I think that's the target.
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Mass Effect: Andromeda - Previews and hands-on impressions
- Thread starter shinobi602
- Start date
I don't think DA:I is a bad game, but it's definitely not a great game imo and has a lot of obvious flaws.
You shouldn't cringe at anything but the hyperbole surrounding games like these:
XV is an incomplete garbage beta.
DA:I is the worst RPG I've ever played!
etc...
I love XV, but I completely understand many of the critiques levelled at it. Same with ME2, which is possibly my GOAT.
DA:I is not high-end Bioware, and it makes a /lot/ of mistakes. And while the average gamer is probably able to overlook these things, those of us who frequent places like gaf hold games to higher scrutiny.
DA:I gets a lot of hyperbolic shit flung its way, but it also gets a lot of valid critique. It's a flawed game, and one that's below the average for the devs output in an overall sense even if their average output is above the industry's average as a whole.
VincentMatts
Member
You mean you dont wanna play what used to be an RPG as a simplistic shooter? I never would have thought.
I disagree, insanity in ME2 was both fun and manageable without using the power wheel. I kinda don't consider the ability to pause the game and get out of risky situation scot-free a good thing, better that you actually have to judge a situation before hand then play it out and if you mess up you get punished for it. And besides that the gold difficulty in ME3:s multiplayer was in my opinion harder than the insanity difficulty ever were and that was solo-able without a power wheel. And then you have the platinum difficulty above that, again without a power wheel (granted soloing platinum or playing it without relying on your team mates was a bit much).
SoRuffShoNuff
Member
So we've reached the point of complaining about beard hair follicles. Good God.
gbpackers25
Member
Man I cannot wait for this game. Mass Effect 2 is one of my favorite games of all time and these previews are making me feel a lot better on this one. Very excited to get my hands on this in less than a month
It wasn't even a good argument though...
Back-In-Black
Banned
Lol, GAF gave it RPG of the year. And, every game makes mistakes or has flaws. But, DAI is still a great game despite these flaws.
As someone that is super deep into the narative and lore of DA, I found it to be merely "good". I really feel like they didn't really understand how to make good open-world areas. Even "Jaws of Hakkon" that came out later felt already improved, in that it gave you more direction and was less overwhelming. It was almost painful to play Trespasser because it reminded me so much of how good a linear Dragon Age game can be. I really hope they completely overhaul their design of open world areas and try to give more meaning to exploration and side content. Inquisition feels too much like an MMO, and less like story-heavy RPG.
I'm looking forward to Andromeda and couldn't care less about graphics and "weird" animations - if that's something you're still talking about it I suggest you to play Uncharted 4 so you can satisfy your deepest needs. I don't feel like most RPGs need that AAA+ treatment - I played KotoR for the first time two years ago and the presentation didn't bother me at all because the world was very immersive on its own. I prefer great world building and diverse quest structures over everything else. Otherwise we have a The Order 1886 situation, which is a very pretty and visually stunning game but that's basically it.
My biggest gripe though is the bland looking cast. Only six squad mates. No Quarians. I think that's a joke. One step forward and two steps backwards once again. Mass Effect 2 does feel like the zenith of the series in this regard. The developers missed a huge chance here. I read they cut a Salarian squad mate as well, so the players don't get overwhelmed by the amount of races in the game. I banged my head against the wall so hard that I bought myself some ice cream and cried for two hours straight.
Why does BioWare think people thought the Citadel was so memorable?! You get dropped into this crucible of cultures and alien races. One weirder than the other. You meet new friends and squad mates in this strange place which blows your head off. Shouldn't Andromeda exactly be the game which replicates this feeling? Nope, they'd rather make it bland as well so it fits the style of the squad mates. At least they're coherent.
As far as I know there aren't more squad mates and I wanted them to build upon what has been accomplished in the trilogy. I might as well wait for a OT remaster in this case.
Something about the original trilogy characters was simply on point because they looked like freaking comic characters, but still believable enough to look realistically alien. Before playing the trilogy years after its release I immediately felt they appeared to be rather interesting. I wanted to know more about them. Not so much about Cora or Liara 2. I mean Peebeeee.
I hope this will be a fun space version of DA:I with fun combat because I doubt it'll be more than that. Call me skeptical - I pre-ordered the game 3 times already. I sadly don't expect it to be half as good as ME 1.
My biggest gripe though is the bland looking cast. Only six squad mates. No Quarians. I think that's a joke. One step forward and two steps backwards once again. Mass Effect 2 does feel like the zenith of the series in this regard. The developers missed a huge chance here. I read they cut a Salarian squad mate as well, so the players don't get overwhelmed by the amount of races in the game. I banged my head against the wall so hard that I bought myself some ice cream and cried for two hours straight.
Why does BioWare think people thought the Citadel was so memorable?! You get dropped into this crucible of cultures and alien races. One weirder than the other. You meet new friends and squad mates in this strange place which blows your head off. Shouldn't Andromeda exactly be the game which replicates this feeling? Nope, they'd rather make it bland as well so it fits the style of the squad mates. At least they're coherent.
As far as I know there aren't more squad mates and I wanted them to build upon what has been accomplished in the trilogy. I might as well wait for a OT remaster in this case.
Something about the original trilogy characters was simply on point because they looked like freaking comic characters, but still believable enough to look realistically alien. Before playing the trilogy years after its release I immediately felt they appeared to be rather interesting. I wanted to know more about them. Not so much about Cora or Liara 2. I mean Peebeeee.
I hope this will be a fun space version of DA:I with fun combat because I doubt it'll be more than that. Call me skeptical - I pre-ordered the game 3 times already. I sadly don't expect it to be half as good as ME 1.
Perhaps try reading my post before commenting and selectively responding to a single line next time, it might help.
Hari Seldon
Member
DAI was, in my opinion, the worst Bioware game ever made as it was the only one that I not only did not finish, but rage uninstalled lol. If you like it that is fine, but I HATED it.
Mass Effect played like shit, ME3:s multiplayer mode was amazing with a nice level up system and tens of classes and races adding depth and build variety. Luckily Bioware took inspiration from the latter and not the former when designing the combat in MEA.
prag16
Banned
I swear some people have crazy rose tinted glasses when it comes to ME1. Have these people played it lately? The combat was pretty iffy at launch to begin with; playing it more recently it REALLY doesn't hold up. I love the game but the combat is hard to go back to at this point.
Mass Effect games are not RPGs by any means when it comes combat-gameplay and mechanics. If they are, then so is Call of Duty multiplayer. (Note: I'm thinking purely about combat gameplay here, dialogue, choices, everything else is irrelevant in this context.)
They are ability-based cover-shooters. Not exactly simplistic (mere shooting would be that), though admittedly they can be played mostly as shooters, on lower difficulties.
I don't actually have problem playing them as shooter. What i hate is relying on AI squad mates because the powers are for most part rather important part of damage output and crowd-control.
No friendly AI in any game i've played is trustworthy or terribly useful, not in my experience. At best, they don't get in my way, at worst they're a hindrance.
Sounds like there's no really good practical reason to be shot of it. They could've kept it, but they didn't like it this time around, for whatever reason. Unless there's so much combat in the game compared to the original trilogy that... maybe it really does slow down the game? Maybe it's just heaps and heaps of open world combat and you'd never reach the end of the story if you were playing it strategically. I don't know.
Well, okay. Hope it doesn't hurt the game.
Why is it nonsense?
Also who says an RPG needs to play a certain way, if you have a party, a level up screen, conversation options, different armours and weapons, a upgrade system etcetera, if you have all those things the game is an RPG.
I think he means it is giving him a very Dragon Age Inquisition vibes. That game had so many meaningless quests and meaningless progression that it felt like playing a single player MMO.
I can tolerate that more with Mass Effect because I prefer Sci-fi over Fantasy, and I think the gameplay is going to be more action heavy. But if it is filled with boring (meaningless) side quests than oh boy, gaf is going to turn on it hard.
eot
Banned
Okay, so a giant middle finger to people who actually liked the strategy of the higher difficulties in the original trilogy.
That goes against what the Lead Designer said, he you need a NG+ for that. Gonna find the tweet in a sec.
CGwizz
Member
What i am worried the most is people saying it was buggy as fuck, it will release in a month , we still didnt saw console footage, we saw half a minute of ps4 pro ( maibe we all know these things and pc footage ... )
I just hope ps4 pro is smooth and locked 30 fps with no drops or framepacing issues that plague games nowadays
I just hope ps4 pro is smooth and locked 30 fps with no drops or framepacing issues that plague games nowadays
Since you can keep playing post ending, my gut says it's one of those "maxing out in one playthrough is technically possibly by killing slimes for eternity, but it'll be a hell of a lot easier to New Game Plus" deals.
Heckler456
Banned
I'm still skeptical of the story, but having booted up ME3 last week to play some multiplayer, I can confidently say that if that remains consistent, I don't care if the single-player isn't spectacular. I pre-ordered on the basis that I'll dump 100+ hours into MP and it was only $45 on GMG.
There's a video showing that if you prime anything and point a teammate to attack, they'll use their corresponding ability if off of cooldown to detonate it. I would think this means that telling them to attack an enemy with say shields would make them use overload if off cooldowns but we'll see.
I don't know how people expected this to work though, the abilities work differently now. I don't know how you would account for every alt mode on a command wheel much less stuff like controlling enemies a squadmate has Pulled.
I don't think his problem is with the content, it's with no level cap and that can unlock most or all skills if you level high enough
eot
Banned
I'm not writing it off, just tempering my expectations. Don't have much faith left in modern BioWare. The only games with good combat had it designed by someone who left for Riot.
I don't buy that.
Looking at the latest video, pausing to swap out favourites takes even more time to do and constantly breaks up the flow of combat anyway. At the same time, when you've swapped out your favourites, it doesn't achieve anything immediate other than a cooldown so you're back to just firing your guns for however long.
With the power wheel, pausing to give a squad command was a part of the combat, and as such it had a direct and immediate consequence that this pause-select-new-favourite system doesn't have.
Watching that video, the favourites system looks to break up combat in a far more awkward way than pausing to command your squad's powers ever did, and I used it for almost every attack.
You really think choosing one of 4 profiles take longer than to aim at an enemy and choosing among half a dozen power ? They take it slow in the profile screen so you can see what going on and you probably won't change profile every minutes like they do here either.
Because the concept of character builds goes out the window if there's little opportunity cost.
In practice I don't think this is how Andromeda will play out. Even if you can unlock everything it won't be until NG+ or super super late-game. But it will probably mean you'll have enough ability points to reasonably spec into 2 of the 3 (combat, tech, biotics).
If this is how it ends up working then it largely eliminates my complaint about not being able to hotkey an ability from each squadmate. I don't mind getting rid of the Power Wheel but being able to choose when and how to prime/detonate combos was important in ME3.
For many of the same reasons you shouldn't be able to be a Fighter, Thief, Druid, Cleric, Barbarian, Wizard, Sorcerer, Bard, Monk, Warlock, Ranger, and Paladin all at once (i.e. a God) in most RPGs. It undermines player-choice in terms of skill-related gameplay and party composition. Or said in another way, it removes consequences from those choices by allowing the player to just do it all.
This appears to be a growing trend of some people wanting all content to be available to them in one play-through, but for their to be good reactivity, you need to withhold content (whatever that may be in the context) for choices to matter. Both in the narrative and in combat.
Not the strongest wording, but you could be right.
alexanderftw
Banned
Has any preview mentioned how the games questing/world is? As in is it MMO'ish like DAI or have they really improved the side quest formula and are actually following Witcher 3's deep narrative for side stuff as well? I cant watch and read every preview for spoiler reasons but I'm very interested in this aspect, because I have a very bad feeling its going to be just a simple upgrade over DAI's terrible side stuff.
cleveridea
Member
IGN unlocked has their impressions. alanah liked it but wasnt a fan of the faces, said it made the characters look like sims 3 characters. she also said the game has a "bro-ish" feeling, and lots of jokes which made it feel different from the prior games.
she said that the jet pack felt great and that it doesnt ruin the combat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y1tMM4x6l4
she said that the jet pack felt great and that it doesnt ruin the combat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y1tMM4x6l4
Let's say you aim to do everything in one go, beside the amount of time you have to spend to actually reaching that point , you still wouldn't be able to use all the skill unless you constantly change your Favorites and you probably reach a build you comfortable to play before that.
I think in one of the Gameplay videos you see a character with lvl 100 without having everything
I played over 2000 hours of ME3 multi. I am excited for MEA. However, my excitement is tempered by the number of bugs I anticpate facing on day 1. Its important to me that the powers, tech gadgets and weapons work as advertised. Too often, they don't. To this day, the shockwave biotic power is broken in ME3 multi. To this day. The problem was known early and fixed on console but was allowed to remain on the PC side.
DA I was buggy on release too. A year after release, numerous usable items and powers didn't work as advertised on PC at least.
I've been a Bioware fan since Baldur's Gate, but my enjoyment of their products has always been frayed by the bugs. So, hype away, but as we know previews do not by their nature tell us much about the kind of polish I, at least, expect in these games.
I am excited, but eyes wide open I guess.
DA I was buggy on release too. A year after release, numerous usable items and powers didn't work as advertised on PC at least.
I've been a Bioware fan since Baldur's Gate, but my enjoyment of their products has always been frayed by the bugs. So, hype away, but as we know previews do not by their nature tell us much about the kind of polish I, at least, expect in these games.
I am excited, but eyes wide open I guess.
GameAddict411
Member
I wonder if they are going to release the minimum requirements for the game? I don't think they will be much different than BF1 but it would great for people to gauge the level of performance they are going on to see on their hardware.
Sora the Cat
Member
Yeah, I hope I can pull 60fps at 1080p with my R9 390, at least with console level graphics but good AA. A demo would be awesome.
John Kowalski
Banned
You can't though. You have access to all the skills, but not while in combat. In combat you have access to four presets of three skills, that you must switch between and whose switching has a cooldown. The system is designed so you can have a handful of custom builds that you can switch around depending on your situation, kind of like the Paradigm system in FFXIII.
Otherwise i don't remember Brad saying that, iirc he only said that Bioware said players could ng+ into full builds. Oh he says maybe you can grind enough to do it, but he doesn't sound very sure.
Just because you have to subdivide your total skills into a few different packages doesn't solve any of the issues.
This change just screams catering to the mainstream and trying to solve this issue:
He mentions this three times in the video. One of those is at 11:50.
He also mentions that the walk by some people, overhear a conversation, and have a quest appear in your journal is still a thing, which I thought was a terrible way to receive quests in Mass Effect 3.
The specific one he mentions sounds more like an ambient quest you would get in Skyrim; overhearing people talk at a murder scene leading to a quest of you solving the murder.
Context of those is important.