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Why the bad vibes on Mass Effect Andromeda?

DAI was so bad. I have no idea why I finished it. The Story was meh, felt like a trash movie. The characters were lame and boring. The dialogue had a high cringe factor. Oh the gameplay was no fun and the at least good looking open world was filled with unappealing side quests.

This is why I am afraid to get disappointed with the new Mass Effect.
 
It will be great but of course you will hear the vocal haters bitch about everything Mass Effect. It was overblown hate for ME3 and the vast majority of it was undeserved. It's just like some of the people that are giving Andromeda bad vibes. It seems like they just want to shit on anything.
 
1) The Mass Effect trilogy has mixed consistency in quality and direction, and ultimately fell flat in its absolute final moments, leaving a lot of fans disenchanted with BioWare's vision.
2) Dragon Age: Inquisition has vocal dissenters unhappy with the direction BioWare took in regards to quest and game system structure, particularly in leaning towards MMO-like grind systems.
3) Much of Andromeda's marketing has been unfocused and incoherent, poorly demonstrating exactly what kind of game it is and the core premise for what new and old fans have to look forward to.

Number 2 is the big one and its not helped by number 3. No one knows what the hell the game is really like yet, so lots of (negative) speculation.
 
It's weird where I am with ME: Andromeda.

I think I'm going to enjoy the game, but I don't care that it's coming out -- or rather, I don't hold any active excitement for its impending release. Mass Effect was hands down one of my favorite franchises of the last generation, too.

I played Dragon Age: Inqusition and see some similarities in Andromeda. Not sure if it's the same engine or anything, but it feels like the same style of character animation techniques are present and the third-person camera feels zoomed out at a similar distance. I liked Inquisition just fine, though it's a game like Shadow of Mordor or inFamous: Second Son for me, where it hasn't stood the test of time for very long. All still good games, though. So, I guess I kind of attribute that to a little bit of the "antihype," but have more confidence than doubt that I'm going to enjoy it whenever it finally comes out anyway. My enthusiasm and excitement definitely lies far more strongly with upcoming games like Yakuza 0, Persona 5, and Nier: Automata -- all very different games, but all way more appealing to my contemporary tastes in artistic, narrative, and gameplay styles.
 
Not really. It just went from The Wrath of Khan to The Empire Strikes Back.



About the only thing the first game did better combat wise was biotics. The whole having to strip layers of "health" away just to get to the real health bar before you could actually start tossing things around again was pretty fucking annoying. Everything else however was massively improved.

Not even close to correct. Biotics combos in 2 and 3 were the best change in combat the game could ask for after the horribly unbalanced shit in 1 where you just lift or singularity an entire room of bad guys and hit them with your pistol a bunch
 
Because BioWare isn't what it used to be.

The trailers also withhold so much stuff from the gamer. They are being very selective in what they do and do not show. Not a good sign.
 
Well 2017 is off to a great start. Here's a thread wondering why there isn't enough hype for an unreleased game. Learned nothing from the past.

Don't worry OP, you will get your hype train avatar collage closer to launch. The game will review and sell well regardless of it's quality.
 
This ignores the themes that do cross over; the Reapers/Mass Relay technology/synthetic omniscience being one, the Reapers pawns (first Geth, then Collectors, then full on Reaper armies) beinga nother. That's a much more comparable example to the LOTR example, since these are the primary themes and factions of each franchise, rather than the secondary themes used in the comparison.
They picked just enough to make it a Mass Effect game. But otherwise they removed or changed most key themes from the first game. Shepard Space Jesus started here. Humankind usurped the Council and is the focus, to the point the last boss is human reaper. Harbinger reduced himself to taunting foot-soldier. Collectors as Reaper mooks were introduced out of left field with no integration into the universe, unlike the Geth. Cerberus went from a comic A.I.M. to humanity's hope. Ex-teammates experienced major personality changes (suddenly Liara is Nick Fury and Wrex disinterested in Genophage). Emphasis is more on teammates and their issues, not the world or overarching conflict.

Story-wise, I'm thinking the rot started in 2. Yes the combat is better.
 
D4qQXLc.gif

And done.

I can't believe they showed this to the public.
 

It is pretty astonishing that they would put that in the trailer.

The face isn't the worst part of this for me, the worst part is that the devs actually thought she'd realistically have enough time to grab the gun that way and that slow and wouldn't get shot. There has gotta something else going on here, like the guy holding the gun has a soft spot for her and couldn't pull the trigger or something.

I don't think the face is the worst part for anybody.
 
By resetting and forgetting everything and every choice you made in the past Witcher games so they could tell a brand new story for TW3 such that new fans wouldn't be lost? Listen, I LOVE The Witcher 3 and it's probably going to be my GOTG but no one has dared to try and do what BioWare did with the Mass Effect series. The Tuchanka arc in ME3 alone is some seriously unrivaled impressive shit given the numerous world states it has to account for in addition to the new choices it throws at you.

Meanwhile I'm still waiting for Iorveth to show up in TW3. Any day now...

Yup, The Witcher 3 doesnt want to commit to even a few serious game state changes. Though I'm not sure doing the stuff they did in Mass Effect helped them and plenty of decisions were brushed under the rug or reset.
 
It's a modern Bioware game under EA's oversight. I expect it to be a shooter first, action game second, and an RPG seventh, with mediocre-to-lousy dialog the whole way through.

I could be pleasantly surprised (maybe it's more of a return to form than I thought?), but right now this is decidedly not on my day 1 list.
 
Because Bioware isn't anywhere where they used to be quality wise and Andromeda is also made by a new team. That said, Andromeda is still my most hyped game.
 
Its trendy to hate modern Bioware, and Neogaf is all about showing you're one of the in crowd by hating on those out of favour.
 
Personally, I feel that the marketing has been very poor so far. I loved the original trilogy, but nothing Bioware have shown at this point looks interesting. It doesn't even look bad--just comepletely unengaging. I know I'll buy it on or soon after release and I'm holding out hope I end up loving it, but literally nothing about it has me excited except for my love of the first three games.
 
If it's at least as decent as DA:I it'll both review and sell well.

It's just Neogaf that overestimates how much animation jank actually matters to the general consumer with a Bioware game imo, despite the fact how awful that scene in the trailer were. Bioware games have been like that for a long time.

But DA:I was the definition of "decent." A shining example of mediocrity. The epitome of "acceptable."

I'm just worried it'll have forced side quests like DAI.
Basically, I want MEA to be nothing like DAI

And yet, because DA:I did review and sell so well, Bioware has strong incentive for Mass Effect to be very similar in a lot of ways.

Its trendy to hate modern Bioware, and Neogaf is all about showing your one of the in crowd by hating on those out of favour.

Or maybe Bioware just isn't that great.
 
The writing in their previous games hasn't been great.

Combat in DA:I was felt like MMO combat. Lots of meaningless encounters.

DA2 copy and paste dungeons and poor enemy vareity.

DA:I quest philosophy. Fetch this and fetch that.

Mass Effect 3. The game in general but the ending in particular.


Lots of things that weren't good with several of their latest titles. ME:A seems to cling to the poor writing, poor animations and the DA:I philosophy.

I might get it down the line, when all DLC is released and the whole package is $20.
 
It's going be a challenge for them to top Dragon Age: Inquisition! They set a new bar for themselves, but ME always gets the full brunt of resources so they may be up for it.
 
Biggest reasons for me:

Because Lead Writer of Mass Effect 1 & 2 Drew Karpshyn is not involved with Mass Effect Andromeda. Mass Effect 3 was a big, big drop in terms of the quality of the writing and Writer Marc Walters is now the Creative Director for Andromeda, with Chris Schlerf being the only credited writer. His only 2 credits in that departement are Halo 4 and Destiny: Rise of Iron.

Because I expected a completely new galaxy, with new races, concepts and ideas. What the Trailers so far showed me instead were the typical Asari and Krogans I'm already used to, a pretty boring looking villian (speaking only about the character design here) and very similiar looking combat with the same abilities. That whole promise of a new galaxy seems wasted.

Because running around in the huge nothingness of Dragon Age Inquision's world, picking up flowers and minerals was my least favorite aspect of that game and Andromeda seems to take quite a bit of inspiration from that.

Because it has been six Years since Bioware released a game I really liked.

I love Mass Effect. But I can't get excited about Andromeda. Hopefully I'm wrong.

People wanting the franchise to be shooter franchise rather than a space exploration RPG is where it all went wrong.

The first Mass Effect wasn't all about the combat which is what made it great.


The first Mass Effect was just as much about shooting and combat as 2 & 3. But the combat was way jankier and was later stripped of several RPG-like aspects that never really worked, such as shots missing even though you targeted the enemies perfectly and managing the teeeerrible Inventory UI. They improved the shooting mechanics but that doesn't mean that it was suddenly more about fighting than before.
 
People wanting the franchise to be shooter franchise rather than a space exploration RPG is where it all went wrong.

The first Mass Effect wasn't all about the combat which is what made it great.

Mass Effect was always about shooting and action too. People just keep saying that because they enjoyed everything more in ME than the combat. Gameplay improvements weren't the issue in ME2 and 3. Removal of rpg elements in 2 and especially dialogue options in 3 was. Gameplay-wise it was always shooting with a bit of magic, but done pretty bad in the first game.

Also Bioware can see what made the first game good, otherwise they wouldn't bring back mako and more exploration. The Game Informer news were great to read. Exploration from the first game, loyalty missions/squad interactions from the second and gameplay/multiplayer from the third and we will have a pretty great game in our hands. Biggest question mark for me is the story and universe, which were a big pull for me when I started to play this franchise. But I am optimistic. I also don't think DA:I and ME3 are anywhere as bad as GAF makes you believe, especially ME3 (shitty ending aside).
 
Hasnt it been stated many times on here that the team took on board the complaints about the meaningless quests from DAI? Not sure why people complain about that until they have seen the finished product.
 
Hasnt it been stated many times on here that the team took on board the complaints about the meaningless quests from DAI? Not sure why people complain about that until they have seen the finished product.

It has but pointless gathering was also a complaint about DA:I and that is back in.

Waiting for the finished product is the best thing to do of course but skepticism of what is to come based on past history is never an unhealthy thing

Mass Effect 3 left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. DA: I was similar.

Mass Effect Andromeda is a a game I an quietly looking forward to but it isn't a game that has earned much trust.
 
Because Lead Writer of Mass Effect 1 & 2 Drew Karpshyn is not involved with Mass Effect Andromeda. Mass Effect 3 was a big, big drop in terms of the quality of the writing

This. I dropped the campaign of Mass Effect 3 pretty quick, something was really off compared to the previous entry. The game was saved by the awesome Multiplayer, so I hope at least Andromeda won't fail this.
 
But DA:I was the definition of "decent." A shining example of mediocrity. The epitome of "acceptable."

The thing is, it doesn't need to be anything more than that to sell well to gamers with some proper marketing cause AAA game. The market for AAA budget western RPGs isn't very crowded either.

DA:I was biowares best selling release so far despite coming off DA2 and the ME3 ending shitstorm, and it was better received than both of those by gamers at the time.
 
The thing is, it doesn't need to be anything more than that to sell well to gamers with some proper marketing cause AAA game. The market for AAA budget western RPGs isn't very crowded either.

DA:I was biowares best selling release so far despite coming off DA2 and the ME3 ending shitstorm, and it was better received than both of those by gamers at the time.

That is the saddest thing I've read in 2017.
 
ME went from a short space rpg to a short cover shooter.

Bioware is making rpg less rpg, and their stories are getting stale.

Nope not looking forward to MEA
 
I'm a self-confessed Mass Effect fanboy and proselytized the franchise to damn near everyone I knew who was a gamer last gen. Despite the foibles it had, I felt like it was a genre defining sci-fi RPG that could easily stand up next to big movie sci-fi franchises.

The last ME:A trailer made me drop my expectations considerably and now I've gone from a day one purchase to "think I'm going to Red Box this first". I can ignore janky animations and silly facial expressions. What bothers me the most is the premise seems to be all over the place.

If I recall my timeline correctly, Andromeda was in planning long before the events of ME1 and the Andromeda Initiative launches within the 2 year window between the end of ME1 and ME2. You know, back when the Council species were still in a complete state of denial about the Reapers, had only begrudgingly allowed for a human to take a seat on the council and the only Human SPECTRE was assumed KIA. To the council, humanity was still clearly inferior.

So when Andromeda was first announced I loved the idea of humanity using our own resources to give a big middle finger to the Council species. Heading off to another galaxy to do our own thing, explore and expand. Only then development shots started to come out and they prominently featured Asari and Turians. Ok, I thought, maybe I can deal with that; maybe they're just disenfranchised members of their respective races and have decided to sign on to assist. Then the latest trailer and mission mini-game things were posted...

What started as "humanity is looking for a new home" added "oh and by the way, every sentient species in the galaxy is sending Arks too!". Turian, Salarian, Asari, Krogan and I bet there will be Volus and Elcor on the Nexus as well. Will anyone be surprised if Quarian and Geth also show up? What could have been just limited to humanity exploring and making allies with NEW races and NEW allies has simply turned into Mass Effect's greatest hits - some of which doesn't even make sense. Why would the Turians and the Salarians even consider allowing Krogan to go on this expedition, and why would Krogan even want to go hundreds of years from their homeworld alongside the races that have been their oppressors? And I swear if I get a shoehorned Quarian "this is my pilgrimage" plot, I'm going to toss my broken controller through a wall.

The strongest element of the gameplay trailer was the combat. However, like others here, I didn't become a ME fanboy based only on the combat. I suspect the entire story design is going to be flat as a pancake and rely too much on the crutch of open world fetch quests and quasi-exploration padding to make it seem deeper than it actually is. I hope I'm wrong, but my expectations are low.
 
that's another thing and has nothing to do with gameplay: Outsourcing important plot and lore to DLC. Fuck that.
They really thought they were writing gold with that shitty ending, and from what I remember, all their DLC plans were forgotten and The Citadel was created to provide a "real" ending (even if it takes place before the 3 colour bullshit). I blame Mac Walters and everyone there who forgot they were making a game about player choice and insisted on imposing a terrible story on everyone that took choice completely out of their hands.

(Admittedly, HUGE answers also came from the DLC that came out before the Citadel in terms of explaining the Reapers and their creators... and yeah, it's terrible that you have to buy that in order to get that information).
 
This is such a lie. Gamers loved getting hyped to an excessive degree.

Yeah, just need a reason to get hype.

I love Mass Effect. Mass Effect 2 was my favorite title of the entire 7th generation. I am very tentatively anticipating ME:A. I have never turned on a game quite like I did with Inquisition. I dread the idea that this new game will be Dragon age Inquisition in space. I also dread the fact that nothing I've seen so far can put those fears to rest.
 
Or maybe Bioware just isn't that great.

They produce popular, well reviewed, highly distinctive games. Their latest one was well received by the fans and won a number of fan voted awards.

Whether they're "not that great" is obviously subjective, but even so I don't see how that warrants the ocean of vitriol that Neogaf spews at the mention of their name.
 
They produce popular, well reviewed, highly distinctive games. Their latest one was well received by the fans and won a number of fan voted awards.

Whether they're "not that great" is obviously subjective, but even so I don't see how that warrants the ocean of vitriol that Neogaf spews at the mention of their name.

It's not that uncommon for people to change their view on a well received game after several months or years. And it shouldn't be dismissed just because 'well other people like it!'
 
Mass Effect 3 showed me not to expect shit from EA or Bioware.
ME3 wasn't even a bad game. It was just a perfect example (alongside Dead Space 3) of how EA just

does

not

give

a

single

solitary

fuck


about retaining the integrity of a series, especially not in the face of new cash grabbing opportunities.
Andromeda could be the best Mass Effect of them all, and I'd still be a moron for letting myself get invested, because EA just don't give a fuck and would certainly make me regret that investment.
I mean, Mass Effect would be great if I could just trust them not to completely fuck up the series again within the space of an installment or two.
but here's the thing...

Dragon Age, Medal of Honor, Mass Effect, Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, SSX, Need for Speed, Burnout, Rock Band, NBA Live, Crysis, The Sims...

boy that's a lineup that inspires tons of faith isn't it? Lemme just put a hundred hours into this RPG when I know its sequel is going to be a totally different game that I probably won't like.
 
I think we all want it to be great but the animation in the trailer was so horribly amateuristic that some of us are a bit worried. But i've always enjoyed the core gameplay mechanics.
 
Don't know when the worm turned on DA:I, it got a solid if not spectacular reception when it came out and I had a lot of fun with it, more than anything it showed that Bioware learned a lot from their mistakes with DA2 and ME3.

I can't wait for Andromeda personally.
 
I think we all want it to be great but the animation in the trailer was so horribly amateuristic that some of us are a bit worried. But i've always enjoyed the core gameplay mechanics.

Animations are honestly the last thing I am worried about. My expectations were already low on that front lol.
 
It's being made by the team that made Arrival and Omega, the two garbage tier DLCs for ME2/3
 
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