Current Events > omg Mass Effect Andromeda is even worse than i thought

(+) Yeah! (+)

Enjoying it in a "so bad it's good" kinda way. My background with the series - played through ME1 a long time ago and loved it, got halfway through 2 and got burned out, just felt like it focused too much on the individual background stories instead of the bigger story built up in 1. Also didn't like the gameplay changes as much.

Anyway. Playing this on second hardest difficulty.

The writing is awful. I don't know if I can handle them saying "this planet is our HOME" again. I was committed to playing an evil character that responds like a jerk to everything but I can't because all the dialogue options result in a polite response even if you choose the most greedy selfish sounding answer. Also dialogue labels are so off base, it could say, "ask for a status report" and your character will say, "I want to go to the planet to explore because I'm an explorer!"

Gameplay is really meh, guns have like no impact or force to them. Playing with a controller and aim assist pushes my reticle into the ground every time when I go to aim.

I don't understand how to do anything like mod weapons but I'm probably not far enough along yet.

And the facial expressions and voice acting LMAO, you're talking about people dying and the delivery is so flat and the characters look like some combination of scared, bored, slightly amused and moderately intrigued all at once.

Can't wait to see more.

i enjoyed it after all bug fixes and updates after it came out. can't imagine playing it on launch though

i stopped playing somewhere around the ice planet

I reached a point where I was mashing through dialogue, it wasn't great

There's a bit of an effort to rehabilitate its image lately, but I suppose that's the norm with panned games. People who say it sucks have moved on years ago (me aside), so the only loud voices are the ones clinging to the idea that it was unfairly maligned. I've seen the same thing with FF13, and I assume Forspoken will have a similar arc in a few years.

But really, the game is much worse than people give it credit for, despite the alarming amount of people saying "it wasn't THAT bad!"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4f684ddd.jpg

ironman2009 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4f684ddd.jpg

I knew that was gonna happen but still lol'd.

I like the overall premise of the story but the delivery is so weak.

Also the skill system... Is there really no lock picking or hacking? Everything seems combat oriented

Really sucks that they didn't at least give the console versions a next gen boost.

Hexenherz posted...

And the facial expressions and voice acting LMAO, you're talking about people dying and the delivery is so flat and the characters look like some combination of scared, bored, slightly amused and moderately intrigued all at once.

hey, give them a break, their faces are tired

DA Veilguard is like that but worse. Literally stopped playing Andromeda over the writing, but thr gunplay was pretty decent at least. Veilguard has nothing going for it

JuanCarlos1 posted...

DA Veilguard is like that but worse. Literally stopped playing Andromeda over the writing, but thr gunplay was pretty decent at least. Veilguard has nothing going for it

You like the gunplay? I feel like none of my weapons have any impact.

Originally I chose the Shockwave bionic perk at level up but it didn't do anything to anyone and then I died so I just chose some fire starter ability from the Technic tree. It all feels like space magic at this point

So, the facial expressions are actually massively improved from what it was at launch... Yeah...

Also not surprised that you're hating it. It's an okay game with mods, but by far the worst in the franchise. So if you didn't like 2, chances were high that you wouldn't like Andromeda.

DodogamaRayBrst posted...

People who say it sucks have moved on years ago (me aside), so the only loud voices are the ones clinging to the idea that it was unfairly maligned. I've seen the same thing with FF13, and I assume Forspoken will have a similar arc in a few years.

Or some people just have a different opinion than you and genuinely enjoyed games that you don't like. Crazy, I know

NoxObscuras posted...

Or some people just have a different opinion than you and genuinely enjoyed games that you don't like. Crazy, I know

I'm unsure why you think this is contrary to or a counter to what I said.

DodogamaRayBrst posted...

There's a bit of an effort to rehabilitate its image lately, but I suppose that's the norm with panned games. People who say it sucks have moved on years ago (me aside), so the only loud voices are the ones clinging to the idea that it was unfairly maligned. I've seen the same thing with FF13, and I assume Forspoken will have a similar arc in a few years.

One man's trash is another man's childhood favourite. I found out recently that there are younger millennials and zoomers that insist Sonic 06 was good.

Enjoying playing it again now. It's not bad. The writing isn't great but the gameplay/story is decent enough. 7/10 imo.

I would've gone insane if my teammates weren't Vetra and Drack. They kicked ass while everyone else sucked. Never really considered the series to have amazing writing or anything, but Andromeda was still a step back from the usual; the gunplay, however, was quite enjoyable. So, it wound up not being a complete waste of time. Worth playing through once at least.

Hexenherz posted...

Originally I chose the Shockwave bionic perk at level up but it didn't do anything to anyone and then I died so I just chose some fire starter ability from the Technic tree. It all feels like space magic at this point

Been a while since I played, but IIRC Andromeda has that whole 'targets with mechanical Shields are immune to biotics' thing. So for Shockwave to knock them around you'd have to breach their Shield with bullets first.

As for the guns... Yeah, they're aren't as iconic as what was found in ME3.

If you go the biotics route the Vanguard was supposed to be fairly fun in Andromeda. Just, uh, be wary of the units with special sync execution animations. I didn't play the multiplayer that much in Andromeda, but I remember the new version of the Brute had an 8 meter magical bubble around him that could pull you through walls or the floor. Not a visible bubble, just that it was the range of his vacuum effect for the kill animation. Hopefully they patched that later...

DuneMan posted...

Been a while since I played, but IIRC Andromeda has that whole 'targets with mechanical Shields are immune to biotics' thing. So for Shockwave to knock them around you'd have to breach their Shield with bullets first.

As for the guns... Yeah, they're aren't as iconic as what was found in ME3.

If you go the biotics route the Vanguard was supposed to be fairly fun in Andromeda. Just, uh, be wary of the units with special sync execution animations. I didn't play the multiplayer that much in Andromeda, but I remember the new version of the Brute had an 8 meter magical bubble around him that could pull you through walls or the floor. Not a visible bubble, just that it was the range of his vacuum effect for the kill animation. Hopefully they patched that later...

This was still super early when only one enemy had a shield and Shockwave just felt glitchy.

Can't wait to play more. It reminds me of this low quality cheap Russian sci-fi movie I watched recently (actually the Russian movie probably just ripped this off).

Also I need to find out if this guy actually committed the murder he is accused of. Normal me would pursue every piece of evidence to prove his innocence but in this game I plan on saying eff it and getting him blasted into the sun or whatever the outcome of that mission ends up being

Yeah it had good ideas related to gameplay. It just shits so hard on everything else.

In unrelated related news I got to the New World in my new Anno 1800 campaign. I always end up crashing and burning at some point, usually right before or when I unlock the New Worlds. This time I disabled two of the three AI opponents to make it easier and I just took my time to try to maximize my profits with Artisans before moving on...

Fingers crossed I just REALLY want to get through the game and DLC content at least once.

The weakest in the series, but nowhere near a bad game.

But I may have a different view on what a bad game is.

Hexenherz posted...

Originally I chose the Shockwave bionic perk at level up but it didn't do anything to anyone and then I died so I just chose some fire starter ability from the Technic tree. It all feels like space magic at this point

Have you experienced the wonders of ability Combos, even accidentally?

DuneMan posted...

As for the guns... Yeah, they're aren't as iconic as what was found in ME3.

Speak for yourself. I have a full auto grenade launching sniper rifle and it's AWESOME

Considering the huge amount of guns you can craft in Andromeda it's insane it doesn't have a test room before you spend your crafting materials like ME3 had at the SPECTRE shop.

After crafting your gun you have to go through like 4 loading screens/areas to test it and the same to return and you have to spend time actually finding an enemy encounter on the map. It's crazy.

Andromeda is pretty rough for low-level play, but it gets smoother as you get better weapons and powers.

Once you figure out the Profile system (probably spoilers for where you are now but not for more than like 4 hours of gameplay) you start tearing shit up.

Andromeda has problems but holy hell is it the best Vanguard in the series.

It's got a fair few baffling decisions, though. Every squaddie has 30+ skill points they get after maxing out their skill trees, the main character does the same (but you need to hit like 130 to max your skills so it's not exactly a problem you're gonna run into on a first playthrough).

I'd call it a solid 7/10. The are some good aspects like the pretty maps, squad banter, squad loyalty quests are memorable.

Definitely some issues but still worth a playthrough for ME fans.

Andromeda is one of many games that had too big of a scope and should have been focused way more. It didn't need to be open world, they didn't need those dispatch missions, the crafting probably could have been removed entirely etc.

Shah138 posted...

Andromeda is one of many games that had too big of a scope and should have been focused way more. It didn't need to be open world, they didn't need those dispatch missions, the crafting probably could have been removed entirely etc.

Great, dispatch quests sound like radiant quests... I was hoping to just focus and forget my way through the story but I probably won't be able to

The game is very weird. I really enjoyed just exploring and finding stuff. It really does make you feel like an explorer trying to establish a place for people to come to in the future. Combat is also fun, I love how you aren't limited to a single class and can focus on the powers you want. That said, the writing for the most part is atrocious. I'm really curious how the writing talent at Bioware went down so quickly. ME3 still had great writing, Andromeda had a huge downgrade, and the latest Dragon Age game sounds like it was made by HR.

The amount of time management bullshit in Andromeda between Strike Team quests and the reward pod timers is insane. You have several timers for rewards on the normandy and they're all different and you can't claim them off-ship (and if I recall you can't even see the timers in game, you just have to remember them or not optimize your gains) and for some fucking reason you can't enter your ship without taking off from the planet, so when you go to your ship you have to go through a lengthy taking off loading and after spending the 20 seconds getting them, the ship has to fly and land on the planet again, which takes even longer, nevermind normandy doors that lock until they load.

Fortunately the rewards are minor, but presumably if you unlock rewards you are incentivized to get them and for absolutely no reason it has to be a massive chore. There's no reason you can't just accept the rewards from the bases planet-side.

Hexenherz posted...

Great, dispatch quests sound like radiant quests... I was hoping to just focus and forget my way through the story but I probably won't be able to

The bad ones are imminently ignorable.

Like, "go to 4-6 camps and scan something/click something/read something at all of them, when all are found you go to the navpoint and shoot something, Final Fantasy victory music."

There's a good 5 of them on every planet and there's no guidance as to where the camps are (so you have to just wander and hope), but none of them actually matter.

I've played every DA and ME game

and I can say that andromeda is better than VG at least it had the decency to have it take place in another galaxy and it can't screw up previous games story or lore unlike VG and takes place 600 years in the future

where VG just said fuck the previous games and characters

Shame we'll never get any sequels. I wanted to learn more about the Kett and also what happened to Andromeda.

The boring combat is what killed it for me. I could've put up with the endless fetch quests and boring dialogue if the combat wasn't boring basic cover shooting where you plink away at boring enemies.

Hexenherz posted...

Great, dispatch quests sound like radiant quests... I was hoping to just focus and forget my way through the story but I probably won't be able to

Oh my bad I may have used the wrong term. By dispatch mission I mean the ones where you talk to an NPC and you send out some squad to do a mission for you that takes X amount of hours to do. They're entirely optional but I don't think anyone actually liked them.

Shah138 posted...

Oh my bad I may have used the wrong term. By dispatch mission I mean the ones where you talk to an NPC and you send out some squad to do a mission for you that takes X amount of hours to do. They're entirely optional but I don't think anyone actually liked them.

i think i never tried that, or never got that far in
that sounds not fun at all

i think one of the older Assassins Creed had something like that. the one set in Rome, i believe
it was boring busy work back then, i can only assume this is the same

Shotgunnova posted...

I would've gone insane if my teammates weren't Vetra and Drack. They kicked ass while everyone else sucked. Never really considered the series to have amazing writing or anything, but Andromeda was still a step back from the usual; the gunplay, however, was quite enjoyable. So, it wound up not being a complete waste of time. Worth playing through once at least.

Teammate AI was terrible in Andromeda, but it also kind of didn't matter because the lack of class locking skills and ability to swap skill sets on the fly meant you could solo everything.

That said Core is actually good if only because she has shield buffs.

I liked Andromeda

Ok the weapon and crafting system is obnoxious. Maybe it gets easier later but early on it feels overwhelming. Also is there a way to respec? I feel like Bionics might be more fun than Tech. Probably doesn't matter at the end.

I find it telling that like 80% of players started the game to get the first achievement but only 63% actually made it to Eos for the main story....

Also I like they brought the Mako back but WTF no weapons (I am assuming they come back later) and no collision damage to enemies lol.

Scanning doors for Earth research points is a silly mechanic but oh well.

Need to play more. There's like no human emotion to the game at all it is very jarring

Hexenherz posted...

Also is there a way to respec?

In the med bay on your ship, I think.

But you'll level fast enough to grab Tech skills pretty fast.

Bioware stopped making games where you were allowed to make Evil choices after the 360/PS3 generation.

I think I made it off the ice planet... to whatever was next, but I can't remember where you go next.

pfh1001 posted...

Bioware stopped making games where you were allowed to make Evil choices after the 360/PS3 generation.

it seems like a general trend in games and it's kind of annoying. Starfield was the same way. Which is ironic because I cheesed the game's shitty skill leveling system to murder and pickpocket innocent people en masse in the first city to max out my skills and like it made no difference on anything since I was stealth the whole time.

I didn't mind Andromeda. It fell a little flat when compared to how good the OG Mass Effect games were, but it had its moments. Do I regret buying it? No. Will I replay it? Probably no as well.

That said, I have fond memories of Liam's loyalty mission. That was fucking funny, and I wish the game had more humorous moments like that.

I am actually starting to enjoy the camp. There's a disconnect between this super serious situation and the absolute immature nonsense some of these characters say. But it's like... kinda fun.

Finished the story part of the Eos quest. Finished scouting out the planets in that system and the Nexus system, went back to the Nexus to continue, saw a dozen quests pop up and noped out of there (also it's late).

ALSO what's up with the romance options as Femshep (or... Femryder idk) you can only romance the hopped up Asari chick or the cute Scottish navigator but that's it?

There are several as of yet not introduced romance options. Also pretty sure Vetra is a bisexual option, and Douchebag is a Femryd option.

DodogamaRayBrst posted...

I'm unsure why you think this is contrary to or a counter to what I said.

Sorry my initial read of your post felt like you were talking down about those fans that still enjoy those games.