'I like or love the game' (General feedback)

I got emotional reading the telephone book today.  That doesn't make it poetry but speaks volume about how emotional I can be.

Or there was something in the telephone book that got you hooked XD

Hahaha. Nice one.

I beat it yesterday after 71h and have 93% explored.


I was really excited when I heard that Andromeda was coming out, but the more and more I found out about the game, the more I got worried about it. Still, I got the 10h trial and took another hit to the gut when I saw the graphics (XboxOne. I even joked with my hubby, saying that's how the Xbox360 players felt when DA:I came out.) Anyway, once I came back up from Habitat 7 my issues with Graphics were forgotten. The story gripped me and I wanted to know more, more about the story, about the characters.



I'll Spoiler tag this just in case, some late game and ending spoilers.





I don't care what other people say and I do have my gripes and some things need fixing I agree, but overall I love this game and I can't wait to see how it'll all work out at the end of the DLC cycle.


Feedback:

CC -- Didn't bother me as much as other people, thought my Sara came out pretty cute, but there is room for improvement.

Graphics -- In the first few hours it really bothered me, it seemed to look worse than DA:I and that came out what? Almost 2.5 years ago? I eventually got over it, but I do think it needs stepping up.

Story -- Took a while to  get going and there is some part where it just dipped down and dragged on for me, but I think it made up for it about late halfway through.

Combat -- Definitely took some getting used to it, but it's great.

Crafting -- Didn't care for it, i think I made like 3 weapons. Would give it up in a heartbeat if I were able to customize my teams weapons or change their armor ala ME3

Sara/Scott -- Love them. Love my dorky Sara and her horrible awkward flirts, lol. Wish Scott could have joined my Crew once he woke up and be a bit more involved.

Companions/Crew -- Liked them all. Favorites are definitely Drack and Liam, dragged them with me everywhere. I do think to recall BW saying that there was more conversation in this game, it didn't really feel like it though. There were some long stretches where I wouldn't get anything new. I honestly would cut NPC chatter, I don't give a crap about random NPC 45's backstory, I'm sorry I just don't. Save the word budget for Companion/Crew or important NPC's.

Also I thought hearing that there would be some friction between the companions when doing Loyalty missions, which was something I was kinda excited about, but there was nothing. The only person that was upset was Drack and it wasn't because of his Loyalty mission. I might have misunderstood that though sooo ....

Planets -- There was something on all of them that I liked, but the side missions just were too much. Give me an option like the Strike team, where I can send them out to scan/collect for me. I don't want to do it!

Overall I really loved the game, but I think BW needs to focus more on story and characters and stop with the open world. I mean it's fun to explore, but it feels like the story is lacking because of it. I'll gladly cut the open world part or at least make it smaller, for more conversation with companions or more story missions. 

That's the one, with Lexi. And yeah, agreed   That was the moment I got fully sold on Drack.

Still not through after four days of intensive playing, so I can't give my full review yet, but today I had a TIM moment: "I wish y'all could see it how I see it. It's so ... beautiful." Wish the naysayers would give this game a chance, because there are some of the best planets/level designs that the ME series has seen in this game.

I really enjoyed the game! I can't wait until new game plus, but I'm waiting for a patch. There were a few emotional moments for me, especially bringing Jaal everywhere, and romancing him. He's very interesting to bring along as the plot thickens!

Unfortunately, we're a torn household. My husband played about ten hours and quit. He hates that paragon and renegade are gone, that decisions don't have as much weight as before, and nothing you do matters as far as the end result. He's been mad since the ME3 ending fiasco, so I don't know why I'm surprised. He even went to metacritic and read a bunch of reviews to justify that "a lot of people feel just like me!" Making me feel like a blind follower, where I really just love Bioware stories and characters.

yeah I( agree I'm disappointed with the reviews as well as I'm not seeing anything wrong  either .I had a bit of stuttering coming out of menus back into the action which I've fixed by disabling my computer's SLI but other than that it's been a game I've enjoyed playing with my biotic infiltrator Sara or Lucie as I called her. She was a bit nervous about taking command after what happened with her father but she's slowly but surely rising to the challenge and looking after her team of fellow adventurers.

So, I am about twelve hours into the game now, and I wanted to give some of my impressions on the events in the story so far. Given that if I had the free trial I would be making a post around now anyways given my experiences in the game. Especially my positive experiences so far in the game, and I will likely still make one more reviewing the game at a later date. In the proper thread...

Anyways.

The Good:

I have gotten used to the combat. And am having a pretty big blast with it. I love the favorites menu so far as well and I am switching between two of them quite regularly. Its intuitive and fun. The team AI is pretty good for the most part too. Granted there might have been a big issue in my combat today and if it stays that way I may have to take it back, and also the team does tend to get too close to bad guys, but they do use powers quite intuitively and often. Probably the best combat in the series and it goes up there with Inquisition and Witcher as my favorite combat series over all. Only real complaint is my Ranger is chewing through ammo like a fire hose.

The Story: Honestly this might be BioWare's best written story to date. No spoilers until the full review but there are two or three things in particular they seem to be going out of their way to do a better job in the story in. But the weight, the emotion, the gravitas, and how BioWare is using every tool in their arsenal to weave this story is quite impressive so far.

The Open World: I liked DA Is open world. But my big complaint is it felt isolated from the main story. Most of the zones you went to you did not have a story reason for going there. Other than 'Corypheus is there for some reason, lets investigate why.' Yes I liked most of the zones in DA I, yes a lot of them had good quests...contrary to the moronic perception out there...but it took a decided step back from Dragon Age Origins. Now, with Andromeda, you again have a reason to go everywhere in the game. Out of the three planets I have been to I have had a story reason for going to each one. And yes each one has sort of a seperate story zone, but it feels so much better then it did in Inquisition. Much more natural. Speaking of natural feelings, the viability is about 100 times better then Power. Again, power worked in its way in Inquisition but viability feels like your actions in the game and solving these issues actually matter on each planet. As a result of both of these the side quests already feel a lot better. Each side quest goes into supporting the main story, and the main story on the planet, as a result. Though admittedly I have done few of them so far. Which leads into...

AVP: The war table in Inquisition was great. But the way Andromeda handles it is still a vast improvement. Instead of doing silly missions that may or may not give you a good reward, you get rewards for what you do, it feels like the Initiative's support lattice is actually going out and doing things for you...instead of just being...there...again solving the isolation issues the game provided.

The Lenghth of the main quests. To this point the quests have been looonng. Like its taken my mutiple days to do each one and I have been doing pretty much just bee lining right through. The main quests seem to be anywhere between 2-4 hours long. This is quite nice.


The bad:
Crafting/ Mining: I loved the crafting system in Inquisition. It felt natural. It felt easy, and sure you had to collect a lot of materials to make it work, but it was essentially just plug and play and materials were all over the map.

But then you had the 'Fade Touched materials' which were a bit of a hassle to collect at first, but then you usually got enough to really make it work.

The big problem is they have switched the ease with FTM (augmentations) with the ease of collecting materials. It is relatively easier to collect augmentations for your weapons...but a pure grade A bitch collecting materials. Granted I suppose it was hard for me to do much crafting in the first eleven hours of Inquisition, because it is hard to justify doing crafting before you reach Skyhold...but so far, not a fan.

Worse still they make the classic video game mistakes when it comes to crafting. A. The crafting is very, very, very specific in the materials you could get to craft each blue print. In Inquisition it only mattered what type of material you had. And in Inquisition choosing different materials gave your weapons different bonuses so you could craft (hehe) your weapon to your playstyle or character style. Not so in Andromeda. B. its also limited by things like level, or that you unlocked the previous blueprint. No such restrictions exisisted in Inquisition's system. I bring this up because A. getting the augmentations actually might make the weapons serve very differently and more powerful, so it is actually neccessary to mess with the system, and B. they got this so right in Inquisition.

The Archon and the Kett: Despite the 'plot twist' which was very well done btw the Kett are still kind of only...there. Especially the Archon. Which is a shame, since Corypheus was good but kind of shallow the Archon so far seems...very shallow. Like not the 2 D character that Cory was but one or zero D. lol.

The Length of the Main Quest: So I did spoil myself, intentionally, on where I was at the story since it feels like I am kind of, sort of, nearing the end, and I kind of, sort of, am. Its really good so far don't get me wrong but I think I am going to end up wanting more.

Concerns/ Questions from the first twelve hours:

What is the relationship between the Vaults and the Scourge?

What is the relationship between Sam and the Vaults?

Will the Kett become more sympathetic or have we seen the height of it already? (Especially the Archon, what is his motives, what does he want, is he a renegade savior like TIM, or does he just want the Scourge for a weapon?)

Does the Black Hole have any bearing on the plot? (at this point I doubt it).

Will the side quests actually help flesh out elements of the plot?

Will the characters get better? So far they have been a bit...boring so far. But I have not done a single Loyalty mission and there are flashes of greatness but I feel this cast might go more towards the Dragon Age Origins or Mass Effect 3 spectrum then the Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age Inquisition. I am especially disspointed in Drack, though I am liking Vetra, Liam, Peebee, Suvi, Kallo, and am intrigued by Cora and Jaal.

How important will the Synthesis ending be to the plot of Andromeda, there are flashes of it, but I am curious if there will be pay off or if the elements of SYnthesis we have seen in the story are for 'nastalgia' only?

And finally, will this plot devolve into relgion vs Science nonsense? If this is the case then BioWare will have done poor writing not up to their usual standards especially in the wake of Inquisition which struck a perfect balance between the damage that relgion can do in the hands of extremists, but also the truly magnificient things when it is actually done to better people.

I just made an Isharay 4 with the beam regenerate, charged shots and tracker rounds, and explosion upon impact augments. Needless to say I am loving this crafting system.

I turned the Mattock into a laser blaster with a shield disruptor. Where has this been all my life? 

Despite all game's problems with animations I have to praise one thing. Their determination to get rid of Magic Rifle. 90% of cutscenes Ryder uses the one I equipped and it even fires correctly (yeah, even remnant beam weapon). Color me impressed.