The continuation of one of the most famous game series, expected by millions of players around the world. The Mass Effect franchise, despite its popularity, draws controversy and heated debate with surprising ease. Five years ago, everyone was pulling pitchforks over the ending of ME3, and now the internet is flooded with memes and videos about animations and bugs in the new game in the series, Andromeda. And although in some cases the problems were exaggerated, it is difficult to deny that the main claims have a basis. But despite the failure at the end, the third part was still a great game. In the case with Andromeda problems much deeper, which makes it all the more surprising that the game can be addictive and enjoyable.
The game is the thief of your time
Earlier today, a brand new trailer for the game was released - and this reveals key aspects of the game's presence. The trailer focuses on sweeping new landscapes and treacherous new villains, leaving viewers emotionally invested in the story. new game. Check out the new trailer, in full, above. In the trailer, Dr. T'Perro Natalie Dormer introduces the game's speculation via voice over narration.
The whole initiative is under threat. None of the Golden Worlds came out. We need to find more resources. But it takes people away and we can't wake them up. Enter Ryder as he strikes into the unknown with his crew. The protagonist and his team find habitable worlds, but it's unclear if their inhabitants are friends or foes, and everything soon moves south. We get glimpses into some of the amazing landscapes and locations available in the game, as well as a key look at one of the romantic narratives - it looks like teammate Asari Peebee is a potential love interest.
Narrative, missions
Exploration is a central theme in Andromeda because protagonist Scott or Sarah Ryder (depending on the chosen gender) is the person responsible for establishing outposts on golden worlds - planets that have been explored beforehand and proved to be ideal candidates for life. All this data turns out to be wrong, and none of the planets is ready to immediately support life.
The best thing about Andromeda is definitely portability.
All in all, this is an amazing trailer that ties you into the new world of Andromeda and makes you care about your characters. At the same time, we are rooted for Ryder in his quest to save humanity as our protagonist battles impossible odds of finding a new home. If we haven't been pumped for this game before, we definitely are now.
Brief summary: If you ever said you know what would be amazing? Great, I thought. This will give me at least six days to play. Plenty of time to beat the game, write a review and edit it and plan for when the embargo starts!
The goal is changing to making these worlds usable, which means slowly clearing them of various environmental threats. The surface of Eos, the first of these planets we stumble upon, is suffering from radiation. As Ryder completes various tasks (some within the main story, others side missions), the radiation decreases. This allows you to explore more parts of the planet, which in turn leads to the possibility of doing more more tasks that make Eos even more usable. Everything here is so cyclical.
We've come to this great stage of fools
This, more than anything else, should help answer one of the biggest unanswered questions about Andromeda. Yes, he's big. But we're getting ahead of ourselves - let's step up and take it from above. Warning: Minor spoilers appear during the first hour of the game.
This initiative is the brainchild of eccentric billionaire Jian Garson, who seeks to advance the evolution of all intelligent life by sending a colonization expedition to the Andromeda galaxy. That's where you and tens of thousands of reliable colonists are. In the last 630 years they have gone from idyllic life-rich worlds to barren hellish nightmares. A human colony colony deals damage after colliding with an energy cloud they call "The Scourge", which may or may not have something to do with the conditions of the golden worlds.
All this is also very dull and monotonous. Andromeda can't "find its feet" because it spends too much time without an easily recognizable underlying conflict. In the Shepard epic, the Reapers were going to get rid of all life and essentially start a new countdown for the galaxy. Shepard and the team had to stop this from happening. The threat was constant and imminent. It was easy to point to the Reapers and say that it is because of them that we fight, because of them we are here.
What gives the game
Worse, none of the other arks - one for the turians, salarians, and asari - showed up. The game opens with your father, Alec Ryder, commanding you to take action. And because you have a neural implant that looks like Alec, it all falls on your shoulders when he dies. Yes, and Alec Ryder created a few of them.
Troubling secrets wobble about the genesis of the Andromeda Initiative and the people behind it. Speaking of humans, you have a doppelgänger - you're one of Ryder's two children, which is how the game handles giving the player a choice of gender. And the twin Rider, who you don't pick as he's easy to knock into a coma that lasts the entire first third of the game. So the problem is taking care of itself.
Andromeda is not like that. She's so preoccupied with fogging herself that she doesn't even care to give us a real reason to push ahead. At least it's thematically consistent in that it focuses on exploration and keeps the player moving into the unknown all the time while Rider does the same. The point, however, is that driving through miles of boring, barren desert in the hope of finding something interesting is unlikely to seem interesting to anyone.
If you frequently visit sites in in social networks, then you have no doubt noticed that there has been a lot of "Music of Andromeda" Mass lately. The countless countless crypto gifs and photos have understandably left long-awaited fans on edge. The game's average review scores didn't help either.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is addictive, full of content, addictive but still skill
Andromeda mass effect is not a disaster, folks. From the very beginning of the game, players are thrown into the beautiful but dangerous Andromeda galaxy. It's refreshing that Andromeda is bringing the series back to its roots in that sense. At the time it felt like a revolution. In hindsight, it's easy to see just how limited the research in these games is.
Instead, Andromeda focuses on things that at first seem not entirely related to Ryder's challenge. We're here to settle down and start a colony. Gaining knowledge about these new enemies - the very aggressive kett aliens and the synthetic machine race, the relics - seems somewhat off-topic and off-topic, even though the purpose of the research is to gather information. We are being asked to believe that this offshoot of the plot is moving in some important direction. Over time, this proves to be true, as things pick up a bit in the second act. The last third is really entertaining, which is largely thanks to the fact that Andromeda is finally open in terms of what's going on.
What didn't work
The planets were large, but they were all small in scale. The planet Eos is the first major planet in the game after the introductory Habitat. As a rule, missions on the planet in the past took 45 minutes. It took just over four hours from start to finish to complete the main mission. If you take Andromeda, you will get reasonable money for your money. Andromeda is just as competent in this area. Many of the same combat mechanics from previous games return. Combat is tough, intuitive and fun.
The ability to use a rocket projectile to reach higher terrain adds a whole new strategic element to the fight. Andromeda is resetting character classes in favor of allowing players to pick and choose different abilities. If you don't like your options, you can re-evaluate your abilities at any time. Speaking of characters, the same great dialogue that is known is still very much intact. Don't get me wrong, some of the faces and facial animations are downright awful.
Plot issues affect the overall mood of the game. At times, Andromeda seems like a rather odd Mass Effect-inspired creation. Too many characters are incessantly positive and animated. Of course, in a story about new beginnings, there is no escape from hope, but a surprisingly small number of characters approach such a scenario with seemingly true feelings - caution, anxiety, awe and fear of the future.
Luckily, the actual conversations between you and your crew are extremely entertaining. In the end, I will have to settle for one lucky girl. It's possible that the game could end up disappointing me down the line. While Andromeda is nowhere near as groundbreaking as its predecessors, it is by no means a train wreck. The eyes stare blankly at you. The face seems to be molded from plasticine; smooth and glossy. The lips move when the woman speaks—mechanically, with no trace of affect or feeling—but, like a badly christened foreign film, they don't quite sync with what is being said.
Overly cheerful mood is a big problem until Andromeda limits it enough to focus on one thing. It's hard to forget one early conversation, though, in which the krogan gave up on the genophage, guided by the logic that, they say, it was a long time ago, and let the past remain the past. Unbridled optimism overwhelms much of this game.
He doesn't look, sound, or act like a real person. It's more like a battery powered doll. The games were known in particular for their technical achievements and for their unparalleled graphical splendor. But then a funny thing happened.
Everyone has seen how the game they have been hoping for for years will look and play. As you can imagine, the battery powered doll is a disappointment. But the trouble doesn't end there. Andromeda is littered with glitches and misses, with catastrophes big and small. Faulty artificial intelligence causes characters to walk into walls and stand on tables and countertops inexplicably. Unusual animations make a simple acting move completely inhuman - when you walk up the stairs, you often look like a large crab stalking.
The new dialog wheel is also responsible for this. The developers got rid of the classic hero / renegade dialogue options that helped classify your character as a bad or good guy. This is replaced by a new, more nuanced system with different answers - logical, emotional, casual and professional. It rarely seems like it makes a difference. Often all the answers seem technically the same. It is very difficult (maybe even impossible) to make a real goat out of Ryder. It's more about how sleepy or animated you want it to be.
Mass Effect Andromeda Game Reviews
Textures shift, flicker, and swelter all the way through long narrative cutscenes, giving the game's effort a story of interrupted Hollywood movie-watching quality with unfinished special effects. The product does not seem to come from high-budget professionalism, but from negligence and sloppiness. Andromeda is a riot of mistakes and failures.
Of course, fans watched the streams, and what critics were free to discuss was not Andromeda in its sprawling, all-encompassing form. Some critics have felt compelled to point out that much of what has gone unseen about Andromeda is impressive.
Again, it doesn't really matter. The game doesn't even try to give the illusion that Ryder's decisions could lead to a political storm. A lot of the game feels like paths to the same end rather than wildly different routes. At one point, I made a difficult decision that led to the fact that the krogans died. Drac, the krogan who is a teammate, was naturally unhappy, but it lasted some 15 seconds. He bounced back in a frighteningly short amount of time.
Scraps of hackneyed dialogue were widely circulated and viciously ridiculed. This damn crab walk rose to viral fame in no time. 
The prevailing sentiment among gamers was clear: Andromeda was a lemon, no doubt about it. Pre-orders have been canceled en masse. Expectation plummeted to the floor.
Was it a game design disaster? An object lesson in interrupted ambition and failure to achieve high expectations? Or is it, simply put, a marketing crash? Needless to say, the technical failures associated with the game were forced to anger voters, whose high demands were unlikely to be forgiven, failed in Polish or Fine. And Andromeda's worth as a sci-fi RPG only becomes apparent after the 10th hour or not, its early stages should obviously refrain from pushing people away so drastically.
Study
It's a bit ironic that Andromeda takes the player through a mostly linear narrative while the worlds have been expanded and become mostly open-ended. With this innovation, though, comes a steady stream of side missions. Almost everywhere you go, there will be another marker, signaling that you can do something on the quest you are doing. It's a staggering amount of content, so much so that the in-game mission tracker often lags behind.
Spend a little more money and take away those first level glitches, smooth out those bumpy facial tics, and all of a sudden the introduction to the world doesn't feel like such a terrifying horror. But what shows the Andromeda fiasco, it seems to me, is the problem of reception.
We shouldn't have judged an 80-hour adventure game in the first minutes. Critics should not share "early impressions" instead of engaging, deeply considered criticism. It's as ridiculous as expecting a film critic to pass on a movie review in favor of describing the movie's first scene.
Since the gameplay is focused on exploration, it's useless to try to figure out which of the tasks are really important. So there is always a temptation to do what is nearby. There is the fear of missing out, the knowledge that any of these side missions could turn into something extremely interesting. Let's say one harmless quest can lead to a grand battle that can overshadow everything that is presented in the main plot. Who knows how many of these special moments Andromeda hides in itself?
It takes months and sometimes years to write, code, animate and test a huge video game. It can take days and sometimes weeks to play this game to understand how it works and ways it doesn't work. Why does one expect early impressions and a quick live stream to take the place of thought and attention?
And as funny as it looks like a plasticine face, as grim as the character animations and crab-walk-ready pointe are, there's just more left to do in this game. It was an invitation to judge something that requires patience to be fairly revealed. “It's just a fix. 3 notable fixes,” he wrote.
Combat system
The aforementioned side quest boss fight (yes, all fights, really) is enjoyable because of the most significant addition to the series, the jetpack. Combat is significantly faster and more movement-based than in the past. The AI of the opponents is designed so that they will flank and knock you out of cover, which makes the game more like Vanquish than Gears of War. Sitting still for too long is a death sentence, even with the powers of a biotic and two companions on hand.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is almost upon us, and it's the thrill and brooding of the series into a whole new galaxy. Whether you're the very model of the scientist Salaryan or the first human Ghost, there's a lot to know before heading into the Andromeda galaxy.
Do I need to play the first three games to understand Andromeda?
You will take control of a small team of explorers from different alien races and professions. Dialogue will play a central role in the game, and your decisions will big influence on how the story plays out. Because it doesn't even take place in the same galaxy as the first three titles, Andromeda has minimal direct plot connections to the original trilogy. On the other hand, mass effect myths are big and sprawling, with lots of futuristic technology, alien races, and conflicting organizations.
In short, the combat system is very good. Getting used to this style of play, which always needs to move, however, will take some time, and therefore it is worth taking for granted some early deaths. The enemies seem to be tougher than in previous games in the series, but it all depends on how quickly you adapt and notice their features. At the same time, the contractions are always tense, it will not work for a long time behind the shelter.
Key shooter mechanics feel stronger than any game in the series before, and a flexible development system lets you freely pick up cool abilities to your liking, rather than limiting you to a preset class. In general, you can create a space ninja using stealth to become invisible, biotic abilities to quickly approach enemies, a buffing sword to deal damage, and a standard jetpack to get out of the way and hide.
However, one massive downside to the combat aspect is crafting. Crafting is the only way to get the weapons and armor you really need, but you'll have to live with the constant scanning of objects to get research points and the awkward interface that can give you headaches. With a game UI, even something as essential and simple as comparing weapon stats can be difficult or even impossible. Crafting and equipment stations are also on opposite ends of Ryder's Tempest ship, making it hard to run back and forth to get things done.
Multiplayer
Where everything is simplified is in multiplayer. In Andromeda, you'll find four-player multiplayer where you'll have to deal with a horde that comes crashing down on you - in a word, almost the same as in the third part of the series. There is a level up system to unlock new levels, and a loot system to get you new weapons. This is all important as the multiplayer is very unforgiving at first.
In the early stages, your squad of four will most likely barely survive the Bronze Challenges (Bronze, Silver, and Gold are difficulty levels). Weapons will not be very effective, and skills will not help much in battles. The only way to change this alignment is to invest time and get bumps. Well, it's either that, or microtransaction crates that give out, among other things, weapons.
The developers have included a multiplayer component in the single-player campaign for those who do not like to team up with other players. With the help of certain terminals, Ryder can send squads on missions, which, if they are successful, will get some multiplayer rewards. These missions, however, do not happen instantly, and some complete only after 3+ hours. Luckily, after dispatching the squads, you can safely continue to roam Andromeda.
Dive into this completely new world is an intriguing process, even though there isn't much going on in it. Andromeda's shortcomings are in plain sight and hard to ignore. But over time, getting along with them becomes easier. Something will keep pushing you - maybe it's the spirit of exploration that's all over the place.
As the developers said, the streams are temporarily stopped, but this will not affect the weekly APEX missions. Today there is a new task for the weekend - "Disable Destructive Weapon":
The relics are destroying our base with the help of some unknown technology that destroys organic matter as well. Stop them.
Match difficulty: silver, three waves with tasks.
Match Modifiers:
Life is only one
fragile jaw
Decreased supply
Ammo boxes do not regenerate during a mission
There are too few new equipment left in stock (they are randomly selected for the store), so, unfortunately, there is nothing new this week. We are waiting for October, when the Human Artificier should appear in the game.
In the near future, of course, a new task for the weekend from the September series that appeared today - "Destroy the Radiation Weapon":
We have provided you with extra shields to help you survive high levels radiation, but be careful.
Match difficulty: silver, two waves with tasks.
Match Modifiers:
Life is only one
Respawn is not available during the wave. Players are resurrected at its end.
Hypershields
75% Health
Weakened weapon
25% weapon damage
25% clip volume
Limited Time Available: Stormtrooper Upgrade (Rare)
Increases shotgun damage by 15% and adds one power cell.
Limited Time Available: Berserker Pack (Rare)
In the next two months, we will introduce three new characters for Multiplayer Mass Effect: Andromeda. And we will continue to create weekly weekend missions that help bring out the strengths of these characters.
In October, APEX will join Human Artificer(Man-Inventor). This genius programmer wears Remnant Tech Armor and does a great job supporting other characters. Invasion and Cryo Beam debuff enemies, while Remnant VI deals extra damage and allows for combo detonations.
In addition, we will add a new semi-automatic assault rifle - Sovoa. It fires energy blasts that cause explosions on impact with a target. The elegance of the shots is combined with its stylish design. "Sovoa" - which means "extinguished fires" in translation - is the first type of weapon created by Taravay Industries, a joint venture between the angar and the turians. A collaboration between engineers from two galaxies, the rifle combines a kinetic coil from the Milky Way with Angaran explosives.
In November, they will enter the battle Human Commando(Human Commando) and Guardian(Human Protector). The commando is capable of dealing devastating damage with her biotic and combat abilities. In addition, it can disable groups of enemies with the Warp and Singularity before destroying them with the Turbo Charge.
The Defender specializes in defense, his abilities are ideal for supporting party members. With Shield Boost and Reflection, he holds back damage from opponents, while Warp allows him to attack them and undermine combos.Although no more patches are expected, our team continues to work on improvements for players. In addition, you will have the opportunity to receive more APEX Elite Packs, including for completing the mission by Day N7.
Among these improvements during the stream were named ammunition sets, which players have been asking about for several months - it seems that the developers will still be able to add them. The next stream is expected in October, when a new character will appear in the game. Perhaps by then they will be able to tell us in more detail what other special missions players can expect and when exactly.
A new month and a new series of quests, this time around the new Juggernaut. Unlocks a series of quests "Indomitable Power":
One of the bases is captured by robbers. APEX believes this is a great opportunity to test the Juggernaut in the field.
Match difficulty: bronze, three waves with tasks.
Match Modifiers:
25% Max Health
Hypershields
100% to Max Shields
75% Health
Empty boxes
800% ammo
8 to your skill pool
New Equipment: Shotgun Booster (Uncommon)
Increases shotgun damage by 20% while improving its mass booster.
This week we were still not told what is planned next for multiplayer. Fernando Melo explained that they have not yet finalized the dates and the details will be known only when the developers are sure that nothing will have to be postponed at the last moment. Perhaps the situation will clear up by next Thursday and we will find out about further plans during the next stream, which, unfortunately, will be the last of the weekly streams. Support for the game has ended, and although the missions will continue to appear for some time, the developers will stream less often.
Oddly enough, there is no new mission for the weekend this time, although the next storyline was supposed to start today. But all next week players will have access to "Holiday Quest". According to the official website, the developers want to thank the players for "participating and helping the elite APEX formations in the battle for the future of mankind on Andromeda." Therefore, for completing the task, you can get a bonus APEX Elite Pack, and in the store during this week you can buy three more Elite Packs.
Match Modifiers:
Weakened Assault Brigade
25% Max Health
25% Max Shields
Assault rifle combat
The task was launched in the morning, but with an error that led to serious problems during the third wave. An update has already been released that fixed this error, so now you can only see what the players had to face during the day on youtube. It’s even a pity that this “Hydra attack” disappeared in the final version of the mission - if the developers could simply solve the problem with crashes, for example, by limiting the number of Hydras, then on a low difficulty this mode could become quite an exciting test.
In addition, today one of the new characters has been added to the game and the new kind weapons:
New character: Juggernaut Human (rare class)
A melee-fighting "tank" that excels both in attack and defense. His melee attack with Cryo Gauntlet freezes enemies.
The Juggernaut honed his biotic skills on Omega, fighting in the arena and moonlighting as an assassin. He burned all the bridges behind him, but remained a team player, because the larger the squad, the easier it is to kill. When APEX needed a test subject to test the experimental armor, Juggernaut happily agreed.
New Weapon: Silhesh Submachine Gun (Ultra Rare)
Silhesh, meaning "mess", is a smaller version of the kett assault rifle, the Tokin. It fires homing projectiles with a plasma field at lightning speed.
And next week, the developers promise to finally talk about further multiplayer support and plans for N7 Day. During the weekly stream, they mentioned the special new missions that were uploaded today with the update and promised that players would love them.
We are still waiting detailed information about how long the multiplayer support will officially last - they promised to tell us about this “within the next weeks”. But during last night's weekly stream, producer Fernando Melo confirmed that there will be no more patches for multiplayer either, which means that the developers will no longer be able to add new content. Thus, only four rare characters and two ultra-rare weapons found in the files of patch 1.09 remain "in stock". So in general, further support for multiplayer will be limited to what can be changed on the server side.
Usually, one character per month was added to the game, at this rate, there will be enough new content just before the end of the year. And since all the cards found in the files have already appeared in the game, further plans, including N7 Day, are unlikely to contain anything other than missions consisting of a combination of existing cards and modifiers. An example of such a mission is just available - another weekend mission for 11 waves with an increased bonus to experience and credits "Belated Evacuation".
Also yesterday, new multiplayer starter packs appeared in the store, consisting of cards for certain unusual characters, weapons and mods. There are currently four available: Asari Adept, Krogan Stormtrooper, Salarian Infiltrator, and Turian Soldier. They were probably added as a result of a survey on multiplayer that EA conducted earlier, although the timing for this was clearly not the best. Such packs would probably sell well in May-June, but now, after the news about the termination of support for the game, one can hardly expect a large number new players targeted by these packs. Judging by the fact that recruiting a lobby has become more difficult since July, the outflow of players began even before it turned out that the game was being released “into free swimming”.
The MECoOp community on Reddit posted a list of not yet added characters and their in-game screenshots. All of them have some really cool new abilities that fans have been looking forward to for two months now. And, perhaps, they were deliberately left in the end, in order to somehow diversify the game after the end of support.
The expected, but still sad news from the development team - a message appeared on the official website about the end of support for the game:
Since the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, we have listened to the voice of our community of players. From improving animations to expanding customization options, we tried to solve problems and make better what you liked.
Your response to each patch has made it clear to us that we are working in the right direction, and we are grateful to everyone who has joined us on this journey. We're proud of what we've been able to create and hope you enjoy the game too.
Early in development, we decided that Mass Effect: Andromeda would focus on the Pathfinder, exploring the Andromeda galaxy, and encountering the Archon. The game also features APEX story missions that complement the story of the Pathfinder's journey through this new galaxy, and we will continue to cover the events in Andromeda - including the fate of the quarian ark- through comics and books.
Patch 1.10 was the last update to the game. No more patches or additional story content are planned. Over the coming weeks, our multiplayer team will share details on continued multiplayer support and new content including missions, characters, and what's in store for N7 Day.We appreciate the participation of the millions of players who have traveled with us to the Andromeda galaxy. And we hope to see you again in the Mass Effect universe.
— Team Mass Effect Andromeda.
Producer Fernando Melo confirmed on Twitter that yes, this means that we will not see any DLC for the game after all. It's good that at least the quarians weren't left to fend for themselves and we might be able to read about them in one of the next books.
UPD About the prospects of the series.
At the Gamescom conference, journalists from Gamereactor asked Patrick Soderlund (VP of EA) his opinion on the situation with Mass Effect:
I usually don't answer questions like this, but my personal opinion is that the game was criticized a little more than it really deserved. I think this is a really great game. And yes, we need to recognize that, of course, there are some things we could do better. But in general, I personally think that now, with everything that the game has at the moment, it is worth its money.
This is the first thing I wanted to say. The second is the Mass Effect franchise great amount fans, and you know, I've seen people say that EA won't make any more Mass Effect games. But I don't see any reason why we shouldn't go back to the franchise. It's an amazing universe, a beloved series, and these games meant a lot to BioWare and EA.
Most importantly, when we return to Mass Effect again, we will need to make sure that this return is meaningful, new and exciting. And so it's my job, the job of Casey [Hudson], Bioware and the Mass Effect team, to figure out exactly how to do that. Even though we don't know it yet, we'll get through it.
The last task for the weekend from the August story series about the batarians has appeared - "Hit the anthill."
The bases "Ruins" and "Paradox" are teeming with Relics. We cannot guarantee the safety of the batarians until we resolve this issue.
Match difficulty: silver, four waves with tasks.
Match Modifiers:
Injured Apex Squad members
50% Max Health
50% maximum shields
Pistol fight
50% Pistol Damage
50% damage from all other weapons
Aim for the eyes
200% Weakness Damage
50% weapon damage
New Equipment: Berserker Pack (rare)
Increases shotgun and melee damage by 15% by modifying weapon and armor power supply.
Limited Time Available: Combat Biotic Booster (Rare)
Increases biotic damage by 20% and melee damage by 15% with a new biotic booster.
Limited time available: Multi-capacitor (uncommon)
100% reduced shield regeneration delay.
Note: The APEX Elite Bundle should be available in the store over the weekend to coincide with a 33% discount on 3250 Mass Effect: Andromeda points on Xbox.
There is a new task for the weekend "Roadside Help", which continues the storyline about the found batarian.
We took the batarian-piloted ship to the Ruin base, but for some reason, the Relics began to rampage here.
Match Modifiers:
Empty boxes
800% ammo;
8 to your skill pool
Ammo boxes do not provide ammo or resources
Assault rifle combat
50% Assault Rifle Damage
50% damage from all other weapons
New Gear: Omni Capacitors (Rare)
Due to a specialized energy distribution system, it speeds up the cooldown of skills by 15% and increases the damage of technical skills by 20%.
New Equipment: Hydraulic Joints (Uncommon)
Increases melee damage by 25% by improving armor joints.
The random ultra-rare character card is also back in the store.
The new Weekend Challenge "Company" kicks off the August APEX Mission Series. After a long wait, the second batarian finally joins the squad!
Rogues have damaged a ship piloted by a batarian. Repair requires kett parts from another ship.
Match difficulty: bronze, four waves with tasks.
Match Modifiers:
fragile jaw
1000% to enemy melee damage.
combat battle
50% Encounter Damage
50% Biotic Skill Damage
50% Tech Skill Damage
New Character: Batarian Stormtrooper (Ultra Rare)
Stormtrooper is one of two batarians who took shelter on a salarian ark after they helped the Alliance apprehend the leader of a pirate gang that was attacking ships near the Citadel. Both batarians received places on the ark in exchange for information and a promise not to cause problems for the salarian settlements in Andromeda.
The batarian stormtrooper uses biotics to get close to enemies and destroy them. His melee attack breaks prepared combos.
New Weapon: Shorty Shotgun (Ultra Rare)
A shotgun popular with Rogues for its small size and large ammo capacity. Fires three rounds at a time, but has a heavy clip. And the return is as if you were kicked by a horse.
New Equipment: Assault Pack (rare)
Increases Assault Rifle and Shotgun damage by 15% through careful component selection.
Titan Books announced Mass Effect: Initiation- another prequel to Mass Effect: Andromeda, written by Nora Jemsin (N.K Jemsin) and Mac Walters:
Lieutenant Cora Harper joins the Andromeda Initiative, a mission to send ships to the Andromeda galaxy with colonists from the races that make up the Citadel Council. When it turns out that mission critical information has been stolen, Harper is personally hired by Alec Ryder to retrieve the data before it is used against the Initiative. If she fails, the mission could be in jeopardy before launch. Harper is a human trained by the asari unit known as the "Daughters of Talen" under the personal guidance of Nishira T'Kosh. But that training may not be enough when it turns out she can't be trusted by anyone, including perhaps even Ryder himself.
On Amazon, the release date for the new book is November 27, 2017.
The fate of the second book is still unknown - Mass Effect: Annihilation written by Catherynne Morgan Valente. Its release was originally planned for the summer of 2017, but the book is still not listed anywhere and we still have not even seen the annotation. The author herself answered questions from fans on Reddit a month ago and said that she was working on a book, it should come out "somewhere this year", and that the plot was approved "a long time ago." In total, as far as she knows, there should be three books (the first of them came out in March) and she has not heard of any possible cancellations.
Blake Jorgensen's remarks about EA's new Montreal studio during a recent investor meeting caused a lot of controversy due to vague wording. It looks like we now know for sure: BioWare Montreal is indeed in the process of disbanding. Techraptor magazine received a response from one of the company's representatives (unfortunately, they did not release his name), which clarified the situation:
We now have more talented people in our studios around the world than ever before, and we are increasingly deepening collaboration between teams on important projects. With several major projects currently under development in Montreal, we are currently in the process of merging BioWare Montreal with Motive Studios. For everyone on the team, this opens up great new opportunities.BioWare continues to work on new games - including Anthem, which we're looking forward to - and they have a lot of exciting things ahead of them. We are also very excited about the return of Casey Hudson to lead the Edmonton and Austin studios.
It is strange that a little-known portal was the first to receive such information, but later IGN confirmed the news by reprinting a comment from EA word for word. And a well-known insider in the gaming industry, Shinobi, referred to the article, specifying that the DLC for Andromeda has already become a “dream”:
A small update has been released today with various bug fixes in multiplayer:
- Character Veteran Buffs will now only drop after all other characters in that rarity have reached rank 10
- Naladen rifle shots now deal damage if cryo or incendiary rounds are placed
- Fixed a bug with modifiers for empty or non-recoverable crates not working correctly if one of the participants left the game
- Dhan Shotgun now properly marks enemies
- Fixed a bug with new versions of pistols and sniper rifles using the wrong formula for placing markers when selecting special ammo
- Fixed an issue that caused the Supply Pack Transmitter to reduce the amount of ammo available when the Empty Crates match modifier was active
- Using a Medkit while equipped with a Supply Pack Transmitter no longer heals enemies
- Fixed an issue that caused the screen to flicker red/yellow when using the Siphon and Bulwark versions of the weapon
- Normal rank XIV characters will no longer be incorrectly displayed as rank XV
This week, EA's Q1 2018 conference was held - company executives announced the financial results of the first quarter, outlined further prospects and answered questions from investors. Among others, games from BioWare were mentioned.
Unfortunately, we did not find out specific sales numbers - the game is mentioned only in the context of the growth in total revenues for Q1 compared to the same period last year. FIFA and Andromeda revenues for the quarter were cited as the main drivers of this growth (including premium revenue not included in Q4 2017). CFO Blake Jorgensen also revealed that Andromeda had a significant impact on digital sales revenue growth (up $113 compared to Q1 2017) and, in particular, downloads on PC and consoles (32% increase).
At least, we can assume that from a financial point of view, the game did not turn out to be a complete failure. But it's hard to say how well it sold: Andromeda was the biggest game released by EA during this period, and it is quite expected that it was it that "influenced" revenues. In addition, the report makes no mention of the future development of the game or the franchise as a whole. And, for example, a separate paragraph in the presentation is devoted to the release of new content for Battlefield 1
But the plans for the 2019 fiscal year include Anthem, whose release is expected in the fall of 2018. According to Andrew Wilson, CEO of the company:
Anthem, our new IP from BioWare, will introduce a seamless open world that is constantly changing and dependent on the actions of players who will team up and help each other on adventures.
EA plans to increase the development costs of the project, judging by the answers during the Q&A with investors the next day.
Also, as part of the Q&A, it seems that the information from the May Kotaku about the reduction of the studio in Montreal and the transfer of employees was confirmed. When asked about planned R&D spending, Blake Jorgensen said:
We are working on setting up a new studio in Montreal as mentioned before. And we hired more than 100 new employees in this studio. All this to create a new IP by Jade Raymond's team. I was in this studio a month ago - it has become great addition to our team. And we've moved the BioWare Montreal team into the same building, so now they're all sitting in the same new studio together.
Of course, this does not mean that the franchise cannot be transferred to another team, and employees who left the studio cannot be replaced. In favor of the fact that the game has not been “buried” completely, the mailing of a survey from EA that began this week also speaks (one question about whether you would recommend the game to a friend, and five questions about the cost of multiplayer sets). It is difficult to imagine why the company would decide to ask public opinion now, four months after the release, if the rumors are true and the game has already been finally put an end to. But officially we still do not know anything about the further fate of the project.
One thing is for sure - the continued silence of EA and BioWare is so tiring that fans are even studying financial statements in search of answers and hints. Let's hope that the results of the survey or opinion can somehow change the situation and the long wait will be justified.
This week, as usual, there is no briefing, but especially for the players, the developers have prepared another "gold" task for 11 waves - "Rescue operation".
Match Modifiers:
Jammed weapon
25% fire rate
50% Reload Penalty
Empty boxes
800% ammo;
8 to your skill pool
Ammo boxes do not provide ammo or resources
Weakened Skills
25% Skill Damage
25% Max Skills
Increased Reward
Completion brings additional rewards (+45% experience, +45% credits)
In addition, as promised by the developers, today one of the new maps of this month - the Nimbus Base - has been added to the rotation. In addition, Aqua and Vertigo cards will start appearing in daily missions starting today.
New Equipment: Survival Kit (rare)
Increases maximum shield charge and combat skill damage by 20% by using additional energy sources.
Limited Time Available: Combat Upgrade (Rare)
Increases assault rifle and pistol damage by 15% while optimizing equipment.
New Equipment: Multi-capacitor (uncommon)
Reduces the delay before starting to restore deactivated shields by 100% using a spare power supply.
New Equipment: Grenades Stock (Uncommon)
Increases the stock of all Power Cells by 3, at the expense of increased efficiency and reduced cell size.
And also during the week, you can buy cards with ultra-rare and rare weapons for the finances of tasks.
Good news for those who hoped to read about the uprising on the Nexus in Russian: a translation of the novel has been released "Mass Effect: Nexus Uprising" from the publishing house Azbuka. The book is already in stores.
Year 2185. Huge arkships have set off for the Andromeda galaxy with the task of exploring and colonizing new worlds. Soon after them will fly a huge space station "Nexus", on board of which representatives of the five races of the Milky Way: people, salarians, turians, asari and krogan. All of them will spend six hundred years in stasis and wake up in another galaxy to start life from scratch, leaving strife and prejudice behind.
The last to fall asleep is Sloan Kelly, director of security. Like all her companions, she is absolutely sure of success - the mission, which was prepared by the best minds of the mastered space, cannot end in disaster.
