I'd like to believe it's the technical​ issues, but the key point for me is that reviewers typically praise BW story and characters almost universally as a plus, whereas here the reaction to that aspect is mixed at best. That's pretty worrying to me, since BW could fuck up everything in a game and I'd still.love it because of their character writing (coughDA2cough).
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Mass Effect: Andromeda | Review Thread (READ MOD POST)
- Thread starter kubus
- Start date
I'd like to believe it's the technical​ issues, but the key point for me is that reviewers typically praise BW story and characters almost universally as a plus, whereas here the reaction to that aspect is mixed at best. That's pretty worrying to me, since BW could fuck up everything in a game and I'd still.love it because of their character writing (coughDA2cough).
Vic_Viper
Member
I have to dissagree with this idea that a Mass Effect game has to have high stakes with a world ending threat constantly pushing the narrative. Andromeda was sold to us as a new story that introduces a brand new galaxy to explore, key word being explore. The tonal shift to being explorers is what appealed the most to me. Maybe there will be some new epic threat to deal with, but they cant just throw that in right at the get go. The whole point of this new mission is to find a new home for mankind in some far off galaxy that noone has ever been too.
DieGo2SHAE
Member
Bargain bin confirmed. Maybe we'll actually see that Mass Effect trilogy remaster now so they can squeeze out a few more dollars before shelving the franchise for a while.
I don't even think it's that. Wrex aside, the original Me1s characters are actually pretty crappy for Bioware. Kaiden and Ashely were both "meh", Garrus was boring as hell, and Liara was so annoying and so eager to jump into bed with you it was embarrassing. It took Me2 to turn the both of them into the absolutely stellar cast mates they ended up becoming.
What made Me1 work for me was the overarching narrative - it was the closest I've ever come in a game to feeling like I'm in a giant big budget sci-fi experience. The aliens, the reapers, the Geth, the Citedal - that's what made it work for me. that's what got me past the incredibly badly designed MAKO sequences, the cardboard cut-out enemies and the monotonous as hell collection quests and base design. Shepherd's conversation with Sovereign was *amazing* - and Virgil's revelation was a pay-off worth waiting for. The final sequence, running up the side of the citedal and then ordering the human fleet into battle to protect the Destiny's ascension is one of my favourite endings of all times in a game.
That's one thing I've been worried about for a while with ME:A - it seems to just be recreating the original game. It has a replacement citedal, the squad seems the same as in ME1, and they have utterly failed in the marketing to sell me on the overarching plot. Me1 and Me2 had fantatsic trailers and previews that made me want to know more - this game hasn't. It seems that's because it doesn't have those same, incredibly strong narrative beats,
semiconscious
Member
oh, yeah, i'm sure you're right. but the question is: if this game flops, financially, is ea gonna be in the mood to even give bioware another chance?
...yeah, there's that, too
...unfortunately, depending on sales, i think the lesson ea could just a easily take from this: 'if we have to spend even more money on this franchise in order to create something 'acceptable', well, screw mass effect!'
Yeah, I think "fuck it" is a much more likely response. Especially considering how ugly the Mass Effect community has gotten now in two back to back games.
Mashin Haters
Member
I honestly thought it was the original mass effect team that made this game. What are they working on instead of this?
Cornbread78
Member
About a game with a meta in the 70's?
WTF is that? Joke post? This has to be, right? Is this game Too Human or something? Each of the reviews has an opinion on how they react to the game. I can't even..
GlamFM
Banned
Something that sounds a lot like Destiny.
EventHorizon
Member
Destiny from the start was praised for its great gameplay. It was just missing a good context for it. The gameplay was a great anchor that DLC could fix. Gameplay has never been Mass Effect's strength. It's been serviceable enough to let the story and environment shine. DLC can't retcon the 10s of hours in the base game. That's always going to have to stand on what it is...which is disappointing. Also judging by Andromeda, the devs don't seem to be up to the task. It's hard to see great Mass Effect content coming out of that shop.
CarbonFire
Member
I think this is the most likely scenario. Bioware Montreal was clearly not ready to fully develop a AAA game on their own, which is a shame because they ARE very good at combat design. Unfortunately it seems they needed more help on just about everything else. I could easily see EA dissolving that studio now and extracting the top talent back to Edmonton.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
I think it was time to move on. None (or at least few) of the complaints are really the setting changing, or even the new characters (beyond bad dialogue writing at time).
Even if they had kept Shepard, they really needed to get out of the Milky Way. The Reaper threat needed wrapped up, and a big appeal of space games is getting out of the known galaxy IMO. So that's something they got right. They just need to get a more compelling story and better writing in place if they get to do a sequel. Along with fixing the tech issues of course.
xeroborn55
Member
I don't understand the knocks against the combat. From what I've played, granted on pc so 60+fps, the combat is soooo good.
Yeah, agreed.
Yeah, agreed.
Danis Saur
Member
Thanks for the responses, and I agree with you all actually. My example would be the ones others are mentioning: Destiny. Fun gameplay, hours spent, but nothing to brag about when it came to story or characters. I just stand with my position about spending $60 for this specific Mass Effect, a series where story and characters were a fascination with the fans.
Lionel Richie
Member
Goddamn that's a fucking great ACG review, the compass pointed to ass bit got me laughing for a good 5 minutes straight. Awesome stuff Karak!
Mercador
Member
BioWare, yes, BioWare Montreal, maybe not.oh, yeah, i'm sure you're right. but the question is: if this game flops, financially, is ea gonna be in the mood to even give bioware another chance?
yeah, there's that, too
foxdvd
Member
Does any of the reviews focus on insanity difficulty?
I have always felt Mass Effect 2 and 3 are better when played on insanity. I think the combat moves to a different level. I would like to hear from people that have played the full game on insanity, and their thoughts on the combat.
Also, one review I read said you have less control over your team...does that mean no more hotkey skill use when you want to set up combos?
I have always felt Mass Effect 2 and 3 are better when played on insanity. I think the combat moves to a different level. I would like to hear from people that have played the full game on insanity, and their thoughts on the combat.
Also, one review I read said you have less control over your team...does that mean no more hotkey skill use when you want to set up combos?
Pretty much, hell really stands out for Horizon since its really such a departure for the team in most aspects from how they did the Killzone series.
Where do you think EA/Bioware go from here with Mass Effect?
semiconscious
Member
as many other's've said (& i agree): the series never should've been a trilogy. it should've been episodic, like uncharted or halo. likely would've made life a lot easier on the montreal studio had this been so...
the trilogy idea was just a mistake...
The Salt Life
Banned
Here is my thing on multiplayer, ifs set up differently at least on lower levels. You really have to level up your powers for them to be effective. You really need to get that starting assault rifle at least 8-10 times in a loot crate for that thing to do decent damage. It's a different approach, gone are the days of going into bronze with a man guard and just charging/nova killing everything in one hit. I will still get this for the MP and just got the pro yesterday so I hope it has a pro patch. (Played the game on x1)
As far as the single player, it's presentation is rough and ugly and reminds me of mass effect 1, I hated mass effect 1, 2 was more tolerable and I found 3 to be the best. With the 4 hours I put into the single player I know I spent a lot of time thinking
That's a poor Garus replacement
That's no Joker
That's no EDI
Thata no Wrex or Grunt
Only time will tell, and I mean 100's of hours of gameplay before I can see if these characters will grow on me. Otherwise I would be judging it unfairly. Does the game seem janky at times visual wise? Absolutely, but I'm going to see it through. So I can see what the reviewers are saying, but I will ultimately decide on my own
As far as the single player, it's presentation is rough and ugly and reminds me of mass effect 1, I hated mass effect 1, 2 was more tolerable and I found 3 to be the best. With the 4 hours I put into the single player I know I spent a lot of time thinking
That's a poor Garus replacement
That's no Joker
That's no EDI
Thata no Wrex or Grunt
Only time will tell, and I mean 100's of hours of gameplay before I can see if these characters will grow on me. Otherwise I would be judging it unfairly. Does the game seem janky at times visual wise? Absolutely, but I'm going to see it through. So I can see what the reviewers are saying, but I will ultimately decide on my own
SocksAndShoes
Banned
It never has.
No way into the sixties but probably below Wildlands :/
fluffydelusions
Member
It's not that a meta in the 70s is bad but ME3 bad an 89 and I found that game pretty meh compared to ME2. Think I'll just wait till a sale for this one.
How much do subpar high-school writing, lots of bugs, off-putting animations, and MMO-quest design mean to you?
Many of the reviews point out whether or not the game is actually good.
EDIT: oh you mean the term AAA. 'AAA' just means budget and market prominence.
wow I thought Ryder was sweating inside the helmet :lol
thepenguin55
Member
That's the unfortunate side effect of something becoming more and more popular.
Even as someone who owns the trilogy on multiple platforms I would be way into this
Why is it, that EA always ruins great studios over time? I remember vividly how they split Westwood and eventually killed command&conquer with that move. Also Maxis, we will never see a good Sim City again...
It's sad to see BioWare go the same route, I guess it's only a matter of time till EA gets rid of them too, they are very likely looking at the metascores, like every publisher does
It's sad to see BioWare go the same route, I guess it's only a matter of time till EA gets rid of them too, they are very likely looking at the metascores, like every publisher does
sensui-tomo
Member
its the DA2 of the mass effect series, except scored lower than DA2 but higher than that sonic game on the ds.
AHA-Lambda
Member
It never ever did?
Captainbojanglesiii
Banned
Yikes. I was worried about this game from the start. I'm sad it seems those worries were warranted
AAA was always a question of big budgeted game with a big team behind in my mind. Never was it about the game getting a metascore of 90+.
tearsintherain
Member
Haha can you imagine a trilogy remaster release this fall or early next year, and as a bonus you get Mass Effect Andromeda for free.
I'd pre order it day one, I'd love to replay ME1-3 on a ps4 pro with a controller with all DLCs bundled in. I own all the games on PC but don't feel like messing around with patches to play with controllers and missing DLC.
Yet Dragon Age 2 has a better Metacritic.
As Walker put it, a lot of reviewers seem to give scores more based on the name and what they want it to be than what they actually write in them. BW really seems like on of the studios that gets a bigger pass here and there. I certainly think DA2 did.
chillybright
Banned
Although I was kind of expecting this, it is still extremely disappointing.
Well despite the mixed reviews Im still looking forward to getting into this game tonight. Reading some of the more positive reviews helped after the disappointingly average reviews. Its good to know that the story/characters are still clicking with some and from what I have seen I think they will click with me too.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
It's a term that shifted over the past 10-15 years. For those of us that were on forums back in the N64/PS1 era (maybe before, we didn't have internet at home during the early gens for me) AAA generally just meant the cream of the crop games. The absolute must play, on most top 10 GOTY list type games. A lot of people would say things like "AAA or no play" as a way of saying they only had time to play the best of the best, for instance.
There wasn't so much knowledge of budget etc. back then. Plus without the indie scene most games were either similar budget, with the exception of some of what we'd call mid-tier games today.
But yeah, now it gets used just to mean huge budget games from the major publishers.
Freeman76
Member
I loved The Witcher 3 so much, and played it to death. HOrizon borrowed far too much from it, at times it felt like Aloy had witcher senses. I actually feel Horizon is the most over-rated game I've played in a long time.
I am gutted that ME has been treated with such a throwaway attitude judging by many of these reviews. Luckily Sony have refunded my preorder, I will definitely play this game but no way am I spending £55 on it, I trusted Bioware way too much on this one.
The bar has been raised, while BioWare has continued stripping out features and content out of their games.
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
I think complete editions of the first 3 games packed with all DLCs could be good enough withot even remastering anything. I mean, for fuck's sake, you still and to this fucking day need to by all DLC seperately from the game through shitty BioWare site and there's no complete / ultimate / whatever editions available. WTF is that?! This is the main reason why I didin't bought any DLC for ME3 cz fuck this shit and BioWare site as a platform for DLCs especially.
Why is it, that EA always ruins great studios over time? I remember vividly how they split Westwood and eventually killed command&conquer with that move. Also Maxis, we will never see a good Sim City again...
It's sad to see BioWare go the same route, I guess it's only a matter of time till EA gets rid of them too, they are very likely looking at the metascores, like every publisher does
What does EA have to do with this? EA is not the almighty boogeyman people think it is. This game is not even done by the Bioware A-Team. And they had 5 years, like come on... It's not always EA's fault