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

Pepboy

Member
I really can't see this ending well for Mac Walters or the Bioware Montreal team. While I feel for the people that will likely lose their jobs its clear they bit off way more than they could chew and just were not ready to develop a game of this scale and budget. Looking on the bright side at least Mac Walters might not be able to wreck the franchise anymore.

Regardless I'm sure ME:A will debut to stellar sales based off the name alone enough so to ensure that EA gets theirs (is mildly profitable) but the damage has been done and just like AC: Syndicate before it it is the next entry that will actually suffer the consequences if there is one.

Yep, agreed. But I expect Mac Walters will somehow turn this into another promotion, selectively citing all the positive reviews and focusing on the technical limitations of Frostbite. Based on how he was promoted after the ME3 debacle, I can only believe post-EA Bioware is essentially leaderless or unable to understand the market.

Edit: Put another way, I bet their management focuses too much on sales. Which will be good because the series had momentum and there a lot of uninformed buyers as well as a dedicated ME fanbase. But they would need to start looking at the trend, and realize this wasn't some weird backlash against ME3 that will fade, but rather the result of boring characters, dialogue, and overall plot. Of which the blame would have to lie primarily on the creative devs.

But I think Walters can cite ME1 as a reference point and how this is just the first step, ME1 wasn't perfect so it's not surprising this one isn't either, etc etc. That journalists were using ME2/3 as the reference, and how that's difficult to live up to because he did such a great job on ME3, etc. And lastly how the real issue was he wasn't able to fully implement his vision for ME:A and needs to be given more control and resources for ME:A2. My guess is it won't be for a few more games before this sort of argument falls flat and by then he can be hired elsewhere to infest some other franchise.
 
Not to mention

dragonage_inquisitionttkeh.png


Lookie here. A good looking RPG using the Frosthite engine by the same company.

And to be fair, Andromeda's environment design is equally stellar. It's the human character models were it all falls down, which bizarrely are worse than Inquisition's, although only slightly. Mostly because of the eyes... Animation quality is genuinely on par with Inquisition - only lips and eye movements in both games, and most dialogue conversations are stilted affairs without any particular body movements at all.

I feel like Inquisition and Andromeda prove that Bioware have nailed environment design, but they really need to work something out with EA to get some high-end animation tools set up for Frostbite. Of course it's fine for shooters like Battlefield where the cutscenes are few enough to be entirely mo-capped, but for an RPG that's not going to be feasible, and last gen techniques for hand animating clearly aren't good enough these days.
 

liezryou

Member
I'd say a couple of months, especially if EA is as aggressive with price cuts as they were with Titanfall 2.

Wouldn't count on it. They needed to have aggressive price cuts on titanfall 2 because it's primarily a multiplayer game. No player base, no game. Not the same for ME: A.
 
Played my first game of ME:A multiplayer in the trial. Second wave there's a big stutter, next wave there's another big stutter and then the game completely crashes. Promply login to Amazon and cancel my pre-order. Not dealing with this crap in an already iffy game.
 
Eh I think overall ME:A certainly looks better than DA:I, if less polished. The geometry of the scenery in DA:I reminds me of a last gen game, which is unsurprising as the game had last gen versions.

And to be fair, Andromeda's environment design is equally stellar. It's the human character models were it all falls down, which bizarrely are worse than Inquisition's, although only slightly. Mostly because of the eyes... Animation quality is genuinely on par with Inquisition - only lips and eye movements in both games, and most dialogue conversations are stilted affairs without any particular body movements at all.

I feel like Inquisition and Andromeda prove that Bioware have nailed environment design, but they really need to work something out with EA to get some high-end animation tools set up for Frostbite. Of course it's fine for shooters like Battlefield where the cutscenes are few enough to be entirely mo-capped, but for an RPG that's not going to be feasible, and last gen techniques for hand animating clearly aren't good enough these days.
No no, what I meant is it isnt Frostbite's fault that the game isnt running well that's all.
 
No no, what I meant is it isnt Frostbite's fault that the game isnt running well that's all.

Ahh, I see what you mean. I can't comment on console performance but on PC at least I noticed performance was very similar to Inquisition (played to the end of the trial, so Habitat 7 and Eos). It was slightly worse performance, but I was attributing that to a lack of driver support and the higher mesh quality of environments in Andromeda. Hopefully they can optimize further on consoles if it's a problem, because it should be on par with Inquisition, I agree.
 
Ahh, I see what you mean. I can't comment on console performance but on PC at least I noticed performance was very similar to Inquisition (played to the end of the trial, so Habitat 7 and Eos). It was slightly worse performance, but I was attributing that to a lack of driver support and the higher mesh quality of environments in Andromeda.
Yeah, I was quoting someone that said it was console's fault it wasnt running well :)

Frostbite has ran on a lot of games for consoles with almost no problems, other than Battlefield 4.
 

Floody

Member
Just saw that they have those shitty timer missions DA:I has, does anyone know if you can skip them by moving the systems clock forward still? If not I might just skip this entirely, one of my absolute most hated thing a SP game can do that.
 

Melchiah

Member
Just saw that they have those shitty timer missions DA:I has, does anyone know if you can skip them by moving the systems clock forward still? If not I might just skip this entirely, one of my absolute most hated thing a SP game can do that.

Huh? They never bothered me, as they were finished while I was doing something else, or when I returned to the game the next day.
 

Carn82

Member
I haven't really read any sci-fi books, apart from H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, but it wouldn't be surprising that similar themes existed before B5.

Well, if you want something cool to read, I would suggest the Revelation Space series from Alastair Reynolds. It's also quite Lovecraftian, if you like the storylines in B5 and games like ME I'm sure you will enjoy this :)
 

Lego Boss

Member
Some of the big franchises of last gen are really suffering this time through, even with the resources piled on them (Deus Ex, looks like ME could be the same). I wonder if the teams are just so big that they lose focus and are not able to deliver as the PMs are just spinning plates all the time.

More is not necessarily better, which is a shame as ME was one of the finest franchises of the last gen, especially ME2.
 
it's interesting to see, usually reviews like this leads to huge meltdowns

but even on sites where review comment fields are usually fucking cesspools, the response has been muted. everyone seems to agree that the game is a bit shit

looks like the ea access preview thing backfired for this game and disrupted the usual pre-release hype cycle. i never really liked the thing about delaying a game for people who don't subscribe to a certain service so i can't say i'm sad over that strategy backfiring
 

Maledict

Member
It wasn't just the EA Access thing - the marketing for this game has been crap and bizarre for a long time. We've been complaining about it in the ME community thread for months - they just weren't showing the game at all like we expected, and there was nothing that came close to the original games build up. At first we thought it was because they were going for a Fallout 4 'wait until it's finished, then show everything, approach but in reality it's clear that they knew the game had significant issues.

Some of the animations and graphics are ps2 era. It's staggering how badly this went wrong.
 

jdstorm

Banned
Watching more clips since it hasnt released yet. I think i have worked out why i dislike the main human characters. Its like Bioware had perfectly serviceable scanned character models and some intern doing the character art tried to turn them into Nathan Drake (Scott) Anne Hathaway (Sarah) Jennifer Lawrence (Cora) and Donald Glover (Liam)

Being close but subpar aproximations of real actors makes it feel really cheap, despite probably a considerable amount of effort going into these models. So it is a real bummer.

Especially since the familiarity makes the characters feel rote and uninspired
 
It wasn't just the EA Access thing - the marketing for this game has been crap and bizarre for a long time. We've been complaining about it in the ME community thread for months - they just weren't showing the game at all like we expected, and there was nothing that came close to the original games build up. At first we thought it was because they were going for a Fallout 4 'wait until it's finished, then show everything, approach but in reality it's clear that they knew the game had significant issues.

Some of the animations and graphics are ps2 era. It's staggering how badly this went wrong.

yeah, but without the ea access preview, the fallout 4 strategy fot selling a disappointing game just off of pre-release hype by not showing anything could have actually worked
 
It wasn't just the EA Access thing - the marketing for this game has been crap and bizarre for a long time. We've been complaining about it in the ME community thread for months - they just weren't showing the game at all like we expected, and there was nothing that came close to the original games build up. At first we thought it was because they were going for a Fallout 4 'wait until it's finished, then show everything, approach but in reality it's clear that they knew the game had significant issues.

Some of the animations and graphics are ps2 era. It's staggering how badly this went wrong.
I'm not sure they knew. From whar I'm hearing, they were completely confident in the project and the bad press and reviews completely blindsided them. They honestly thought they were going to hit a home-run with this one.

On the other hand, EA itself might've anticipated this a bit more. Our local branch refused to send out review copies before release: I'm still waiting for mine.

From what I've played in the EA Access trial, Andromeda feels like a game out of time. It's a spiritual successor to Mass Effect 1, not a sequel to ME2 or 3. Unfortunately that includes all the jank that came with Mass Effect 1, just ten years too late.
 

Maledict

Member
Watching more clips since it hasnt released yet. I think i have worked out why i dislike the main human characters. Its like Bioware had perfectly serviceable scanned character models and some intern doing the character art tried to turn them into Nathan Drake (Scott) Anne Hathaway (Sarah) Jennifer Lawrence (Cora) and Donald Glover (Liam)

Being close but subpar aproximations of real actors makes it feel really cheap, despite probably a considerable amount of effort going into these models. So it is a real bummer.

Especially since the familiarity makes the characters feel rote and uninspired

I don't understand how they turned the model for Scott into the ingame character we see before us. He's an incredibly handsome guy IRL, yet ingame he often just looks weird. It's not even his animations, the shape of his head and his face don't resemble the models that much at all. Yet somehow 10 years ago they recreated Vanderloo perfectly ingame.
 

Floody

Member
Huh? They never bothered me, as they were finished while I was doing something else, or when I returned to the game the next day.

They add absolutly nothing to the experience imo only adds another chore to worry about and plan around, as a way to drag out the playtime if you wanna unlock something from it, I hate it. At least in DA:I you could just select your options back out then move the clock forward to finish them, never having to worry about it again, really hope it's the same here.
 

Skux

Member
No one stays on top forever and BioWare has lost its reputation as one of must-play producers of RPGs. With CDprojekt and Guerrilla stepping up in the AAA space and a slew of successful indie CRPGs, there are great games out there. They just aren't BioWare games.
 

Melchiah

Member
Well, if you want something cool to read, I would suggest the Revelation Space series from Alastair Reynolds. It's also quite Lovecraftian, if you like the storylines in B5 and games like ME I'm sure you will enjoy this :)

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm always interested in anything Lovecraftian. =)


Single player content shouldn't have time gates, not when some peoples play time is already limited

They never seemed like that to me, as I always had other quests to do while they were in progress. I'm not in a hurry to beat the games either. I have a limited time to play as well, and it's not away from that when I activate them so they're finished the next day.
 
No one stays on top forever and BioWare has lost its reputation as one of must-play producers of RPGs. With CDprojekt and Guerrilla stepping up in the AAA space and a slew of successful indie CRPGs, there are great games out there. They just aren't BioWare games.

don't forget from soft

and now platinum as well

even final fantasy seems to be back
 

Renekton

Member
No one stays on top forever and BioWare has lost its reputation as one of must-play producers of RPGs. With CDprojekt and Guerrilla stepping up in the AAA space and a slew of successful indie CRPGs, there are great games out there. They just aren't BioWare games.
But who can give a space sci-fi game?
 

Lime

Member
I'm not sure they knew. From whar I'm hearing, they were completely confident in the project and the bad press and reviews completely blindsided them. They honestly thought they were going to hit a home-run with this one.

Posts made by a certain poster who no longer frequents these parts. Their internal reviews had the game scoring really well.

I honestly don't believe that internal reviews and mock reviews were positive about this game. The game is clearly flawed in its presentation, its writing, its quest design, its amount of bugs, its subpar animations. Any playtest, focus group, executives, even other developers, would notice how unfinished the game was.

EA and Bioware were clearly aware of the game's flaws, they just decided that enough was enough and released it. Mock reviews would've pointed out how mediocre and flawed the game appeared, so I don't believe the information that insiders were fed and were repeating when we heard that mock reviews were positive.

EA is too big with a lot of talent in its player testing and mock reviews, especially for large AAA projects like this one.
 

Maledict

Member
Posts made by a certain poster who no longer frequents these parts. Their internal reviews had the game scoring really well.

Friends and family of developers aren't going to get told 'management think the game is crap, they won't market it'. Just isn't going to happen - no duplicity or intentional deceit happening, it's just how things work.

And given how bad the animations are in the first few minutes I absolutely cannot believe this wasn't picked up in the internal reviews. I also can't believe that they didn't at least fix the first few minutes either - first impressions count!
 
I honestly don't believe that internal reviews and mock reviews were positive about this game. The game is clearly flawed in its presentation, its writing, its quest design, its amount of bugs, its subpar animations. Any playtest, focus group, executives, even other developers, would notice how unfinished the game was.

EA and Bioware were clearly aware of the game's flaws, they just decided that enough was enough and released it. Mock reviews would've pointed out how mediocre and flawed the game appeared, so I don't believe the information that insiders were fed and were repeating when we heard that mock reviews were positive.

Friends and family of developers aren't going to get told 'management think the game is crap, they won't market it'. Just isn't going to happen - no duplicity or intentional deceit happening, it's just how things work.
I've no reason to mistrust his claims, but you're free to believe what you want, ofcourse. I also don't think it's an either/or situation: the developers could've expected great reviews while upper management and PR already saw the writing on the wall.

Working on a game for over five years certainly had the potential to color one's opinion, I would think.
 

Lime

Member
Friends and family of developers aren't going to get told 'management think the game is crap, they won't market it'. Just isn't going to happen - no duplicity or intentional deceit happening, it's just how things work.

And given how bad the animations are in the first few minutes I absolutely cannot believe this wasn't picked up in the internal reviews. I also can't believe that they didn't at least fix the first few minutes either - first impressions count!

Yeah, of course someone would know. There are extremely talented people working at Bioware and EA in different departments of game development and they would immediately notice the various flaws of the game's visual presentation, amount of bugs, lighting solution, animation flaws, etc. And then you have the internal reviewers who are good at contrasting a game to contemporary standards of quality, reviewer standards, and consumer expectations - they too would've identified the flaws of the game.

I've no reason to mistrust his claims, but you're free to believe what you want, ofcourse. I also don't think it's an either/or situation: the developers could've expected great reviews while upper management and PR already saw the writing on the wall.

Working on a game for over five years certainly had the potential to color one's opinion, I would think.

Definitely, but that's what mock reviews, playtesting, and other various methods of quality assurance are there for. This is a highly expensive five-year project, EA would've be aware if the game's quality is up to par.
 
when you work with something very closely for too long, you may lose the objective eye for the quality of the work you're doing, especially if you work in a team where there may be some group think going on

higher-ups on the other hand would have a bit more of a bird's eye perspective, and would have been more likely to notice the flaws
 

blackjaw

Member
Game spots review sold me on the game.

It's not the number or even the write up, but the fact the reviewer spent 65 hrs on the game and then went back to finish some quests after he finished his review.

That is what I want, ME with plenty of life...this will take me months to complete.
 
it's interesting to see, usually reviews like this leads to huge meltdowns

but even on sites where review comment fields are usually fucking cesspools, the response has been muted. everyone seems to agree that the game is a bit shit

looks like the ea access preview thing backfired for this game and disrupted the usual pre-release hype cycle. i never really liked the thing about delaying a game for people who don't subscribe to a certain service so i can't say i'm sad over that strategy backfiring

there was a few meltdowns in the first review thread. most of the meltdowns happened in the EA access thread, where people dared to say the game was shit.
 

jdstorm

Banned
But who can give a space sci-fi game?

Bungie is releasing Destiny 2 this year and story has been a priority.
Activision also released CoD Infinite Warfare which felt very Mass Effect like.
Capcom is releasing Ace Combat 7 later this year who's futuristic weapons will feel scifi like
Respawn released Titanfall 2 last year. Its fantastic
Cloud Imperium is still working on Star Citizen and its Squadron 42 Singleplayer componant
Nintendo are releasing Xenoblade 2 on Switch which probably wont be Space based but will bring back that scifi exploring feeling.
Star Wars Battlefront is due these holidays.
Elite Dangerous experiences regular updates
IOS has the Galaxy on Fire series

The market is about to be saturated with Space RPGs. Not to mention you can always replay older games.
 
Definitely, but that's what mock reviews, playtesting, and other various methods of quality assurance are there for. This is a highly expensive five-year project, EA would've be aware if the game's quality is up to par.

I think this is one of those times where different parts of the company felt differently.

when you work with something very closely for too long, you may lose the objective eye for the quality of the work you're doing, especially if you work in a team where there may be some group think going on

higher-ups on the other hand would have a bit more of a bird's eye perspective, and would have been more likely to notice the flaws
It'll be interesting to see what post-launch support for this game is like. If we can get some patches and DLC that start addressing the issues, or if EA will just consider it a waste of effort and lock the franchise in their vault.
 

vivekTO

Member
Posts made by a certain poster who no longer frequents these parts. Their internal reviews had the game scoring really well.

The Certain poster also talked about the Day one "animation fix" patch, Care to ask him why it didn't get fixed or once again he was lied by the developers.
Or is it still coming??
 

Lime

Member
It'll be interesting to see what post-launch support for this game is like. If we can get some patches and DLC that start addressing the issues, or if EA will just consider it a waste of effort and lock the franchise in their vault.

With Bioware's ability to always listen and take suggestions (and mishandle the feedback at times), I hope that they'll continue in the vein of the Extended Cut as well as Dragon Age Inquisition's Black Emporium type of post-launch support.

But it depends on a host of factors:
  • Who is left at the studio willing to work on fixing most of the issues?
  • Are there developer bandwidth available to fix the game?
  • Is EA willing to pay to fix the game now that review scores are underwhelming and sales will have shorter legs, especially after 5 long years of production problems?
  • Is it simply more profitable to just move on, churn out the 3 DLC packs, and move on to the next project (new IP)?
A dream scenario would be an Enhanced Edition some time later on this year or the next. It isn't unheard of by other developers who take good care of their IPs and their consumer fanbases, but with EA and Bioware I am not sure if the costs are worth it. Then again, with how post-launch support is a way of driving revenue (look at Rainbow Six and The Division and probably Ghost Recon), maybe this could be a way for EA and Bioware to continue post-launch support.
 

Rozart

Member
No one stays on top forever and BioWare has lost its reputation as one of must-play producers of RPGs. With CDprojekt and Guerrilla stepping up in the AAA space and a slew of successful indie CRPGs, there are great games out there. They just aren't BioWare games.

As much as I'm glad for the successes of GG, CDPR, Larian Studios etc., this post still makes me sad.
 

vivekTO

Member
You know, i dont think the devs lied.

They just couldnt fix it in time.

I can't comprehend the meaning of the post. They said they gonna fix the animation, they made this statement(by insider) not more than a month ago.
Now due to the lack of time they can't fix it, Its ok not a big problem,could be fix later, But why say it will be fixed in day one patch to anyone.That doesn't make any sense to me. Obviously that was not the truth.


Also not long ago , i posted here only that, it was fascinating to see someone like ME for its multiplayer, as it will always be a single player game for me. Looking at the impression for Multiplayer, and the issues of SP, I couldn't be more wrong :(
 

Freeman76

Member
it's interesting to see, usually reviews like this leads to huge meltdowns

but even on sites where review comment fields are usually fucking cesspools, the response has been muted. everyone seems to agree that the game is a bit shit

looks like the ea access preview thing backfired for this game and disrupted the usual pre-release hype cycle. i never really liked the thing about delaying a game for people who don't subscribe to a certain service so i can't say i'm sad over that strategy backfiring


There are plenty of people in the OT enjoying the game a lot so Im not sure where you get this idea at all.
 

Slaythe

Member
I've no reason to mistrust his claims, but you're free to believe what you want, ofcourse. I also don't think it's an either/or situation: the developers could've expected great reviews while upper management and PR already saw the writing on the wall.

Working on a game for over five years certainly had the potential to color one's opinion, I would think.

That doesn't make any sense though.

1) If you present the game to people telling them "it's unfinished, we're still working on it", they tend to take note of the shortcomings but assume it will be fixed, they are therefore much more positive if they encounter glitches and stuff like that. Obviously if you don't fix the issues then the reception is gonna be more brutal.

We're not talking occasional glitches in a gigantic game here, we're talking about glitches on a frequent basis, if it's not the animation it's the pop in, the lightning, the script, etc... The game breaks far too often (gameplay wise, and visually) for the team to ignore it's broken or consider this is "ok". They literally just have to launch the game to see the problems. You don't have to replicate some obscure conditions or anything.

2) We have seen the alpha/prototype version of the game, that illustrates clearly that the artists were talented. There is no way in hell they were fine and okay with the way the game shipped. Since a version of the game (probably extremely incomplete) existed with great quality, we can't assume that the team has no standards.

They have(had) great standards. So it's impossible to believe they thought their game was gonna hit a home run. Unless they fired the talented guys and ended up only with people that didn't have any standard in that department...
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
That "animation fix" for the day 1 patch was only for some of them. You can't expect all of the bad animations in this game to be fixed in a single patch, considering the size of the game.

And seriously, don't expect whatever fix they'll do to make the animations look as good as during those sex scenes for example. A blank emotionless face on a certain scene(like that infamous "my face is tired" Allison) isn't suddenly going to be super realistic after one patch or two.
 

Carcetti

Member
Bungie is releasing Destiny 2 this year and story has been a priority.
Activision also released CoD Infinite Warfare which felt very Mass Effect like.
Capcom is releasing Ace Combat 7 later this year who's futuristic weapons will feel scifi like
Respawn released Titanfall 2 last year. Its fantastic
Cloud Imperium is still working on Star Citizen and its Squadron 42 Singleplayer componant
Nintendo are releasing Xenoblade 2 on Switch which probably wont be Space based but will bring back that scifi exploring feeling.
Star Wars Battlefront is due these holidays.
Elite Dangerous experiences regular updates
IOS has the Galaxy on Fire series

The market is about to be saturated with Space RPGs. Not to mention you can always replay older games.

Destiny spaceships are just loading screens, doubt that will change.
COD is a shooter, not RPG.
Ace Combat is an airplane shooter.
Titanfall 2 has amazing campaign but it's a shooter.
Star Citizen is a pipe dream.
Xenoblade has nothing to do with space.
Battlefront is a shooter.
Elite is an Euro Truck Simulator in space and with zero story.
Galaxy on Fire is just a mega light 'sim'.

None of those games are RPGs in space. That's the problem here, Mass Effect filled a very special niche. I love space games but modern space/scifi gaming is almost always only 4X, sims, and janky survival sims.
 

Chumley

Banned
Posts made by a certain poster who no longer frequents these parts. Their internal reviews had the game scoring really well.

I've played this for almost 2 hours and I refuse to believe they had people internally telling them this writing was good to go.

In fact, how did this writing even pass the script phase? The dialogue is fucking atrocious.
 

vivekTO

Member
That "animation fix" for the day 1 patch was only for some of them. You can't expect all of the bad animations in this game to be fixed in a single patch, considering the size of the game.

And seriously, don't expect whatever fix they'll do to make the animations look as good as during those sex scenes for example. A blank emotionless face on a certain scene(like that infamous "my face is tired" Allison) isn't suddenly going to be super realistic after one patch or two.

Do we have any comparison for Post and Pre patch animation?? or have any example which animation got fixed.
 
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