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

breakfuss

Member
Despite the flaws I'm still looking forward to this. ME1 wasn't perfect either and I still love that game. Sucks to hear about the story/writing, but as long as the combat and gameplay is still good, I think it'll be fine for me. I'm curious how the MP is

Keeps popping up but the comparisons to ME1 don't make since because it was a) a different time and b) the first of its kind. Of course if that entry was released today it wouldn't hold up to the same sort of scrutiny.
 

Ralemont

not me
Reposting my reply to you because you cmae in hot:

But there's not role-playing. They removed that part. There's no narrative agency, except when it comes to silly sex scenes, it's apparenlty the only place your choices matter.

Other reviews have mentioned consequences to actions as a positive, though. It doesn't sound like there are many giant decisions like Rannoch/Tuchanka, either way, but there appears to be some reactivity at least.
 
I've played through the intro twice. Once as FemRyder, trying to take it seriously, read everything, make a reasonable looking character, etc. I don't know what it is, but the voice acting just does not land for me this time. I vastly prefered FemShep, but it's the other way this time.

Last night, I started over, just fucked around in the CC and made a ridiculous looking dude, and I'm having way more fun with it. The voice acting reads far better with the male PC this time, IMO.

After playing the intro twice, I'm more into the story now and eager get into the meat of the game.

edit: However, one thing this game has definitely made me feel certain about at long last - I am ready for us to move past "pick from a list of conversation tree options over and over until the exposition is done" as the primary means of interaction outside combat. I like the actual choices just fine, where different responses are produced according to your decision. But I'm tired of it being pick option 1, listen to them talk, pick option 1a, listen to further explanation. Pick option e, whoops, this is confusing because I didn't pick option d first. Pick option d, oh, okay. Exit conversation.

These never end up sounding anything like a normal conversation, and it does nothing to facilitate gameplay or interesting choices since so many of the options boil down to "get more information"/continue conversing. I want to see RPGs move more towards a better version of the Alpha Protocol conversation system, at least when it counts. Otherwise, just make it a dialogue scene and skip the obnoxious and stilted current way.
 
Reposting because I came in hot before the lock:

Oddly enough, while watching Jeff and Brad play (and shit on) this game for a hour I can´t help it - I´m getting hyped.

I´ll be commanding this ship soon and I´ll be flying through the galaxy to shoot up some aliens.

The setting alone will be enough for me to role-play the shit out of this.

And I´ll probably enjoy it while being disappointed that it is not better.

I'm with you. Jeff (and to a lesser extent Austin) are often my guiding lights as i usually align very closely to their views.

But as they were playing, i found myself liking more of what i saw. There are even a couple spots where Brad was like "oh, that's kind of cool. That's related to a thing i did before," so i feel like their takes might even change a bit once they play more.

Either way, I've acknowledged this isn't ME2 reborn, and I'm still excited to jump in
 

bethore

Member
I honestly don't know what I was expecting with this game. I knew expecting another grand space opera would be too much for this sequel/reboot(?), but the fact they doubled down on the combat and not the story or characters is really disappointing. I wonder if a sequel to this will happen.
 

Andodalf

Banned
I've enjoyed my time with the game and look forward to it. I think the criticism about the game, especially it's animations and character models are valid, but for me, the fact that the central mystery of the story is intoxicating, and that the alien environments are beautiful make up for it. I also really like the squad so far, and the combat is legitimately strong for the first time in the franchise. The game certainly isn't perfect, and I wish they put more time into the less important characters and dialogue, but for me, this is mass effect, this is fun, and having played the trial, I think this will be a good game.
 

GlamFM

Banned
Reposting my reply to you because you cmae in hot:

But there's not role-playing. They removed that part. There's no narrative agency, except when it comes to silly sex scenes, it's apparenlty the only place your choices matter.

The awesome Bioware narrative agency that started with Baldur's Gate ha snow been officially relegated to a knocking boots simulator.

I don´t need any narrative to role play actually. Just a world I can do stuff in.
 

jdmonmou

Member
I'll rent this game eventually. With all the good open world games out now (Zelda, Horizon, Nioh, Persona 5, Yakuza, Nier, etc.) I probably won't get to Mass Effect until next year :-(. By that time it may be already free on Origin Access.
 

Jumeira

Banned
I guess I'll move my comments from the previous thread. Horrible outcome for one of my most cherished franchises. The team is obviously lacking in talent and skill to pull off a Mass Effect game, shame EA didn't do more to treat this with the same care BioWare did with ME1/2. The original team seem to have departed BioWare, whatever shell remains are working on something else. Got a bad feeling in my gut that the series is done (especially if they use the horrid Dragon Age team). Same type of knot in my stomach as when I lose a loved one. God dammit.
 

inky

Member
Gamespot said:
Worse still, your agency in these conversations is limited. Sure, you can periodically select from up to four dialogue options, but these frequently boil down to "be optimistic" or "be realistic." On paper, this system improves over the rigid renegade/paragon dichotomy of the original series, but in practice, the various options felt only superficially different. And regardless of what I picked, my inputs only rarely impacted the outcome. Even when I tried to be rude, characters generally found a way to shrug it off. And after beating the campaign, I can only recall one major decision that had serious repercussions, and even that felt contrived. It also paled in comparison to the memorably gut-wrenching choices forced on me in the original games.

Damn, son.

It seems like ultimately the "pillar" that got the most attention was the shootbang part of the gameplay, and frankly that was never why I was into Mass Effect.

Combining all previous entries, I've played the games from start to finish a combined 20+ times. I wish I was joking, but that's how much those games were part of my yearly game rotation. I explored every character arc, romance, class and difficulty I could, so from what I've seen and read I'm finding it hard to accept that people say "75 means its just for fans". I hardly care about scores, but that is not what I'm reading in the texts, using the above as an example.
 
What does Eurogamer's "no score" mean exactly? Do they usually not give out scores?

Eurogamer don't do scores, but they have badges - "Essential", "Recommended" and "Avoid". To get no badge is the definition of mediocrity basically. (For a measurement: DAI got a recommended, Zelda got an Essential)
 

chefbags

Member
Reposting my reply to you because you cmae in hot:

But there's not role-playing. They removed that part. There's no narrative agency, except when it comes to silly sex scenes, it's apparenlty the only place your choices matter.

The awesome Bioware narrative agency that started with Baldur's Gate ha snow been officially relegated to a knocking boots simulator.

Whoaah that fucking sucks. I liked that part in the past 3 games. Sad to see it go.
 
They don't anymore.

I think they ditched review scores awhile back.

It's that good they cannot give it a silly number.

Eurogamer don't do numbers

They stopped giving scores 2 years ago

Yes? It means read the review like you should. The overly positive scores don't read like the score even suggest to me so instead of basing it purely off the arbitrary score, it's more effective to read them for positive and negative.

They do not. Which is one thing I like about them compared to most reviewers and their arbitrary scores that people care too much about. And I speak generally about that, not specifically in Andromeda's case.
Thanks guys! I wasn't sure so I wanted some clarification. But thank you for answering!
 
Based on my brief reading of some blurbs, the game isn't perfect but really is suffering from releasing about 4 months too late. 2 titles have released recently that have changed expectations. The title also released 4 months too soon. There are some issues that need fixing.
The Witcher III released a lot longer than 4 months ago.
 

Bladenic

Member
Seems very mixed. What's interesting is that some reviews says "great gameplay, shit story/writing" while other reviews are inverse of that. I'm glad to see some reviews dock the score for technical issues. It's time Bioware stopped getting away with releasing technical disasters.
 

robertoci

Member
Whilst 75 is a disappointing metascore I am still pretty hyped for the game regardless, I loved DA2 and that had a 79 metascore, Wolfenstein is the same, just gonna go into it with no preconceived notions and have a (hopefully) great time.
 
I watched a video review from a fellow Aussie who got the game last week.

He says you're basically forced to grind the repetitive side quests and open world bloat for skill points;
if you don't then you're not going to be able to invest in all the various profiles and be limited in your combat choices.

Crafting is tied to mining and scanning and makes it excruciatingly painful and boring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SiNjKnnhNI
 
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.
 

emag

Member
Quick question- can we control the ship directly this time?

No. But there's a 30 second first-person-ish travel animation that plays when you select a planet (even just to read the entries for the minor ones).

Damn, son.

It seems like ultimately the "pillar" that got the most attention was the shootbang part of the gameplay, and frankly that was never why I was into Mass Effect.

Combining all previous entries, I've played the games from start to finish a combined 20+ times. I wish I was joking, but that's how much those games were part of my yearly game rotation. I explored every character arc, romance, class and difficulty I could, so from what I've seen and read I'm finding it hard to accept that people say "75 means its just for fans". I hardly care about scores, but that is not what I'm reading in the texts, using the above as an example.

Well, that and the filler pillar. Lots of slow mining, slow scanning, slow looting, and slow crafting to drive up the clock this time around.
 
Shame, could have been my first ME but I'm not so sure now. Didn't have time for it right now anyway so maybe dirt cheap one day if we're not getting the trilogy remastered.
 
What does Eurogamer's "no score" mean exactly? Do they usually not give out scores?

Yes? It means read the review like you should. The overly positive scores don't read like the score even suggest to me so instead of basing it purely off the arbitrary score, it's more effective to read them for positive and negative.

there's more to it than that

"no score" means the reviewer didn't consider it to be "essential" (like zelda) or "recommended" (like nier automata)

basically, means they think it's pretty mediocre
 

Audioboxer

Member
I've played through the intro twice. Once as FemRyder, trying to take it seriously, read everything, make a reasonable looking character, etc. I don't know what it is, but the voice acting just does not land for me this time. I vastly prefered FemShep, but it's the other way this time.

Last night, I started over, just fucked around in the CC and made a ridiculous looking dude, and I'm having way more fun with it. The voice acting reads far better with the male PC this time, IMO.

After playing the intro twice, I'm more into the story now and eager get into the meat of the game.

Unless you can do this it's not a 'fun game'

yzYau3O.gif


qD7bu2I.gif


excuse to post those GIFs as they always make me laugh

Sad to hear about femshep VA.
 
Largely disastrous reviews for a series with a legacy like Mass Effect.
There were red flags pre-release imo with the way this game was shown.

I'll still pick it up down the line for a cheaper price because there's still nothing like ME out there.

But I'm too swamped in other games to take a plunge on something that looked rather middling before hand.
 

T.O.P

Banned
Extremely disappointing scores

But still...ended up keeping my pre order as i'm still optimistic that i'll end up having fun with it
 
i am quite surprised. i really did think it would be critically acclaimed like ME always is, but whatevs. i still think it will sell great.
 

Ray Down

Banned
Disappointing reviews especially from a series that has reviewed better in the past, I wonder what are EA will be expecting of it now.

Feel bad about the developers but its seems like it had some trouble in the development.
 
Eurogamer don't do scores, but they have badges - "Essential", "Recommended" and "Avoid". To get no badge is the definition of mediocrity basically. (For a measurement: DAI got a recommended, Zelda got an Essential)

there's more to it than that

"no score" means the reviewer didn't consider it to be "essential" (like zelda) or "recommended" (like nier automata)

basically, means they think it's pretty mediocre
Oh I get it. Thanks! It makes more sense now.

Although I'm kind of upset at NieR Automata being a recommended instead of essential...
 

Phamit

Member
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 80 on metacritic? Surely it's not a ''bad'' score but that's just disappointing.

Well Mass Effect 3 got good scores and fans were still angry about that one :)
 

Gestault

Member
Reading some of the reviews in the 8-9 range, there's a gap between how I'd interpret some of their wording/conclusions compared to what seem like flattering numbers.
 
This is so sad. Man. What a fall this franchise suffered. Mass Effect 1 and 2 gave us two of the best games ever made. They gave us the promise of unlimited potential for great stories to be told.

Look what it has become now. It is incredibly sad.
 
I'm saying that the recent releases have scores that make the meta for this look even worse. Witcher definitely changed expectations for the genre. Should have been more clear about which expectations I meant
Nah, I know what you meant. Was just making a joke. I think everybody expected a lot more from BioWare after The Witcher III. At least most other big releases this year have lived up to or beyond expectations.
 

stn

Member
Eh, not too enthusiastic about the scores but I'll likely get my 50-100 hours out of this game very easily.
 
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