I haven’t played a ton yet, but I did settle my first outpost and take a few missions back on the ship. It’s been a while since I’ve played any prior Mass Effect games, so if I make any comparisons my memory is sure to be fuzzy.
First, I love the premise - going to a new system to explore, meet new beings, visit alien worlds. There is a lot of potential here.So I get unfrozen and start my life as a Pathfinder. This involves meeting some new characters. This feels both familiar and slightly off. I remember some of the characters from prior ME games - Mordin, Tali, Garrus, Ashley, Jack, Miranda, Thane, Joker. None of the new ones are grabbing me like the past ones. Is this because I am remembering the prior ones after establishing the relationships and I’ve just met these new ones from Andromeda? Could be. It just doesn’t feel that way. It feels like they just don’t have the same impact.
I go down to the potential new colony site and start exploring. The world is a little sparse, but over all I like the look of it. It feels alien. Visually the only negative is that the alien structure feels very blah. It kinda felt like I was in the Deep Roads in Dragon Age Origins. Discovering info fleshes out what happened. I think the overall story is interesting. By the time I finish the planet it does seem like story bits are dolled out a bit slowly - but I’m still liking it.
Of course there is combat during my expedition and it feels decent. Using powers and shooting things is fun. I always enjoy lifting someone up in the air so I can then shoot them. The negative is that enemies seem a bit floaty and movement kinda jerky - not natural though. Challenge on normal seems decent - if I get careless I will die. I like needing to care.
Too many missions rely on following icons. Andromeda isn’t the first game to do this. It’s a complaint I have about a lot of games. I need to collect clues on a murder. Well, it’s more just running to the next icon because I somehow know exactly where everything is. It’s busywork and I get bored with busywork. Then the conclusion gets me a bit angry because after I collect the clues I find out that while his shot missed he intended to shot the guy. Cool I thought, that’s a twist. But then my only choice is let him go because he technically didn’t commit the murder or exile him (but it’s implied that I’d be suppressing evidence). I want to convict him of attempted murder! I’d probably still exile him, or maybe imprison him.
So far I’d sum it up this way. Andromeda doesn’t seem like a bad game at all, but it is somewhat underwhelming. It is doing a decent job at a lot of things, but maybe not quite reaching the levels I’d hoped. Maybe some of these characters will grow on me, which is usually Biowares’ strong point.
I recommend moving on when you feel done with a planet and not trying to complete every sidequest. I liked MEA quite a lot, but it is way too drawn out.
A lot of the characters and plotlines would have benefited and grown from a sequel (just like ME1 did), but sadly we won’t get to see that.
I finished two planets and felt like I had seen enough and uninstalled. You could definitely feel the DA3 influence on exploration, which isn’t really a good thing. They tried to capture that Skyrim magic but only showed that they didn’t really understand it.
I thought SAM was pretty annoying after a while. He was all knowing and could solve any problem but only after you scoured the entire planet looking for three random data points.
I didn’t realize how far I actually got. I like looking at the table of contents for a walk though to get an idea of how much progress I made. Main quest-wise I’m just under halfway. There are probably a lot of companion quests and other stuff. I tend to enjoy companion quests, but will probably go light on other side quests.
My initial opinion still stands. There are some good story moments and at times I care about the characters. I’m enjoying this more than Red Dead Redemption 2 for sure - even though I liked the writing and world more in RDR2.
I just took a bit of a side trip and did the companion quest for Drack. He is clearly my favorite companion so far - by a wide margin. It was probably one of my top lines of quests so far too, because I really want to take down the dick human operations guy and am hoping it leads to the Krogan returning.
I’m hoping that the other companion quests lead me to like those characters more.It’s not that I don’t think they are well written, I just don’t like them that much. I do like Kallo and Suvi from my crew and tend to stop and chat with them. I also like some of the people back on the Tempest too.
Saving the Krogan Scouts vs the Salarian Pathfinder was a tough choice. Mostly because the Krogans have been shit upon, and I like Drack - but I felt I had to save the fellow pathfinder who just possibly saved my life.
I decided to push ahead with the main story and finished up the game tonight. I probably had about 70 hours of playtime. No major changes to my opinion. The story kept me playing. Too much busywork - scanning planets, driving the mako through the landscape that starts looking similar, too many side quests of just follow the icon. I enjoyed the game the most when I skipped as much of the fluff as I could and focused on the goodness.
I’m glad I saw the main story through. Most of the characters were pretty good even if none of them would make my top list for Mass Effect as a series.The action was decent if not a bit repetitive.
I wouldn’t say this is a must play, but it was enjoyable. Thank you again @divedivedive!
I’m glad you gave the game a chance and managed to have some fun with it. I’m certainly a bigger fan than most but my main Hope was just that people might take the time to evaluate the game on their own terms. Cool that you took the time to do so.
I think that pretty much describes how I felt about the game.
I searched the thread to see what you had to say about the game, but the results stopped in 2017. I think the big difference in our opinions is that you like the mako and planet scanning and exploration stuff, right? You get into the stuff that is there for immersion more than I do? I’m just curious.
I only played the game the one time, oddly. Always meant to go through it again, either doing a new game + on insanity or maybe just run through again with Sarah as the playable character. But that’s why my posts dried up, mainly.
But you’ve summed up my feelings fairly well. I can recognize the game’s flaws but they don’t seem to bother me as much as they do most other folks. And the things it does well really pushes my buttons. I’m just hardwired to really dig space exploration and discovery, I’ll eat up just about anything like that put on my plate.
That said, I’ve never understood the venom that this game endured. It’s judy not nearly as bad as some would have you believe, even if it may not be as good as I would have you believe. So, I like that you have the game a fair shot on your own. Your conclusion is your own.
Spotted the follow up book at the library, Annihilation.
The story of the ark that didn’t make it.
First half was mostly a few aliens bickering, but it gets better after that. Satisfying ending. Each race had their own main character. Drell, hanar, elcor, quarian, volus & batarian.
I didn’t really enjoy the book, but I think a couple of you might be into it. Probably would’ve liked it better if I played more of the first trilogy. It was definitely written for fans.
Mass Effect seems to have a moronic overzealous fan-base in that stupid Internet way. Back flash to the Mass Effect 3 ending. Yeah it sucked, but I am not going to whine about it and demand BioWare change it or whatever that was. Old story. Most game endings suck. It was a mere meh. On to the next game.
I bought the book but have not read it yet. Thanks for the comments, i didnt know it include that many of the other races.
While I sort of felt the same way, I’m personally kind of glad that the fans complained enough that we got the updated ending that got rid of the stupid plot holes at the end. I know that didn’t change the nature of the ending itself, and that’s fine. The author’s intent was preserved. But at least the stupid plot holes were gone, which just made the whole thing feel so sloppy. So even though I personally didn’t evangelize for an updated ending, I’m glad someone did, and that we got one.
I’ve started my insanity run of Andromeda, I feel like I need a little Mass Effect in my life. And it feels good. Like coming home.
I get it. I suppose I just felt Mass Effect wasn’t unique in this regard so I didn’t really care enough. Meh. I actually haven’t even seen the updated ending. Never bothered to go back. I suppose I will replay the trilogy at some point in the future. Not sure when though.
We did get extra content, and it is good extra content, out of all those people throwing a fit. Personally I had no real problem the way it originally ended other than how fast it seemed to end. Thus the extra content really added to experience of ending the series.
And yea, I really consider Andromeda a new series and new game.