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Quirkilicious — Andromeda
#andromeda #masseffect #masseffectandromeda
Published: 2017-04-10 17:46:19 +0000 UTC; Views: 50443; Favourites: 2365; Downloads: 711
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Description
News of the latest addition to the Mass Effect franchise hasn't been kind, but from what I've read a lot of it just seems to be people piling on subjective or unnecessary criticisms to a fairly good product. The majority of players went into this game with expectations from the original trilogy, when their agendas weren't met it just resulted in a lot of nitpicking.I took my time finishing Andromeda with an Insanity playthrough, coming out of it I really only have 3 legitimate criticisms.
- The game lacks polish. Mechanical bugs, lack of intuitive UI at times, infamous awkward animations... this is all busy work you'd expect a triple A title to have figured out through play testing.
- It does not improve much upon the original trilogy. It's impossible to not make the relative comparison, in a sense Bioware had a shot at this game 3 times to get everything right if not better. Andromeda plays much like a giant expansion pack than the next big step forward for the franchise. I personally love that it's more of an action game though, however there are also those that miss the niche "tactics" quality of earlier titles.
- It's too big. I say this because it probably created more problems than it solved in the grand scheme of production. Not that I don't appreciate the ridiculous amount of juicy content, but someone had to tell Bioware less can be more. The sheer scale of the game was almost overwhelming for me as a player, (and I just played Zelda: BOTW + FF15) I can only imagine what it was like for the development team. The studio was likely under pressure to make Andromeda as big as possible but quantity never reassures quality and ironically created more problems than it solved.
At the end of the day though, Andromeda still did everything right that I wanted from a Mass Effect title and that's what matters! A large scale sci fi epic, full of delicious geo/racial political issues, some of the best overall writing in the industry (especially in the cast of characters) and an immense world of cultures / planets to explore. It's also a shooter where I get to use space magic, I love it! Really my best advice is, don't let expectations ruin your experience. It's a good game!
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Comments: 110
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Great work - particularly love the sheer joy and excitement you managed to convey in Peebee's eyes!
I'm currently playing through MEA again in the company of a friend, and it breaks my heart knowing this wonderful game is almost certainly never going to get the sequel it so deserves. Between a toxic atmosphere online at the time of its release, internal developer politics and EA's mercenary approach to anything that cannot be milked to death through lootboxing and online play, it had an uphill struggle from the start. But it was so good.
It was so good...
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That is a very nice drawing. 
I agree with you about the problems with the game.
Some people say its all a horrid pile of badness, but honestly, after I played through, it wasn’t that bad at all. My favorite parts of the game are the Angara, Jaal, and the Kett.
Next playthrough, my female!Ryder will romance Jaal, and I will save just before meeting the Angara for the first time so I can use that save as a start off point when I finish that playthrough if I want to.
And as a fanfic writer, I’ll collect the Angara and Kett info I can find, so I can build my info pages I’ve created. And run with the possibilities...there’s so much potential in Andromeda and I refuse to let it go to waste.
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Anyone want a Warhammer 40K x Mass Effect Andromeda x UnderTale crossover?
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Amazing work as always. These three are oddly enough my favorite 3 characters from Andromeda.
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Hey, it was great meeting you at Ottawa Comic Con! Love picking up this print as well as the others. Now I painfully wait for some frames to put them in to hang them up!
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And saved to my Mass Effect file here and on my computer.
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I enjoyed it too. Just finished it. And I'll agree, the scale is a lot to handle for a single playthrough. By the time I reached the final mission, I was 80 hours into the game. Even with DLC, the previous trilogy never clocked in that high.
And seeing as Andromeda probably has DLC coming soon, I can only imagine the scale is going to increase.
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My problem with it is it really wasnt a Me game it was Dragon effect. You're picture is well done grat job.
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Eh? ME and DA have always been more or less of the same thing but just in different genres (Scifi/Medieval Fantasy)
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I agree with your assessment of Andromeda. Overhated even though it's good. Not spectacular like the originals, but good.
And The best characters upfront. We have our new favorite three. Previously it was Liara, Garrus and Tali. This time, it's Peebee, Jaal and Vetra. Great work.
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I've heard that tone of Andromeda is a lot less serious and more light hearted than the original trilogy. How true is this I've been staying away from both news about the game as well as the game itself. I am planning on waiting a couple months until Bioware finish polishing the animations and add more options to the character creator. Honestly the game should have never released as early as it did. I am sick of publishers releasing unfinished games for 60$
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Idk, I feel like Bioware has always had humorous writing just through banter between characters. I wouldn't say Andromeda is a lot less serious, I mean, shit's still at stake, people are dying, etc.
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Main issue I have with the game is the m/m romance options suck.
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What? Got a problem with a little guy on guy action?
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People making fictional bang options an issue like
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This highlights my top three faves, and the three I struggle to figure out who I want to romance.
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Love your Peebee, wish she looked like that in game.
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Whaaaaaat, she's such a cutie in-game. I love her little smirks and kissy-lips~
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Her character design is taken from a another character from bladerunner. Look it up.
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Making it sound like I don't know Bladerunner, hrgh.
Also that's the biggest stretch I've ever seen made, are you seriously making a case based on her facial tattoo? Jesus that's like every spikey haired Anime character that ever existed is Goku. What if it was a homage even?
The level of stupid, I can't.
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I think Andromeda really deserves to be a part of the Mass Effect francise. I agree with all your points except the "too large" part, I love that I get to just sink into it, with no fear of running out of things to do. Especially when I don't want to progress the main story I can just explore, colonise and get resources. I did the same with DA: Inquisition, and I ended up completing everything there is to the game and feeling satisfied. And the end left me waiting for more too, its perfect!
I haven't finished Andromeda yet since I'm savouring it, but so far everything I see I love. I'm guessing they will polish up on alot of the awkward glitches and such with patches (which I think shouldn't be standard procedure, those things should've been dealt with before release).
About the artwork, I could stare at it for hours. It includes my three favourite characters portrayed very accurately, on my favourite planet so far. If you don't mind, I'll use this as my phone background c:
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I am enjoying my play through, my only real frustration is the R&D menu which is atrocious. Great piece here.
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As a general aside, everyone make certain you finish the "Movie Night" quest - it results in one of the (if not THE) best scenes in the game. The quest is bugged, though, so you may have to lookup a walkthrough - I can tell you that where it usually breaks down is needing to talk to Jaal (maybe a few times) back on the Tempest after you finish the main quest line. Do not miss out on this scene!
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I found that it was just big enough, in my opinion. I did everything in the game on normal difficulty and it took me approximately 80 hours. That seems just about right. I never really felt that the game was lagging or overly boring, but I did feel as though I got to do a lot in it. I particularly loved the character building scenes with your crew - planting a garden, or climbing a mountain, it felt like you were actually making an effort to get to know your crew. There were too many fetch quests, there is no doubt about that, but they were easily ignored if you wanted to and almost all of the non-fetch quests add something to the overall story. (Seriously, meeting Zaeed's son was worth the detour from my main quest)
It does have its problems, though, and there can be no doubt about that. ME:A reminds me a lot of DA2 - a great game with some notable failings. But I am glad I purchased and played it - I had a fantastic time, overall, and find myself really looking forward to their DLC.
I find it interesting, though, how Bioware games are progressively becoming more and more about your relationships with the supporting cast. I could see an ideal Bioware game playing a lot like a Telltale Games product, focusing heavily on character and really just glossing over the combat elements entirely. I know I would buy that game.
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I personally think the critiques as well as defences are mostly fair enough.
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I should really consider starting to play Mass effect series too, Andromeda looks awesome.
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Love seeing my two main group mates (Vetra and PeeBee). I'll jump in with the rest and say that it missed some marks that I might have made too high for this. That said, I'm having fun with it, even though it took 30+ hrs for me to finally admit it.
The 'busy work' is hitting me HARD and right pissing me off. The size of the game would have been fine by me if it wasn't miles of near nothing of interest. Once those fast travel options rose I was all about them.
It is VERY rough to put this out after the Space Opera that was the first three. If a player can pull it back a bit, like I had to force myself to do, it can be pretty enjoyable.
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ME:A is the sequel to ME1 that some of us were expecting. I'm not saying there was anything wrong with ME2 and 3 (aside from that horrible ending, but it is easily ignored), but they weren't crpgs in the way that 1 was and Andromeda tries to make up for that. Andromeda is certainly a game, though, which needs to be experienced in whole in order to properly appreciate it. As you said, it took 30 hours to really appreciate the complexity of the game and that is entirely correct; this is a game which builds upon itself, like a television series, and only watching a small part of it will never reveal the value of the whole. I probably only really started appreciating the game about 40 hours in, when I saw things coming together and building upon themselves in simple, but interesting ways. The character stories and design in the game were certainly the best parts.
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My biggest concern are the people just getting into ME. Andromeda won't be a shining light that will convince many to try out the originals.
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I agree with this, it was a good game, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite it's imperfections. Well done on the illustration!
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Yeah, the game has some serious problems, but it does so much right that, if you play the entire thing, you can't help but appreciate the work that was put into it. It's not a game which can be played and judged in under 30-40 hours, though.
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True, spent 65 hours on it, still haven't done everything...
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