Mass Effect Andromeda

[civvver]

Who has it? Who wants it? Post your opinions here!

I was very excited for this game but reviews haven't been great. People complaining that fighting is less tactical and more shooter, and other gameplay mechanics aren't as smooth and story isn't as good. Letdown!

The other thing for me is my pc will barely run it according to benchmarks. So I am waiting for a price drop to buy, probably under $20 I'll get it, which gauging pc games will be by Christmas. Then if it doesn't run well, ryzen 4s and 6 cores will be out, vega will be out, maybe I'll have some better/cheaper hardware options.

 

[Maniacal]

Seems like the combat is good, rest of the game average to bad (having seen a few videos and streams, the writing is meh and the animation is absolute garbage and far too weird to watch). Disappointing especially considering it's a AAA game, average isn't acceptable. Might care and pick it up down the road if they fix it up and it goes on sale.

 

[Leonel]

Could be cool I guess

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I was really uninterested in this game after ME3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, the early Andromeda trailer, the lack of gameplay footage for a long time. The marketing gave me a general feeling that they would repeat everything I disliked about Inquisition and make it worse.
It only got my attention last week when I read it's about to come out and thought it might be interesting, but then I read this on RPS:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/14/mass-effect-andromeda-review-opening-hours/
And their review
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/20/mass-effect-andromeda-review/
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/20/mass-effect-andromeda-review/
So, looks like the shooter gameplay is improved, but apart from that it has every single Inquisition problem and then some.

Oh, and there's this:

Link to video.

How the F. does that happen ? Inquisition had goodish body language and faces (apart from the beards).
I'll probably get it eventually, but it's going to need a few patches and a price drop.

 

[civvver]

Yeah the quality of character models and animations is sorely lacking. Sad. Mass Effect 3 was all in all a good game just with a very crappy last 10 minutes, but I thought this was one series left worth playing since they pretty much ruined dragon age with 2 and didn't fix enough in inquisition.

 

[Maniacal]

New studio, Bioware Montreal. Hopefully they completely redo (or ya know, finish...) the animations and fix up what they reasonably can and make the game worth getting down the road.

I liked this video I saw, it's a little more positive:

That default female face for the MC really weirds me out though.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I've read that most of the old Bioware people left around 2010, which would be between Mass Effect 2 and 3. Makes sense in hindsight. I also enjoyed ME 3 (except for the last 10 minutes of course), but the quality of the writing and design was already inconsistent with some really great moments and some pretty terrible lines.
Come to think of it, I disliked pretty much every new character. The tattooed meathead with the fauxhawk who calls people loco, the robot girlfriend for the cripple, and Kai Leng. The character design just made me cringe. I think Mitt Romney had it backwards: people are corporations. At least in creative/artistic industries. When the best Bioware employees leave, it's not really Bioware any more.
Last week I read that Andromeda would have as much dialogue as the entire previous trilogy combined. Who thought this was a good thing ? You'd have to be extremely overconfident in your writers, animators and voice actors to not realize a good chunk of it will end up terrible.

Inquisition also had some very good characters, great moments, and occasionally terrible ham-fisted writing. I'm actually playing that again and plan to finish it this time. Last time I burned myself out doing side "quests". Now I'm more or less rushing and doing just enough side stuff to not me underleveled.

 

[Maniacal]

James grew on me the more I played ME3, but he wasn't particularly original or exciting character. EDI having a body she could control was pretty neat, I didn't mind it but she was a bit cheesey.

Kai Leng was a really cool and interesting character in the books, they completely butchered his character when they added him to the game.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I didn't hate James as much in the game as I feared I would from the initial screenshots. I thought I'd really hate him but ultimatelly I hardly cared about him at all. Still, he always was a bit of a fifth wheel. He and EDI both felt like archetypes that the marketing guys demanded be in the game.

 

[Arakhor]

I tried it out this evening but you can't alter the default face (you have to start with one of the presets or not at all) and there's no Caucasian preset!! Asians, blacks, but no one other than default Ryder who looks even close to white, which is not a complaint I thought I'd ever have to make!

The game font is too small to read comfortably on my XB1 too. Are they only catering to PC owners or those with perfect vision??

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I tried it out this evening but you can't alter the default face (you have to start with one of the presets or not at all) and there's no Caucasian preset!! Asians, blacks, but no one other than default Ryder who looks even close to white, which is not a complaint I thought I'd ever have to make!

I tend to dismiss people who complaim about "the SJWs" as clueless and spitefull fools, but that -together with the unattractive female characters- really looks like Bioware has showed its collective head up its ass.

 

[Arakhor]

I'm assuming it must be a (not-so?) obvious oversight, given that all three Ryders are (by default) white.

 

[sherbz]

I'm put off by the bad reviews. I really enjoyed the trilogy, and wasn't as upset by the ending of 3 as others were (although I would have preferred an ending like 2). Like others I'm going to wait for a sale. Seems a tad crappy though that they could release an AAA title in this state though.

 

[civvver]

I guess I didn't notice all the character issues and writing issues in ME3, aside from the ending of course. But the backdrop was a huge issue for me. I guess you could call that a writing issue. Cus literally every conversation was:

Shepard: Hey, long time no see, oh man sucks that the world is about to end. Want to help me fix it?
Any long lost companion of Shepard: Oh yes, let me say this really cliche line about how awful the end of the universe is but drop a glimmer of hope about how we're the only ones who can stop it.
Shepard: Sounds good, now let's get going and possibly engage in romantic activity.
Companion: Ok sounds good.

I mean there was no meat to any conversation. It was all about the reapers killing everything and so depressing. Whereas in ME2, you went and searched out companions from many walks of life, and they all had rich and interesting background and you got to know them. ME3 is just BLAHHH WORLD ENDINGGGG YARGGGH!

Also enemy diversity in ME3 sucked. In ME2 you fought, idk a dozen species? Krogan, vorcha, batarian pirates, humans of course, taurians, tali's race + robots, salarians, I'm sure I'm missing some. And they all had different flavors in weapon preferences and biotics. ME3 was like 90% fighting cerberus humans and they were all the same essentially.

 

[sherbz]

I think fundamentally speaking (as in the game mechanics), mass effect 3 was a better game than 2. Although I sort of get what you are saying IRO the character development in 2, I think by 3 the characters were set and it was all about the finale. I challenge anyone who says that they did not feel at least a bit of emotion when you cure the genophage and Mordin Solus sacrifices himself (assuming that was the path you picked). It was genuinely one of the most touching moments I have felt in a video game.


Up until the final bit, I was totally enthralled. There were a few dodgy and corny lines, but then there were in the first 2 games. And as the galaxy was about to end, I guess a few corny lines wouldn’t exactly go amiss. I just wish that the ending was a bit more dramatic. And what was unforgivable was making multiplayer almost a requirement to open up the options at the end scene (I have no idea why anyone thought this would ever be a good idea – you may as well have made the ending a DLC).


It certainly doesn’t deserve the absolute panning it got though. Cant speak for this one, but I think some games seem to inspire a whole load of hate that they don’t really deserve. By any reasonable measure, ME3 should have been a solid 8/10.

 

[Arakhor]

ME3 was mechanically sound - probably the best in the trilogy - and whilst I enjoyed the multi-player and didn't think that the original ending was nuclear war levels of bad, gating the best endings the way they did was farcical.

I wasn't impressed with ME2 for quite a while, but then I grew to quite like it. Maybe Andromeda will be the same.

 

[ls612]

The combat is great, the main story is meh, many side quests, without spoiling anything, are very good and a few lay the groundwork for a future game (especially the character ones and a couple Heleus Assignments). I'm just upset by the technical issues this game has, sometimes I hang on loading, banter not working, etc.

 

[Camikaze]

I'm really looking forward to playing MEA, once the price drops. I'm a big fan of ME style combat, so the improvements to that should make for a fun game. I've heard people say the stories and characters aren't the best, but then I think the original trilogy story and characters tend to be looked back on with rose-coloured glasses. It's really the immersive universe that's the draw.

 

[Disgustipated]

I wasn't too impressed by the videos a month ago, I'll wait for a sale. Just checked the system requirements, my processor speed is behind. Not too surprising since my processor is 8 years old. Video card is behind on optimum requirements as well. Oh well.

I'll eventually play it, but I'm in no hurry. I'm getting a little backed up in games anyways.

Come to think of it, I disliked pretty much every new character.

I'll have to disagree there. I felt the writing in ME3 was better than ME2. Ending aside of course. I think they had to do the ending that way because they knew there was no way to tie this thing up nice and neatly, they just made it ambiguous as ever. James was an alright character, and I liked the gay shuttle pilot as well (can't think of his name atm). The decision you make with Mordin was gut wrenching, and I loved the dark feel of ME3.

d not feel at least a bit of emotion when you cure the genophage and Mordin Solus ------------- (assuming that was the path you picked)

Please put that in spoiler tags!!!!!!!!! A person above hasn't played the trilogy yet and may play it. This was a pretty intense moment, best not to spoil it.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Please put that in spoiler tags!!!!!!!!! A person above hasn't played the trilogy yet and may play it. This was a pretty intense moment, best not to spoil it.

You know, quoting that probably doesn't help.

Yeah, that scene and "does this unit have a soul" are among the best moments I have ever seen in a game. ME3 has some great payoffs to storylines that had been set up in the previous titles, but the new stuff -the Crucible and the reveal at the end- is poorly handled and doesn't really fit in the story. Like someone used force to get the wrong puzzle piece in.