Mass Effect: Andromeda was released too soon it seems, but Bioware will not stop there. As promised last week, they have now share details of the first post-game patch that address some of the many issues the game has been plagued with.
Looking at the patch notes for update 1.05, it looks like it’s making the right kind of fixes. The ability to skip the long sequences when traveling in the galaxy map, improved lip-sync and facial animations, and balance tweaks are among the first to be addressed. Here’s the full patch notes:
- Improved tutorial placement
- Increased inventory limits
- Single player balance changes: Ammo crates, armor, weapons, nomad, profiles, attacks, and progression
- Multiplayer balance changes: Weapons, cover, and enemies (check back for detailed notes on balance changes)
- Improved matchmaking and latency in multiplayer
- Added option to skip autopilot sequences in the galaxy map
- Decreased the cost of remnant decryption keys and made them more accessible at merchants
- Improved logic, timing, and continuity for relationships and story arcs
- Improved lip-sync and facial acting during some conversations, including localized VO
- Fixed an issue with Ryder’s movements when running in a zig zag pattern
- Improved the appearance of eyes for human and asari characters
- Fixed various collision issues
- Fixed bugs where music or VO wouldn’t play or wasn’t correct
- Fixed issue where global squad mate banter sometimes wasn’t firing on UNCs
- Fixed issue where player was unable to access the Remnant Console Interface after failing decryption multiple times
- Fixed issue where fast travel is sometimes disabled after recruiting Drack until the player reloads a save
- Fixed issue where Ryder can become stuck in the start of Biotic Charge Pose
- Fixes issues related to some saves
- Fixed issue where objective sometimes becomes un-interactable for players in multiplayer
- Streaming and stability improvements
Bioware General Manager Aaryn Flynn noted that more updates are to come. In the next two months they are planning to add more options in the character creator, better hair, improvements to cinematic scenes and even some changes to romance options for Scott Ryder (particular if you pursue another male) and some adjustments to Hainly Abrams, an NPC that got some conversations going for poorly depicting a transgender character.
Multiplayer will continue to be worked on with more maps, weapons and characters to be added over time as well.
Mass Effect: Andromeda did fairly okay in our review, but we noted some huge issues that could be a deal-breaker if you are getting this right away. The new patch seems promising on paper, though we will have to see if this, and more of them coming down later, could salvage the game.