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Story time! Mass Effect: Andromeda was easily my most-hyped game of 2017. The original trilogy are easily my favorite games of all time, and I could not wait for another opportunity to jump back into this world Bioware developed. In addition, Bioware has become my favorite developer in the game, so obviously I would take any new offering they give to us.
So I got Andromeda the day it released, and despite all of the negative buzz, I still fell in love with it. No, the writing wasn't as strong, and yeah, the facial animations are (were, I guess?) bad, and the game (of what I played) was just overall missing a lot of the charm that made the originals so memorable. But I still fell in love with it either way. I got over the faces easily enough, I loved the squad mates (and the voice work overall), and I had never encountered a major bug like many others had. My opinion on Andromeda was probably higher than most.
Then they announced the patches.
Patches usually don't bother me much. Having consoles that can connect to the internet has allowed developers to update games when they hadn't been able to before. If a game was plagued with glitches, the developers would have the opportunity to go back and fix the game, instead of players being stuck with a broken game, as was the situation in the days of yore. But that has also lead to the Mass Effect: Andromeda situation we are right now.
Like I said, I haven't encountered the bugs that so many have complained about, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't be opposed to patches fixes the performance of the game. These kinds of patches aren't necessarily ideal, either, though. It is essentially the developers admitting their game was incomplete, or rushed, and are making up for it. This is where Mass Effect: Andromeda makes it obvious it needed a little more time to marinate.
Patching a game to fix performance is one thing, but the updates that Bioware announced go even further. In addition to fixing performance issues and problems with the galaxy map (which was warranted), they announced they're making changes to the game's story and characters, specifically the romances. Many people complained about the male/male relationships in comparisons to other romances. More specifically, many didn't like that they did not appear to be as developed as the other romances. Bioware pledged to fix this, which is commendable, but it also raises many questions.
What does this mean for day-one adopters? If they hadn't played far enough, should they stop until further notice? Or should they continue their play through, and either, A) look up the changes on YouTube, or B) replay the game to see what's different? It's not a great situation either way. But it's one that I currently find myself in. Like I said, I got Andromeda day one, I preordered it (my stance on preorders is a whole different issue, but I knew I was going to get this game anyway, so preordering made sense) and I was expecting to play a game that, even though it had some issues, would still be a worthwhile experience. I was pleasantly surprised by my play through, actually, as, like I've mentioned various times already, the bugs and issues many complained about seemed to be a non-issue for me.
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| Okay, so this was definitely an improvement |
My free time is severely limited most of the time, since I'm a college student who also works two part-time jobs. Because of this, my funds are also pretty limited. Basically I have to plan out what $60, AAA games I want to buy and play throughout the year. I planned to make Andromeda my big game to last me until the summer, where I would finally play Horizon: Zero Dawn, which I put off due to it being so close to Andromeda's release. But now it seems I won't even be playing Andromeda until that point, since ultimately I want to experience what the "finished" product is.
I'm not going to pretend like I have a solution for this, because I think patches can be a good thing. Things like adding a new mode months after release to a game is great! But at the cost of what may as well be an incomplete game, is it worth it? Games like Splatoon and Star Wars: Battlefront are examples of this. Some saw these games as bare-bones at launch, but now looking back at them they are great, complete releases. But would it have been better to just release the game with everything included, if sacrificing a few months to give it that extra polish?
I really do ultimately wish Mass Effect: Andromeda got just a few more months for some last-minute polish, it needed it. But, this is the game we got. It's also laughable to think patches will go away, since they're so ingrained in the industry now. Plus, as long as consoles are connected to the internet (which they will be), it's unlikely to see these habits going away. The only real possible solution is to vote with your wallet, and if a game seems like it wasn't fully baked, maybe don't buy it. I admit to be guilty of this, as I was a victim of my own hype, but then again, as I've mentioned, I didn't encounter nearly as many problems playing it as others have.
To finish, I don't really have a solid conclusion. I definitely think developers have become too over-reliant on patches, and many have used them as crutches and excuses to rush out incomplete games. On the other hand, it has given games a longer life than before, and the chance to be able to fix a game post-release is a positive, in my opinion. I wrote this not only to air out my mixed feelings toward patches, but to also open up a discussion, since patches are a very polarizing topic.
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Tell me some of your thoughts on patches! Love 'em, hate 'em, indifferent, tell me! You can also follow me on Twitter @aidansimonds
