Mass Effect Andromeda

[regemond]

Me 1:0 Architects

 

Had an awesome fight last night, and possibly the first time since I've started playing that it REALLY felt like an evolution of the old trilogy. A side-quest on Eos led me to a fight with an architect, which after a long, drawn out fight I finally took down and interfaced with it (this doesn't mean I got to stick my dick in it. No romance achievement unfortunately).

 

It really was good fun, and I'm not sure if it was because I was a touch underleveled, or because they just take forever to bring down, but I had to make a lot of mini-retreats, regroup and come back for another round. Plus I'd seen one of these bad boys on Voeld and REALLY wanted to get into a proper fight with one, so the anticipation for a decent showdown was coursing through my veins too.

 

Yeah, the more I'm playing this game, the more I'm enjoying it. The glitches/shoddy animation are becoming less of an issue too. Exceot Ryder's running animation. That's still weird.

[regemond]

Me 1: 0 Kett

 

FINALLY managed to finish this after 70 hours of snooping around the galaxy and generally being a nuisance to all of the native species. 

 

I still didn't quite find a balance I liked for the combat by the end (ie I didn't do enough of what the game obviously wants you to do, jumping around, zipping from cover to cover, not pausing for breath), and relied on my Remnant VI, Concussive Shot and Overdrive. This seemed to annihilate most shielded enemies but didn't do much for armour. That's where Drack came in for me.

 

A couple of major high points (spoiler just in case):

 

Spoiler

 

Liam's loyalty mission was great fun. The playful scripting, the ship with fucked up gravity and the fun fights in there.

 

Movie Night - some really tender moments here, along with some really funny moments. As I was approaching the end of the game it felt like a masterstroke to have the team bond in this way. Top marks for the placement of the end of that quest, along with whoever wrote everyone's lines.

 

 

Low point was the fact it just didn't feel like an evolution of the previous game enough. The only thing that really seemed to set it apart from the old ones was the Architects, and even they were just updated Thresher Maws from the first game.

 

I'm going to be honest though, I kinda loved this game, I had a LOT of fun at times and it was great stepping back into Bioware's ME universe. It's just a shame it was so rough around the edges, it could have been something truly special. It's even more disappointing after reading this Kotaku article:

 

http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428

 

The cliffhanger makes the fact the series is 'on hold' much more disappointing too. Hopefully we get to see Ryder take his/her crew out again at some point.

[bellow]

So I've hit the 10 hour mark on this, and I'm not really sure what all the hate was about when it came out. I do remember being put off buying it by all the mediocre reviews and YouTube piss taking, but I really like it. I'm enjoying the relaxed pace, the frantic combat, the characters and all the interactions. I also like the idea of the game, of heading off to the unknown to settle and create new worlds.

 

I suppose that's the beauty of gamepass, getting to judge for yourself for the price of waiting for a game download.

[bellow]

Now I'm worried. Got to this icy world and the game really is asking me to do the exact same thing I did on the first planet. Plus it wants me to play sudoku over and over again. And I can't stand sudoku.

 

I'm sensing they're going for a rinse and repeat structure here. Not usually a problem with an action title, but there's a lot of really uneventful driving and obnoxious platforming to even get to the fucking sudoku.

 

I don't know if I can be arsed with this. Combat is fab too, by the game just isn't respecting the players time.

[one-armed dwarf]

I remember people saying the same thing about Dragon Age Inqusition (on the offchance that's next on your GP list)

[bellow]

Nah. I usually love western RPGs (with Mass effect being high on the list of favourites, until this one), but I've never really got on with the dragon age games. There's something weird about the way the combat works in those games. Something I can't quite get used to. You just sort of stand there trading blows until someone falls over. Maybe it's a PC thing.

[Maryokutai]

9 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said:

I remember people saying the same thing about Dragon Age Inqusition (on the offchance that's next on your GP list)

 

There are parallels but Inquisition is just way worse than Andromeda. There's at least a semblance of life on the planets in Andromeda and one planet in particular completely breaks with the formula. Inquisition never deviates from it and its HUB worlds are lifeless shells. Plus it basically forces you to do at least 66% of that stuff whereas the "tasks" in Andromeda -- those copy-paste missions -- are pretty much all optional if I remember correctly.

 

That said Andromeda could have been a more condensed experience. It takes almost as much time to beat that game than going through the entire ME trilogy and yet it feels like you've seen way less.

[bellow]

1 hour ago, Maryokutai said:

those copy-paste missions -- are pretty much all optional if I remember correctly.

 

I'm not sure that's true. Perhaps you can blast thru a 'story' on some level, but the reason you've come to Andromeda is to create outposts on worlds, and that's where the makers of this game have decided to fuck you over, the sudoku living pricks.

 

So, yeah, you can probably see the credits with an action game run thru, but only by side stepping the whole point of the game.

[Maryokutai]

It's been too long. I'm talking about whatever missions pop up in the "tasks" menu, I think it was called. Of course the optional side missions are more important but also not as dull.

[bellow]

I'm only talking about the monoliths and the vaults, that really have to be done in order to make a world viable for and outpost - activate the monoliths (bad platforming and sudoku), then activate the vault by going into a cut and paste dungeon. This is a process which takes serious time and wasn't that great the first time. I'm only into double figures in game time, and I've already done 6 sudokus ?.

[DisturbedSwan]

I loved this game personally, is my 2nd favourite ME after ME2. Adored it.

[bellow]

I haven't given up on it, by the way. The combat and interactions and all the very deep RPG structures, like building your character in a certain way, are all top notch. I just feel there's been a bit of shady practice going on - like they ran out of time to really make an open world RPG, and just went with a huge copy and paste thing to get the hours up.

 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

I think that was just the trend back then tho wasn't it, extremely procedurally generatable games. The Ubisoft paradigm was dominant. Then Witcher 3 came and showed an open world can still be a very curated thing.

[bellow]

1 hour ago, Nag said:

I love it that you're going through a backlog @bellow

Gamepass feels like a menu more than a backlog, a smorgasbord really, but instead of dainty confections, there are chainsaw guns, mechs, blue aliens and light sensitive possessed American rednecks.

 

I've also, foolishly, started to develop an actual backlog because of those sneaky games with gold deals. I picked up Lost odyssey, blue dragon and Kingdom come deliverance for about a tenner all in.

 

There's about 200 hours right there. If mass effect doesn't kill me first.

 

 

[mfnick]

Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey are brill. Sack this off and play those instead. 

[Jimboxy]

I never got around to Blue Dragon, but Lost Odyssey was great. Is Eternal Sonata on there as well? I know it wasn't Microsoft Studio, but if it's back compatible and you've never played it, it's worth checking out.

[bellow]

Yeah, I checked out the first half hour on both those games, and they both look great to me. Lost odyssey might be a contender for the 'game I've been looking for for years...'

 

But I've got ultimate until July. I've got to get my money's worth. When I get to 20 hours on mass effect I'm having a break and firing up Dead Space. It's sci fi February baby.

[bellow]

Reached the 20 hour mark, and I have to say that the last few hours have been beyond annoying, with a crew-mate side quest that should have taken minutes, but the game needed to stretch out to fucking hours by bouncing you all over the place just to arrive at a location marker so your character can say, 'false alarm, must be somewhere else,' meaning one of the other 3 markers the game has kindly spaced out all over the map so you can spend ages in a slow bastard land vehicle getting to them.

 

There's no need for any of this. It's an open world with nothing in it but the tedium of slow travel between location markers. What were they thinking?

 

Anyway, I promised myself a break at 20 hours, so there it is. Whether or not I ever jump back in is anyone's guess. After the glory of Greedfall, this game is falling well short.

[bellow]

So, I never really stopped playing this during my recent dead space playthru, in fact I was using it for the downtime that DS refused to provide. (@mfnick mentioned that in DS 2 you get to visit a kindergarten, so I'll be looking forward to some relaxed finger painting and maybe a nap).

 

In fact I pushed thru to 38 hours, made all available settlements, got Drack and Cora (my main team) to their level six load outs, and have been concentrating on side quests, especially friends and allies. 

 

I've also changed my mind on the game. I love it, now. I needed to allow myself to fall into its relaxed rhythm and realise that it was taking a tangent from the more focused trilogy, and going for a bit of an elder Scrolls in space.

 

Anyway, I've seen quite a lot of what the game is offering and will probably start making my way into the main quest from now on. I'm pretty powerful now, too, so hopefully the bad guys will get their comeuppance with a good deal of unnecessarily showy violence.

[bellow]

Done!

 

Saw the credits after about 50 hours, with all friend's quests completed and all outposts founded. And that last mission in the main campaign was momentous - and quite hard, too, although I got thru it with one restart.

 

Pretty great game in the end, although I can see why people found it a bit hard going. It's standard in western RPGs to get bounced around the map following a quest line. That can be a bit annoying at the best of times, but here you could often get bounced around an entire galaxy (with all the accompanying travel animations), one planet to the next to have a two minute conversation that could have easily taken place over comms.

 

So, yeah, a bit of a drag at times, but also relaxed and well put together. I'm certainly glad I played it, and I look forward to whatever comes next in this universe. Top sci fi.