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Mass Effect: Andromeda | Review Thread

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Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
True, but homework 101 as I've said multiple times should have been the project leads dissecting ME1~3 and spending the first month or two mandating ALL staff play them till completion. Might sound daft/like a chore, but if you're bringing a new team into do something like this, take it seriously.

Chances are half of them have played ME1~3, if not practically all, which is what makes this even more painful. Direction from the project leads must have been dire.
Maybe that's an issue, but more likely, Bioware just had the wrong people. Mac Walters has tons of experience with Mass Effect--he's just a bad writer who was inexplicably given a huge amount of responsibility.
 
So much attention on the negative reviews in here. Not every game can be a smash hit like the originals! Besides, ME3 has higher review scores but people on here act like its Satan itself.

What matters to me in I played my 10 hour trial and I can't wait to continue!
 

Euron

Member
Now it would have been foolish to expect a score in the mid to high 90's since reviewers are far more critical this gen but that is a discussion that would have taken place had the game actually been comparable to the rest of the series.

I've always had a bad feeling about this since Dragon Age Inquisition plus the team being a different one. And getting the Halo 4 writer was a very questionable decision. While the story didn't completely shit on the series like 5, it just wasn't told well, mainly overcomplicating things.

I haven't seen anything about the multiplayer though. How did that turn out?
 

shem935

Banned
Just looking for information on Bioware Montreal. Not much info out there.
You don't need that information though. The game is the game. That is the be all end all. You don't need more information on the studio up on this board because time and again the internet has proven it can't handle that information maturely.
 
didnt the me team say they learned form the witcher? gamespot killed them in terms of the sidequest aspect...

They knew that game/series is highly regarded particularly this gen with the third entry , it was PR fluff.

I was watching their panel at PAX East the other week and some of that team couldn't be more up their own arse if they tried.
 

Audioboxer

Member
Maybe that's an issue, but more likely, Bioware just had the wrong people. Mac Walters has tons of experience with Mass Effect--he's just a bad writer who was inexplicably given a huge amount of responsibility.

True, which has me questioning the work environment. They might be friends but someone had to be calling out management on some of this shit. We'll never know though unless a postmortem of depth is ever done on ME:A's development cycle. Maybe the staff genuinely think this was a step forward from 1~3? :/
 
Me1 91
Me2 96
Me3 93

Me:A 75 ?

What happened to the original Mass Effect Development Team? How could EA let this happen to such a big franchise?

Bioware is just a name now. It has little to nothing to do with most of the people who made those games great. It's been clear for a long time this isn't going to touch the OG in terms of character and narrative.

Anyway, for a game this seemingly messy and rushed, the scores probably aren't that bad. Maybe after a few patches it could even turn out somewhat good.
 
True, but homework 101 as I've said multiple times should have been the project leads dissecting ME1~3 and spending the first month or two mandating ALL staff play them till completion. Might sound daft/like a chore, but if you're bringing a new team into do something like this, take it seriously.

Chances are half of them have played ME1~3, if not practically all, which is what makes this even more painful. Direction from the project leads must have been dire.

I would like to know more about this. That is basically one of -the- best ways to know your subject matter is to keep going back to review older materials.

I would cringe if their dev staff didn't even touch or take inspiration from the older series.
 

butman

Member
Well it look like the franchise was only a Trilogy.
I can't wait for the Jimquisition review. Prepare for impact.
 
With mass effect now dead, what hope is there for space opera now. There is nothing else.

I think it's a bit early to say it's dead. Probably won't sell too well but if it even hits EA sales targets then we will probably get another.

I don't think the game is bad either, but I get the criticism. On any other scale a 7.5 would be pretty solid, yet gamers continue to amaze me with their collective perception that "less than 8.5 and it's utter garbage!"
 

Paganmoon

Member
Not on the release, atleast for me.

yeah, the bug-thread, was enough to make me hold off. I'm definitely getting the game, but not until some larger discount on Origin, or at retail

So much attention on the negative reviews in here. Not every game can be a smash hit like the originals! Besides, ME3 has higher review scores but people on here act like its Satan itself.

What matters to me in I played my 10 hour trial and I can't wait to continue!

ME3 is generally regarded as a good game, with some good side content for your companions, with a pretty poor ending. Not seen it considered "Satan itself"
 

saskuatch

Member
Halo and Destiny. And a couple of Star Wars games. Or do you just mean RPGs?

I hope some established devs will tackle space opera in the near future. Naughty Dog for example.

Halo has been dead to me since Halo reach, everything after that was crap. Destiny I don't like the story..... What Star wars games? There are no single player story driven space operas beside mass effect right now in gaming
 

oneils

Member
Trouble is that story and characters fill up many, many hours of this game and is one of the central pillars of the Mass Effect universe/attraction.



Yes, no narration, just like no squad appearance customization and no power wheel.

Wait you can't change squad appearance? I didn't think that would bother me but it does. I like dressing up my space dolls :(
 

darklin0

Banned
Persona 5 all ready has great reviews from the east and some praising from the west as well.
I was just trying to make sure Bronson knew the game wouldn't be undercooked. :p
When it comes to P5, I have kept my ear to ground. The rumblings from Japan and early impressions make the wait excruciating.
Looks like a combination of the original teams being gutted and/or people leaving, and the newer team not spending enough time playing/researching and understanding why Me1~3 rank as they do.

Bioware might not have put a 4 in the title, mainly because Me1~3 was a trilogy that ended, but for all intents and purposes the gamers saw this as Me4. Therefore, expectations were set accordingly.



2015? Dude, cmon :p

tTYWkFs.jpg


But yeah, a game that got as long as it needed.
Dang it! Thats what I get for just quickly googling for the pic and not looking for it. lol
 
On any other scale a 7.5 would be pretty solid, yet gamers continue to amaze me with their collective perception that "less than 8.5 and it's utter garbage!"

games require a big initial investment, both in terms of time and money. for an rpg like this, even more so

its ok to not want to make that investment when there are better options available.
 

UrbanRats

Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b6qH48bslA

Possible minor spoilers, but it was posted in the other ME:A thread (crazy animations!).

Can anyone tell me what is meant by "My face is tired"????

To me this would feel like some bad translation of something that makes more sense in another language (tired face i've heard before, just not in english, meaning "you look tired") but since the team is a native speaker, it could also be some really bad voice acting direction, because the dialogue isn't simply bad, it's just plain confusing in how it's delivered, every line seems detached from the previous (and i know they're often recorded that way) and emotionally it jumps all over the place.

Again, it seems more than just plain ol' bad writing.
 

hollomat

Banned
Not sure how a 75 is a bad score. Is it a disappointing score? Sure. But if you're a fan of the franchise and aren't turned off by the streams I don't see why this game won't at least be okay.

Why are people acting like a 75 is a god awful score? Some of my favorite games of all time are in the 70s. It's just metacritic. The biggest knock against it is the fact that we've had a killer early 2017 and if you have limited time/money and aren't a ME fan then this is a pretty easy pass/wait.

75 is a horrible score for mass effect. It's 14 points lower than the previous lowest rating for mass effect.

I'm a huge mass effect fan and this score is very disappointing to me. I'll start buy and play it day one but my expectations have been significantly lowered.
 

Pixieking

Banned
Someone speculated that as this game was made in Montreal, this line could have originally been written in French, using a French idiom, which was then poorly translated into English. Which is just... yeah.

Ohhhh, I never considered that. I mean, that's pretty silly, but at least it would explain it away in a reasonable fashion.

Though it goes to my point in the crazy animation thread that this game fairly obviously didn't have a good editor, because that should've been picked-up.
 

Tovarisc

Member
With this game now being compared to Hozion; Zero Dawn, it never stood a chance.

Good luck EA, I hope the studio still lives after this.

I never read any HZ reviews, but did it get shit on for its mind numbing detective vision side quests and very uneven quality of face animations? Curious in general considering how well game scored.
 
So EA went to EA Montreal. Hey you are Bioware now.

Make a new Mass Effect trilogy, kkthxbye?

I never read any HZ reviews, but did it get shit on for its mind numbing detective vision side quests and very uneven quality of face animations? Curious in general considering how well game scored.

Horizon got shat on pre-release. Everything it does may not be new, but it does it very well. Execution is king. Facial animations are mostly great, with some exceptions and the lipsync is sometimes off. The game has been really well received by the player base.
 

Iceternal

Member
Someone speculated that as this game was made in Montreal, this line could have originally been written in French, using a French idiom, which was then poorly translated into English. Which is just... yeah.

Nope we don't say " mon visage est fatigué "

And in the French translation she just says " I'm exhausted "
 
Personally, I never get excited for any game that has the EA logo on it.

Like, to put things into perspective, I loved the first two Star Wars Battlefront games and always thought it was a serious missed opportunity that there was no third game for the seventh generation of consoles, but once Battlefront 2015 got announced back in 2013 and I saw who was publishing it, I immediately lost all hope.
 

True Fire

Member
On any other scale a 7.5 would be pretty solid, yet gamers continue to amaze me with their collective perception that "less than 8.5 and it's utter garbage!"

I'm totally on team "7.5 is a good score," but contextually Mass Effect was once a 9.0+ series. This is a decline no matter how you look at it.
 
I don't think the game is bad either, but I get the criticism. On any other scale a 7.5 would be pretty solid, yet gamers continue to amaze me with their collective perception that "less than 8.5 and it's utter garbage!"

It's not about the score, it's all about the shortcomings of the game mentioned in the reviews.

There are some legit issues the game has, and it's perfectly rational if people would skip it.
 
I think the problem could have been that this game is mostly developed by fans (I mean a new team fans of the franchise leaded by some veteran) and you get an inferior product when fans are involved. Happened to The Simpsons.

I'm sure there's still an enjoyable title in this but it'd be sad to know that this wasn't a priority title to EA, Mass Effect isn't a franchise to dump and leave it forgotten so I have to believe they had confidence in this.
 

Beaulieu

Member
Someone speculated that as this game was made in Montreal, this line could have originally been written in French, using a French idiom, which was then poorly translated into English. Which is just... yeah.

that is not a french idiom I know of...
maybe its an expression of the future.
 

Audioboxer

Member
Yeah, EA only giving them five years is fucking insane.

At best EA didn't protect their own franchise by seriously vetting the hands it was going into and/or having a bit more of a hands on sit down with some of the leads to say they were fucking things up.

As much as this is Bioware's baby, it's EAs too. EA know what made ME 1~3 critical successes, and will have been or should have been keeping close eyes on this during development.
 
This actually saddens me a bit, because from what I played, MEA is actually trying to bring back some RPG elements to the series that have been sorely missed since ME1. The EA suits are going to look at these scores and ask for the next one to be more like the overrated ME2&3 (i.e. Uncharted In Space).

On a side note, I can't believe I'm thinking of a Mass Effect game in a positive light in the year 2017, considering my disdain for the series since 2.
 
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