Thoughts on Mass Effect Andromeda multiplayer balance and UX issues.
So I'm about 70 hours into the game and something like 200+ hours (honestly can't say for sure) in ME3 and I would like to give feedback specifically on MEA multiplayer: user experience overall and balance.
From user experience (as in UX) perspective there is one major problem which is voice chat, namely, turned on by default. Almost everytime I join a lobby I hear a deafening screeching sound that would make a Reaper suicidal. Moreover, there are people who abuse the voice chat to specifically annoy their teammates. I've had an instance where one player was so mad about losing he just started screaming into his mic. This is horrible.
Also there are issues with menu navigation which is not intuitive and usable enough for PC at least.
Post-game screen fails to highlight the amount of XP and money I've got and what goes into this. ME3 had a way better user experience in that regard.
And now for multiplayer balance.
My opponents are unfairly stronger than me.
AI knows exactly where I am at the moment and goes there. It is very hard to carry a mission when your team is down. When I happened to solo bronze I ended up in melee with wraiths going at me one by one.
My guns suck.
There is no point of acquiring new guns except several that are proven good, like vanquisher for example, because new gun does not provide you nor significantly better performance neither completely different mechanic or playstyle. Silver items are not very distinguishable from bronze ones and sometimes even gold are not any better than silver or even bronze. It's actually better to melee enemies. As for the playstyle I really liked the Disciple in ME3 because it was light and powerful enough to be silver-worthy. In MEA shotguns are just trash and majority of snipers rifles are trash as well.
Enemies are too fast.
They are way faster than in ME3 and move chaotically and more unpredictably. Combined with their ability to withstand long fire it makes them coming to your position faster than you can deal with them. Dog-mobs and breachers help a lot with this because you don't kill them after you shake off their grab attack as it was with the husks, and they are harder to kill than husks. Breachers even can go suicidal and fly onto you with a speed of light. You can dodge if you are in the open space, but very often you are not.
Certain enemies are just annoyng.
Berserkers spam flak. Beast is unstoppable and sync kills you almost right away. Exalted is hard to kill because his orb is visible only half of the time and even if you manage to take it down it's being restored quickly. Also very fast sync kills. I've seen aoe marker but usually I'm being sync killed just a second after this guy gets close. Enemies tend to swarm around your position making it hard to complete download objective (three points), especially against Kett. You end up overrun, trying to get away only to get overrun again.
Having said all of the above I would decribe my experience with all three factions.
1. Outlaws:
One of the most "balanced" factions. Adhi are quite an annoyance but most of the enemies seem fair except Berserkers which flak spam is infuriating.
2. Remnants:
Fairly balanced, though there are some flaws
- Breachers in suicide mode are way too fast. I haven't seen a person which was able to shoot it down. It is only possible to evade the damage but not the case for closed quarters with no available room.
- Observers hit very hard on silver and are quite hard to kill with these nerf guns we have. Even nullifiers are easier because you can actually avoid their shots, it's almost impossible to avoid observer beam
3. Kett:
The most overpovered of all three factions.
- Destined are impossible to see in stealth (in ME3 you could have seen stealthed enemies). Also it's impossible to turn them out of stealth as well as wraiths. Perhaps I miss on that point but I feel the difference from ME3 in that regard.
- Kett bosses are very hard to take down. Beast moves just too fast, it's very hard to run away from. Exalted is OP because his orb is seen only half of the time and sometimes it jumps because of poor connection. After the orb is taken down it restores pretty fast which makes you focus on him for too long.
As for difficulties, bronze is way harder than it was in ME3 and Silver is not harder than silver in ME3 but feels more like unfair. It is hard but because you can't really do anything significant.
If I had to pick a word to describe my experience from playing I would pick "struggle". I'm struggling despite having all basic weapons maxed to X, having Widow, Isharay and Talon pistol. I'm not a super-pro player soloing gold but in ME3 I could confront my foes in silver, doing damage, helping my team. We could finish silver match in less than 18 minutes (perhaps even make it in 15). I would shoot well, use my abilities properly, perform at 100% and win. Now I would perform at 150% and still lose.
Multiplayer is still not horrible or unplayable. It is unsatisfactory. Bronze is too difficult for a 10k credits for the win. Same goes for silver. I used to play ME3 multiplayer as a way to rest but now I have to rest from playing
