[Megathread] Mass Effect Andromeda

[Xeenith]

Hmm so apparently I may not need to wait until ALL of the game finishes downloading before I can resume playing, I think its more like I need to wait for another 10% before I can continue. So.......12 hours maybe?

I'm at 50h of gametime, I'm not yet finished with the 4th real planet, so if the game download data on planets in the order on which you can get to them, you have time to play as much as you want while it still download

[Kolvarg]

I've never really played any Mass Effect game yet, in fact I don't think I've ever played any Bioware game.

I did get this one for my girlfriend since she's played and really liked all the first 3, and watched her play the first ~2 hours or so, and so far I really can't understand all the hate. I mean, I saw the memes and all, but comparing it to PS2 games and whatnot? I already suspected it was mostly bandwagoning, but now I'm almost sure. Did they improve the animations and such since the beta/trial?

Because of what I've seen so far, while the cutscenes / facial animations are far from great, I really wouldn't call them bad. They're miles away from something like The Last of Us or Uncharted 4, but that's two very very different types of game. I don't really see them being worse than Fallout 4's, for instance. And in the actual gameplay, the game just looks gorgeous.

It's what I always say... some people nowadays seem to just take pleasure in hating whatever they don't love. There's no in-betweens, no nuance, no average, no reasonable, no above average or just enjoyable. If it's not amazing, it's garbage.

[May90]

Sorry, don't have time to respond to everyone quoting me - need to do a lot of stuff today... I'll say this: the combat is, by far, the most enjoyable out of all ME games, maybe even out of all Bioware games to me. They added another dimension to it: you no longer just run around and hide behind cover, you also jump on the roofs, run away from enemies in 3 dimensions - it actually feels more like Doom (2016), very fast-paced, but also strategic. I thought initially that inability to control your companions would make the combat somewhat bland, but I was wrong: while, indeed, you can no longer pause the game and issue commands, your companions have very decent AI, they actively use abilities, jump around as well, revive each other even.

Got to the optional fight against the Fiend on Eos, and, while I died 5 times and didn't have time to try again, that fight really made me appreciate the combat system. The amount of options you have at your disposal is pretty big, there are so many directions you can run or jump when the enemies try to corner you, and you can even engage enemies in melee - it is no longer as clunky as in the previous games.

Enjoying the game tremendously.

[Derah]

I've never really played any Mass Effect game yet, in fact I don't think I've ever played any Bioware game.

I did get this one for my girlfriend since she's played and really liked all the first 3, and watched her play the first ~2 hours or so, and so far I really can't understand all the hate. I mean, I saw the memes and all, but comparing it to PS2 games and whatnot? I already suspected it was mostly bandwagoning, but now I'm almost sure. Did they improve the animations and such since the beta/trial?

Because of what I've seen so far, while the cutscenes / facial animations are far from great, I really wouldn't call them bad. They're miles away from something like The Last of Us or Uncharted 4, but that's two very very different types of game. I don't really see them being worse than Fallout 4's, for instance. And in the actual gameplay, the game just looks gorgeous.

It's what I always say... some people nowadays seem to just take pleasure in hating whatever they don't love. There's no in-betweens, no nuance, no average, no reasonable, no above average or just enjoyable. If it's not amazing, it's garbage.

Amen man. It just became fashionable to pick a target (any target) and dump ALL of your hatred on it.

I've seen people doing something for this game that I've not seen anyone else do: Make gifs showing Ryder with a "bad walking animation" when in reality they're walking bad on purpose, pressing W and S simultaneously, or mashing A and D furiously, to produce a silly walking animation.

So many of the sillier goofs are from scenes that can literally only be seen by watching a recording of the game, and literally scanning it frame-by-frame. A few examples of these are Peebee's backward gun, Ryder's foot clipping into the floor when you're being introduced to Tann, or Lexi's weird facial expression where she peels her eyes and her lips make a frown.

This image is the most blatant example. So many people keep linking that, and try to make it seem like this kind of thing is common, but in reality, I had to actually dig REALLY deep to find this scene. It happens when gravity is reactivated on Hyperion, just as lexi falls to the ground and gets back up, her face makes that stupid look, but you literally have to freeze-frame the video to notice it, because (and I tested this) the expression is only visible for 0.2 seconds. I had to pause the video several times, and advance it frame by frame to even get that face.

Similar to Peebee's backwards gun, silly? yes, but visible for exactly 0.8 seconds, so only noticeable if people go out of their way to point it out.

It became fashionable to hate on the game, and so, a lot of people with little to do jumped on the bandwagon, began watching streams of other people playing, and began to go over each frame with a fine magnifying glass, every imperfection found was plastered online, to make it seem like the entire game looks that bad.

It doesn't.

Foster Addison asides, almost every NPC looks really good. Hair still looks like crap, but then again, bioware has been unable to do good hair for 16 years, so its not like anyone is surprised at this point.

[Selah]

31 hours in, barely touched the main story. Been a pretty good ride. Loving the new crafting system (sniper grenade launcher, yes please) exploration is rewarding enough to keep doing it though I do think it could be a bit more enticing. I really enjoy the skill point system, been taking all sorts of fun new abilities I never use. Game is stunningly gorgeous outside of facial animations. Combat is smooth and can get pretty intense fairly quickly. Rover handles really well, love the fact it has a drifting mode. Story is pretty good, echos the first game a lot. Tempest doesn't feel like a Normandy 3.0 but still feels like home.

My biggest complaints (so far) are that enemy variety is pretty low, and that settling new planets feels really formulaic. The enemies you fight are either the same wildlife, Roekkar, Remnants, or the Kett, which could just be because of how far into the story I am it might vary as I get steeper into it. Though the wildlife thing bothers me because the type of animals I'm seeing on lush twilight jungle planet shouldn't be the same as a Mars-esque desert planet.

[fangless]

I'm happy with it so far, some new mechanics and ideas, but still has the similar feel of Mass Effect.

I've ran into a few technical issues, nothing major, but otherwise this is pretty much what I expected out of a ME game.

[Jastall]

I've never really played any Mass Effect game yet, in fact I don't think I've ever played any Bioware game.

I did get this one for my girlfriend since she's played and really liked all the first 3, and watched her play the first ~2 hours or so, and so far I really can't understand all the hate. I mean, I saw the memes and all, but comparing it to PS2 games and whatnot? I already suspected it was mostly bandwagoning, but now I'm almost sure. Did they improve the animations and such since the beta/trial?

Because of what I've seen so far, while the cutscenes / facial animations are far from great, I really wouldn't call them bad. They're miles away from something like The Last of Us or Uncharted 4, but that's two very very different types of game. I don't really see them being worse than Fallout 4's, for instance. And in the actual gameplay, the game just looks gorgeous.

It's what I always say... some people nowadays seem to just take pleasure in hating whatever they don't love. There's no in-betweens, no nuance, no average, no reasonable, no above average or just enjoyable. If it's not amazing, it's garbage.

It's Bioware, their games have always been polarizing, even before EA bought them off (albeit of course it became worse afterwards). In recent years they've has missteps, and along with the whole political baggage they drag with them (and get saddled with), it creates an environment rife for controversy.

They did improve animations in a patch right before release. As you said, while they certainly aren't Naughty Dog tier, they're not bad enough to distract me. Some of the cutscenes actually look decent. And the game is pretty gorgeous apart from that.

I also just got out of That One Fight on Eos, and ye gods do I need a good rapid fire weapon. I have a Carnifex and a Rezad shotgun on my Vanguard, and while they're good weapons, their slow fire means they take forever to strip shields, and these Anointed bastards are way too dangerous for me to close the distance with their shields up. I'll try to craft a Mattock, but that puts my power cooldowns at uncomfortably high rates. I might have to ditch the Rezad. That fight ended up being real hard, I died 6 times on Hardcore. But I learned that using your mobility to your advantage and picking apart your targets piecemeal is way, way more effective than dashing into the fray ME3-style.

This game's gameplay reminds me of Doom 2016. This is a very good thing.

[Witchblade77]

visually, when my Ryder is neutral - I love her face, but occasionally, she animates just... awfully in cutscenes. there are some facial expressions (especially when she just gets to the cockpit of the Tempest and pilot is explaining things, her face stays in this really weird frown for like 10 seconds at least).

there is some very odd twitchiness here and there. and visually, it ODES look worse then ME3, I don't know if its my screen, or something else, but I cannot figure out how to tweak settings to make it look more consistent. I can pix-elated backgrounds and shadows, there is a weird glow about everything that I'm finding annoying, on one hand I see this incredible detail of skin and fabric up close, on the other hand - background items look like they belong in a 10 year old game at least. in every way my PC is tons better then my laptop, but the game looks worse on it that ME3 does on my laptop. and I'm not having ANY of these issues with inquisition, so I don't even know :/

on combat. I've always had issues with aiming particularly in mass effect. pause is how I aimed. mouse seems especially sluggish (and yes, I went into options and moved the sliders, its still sluggish), cover system is messing me up, I'm not liking how binds are set up and what the fuck with space being used for confirmation of everything, even when its not directly stated? took me like 4 tries to change the color of my outfit and armor, because I didn't realize that yeah.. you have to hit space, or it doesn't apply. also lighting in outfit customization is as deceptive as lighting in character creating. lighting in game washes out everything much more than you'd expect, so something that looks fairly subdued in creator ends up looking blindingly bright in game. granted - this was something present in all bioware games, but this just feels like its been taken up to 11 in Andromeda.

all of these are fairly minor complaints, for me at least. and I can still enjoy the rest of the game. I just... don't enjoy all of it. but seriously, I litteraly enjoy ME1 combat more then ME3. it has some of the same issues, but at least there was a pause to help me get through them.

P.S. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to take screenshots. none of my usual keybinds are working. print screen? nope. f10, f11, or f12? nope. alt+f1 that nvidia share is set to? nope.

[sinilaid]

I feel like dropping the game and I only just reached Eos, dunno why but it's just boring like every aspect about this game feels boring. Story, characters, the world... Maybe I'll give it another try tonight but if it doesn't get any more interesting I'll just drop it and move on. And I love ME 1-3.

[Tenjen]

my plans to base my infiltrator character around flanking the enemy are being ruined by the fact the enemy actively flanks me if attempt to do so.

I have realized i need to reposition my squad mates and design them around countering this. later on, i'll have a profile up to fall back on when this happens.

[rhorle]

I find myself using a shotgun more with my Infiltrator because the sniper rifles I have access to right now are not strong enough to be useful. And I like the the throwback to a me2 character on Eos. The son of zead is kicking kett butt. Though I actually encountered him after spending a dozen or more saves clearing the Kett base. So his quests are silly since he wants me to take stuff out to help taking on the base

[xerus]

P.S. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to take screenshots. none of my usual keybinds are working. print screen? nope. f10, f11, or f12? nope. alt+f1 that nvidia share is set to? nope.

Since you are apparently using nVidia and the game supports Ansel, try Alt+F2. Not in front of my gaming PC to double check other options. Weird that share bind doesn't work though.

PS. Ansel is amazing, doesn't work in cutscenes though.

[Lahis]

So the Sara trailer is finally out.

[Rivin]

I'm also probably one of the few people who is NOT enjoying the combat. at all. I basically switched to narrative difficulty, while still on habitat 7. maybe it gets better? i don't know. all I'm seeing is that all the issues that I typically have with third person shooters? are tenfold with Andromeda. i AM enjoying all the details and callbacks to original trilogy - seriously journals and emails you come across almost remind me of Naughty Dog's subplots.

I had the same problem at the beginning of the game. Combat felt awful. But it's gotten a lot better as I've gotten more points to spend on abilities and gotten better weapon choices. I had to switch the difficulty down from normal to casual during Habitat 7 but I might bump it back up to normal now (just completed the first major mission on Eos) that combat is a lot easier.

[Selah]

So the Sara trailer is finally out.

Glad it was a new trailer instead of the original one with just Sara in Scott's place.

[Witchblade77]

Since you are apparently using nVidia and the game supports Ansel, try Alt+F2. Not in front of my gaming PC to double check other options. Weird that share bind doesn't work though.

PS. Ansel is amazing, doesn't work in cutscenes though.

so... does it just work if I use a keybind? is there something to download? when going to the official site, all I'm seeing is a sales pitch :/

I had the same problem at the beginning of the game. Combat felt awful. But it's gotten a lot better as I've gotten more points to spend on abilities and gotten better weapon choices. I had to switch the difficulty down from normal to casual during Habitat 7 but I might bump it back up to normal now (just completed the first major mission on Eos) that combat is a lot easier.

I hope this will work that way for me as well. I guess we shall see. for the moment, I don't have a lot of things to chose from. I did kinda waste a lot of mats crafting completely un-upgraded Mattock, that I called "mah Baby!" Mattock was my fave in prior games, so i kinda got overexcited :P

[Smitzelplix]

So the Sara trailer is finally out.

Finally! Was really starting to wonder if they were going to release this or not.

[xerus]

so... does it just work if I use a keybind? is there something to download? when going to the official site, all I'm seeing is a sales pitch :/

I'm assuming that you have GeForce Experience installed as you referenced the nVidia overlay. In that case you already have it installed. It requires a supported GPU (most of them) and game support (ME:A supports it). Hitting Alt+F2 should be all you need to do to open the Ansel console in game. This will freeze the game and give you free camera support as well as various other settings to take your shot.

[Witchblade77]

I'm assuming that you have GeForce Experience installed as you referenced the nVidia overlay. In that case you already have it installed. It requires a supported GPU (most of them) and game support (ME:A supports it). Hitting Alt+F2 should be all you need to do to open the Ansel console in game. This will freeze the game and give you free camera support as well as various other settings to take your shot.

aha, so like photomode on playstation! thank you, I'll give it a try later today, hopefuly it works, cause I wanted to share my Sara with couple of friends :P

[PACOX]

I feel like dropping the game and I only just reached Eos, dunno why but it's just boring like every aspect about this game feels boring. Story, characters, the world... Maybe I'll give it another try tonight but if it doesn't get any more interesting I'll just drop it and move on. And I love ME 1-3.

Uh if your just getting to Eos then you haven't scratched the surface of the game yet. Actually it can take a while just to get to Eos if you are one of those people who had to every thing they possibly could on the station before leaving.