Board 8 > Should I wait to start Mass Effect Andromeda? [patch?]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Finally have some free time and I want to play a bit because I don't think I have played a video game in like 3 months. ME is one of my favorite series so Andromeda is one of my top priorities...but I hear it's a mess. But apparently a patch is coming soon? Is it gonna fix the animations and stuff I have heard so much shit about? Is that even possible?
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That's supposedly what the patch is aiming to fix, but Jeff Zero is the guy to ask for details here.
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I would also like to know this @Jeff_Zero

Even despite the animations, I hear the game is trash though
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Whoa we can tag people now

I summon you @Jeff_Zero
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Not that I'm a guy either of you are going to listen to, but the technical issues have always just been an excuse. The reality is that the game itself is just fundamentally worse than its predecessors in nearly ever way save straight up combat.

So, if what you come to Mass Effect for is the third person cover shooting, then I guess you might get something out of it. Spent 67 hours beating it and 100% every planet, and I came out with the conclusion that I would have rather not played it at all in the first place. In fact, the handful of insane glitches I did get were the best part of the experience.
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I'm perfectly willing to listen to you when you're not baselessly accusing me of assaulting innocent people.

Thanks for the input. So are you saying that the conversation aspects of the game are worse than the original trilogy? In what way?
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LapisLazuli posted...

Not that I'm a guy either of you are going to listen to,

the containment topics also contain my disdain for terrible users, so dont worry

thanks for the input
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Ryder HAS a personality. They give you the option to say things in a certain tone, but whenever Ryder has dialogue of their own it's the same minorly sarcastic person and often vary heavily in tone from dialogue you just chose. The Paragon Renegade system had flaws, but it felt very different depending on how you played it. Everything Ryder does and whichever personality you play him feels....superficial, meaningless. Knowing the decisions won't carry over anywhere doesn't help, but by the end they all felt pointless even in the context of the game.
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Oh, and the open worldness of the open world is bottom of the barrel bland and lifeless. It's a checkbox on a marketing list, not something that adds to the game in a meaningful way.
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UltimaterializerX posted...

A character just introducing themselves by going "hi I'm trans"

haha what
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I already bought the game so I'm definitely playing it, I'm mostly wondering if waiting will help me enjoy the game more. I'll just start if the patch isn't coming any time soon though.
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There's apparently another one coming

https://gamerant.com/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-505/
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Honestly the worst thing about the technical issues is the false narrative that it's created that "hey once it's patched up it'll be great guys!".

No. The game didn't get to the low aggregate it has just because of bugs. The game just doesn't deliver anywhere beside the slicker combat.
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JetJaguar posted...

I already bought the game so I'm definitely playing it, I'm mostly wondering if waiting will help me enjoy the game more. I'll just start if the patch isn't coming any time soon though.

Completely ignore every single quest under the "tasks" session.
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

UltimaterializerX posted...

A character just introducing themselves by going "hi I'm trans"

haha what

Is this literally what happens? Fucking Canada, man.
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It's not EXACTLY that but yea it's pretty fuckin ham-fisted
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It's a great game just the way it is. No need to wait.
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I really like Andromeda and I'd be reluctant to take the advice of a guy who supposedly hates it but got 100% anyway...!

It's not as good as 2 or 3 but it's cleanly better than 1.
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You should start ASAP if you care about online.

There's currently a bug that makes your single player difficulty affect the armor strength of multiplayer enemies, great for farming. XD
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LeonhartFour posted...

I really like Andromeda and I'd be reluctant to take the advice of a guy who supposedly hates it but got 100% anyway...!

It's not as good as 2 or 3 but it's cleanly better than 1.

Yeah, the ol "this game is complete shit, and I should know because I played it for 150 hours" trick
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LeonhartFour posted...

I really like Andromeda and I'd be reluctant to take the advice of a guy who supposedly hates it but got 100% anyway...!

It's not as good as 2 or 3 but it's cleanly better than 1.

....huh?
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Bioware has been making the same kind of game since KOTOR and peaked as far ideas for partymembers in concerned. Also the soundtrack isn't quite as good as the trilogy and the Heleus cluster is a poor substitute for having the Milky Way as your worldmap. Other then all that it's a fine sequel.
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Cool I might start tonight
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Ulti, no offense, but I've never read one if your reviews and the first couple sentences of this one make me never want to. <_<

Are all of your reviews, like.....this?
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LapisLazuli posted...

LeonhartFour posted...

I really like Andromeda and I'd be reluctant to take the advice of a guy who supposedly hates it but got 100% anyway...!

It's not as good as 2 or 3 but it's cleanly better than 1.

....huh?

You heard me.
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LeonhartFour posted...

LapisLazuli posted...

LeonhartFour posted...

I really like Andromeda and I'd be reluctant to take the advice of a guy who supposedly hates it but got 100% anyway...!

It's not as good as 2 or 3 but it's cleanly better than 1.

....huh?

You heard me.

I don't actually know what your implying though. Are you saying you don't think I actually played the game?
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No sane person logs 100+ hours on a game they think is terrible.

So you're either lying (or at least massively exaggerating) on one dimension or the other. Either you didn't play for nearly as much as you said you did, or you don't hate it nearly as much as you claim to.
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I thought I was being pretty clear! The "supposedly" was before "hates," not "100%" there.

The idea of maxing out a game you don't like is pretty baffling to me.
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The combat of the game is a lot of fun. It's honestly fun to see how combat encounters change when you're swapping profiles; there's one specific kind of "boss" you fight that I played once as an Infiltrator and then as a Vanguard...yeah. Having to change styles is just fun, and on higher difficulties the fun lies in finding the build that doesn't instantly get you killed.

Aside from that though...a lot of the characters are pretty bland. While the quests are lifeless husks like Inquisition, don't expect too many deep and engaging side-narratives. They're in-depth enough to make you feel like they matter, but generally speaking, that's the extent of it.

The writing is also somewhat of a problem. It's VERY nerdy, and sometimes really feels like a fanfic as opposed to someone actually writing dialogue that would happen between people. This is also a personal issue, but the tone is far too casual. You're not on a military mission, but the "eh, whatever" vibe so many of your crew has is insanely infuriating. If any part of you enjoyed being Renegade, forget about. Ryder will NEVER be mean or harsh. It's not happening. The idea behind the conversation system is neat, but it simply does not work.

There's potential there. But go in with your hopes as low as possible; it'll help.
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Kinda similar to Lapis, I beat Dragon Age: Inquisition clocking in just over 100 hours, and I walked away from it pretty disappointed. Not sure I regret my time input completely -- I'm just not sure how to feel good about spending so much time on an experience I deemed 'pretty bad'. I think the experience was bad on the whole, but looking bigger picture it was different for me to invest so much time into an experience that I wasn't really enjoying, and am now able to talk about at length. That's probably worth something, as I usually drop games I'm not enjoying that much, and thus can only talk about all my good experiences with such time investments.

I think it's probable that Lapis enjoyed parts of Andromeda but ultimately believes the negatives outweighed the positives, as I have for Inquisition.
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LapisLazuli posted...

So, if what you come to Mass Effect for is the third person cover shooting, then I guess you might get something out of it. Spent 67 hours beating it and 100% every planet, and I came out with the conclusion that I would have rather not played it at all in the first place. In fact, the handful of insane glitches I did get were the best part of the experience.

Thank you, will either be skipping this or waiting for a $15 firesale.
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SmartMuffin posted...

No sane person logs 100+ hours on a game they think is terrible.

So you're either lying (or at least massively exaggerating) on one dimension or the other. Either you didn't play for nearly as much as you said you did, or you don't hate it nearly as much as you claim to.

I'M massively exaggerating? Where I this 100+ hours thing coming from? How do you round up 65 to 100??

I put that much time into it because I didn't want to miss anything that might have actually been good or payed off. Primarily because I didn't know until I beat it that they weren't going to be transferring data to another game this time.
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Peridiam posted...

I think it's probable that Lapis enjoyed parts of Andromeda but ultimately believes the negatives outweighed the positives, as I have for Inquisition.

I thought the loyalty mission for.....the black guy was pretty funny.

I've been sitting here for a solid minute trying to remember his name and I just can't. I cannot remember half the names...
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LapisLazuli posted...

Spent 67 hours beating it and 100% every planet, and I came out with the conclusion that I would have rather not played it at all in the first place.

LapisLazuli posted...

Oh, and the open worldness of the open world is bottom of the barrel bland and lifeless. It's a checkbox on a marketing list, not something that adds to the game in a meaningful way.

This sounds like what I wrote after beating Inquisition.


Peridiam posted...

I played the game for 100 hours and am walking away from it rather indifferent. Parts were cool and pretty, parts were bland and unoriginal.

Inquisition has this weird dynamic where some of the plot points are well done, the numerous cut-scenes really get you pumped, and the environments are gorgeous to look at and traverse. Yet the core gameplay is nothing like that--it's basic, bland, and uninspired.

It's too much MMO, not enough RPG. And yet it's offline.

It's had a ton of time and effort put into it, but perhaps a lot of it was allocated to the wrong areas of the game. Instead of focusing on all the bland, monotonous quests, maybe they should focus on combat mechanics. Instead of including so much dialog, why not create more variety in enemies or NPC character models, or make the 'hub' of the game more engaging, or... just make the game more interactive outside of collecting herbs and ores all day.

I think a big part of my lack of enthusiasm finishing the game was understanding the BioWare system. When I first played a game like KotOR or Mass Effect, I wasn't as understanding of how BioWare games operate. Even though it's a game and yeah all games are programmed to run certain ways, it's overtly apparent how these games work. You do a story mission, go back to base, unlock new character cut scenes for each companion, eventually there's a single side quest for each, and then you rinse and repeat until the game is over. This is exactly how it went, and I knew it from the start.

Knowing the system took away the surprise or excitement. It was like doing the rounds, over and over, for nearly 100 hours. Each zone has the same system as well, the same basic quests, where a lot of them are collectible quests that have basically no meaning. It's quantity over quality here and it doesn't add anything to the game except more time.

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JetJaguar posted...

Whoa we can tag people now

I summon you @Jeff_Zero

I haven't played it yet.
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I'd probably wait until the game goes on sale below $10 before buying it.

Because that's about how much value I'd place on it >_>
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Honestly there is a solid 40 hours of content in here.

There's also another 60 hours of worthless content and not a lot of great ways to distinguish one from the other.

The problem is there is SO MUCH content and so little of it pops and that which does is treated no differently than that which doesnt which helps create thia feeling that nothing youre doing has any consequences which is the exact opposite of what Mass Effect should feel like.

For instance:
its laid out that as the Pathfinder your job is to get outposts on these planets up and running and to protect them from invading forces. However beyond one outpost set up and one invasion of a kett base all of that is actually optional and as such FEELS optional. Even if some of it could have been really interesting content - the AI on Voeld for instance.

And once the outposts are up they are these soulless collections of the same modular buildings over and over and it never feels like youve made much progress when you go back to the Nexus.

Conflicts related to this activity teased at the beginning of the game with Tann, Addison and Kesh literally never develop until the very very end. This game badly needed rails to guide you through all of its best content and to cut all of the shit forcing you to fight the same 2 or 3 battles ad nauseum (literally all 2 of the 3 enemy types are just palate swaps of each other).

As it stands, the multiplayer is far and away the best part of the game and thats just sad
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

LapisLazuli posted...

So, if what you come to Mass Effect for is the third person cover shooting, then I guess you might get something out of it. Spent 67 hours beating it and 100% every planet, and I came out with the conclusion that I would have rather not played it at all in the first place. In fact, the handful of insane glitches I did get were the best part of the experience.

Thank you, will either be skipping this or waiting for a $15 firesale.

Don't skip it.
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He can skip it if he wants!

His call to make.
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thank you captain obvious for such an illuminating insight

for a second there I thought I could actually force yoblazer to do my bidding
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He's contractually obligated not to skip it due to Rule of Acquisition #33 Subparagraph 11.
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I don't know why you decided to start a grudge aginst me a couple months ago.

Far as I can recall we've never interacted before that.
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spoilers I am this sarcastic to everyone

you didn't do anything "special" and there is no "grudge" here
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I dunno, you call me out in every topic we both post in.

...Every single time.
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not my fault you put up a bunch of easy things to lob a sarcastic comment at and our tastes rarely coincide

I don't "hate" anyone here although I do "hate" it when people force me to break kayfabe and admit that I don't actually mean most of the stuff I say
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