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jp's Mass Effect: Andromeda (PS4)
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| [June 12, 2024 06:45:17 PM]
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Finished!
I decided to commit to two things before moving on (which took ~10hrs). First, finish the story - which was more fun and interesting than I expected. The last few missions were similar to the first few - more dramatic, little cut-scenes in between, more action/adventurey... So, all around good. Second, I wanted to get all the planets to 100 viability. Partly this was because there was a trophy attached - but mostly because I enjoyed driving the rover around and I thought it wouldn't take too long (I was wrong about the second part).
Overall, I really enjoyed it and could have easily enjoyed spending more time on/with the game. I decided not to continue mostly because I have a drawer full of other PS4 games (too many) I also want to play and this is the time of the year during which I can make the most progress whittling down that backlog...
Looking back, this game is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination - there's plenty of weird wonky stuff, bugs here and there, inconsistencies in the story and characters, etc. BUT, despite all these little things, the core was fun enough for me to engage with and play. So, I really do feel like it's a good game and I'm glad I played it.
Design-wise I think that what surprised me the most (in a good way) is how much variety and variation there is within an easily understandable goal framework. So, for each planet I knew I had to "activate" 3 towers and then visit a vault. The first planet I did this on was pretty demanding on this - the vault was a whole mission with lots of steps and so-on. It took time! So, I was kind of dreading what would happen with the other planets. Oh no, that's four more vaults at X time each...this will take forever! But, it didn't. Some vaults were pretty short/easy. Some of the tower activations were similarly short/simple. And I really appreciated this! Each planet had it's own flavor/style/innovation/difference within the broader structure. The last planet I did (Kadara?) was the one where things were more political - I had to talk to NPCs, do stuff for them and so on. Other planets were more "complete tasks at certain locations". So, lots of variation and variability within the overall goal structure and - my sense - one that generally favored the player. So, mostly, I felt like "oh, nice - that took less time or effort than I assumed" rather than the opposite.
Fun things from the ending:
a. You can continue playing and doing tasks and so on - but the game forces you into a little "celebration task" that is mostly you talking to your crew about "winning" and them leaving the door open to finishing tasks that are still pending. I thought it was a nice way to combine long cut-scenes with the ending AND the fact that you'll probably do more stuff. Many games sort of ignore the fact that you "beat the game" and you keep on playing as if nothing happened.
b. My in-game inbox filled up with messages from NPCs thanking me for "winning". Nice touch! I read some but not all of the messages and it definitely contributed to making the "win" feel more impactful.
To be fair, I was mostly ignoring story stuff and kind of zipping around completing tasks - so, not playing the game with a role-player story-first attitude. Despite this, the game's story did start to grow on me! And, I think it's pretty cool how it's really set outside the Mass Effect continuity (happens both during ME2 and 3 and long after 3) with a sense of loss. The game takes place 600 years after ME3 (aprox) because that's how long it takes to get to Andromeda. And, while you can get some communications from when ME3 was happening (oh, the reapers are attacking!) you don't really know what happened. As far as you know - the Milky Way galaxy is "over" (reapers won, life set back). Supposedly you could have a ME: Milky Way? (where people from Andromeda head back to the Milky Way to recolonize it? (assuming ME3 ended poorly, of course).
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| [June 5, 2024 03:16:58 PM]
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At 40 hrs in and a little over 50% completion I'm starting to get itchy to finish the game...
I've had some pretty surprising (to me?) game misunderstandings so far that I though I'd document:
a. Every now and then you run into a Remnant (ancient alien) situation that requires you solve a simple sudoku-style puzzle (with symbols not numbers). So, I'm doing these puzzles and - like sudoku - there's a grid and I notice that some of the grids have subdivisions and I wonder about that. I continue making progress and I get to some puzzles I fail! Now, I'm sure I had submitted a valid solution! And then, there are other puzzles for which I can't find a logical (unique) path to a solution (rather, you get to a moment where you can try A or B instead of "it has to be A"). I think this is weird, and poorly designed. And then..I read the text on the puzzle - and it says you need to make sure the symbols don't repeat within the subdivisions (in addition to rows and columns). Doh! I'd been breezing through a bunch of these on pure luck?
b. When I got to the icy planet (Voeld?) I thought huh, this is weird that there isn't a chance to use to rover... The first time you get there it's all on foot and you're raiding a base. So, it wasn't until I went back later that I realized there's a larger planet/area to explore. When you appear - the rover isn't there (as usual) and I didn't see any of the "rover spawn" places on the map either...so, I just started running down the cliffside. It's cold - so your suit starts to lose power but now and then you run into an area with a heater that restores it! I think, oh! This is interesting, on this planet you have to be very careful and deliberate about moving between spots - so, I'm picking points of interest I think I can get to with no real plan and hoping I don't die. And, I make my way across a large part of the map this way! But, it's slow going, and starts to get boring - rather than "ooh, survival can I make it challenge?". Ugh. So, I fast travel back to the start - thankfully that worked - and I'm kind of wondering what to do next, so I head over to what was the enemy base...and THERE I unlock a bunch of stuff including the chance to use the rover, oops! (I headed back to the base also because I saw "rover tracks" in the snow - and went, wait a minute, how come I can't use the rover, this makes no sense!).
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| [May 21, 2024 06:23:03 PM]
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I've hit 20 hours and going strong.
I've already rendered the first planet 100% viable! (I think this was ahead of schedule because I've gotten messages about going back to the planet to see what's going on, but I've already been, and things are great!)
I've also uncovered the "truth" about the kett and their abductions of these other aliens whose name I forget. Supposedly we're all friends now and I think I have to go find another planet to settle? As in, I only have one colony - and I think, based on the empty spaces in the UI that I'm supposed to eventually get to 4? It seems like a lot!
That being said, I've been pleasantly surprised by how non-formulaic the game is. I was half expecting to do a whole thing again on the 2nd planet, but it was very different and varied in such a way that it wasn't boring. So, different activities and such. Though, no access to the little rover which is pretty fun to drive around (and, it's surprisingly hard to get it stuck on the scenery or put out of commission, and trust me, I've tried some wild stuff and it works just fine).
There are also these "away" missions I can send people on and then collect rewards (if they succeed) in 4 hours or whatever. I'm torn on these - I like getting more resources, but I'm not a huge fan of having to spend a few minutes going to the place in the ship where I can access the interface for those missions, assign new ones, and so on. It starts to feel a bit like busywork...
I'm still very much on the "when this gets boring I'll bail" because I feel like I've gotten a reasonably good understanding of the game (even if I haven't maximized combos and nonsense with the different powers and combat abilities)...
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| [May 13, 2024 05:44:13 PM]
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After an "ooh, that was close" moment where I almost bailed (there was a door that bugged out and didn't open, wasted a lot of time backtracking to figure what I missed, went online saw that it was supposed to open and quit the game, next day, when I loaded again I was thankfully at the door and it worked), I must say that I'm really having fun with this. Mostly I'm enjoying the fantasy the game provides: lead a community in creating a settlement in an undiscovered (to you) galaxy.
So far I've created the first "foothold" on a planet (a science base instead of a military one) after "magically" (deus ex machina moment for sure) being able to interface with an ancient(?) alien technology that somehow near instantly controls the weather making everything work. There's apparently a whole network of these alien structures across different planets and I imagine I'll be investigating more of them!
Doing this unlocked a new mechanic/system in the game where I can automate some resource generation because there are enough "viability points" (well explained in the game's narrative!) to bring out a group of people from cryo-hibernation to continue working on settling.
I think I'm a little over 8 hours in... I have no idea how much longer I'll engage or id this will start to drag/grind a bit? We'll see..
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| [May 7, 2024 06:25:53 PM]
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I know this game was reviewed quite poorly. I only remember stuff about the characters (art) and animations not being very good. I'd guess there was other stuff too, but that's all I recall as I type this.
So, I'm fully expecting to play a bit of the game, get tired/bored/frustrated, and then I'll move on. BUT, I'll be able to say - "yes, I have played one of the Mass Effect games for a few hours" and I'll have a better sense of the series even if it is coming from the least respected main-line entry.
I'm only a few hours in at this point - more hours than it should be due to technical issues with the disc: it didn't work while installing on the PS4, so I installed in PS5 instead, and then I had issues....and, anyways. I think it's all solved now... but - I've made it to the point where you gain access to a ship and I'm expecting to start flying around and doing missions and enjoying a bit more freedom than I have so far. BUT, so far it's been pretty fun and I'm genuinely curious and interested to continue playing...so we'll see!
The game's early intro is interesting - for an RPG in my view - because it leads with all-action stuff! There's moving around and jumping and shooting... Sure, there was some story and cut-scenes and what not. But the gameplay was all on-planet action based! I was like "woah, this is not the RPG I was expecting". And then there's an important story moment (my father dies! I'm now the pathfinder, so much responsibility), and the entire next section of the game is sort of the introduction to what'll probably be the main cast of other characters - namely everyone else on the ship we're on as part of a big "lets colonize other galaxies" effort. I walked around, talked to people, accepted missions/tasks, solved a case of someone sabotaging something in the ship and got a big info dump on "what is generally going on here".
So, in these few hours I feel like I've just had the intro stuff and that now the game will "open up" into the rest of the game!
I'm pretty excited to be honest and yes, the characters don't look "great" and I saw the AI do some weird stuff...but, it's all good.
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jp's Mass Effect: Andromeda (PS4)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 4 May, 2024
GameLog closed on: Wednesday 12 June, 2024 |
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This is the only GameLog for Mass Effect: Andromeda. |
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