BioWare know they have a bit of a mess on their hands with Mass Effect: Andromeda, and have today outlined how they intend to retroactively fix it up. The most immediate fixes will be in Patch 1.05, due on 6 April.
That patch is not going to address everything all at once, but based on the notes it will deal with some of the more egregious things. Aspects like the bizarre dead eyes of Human and Asari characters in Mass Effect: Andromeda are being changed, along with improved lip sync, and “Fixing Ryder’s movements when running in a zig zag pattern”. There are also much needed quality of life changes like the ability to “skip ahead” when travelling between planets on the galaxy map.
Those are the shorter term fixes. Full patch notes for Mass Effect: Andromeda 1.05 can be read here. BioWare have longer term plans as well, for a set of patches due over the next two months. These include more options and variety in the character creator (sorely needed), “ongoing improvements” to animations and character appearance, and more sexy time options for Scott Ryder.
Both the Thursday patch (1.05) and future patches will also be dealing with more traditional technical problems. Crashes, stability, characters randomly jumping through the roof of a spaceship and out into the void. That sort of thing. They add that they’re “looking at adding more cosmetic items to single player for free” as well.
Mass Effect: Andromeda multiplayer plans will continue pretty much as normal. They’ll be running more APEX missions, and adding new characters, weapons, and maps. What you’d expect if you played the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3, really. The first of three new multiplayer characters based around ‘The Remnant Investigation’ is apparently coming this Thursday.
Clearly, a lot of this stuff should have been ready for launch (or, putting it another way, the game needed a delay). That didn’t happen, so it may be several months before Mass Effect: Andromeda is where it needs to be.
