Mass Effect: ANDROMEDA

[Thestral]

The weak villains don't bother me too much at this point, I mean what did we know about the Collectors at launch other than they were kidnapping humans and some way working for the Reapers? And like you speculate, the nature of Saren - let alone the Geth - ended up being quite different.

 

[Evil Twin]

Welp.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/14/mass-effect-andromeda-review-opening-hours/

The first few hours of Andromeda are a gruesome trudge through the most trite bilge of the previous three games, smeared out in a setting that’s horribly familiar, burdened with some outstandingly awful writing, buried beneath a UI that appears to have been designed to infuriate in every possible way.

 

[Reverend]

Yeah, there's also a lot of videos popping up highlighting some truly horrendous facial animations, odd line deliveries, bizarre walking cycles and even derpier than normal companion AI path-finding. A number of complaints about the character creator too. As per usual the hair options are disappointing, the textures are oddly flat like a bad dye job and somehow there are fewer face adjustment options than even DAI. I also gather that both the skin tones and textures are oddly restricted and the quality of the latter looks more like something from ME1.

There appears to be a pattern emerging and it seems to be a noticeable lack of polish.

I'm increasingly convinced my instinct to wait for the GotY and for all the rough edges to be patched out as much as it's going to be was quite prudent after all.

 

[Blamo]

I've enjoyed the Mass Effect Andromeda trial so far, but there are some glaring issues.

It's pretty obvious the voice actors were given next to no direction and/or had no context when it came to their lines. You talk to an NPC and they will blurt out dialogue to you, with every sentence having a different delivery. Combined with some bad timing, it can be pretty poor at some points.

Regarding the writing, some of the (rather clunky) dialogue makes mistakes even I wouldn't do. There's a lot of in-your-face expository dialogue, most of which doesn't remotely feel natural. That said, I'll mostly excuse it, since they're probably trying to get everything quickly set up so you can actually get on with the story (I've seen some videos of later parts and the dialogue improves).

The faces and animations are pretty awful. Not Mass Effect 2 awful (and yes, it was pretty dreadful), but still well below expectations.

However the Mass Effect series has never exactly been without issues. Stiff animation and bad character models have sadly always been a problem with the series.

The overall plot actually looks it may have some good foundations, so it may just need to warm up a bit and move past the introductions. SAM alone looks to have some interesting backstory.

Lets not forget that Mass Effect 1 started off by looking like it had a rather generic Sci-fi plot. Saren looked to be a megalomaniac, who had somehow gained control of a BSG rip-off robot race, presumably so he could dominate the galaxy with leftover prothean tech. Then you got to the Citadel and things started not to add up.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I always had believed that the Reapers made the Citadel as some kind of giant honey trap, that once worlds discover it and start living there that "bingo we have you now" and they know exactly what races you are, where your homeworlds are, and how to get to you.

 

[-Brett-]

Disappointing, but not surprising. I think I got tinnitus from all the alarm bells this game has been setting off since it was announced. I had hoped Bioware could pull out of their death spiral, since I do like their style of game, but it sounds like it's not to be.

 

[Jax]

There appears to be a pattern emerging and it seems to be a noticeable lack of polish.

Seems to be an issue with the current generation if am being honest. So many games especially AAA titles just seem to launch in a dodgy state. The video game industry lack of oversight is really worrying, I can't think of any industry that is allowed to launch such sub par products at time. I love ME1-3, its my favourite franchise of all time and got me into RPG as a genre.

ME1 launched with issues no doubt and was clunky, so am hoping ME:A like ME1 gets better as you play it. I remember playing ME1 and hating it then I came back to it several weeks later after seeing more of the game during a friend's playthrough and now I love it.

I am sick of being disappointing time n time again though so I am 100% not getting it on launch and will wait for word of mouth, DLC plans/releases and patches etc.

This video talks up about the good as well as the bad to be more balanced...

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

This 2nd video that they did earlier in the day before the one above has less details but is more positive

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Reverend]

Yeah I'm not so concerned with the subjective views of others regarding what they do or do not like, as I am with objective problems with the game itself. I. worried the lack of polish means that early adopters are likely to have to endure potentially game braking bugs that might not show up until 20+ hrs in and a plethora of niggling cosmetic and performance issues that while not necessarily intolerable, lead to a less than stellar experience.

As I said before, it's an experience I've already had with more than one Bioware game and honestly, for the price they're offering (to say nothing of the fact that they're not currently offering a physical copy on PC) I'm inclined to wait until they've gotten their shit together.
The *only* thing that's tempting me otherwise is the multiplayer. I had a lot of fun with ME3's MP and I suspect that if I wait a year MEA's MP will be pretty much dead.

 

[Kemaiku]

Watched a 3 hour livestream of the gameplay in 2K today (no Day 1 update, no patches, pre-release state) and it was fucking incredible looking and played well.

One or two patches which are inevitable within a few days or weeks and this will be a gorgeous game. Some people really need patience.

 

[BillJ]

Lets not forget that Mass Effect 1 started off by looking like it had a rather generic Sci-fi plot.

I found the early going in the first Mass Effect a dull slog.

 

[SPCTRE]

Played the first three hours last night.

• great sense of exploration (scanning exotic plantlife/tech > pinging for herbs)
• hilariously janky-to-bad animations (DA:I did not have issues to the same extent using Frostbite)

My save data will carry over and the game is preinstalled, so I'm very much looking forward to continue playing the day-of.

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[Reverend]

^That looks a lot like a bug that they patched fairly early on in DAI. Something to do the the animation rig being offset, making it look like the teeth & lips were moving slightly of sync and that the cheeks were stuffed with cotton balls. Odd that would still be an issue given how much they touted how closely the two teams were working together in the transition to Frostbyte.
Still doesn't excuse the starey eyes and flat hair textures.

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

OMG those gifs....... It's creepy lol

 

[Camren]

How can Ash be more expressive and realistic looking in a game 10 years old now? Bizarre. Bioware have screwed up it seems...

 

[Jax]

I wish EA would stop trying to shoehorn the Frostbite engine into everything they make.

 

[John Clark]

Guess they want to get their worth out of the development time.

I've mostly been avoiding the videos (spoilers) and yeah, I'm going to be getting it next week, but some of the animation etc issues look pretty terrible.

 

[SPCTRE]

I'm roughly 5 hours into the game at this point, really digging the overall setup and - still - the sense of exploration.

Most importantly, for me personally, there is a noticeable attempt to at least nod at some of the sensibilities of the original game.

Animations continue to be hilariously bad in spots.

 

[HotRod]

Aside from some honestly bad animations, everything else looks and sounds great to me. The plot is interesting, the characters likeable, and the environments absolutely gorgeous. I really don't understand the fuss online right now. Bioware has never been a company known to make photo realistic characters, why expect something different now. And really, the animation issues that exsist are pretty minor considering the scope of the game and will likely be patched in a matter of weeks.