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MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA – Gameplay Series #2: Characters

Mœbius

Member
Looking forward to experiencing ME Andromeda regardless but I am questioning their design approach (at least as it comes across in the marketing / videos).

It seems to me (and I could be totally off here) that they have used combat gameplay as the foundation / base philosophy from which the rest of the design of the game is derived. I do enjoy combat - particularly tactical combat - and I appreciate that having a more open multi-style approach is appealing to a broader audience; but it's not really what ME is about for me.

I'm not sure I agree with not locking in your character profile / style - I'm struggling to explain / convey what I mean but it just feels like not committing to it minimises the sense of significance in your choice, and also the sense of the avatar being "your" Ryder and your adventure. It just feels like it flies in the face of its RPG roots.

I'm not suggesting that the combat will be bad; it looks pretty great. Still looking forward to this a lot.
 
It does seem that they just copied ME1 and replaced Tali with Jaal.

Cora = Ashley
Liam = Kaidan (although I expect both of these to survive)
Vetra = Garrus
PeeBee = Liara
Drack = Wrex

Or rather

Cora = Miranda
Liam = Jacob
I think that's jumping to a lot of conclusions before getting to know these characters. Rather than just making connections simply from appearances, let's wait and see what their personalities are and what makes them tick first :)
 

Tovarisc

Member
Looking good but dislike all them filthy alien squadmates. Hopefully will be able to roll whole human squad, all the time.

I can't wait to lock Liam and PeeBee into some closet. Liam gives impression of your normal forced and overwritten cooldude that BW likes to do, every ME game has one. PeeBee is just Sera 2.0, immature kid playing adventure :/

Edit: Maybe I'm wrong, but initial vibes
 

obeast

Member
This is on easy mode and the companion was getting wrecked and running around in the open. On Insane she's going to be dead in seconds.

Yup. Based on my experience with the AI in the other games, any non-player character with biotic charge (Cora, I guess, in this case) is going to get herself killed almost instantly (especially if you can't control when she uses it).
 
Mœbius;230862920 said:
I love this series and am looking forward to experiencing ME Andromeda regardless, but I do find myself disappointed in their design approach (at least as it comes across in the marketing / videos).

It seems to me (and I could be totally off here) that they have used combat gameplay as the foundation / base philosophy from which the rest of the design of the game is derived. I do enjoy combat - particularly tactical combat - and I appreciate that having a more open multi-style approach is appealing to a broader audience; but it's not really what ME is about for me.

I'm not sure I agree with not locking in your character profile / style - I'm struggling to explain / convey what I mean but it just feels like not committing to it minimises the sense of significance in your choice, and also the sense of the avatar being "your" Ryder and your adventure. It just feels like it flies in the face of its RPG roots.

I'm not suggesting that the combat will be bad; it looks pretty great. Still looking forward to this a lot.

Yeah, the "do anything and everything" approach will take some getting used to, but it might work out fine. We still get points to spend to level up the different profiles, so I can see most people focusing more on their class of choice, and only investing a few upgrades into the other trees to supplement their playstyle. The lack of squad control is an issue though, and seems similar to how much control was removed from DA:I with the "new and improved" tactics system.

As for marketing, remember that Mass 3's marketing was literally all "Take Back Earth" with cinematic shots of Shepard fighting in a massive battle down on our planet swinging his omni blade around. The actual game was far more emotional and more focused on the turmoil your squadmates went through as you saw all of their home planets getting destroyed, with Earth only really coming into play at the end of the game. So I wouldn't get too worried about the combat focus just yet - seems par for the course to secure as many pre-orders as possible.
 

ebev91

Banned
I think that's jumping to a lot of conclusions before getting to know these characters. Rather than just making connections simply from appearances, let's wait and see what their personalities are and what makes them tick first :)

I'm not saying the personalities are what matches up. The races. It just seems like they're trying to have all but 1 of the races for the squad match up with ME1.
 

Lime

Member
I think that's jumping to a lot of conclusions before getting to know these characters. Rather than just making connections simply from appearances, let's wait and see what their personalities are and what makes them tick first :)

You're totally right, I'm only talking about appearances. I'm sure they'll be different personality wise :)

I'm curious, what is it about Liam that screams Jacob to you?

Cora = white biotic girl in skin tight suit
Liam = black specialist soldier with muscly frame

Only talking about visual character design only.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Cora Harper? Like as Jack Harper aka Illusive Man?

That is the speculation among fans. Though I believe Mac Walters squashed the theory that the Andromeda Initiative itself is a Cerberus back program. Doesn't dismiss the possibility of them being related though.
 

Harlequin

Member
I think that's jumping to a lot of conclusions before getting to know these characters. Rather than just making connections simply from appearances, let's wait and see what their personalities are and what makes them tick first :)

Can you tell us if there will be any more companions than the ones shown in this video (not asking for a specific number or names or anything, just yes or no)?
 

noomi

Member
Man, this is looking very good!

I know PC with reign supreme but I'm tempted to get it for my PS4 Pro. Have they mentioned any specific ps4 pro features? Higher resolution, better framerates, HDR? Anything yet?
 
Looks great, though I'm worrying about the no controls for teammates. If the AI is anything like 2 and 3 its gonna be ASS.

I remember constantly telling my idiot squadmates to go back into cover because they'd just run out of it constantly and getting shot up. Frustrating as hell.
 

Harlequin

Member

Thanks for the reply :)! I must admit I find that a bit disappointing. Not really feeling the companions at all right now (but then I don't yet know a whole lot about most of them so that might change.. and I guess there's always the non-companion characters).
 
The squadmate races don't matter; the game was confirmed to be a failure the moment it became clear I wouldn't be riding an Elcor into battle.
 
Huge focus on combat apparently. It's obviously important, but the world is so much more important. I hope that - while making the game - they focused on the ME universe first of all. The world and the exploration is what Mass Effect is, imo. Combat is second.
 

Papacheeks

Banned
wait? You can't send squad ability commands in battle like you have been able to do in past games?

They are just AI there to fight?

Am I misreading this?
 
Only thing I'm not liking so far is the ability to just be everything by switching loadouts. That's what your squadmates are for. The profile system just looks a bit meh to me.

Other than that, the game looks great so far.
 

Vintage

Member
Enemies seem dumb, slow and bullet spongy. I know it's like this in previous games, but that's the thing I disliked most.
 
Thanks for the reply :)! I must admit I find that a bit disappointing. Not really feeling the companions at all right now (but then I don't yet know a whole lot about most of them so that might change.. and I guess there's always the non-companion characters).

You do realize that the "no" answer he gave you could very likely be answering the actual question you asked "Can you tell us if there will be any more companions than the ones shown in this video".
 
Enemies seem dumb, slow and bullet spongy. I know it's like this in previous games, but that's the thing I disliked most.

The last combat video shows smaller enemies that go down much quicker. These bulky guys probably have a ton of armor. Not really sure why they used this particular part to demo though, perhaps to show combos.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Enemies seem dumb, slow and bullet spongy. I know it's like this in previous games, but that's the thing I disliked most.

Enemies in ME3 had a fun set of abilities, and the enemy groups were designed to have synergy. Consider Cerberus, who had shield guys covering standard troops who used grenades to get you out of cover, commanders throwing around smoke that made messed up everything for the player and snipers who kept you under cover. The AI wasn't smart really, but the design made them pretty effective teams all the same.

Sure, they were bullet-sponges, but that is not unusual for games in general. But if they could be all dropped with one or two shots, there would have be hordes of enemies (which would be silly), or the game would be pretty damn easy.
 
I think that's jumping to a lot of conclusions before getting to know these characters. Rather than just making connections simply from appearances, let's wait and see what their personalities are and what makes them tick first :)
It's hard to when bioware barely giving us the chance to get to see these characters.
 

Tovarisc

Member
Now hold on.

Was that "No" in response to "Can you tell us if" or "will there be any more companions"?

If it's the former, then that just means Shinobi can't tell us either way. :)

You do realize that the "no" answer he gave you could very likely be answering the actual question you asked "Can you tell us if there will be any more companions than the ones shown in this video".

Short of devs lying on Twitter they are saying that these 6 are all squadies you are going to get in MEA.
 

Ralemont

not me
That favorite aspect looks really clumsy. Seems like a lot of unnecessary switching back and forth.

It's obviously done to get around the limitations of the controller but is probably going to be hampering on the PC.

You can hotkey favorites on PC.

Companions having only 3 powers is certainly different and eliminates much of the need to control their powers. Still not sold on that either. Being able to tell then who to attack to trigger combos is cool but if they're popping of powers freely could prove annoying.

Companions only had 3 Powers in ME2/3 (at least) as well.

Not sold on the reasoning for removing Power usage. At least give us one companion Power on left/right dpad that we can't pause for if you don't wanna slow down combat. Ya know, like we could do in the trilogy.
 

Papacheeks

Banned
It's hard to when bioware barely giving us the chance to get to see these characters.

Yea, this is the most we've actually seen of the game, they have kept it close to the chest, which means there are big changes to core gameplay that fan's have come accustomed to.

Like having he ability wheel, giving our squad commands.

And in the 4th entry to not be able to be anything outside of a human is a huge missed opportunity.

Short of devs lying on Twitter they are saying that these 6 are all squadies you are going to get in MEA.

Wait? There are only 6 squad-mates to choose from in the entire game? Holly shit fucking fail to the 10th degree. I fucking swear if I hear or see new squadmates as DLC or something in the season pass I'm totally boycotting this just like I did with Mass effect 3.
 

Kneecap

Member
No command over squadmate powers = colossal headache. E.G., you prime enemy for a biotic detonation (because you have a zillion points in the adept profile) and dummy squadmate detonates that primer even tho they have a lesser or no biotic detonation bonus; or dummy squad mate overwrites your biotic primer with a, say, tech primer. So...if the npc AI is brain dead, I'll end up only giving npcs'passive and weapon points (and then I suppose the npcs will overwrite my biotic primers with the special ammo priming effects!).
 

Deathknell

Member
Huge focus on combat apparently. It's obviously important, but the world is so much more important. I hope that - while making the game - they focused on the ME universe first of all. The world and the exploration is what Mass Effect is, imo. Combat is second.

Totally agree, those videos are like gears of war in space for me..

Already bought the game on cdkeys so..i have faith.
 

Ralemont

not me
Wait? There are only 6 squad-mates to choose from in the entire game? Holly shit fucking fail the the 10th degree. I fucking swear if I hear or see new squadmates as DLC or something in the season pass I'm totally boycotting this.

Jesus people. ME1 only had 6 and ME3 vanilla only had six.
 

Harlequin

Member
You do realize that the "no" answer he gave you could very likely be answering the actual question you asked "Can you tell us if there will be any more companions than the ones shown in this video".

I did after posting that :p. However, I find that to be unlikely. Shinobi tends to try and defend/be positive about the game in most of his posts and in this case, deliberately making his reply ambiguous if there actually are more companions would kind of be at odds with that (unless he himself didn't realise that it would be ambiguous in which case it would still make more sense for the no to refer to the question of whether there will be more companions, seeing as I asked him to just make it a yes or no answer).
 
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