As a card carrying ME3 ending hater, I hate that they did the extended ending. Because a) it set a bad precedent, and b) I think the extended ending is even worse. Fixing the continuity errors is nice I suppose, and genuinely everything before genocidal casper is better, but I don’t think it was worth the tradeoff.
My ME3 ending ends at Citadel DLC though I did download the texture packs for all three ME games to mod the games sometime.
I don’t see how fixing continuity errors set a bad precedent. If they had changed the nature of the ending itself, that would have set a bad precedent maybe about companies going against authorial intent in order to mollify fans. But that’s not what happened. If anything, fixing the plot holes probably made it closer to the author’s intent and vision.
I guess I really should expect this when I bump a Mass Effect thread.
Fixng continuity errors like Ashley lying crumpled on the ground, apparently dead, during the final assault and then strolling out of the Normandy later = good. Mollycodling the complainers by expanding the ending and doubling down on the pro-eugenics message = bad.
Like, I don’t disagree that the ending didn’t fundamentally change anything, it just double-underlined it. I just found the message awful to start with, and double-underlining it just made it worse, and the fact that they altered the ending on the surface if not in substance made the internet shit-brigades feel empowered.
Yeah. I could talk about and debate about the ME3 ending for days, but it really should be taken to the ME3 thread, and leave this for Andromeda, where we complain about the fans who ended up killing having any follow-up to this game, because they’re entitled morons.
So anyway, I’m having a pretty good time with the insanity run. Making a few different choices this time, like establishing a military rather than scientific outpost on Eos. It doesn’t have huge repercussions but it does affect some conversations later on.
I’m also cheating just a bit by using a build that maximizes damage, mainly with a Piranha shotgun that’s now fully auto with unlimited enemy-seeking ammo. Yeah, it kind of trivializes the combat, but oh well.
I finally remembered to try this again on my new PC. The old one would inevitably generate hard crashes preventing me from leaving the ship. Reinstall EA Origins, d/l the game, it had the saved file letting me pick back up, and I immediately leave the ship and do a few missions. Awesome.
Well since you went to the trouble of bumping the thread, I’ll just chime in that I started my third playthrough of the game over the weekend. I can’t quit you, Andromeda!
I spent a lot of time playing through Andromeda - I wanted to take my time after hustling through my insanity run. Mainly I wanted to see what a little time and distance did to my impressions of the game. And I haven’t been disappointed - I still really love this game. The things that it gets right really shine for me, and the flaws just don’t feel as jarring.
Now clearly that’s going to be YMMV. Lots of people never got past “my fade is tired” and well and good. Everyone’s got their standards. I will say this though: I’ve never felt like a game was made for me like I do when I play Andromeda. This game hits so many beats just right in my brain that I can’t get too upset about the ones it misses.
There’s still more combat than I personally enjoy - but it is balanced out with lots of exploration and even some diplomacy. Not a lot, but it’s there. And you can get lulled into thinking you’ve got all the time in the world for a side quest and then find out that oops, maybe you didn’t priories that so well. I needed to get back to the nexus to defuse some bombs that an AI-hating faction left, and I assumed they’d wait for me. Well, most did, but I was told that one went off and took out some of hydroponics. Ok, you may say, what does that mean? Did it have an appreciable effect on the world? No, not that I can tell. Nobody went hungry, there was no in-game cost. But I did find it interesting.
I like that on the open worlds, I can hear far off gunfire, then if I turn to look in its direction I’ll see distant flashes from the muzzles of weapons. And I can head right over and jump in. This feels more “real” for lack of a better word.
I picked up the art book of Andromeda, and there was a page with images of an underwater world. Man, I wish that could have made it to the final game. But I still like what I ended up with.
You sold me on this game a long time ago - just need to get around to finishing ME 3 (which I only put a few hours in last year).
Tempted to start this one (ME 3 didn’t grab me like the first two games) - will I spoil anything by playing Andromeda now and getting back to ME 3 later? I know Andromeda was not directly related to the original trilogy (at least that’s the impression I got), but would my enjoyment of it be improved by finishing the original trilogy?
Also, did they eventually patch the graphic issues and bugs I remember reading about at release? Will be playing this on Xbox One X. I recall that Bioware stopped working on further updates very shortly after its disappointing release.
Game plays fine now. No real need to play ME3 story wise. They set it up as a pretty clean reset.
Overall, it won’t affect your enjoyment. Really the only ties back to the original trilogy are incidental - you’ll meet characters that tie back to certain characters or incidents in that trilogy, but not knowing that won’t affect your enjoyment of Andromeda in my opinion. I won’t go into details here, but I can provide a couple if it would help.
This is a good call, because they did release a high-res pack much later for the XB1X, including HDR. It looks pretty great, this is how I play it too. There are still graphical bugs though, it’s not perfect. Sometimes you’ll go into combat and see enemies holding invisible guns, for one thing.
Again, I’m way off the deep end as far as feelings about this game, most people are, at best, indifferent about it. But while I loved the original trilogy, I always lamented that they abandoned the “open universe” of the first game and stuck to a critical path of missions. Andromeda returns a lot of that openness and freedom to how you approach the game, and it really worked for me. And while some of the missions are pretty same-y, some of them really sing. Don’t skip any team member loyalty missions, is my advice.
ME3 is great though, for the fan service if you have any attachment to the companions.
Anthem’s your huckleberry.
Let’s not cross those particular streams, shall we?
ME3 is generally great, if one ignores the finale. The citadel expansion - despite being a bit out of place in a desperate war for survival - is hands-down the greatest love letter from a game developer to their fans ever created. And the banter is just pure gold.
“He messed with my hamster guys. Now it’s personal.”
When they eventually do a remaster, I’ll probably buy it just for the sake of re-experiencing the NPCs and getting to the Citadel pay-off again.
Sad that the PC version doesn’t have HDR now. It’s a far prettier game even just 4K than people gave it credit for, though.
I would say don’t feel obliged to do any side quest you aren’t feeling (loyalty missions aside) but I thought a lot of them had enough narrative color to be worth my time.
IF!! I cried through 1/3 of ME3. I’m not even kidding. Literally sobbing.
That’s good to know! And I really loved ME2 because of the team member stories/missions - I really didn’t care (too much) about the overarching story.
I have nearly 2 weeks off at the end of the year so will have plenty of gaming time - will get back to ME3, finish that up and then start ME:A.