We like Mass Effect: Andromeda and said so in our preliminary review, but the game has some problems and rough edges. We’re hip-deep in writing our final review, but it looks like we may be able to wipe a number of our complaints off the list while the writing is still in progress. In a blog post today, BioWare General Manager Aaryn Flynn explained that the Andromeda team has been keeping track of feedback on the game and that this coming Thursday, the team will release a patch aimed at correcting the things that have garnered the most complaints. The full patch notes are here.
The list of confirmed fixes stretch from the superficial to the deeply technical. There will be general performance and stability fixes, but most welcome is the option to skip the transition animations while traveling between places on the galaxy map. The animations are beautiful but intolerably long; if you’re exploring multiple systems in one go, you’ll spend far more time staring at unskippable animations than you’ll spend exploring. Adding the option to skip will reclaim a huge amount of lost time.Also on the list are updates to the eyes for human and Asari character models and fixes to animation lip-syncing, along with a fix for Ryder’s weird running animation glitch. Additionally, players will get a larger inventory, more Remnant decryption keys at merchants for folks who hate the pseudo-Sudoku minigame, and an improved multiplayer experience with better matchmaking and less latency.
The last is particularly important—although we ignored multiplayer in our preliminary review and likely won’t touch it in our final review, it’s proving to be very popular among the Ars Technica Andromeda player group. Unfortunately, most of the folks talking about multiplayer in the Ars OpenForum’s Andromeda thread have reported crashes and disconnections. We’re hopeful this patch will clear up at least some of those problems.
Future patches over the next two months
The announcement also elaborates a bit about the near-term update plans for the game, and there’s some very welcome stuff coming soon. Hardcore fans who like to tweak their avatar's appearance will be pleased to know that the game’s character creator is being revamped with “more options and variety,” which we assume means both additional presets and additional individual feature adjustments.
Also coming in the next couple of months will be more animation fixes as BioWare continues to hand-tweak the game’s hundreds of hours of procedurally generated conversations and cutscenes. Characters’ hair and “general appearances” will also be refined.
Then there are two interesting LGBTQ-friendly fixes: the announcement lists both “Improvements to male romance options for Scott Ryder” and “Adjustments to conversations with Hainly Abrams.” BioWare hasn’t ever shied away from same-sex romance in its games, though there were typically more heterosexual, bisexual, and exclusively gay female choices available than there were exclusively gay male choices. In Andromeda, Scott Ryder’s only exclusively gay male romance option is the Tempest’s engineer, Gil; presumably, more choices are being added so that Scott can romance some of the aliens that Sara Ryder has a shot at (and maybe Liam, too, though we're just speculating).
As to the latter fix, NPC Hainly Abrams is trans—the only trans NPC who identifies themselves as such in conversations with Ryder. Unfortunately, as pointed out by EuroGamer, Abrams’ conversation is handled clumsily and in a way that could be interpreted as tone-deaf or inappropriate (Abrams dead-names herself in her introduction to Ryder, for example). BioWare is hopefully correcting this faux pas and making the conversation with Abrams more realistic.
No DLC announced—not yet, at least
There are a few other things in the announcement (like more free cosmetic items in single player), but perhaps the most significant thing is what’s not listed: there’s no hint of DLC or future plans for the game. There will be a big set of new APEX multiplayer missions, but there's no word on single-player expansions.
But take heart: this is just the start of the journey. Flynn explains that there are a lot more things coming in the mid- and long-term, and we’re looking forward to seeing the next big chunk of content coming down the pipe. Without spoiling anything, the game’s single-player campaign ends with a ton of potential jumping-off points for DLC to explore.
We’re not done with Andromeda yet—we’re just getting started.
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