Mass Effect Andromeda

[Cernos]

Anyone picked this up yet?

Reviews seem mixed and launch price is a bit steep at ?50, so I think I might wait until they patch a few of the problems and perhaps drop the price a little. However, would be fun to get in on the multiplayer from the start.

[Lasiien]

Hola Cern,

I admit I was torn, i cancelled my pre-order and was determined to stay away for a few months and pick it up on sale but then my impatience got the better of me and i bought it (think it was ?42 from greenmangaming). I had a fairly busy weekend so haven't played it enough to say if reviews are right or not but it doesn't seem terribad (the character animations are sometimes very noticable, sometimes not). Story wise hasn't really got going yet for me but I'd suggest they were up against it anyways having to create a whole bunch of new characters.

I only tried the multiplayer once, but it seemed allot like ME3. In fact, very similar to me - waves after waves of enemies etc. They also say its optional and you can send NPC teams out to do the missions as well, doesn't seem to be as important as the 'war effort' was in ME3, but I'm not sure yet.

In short, if you can wait until it's properly discounted (maybe November for thanksgiving?) then I'd do so. I was too impatient

I know eko got it too and he's a bit deeper in than me I suspect, so I'm sure he'll post soon also.

[Cernos]

Thanks for the heads up about the Greenmangaming price, I might be tempted

Oddly enough, I'm mostly interested in the multiplayer in Andromeda. I really enjoyed ME3's multiplayer and spent more time on that than the main game which I only played through once (the infamous ending has much to do with that). So I like that Andromeda's multiplayer is similar to ME3 and some reviews suggest it's even an improvement. Perhaps too early to tell. ME3's multiplayer had good longevity and people were still playing it until recently (perhaps still are).

Most of the negativity I've seen so far is about the facial animations, UI (never a Bioware strong point) and some sloppy story writing (which is rather more worrying).

Perhaps I ought to try and finish Witcher 3 first, but I'm feeling impaient too

[eKo]

As a Mass Effect fan I preordered it and am now 55 hours in with 50% completion. Despite the mixed reviews and some flaws I really like the game and I'm having fun. One reviewer compared it to Dragn Age: Inquisiition in space and I concur.

What I like:
- The graphics are good, there's some beauitful scenery and performance (on high) has been rock solid.
- The story is now shaping up nicely despite a slow start. I now hold the threads to 3 major story elements while also having tons of sidequests which aren't always interesting, but at least they're fleshed out better than the ones in DA:I.
- The combat for me is fun, even though sniper rifles are kinda broken (in SP) as you can kill mobs from afar without alerting even the ones standing next to it.
- The skill system is much more flexible and you can respec, so testing out new skills or just mixing things up so it doesn't become boring is possible. Access to only 3 equipped skills is a bummer though.
- The jetpack is much more than a gimmick, it provides quite a bit of mobility and not only vertically.
- I rather like the sudoku-like puzzles to open the remnant vaults .

What I like less:
- Companions are a little bland, mainly because they don't seem to progress much, unlike Tali or Liara in the original trilogy.
- Some dialogue is really sloppy. There's one quest with an anti AI person, who at the end tells you to thank your AI and there are a few more convos like that.
- The facial animation goes from okay at best to totally weird, mainly because, apart from blinking, the eyes (and eyebrows) hardly animate at all.
- The unskippable transistions when in your ship, while gorgeous, geo old after a while, especially when scanning a planet is just a right click.   

Have only played one multiplayer match, but the system is indeed very similar to the one from ME3. Unlike ME3, MP doesn't have an effect on the SP campaign so far. You can send NPCs on missions, like you could in DA:I on the war map and some missions you can do yourself in MP, but that seems to be the extent of it.

[Lasiien]

Good review eko, I haven't played much due to time constraints but I can confirm it is quite playable whilst maybe not as good a game that I'd have hoped for.

Did you manage to hold fire Cern ?

[eKo]

It's mainly the start of the game (the first 10 hours or so) which is so-so. I'm now 65 hours in and it has become a lot better, including the companions.

A patch apparently will be out soon to solve some issues including the facial animations, human/asari eyes and make the galactic map transitions skippable.

The main weak points for me are the slow moving plot at the start and the dialogue which isn't very natural and can be real sloppy at times, especially when trying to convince people of an opposite viewpoint. All in all it's still a fun and decidely Mass Effect game though.

[Cernos]

Yeah I managed to hold fire and I've not taken the plunge yet. I see patch 1.05 is out and fixes some of the initial problems, especially the animations. But that has pushed the price back up, so might hold fire a little longer

[eKo]

I managed to finish the game and the final mission was quite fun with everyone you helped along the way, helping you out. The ending is also a proper end for this game, not a cliffhanger, even though your dealings with the Kett won't be over. (And what happened to the Quarian ark?)

The 1.05 patch did fix some animations and especially the human eyes, they no longer look like they are doped up, especially Adisson .

All in all, for me it's still the weaker game in the series, but it certainly wasn't bad and still very enjoyable. There don't seem to be many impactful choices to make (there are a choices to be made, especially later on, but except for one, the consequences seem rather limited), even after the full course of the game, the companians are still rather bland, the story overall was rather good though and I really liked the combat.

I've started playing some multiplayer lately and it's proving to be rather fun too.

[Cernos]

Well I picked this up finally, when it was on 33% discount in the Origin Store last weekend. I'm about 25 hours in so far, so here's a few thoughts.

+ Main story line is great. It's gripping and seems paced nicely so far (some say it starts rather slow but I'm ok with that). Really enjoying the difficult choices, although it seems they are the usual faux choices without true consequences.
+ Combat is very enjoyable. I thought the lack of manual cover would be a problem, but so far it hasn't been. I'm playing Infiltrator but can't do my usual hide and snipe thing so easily, so need to be more mobile, but that's fine.
+ Loving the jump pack, even if it spooks me every time my companions use it (sounds like combat kicking off).
+ First contact with the Kett is handled really well, really tense and edgy.
+ Overall it has the right Mass Effect feel (although there's a downside to that, see below).

= Alien tech and planets are a bit too familiar. They go light years to another galaxy and it all feels the same as previous games. But I accept it must be hard to totally break out of what's expected of a ME game.
= Dialogue and voice acting is a mixed bag. Some of it is good, some of it is cringe inducing. It's certainly not to the same standard as previous ME games. New companions seem very bland compared to the compelling characters in previous games.
= Field Of View is rather strange. I'm very grateful they've put FOV adjustment in, but it's handled in such a weird way that I've yet to get it exactly how I want it.
= Character customisation is mediocre at best and feels a step backward. Worse than previous ME games (which is saying something) and certainly no match for DA:I's system on which it is supposedly based.
= Animations and expressions are still rather odd, and that's after they patched them. I often find myself thinking "what sort of expression is that". Did the devs not watch their own cut scenes and not think the same?

- The UI is a disgrace, even by the low bar set by previous ME games. It's like they've learned nothing. Some things are so obviously broken it boggles the mind how they thought it was ok. For example, if you want to buy 100 of a resource from a vendor, you can't type the number or go up in increments of 10 with shift, you have to click the arrow 100 times! FFS that's so unbelievably amateur.
- Whoever put the console key right next to the 1 key and then didn't allow you to rebind it needs a big slap. Hugely frustrating when this kicks in during frenzied combat. Amateur hour design.
- There's lots of inconsistent design. For example, the M key brings up the map (as you'd expect) but then the M key doesn't work to close it (you have to ESC twice). This is constantly irritating.
- First contact with the Angara is a truly woeful piece of storytelling and the way the core Angara missions and side quests are presented is very lazy game design. I hope it's not a sign of how the rest of the game will be.

Overall 7/10. Definitely enjoying it, but have to feel it could have been so much better. Still not tried multiplayer though as I don't want to get sidetracked just yet. In ME3 it was multiplayer that I ended up spending most time in.

[Cernos]

Well, I just finished this and thought I'd update my review.

I was level 52 by the end, around 100 hours played with nearly all the side quests completed.

I stand by most of my original views about the game, although patch 1.08 has fixed a few things.

Overall I enjoyed it a lot. I loved the main story, it was genuinely gripping even though you knew how it had to ultimately pan out.  It didn't get off to a great start (awkward and slow) but got a lot better as it went along. I liked how they linked it into the previous games. Some difficult plot decisions to make although of course they don't really alter much in the big picture of things.

Most of the companion loyalty storylines were good too. The side quests weren't too bad and often had enough story to be elevated above the basic 'collect 10 items' quests.

The visuals were stunning and felt truly epic at times, especially in the Remnant vaults and on Meridian.

The combat was fun, if a little unchallenging compared to previous games. None of the enemies had that WTF fear factor that certain enemies in previous games had, like the Banshee in ME3 which never failed to cause a squeaky bottom with its shrieking and special attack. MEA has nothing to compare, even the Ascendants were a pushover.

Biggest frustrations for me were the flaky UI, the damn console key and the platforming (but that's just me being crap, not the fault of the game).

Looking forward to the next instalment, there was an interesting teaser in the epilogue about what might be to come.

I think I'll upgrade it to 8/10 for the single player. I still haven't tried the multiplayer though, wanted to do the whole story first.