Mass Effect Andromeda (2016)

[WhiteNoise]

I've read a few solid reviews and I'm left thinking this game is worth a play. Not that I need a game to play right now but I'll get to it.

 

[freeskier93]

Anyone getting occasional black screens? Supposedly a recent patch fixes that but I still get them.

As for the game in general, I'm 7 hours in and it's par for the course. If you like Mass Effect you'll like this one.

 

[Mem]

Anyone getting occasional black screens? Supposedly a recent patch fixes that but I still get them.

As for the game in general, I'm 7 hours in and it's par for the course. If you like Mass Effect you'll like this one.

I have played about hour at most and found two serious bugs, one sound cuts out in combat and one enemy stays invisible(like 10 minutes plus) so bug maybe. Probably have to reload the game. My verdict so far games needs more polish.

Story seems fine so far however, just lots of little things relating to patching.

I had a go at multi player as well, first round well MEA crashed to desktop, they have made MEA MP icons layout confusing compared to ME3.

My verdict MP layout is terrible compared to ME3 MP which was nice and clean, why they had to make it look more complicated and confusing is beyond me, I do like the game so far but it does have some annoying issues.

I do miss my quicksave option, replaying parts can be annoying since it only has autosave check points from what I have played.

 

[v0id]

So now that we're starting to see some more customer impressions I'm thinking I may have been a little hasty in writing off this game. I really did love the original trilogy (even ME3, though the ending was a bit abrupt), and would like the chance to mess around in the universe again.

My only concern: my PC is, well, pretty long in the tooth at this point. Does anybody know how this game plays on lower spec PCs? I'm running an AMD Phenom II x3 (3 cores, 2.8GHz), 12GB RAM, an a GTX 680 (2GB VRAM). My monitor runs at 1680x1050. Obviously I don't need nor expect max quality settings, but if I can run the game at, say, medium quality and maintain around 30FPS average I'd be happy. For what it's worth, ME3 ran totally fine on this setup - actually, I had an even older and crappier GPU at the time. I don't play a whole lot of brand new AAA games but most of the games I've played in the last couple years seem to run fine at moderate to high quality settings.

Any thoughts?

 

[NTMBK]

So now that we're starting to see some more customer impressions I'm thinking I may have been a little hasty in writing off this game. I really did love the original trilogy (even ME3, though the ending was a bit abrupt), and would like the chance to mess around in the universe again.

My only concern: my PC is, well, pretty long in the tooth at this point. Does anybody know how this game plays on lower spec PCs? I'm running an AMD Phenom II x3 (3 cores, 2.8GHz), 12GB RAM, an a GTX 680 (2GB VRAM). My monitor runs at 1680x1050. Obviously I don't need nor expect max quality settings, but if I can run the game at, say, medium quality and maintain around 30FPS average I'd be happy. For what it's worth, ME3 ran totally fine on this setup - actually, I had an even older and crappier GPU at the time. I don't play a whole lot of brand new AAA games but most of the games I've played in the last couple years seem to run fine at moderate to high quality settings.

Any thoughts?

Well the minimum requirements specify an i3 3570, so your CPU might be a little slow, but otherwise you should be okay. Origin offers full refunds within the first 24 hours, no questions asked, so you could try it out- if it doesn't run acceptably, just get a refund.

 

[v0id]

That's a good idea, I wasn't aware of the 24 hour refund policy. Thanks NTMBK

Well the minimum requirements specify an i3 3570, so your CPU might be a little slow, but otherwise you should be okay. Origin offers full refunds within the first 24 hours, no questions asked, so you could try it out- if it doesn't run acceptably, just get a refund.

 

[Carfax83]

Meh, its back on buy then .. weekend incoming..

If you're a Mass Effect fan, you'll definitely love it and tolerate the flaws.

 

[Carfax83]

That's good info, I'd be curious to know if there was someone who did performance/animation comparisons between RAM levels. The recommendation from Bioware is in fact 16GB, 8 being minimum.

I don't think so, but it was just pure speculation on my part. Kind of makes sense though as the animations are stored in the memory like I said earlier. So far, it seems this game uses about 8.5 to 10.5GB of RAM depending on how long I've been playing. The longer I play, the more RAM it uses, but that's normal since more assets will be stored in RAM.

 

[tamz_msc]

The animations are fundamentally flawed in this game, and I doubt they'll be able to fix it:

What could have been an interesting story about space exploration is ruined by the usual generic bad-guy trope - Corypheus Archon and his Kett.

Will pick it up when its 10$.

 

[cytg111]

The animations are fundamentally flawed in this game, and I doubt they'll be able to fix it:

What could have been an interesting story about space exploration is ruined by the usual generic bad-guy trope - Corypheus Archon and his Kett.

Will pick it up when its 10$.

I agree with everything that man is saying. I've been on the opinion about the eyes for some years now.. Goddamnit when are you guys gonna get the eyes right (not only bioware) and titles like W3 is sorta getting there.. ME4 is a step back.
Anyway, bought it, all loaded up and ready for the weekend.. though I ditched DAI ~30% through, hope this isnt a repeat.

 

[Carfax83]

Well, Bioware Montreal may have screwed up the animations, but one thing they got right for sure is the combat Biotic charge followed by a shotgun blast to the face with my Vanguard Ryder is even more satisfying in MEA than the previous ME games. The jetpack is also a really awesome addition to the gameplay when used properly. Took me awhile to get used to being able to jump and hover and use evade, but now that I have, I am a big time murderer!

Just killed my first fiend in fact. Killed him by:

1) Biotic charge followed by several shotgun blasts to the dome.
2) Evade counterattack
3) Switch to assault rifle
4) Jump and hover in the air
5) Unload entire clip into head

Vanguard for life!

 

[WhiteNoise]

I picked up the game yesterday. Played a solid 3 hours before hitting the sack. The game itself is quite good and fun. The animations like others have said is admittedly cringe worthy. Facial animations are fine most of the time but then some odd animation surfaces that really makes me go ewww.

Then when I watch how the characters run, walk, jump down from objects, run down stairs (looks like the character becomes a crab) it just kills me a little inside.

Then we have the voice acting. For the most part the human voice acting is good enough. But most of the aliens sound pretty bad. When I met the first Krogan I was like...OMG that is not what a Krogan should sound like at all.

Game looks beautiful in 4k though and is still fun. I'm running the game in 4k and not having any slow down issues. I do run 32gb of ram though. I'll have to check and see how much ram the game is using.

 

[cytg111]

Oki a couple of hours in.
Its true.
It *is* retarded.
How some of this sh*, as an RPG, passed quality control I dont know. Eye movement sometimes looks like someone is having a spasm in blender.. at least they're synced.
But its not all bad, so far its engaging enough.
Edit : also, some of the facial animations and weird movements... maybe they just got bad actors? or instructor? Some of it is ....

 

[Carfax83]

When I met the first Krogan I was like...OMG that is not what a Krogan should sound like at all.

That Krogan is female, which is why she sounds like that.

I do run 32gb of ram though. I'll have to check and see how much ram the game is using.

I took this screenshot which showed how much RAM I was using at the time, almost 12.5GB! Granted this was after a few hours of gaming, but I'll be damned if the 64 bit gaming revolution isn't in full swing right now!

 

[WhiteNoise]

Yeah I know it is a girl. That doesn't make it any better! lol
This is what a female Krogan should sound like...any slight variation from this would have been fine. But the one in Andromeda sounds like a white feminine male.

 

[Stuka87]

I have 16Gb of RAM, and the highest I have seen it go is 9GB, but averaged in the 7.5-8GB range.

I am really enjoying the game, the actual combat and such is great, but I am not a fan of the auto cover system.

I did manage to create a pretty decent looking Ryder:

Saw this after a save:

 

[Stuka87]

Oh, I do have one other complaint. I started the game on Hardcore difficulty, as it has always been my starting difficulty for Mass Effect games. However, I died 12 times in a row when I got to the fiend. So I begrudgingly lowered it to normal. Normal is WAY easier than Hardcore. I really think the difficulty ramped up too fast from one to the other. From what I have read Insanity is exceedingly difficult.

 

[Carfax83]

Oh, I do have one other complaint. I started the game on Hardcore difficulty, as it has always been my starting difficulty for Mass Effect games. However, I died 12 times in a row when I got to the fiend. So I begrudgingly lowered it to normal. Normal is WAY easier than Hardcore. I really think the difficulty ramped up too fast from one to the other. From what I have read Insanity is exceedingly difficult.

At Stuka87, you weren't kidding when you said your Ryder was decent looking! You should make sure you save your settings. I went with the default male option as I always do, as I hate playing around with character generators. It will be interesting to see how the statistics play out this time between the amount of players that choose a male or female Ryder.

As for the difficulty, make sure you master evade. Evade makes the game considerably easier once you learn how to implement it in your playstyle.

 

[Stuka87]

She took me about an hour an a half to make, but she came out well.

 

[sandorski]

Been watching a Playthrough, might get it at some point. Dialogue is rather cliche and childish at times, sometimes during dialogue certain characters seem to be looking out for the Cops nervously, the Story itself is somewhat interesting, battles seem decent although repetitive, game kinda reminds me of Mad Max with its' Open World driving with various things scattered about. I think the biggest weakness of it is the lack of the Epic feel the original Trilogy had. I haven't seen the full story yet, so maybe there's a twist yet to come although just saw an interesting twist. DLC might be able to fix any Story issues though.

 

[local]

So I wound up getting it on the cheap after saying I wouldn't until it was super cheap. (I know it is a fault of mine, did the same thing with DA:I.) Only "played" an hour in the CC and up to the first actual gameplay. Quit after that because it was late and I knew I would have to remake my girl. My take on the CC though is that it is not quite as bad as it has been made out to be but it does need a few more options and more hairstyles. Seriously am I an idiot or can you not change eyebrow color at all? Also females that don't look like dumpster fires are pretty hard to make whereas it was very easy to spit out decent looking males.

 

[Elixer]

I have 16Gb of RAM, and the highest I have seen it go is 9GB, but averaged in the 7.5-8GB range.

I am really enjoying the game, the actual combat and such is great, but I am not a fan of the auto cover system.

I did manage to create a pretty decent looking Ryder:

Thing is, while they may look "OK" here... like so

then becomes:

and

taken from this vid:

So, in a game where lots of time is spent with dialog, it just makes zero sense why they didn't fix it.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Agreed. I made my character and was pretty happy with the results and then loaded into the game and my character looks worse. Oh well.

 

[cytg111]

The story telling is decent, there be more glitches though. light sources overly bright, to overly dark in the same cut-scene no less.. On some planet, all my teammates are without helmet.. but not me..
First planet in though, has a mood going that spells prometheus(the movie) for me.. thats like an instant sell, so I am good.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'm going ahead with replaying ME1 instead, though I've barely started (3 hours in, doing the "expose rogue Spectre" citadel quests).

It looks decent at the max 1280x800 resolution with max settings, except that in cutscenes the faces look good but the uniforms all look upscaled from 640x480 -- lo-res blurry garbage. Odd.