Mass Effect Andromeda (2016)

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Oct 19, 2007
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Amazon has the PC Version for $19.99 USD now. Earlier this week it was $12.50 - that was a sign for me to pick up a copy. Been waiting for sales like that. Installed it and tried a few hours last night, looks beautiful and so far I like it.

Edit to add, I finished the original trilogy on consoles. This is my fist ME on PC.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
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Amazon has the PC Version for $19.99 USD now. Earlier this week it was $12.50 - that was a sign for me to pick up a copy. Been waiting for sales like that. Installed it and tried a few hours last night, looks beautiful and so far I like it.

Edit to add, I finished the original trilogy on consoles. This is my fist ME on PC.

- Picked it up when the deluxe edition was on sale for $25 bucks after all the patches and the game is really quite entertaining.

There are definitely issues with tone, pacing and themes not being very well defined, but I'm actually enjoying this game more than DA:I, Bioware's first crack at open world games.
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
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Yeah, had they delayed the game 6 months, it would have been MUCh better received.
 

Elixer

Lifer
May 7, 2002
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They really should have had a way to skip the @#$@!@#@!! landing/takeoff screens.
Those get so @#$@@#$@!!! annoying, it isn't funny.

It still has lots of bugs in it as well, some of the quests are bugged, and the buggy animations are still present, but, yeah, if they would have released it now, it would have been much better than the non-patched version.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
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I haven't finished the game yet, but based on what I've played I think Bioware should have really hit on the colonizer or conquerer angle a bit more and fleshed out the premise and backstory of the game a bit more.

Honestly, the Andromeda initiative? A bunch of nobodies who have "seen everything there is to see" in the milky way. Really?!

The foundation for the whole game should have been: while Cmdr Shepard was off doing his thing in ME2, a branch of Cerberus utilizes data he's gathered on the collector's stasis tech to kidnap settlers on a harsh fronteer world, load them into a bunch of retrofitted soon-to-be decommissioned Cerberus cruisers and fire them off toward the Andromeda Galaxy with all the prototypes and failed Cerberus tech that ultimately got piped to Shepard (SAM is a baby EDI, the tempest was the proof of concept for the SR2, etc).

This would have not only formed a solid basis for what the hell you're even doing in Andromeda, it would have explained why no one in the ME2 timeframe ever heard about the initiative and would have retroactively fleshed out ME2, which had the weakest story of the original trilogy (turns out the illusive man always hedges his bets, and if Shepard wasn't going to save mankind, manking would thrive elsewhere). It would also mean no milky way alien species, leaving more Dev time to actually make a varied set of interesting Andromeda species.

Most importantly, no one in Andromeda would have to answer the god forsaken filler question " so why did you come to andromeda?"

Your cruiser drops out of hyperspace, engines on the brink of total meltdown, you've picked up something (the scourge?) Out in darkspace and it's piggybacked on your ship ready to infect and spread. No less, you've just dropped into a cluster with a number of intelligent species, upsetting a delicate balance of power. And you were just a simple farm boy. The message is clear from the beginning: survive.

A DA2 story structure would have really been nice when establishing a basis for future stories in a new galaxy. The first act would involve finding a home/first contact/disagreements about what to do with the natives. Second act would involve uncovering the scourge problem, deepening distrust between natives and newcomers/ schizm within the milky way group over whether to conquer or coexist. Third act would be the big climax where you halt the spread of the scourge, settle the problem of hostile natives one way or another and ultimately facedown with a once ally now enemy who has split with you on whether to conquer or coexist.

Boom, instant tension, a sense of progress and an established world at the end the game.

The devs always said Star Trek was one of their guiding stars when making the ME games. I just wish we had gotten more Kirk/Picard/Sisko and less Wesley Crusher with Andromeda.
 
Oct 19, 2007
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Update - about 12 hours in I'm thoroughly enjoying this game. I'm sad it caught so much flak, doesn't seem to deserve it from my experience so far.

I understand the criticisms on the awkward dialogue here and there, or the premise etc.. but it really doesn't bother me much. I'm not a game critic, I play for fun.

They really should have had a way to skip the @#$@!@#@!! landing/takeoff screens.
Those get so @#$@@#$@!!! annoying, it isn't funny.

Like those ME1 elevators! I have noticed this already and haven't done much of it, but I accidentally called in an extraction from the planet surface last night and thought "man, that's going to get annoying"! Irritating, but not something that would make me say the game is a bust by any means.
 

JTsyo

Lifer
Nov 18, 2007
11,709
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You guys just starting out, be sure we check out the co-op before Nov 7th. After the spike for N7 day and I expect the co-op population to drop quite a bit. Maybe it'll be kept afloat by the x-mas crowd.
 

JTsyo

Lifer
Nov 18, 2007
11,709
871
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Heard MEA will be part of EA Access. If you subscribe, you can play through that. It should also increase the player pool for co-op.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
20,839
3,174
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Heard MEA will be part of EA Access. If you subscribe, you can play through that. It should also increase the player pool for co-op.

this is not a good thing...

sigh... match making is a fiasco of poor hosts with really bad internet.....

then your playing overwatch because ur rubber banding all over the place like tracer.
 

JTsyo

Lifer
Nov 18, 2007
11,709
871
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N7 day today. They are supposed to release 2 new (final) characters. Might have something extra too.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
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Beat my first playthrough yesterday. All in all I was actually pretty happy with the game, my issues with the premise and lack of themes not with standing.

Your squadmates felt like they had a life outside of serving you and were generally more earnest and less angsty than their ot counterparts.

The bad guys, while suffering a bit from the DA:I "sitting on my thumbs until you hit the next story mission" thing were an appropriately standard enemy that were just as clueless about the remnant and scourge as you were, which is refreshing.

The gameplay was kinetic and frantic, staying far away from the corridor "cover/shoot/cover" mechanic of the OT. I disliked the low limit on active powers and the inability to use squadmates powers as well. I settled on a three power combo (stasis, Lance, throw) in the first hours of the game, then never switched up for the remainder as it was such an effective crowd control set-up.

While it isn't the ME I would make, I enjoyed it and will revisit with a different character for my second playthrough after a breather.

I really hope we get an Andromeda 2 at some point that resolves some threads and opens up larger mysteries.
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
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I also finished it Sunday, and I for one am very bummed their won't be any more DLC. I also hope for an ME:A 2, as this game was enjoyable, and in its current state, plays great. 98% of the technical flaws from release have been fixed. I say 98% because I came across two small ones.

The combat is great, and very flexible to your play style, and I liked the ending.
 
Oct 19, 2007
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Beat my first playthrough yesterday.

I also finished it Sunday

How many hours? I'm still early on.

I want more ME too. This is my first ME on PC, looks beautiful, and although a bit repetitive I'm having fun. When I say repetitive, I'm a bit of a completionist. When things end up in my Journal, I immediately try to complete them.. Main story is not moving along fast for me lol.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
7,016
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How many hours? I'm still early on.

I want more ME too. This is my first ME on PC, looks beautiful, and although a bit repetitive I'm having fun. When I say repetitive, I'm a bit of a completionist. When things end up in my Journal, I immediately try to complete them.. Main story is not moving along fast for me lol.

- Took me about 55 hours to beat the game, but I avoided all collection tasks like the plague and stuck with just quest content. Hit level 56 or so by the end game.

Again, Andromeda is nowhere near as bad as Dragon age Inquisition was with the fetch quest garbage, but I just felt so much better about everything by just accepting from the get go that I wasn't going to do that kind of thing.

Focus on priority ops and allies missions, complete other missions of opportunity when you happen to be close by doing something else. Otherwise a lot of low grade stuff is there to fluff out play time by having you jump to multiple systems to complete.
 
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Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
6,240
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How many hours? I'm still early on.

I want more ME too. This is my first ME on PC, looks beautiful, and although a bit repetitive I'm having fun. When I say repetitive, I'm a bit of a completionist. When things end up in my Journal, I immediately try to complete them.. Main story is not moving along fast for me lol.

I am at almost 70 hours. Still have about 10 side quests left to do. But all main missions, crew missions, etc, are done. The remainders are the additional tasks that are left.

For comparison, in Witcher 3 I am at almost 130 hours, and still have quite a lot of ? left clean up. Thats all DLC as well though.
 
Oct 19, 2007
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I'm about 25 hours in and current priority op is Hunting the Archon - just finished Voeld and Havarl except for a few side quests. Sounds like I have a lot more to do.
 

bfun_x1

Senior member
May 29, 2015
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I have about 50 hours on it and I like it despite it's issues. I'm kind of surprised no one here has mentioned Nexus mods. I'm using several mods to fix issues and make the game more fun. Faster doors on Kadara, remove Bioware logo screens, faster departures and landing, better textures, make SAM less annoying, romance all. I think the wrong mods could ruin the fun on a first play through but some are great time savers. I dropped the cost of research because I didn't think always searching for items to scan was very fun.
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
6,240
2,559
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I have about 50 hours on it and I like it despite it's issues. I'm kind of surprised no one here has mentioned Nexus mods. I'm using several mods to fix issues and make the game more fun. Faster doors on Kadara, remove Bioware logo screens, faster departures and landing, better textures, make SAM less annoying, romance all. I think the wrong mods could ruin the fun on a first play through but some are great time savers. I dropped the cost of research because I didn't think always searching for items to scan was very fun.

I never had an issue paying for research, I always had a ton of money and plenty of points.
 

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,170
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Mass Effect: Andromeda won Giant Bomb's worst game of the year. They rip it apart.


I bought the game early in December for $20. I wait until a game has been patched up and discounted before I buy. Did my usual install to RAID array to play at a later time (haven't played it yet).

I've heard all of the usual terrible things about this game, but hoped there was some redeeming value in it.
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
6,240
2,559
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Mass Effect: Andromeda won Giant Bomb's worst game of the year. They rip it apart.


I bought the game early in December for $20. I wait until a game has been patched up and discounted before I buy. Did my usual install to RAID array to play at a later time (haven't played it yet).

I've heard all of the usual terrible things about this game, but hoped there was some redeeming value in it.

The game in its current state is good. Had it been released 6 months later, it would have been great. But once people start to criticize a game, everybody jumps on the bandwagon to say "oh, I hate it too!!".
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
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The game in its current state is good. Had it been released 6 months later, it would have been great. But once people start to criticize a game, everybody jumps on the bandwagon to say "oh, I hate it too!!".
For me it's not even the technical stuff. It's EA. They ruined the Mass Effect setting after buying Bioware.