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Mass Effect: Andromeda | Review Thread (READ MOD POST)

Lime

Member
Kinda expected it to not be good. Mass Effect has been focused grouped to death and apparently handed off to a B Tier team with little support.

Worst of all, the game seems like it was just a pointless cash grab.

EA spending 5 years of AAA development doesn't seem like a cash grab to me. The end result seems shoddy for sure, but I don't think anyone intended to have a rushed and unfinished buggy product to be out.
 

HardRojo

Member
Sad to read it didn't review all that well, considering how the Trilogy performed. I'll still play it but in a few months from now.
 

Ralemont

not me
I think it's funny how much GAFers act like 75 is bombing. Given the problems and animations, it seems like a fair score. To me it seems like it has those problems, but is a good game despite them. I'm looking forward to jumping into multiplayer.

It's perhaps unfair to Andromeda, but compared to the OT a 75 pretty much is bombing. Not that GAF of all places should place so much value in MC scores considering its tepid opinion of Mass Effect 3.

As for myself I'm hoping it's one of those games I fall in love with and the pros drown out the cons, but I am a bit worried about reviews citing lukewarm story and characters, as even DA2 was praised for its cast despite the reviews being "only" good.
 

Ray Down

Banned
EA spending 5 years of AAA development doesn't seem like a cash grab to me. The end result seems shoddy for sure, but I don't think anyone intended to have a rushed and unfinished buggy product to be out.

I remember you saying in the last thread that you thought it was just bad project management.

Thought that was back at like page 19.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
I wonder if after all this there's gonna be another ME game made by the same people. I just hope EA won't abandon the series entiarly just cuz Andromeda wasn't reviewed well and all that (hey there Dead Space 3). I mean, if anything, they've made awesome looking game and enviroments, really good combat and multiplayer, now they just need to hire better writers who can come up with a much better story etc.
 

Jarmel

Banned
Hmm seems like the sidequests are garbage. I wonder if it might be good to just blitz through the main story and be done with it.
 
Yeah, I'm probably going to like it. I wasn't expecting much more than a basic ME4. I never saw anything that looked like they were leaving their comfort zone, so I never expected it.
I've been really receptive to late 70s/early 80s Metacritic scored games this generation.
DA:I, Fallout 4, Mad Max, Deus Ex: MD, Ive liked them all.
 
To those who said ''oh come on, a 7 is bad now?''
7 might be alright overall, but it is incredibly bad for a Mass Effect game.

Take a look at the series' track record:
Mass Effect - Best metascore 91 on Xbox 360
Mass Effect 2 - Best metascore 94 on Xbox 360
Mass Effect 3 - Best metasocre 93 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
Mass Effect Anderomeda - Best metascore 78 on PC

You'd be crazy to say that fans shouldn't be angry or disappointed about this.

Can you imagine if The Last of Us 2 got an 81 on metacritic? Surely it's not a ''bad'' score but that would be just disappointing.

What's disappointing about this game is that it doesn't really strive to do anything that the previous 3 games didn't and outside of combat it also doesn't really seem to strive to improve on anything the previous 3 games did either. While the combat is a noticeable step up from the previous 3 games the new galaxy map is a dramatic step down and while the new conversation system should lead to more interesting (more human) conversations I feel like the binary nature of the Paragon/Renegade system actually led to more interesting conversations as well as instant gratification in many situations.

Having played through the trilogy again recently I would make the unpopular argument that ME1 doesn't hold up as well as some feel and ME3 straight up doesn't deserve a 93 metacritic (again, just my opinion). Just based on the little bit I've played of Andromeda I personally would already probably score it higher than ME3. Not that I dislike ME1 or ME3. I just never found them to be exceptional games. They're good but not great in my eyes and that seems to be Andromeda in a nutshell. Good but not great. I'm enjoying it thus far though.
 

Audioboxer

Member
I wonder if after all this there's gonna be another ME game made by the same people. I just hope EA won't abandon the series entiarly just cuz Andromeda wasn't reviewed well and all that (hey there Dead Space 3). I mean, if anything, they've made awesome looking game and enviroments, really good combat and multiplayer, now they just need to hire better writers who can come up with a much better story etc.

Some staff have already left it seems. At the very least if EA do another ME game it's not going to be the same project leads after this.
 
EA spending 5 years of AAA development doesn't seem like a cash grab to me. The end result seems shoddy for sure, but I don't think anyone intended to have a rushed and unfinished buggy product to be out.

Time means nothing, the end result shows it isn't a AAA game, and the complete lack of anything new to add to the universe and overall pointlessness of the story itself tells me cash grab.


You'd be crazy to say that fans shouldn't be angry or disappointed about this.

Angry? No. Disappointed? Yes.
 

Tagg9

Member
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I have no idea why EA/BioWare felt the need to rush this out in March. I don't think anyone even expected the game to release in the first half of 2017 - I assumed the initial release window would be delayed to fall.

There are also a ton of other great games that have come out in the last few months, creating a rather crowded marketplace for consumers. And considering most other releases have garnered favorable reviews and impressions (Nioh, Horizon, BotW, Nier, For Honor, etc.), it will be a tough choice for consumer to purchase Mass Effect.

I have to assume they needed a Q1 release for their bottom line, but it's quite evident from all the technical jank that the game was not ready.
 

eot

Banned
This turned out exactly how I feared when I found out it was being made by the ME3: Omega team. Bad writing is more damning than the horrible facial animations.

What a shame indeed.
 

Floex

Member
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I have no idea why EA/BioWare felt the need to rush this out in March. I don't think anyone even expected the game to release in the first half of 2017 - I assumed the initial release window would be delayed to fall.

There are also a ton of other great games that have come out in the last few months, creating a rather crowded marketplace for consumers. And considering most other releases have garnered favorable reviews and impressions (Nioh, Horizon, BotW, Nier, For Honor, etc.), it will be a tough choice for consumer to purchase Mass Effect.

I have to assume they needed a Q1 release for their bottom line, but it's quite evident from all the technical jank that the game was not ready.

But the problems arn't purely about the animations, the story, the script, sub-par side missions, there are many issues seemingly with this game.
 

Ahasverus

Member
ImNuAPx.jpg
Truer by the day. Everything EA touches turns to shit. I weep for Bungie.
 
To those who said ''oh come on, a 7 is bad now?''
7 might be alright overall, but it is incredibly bad for a Mass Effect game.

Take a look at the series' track record:
Mass Effect - Best metascore 91 on Xbox 360
Mass Effect 2 - Best metascore 94 on Xbox 360
Mass Effect 3 - Best metasocre 93 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
Mass Effect Anderomeda - Best metascore 78 on PC

You'd be crazy to say that fans shouldn't be angry or disappointed about this.

Can you imagine if The Last of Us 2 got an 81 on metacritic? Surely it's not a ''bad'' score but that would be just disappointing.

Yeah not sure why people are acting like disappointment over this is just looking at a 'score'

We got this when final fantasy fell from grace with XIII going below a 90 metascore...now we have it with another RPG franchise.

Unlike XIII though with ME:A the writing seemed to be on the wall for a while.
 

AJ_Wings

Member
It's a shame really regarding the reviews, because I'm sure that after a few major patches, this game isn't going to be such a technical mess.

I will probably still enjoy it in the coming weeks/months while it's getting fixed, but really... who is to blame? Bioware or EA for forcing them on releasing a game that wasn't ready yet?

EA have put up with the studio for like 5 freakin' years to put this monster of a project out... I can see why they just said "Fuck it, just release it."
 
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I have no idea why EA/BioWare felt the need to rush this out in March. I don't think anyone even expected the game to release in the first half of 2017 - I assumed the initial release window would be delayed to fall.

There are also a ton of other great games that have come out in the last few months, creating a rather crowded marketplace for consumers. And considering most other releases have garnered favorable reviews and impressions (Nioh, Horizon, BotW, Nier, For Honor, etc.), it will be a tough choice for consumer to purchase Mass Effect.

I have to assume they needed a Q1 release for their bottom line, but it's quite evident from all the technical jank that the game was not ready.

Thing is, even considering all the other great games released this quarter Mass Effect Andromeda is considered a juggernaut that will eat them up in terms of sales.

So I dont think it's rushed. The developers just couldnt finished it when given the deadline, so it's pretty much on them.
 

GSG Flash

Nobody ruins my family vacation but me...and maybe the boy!
Immensely disappointing.

Personally I had hoped for a return to the greatness of Mass Effect. And at the very least a game on par with Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.

Same here, ultimately I expected the worst, but had some hope for it considering that they were bringing the Mako back and they said that they wanted to revisit some of ME1's mechanics.

ME1 was my favourite game of last gen, and it completely tore me up what they did with the sequels.
 
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I have no idea why EA/BioWare felt the need to rush this out in March. I don't think anyone even expected the game to release in the first half of 2017 - I assumed the initial release window would be delayed to fall.

There are also a ton of other great games that have come out in the last few months, creating a rather crowded marketplace for consumers. And considering most other releases have garnered favorable reviews and impressions (Nioh, Horizon, BotW, Nier, For Honor, etc.), it will be a tough choice for consumer to purchase Mass Effect.

I have to assume they needed a Q1 release for their bottom line, but it's quite evident from all the technical jank that the game was not ready.

The game has been in development for 5 years. EA likely gave the team the March ultimatum because they were tired of funding its development for so long and have to make a return on investment at some point.

It's the teams fault they couldn't put together a better product. They had as much or more time than pretty much all AAA games
 
Just remember

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still a great time for games. I have plenty of other things to play at the moment. Just kinda bummed was hoping for a good return to the series.

The idea of giving out awards to stuff that's not out yet has never really sat well with me. Are games the only medium that does this?
 

Colocho

Banned
Even if 7 isn't that bad of a score, there's no reason to waste time on it considering the amazing games that have come out recently (Horizon, Nier, Zelda, etc)
 
Any word on post launch support? That is, if I wait to pick this up, what are the chances that the technical jank will be patched? Obviously the writing is what it is, but ideally I'd like to play the least buggy version of this game.
 
I think the only thing that makes me really pause in these reviews, is the lack of new species. We were introduced to so many cool ones in the original trilogy, you'd think we'd get more than two in a new galaxy.
 
Just tried to cancel my preorder but it said they couldn't.

Honestly okay with this as I'm sure the story is fine and the gameplay is very very good. Also, never played the MP so that's something I'm going to look forward to. I just hope the story is good...fingers crossed.
 

Tagg9

Member
The game has been in development for 5 years. EA likely gave the team the March ultimatum because they were tired of funding its development for so long and have to make a return on investment at some point.

It's the teams fault they couldn't put together a better product. They had as much or more time than pretty much all AAA games

Is there any evidence that the game has been in development for 5 years? 3 years maybe.
 

Neoweee

Member
I'm interested in seeing how much patches help the game, and how well the game is balanced and interesting on the highest difficulty. There seem to be a good number of people that actually do like the combat in the game, and it could be something special in the sea of open-world games.
 

Audioboxer

Member
Just tried to cancel my preorder but it said they couldn't.

Honestly okay with this as I'm sure the story is fine and the gameplay is very very good. Also, never played the MP so that's something I'm going to look forward to. I just hope the story is good...fingers crossed.

Don't read the YouTube comments reviews dude.

But yeah, expect ymmv on the story/writing.
 

BumRush

Member
I have the game preordered (for no reason, I really should stop preordering as I won't get to play this until May-ish), and although the reviews are a bit disheartening, I'm still excited.
 
Looks like my fears came true. They used the DA:I template for ME and changed everything about it I loved of the original.

If i write down what I didn't like with what they did to DA from origins to Inquisition it sounds exactly like what they did with ME
• Moved to large open areas filled with MMO style fetch quests
• Dumbed down the combat (removed a lot of the control you had on your party)
• Added some base you build up for no real reason but give you something to build up.
• Added symbols so you no longer had to put any thought into your dialogue choices
• Removed paragon system (I cant remember if DA:I had this to be honest)

Add to this yet another 'chosen one' storyline and just ugh.

I wont even mention the graphical issues and bugs as I don't think that even matters at this point.

I have feared this was going to happen ever since I played through DA:I and it dissapointed me so much and Bioware basically said this was the template for their games going forward. I thin they got false possitives from that games due to when it released because when you look at what came out the year after it shows what they could have done.

The only possitive I can take from this is that finally games going for quantity over quality are finally starting to get negative press. Its been an issue for me personally for a while now as these kinds of games dont appeal to me at all so hopefully it will gives these companys a kick up the bum and get them to start to innovate again rather than try to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
 
Worth pointing out that the game is being compared negatively to Inquisition too


75 is absolutely shameful for a series of this caliber. Can you imagine if even Resident Evil VII had a 75? Breath of the Wild?

Heck not even mainline Final Fantasy got 70's with the last few installments which lots of people consider to be disappointing

--------

Ultimately though this is the ONLY space opera RPG we have.

So I will be buying it. The setting and premise alone will carry it for me.

You vote with your wallet, and I will be voting for more space opera RPG's by buying this. Sick to death of medieval or post apocalyptic settings.
 

prwxv3

Member
The game has been in development for 5 years. EA likely gave the team the March ultimatum because they were tired of funding its development for so long and have to make a return on investment at some point.

It's the teams fault they couldn't put together a better product. They had as much or more time than pretty much all AAA games

GG made horizon in a similar timeframe (and budget) and they had to pretty much reform the studio to be able to produce a open world game. This is all on management.
 

Cleve

Member
Maaaaaan, I just finished Zelda, and I could really use a new mass effect game. Given how outrageous bioware's dlc policies/pricing have been paired with the middle of the road reviews I want to hold off on a better deal, but it's calling me.
 

Ray Down

Banned
The game has been in development for 5 years. EA likely gave the team the March ultimatum because they were tired of funding its development for so long and have to make a return on investment at some point.

It's the teams fault they couldn't put together a better product. They had as much or more time than pretty much all AAA games

It doesn't help when other developers who also had games of a similar time frame come out recently and have reviewed more favorably with Horizon:ZD and Zelda.

And both those games are really different then there teams predecessors.

So yeah I don't think we can lay much fault with EA, I really wonder if they made a documentary on the games development.
 
In the previous thread someone said something along the lines of "well, a 75 is still a good game!".

Well, you have to understand that all Mass Effect games are scored a good 10-15 points higher than they should (imo). So following that reasoning, a 75 in Metacritic is more like a 60 for me. And I have a long list of pending games to play, it isn't even a question of money.
 

EGOMON

Member
Fuck I should have waited for the reviews before pre-ordering :(
Please at least tell me the Multiplayer is as good as ME3?
 
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