[Megathread] Mass Effect Andromeda

[Kantoro]

Frankly, I got bored with the game. Plus, the facial expressions and weird movement was a bit off putting.

[Nazrark]

I ran into the same issue as I did with Inquisition. I have played it twice and don't want to play it anymore (story mode at least). I am still enjoying the multiplayer though.

[rhorle]

Also your other game analogies are crap, since you're attempting to draw equivalence between entire genres that encompass a variety of gameplay, and a very specific multiplayer mode.

Except that there isn't much innovation in basic game play in the games I mentioned. There is no rule saying it has to remain a certain way don't be silly. But that doesn't mean a game is bad for doing what was popular and works for the style of game it is. Mass Effect isn't meant to be a full multiplayer experience. Which is what I was referring to about developing a full game. Anything more the horde mode would start to take it into a separate game as multiplayer.

You also haven't suggest any other potential modes and keep iterating "other modes". What other modes would work for Mass Effect that do not require much work to get up and running? Why is Horde mode so bad anyways? Existing in ME3 isn't a good enough reason to be bad. Because the game play value is still there.

Also the problem with the article you linked is they praise KOTOR when it was an open world game. You can't praise them for doing something while at the same time claiming they shouldn't be making games like the ones you said were great from them. The levels in Andromeda are just much bigger then the ones of KOTOR. Besides the problem isn't that they are "Open World". Its the combat pacing. There isn't much to do on the open world outside of travel around and that is true for a lot of games. Even The Witcher 3 had a lot of down time in between spots or lot of meaningless encounters.

[Deleted]

Besides the problem isn't that they are "Open World". Its the combat pacing. There isn't much to do on the open world outside of travel around and that is true for a lot of games. Even The Witcher 3 had a lot of down time in between spots or lot of meaningless encounters.

The worst. I fucking hate open world games because of that.
It's boring. Travel time is boring.

I think the Open world genre should die out in every game that isn't survival based.

in my opinion, games that utilize open world areas, should unlock them after the msq is completed.
I'm getting side tracked so much, that I sometimes forget what I was actually doing.
Had the same problem in DA:I where I didn't leave Ferelden (?) (starting zone, can't remember the name) @ lvl 12 or something after killing the dragon, just to outlevel the next 2-3 zones.

[I Push Buttons]

Except that there isn't much innovation in basic game play in the games I mentioned.

You also haven't suggest any other potential modes and keep iterating "other modes".

Only there is a ton of innovation in a game like GTA5... Not so much in the likes of Battlefield, but even then there are still new/changed things...

MEA's MP is a legit carbon copy of ME3's...

And there doesn't have to be a new mode for it to be innovative/different.

Instead of generic characters they could have allowed you to, I don't know, make your own character... I mean there is almost no reason for them not to have done that... When you take all of the characters together (by the end) there is basically at least one character for every combination of abilities... So it would seem the only reason they don't let you make your own character is to put up a facade of "content" in the form of new characters when those characters are just different skill combos that you could have and would have otherwise made on your own if given the chance.

They could have made the loot deeper and more meaningful than just "get the boosts you want, get the next higher number of gun you want, the end"... Crazy idea, they could have included armor!?!?!?... Etc...

They could have at least given a token customization system... Changing armor (purely cosmetically speaking), adding accessories... At least a little bit to distinguish your generic character number 9 from other people's generic character number 9... But nah, they just put a color slider.

The amount of effort put into the MP, and by that I mean the lack thereof, is so apparent... As if the only effort they put into it was transposing it from ME3's Unreal to MEA's Frostbite.

[Teishou]

The worst. I fucking hate open world games because of that.
It's boring. Travel time is boring.

I think the Open world genre should die out in every game that isn't survival based.

in my opinion, games that utilize open world areas, should unlock them after the msq is completed.
I'm getting side tracked so much, that I sometimes forget what I was actually doing.
Had the same problem in DA:I where I didn't leave Ferelden (?) (starting zone, can't remember the name) @ lvl 12 or something after killing the dragon, just to outlevel the next 2-3 zones.

That's not necessarily the game's fault, but rather that you seem to be incapable of leaving somewhere undiscovered. It isn't exactly difficult to ignore a series of quests and focus on the main story. The open world is simply there for those who DO wish to explore. If you don't like doing it, why take so long in a single area?

[rhorle]

MEA's MP is a legit carbon copy of ME3's...

Considering character promotions work different, APEX missions are new, and a few other small things it can't be a legit carbon copy.

[I Push Buttons]

Considering character promotions work different, APEX missions are new, and a few other small things it can't be a legit carbon copy.

My bad, they added the cell phone game.

[rhorle]

My bad, they added the cell phone game.

Again wrong. APEX missions add match modifiers that weren't present in ME3. It has nothing to do with the companion app and/or single player completion of the APEX missions.

[Deleted]

That's not necessarily the game's fault, but rather that you seem to be incapable of leaving somewhere undiscovered. It isn't exactly difficult to ignore a series of quests and focus on the main story. The open world is simply there for those who DO wish to explore. If you don't like doing it, why take so long in a single area?

Because it gets messy on the map and it's irritating to see exclamation marks everywhere.
On top of that, it's immersion breaking.

"Look, the world is about to get destroyed, but why don't you do something completely unrelated and go over there - and there - and then there - and then do this - and then this first?"

Rewards vary from being "best items in the game" to "completely and utter useless shit" at random too.
Not exploring means not doing the dragons in DA:I for example, basically one of the few things that is fun.

Ideally, you want to do them when the zone is still "fresh" and you get XP
"doing them later" basically means doing them when they are not difficult and when you outlevel them - which means it'd be extremely boring.

So basically, if you don't do it and focus on the MSQ, you are missing out on everything. Fun, loot, character development, story etc. etc.

On top of that, the "open world" is completely unnecessary most of the time.
Take MGS5:TPP as an example.
But at least that is a game where you can completely ignore roaming on the world map and getting side tracked is not a thing once you realise that "HEAVY SQUAD 5" (or whatever the some certain side-ops were called) are just money grinds with absolutely no story/fluff or importance attached to it.

Overall, if you want to call it "exploring", don't put a freaking quest marker on it.
I explored the sidestuff in DA:I where you had to read the journals/books to get some secret code/interaction (chill-ghost thingy, mansion wraith, secret room inside that palac etc. etc.) that's some good shit. If it has a quest marker however, it basically tells me to do it now and it ruins the "exploration".

I had fewer issues with it in DA:O and ME2 (in fact, none at all) - mostly because the playing Area was more limited and I didn't spend 80% of the time traveling.

[Teishou]

Because it gets messy on the map and it's irritating to see exclamation marks everywhere.
On top of that, it's immersion breaking.

"Look, the world is about to get destroyed, but why don't you do something completely unrelated and go over there - and there - and then there - and then do this - and then this first?"

Rewards vary from being "best items in the game" to "completely and utter useless shit" at random too.
Not exploring means not doing the dragons in DA:I for example, basically one of the few things that is fun.

Ideally, you want to do them when the zone is still "fresh" and you get XP
"doing them later" basically means doing them when they are not difficult and when you outlevel them - which means it'd be extremely boring.

So basically, if you don't do it and focus on the MSQ, you are missing out on everything. Fun, loot, character development, story etc. etc.

On top of that, the "open world" is completely unnecessary most of the time.
Take MGS5:TPP as an example.
But at least that is a game where you can completely ignore roaming on the world map and getting side tracked is not a thing once you realise that "HEAVY SQUAD 5" (or whatever the some certain side-ops were called) are just money grinds with absolutely no story/fluff or importance attached to it.

Overall, if you want to call it "exploring", don't put a freaking quest marker on it.
I explored the sidestuff in DA:I where you had to read the journals/books to get some secret code/interaction (chill-ghost thingy, mansion wraith, secret room inside that palac etc. etc.) that's some good shit. If it has a quest marker however, it basically tells me to do it now and it ruins the "exploration".

I had fewer issues with it in DA:O and ME2 (in fact, none at all) - mostly because the playing Area was more limited and I didn't spend 80% of the time traveling.

Eh, I don't really see the issue, possibly because I can tune all of that out. I don't have to see a map completely clear before enjoying the normal quests. I mean, for something like Far Cry where I can't see anything unless I deal with the towers, it's annoying and cumbersome. For a game like HZD where there are marks everywhere as well, again, I can focus solely on what needs to be done. Either way, you're still blaming a mechanic for something that you could ultimately, very much, ignore.

It wasn't as if there were all that many sidequests to do in ME:A anyway. And most could be consolidated for when you went to a certain other area, instead of bouncing around like a yo-yo.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't even call it a "mechanic" because all it is, is a bigger place to walk around, with much longer traveltime. You use Quick-travel points wherever possible and if there aren't any, you start cursing the game,.

Either I utilize that design, or I don't. If I have a worse time playing when I decide to utilizing that freedom, it failed. Backtracking is never a good thing, and so called open-world games have a lot of that.

[karumayu]

I wouldn't even call it a "mechanic" because all it is, is a bigger place to walk around, with much longer traveltime. You use Quick-travel points wherever possible and if there aren't any, you start cursing the game,.

Either I utilize that design, or I don't. If I have a worse time playing when I decide to utilizing that freedom, it failed. Backtracking is never a good thing, and so called open-world games have a lot of that.

I actually agree on that. I've liked the linearity of ME 2 and ME 3 a lot and in those games where you end up on Normandy as the lobby between missions, talking to companions and mission debrief was a lot more fun to do. But with Open world exploration, back tracking to tempest to talk with companions or check the email seems like a lot of work.

That said I am not against open world, but just think they need to make the post mission aspects more convenient, like establish a outpost that can serve as a hub with all companions present, email terminal etc, or something better.

[Endus]

I wouldn't even call it a "mechanic" because all it is, is a bigger place to walk around, with much longer traveltime. You use Quick-travel points wherever possible and if there aren't any, you start cursing the game,.

Either I utilize that design, or I don't. If I have a worse time playing when I decide to utilizing that freedom, it failed. Backtracking is never a good thing, and so called open-world games have a lot of that.

I think the biggest issue in this regard was that there didn't seem to be much planning put into quest pathing through the maps. Particularly with the "random" quests you get that require random events to occur at various camps. Stuff often ends up redirecting you to a location you've already cleared, and magically, a new door opens now or something. That's frustrating. A system where the various quests were all "active" even if they weren't flagged yet, so if you roll up to the 3rd stage while you're only flagged for Stage 1, you can skip the rest of Stage 1 and all of Stage 2 and just complete it, might have worked better. If the finale is to kill a smuggler at Base Alpha (to make shit up), that smuggler's there even if you never start the quest. And killing him completes it. Have the quest stages give you advantages in those fights; maybe you get a passcode that lets you drop the shields he's hiding behind, giving you better sightlines, or maybe you contact his superiors and he won't get reinforcements any more. If you can't handle the fight, you can hold off until you can, but if you're gonna crush through it, you shouldn't need to come back later like they make you do so much.

Like karymayu said, the stuff returning the the Tempest and such is the worst of it. IIRC, it was Kadara that required me to leave the planet and then come right back to trigger a vidcall that moved a quest along; why?

The game's set up to basically let you 100% most planets as you reach them, so requiring people to keep going back is disruptive. If you wanted to do that, do a Metroidvania type thing where you need various unique upgrades to the Nomad you can get in various places, to enter certain biomes/hazards. Like say, maybe on Voeld there's some deep cold you can't go into, until you get a heat shielding augment from Elaaden that functions just as well as insulation. And then you have significant chunks tucked away that require people to come back later, naturally. Maybe there's a major quest event that lets you access a new area; they actually used this on Havarl and with Eos, but it's underutilized IMO (and with Havarl, it's just part of the initial progression chain, so it doesn't prompt leaving and doing other stuff).

My brain likes 100% completion, so I cleared planets as I went, and I felt it was the "wrong" way to do it, but there wasn't any mechanic in place to prevent it (again, other than Eos, which is why the others all stand out).

[corebit]

Overall, if you want to call it "exploring", don't put a freaking quest marker on it.
I explored the sidestuff in DA:I where you had to read the journals/books to get some secret code/interaction (chill-ghost thingy, mansion wraith, secret room inside that palac etc. etc.) that's some good shit. If it has a quest marker however, it basically tells me to do it now and it ruins the "exploration".

In short, Bioware copied the Ubisoft model (markers everywhere, "complete" a map, etc) when it should have copied the Zelda BoTW model. When the game gives you a pointer on where to go, it's not called exploration anymore.

[Selah]

Out of curiosity, anyone here about DX12 being supported for ME:A anytime soon?

[rhorle]

Latest apex mission https://www.masseffect.com/apex-miss...ssion-brief-08

From the mission lore/text:

[DATA: Raw signal transmission received by Remnant observatory. My analysis accounts for attempted auto-translation by Remnant systems and data fragmentation.

ANALYSIS: "…trying to boost the signal. Unknown if… tech seems to be helping even if we don't know the… back to Keelah Si'yah. …way home."]

Some are taking this as a sign of a Quarian DLC being announced or released soon.

[Lahis]

>Andromeda
>DLC

Wot?

[Mirishka]

In short, Bioware copied the Ubisoft model (markers everywhere, "complete" a map, etc) when it should have copied the Zelda BoTW model. When the game gives you a pointer on where to go, it's not called exploration anymore.

Except the Zelda 'model' copied from a lot of stuff itself. BoTW is great, but people need to stop pretending its this original and infallible thing.

[FobManX]

I don't mind the game giving you a marker on where to go. If there is enough interesting things to explore and run into, you'll often sidetrack yourself anyway.