vanquisher sniper is god-tier, with a fire-rate and damage combo that outdoes every weapon, from the Black Widow to the Valkyrie, without much of a contest. Bring a team of Infiltrators and Vanquishers onto the hardest difficulty and you're still done in 10-12 minutes. It's grindier than before, with more to unlock, but the same crappy RNG-card system. Most of the snipers and pistols are great, but the shotguns and assault rifles are beyond awful. All those homing plasma weapons are almost unusable. The balance is terrible.

5) Crafting is kind of cool, but it seemed to turn the game into a kind of DA:I in space. I could have done without it/seen the effort put in elsewhere.

However, I did two playthroughs here, now working on a third, so I must have liked the game enough to do that, right? Indeed, and I think a lot of that has to do with the squadmates. At least for me, personally. Every player has their favorites personality-wise, but I think even trying to look at the depth of each one specifically with an objective eye, you can find that the characters are all at least relatable, if not necessarily likable for certain players. There are no Jacobs on the Tempest (sorry Jacob fans, but most of us can agree... he was that bad.)

Most players talk about "oh man, ME 2 was great" and after playing it some 8x through... I agree with you. But I'm also painfully aware of its flaws. This game gave us, collectively, some of the weakest characters in the series, though they were alongside some of the best. Mordin, Garrus, Tali, and Legion stood side by side with Jacob and Samara. And Grunt for me-- again, personal feeling. I didn't like him, though I know plenty of people did. There was a sense of "good weapon, bad weapon" for each class. Tempest, or Shuriken. Without DLC, that was your only choice. Very limited.

Anyway, on my opinion of ME:A sqadmates...

Cora
She's there. Kind of attractive, I suppose, and okay to talk to, when she isn't talking about the tentacleheads. She, like almost every squadmate, has a sort of idée fixe, and hers is especially irritating to me, personally, which is her asari fangirling. She does this even though she was basically dishonorably discharged from her huntress squad. She shows no mixed emotion 99% of the time, it's all, "the asari are amazing!" and no thought of "maybe they screwed me?" She doesn't seem to reason with that. It's a very flat "I LOVE THE ASARI OMG." Her loyalty mission was painful at times b/c of this. She doesn't shut up about the asari. Ever.

Liam
Liam I like. I was torn b/t romancing him and Peebee on my Sara Ryder playthrough, though I went with Peebee in the end. Liam is an idealist who always tries so hard to do good, and always expects things to be better than they are. Honestly, I saw a lot of my IRL self in his character. If I were in a squad like Ryder's, I would most certainly be the one trying too hard to make everyone happy and wind up screwing something up b/c I failed to properly plan :p He doesn't have any one thing he always talks about, and I think he's an all around character with developed and realistic flaws, speaking from my writerly side.

Vetra
I will open up by being blunt: Vetra is bae. I loved her, and she was an easy choice for my Scott Ryder romance. Granted, I am admittedly a little biased towards turians, but I just like her personality and thought she was developed fairly well. That said, I think she got neglected somewhat. Her idée fixe is clearly her sister, whose name she cannot stop saying. Sid, Sid, Sid. It was like she had never heard of pronouns when referring to her sister, who she always referred to... when she wasn't talking about her father. One or the other, she's very much about her family, or lack thereof. This, I imagine, might make some people see her as whiny, always talking about the past and not being able to shake it off. That said, it's somewhat realistic. People struggle with that, and it made sense for her character, to a point. She also seemed like a stereotypical smuggler, but I didn't have much idea as to what an unstereotypical smuggler would be like. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I did think she had some cliches around her that dulled her character a bit. All in all, I think she had a lot of positives, but also quite a few negatives in terms of characterization.

Her romance was... interesting. At first she was almost unresponsive, then at one point just has this out-of-character, melodramatic moment. No spoilers, but I quirked a brow when it happened. Then Peebee and Cora get full on sex scenes, I didn't want to romance Jaal and saw him nude against my will, but wow, one kiss from the turian and how quickly that screen went black, on more than one occasion. A little bit more with the romance couldn't have hurt. There was also quite a bit of that holding-both-hands-and-staring-at-each-other animation that Bioware has used the hell out of, and I'm getting really tired of seeing it.

Drack
Old man with a bunch of war stories and generally more talkative and interesting than most other krogan. He's got his granddaughter, Kesh, and shows he's still got that krogan drive for violence, but has much more character behind him. If I hadn't played the Citadel DLC in ME3, I'd probably like him a little better than Wrex.

Peebee
I came into the game expecting to hate her, and she became probably my favorite character. She's got a very unique attitude, and while her loyalty mission comes late in the game and feels oddly like a Dora the Explorer-grade tutorial mission where she gives directions to do everything, throughout the rest of the game she has some of the best lines, IMO.

Jaal: Peebee, when the asari exclaim "goddess," who are they talking about?
Peebee: Me. Obviously.

I romanced her with my female Ryder. The romance on the whole was definitely of higher quality, and seemed to be given much more thought than, say, Vetra's. The sex scene was pretty steamy, even a bit unnecessarily so. Which brings me to one other point about the romances: I would have been more okay with all of Vetra's fade to blacks and some lackluster bedroom scenes if the romance had actually been felt outside of that area. E.g. there is a point when Ryder gets knocked down hard in the story, near the end, where you'd really expect a romanced squadmate, or even good friends like your crew, to be making sure s/he's okay and able to get up. Instead, both are more or less indifferent to Ryder's injury. That's another spot where, to me, that "bad writing" reared its head the strongest. I think back to the beam run from ME3, where if you run down with Garrus and a romanced Liara for example, Garrus would have to hold Liara back while she told Shep how much she loved him/her. Or the moment on the Geth ship in ME3 when Shep and a romanced Tali have that double-entendre exchange about sleeping quarters that becomes a running gag that started with the first game. It doesn't need to be something from three games ago. Just a nod or wink here or there from a romanced squadmate in this game could have the same effect. If there was a moment like the beam run in this game, it seems like the squad wouldn't care very much. (Again, this feeds back into the game not taking itself seriously.) It was like the romances were generally very constricted to the specific interaction scenes and the romantic "surprises," but not in places where it would have been very natural to see some sort of reaction from the romanced squadmate.

Jaal
He's there, too. Kind of dull. I don't find the angara particularly interesting. I'd have been more interested to get the Batarian or Volus squadmate I've always wanted. I also have to see Jaal naked early in the game, which just seemed terribly awkward and again, out of character. Brand new alien on the ship not wearing anything in the presence of all these folks he doesn't know?

There are moments where Jaal is kind of cool and his characterization seems decent. I still like talking to him, but he's nothing really special. That said, his not knowing what Milky Way things are, and his general cultural confusion, make for some humorous dialogue exchanges (see above).

I like Gil, Kallo, and Suvi as buds, and Lexi seems okay too. All in all, I like this crew better than any one crew I've had in the past.

Whew. I think that'll do it for how I felt about the game.Hope I didn't spoil anything much. I'm kind of assuming Jaal is not very new to anyone at this point.
 
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Myrealana

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I can't even manage to get off the first planet. True, I've only given it about an hour because my husband hogs the XBox, but I can't get the hang of the combat. I can't seem to hit ANYTHING and I die all the time.

Maybe I'll drop it down to the lowest difficulty and just go for story.
 

Bufty

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An hour? I can spend an hour just reading the Journal or the Codex or the Research and Development wheels or the Map or the Skills or the Profiles or exploring the ship or .... Good luck.
 

Kjbartolotta

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Has it been a month already and no-one's mentioned the gruffy hardness that is Christmas Tate, head of the Ditaeon colony? Ryder can go off and play Sudoku somewhere, this is the guy I really want to play as! I imagine him toeing the line as colony manager, sneaking sips of 'Ol Grandad as he reads his glossy porno mags, wondering what to be done about the state of Kandara.
 

Bufty

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Haven't got there yet!
 

Kjbartolotta

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Mildly Spoilery

Finished last night, except for one little bookend quest likely to drop some big cliffhangers. Don't know now I feel. Good...I guess.

In lots of ways, Bio's worst since DA:2. Also, like DA:2, pretty good, all the lazy corner-cutting on the behalf of Bioware's corporate overlords sticks out like a sore thumb. Why weren't you able to control your squad? Why couldn't you give them weapons or armor. Why? Why? Why? Other than that, well, the animations were bad (but never a dealbreaker), there were some dumb bugs, and overall the game felt, well, a little stale. The kind of thing I binge on then feel a little guilty about afterwards.

The story was engaging but not amazing, I kept wondering if there was a Bigger Bad beyond the Kett. The Kett were cool enough, and I am perfectly happy with bio-organic cenobytes talking crazytalk and practicing evil Catholic Communism. Not the best, though, could do better. The Angara were fine also, liked them just fine, no complaints. The squad itself was probably my least favorite squad in Bioware history. Which means I liked them a lot. Didn't romance anyone, first time for everything, I spent the entire game with my straight male Ryder trying to creep up on Suvi and, well, Turian mouthparts make me uncomfortable, Peebee annoyed me, and Cora...Cora was perfectly fine, but dating your XO is a problem. Overall, I enjoyed not trying to game every conversation and kiss every crew member's ass, they seemed pretty bro-y in the end. Maybe I'm just getting older and feel the need to please people less.

All in all glad I spent my money, never gonna abandon my brand loyalty, and would recommend it, more or less. Part of me wonders what the future holds for Bioware as a satrap of EA, nothing good has come of it so far and you're starting to see the issues pile up. Still, it's easy to see the flaws and be cranky, the game has a rather enjoyable 'sweet spot' it hits and stays there longer than most games, it's relative shortness (for a giant RPG) may actually help it in this regard.

Oh yeah, and Krogans. Man, those guys are the best. Make it a habit of helping them every chance I get in case galactic civ ever goes pear-shaped. Possibly because of my propensity for helping the Krogan at the expense of every other species.

...by the way, did I miss something? Why am I futzing around all over the cluster if they aren't actually ever going to have movie night!?
 
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Myrealana

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I enjoyed Andromeda, but my overall impression was "Meh."

Basically, it felt like a re-skin of Mass Effect. The Kett are Collectors. The Remnant are Protheans. Meridian is the anti-Reaper weapon. Nothing felt new or original.

All it really did was make me miss the original Trilogy, so I went back to play it from the beginning. Now THAT is fun.
 

Spooky

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I recently acquired the first mass effect for dirt cheap, seems a good outing so far, just landed on the first planet and ready to fry some fools.
 

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I really enjoyed the story of Mass Effect 1 and it really picks up steam about halfway through, especially with the last few missions, which I thought were fantastic in both their story elements and the story pacing. I think I probably played through that game at least 8 times. The gameplay, however, is rather dated by today's standards, so be prepared.

I really wish they'd remaster the trilogy with updated mechanics for ME1 and ME2, but EA has already said they have no plans for that. :(
 
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