Bioware Shares Plans For 'Mass Effect: Andromeda' Patches

Bioware knows Mass Effect: Andromeda has problems, and now the developer has explained how it plans to address many of them: by releasing patches over the next two months with a better character creation tool, more appealing NPCs, and improvements to the infamously bad animations. Those efforts to smooth over some of the game's blemishes will begin with the release of the simply named Patch 1.05 on April 6.

Patch 1.05 will focus on bug fixes and quality of life improvements. The former will respond to problems resulting from technical failures; the latter will tinker with artistic shortcomings or questionable design choices. Here's the list of bug fixes that will roll out with Patch 1.05 later this week:

Fixed an issue with Ryder’s movements when running in a zig zag patternFixed various collision issuesFixed bugs where music or VO wouldn’t play or wasn’t correctFixed issue where global squad mate banter sometimes wasn’t firing on UNCsFixed issue where player was unable to access the Remnant Console Interface after failing decryption multiple timesFixed issue where fast travel is sometimes disabled after recruiting Drack until the player reloads a saveFixed issue where Ryder can become stuck in the start of Biotic Charge PoseFixes issues related to some savesFixed issue where objective sometimes becomes un-interactable for players in multiplayerStreaming and stability improvements

That rounds out the list of bug fixes. On to quality of life improvements:

Improved tutorial placement Increased inventory limitsSingle player balance changes: Ammo crates, armor, weapons, nomad, profiles, attacks, and progressionMultiplayer balance changes: Weapons, cover, and enemies (check back for detailed notes on balance changes)Improved matchmaking and latency in multiplayerAdded option to skip autopilot sequences in the galaxy mapDecreased the cost of remnant decryption keys and made them more accessible at merchantsImproved logic, timing, and continuity for relationships and story arcsImproved lip-sync and facial acting during conversations, including localized VOImproved the appearance of eyes for human and asari characters

The bug fixes will help Mass Effect: Andromeda be more stable; the other improvements could make it an overall better game. Which of those you value more depends on your willingness to put up with a game's technical failings as long as it's entertaining, and vice versa. Both are necessary to address players' complaints about the game, however, and Bioware's response shows that it's listening to that criticism and using it to improve its game.

Not that this should come as a surprise--Bioware said it planned to fix Mass Effect: Andromeda's problems a week after the game launched. Check out our performance review of the game if you're curious about how it performs, and if you want more gameplay-focused impressions, we went hands-on with it in late March. If you just want to see how Bioware has responded to criticism, Patch 1.05 should be available on Thursday.

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