The game was clearly rushed out the door, there really isn't any way around that. The combat is fun but there isnt really much enemy variety and everything else is terrible. The writing is awful, just awful. The cutscenes vary between passable and unfinished, and the characters aren't interesting, except for maybe one or two of them. For a mass effect game, it's just sad to see that this is how the series might end, with a fucking sad little whimper.
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Mass Effect: Andromeda |OT| Ryders on the Storm
- Thread starter Blue Ninja
- Start date
I don't think the combat is that amazing honestly, especially when you take the cookie cutter structures and combat arena layouts into account. I steamrolled mindlessly through 95% of the game once I settled on a build, Ascendants are a chore to fight and there's a few random difficulty spikes where they just throw a bunch of shit at you. Then there's the poor checkpointing, minimal squad control and repetitive enemies. It kept me going but I had issues there too.
prag16
Banned
Except for your first sentence, the rest is almost entirely subjective. And pretty hyperbolic.
RavageX
Member
Mate....the series and bioware itself is known for being heavy in story and lore. To get that part wrong is practically criminal for them as a company.
There are plenty of other games that provide a combat fix. I play(ed) Bioware games for the story experience, character development and different story paths..never for the combat alone.
Gaming isn't just for running/jumping/shooting. Gaming has evolved to where it can provide much more than that. Yeah its great to play games like that, but this was meant to be more and failed.
Clearly the game is nothing like they planned, and after reading the story explaining everything it was very sad to see just how many different ways development went wrong. I wish they had taken more time with it, even revamped it if needed, I'm sure EA could afford it.
That's for sure, it was rushed, I mean they made the game in 18 months!
I think it has a lot to do with our expectations, ME trilogy was pretty strong in terms of characters and writing, better than almost all games at the time, you really felt connected to the characters and in ME2 the journey was simply brilliant, Suicide Mission is easily one of the best experiences that I've ever had, so we, ME fans, expected that level of quality hence got let down by Andromeda, however I think ME3 wasn't that great and had a lotta issues that ppl have forgotten about, I suggest you watch this video to recollect on ME3
So in comparison to the trilogy, the first two in particular, yeah it's a let down. But in comparison to other games out there, I don't think so, I mean aside from The Witcher 3, I haven't noticed anything special in writing department.
If I loved the trilogy for its characters, universe, writing and narative, I love Andromeda for its combat and exploration, which deserve more credit, and I highly believe that the next entry, if ever happens, would be one hell of a game, the shortcomings had a lot to do with it being rushed so given enough time, this team can deliver.
How about in its own genre? It's way better than TW3's combat, better than DAI, better than the trilogy itself, better than Bethesda's RPGs, I'm not saying it's Vanquish but it's obviously better than its counterparts, rivaling Gears of War and many TPSs out there.
You can't have both, Andromeda's combat works on being fluid and fast, encouraging the player to get outta the cover, now you can't simply add that pause and order mechanic as it would negate the fluidity of the combat aka the very nature of it.
And here you are not a commander, let's not mistake the context, in the trilogy we were the commander so giving order made a lotta sense, you really felt like "yeah I'm the commander, I have to keep an eye out on my crew", which made the ME2 experience a unique one, now here the context is different, you're a young pathfinder with not so much experience, so do you really think that giving orders would've made sense here? In addition, we should admire the fact that they decided to take a refreshing perspective on the combat, they simply could've gone with the trilogy's mechanics which weren't so great
And I agree that encounter design needs more work, but we gotta cut some slack here as It's an Open World RPG so encounters getting repetitive is inevitable
I enjoyed the boss fights in Witcher 3 more than anything in Andromeda. The planning, the potions, the signs, it all fed into the narrative and worked well as gameplay mechanics. Faster doesn't always equal better in my book, not when the end result feels light on tactics and heavy on repetition.
I understand that your priority is different, I'm just saying while we bash the negatives we should also praise and admire the positives.
And yeah, it's frustrating that development was hell for them, the project was ambitious, what really concerns me is that the odds are high for not having another Mass Effect experience, this game might not be as great as the trilogy but it's still good, it's no where near the colossal f*** that was No Man's Sky, which sits at 70 on MC just like MEA, not that I care about MC but MEA is way better of a game than NMS, so I think ppl have been harsh on the game and it didn't deserve this huge backlash, many games have the issues that this game has, for instance the criticism on side quests, do we really have a game beside TW3 with good side-quests?even the trilogy itself didn't have good side-quests, or the game being buggy, Fallout 4 was also buggy as hell, why it got a free pass? the same goes for writing and story. I'm not saying we shouldn't criticize, it's just that we need some consistency in our assessment, why one game gets a free pass on an issue and the other gets bashed for it? this is not fair.
Anyways, sry for the ramblings, I just hope we get to experience another ME game.
GameAddict411
Member
Mass Effect Andromeda is a good game, but you can't ignore that it's short comings have been addressed by other games during this gen. There was no excuse to release it it's launch state. There were reports of EA and Bioware fully knowing that the it was going to be butchered by reviewers relative to other games in the series. I am also certain that Bioware employees knew they were releasing a rushed product.
I enjoyed TW3's combat too, but it has a lotta issues that are simply undeniable, long story short, the impact of the swords is not there, there's no special sound effect that could convey you that feeling of slashing through the enemies, the overall weight to the combat is not there, weapons aren't varied enough, etc, It's as if they were going with realism while realism just isn't that much fun in videogames. And the most fun I had with the game was the conversations, exploration, story and characters.
Yeah definitely it was rushed, I thing the reception would've been better if it was released six months later, but EA was worried about its fiscal year smh
Boss fights in W3 are not sophisticated. I pre-drink a relevant potion hinted by narrative and that's it.
EA gave them 5 fucking years to pull something together. There's only one bad guy from what I can see as far as the rushed nature of the game and it falls entirely on BioWare Montreal's management and creative leadership.
Banderdash
Member
If we don't hear anything about it at E3, then I'd say so.
They haven't mentioned it since release.
http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428
You should read that, however, I don't deny Bioware's fault here but they just needed a bit more time to polish it and I can recall EA being like "we can give them six more months if they want" but that didn't happen.
I did read that, and it's exactly why I put the entirety of the blame on BioWare Montreal's creative leadership and management. They knew what tools they had to use, they had time, they fucked it all.
TWO YEARS
WITHOUT MAKING ANYTHING
BrassDragon
Member
Don't forget we also had some hints (summary by EatChildren) that BioWare Montreal was planning to make a first person shooter set in the First Contact War.
They pivoted away from that after tepid response to the idea and the enduring ME3 backlash.
Looks like Andromeda devlopment had a few reboots and is probably more fraught than they let on.
They pivoted away from that after tepid response to the idea and the enduring ME3 backlash.
Looks like Andromeda devlopment had a few reboots and is probably more fraught than they let on.
They were gauging a lot of fan feedback. I remember them asking what we wanted next ie. A sequel, first contact war etc. Sort of how player comments about helping Aria with Omega is why we got Omega DLC.
But this just shows how greedy EA is. Yes BioWare Montreal senior leadership messed up, and it is probably why Casey Hudson left. Years of development on just 'ideas'. But in just a span of a few months, they have gotten patches that have improved things quite a bit from animations and facial features such as eyes and hair, fixed a lot of buggy quests and glitches. So imagine if it was all hands on deck and delayed 6 months instead. We may have ended up with a game that was devoid of 'My face is tired gate' and the animation hysteria, and maybe sales would have been better with less of the hatred that we wouldn't see the series shelved altogether with no real hope of dlc. Even worse is I guarantee some EA suit made the decision to release it on EA Access without even thinking of whether a game like Mass Effect is suited for that or what kind of state the game is in.
But this just shows how greedy EA is. Yes BioWare Montreal senior leadership messed up, and it is probably why Casey Hudson left. Years of development on just 'ideas'. But in just a span of a few months, they have gotten patches that have improved things quite a bit from animations and facial features such as eyes and hair, fixed a lot of buggy quests and glitches. So imagine if it was all hands on deck and delayed 6 months instead. We may have ended up with a game that was devoid of 'My face is tired gate' and the animation hysteria, and maybe sales would have been better with less of the hatred that we wouldn't see the series shelved altogether with no real hope of dlc. Even worse is I guarantee some EA suit made the decision to release it on EA Access without even thinking of whether a game like Mass Effect is suited for that or what kind of state the game is in.
That's too bad. I enjoyed being a Pathfinder and exploring around. From what I saw in the Kotaku article this game could have been pretty crazy huge and exploritive. Really too bad.
This is bullshit- EA gave them 5 years, resources, and an 11th hour extension to get this done. Montreal not hitting their deadlines is entirely on them.
Patrick S.
Banned
Just got a notification that Angry Joe tweeted that BioWare has just cancelled a project called Shadow Realms. Is that related to Mass Effect?
That was a project that was cancelled a couple of years ago.
That was cancelled in like 2014, I believe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUlD0Kd6We8
Edit: Beaten.
Patrick S.
Banned
Strange, I had only seen the notification in the notification bar on my phone. Followed the link, and I was sent to an article from February 2015. How weird :/
Sorry y'all.
TC McQueen
Member
Hey guys, published my first MEA mod - sadly not the sniper range increase, but one designed to make a lot of the general augments way more useful:
General Augs Rebalanced at Mass Effect Andromeda Nexus - Mods and Community
General Augs Rebalanced at Mass Effect Andromeda Nexus - Mods and Community
MrTroubleMaker
Member
Looks good. Sniper range increase would be great, is there something holding that up? Note: I have no idea how difficult it is to find this stuff out
TC McQueen
Member
I can't figure A) why I'm getting inconsistent results from projectiles passing 150m and B) I have no idea where to look for projectile longevity/damage range tables.Looks good. Sniper range increase would be great, is there something holding that up? Note: I have no idea how difficult it is to find this stuff out
More_Badass
Member
Thinking of picking this up in the current PSN sale
Can I get some impressions of how the game is...on its own? How is this game as a sci-fi shooter/RPG, not as a Mass Effect game?
(Basically the Hitman Absolution question. That game was a shitty Hitman, but a pretty decent stealth game)
Can I get some impressions of how the game is...on its own? How is this game as a sci-fi shooter/RPG, not as a Mass Effect game?
(Basically the Hitman Absolution question. That game was a shitty Hitman, but a pretty decent stealth game)
Best combat found in a WRPG. Play the main story and Personal Quests and you'll be fine.
prag16
Banned
Anthem better fucking melt my face off, being a significant part of the reason we won't be seeing ME for a long time.
Either that or I hope it fails so horrendously that they go crawling back to Mass Effect.
semiconscious
Member
you should check out this thread: kotaku: the story behind mass effect: andromeda's troubled five-year development....
i mean, sure, ea could've waited. but, at that point, why would they just 'assume' that the game was ever gonna get finished?
...It's fine as a shooter. Open environments and freeform builds let you engage however you want. Faster movement and hover adds a lot of agility and speed. Varied weapons and armors make it fun to customize. Combat is the most confident part of the game, minus the terrible UI where you manage weapons. Roleplay is ok, you'll see the fruits of pathfinder work, other side content is really mixed, harder narrative choices end up fluff. Sci-fi, well it gives you plenty to see, but don't expect too much engaging/mysterious info,etc. For $30 its an easy pick up.
I can't remember if any Dlc was actually announced at a E3 conference on any of the previous games do there is hope. If we hear nothing before the end of the summer then we worry.
prag16
Banned
This is what I was gonna say. Nothing at E3 may not mean much. But if we hear nothing by the end of July we can put the nail in that coffin imo.
Jason Schreier, who wrote the retrospective article on MEA's development, said - while he's not positive - he does not believe that it will be getting single player DLC.
semiconscious
Member
i'm amazed that anyone'd think andromeda's might be getting dlc, at this point. i'm guessing that anyone left from the project's been busy enough just working on the patches...
that there was never a season's pass pretty much says it all
...
prag16
Banned
that there was never a season's pass pretty much says it all
Nah EA finally seems to be moving away from that in general. Titanfall 2, MEA, Battlefront 2, all no season passes.
ChaosZeroX
Banned
Really contemplating this at 29.99 ugh lol
TC McQueen
Member
That's a good price, honestly, especially with the growing mod scene.
Rumblebones
Banned
Give it time. Summer sales around the corner. You'll find a better deal.
It's worth it at this price imo. The few patches so far helped by fixing some animation issues(don't expect very realistic animations though, but at least it's not embarassing anymore, at least, most of the time), making the eyes look more alive, improving the character creator, adding some QoL stuff, etc.
Just... don't try to do everything. Avoid most of what's in "Additional tasks" and you'll be having a good time.
recursive
Member
I don't recall having to plan out detailed tactics or micro manage squad abilities when going through the previous games on insanity difficulty. I think some people just have unreasonable expectations. Aside from some quirky animations and a bit of subpar writing Andromeda is fine.
It's not just about the need to micromanage that adds a tactical approach, the enemy variety alone in ME2 and particularly 3 presented more of a combat puzzle than what we got in Andromeda. The guns feel good to shoot, but I stand by my personal assessment of the game's shortcomings and dont think my expectations were unreasonable.
SliChillax
Member
recursive
Member
That's fine, it is your perspective. I don't agree however that any of the battles required much more than aim and shoot like just about any other shooter. And I have played a lot of them.
Andromeda's gameplay was alright, but overstated. Or maybe i'm just not used to TPS combat anymore, bc it felt pretty repetitive especially with there not being any really new enemies to change up the patterns after a certain point. You jetpack around, you use cover, and you use 2 or 3 powers on enemies that by and large just shoot at you.
I respecced like 10 times in the game bc I wanted different powers to at least do things differently. If there was no respec option the game's combat would have gotten stale pretty quick.
I respecced like 10 times in the game bc I wanted different powers to at least do things differently. If there was no respec option the game's combat would have gotten stale pretty quick.