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Gaming Mass Effect: Andromeda Review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Dogbert666, 3 Apr 2017.

  1. Dogbert666

    Dogbert666 *Fewer Lover of bit-tech Administrator

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  2. SinxarKnights

    SinxarKnights Minimodder

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    It is weird because I loved the story of the Mass Effect trilogy, as a lot of people did. When I heard about this I had the same reaction as the score you gave it, meh.

    Not saying its bad or anything, just really not interesting to me for some reason. Not sure why.
     
  3. yuusou

    yuusou Multimodder

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    The amount of entertainment I get from the gifs of this game is astounding. Wouldn't pay a dime for it though. Or a penny. Or a cent.
     
  4. fix-the-spade

    fix-the-spade Multimodder

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    It's not that weird really. The most compelling thing about Mass Effect was it's characters, Mass Effect 2 is almost entirely about the relationship between Shepard and his/her crew. Mass Effect 3 brought those relationships to an end, it wasn't a terribly satisfying end but it was an end.

    Andromeda threw all of those characters out of the window, without Garrus, Wrex, Tali and so on the most important part of Mass Effect is missing, leaving this one to stand on it's gameplay. Mass Effect has always been somewhat janky in it's gameplay, it got away with it in 2007 because of it's scale and ambition, it kept getting away with it because we cared about the characters, it's not 2007 anymore.

    Measured against The Witcher 3 and FFXV Mass Effect's somewhat inadequate design is brought into much sharper focus, a problem compounded by the fact that I care nothing for the story and plight of it's cast.

    The plot is terrible too, I was hoping for a much smaller scale story focused on adapt and survive. Instead Andromeda apparently has it's own version of the Reapers, they aren't as big or effective but their invade and assimilate shtick is exactly the same (sorry if that's a spoiler).
     
  5. liratheal

    liratheal Sharing is Caring

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    I enjoyed it, personally. I agree, a lot of the side quests have the 'pointless busywork' feel to them. The worst, IMO, is Havarl, because it's a densely packed cluster**** of vegetation so everything is a ballache to do.

    I was kind of disappointed that the focus was, largely, around races we all know (Although Drack is an absolutely spot-on Krogan. He went on every excursion with me, and his dialogue with your other party members is always entertaining). I felt like the Angara were just.. Incidental. The way you just happen across them and then basically do whatever the chuff you wanted in the first place.

    I feel like, with how it ended, Andromeda is more of a scene setting game. I feel like it's tried to establish that Milky Way races are now established and ingratiated into the existing life in Heleus. It stood to reason, to me, that it should have focused less on securing the MW races (I felt like they were just sitting around twiddling their thumbs until you show up, with the exception of the Salarians, arguably the Turians, but Avitus should have got off his arse sooner tbh) and more on establishing the alien races.

    I disagree with the comment about the Krogan, though. Yes, you do step in and prevent a civil war, but the Krogan mentality (Remembering these are pre-genophage cure and subsequently unknowing of its existence at all) the only way to solve anything is to **** the other krogan on the bonce. Stopping them self destructing is basically -the- thing you do with Krogan. Drack is the personification of that for your team, his combat style, his loyalty missions, his dialogue.

    I feel it's important to note that this wasn't the same Bioware that did 1-3. It's the B-Studio, Montreal. So there's bound to be some slipups compared to the other team. Especially in the realm of voice acting and writing.

    Also, why oh why have we not had a Ron Perlman Krogan yet?

    I think Liam gets excessive schtick. His character comes on in leaps and bounds from the initial 'shooting the corpse' ****. Still one of the least interesting characters. Cora is always kinda weird, and the backstory doesn't gel with me. Vetra and Sid are fine IMO, although I'm still not used to female Turians. They look weird. Suvi is the most interesting human female character, given her split between theism and science. Gil isn't terrible as a character, although some of the dialogue was handled with a brick. Jaal wasn't a terrible character. Although I found a lot of the dialogue between him and my Ryder kinda.. Awkward? I can't decide if that was deliberate or not.

    Peebee is.. Hrm. I followed the romance arc with her character because she felt the most alive, with her eccentricities and somewhat unpredictable character.

    In ~51 hours I only saw four different glitches - The well documented one where the human walks behind another character and just.. Poof, one janky walking bit for about two seconds up some stairs, A lot of shitty gun/datapad holding, and a fair few hand-through-hand handshakes.

    I read somewhere that the voice actors did their lines solo, even when it was part of a conversation. I wonder if that was timing issues or just shite planning. Which would go some what to explaining why they didn't always seem to flow like a normal conversation.
     
    Last edited: 3 Apr 2017
  6. DC74

    DC74 Doh!

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    Yeah i'm still playing through it at the moment and I have to agree 100% with whats been said in the review. This game is buggy as hell with a continuous loading bug and an apex mission lockup bug being the biggest pains in the arse I've encountered requiring alt f4 and relaunch to fix. The other major issues were graphical/coding one was a framerate issue where suddenly in parts of cutscene my machine started juddering for no reason and in some places on the ship like the hallway which has less detail than anywhere else on the ship, the other was the weirdest expression on characters faces, looking like they were straining on the toilet and some have a wandering eye that seems to float off to the side for no reason.

    Add to this the ability system of 3 skills WTF! they give us a huge menu to choose from and we can only order 3 things yet they expect us to use combo's? i'd have been happy with 4 or 5 but 3 is just crap IMO it doesn't reward you for leveling across trees effectively.

    The script writing is highschool at best with massive gaping plotholes like erm no common sense at all given to the following which given that this took so much time and resources to organise seems damnright stupid:-

    Who sends over a hundred thousand colonists to a new galaxy without arming their vessels even defensively?
    Who screened these people since they mutiny at the slightest problem of a colony ship being a few months late?
    Why the hell isn't the station finished off within months of you arrival having the main character finding the resources to do so and manpower no longer being an issue since the Human Ark ship has arrived?
    Why were people exiled instead of being put back into cryo, since exiling people turns them into outlaws and pirates who just would cause more issues further down the line?
    Why didn't the Ark ships contain a couple of small military escort vessels to defend them and the station once they arrived in Andromeda? I know it's civilian the Initiative but even corporations have military ships to defend their interests. You also can't guarantee the first people you meet in a new place will be friendly just like the Kett.

    I'm really put off buying any sequel, unless EA/Bioware get the balls to sack the writers or give them more time to write something that's beautiful and involved but without drowning us in minutia. As a gamer with over 20+ yrs experience, I'm sick of boring go here collect minor crap quests, they've been done to death already, I did like the mini remnant puzzles though. Add to the fact the R&D/Crafting system was over complicated and you can't change the armour/weapons your team use. Why not let us reverse-engineer stuff we find to get a blueprint and socket it with simple easy to understand mods which again once we've found/bought we can manufacture as required.

    In the end I feel this game was rushed and was probably more of an EA deadline that caused the issues, but a polished turd is still a turd, honestly you would have thought they would have learned from ME3, but clearly they haven't...
     
    Last edited: 3 Apr 2017
  7. liratheal

    liratheal Sharing is Caring

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    Last edited: 3 Apr 2017
  8. Pete J

    Pete J Employed scum

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    I haven't read the review yet as I'm still playing the game (so you could argue this comment is worthless).

    I started off optimistic, then started getting annoyed with things, then started enjoying it again. Fact is, I've been off ill today (recovering from a migraine at the weekend) and I've played it non stop. It must be doing something right to keep me entertained.

    I'll come back to this once I've completed it.
     
  9. hyperion

    hyperion Minimodder

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    I didn't like the path ME3 took and I had hoped ME:A would've been a return to form. When I heard that ME:A would start between ME2 and 3 I thought it was a cop-out from their terrible endings in ME3, instead of just making one ending canon and taking it from there. Still had hope that it would be a good stand-alone game though.

    One of the most annoying things for me in the previous trilogy were the meaningless side quests, flying accross the galaxy to be someone's errand boy. Does ME:A still have that?

    Is there a paragon/renegade system like the previous trilogy? I hated being restricted to one or another path in a way that drastically alters the development of the story.
     
  10. Hustler

    Hustler Minimodder

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    Lol..and to think I toyed with the idea of spending £500+ on a new GPU to play at max settings.

    ..bullet dodged, credit card lives.
     
  11. vdbswong

    vdbswong It's a Hedgehod

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    75 hours later, 92% completion... I loved it and once I wrap up more of the tasks I'll dive straight into NG+.

    Do I think it's better than the original Trilogy? Of course not... because that's 3 games worth of content and relationships that I've developed where I carried through my decisions over to 2 more games.

    It always perplexes me when every negative review I've read complains the characters are forgettable when compared to the OT ones yet they've known them so much longer. Even with that said, i remember how when ME2 was released and the press summed up the characters:

    Miranda - Forgettable human companion, "genetically perfect"? Pah, just there for the eye candy.
    Jacob - There's a reason he's regarded as the worst companion in the series.
    Jack - Generic "supposed to be a bad-ass foul-mouthed woman that has a sensitive side somehow equates to depth of character".
    Grunt - Oh no.. another typical Krogan soldier except he's somehow "genetically superior".
    Mordin - This one we like :).
    Thane - is cool.

    And then obviously you had Tali and Garrus who were returning from ME1... so yeah, the roster is smaller this time around, but consider ME1 where it was just Ashley/Kaiden, Garrus, Wrex, Liara, Tali and that was all. Hell we can even summarise the ME1 characters when they were released:

    Ashley - Oh... she's borderline racist... but she's a love interest so we keep her.
    Kaiden - Noone likes Kaiden.
    Garrus - In ME1 he wasn't anywhere near what he became... just your by-the-book C-Sec officer that also had daddy issues because he wasn't military and trying to find his own place. It wasn't until ME2 when he struck out on his own that he developed more of a personality.
    Tali - Alien on a pilgrimage from that race that noone (lore-wise) likes.
    Liara - Was she just added in so people could a) get with an alien b) have a female-female relationship c) have a relationship because everyone kills off Kaiden?
    Wrex - Literally the only character that was worth something at the time.

    I feel like everyone is judging ME:A as some sort of sequel to the entire Trilogy and follows in the footsteps of ME2/3. When in reality my take of it is that it's simply ME1 done better... if you loved ME1, you'll love Andromeda... the exploration aspect, the not having the fate of the entire galaxy looming over your head at every turn.

    If you didn't get into the ME universe until ME2 and 3, then you'll probably only enjoy the combat and the main quests ("Priority Ops" and "Allies and Relationships"), but then that's all you really "have to" do anyway...

    Are there flaws with the game? Sure:

    Facial animations - There are some standout moments... but I just put that down to my sarcastic Ryder just being a massive goofball. Otherwise, it really doesn't phase me because everyone I know that plays a Bioware RPG just reads subtitles and spacebars through since otherwise you'll be 10 hours in and 5% complete.
    Galaxy map - Hands down, whoever did this needs to be........ it was cool the first time though.
    Fetch quests - They're clearly marked and I don't *have* to do them so... no. However those quests that you can stumble across that's simply "Find more datapads" and you have the entire World to explore... yeah.

    All in all though, i think the game gets way too much stick for simply not being what some people wanted (the sequel to ME2/3) as opposed to what it actually is (the "successor" to ME1).
     
  12. wolf5ster

    wolf5ster Minimodder

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  13. liratheal

    liratheal Sharing is Caring

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    Entirely agreed.
     
  14. gosh

    gosh Minimodder

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    damn shame as i was (and am) a huge fan of the original trilogy and still play me3's multiplayer on occasion.

    any chance of a mini-review of andromedas multiplayer and how it compares to me3 ?
     
  15. liratheal

    liratheal Sharing is Caring

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    I feel like it's important enough to mention again.

    MEA is Bioware Montreal, the B-Studio, created originally to assist in asset creation for Bioware Edmonton - ME1-3, DA, etcetera etcetera.

    Let's not all get misty-eyed about how 'good' Edmonton is. Dragon Age, for example, where characters announced their family members death with as much emotion as a wooden plank.

    MEA is Montreal's first 'solo' game, and sure it shows, but I've not seen many studios go from scut work to AAA title flawlessly.

    While that doesn't make the problems 'okay', it makes them more understandable in my opinion. Deny it all you want, but MEA had big expectations, and had the same team been behind it, I'd agree that it fell dramatically short.

    But as it is, it's like the Tim Burton Batman films coming after the Nolan Batman films. Sure, they're both good, and they both have upsides and downsides, but the change in the underlying core through different interpretations is jarring enough to accentuate the problems.
     
  16. JakeTucker

    JakeTucker Minimodder

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    I've got you covered buddy. Expect something a bit later this week (because I'm very deep in a couple of other reviews). In short, I've enjoyed it.
     
  17. vdbswong

    vdbswong It's a Hedgehod

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    Quite honestly, I'm not even sure we've been playing the same game or even just watching the same gameplay?

    Gameplay being crap... even though it's just a better version of every ME that came before it? Maybe you can argue that sticky cover isn't as good as toggle cover, but aside from that, the gameplay literally hasn't changed at all apart from being a lot smoother with more verticality from the jump jets.

    Animations... I've watched *so* many videos of other games and their janky animations, but this one seems to get all the stops pulled out because... there was a scene in one of the trailers that I didn't even realise was an issue, and even after people pointed it out I still didn't see the issue? Literally... much worse examples in the game and yet from a game with hours upon hours of conversation, there's maybe only a few minutes worth of actually offending material that gets circulated around.

    As for character models.... the issue I have with them is the fact that every Asari is just Dr. Lexi's face and Peebee is literally the only unique Asari in the game... aside from that... fugly female characters? Literally no clue what you're talking about.

    As for "all the reviews giving this game a thumbs down"... I think we must run in different circles, because bit-tech's is probably the most negative review I've read and it reads around a 5/10, whereas other reviews simply highlight all of the negative aspects and then still recommend it as being 7/10 which makes it seem like once again we're now conditioned to calling it trash due to it not being >8/10.

    Also, considering that the majority of the reviews (including this one) I've read have literally said that Gameplay is one of the redeeming features of the game and that the main issues are mainly Game Design (Repetitive Quests), Narrative and Pacing with a handful of janky animations and bland writing... it really doesn't seem like we're on the same page here.

    I would love to find a review that comes in fresh from 0 ME exposure, be it rose-tinted nostalgia of the original trilogy or just seeing a compilation of all the janky animations and then combing every single scene to look out for them :rolleyes:
     
  18. Pete J

    Pete J Employed scum

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    Again, still not read the review as I don't want to risk spoilers, but vdbswong is bang on the money.

    The original Mass Effect trilogy had animations and glitches that were just as bad as some of the stuff that's been highlighted in MEA. Also, the combat can get surprisingly fun once you level up a bit and get better equipment. Fighting my first Architect was awesome!
     
  19. hyperion

    hyperion Minimodder

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    The only glitch I had in the previous trilogy was getting stuck in the elevator in ME1. Graphically, apart from generic faces the animation wasn't bad for its time.
     
  20. greigaitken

    greigaitken Minimodder

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    There are way more games being released though, good, bad, and great. So in past i could afford (both money and time) to play say all the games 8/10 and a few 7's
    Now though, I can't even play all the 9's. That latest 7/10, dead to me
     
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