Mass Effect Andromeda

[ErikMcKetten]

[Redacted]

I agree with the video, the character design and animation will take some work.
I will wait for the full game before making any judgements.

The trial IS the full game. Although it does appear as if a French reviewer got his hands on a copy that has better visuals with the human characters. Perhaps it is a patched version, or he has drivers we don't have (a lot of visuals seem to be shader problems).

 

[Hadron Xon]

Probably just going to pass on it sadly. Not sure what they were trying to do with this one.

 

[gladestone]

Omg listen to these review animation is horrible, man im glad i lived in the atari days where i can appreciate any type of game and i can enjoy games with out pretty effects, i played tank battle in my day an loved it, was a square god damnit a freaking square to one field to the other..We had fun with that game, pitfall one of the best games ever!!!! Not the prettiest thing not like my wife :<P..Shes behind me so i have to say this..So stop with the graphics bs...If the game got a great story good game-play thats all one needs in life, right arnold swarsinnigger, yes i butchered his name lol..How ever you get my drift..

 

[BUTUZ]

Omg listen to these review animation is horrible, man im glad i lived in the atari days where i can appreciate any type of game and i can enjoy games with out pretty effects, i played tank battle in my day an loved it, was a square god damnit a freaking square to one field to the other..We had fun with that game, pitfall one of the best games ever!!!! Not the prettiest thing not like my wife :<P..Shes behind me so i have to say this..So stop with the graphics bs...If the game got a great story good game-play thats all one needs in life, right arnold swarsinnigger, yes i butchered his name lol..How ever you get my drift..

Its true what you say you don't NEED good graphics to enjoy a game - however your wrong, because if theyre too lazy to bother getting the graphics right in this modern age of graphics led games, then they does not bode well for the rest of the game. Maybe they couldn't be bothered with the sound, story line, stability, bugfixing either!

The current disgustingly filthy profiteering multimillion dollar studio attitude of "fuck it i'll do the stupid twats will still buy it anyway" is not helped by you instructing people to ignore the flaws and buy it anyway?

 

[gladestone]

Its true what you say you don't NEED good graphics to enjoy a game - however your wrong, because if theyre too lazy to bother getting the graphics right in this modern age of graphics led games, then they does not bode well for the rest of the game. Maybe they couldn't be bothered with the sound, story line, stability, bugfixing either!

The current disgustingly filthy profiteering multimillion dollar studio attitude of "fuck it i'll do the stupid twats will still buy it anyway" is not helped by you instructing people to ignore the flaws and buy it anyway?

Thats one mans opinion an many my age will tell you, dont really care ill enjoy me for what it is an i dont need to cry about special effects..Now if it was a movie it be different, we got used to good movie with good cgi, an story, its like if its a horrible story, you wont enjoy the graphics, how ever we can enjoy a game with not so pretty graphics, people play mind craft why because the game-play, so im just telling you i dont need special effects to enjoy a game..

 

[zeddie]

Honestly, the animation/graphics aren't really that bad. All the videos/gifs you've seen are the same 3-4 scenes, and they're only a few seconds long (Addison not included). If you wanted to, you can make a small montage of all the horrible animations/glitches from any other game.

Addison really is a shitty character too (personality wise), so I guess the artist didn't want to work much on her neither.

It's a really well done game. The details are amazing and there's so much you can do. The combat is super fun. 5 hours in, and I barely scratched the surface. Haven't even gotten my Tempest yet.

If you really are turned off because "horrible animations" "awful cheezy lines" then that's your loss. I'll enjoy the game for what it's really good at and what's it's always done the best: world and character building.

One thing that I really agree with the RPS preview (other than the obvious animation & character creator issue) is that the UI is definitely confusing. It'll take some time to get used to the menu structure, but when I get used to it eventually, it'll become a non-issue.

OH and about character creator, yeah the options are pretty limited, much more so than BioWare's previous games. You have to start from one of the presets, you can't change the eye/nose/mouth shape if it wasn't on the preset, and you can't adjust the ears or neck at all. However, I can see why they made that decision, as Alec's look depends on which Preset you pick, rather than how your character looks in the end. You can choose a very dark skin character, while Alec can be White, or vice-versa. That doesn't mean you can't make a good looking Ryder. There are some great ones out there (https://www.reddit.com/r/ShareYourRyders/top/) and they added the import/export option so you can download from what other people made. (soon... it's not available yet: https://masseffectarchives.com/)

I made an Asian Ryder family, and I think it turned out decent:

http://imgur.com/a/Hv6Tc

View: https://imgur.com/a/Hv6Tc

 

[gladestone]

Honestly, the animation/graphics aren't really that bad. All the videos/gifs you've seen are the same 3-4 scenes, and they're only a few seconds long (Addison not included). If you wanted to, you can make a small montage of all the horrible animations/glitches from any other game.

Addison really is a shitty character too (personality wise), so I guess the artist didn't want to work much on her neither.

It's a really well done game. The details are amazing and there's so much you can do. The combat is super fun. 5 hours in, and I barely scratched the surface. Haven't even gotten my Tempest yet.

If you really are turned off because "horrible animations" "awful cheezy lines" then that's your loss. I'll enjoy the game for what it's really good at and what's it's always done the best: world and character building.

One thing that I really agree with the RPS preview (other than the obvious animation & character creator issue) is that the UI is definitely confusing. It'll take some time to get used to the menu structure, but when I get used to it eventually, it'll become a non-issue.

OH and about character creator, yeah the options are pretty limited, much more so than BioWare's previous games. You have to start from one of the presets, you can't change the eye/nose/mouth shape if it wasn't on the preset, and you can't adjust the ears or neck at all. However, I can see why they made that decision, as Alec's look depends on which Preset you pick, rather than how your character looks in the end. You can choose a very dark skin character, while Alec can be White, or vice-versa. That doesn't mean you can't make a good looking Ryder. There are some great ones out there (https://www.reddit.com/r/ShareYourRyders/top/) and they added the import/export option so you can download from what other people made. (soon... it's not available yet: https://masseffectarchives.com/)

I made an Asian Ryder family, and I think it turned out decent:

http://imgur.com/a/Hv6Tc

View: https://imgur.com/a/Hv6Tc

Shes sexy hawt

 

[Montoya]

I finished the trial of the game.

I feel the horror stories are overblown.

Sure there is a bad animation here and there, and yes, a funny walk, but get over it!

If you like Mass Effect, you will enjoy this game.

The Frostbite engine is beautiful, scenery and combat is vibrant and fluid.

I will overlook a few bad facial animations and enjoy the game.

On the downside, I will say that I was not taken in by the story as much as I was in ME:2.

Sure, exploring alien worlds is fun, but I did not find myself getting immersed into the story line or attached to my character in the short trial, maybe it gets better later in the game.

I would have to play more of it to see if that changes, but $60 is a bit over what I would pay, if this was around $45 I would be all over it.

 

[Hadron Xon]

The selling point for me in any game is the story.Period.Either have a good story fleshed out or give me the ability to make my own.It's why i continue to pile on hours in games like Skyrim and GTA 5.

Review after review of this game has said the story is meh , so i will catch it on a steam sale.

If it was truly an open world experience then maybe I would cave but its not.

 

[DragonHeart]

Its true, the beginning storyline is meh.
Your a young nobody, who is suddenly entrusted with the power and title of Pathfinder without proving oneself.
Now your in charge of surveying new worlds to live on.

I wasn't very attached to my character or the story because of this.
But I always loved the Mass Effect series and exploring the universe, so I'll keep playing.

That being said, Alec Ryder who was N7 and the Main human Pathfinder was awesome.

 

[zeddie]

so i will catch it on a steam sale.

Unfortunately, it never will be... since it's exclusive to Origin, like most recent big budget EA games.

BUT Origin do have some great sales too.

The reviews are pretty much split at the moment. We see 9.5/10s and 5/10s, and most hovering around 7.5/10s.

Character animations are bad, combat is good, and character + story are quite divisive depending on the point of view.

as Legion would say: "We're still building a consensus"

 

[Pander]

I just cant wrap my head around people defending this?

I love mass effect and still want to buy it for myself even if i just get some solid laughs out of it

BUT when you can pour millions of dollars into this hire all the right people give them the time and money they need to get this done and have roughly 5 years to build a story and interesting characters in a new galaxy?

Then you get this garbage animations and rough inhuman dialect (From what I've seen) and you cant make something that someone can totally immerse themselves in you need to take a step back.
And this is from what we have seen so far? for £50 on preorder this is an utter joke

It honestly would not surprise me if EA had better animation DLC coming up

A game like this doesn't come along very often and the best it can do is (and this is from a general consensus) boring?

Honestly would you guys be happy if SC was similar cliche story, crappy animations, boring characters and predictable baddies?
I don't think you would and this is a company that can put more money and people into it?

They had a chance to come up with some really cool stuff and they couldn't deliver after 5 years?

Honestly if anyone can take anything from this its don't pre order and especially don't pre order from EA

 

[Montoya]

If it was truly an open world experience then maybe I would cave but its not.

Its the Mass Effect version of open world, which is not that open.

Im in the same boat as you. Give me a Skyrim type open world in the Mass Effect universe, I would pre order for $70 and not blink.

 

[Montoya]

They had a chance to come up with some really cool stuff and they couldn't deliver after 5 years?

If you had told me that this game was made in 2yrs, I would have said it sounds about right.

I have only done the trial, I know there is a lot more to explore, but after seeing the first world, I get the idea of where this is heading. More monoliths on more planets, activate them all, shoot all aliens and then everything is cool, everybody is happy and planets can be settled.

I think we know what the end game is already, which makes this all a little less exciting.

 

[zeddie]

I just cant wrap my head around people defending this?

I wouldn't say I'm defending it, as I definitely agree with what's wrong with it.

It's just that it doesn't bother me as much as some, and I enjoy a lot the parts that it does really well. I'm very much looking forward to what more the game has to offer.

If you had told me that this game was made in 2yrs, I would have said it sounds about right.

I have only done the trial, I know there is a lot more to explore, but after seeing the first world, I get the idea of where this is heading. More monoliths on more planets, activate them all, shoot all aliens and then everything is cool, everybody is happy and planets can be settled.

I think we know what the end game is already, which makes this all a little less exciting.

Eos apparently is really one of the worst places for players to have a first impression on apparently.
I will know for sure only when I get there but broader story picks up, and there are more variety as we go. Some side quests are lame and boring fetch quests, but others can be very interesting. Apparently...

Again, I'll know for sure once I get to them, but I'm still keeping an open mind about it.

I'm not sure what to think about if it had Skyrim style open world however. Skyrim is 1 huge area, but still the same area. Mass Effect has space travel, and this type of "open world" is as open as it can be for the tech we have right now. It "can" be more open however. What it really needs is a Star Citizen type open world. Land on every planet, and explore every part of the planet, with tailored cities/points of interests where quests are, and the rest for gathering/mining randomly generated encounters, etc. We do have Star Citizen for that though. To some extent, Elite: Dangerous as well. Don't really need it in the Mass Effect universe imho.

Mass Effect, however is more about its story and its characters, so if it's too "open world" I'm afraid it'll lose its personality. That's one problem I have with open world games. It's "too vast". Linearity isn't necessarily a bad thing, if it's done properly.

 

[Huegpaynis]

First impressions:
animation issues: not that bad
addison's voiceover: pretty bad
rest of the game: pretty good so far

 

[Doc Shaftoe]

I'm liking what I've played so far. Eos actually got better after the block placed at the end of the trial, and establishing an outpost felt really good. Maybe I'm just projecting because that's the kind of gameplay I want to be involved with in Star Citizen, but I was taken in by how it played out.

All told, it's very similar to Dragon Age Inquisition. Large, fairly expansive play areas with lots of resources to find and side missions to complete. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, and I feel like a lot of the complaints people had about DAI will be echoed here. That said, I've found the combat to be fun and engaging once you figure out its new quirks. I'm definitely placing a higher emphasis on mobility than I did in the previous ME games, and like Montoya said in his video, I wish some of the features from Andromeda were in the trilogy.

I'm not sold on the crafting mechanic, but probably because I'm still figuring it out. If it's anything like Inquisition's was, it shouldn't take too long before the things you can make far outstrip the things you can find. The limited inventory space is kind of annoying, but I'm sure there's a way to expand it. The Nomad is fun to drive and I'm curious to see how they're going to fit it into the gameplay in the future. The Mako runs on Noveria, Virmire, and Ilos were really stand-out moments in the first game.

There are a number of small touches that I appreciate and makes me reminisce about the first three games. I've always been a fan of the Normandy so I was a little sore when I saw the design of the Tempest, but I have to admit that I've fallen in love with her. She's a gorgeous piece of civilian design and I find myself hoping for some similar design elements in future SC ships. We'll probably see something like it from Origin. They do big swoopy designs.

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but I'm calling dibs on naming my Carrack "Tempest."

Andromeda is a great evolution of the Mass Effect formula, and outside of a few small graphical hiccups I've been enjoying the hell out of it.

I think what bothers me the most about the character models isn't the animations, it's the eyes. They don't look like they're lit or animated properly. The eyes in Inquisition may have been over-reflective, but it helped to give each of the characters... well... character. On the animation front, the eyes don't seem to really line up with what the characters should be looking at. This has the side effect of making everyone look a little hazy. It's an uncanny valley thing and if Bioware can patch that I think everything else is forgivable. And honestly? Even if they don't patch the eyes I'm still going to enjoy this game.

Kallo's got his work cut out for him to fill Joker's shoes though.

 

[Gearen]

 

[Printimus]

Haters gonna hate

 

[Grimbli]

You can actually get on Greenman Gaming for $44.