Topic: Mass Effect: Andromeda

@johncalmc In theory a game about exploring space (and a new galaxy at that) is tailor made for an exciting open world, it's just that it's super hard to pull off. I feel like this game had so much potential, so many great possibilities and avenues to explore, yet it seemed they where not interested in that, focusing on more of a by-the-numbers sequel.

I like the interactions with the crew and other characters, but the mundane quests that go on-and-on really begin to tire on me. Maybe it's the setup for those quests that make them feel unimportant. Maybe I'm just tired of the same-old feel these quests have anymore. I so liked The Witcher Blood and Wine that had strong side quests that truly related to the main story. I do really want to like this game more...

I'm perservering with it, I want to finish it and get the most out of it but some of the quests... I see the look of an interesting quest, i land on the planet where the marker indicates and notice it is absolutely miles away. I end up travelling for ages, getting stuck by mountain ridges, trying to work a way around to the marker. When I finally do get there, all it ends up being is shooting a few baddies, scanning something and the next part of the quest is to talk to someone back on the Tempest or The Nexux... Can't I just call them instead and then carry on with the next part?

There is a LOT of needless going backwards and forwards

Have you ever played a Mass Effect or other older than 2-3yrs RPG game before?? This isn't unusual. The scanning though at least adds a bit more variety, in that you also get to play 'detective'. Some quests before were more limited, go here and talk, kill, pick up or deliver, then either go to the ext point to do one of those things or return to the person ad tell them you have done one of those things.

What I tended to do was spend time completing various stages of different quests - moving from one map point to the next closest until I had completed everything in no particular order, then decide which planet/place was next, go there and repeat. Sometimes that meant that sometimes quests went unfinished until I ended up back at a certain area to hand them in - often more because I was there for other quests. I rarely started a quest and followed just that specific path. I jumped from one map marker to the next closest map marker etc which may be the next stage in the quest but more often than not was a marker for some completely different quest. Saved the constant going back and forwards....

@BAMozzy You make it sound awful lol

Yes I have @BAMozzy and i usually enjoy it because it means something, it adds value but in this game it seems utterly needless at times. As in having to travel big distances to talk to someone, whereas in this 'futuristic' environment, there are communications that could be used instead, making the travel unneccessary.

When looking at the map, are the other quests the white hexagons with a dot in the middle?

@Throb The old Mass Effect games didn't use communication devices for a lot of the minor quests, you still had to rturn to the character that offered those quests.

On the map, the white hexagons with a dot are the quest points. I just head to the closest of these and then the next etc rather than just follow one quest from way-point to way-point. You can click the white quest marker and it makes that one become 'active' if you want, rather than go into the menus and try and find that quest to activate it or get confused by the 'activated' quest marker in the compass. I often just clicked the next closest marker to make that active and once that step was completed, open up the map and click on the next closest marker and activate that quest.

I'm starting to tire of this game now. I'm near the end, but I find the structure quite fatiguing. There's a lot of busy-work which, I know you can ignore, but the way the game's designed I find it hard to just mainline. As a result, I've been having less fun with it than I thought I would.

I'm also not keen on the writing or the combat.

It's certainly not a bad game by any stretch, but I don't think it's anything special either. Completely agree with @ShogunRok's review.

The quickest way to sum up Andromeda is that it just simply isn't much fun. There's more to do, but none of it is really worth doing.

I completely agree that the game isn't anything special, the story is OK, not great and fairly predictable parts, a lot of the dialogue maybe OK but some of the delivery is mundane that doesn't help. I did enjoy the more varied Combat - much less cover and corridor shooter, much more open and faster paced, the more varied weapons (especially if you craft and mod them) and for the £35 I spent on it, I got a fair number of hours out of it - still not tried the MP yet either and has 'replayability' IF you really wanted of course, to find out what difference those decisions made.

I still stick by my '7' score, maybe because I like the setting and enjoy Sci-fi but I still think its an 'OK' game. Its not 'terrible', not lacking in content, although I will say some is filler, and I did 'enjoy' my time with it overall.

Or tedious. lol

I think the added cut-scenes each time you travel to and from everywhere (which you can't skip) just adds to the dullness. @get2sammyb I'm wondering if this might fall to the side for me and I'll finish when there is a slow game release month.

I just want to get it out of the way now. I'm close to the end, and I'm just forcing myself to finish off the loyalty quests before I tackle the last mission. I'm not even really sure why anymore.

For me the biggest sin here is that it's just... Kinda there. There's nothing in this game that I will remember. It's just... Vapid. I know it's a weird thing to say, but I've played 4s or 5s that have more about them than this even though they've got much deeper flaws.

I think one of the biggest sins you can make when creating a game is hitting that flat 6/10 territory where the game isn't bad but doesn't do anything of interest either. And Mass Effect is definitely hovering around that for me.

Biggest mistake they seemed to have made is ditching Renegade/Paragon and opted for the 'your choices don't matter' Telltales approach. I didn't play the trilogy so it's kinda sad I'll end up playing this crap instead.

Finally completed this the other day. That was a bit underwhelming. I wasn't really expecting it to be the last level, I thought there would have been more main story quests, there didn't seem to be too many of them but I have loads of other side missions etc to complete. Overall, I'd now give it a 5/10

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi I actually much prefer the new system. I think it's one of the best things about the game. The problem with the Paragon and Renegade system was that every time you chose one of those options it gave you points but only for the side you chose (until ME3 at least). Certain dialogue options later in the games were locked unless you had enough points in the respective Paragon or Renegade tree, and so it only made sense to pick the same option every time. It ended up being no so much dialogue options as "just pick red or blue every time". They might as well have just asked you at the start which you wanted to be and done it automatically, since it made no sense to drift between the two.

The new system lets you pick whatever you want at any time. Sometimes you can be serious, sometimes silly, sometimes professional, sometimes angry, sometimes throwing out a cheesy one liner. While they don't lead to wildly different outcomes, that's a lot more like real life, and lets you play the game as you want.

@johncalmc just sounds like the new system is a little boring, they could have at least tried to improve the old system, I'd like the option to be 200% a hole now and then.

A lot of the old dialogue system only came into play with certain key decisions. As @johncalmc said, these tended to force you down a specific path - whether you were playing as a Renegade or Paragon. Much of the other dialogue was still similar to the system we have today, The same way to get more information, more back story, etc. Instead of being presented with a Paragon or Renegade option on Key desicions, these are now just 'alternative' directions.

By that I mean if the decision was whether to allow a trade between two parties or not, in the new system, that decision is totally yours and the consequence is not 'obvious' - depending on the back story and characters. In the old system, it could force you to pick a certain choice regardless and often indicated what that decision could entail further into the game. The paragon could be not to allow the trade because of the parties involved but with this system, that choice is still yours to make, the same consequence could happen - if anything its actually more yours to make because before it totally depended on if you were playing a certain path. It forced you to choose a specific answer rather than give you a free choice.

The other responses determine more your character, whether you want to be seen as more professional or more jovial. It determined the 'response' of the character - acting jovial at the death of a loved one could elicit a more negative response than a professional one - depending on the character of course because some may find the humour beneficial in a time of mourning.

Key decisions are still there, still have their consequences etc but are no longer so 'black or white', so forced to pick a specific answer etc. You can play the entire game your way not be forced down the blue or red path.

In old games it was do you take the Red or Blue path and once you start along this path do not stray from the path regardless of your own thought, now its do I turn left or right, see where that takes me and then pick which ever option seems best at the next junction and the next etc...

If anything it makes it far more interesting, far less boring because that choice is now entirely yours. Of course you could play the old games by picking Red and Blue as you wanted but that would lead to less options down the line. By being a higher paragon or renegade, it led to certain options being available so you had to travel down 1 specific path, pick specific choices and often didn't need to pay any attention to any dialogue because you will always pick the corresponding colour choice regardless.

So this is on deep sale now, $26 CDN. Is it worth getting or just an uninspired waste of time?

@get2sammyb curious your thoughts given what you said above.

@Mega-Gazz there is a demo for it, which might be worth a try if you want to get a taste for it.

@kyleforrester87 good idea. Thanks