Topic: Mass Effect: Andromeda

@johncalmc There are a lot of sections in the game that are very dialogue heavy. You can spend a lot of time talking to a few characters, finding out about their back story, what life is like for them in that 'area' etc and then move on to the next character and have another 'long' dialogue. When you have your full crew onboard the Tempest, its very much like being on the Normandy.

Exploring the Planets is one of the better things Mass Effect has added. Its quite 'open world' in feel and the 'Vaults' remind me a bit of Horizon's Cauldrons. Its a lot less linear and 'corridor' than the trilogy and the combat opens up more and more as you progress, earn skill points. At any time you can go to the med bay and pay a small fee to reallocate all your skill points (or your crews) and you are never tied to a set path - like only going down the Biotic route.

Some quests are 'similar' to Horizons - using your 'Focus' to play detective and its worth 'exploring' everywhere - if you want resources, crates etc. In the previous trilogy, you played as a 'military' leader but in this, you are a explorer.

It is 'glitchy' and certainly has a few bugs. It will crash at some point - I don't think I had my first until I was 20hrs into the game. It can be 'frustrating' but its still very much a Mass Effect game. It does look great at times - especially on the Pro in HDR. It feels 'bigger' than the previous games too - but maybe that's my memory playing up...

@BAMozzy Yup. There's lots of talking and getting to know people, and that's all very like Mass Effect. I just think the gap between those moments is bigger than before thanks to a greater emphasis on planet exploration.

Mass Effect 2 and 3 were like talk talk talk, go shoot a few things in the face, talk talk talk.
Andromeda is like talk talk talk, walk walk walk, shoot things in the face, walk walk walk, shoot things in the face, walk walk walk, talk talk talk.

I don't really like the exploration much. If there was something to truly discover then maybe I'd be more interested, but it's kinda just an empty open world where you'll occasionally run into some enemies or another fetch quest.

Even the fetch quests aren't annoying me like I thought they would. The most frustrating thing about them is navigating the appalling menu system to work out which missions are close by.

Generally, aside from the boring exploration sections, I'm pretty happy with the game. I'm hoping the story gets more interesting though.

@johncalmc If you use the map, they have a hexagonal shaped marker that is where an inactive quest is on the map, you can either go there or click it (like setting a marker) and that makes the quest active. Its easier than navigating the menus to find the quest. Its not helped that some quests maybe under 'Nexus' but you need to travel to one of the planets so its not under the planet you are on. It can be difficult to remember where each quest is stored. This is why I use the map. I try to spend as much time as I can in an area, completing tasks, side quests etc to clear up those markers.

Like I said, I feel its a bigger game, far less linear and a lot more varied too. The majority of the quests are multi-stage and have a bit of story, context. I prefer the open world exploration and this makes spending time on the worlds more fun. I like the free roaming, finding secret caches, picking if I want to explore or fight, completing missions/quests as I go along rather than just following each to its conclusion and then have to back track a lot.

I have been playing solidly since release and only have 43% of the Helius cluster (all available systems scanned to 100%). Still only have 2 out of 5 planets at 100% viability, still not even 50% game completion and still not played MP yet either. I feel I have a LOT of game left to play and whilst its not that well polished, its given me value for money - that's not to say it can't be improved or that I expected better for that money...

The conversations in MEA are of low quality, check this from ME2 literally the first video I found.

A million times better than the Andromeda guff. As for the cumbersome interface, who designed it? A total travesty. I'm playing the multi-player later on and am hoping it will be good enough to keep me ploughing through.

The reality like most open world type games, is you either enjoy the story, environments and game play or you don't. I'm at a weird halfway house with all 3 points, combined with the game majorley wasting my time after the glitch and the fact I dislike the characters so far and P5 around the corner I can't see it being in my disc tray for much longer.

The game does improve after the first few hours, it's overwhelming the amount the game introduces you to within the first opening sections. This is both a positive and a negative, obviously loads of content but the quality is questionable.

This game is so hard to like I love ME and I was so looking forward to this game but it's just not clicking at all. When I do get sucked in and engrossed in the game, all it takes is a cut scene to rip me away because, to be brutally honest, the cut scenes are some of the most atrocious I have ever seen in a game that I've played on PS4.

The gameplay is clunky, trying to jump or climb things is awkward. The Nomad is extra awkward to use. I tried a few games of multiplayer, it's not too bad but again it's just a shame that he gameplay is clunky and awkward.

I'm still going to try and carry on for the sake of the story but after a week of playing, I am totally underwhelmed

I would love to know who came up with some of the ideas in this game.

Platforming. That's one thing I have never, at any point, thought that the Mass Effect series was missing.

@BAMozzy Yeah, the quest menu UI is rather poor. So far, I'm pushing forward and I'm enjoying the story. The animations are difficult after how well Aloy moved in HZD. My Ryder looks like she's drunk when she's running around. It's all so "loose." If there was a way to zoom in a little, I might find it less distracting.

I played the multiplayer with a friend and it has a good learning curve for me since I never played ME3 MP. It was fun and I will be playing it again.

Brad over at Giant Bomb just reviewed it and it came out with 2 stars: https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/mass-effect-andromeda-revie...

Vinny at Giant Bomb also played it and seemed super bummed out, as he's been a big fan of previous entries.

I think I'll wait and see if/when a patch arrives and probably pick this up on a sale. Though I enjoyed what I played during the Origin preview event, it doesn't seem to do much new after that point.

Oh, and the video at the bottom of Brad's review is pretty funny:

I absolutely love this game now! Can't drag myself away from the scanning and really great writing.

This game has its faults, but the story is strong and the combat/exploring is fun. I think 6-7/10 is accurate for me. The UI is rough and the whole load out system is annoying. Back to the game!

April fools

I still wanna give it a bit of a go when it's cheap lol

Finally beat the game - well the main story at least - a few tasks and post-story quests to finish but I did enjoy it. I have spent over 100hours playing - now to do so of the MP... LOL

@KratosMD Well that's what I did! I completed Horizon in a week to platinum level too and that was 75-80hrs worth... I like to game LOL!!!

Any ideas what I do here?

@get2sammyb Is that the first time you have been there?

Its quite a while since I first got to Voelde. Just as you reach the first signs of life, there are some shuttles on the right hand side - before you enter that building. By the first one is a group of 3 peop;e (I think) and you need to speak to them first. I walked right passed them too on my playthrough. I think that's the same mission...

Hope that helps

@BAMozzy Cheers for the response! This is my second visit to Voelde, I think. I had to liberate a prison camp, and then I spoke to Efvra on the Tempest. He told me to go back and speak to some resistance members, but I can't find them anywhere.

Will look where you suggested, but I think I've tried there.

@get2sammyb Its after you go from the Tempest and up the hill. It opens up into a shuttle docking area with shuttles on the right hand side. Just by the first, there is a group of 3 people. I am sure that was 'meet the resistance'/. If not, its one of the people inside by the operations area - an area of 'computer' stations around a central core. I can't remember exactly which person so you may have to talk to everyone you can. There are a few quests/tasks to pick up around that base so you may end up picking up 1-2 of those before you speak to the right person.

For me that was probably 60+hours ago in the game so can't remember exactly. I know I only walked up to the base twice because I spent a day on Voelde, did all the vault and established an outpost so I never needed to go into the base again apart from to complete a few missions. Once you have an outpost, you land there instead.

I've found myself in a bit of a quandary with Andromeda. And it's kind of a tough question to ask here, because I can't really ask it without spoilers, and I don't want spoilers in the answer, so let's attempt to navigate this potential minefield.

My problem is that I'm not sure how close I am to the end of the game. This is an issue because I want to progress with the main story so I can find out what the fig is going on, but I'm also concerned that I'm going to lock out all of the other content - loyalty missions - etc. if I do.

I feel like not much has happened in the main quest so I'd be surprised if I was at the final mission, but then I also have 100% on all planets.

So I guess the question is, does the game tell you when you're at the point of no return, and if not, let's say, hypothetically, I was about to travel to a mysterious place beginning with M, is that the end of the game or have I still got plenty to go?

@johncalmc If you are about to embark on that 'mission' it really depends on something that would be a spoiler. However the game doesn't say you are about to embark on the 'final' mission and that you are entering the point of no return. I basically ensured I did all the missions as they were available. I spent ages on a planet at a time, driving to the closest 'next' mission point on the Map, completing that task, before moving to the next closest etc until I had finished everything, then go to another place to do exactly the same. Obviously you can't finish every mission in just one place, as they do require you to travel to 2 or more places to complete. Some tasks I never finished - mostly because they were not tracked on the map - for example scanning dead bodies on Eos - you literally have to get lucky to stumble over these as there location doesn't show up - some are tracked and these I completed.

After beating the game though, there are a few extra missions and the chance to tie up any outstanding quests but like I said, I only had a few outstanding Tasks by that point.