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Mass Effect: Andromeda | Review Thread

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S

sym30l1c

Member
I love the ME trilogy but Andromeda never felt appealing to me after watching some footage. I really wanted this to be good though and I really wanted to play it...and for some strange reason I still do, but I'll probably wait until it's on sale, which will probably happen within the next couple of months from the looks of it...
 
D

Devilinthiscity

Member
Takao said:
Venture Beat: 55/100
Games have to fit into our lives, and that’s not always fair. Mass Effect: Andromeda might’ve worked a decade ago on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but it doesn’t work in a world that is delivering games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Nier: Automata, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In this reality, BioWare’s latest role-playing game is old, broken, and often boring.

Worst of all, it’s going to disappoint fans of the Mass Effect series.
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Mass Effect? More like Mass Defects amirite.
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Damn. After watching that Giantbomb quick look their review will probably be around the same.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
sym30l1c said:
I love the ME trilogy but Andromeda never felt appealing to me after watching some footage. I really wanted this to be good though and I really wanted to play it...and for some strange reason I still do, but I'll probably wait until it's on sale, which will probably happen within the next couple of months from the looks of it...
Click to expand...

If this was PS3 era UK market it would be £17.99 in a few weeks. We don't quite live in those times anymore, but it's not staying at £42.99 in retail for long. EA will cut and try to rely on MP DLC/DLC in general. Gotta save face with those sales numbers if reviews do cause some people to hold off buying at launch.
 
Cornbread78

Cornbread78

Member
Not worried, I'm sure I played worse, lol. I'll happily pick up my copy tonight from Gamestop between 9-10pm as instructed..

Either way, it'll fill a sci-fi void for me.
 
S

Slaythe

Member
Jarmel said:
I think it's an example of how Bioware's management has completely gone to shit. It seems like it was clear after the original OT that Walters wasn't a particularly good writer, or possibly even a competent one, and yet he ended up in an even more powerful position just out of seniority. EA/Bioware need to take a hard look at the failings of this project and the people involved in. Walters wasn't restrained that much in this game and he still struck out.
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We are now at the point where every thing Bioware released after EA acquisition has been controversial.


DA 2 the playable vomit
ME 3 and its vanilla garbage state
Da:I lucked out with no competition, with hindsight regarded as one of the worst because of some awful game design
Me:A Unfinished and shallow mess

You can like all those games, and they all had good points to them, so it comes down to personal preferences, but obviously they all have issues with a huge amount of people.

It's impossible to have hope for what's next.
 
J

jacobeid

Banned
I'm shocked that some are surprised at this score. The signs have been there since last fall that this wouldn't reach the highs of the previous trilogy. Doesn't seem like this is something that will manage to get my time with such a stacked year.
 
L

Lime

Member
I also don't understand how this is a 5 year long project with

1. the fewest squad members since ME1,
2. not possible to customize appearance or armor on squadmates
3. not possible to select powers for your squadmates
4. a worse character creator than the otherwise excellent on in DA:I

What gives? Has development really been this rough that even asset creation was faulty?
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
Slaythe said:
We are now at the point where every thing Bioware released after EA acquisition has been controversial.


DA 2 the playable vomit
ME 3 and its vanilla garbage state
Da:I lucked out with no competition, with hindsight regarded as one of the worst because of some awful game design
Me:A Unfinished and shallow mess

You can like all those games, and they all had good points to them, so it comes down to personal preferences, but obviously they all have issues with a huge amount of people.

It's impossible to have hope for what's next.
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They're just becoming kings of cookie cutter. Kinda like how Ubisoft shit out some "Ubisoft open world generator" games (although Ubi are getting a bit better). Bioware seems to have some generic AI system which shits out quests and writing. Instead of a bunch of people having a bit more TLC for putting some soul and heart into writing and quests (and characters).

Experiment more, try the unexpected and give some hard hitting writing a go. Even humour. Some of the clips I've seen where they've tried humour are like something from a 90s sitcom. It's either stale, cringey as fuck or so boring run of mill you can't quite wrap your head around how so many people can get together and be so... safe? Unless upper management is demanding that, but if so, EA gotta look at some of these project leads. I don't want anyone losing jobs, as that is crushing, but people gotta get some guidance or advice to try harder and stop being so safe.
 
H

Harlequin

Member
Ocarina_117 said:
I'm just confused to how the main Bioware team were happy to let a B-tier studio handle their IP? And how EA were happy with their biggest sci-fi RPG to be handled so poorly.
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The old ME team probably cared more about getting to work on something fresh and trying out new ideas and concepts than they did about who was going to handle the franchise. (I'm not saying that they didn't care, I'm sure they did, but after having worked on it for so long, it's not difficult to see why they'd want to move on.)
 
C

cartoon_soldier

Member
Lime said:
I also don't understand how this is a 5 year long project with

1. the fewest squad members since ME1,
2. not possible to customize appearance or armor on squadmates
3. not possible to select powers for your squadmates
4. a worse character creator than the otherwise excellent on in DA:I

What gives? Has development really been this rough that even asset creation was faulty?
Click to expand...

It definitely looks like a game that went through Development Hell.

Did something big happen at Bioware in last 2-3 years?

Ocarina_117 said:
I'm just confused to how the main Bioware team were happy to let a B-tier studio handle their IP? And how EA were happy with their biggest sci-fi RPG to be handled so poorly.

5 years development time for this to be the result is a poor show. The tepid marketing makes sense now.
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Wait, this wasn't done by Bioware Bioware? Who did this then?

Now it makes complete sense. Bioware would have delivered a comfortably decent game, maybe not top tier.
 
T

texhnolyze

Banned
Freeman76 said:
That would be one way to save this, free for all MEA owners :)
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I would welcome that offer.

Lime said:
I also don't understand how this is a 5 year long project with

1. the fewest squad members since ME1,
2. not possible to customize appearance or armor on squadmates
3. not possible to select powers for your squadmates
4. a worse character creator than the otherwise excellent on in DA:I

What gives? Has development really been this rough that even asset creation was faulty?
Click to expand...

Open world happened. It seems that they put most of their resource on it.
 
S

-SG

Member
I was debating between picking up this or Horizon first and I think I've made my decision. I'm sure I will pick this up eventually though.
 
B

Bedlam

Member
Audioboxer said:
I can't remember to be fair. It would no different than Square with their dumb ass rants about sales needed by TR to "succeed". Multi-million sellers still make good money, so it's never an excuse to say "we threw the game under a bus because it was only selling 3~4m copies".

Devs on this should have had to play ME1~3 till their eyes were bleeding (mostly ME2!) and seek help/support if unsure. Literally no one was asking for ME to be a totally "new" thing. Only severe criticism it ever got was an iffy ending in 3.

Not bad! Probably in line with what ME could roughly do on all platforms, with digital included.
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As Durante has mentioned earlier, for me the first ME trilogy was already on a downward spiral, especially as far as writing is concerned (not just the ending). I literally had to stop playing ME3 several times because I couldn't stomach some of the cringe-inducing dudebro dialogues.

This just seems like the continuation of that trajectory. Bioware desperately needs better writing talent.After Drew left, nothing really good has come out of Bioware in this regard and with ME:A they seem to have reached a new low.
 
T

ThoseDeafMutes

Member
Khoryos said:
The irony I was referencing is that if the prose of his review were any more purple, it would repping the Third Street Saints.
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His writing is sometimes long-winded but if you want to see truly bad writing, I'd suggest watching some of the clips people recorded from the 10 hour ME:Andromeda trials.

P.S. He knows what a Hanar is and was complaining not that "the franchise" didn't have anything imaginative in it, but that Mass Effect Andromeda offered nothing imaginative.

John Walker said:
Think about a new galaxy, a whole new potential of life forms, of evolutionary exoticism, of astounding new ideas. Now discard them all and think of intensely familiar bipedal people living in ordinary cities with ordinary thoughts, relationships, educations, jobs, and would you believe it, technology exactly on a par with what you just happened to bring with you. Floating octopuses that think in cascading colours? Societies based on amorphous interaction? Ideas better than the ones I'm throwing out? Nope, not a single thing.
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"Floating octopus that thinks in cascading colours" is not a Hanar, it's basically the Aliens from Arrival, whose language and alien thought patterns drove the plot.
 
C

Clarkus Darkus

Member
Expected scores, My main concerns was the ME3 dlc team making this game as that was medicore dlc, Then along with the fact we was all used too knowing it was a trilogy we was playing, This always felt like a standalone game which feels out of place in todays gaming landscape.

All of us that said Mass Effect Inquisition was correct in our fears.
 
H

HowZatOZ

Banned
With scores like this, do you even bother with an accolades/marketing video showcasing them? Two reviews so far have 9/10, rest are 8 and well below.
 
digoutyoursoul

digoutyoursoul

Member
The one game I wanted to be a big hit, a franchise I love and it's looking more like a fart in the wind. I can't say I have the most pleasant feelings towards the leads on this game or EA at the moment, feeling pretty disappointed to say the least.
 
F

franknbeans

Member
I'm about 10 hours into ME2 so I think I'll take my time with that and ME3. By the time I'm done with both hopefully andromeda's will have dropped to around $30. I like what I've played so far in the ea access.
 
Gamezone

Gamezone

Gold Member
Why do modern games have to be so much worse? I`ve already suffered trough Mafia 3, Battlefront, Mirror`s Edge and Dragon Age Inquisition.
 
S

sym30l1c

Member
Audioboxer said:
If this was PS3 era UK market it would be £17.99 in a few weeks. We don't quite live in those times anymore, but it's not staying at £42.99 in retail for long. EA will cut and try to rely on MP DLC/DLC in general. Gotta save face with those sales numbers if reviews do cause some people to hold off buying at launch.
Click to expand...

I agree. Still, in the last few months PS4 game prices in the UK have been decreasing more quickly than before, especially if sales are not that great (at least that's my impression). So, if ME:A doesn't do great I wouldn't be surprised to see retailers selling it for £30 maybe even £25 before summer.
 
S

Slaythe

Member
Lime said:
I also don't understand how this is a 5 year long project with

1. the fewest squad members since ME1,
2. not possible to customize appearance or armor on squadmates
3. not possible to select powers for your squadmates
4. a worse character creator than the otherwise excellent on in DA:I

What gives? Has development really been this rough that even asset creation was faulty?
Click to expand...

I don't have insider info for this game, but given what I have seen from other studios, this is my guess :

You have a completely unfinished game released in march, which means it was deliberately forced out for fiscal year reasons.

The game was a money sink for EA after 5 years, they probably froze the development at some point (probably cancelling out some of the QA of the game) to limit the financial disaster.

No way this got 5 full years and coincidentally is out in march in this state.
 
J

Jarmel

Banned
Here's the thing, despite all the shit Casey Hudson got after ME3, he was still a very good director. He was probably the strongest director at Bioware and is responsible for almost all of their slam dunks. Him leaving was probably the biggest blow to Bioware from a talent perspective.
 
A

Ashtar

Member
Never thought I'd see the day when a new mass effect had lower reviews than ghost recon wildlands , that's Brazy
I'm still looking forward to playing it myself though
 
T

Tecnniqe

Banned
Svejk said:
Andromehda
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👌
Slaythe said:
I don't have insider info for this game, but given what I have seen from other studios, this is my guess :

You have a completely unfinished game released in march, which means it was deliberately forced out for fiscal year reasons.

The game was a money sink for EA after 5 years, they probably froze the development at some point (probably cancelling out some of the QA of the game) to limit the financial disaster.

No way this got 5 full years and coincidentally is out in march in this state.
Click to expand...
Sure doesn't seem like they did, which makes it even weirder.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
Bedlam said:
As Durante has mentioned earlier, for me the first ME trilogy was already on a downward spiral, especially as far as writing is concerned (not just the ending). I literally had to stop playing ME3 several times because I couldn't stomach some of the cringe-inducing dudebro dialogues.

This just seems like the continuation of that trajectory. Bioware desperately needs better writing talent.After Drew left, nothing really good has come out of Bioware in this regard and with ME:A they seem to have reached a new low.
Click to expand...

That is some... truth. It wasn't as good as 2, but some cringe aside it was a decent package overall. I guess the ending debate did take away from some of the mid-game writing. Even 1~2 had some cringe, but it was propped up by good writing overall. Not everything needs to be perfect, just not so damn safe, or so sterile it's purposefully trying to induce a coma in players.

sym30l1c said:
I agree. Still, in the last few months PS4 game prices in the UK have been decreasing more quickly than before, especially if sales are not that great (at least that's my impression). So, if ME:A doesn't do great I wouldn't be surprised to see retailers selling it for £30 maybe even £25 before summer.
Click to expand...

It'll probably be down to £35.99 in a week to two weeks..
 
Harlock

Harlock

Member
ME3 has an option to play more like an action or more like a RPG, no? Maybe in this case the game would be better served if was focused in being an action game.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Disappointed by the reviews scores but I will still be getting this tomorrow and play the shit out of this.
 
G

Golden_Pigeon

Banned
Gamezone said:
Why do modern games have to be so much worse? I`ve already suffered trough Mafia 3, Battlefront, Mirror`s Edge and Dragon Age Inquisition.
Click to expand...

BOTW is the best game i played since Ocarina of Time.
Witcher 3 is the best western RPG in my book.

I think we're living great gaming times, beside some very bad management decision which are killing great game series.
 
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