• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Why the bad vibes on Mass Effect Andromeda?

Other posters have basically echo'd my thoughts on ME:A... to maybe add some depth though-

ME IP is a franchise, a product, at this stage. This game will sell gangbusters on its name alone. If you are blindly on team ME and take slights as personal attacks, don't worry, it will also score well. DA:I got GOTY and an 89. You don't slam Bioware/EA and their ad dollars unless they really mess up,I imagine. This game has been focus tested and built in a lab by committee ,It will feel like it. I don't like that. This is a Hollywood blockbuster(no stopping that), but are we going to get Winter Soldier/Guardians or Avengers 2/Iron Man 3?

Current gaming trend in RPG, my opinion, is to basically focus on G and ignore RP. Mechanics are easy( formulaic/historical precedence and dump money time etc) to polish and work on and make a good gamey game, Story and narrative are not. That part is an art(unless you paint by number and kill the soul) Big franchises are risk adverse and I imagine knowing you can nail game play is better than taking risks on narrative. They are patching in story in a Final Fantasy game but made sure the mechanics were great(I read in reviews) and people seem to be ok with this, bad precedent.

I expect this story to focus on gender and race and the big talked about on forums decision is - do we wipe out a current population to make our home ,do we integrate or risk our species dying be respecting the current one and leaving them be.. being some sort of so brave/courageous social commentary. I want this game to be the best thing ever, I love the universe and the franchise and would kill to get lost in it again like 1/2. I fear I am going to get slick shooty mc bang bang with DA:I template and "ripped from the headlines" narrative. I hope I am wrong.
 
HeisenbergWW62 said:
Because a different team in bioware made a bad game in Inquisition and people forget how good ME3 was and only focus on the Last 15 minutes

That one dialogue as well as the facial animation in the game awards trailer were pretty shit tho
Click to expand...

If you think the only thing wrong about ME3 is the last 15 minutes then I'm sure you'll love this game.
 
I honestly don't know. Everything they showed so far got me super excited. Though I didn't play DAI and also didn't think ME3 was bad or anything. So...

Can't wait for Andromeda. It's just NeoGAF being NeoGAF.
 
Diancecht said:
D4qQXLc.gif
Click to expand...

source.gif
 
Renekton said:
ME1 started out as Star Trek. Shepard did not become "Mankind's Hope" until Illusive Man said so at the start of ME2.
Click to expand...
I'll admit, this is what ruined the stories of ME2 and 3 for me. You have a universe of trillions of sentient beings but only me and 12 dysfunctional allies who I can try to fuck can save the Galaxy? What the fuck kind of lazy bullshit is that?

If they can avoid that narrative in ME:A, I can forgive janky animations and a few fetch quests.
 
longdi said:
ME1-3 story aint that great either.

It is rather generic and reeks of Halo, except Halo has a better lore.
Click to expand...
Halo is an odd comparison. Does Halo have Star Trek or Lovecraftian sensibilities? Does Halo attempt to explain in detail the space magic with some gounded science? Does it explain Huragok's DNA system (eg Dextro-Amino for Krogans) and its diet restrictions?
 
It's modern Bioware games - you can make safe bet it will be homogenized focus tested to the death bland mass market product designed to attract as many casual console games as possible while having half the content removed to be sold later as DLC for a glorious 100$+ game.
 
It doesn't help that so many people focus and judge an unfinished game from a 2 second gif of a whole trailer when the animations and models are going to be improved by launch. I see it happen with a lot of games so no wonder they didn't show off this game for two years because people will nitpick everything like crazy. Hell people still post injustice/mkx gifs from unreleased old builds to criticize instead of the improved release builds.
 
The person in charge, is the person responsible for ME2 and 3's biggest narrative flaws.
Aka the lead writer of ME2 and 3, as well as me3's ending.

Bioware in general hasn't been doing very well the past few years.
 
HeisenbergWW62 said:
I'll bite. What else was wrong with ME3?
Click to expand...

1- None of your choices from the previous games really matter. The rachni queen is a good example. In a series about "your choices matter", they managed to somehow sidestep all the big choices you made in previous entries.

2- Environments/planets were smaller than ever. You were really funneled through small areas and the sense of exploration was no longer there. It's just corridors.

3- It was the worst of the series with the "shoot through some hallways with chest high walls, then talk to someone, then repeat" formula. It became incredibly formulaic.

4- The main plot was "the world is ending, you have to stop it ASAP!!!!" but the game was still based on doing a bunch of side quests for your party members, which is jarring. There was no sense of urgency in your actions despite the story acting like there's one.

5- A lot of small details, like Tali's face being a stock photo, and such showing a lot of cut corners
17fpotfw143rqjpg.jpg
 
PTSD from Mass Effect 3. Every franchise game is judged largely on how its last entry was received. I wasn't playing or following games much in 2012, but it even hit me how much GAF loathed ME3. That and Bioware keeping things more close to the vest than usual this time around.
 
nynt9 said:
1- None of your choices from the previous games really matter. The rachni queen is a good example. In a series about "your choices matter", they managed to somehow sidestep all the big choices you made in previous entries.

2- Environments/planets were smaller than ever. You were really funneled through small areas and the sense of exploration was no longer there. It's just corridors.

3- It was the worst of the series with the "shoot through some hallways with chest high walls, then talk to someone, then repeat" formula. It became incredibly formulaic.

4- The main plot was "the world is ending, you have to stop it ASAP!!!!" but the game was still based on doing a bunch of side quests for your party members, which is jarring. There was no sense of urgency in your actions despite the story acting like there's one.

5- A lot of small details, like Tali's face being a stock photo, and such showing a lot of cut corners
17fpotfw143rqjpg.jpg
Click to expand...
1. I don't disagree there, I do wish previous choices had a bigger impact on the game, but again like I said, the ending is shit, so yeah I agree with this

2. I preferred them to ME2's, but ME2 had more of them

3. I don't recall it being any worse than ME2 in this regard, but the gunplay was good enough to keep it enjoyable for me. Convienent chest-high covers need to go tho

4. So every rpg ever?

5. True that this was dumb, but far, far from a game damaging issue
 
Personally ME3 was a joke, and while I liked the new Dragon Age this new ME has all the signs of a garbage RPG with the be anything from the start mentality.
 
No bad vibes for me. I loved all three ME games and DA:I and like what they've shown if this so far.
 
nynt9 said:
1- None of your choices from the previous games really matter. The rachni queen is a good example. In a series about "your choices matter", they managed to somehow sidestep all the big choices you made in previous entries.

2- Environments/planets were smaller than ever. You were really funneled through small areas and the sense of exploration was no longer there. It's just corridors.

3- It was the worst of the series with the "shoot through some hallways with chest high walls, then talk to someone, then repeat" formula. It became incredibly formulaic.

4- The main plot was "the world is ending, you have to stop it ASAP!!!!" but the game was still based on doing a bunch of side quests for your party members, which is jarring. There was no sense of urgency in your actions despite the story acting like there's one.

5- A lot of small details, like Tali's face being a stock photo, and such showing a lot of cut corners
17fpotfw143rqjpg.jpg
Click to expand...

Point 1 is completely false. You could not get the 'good' ending on either the krogan or geth storyline, arguably the 2 biggest non main storylines in the game, unless you made the right choices in the previous games.

Of course most stuff never came back or didn't matter but That should of been obvious to anyone from the first game where 90% of choices only effected some random npc dialog and the mission debrief.

Point 3 could be countered by saying at least those hallways and and facilities where actually unique. ME1 is literally copy pasta planets with different color filters and building prefabs through the entire game outside of 3 story planets.

Point 4 is mass effect 2 in a nutshell, not 3.
 
I feel a lot of the cynicism and concern will be tapered when BioWare is able to provide more coherent, focused media that appropriately introduces the narrative and key cast, alongside gameplay footage that demonstrates that the structure of missions Mass Effect fans came to identify with hasn't been abandoned in favour of short, bland grind missions with excessive asset reuse. I do think there's pieces of both these things there already in the media we've seen, but it's all so scattered I can't blame others for still feeling worried.
 
That's an easy answer: Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect 3 and all the disappointing previews so far.

And I say this as someone who has all the previous collector's editions. ME:A did nothing so far to change my mind after the many previous failures.

Fool me once, etc etc.
 
What they've decided to show is just not that interesting to me. It looks like Dragon Age Inquisition in space. I doubt there's gonna be any significant rpg elements and it's no doubt gonna be one of those "for everyone" games where you don't even have to really try to get anywhere, you'll get there just by doing...stuff.
 
I just don't think Bioware has made a great game since what, 2009? Whenever DA:O came out. So I remain skeptical on this one until I see something in it that makes me really excited, which hasn't happened so far. I hope it does.
 
Kayhan said:
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.
Click to expand...

DrCoxWrong.gif

This is lazy let's leave this mentality about ME1 in 2016 where it belongs please.

Anno said:
I just don't think Bioware has made a great game since what, 2009? Whenever DA:O came out. So I remain skeptical on this one until I see something in it that makes me really excited, which hasn't happened so far. I hope it does.
Click to expand...

Metacritic has Mass Effect 2 as the 21st best game of all time based on reviews. It's the best Mass Effect game, my personal favorite game all time, and many fans share that sentiment. To be fair it came out in Jan 2010 but my point still stands.

Mass Effect 3 if it had a brilliant ending would probably take that spot. It's just crippled by that terrible ending. It makes up for it with the multiplayer though so there's your great game.
 
Alright my reasons below:

- The entire way this game has been revealed has seemed like a total mess, we had a couple dev diaries at E3. A bizarre short segment at the PS4 Pro briefing. Then N7 day was supposed to be a blow-out, and we just got a hokey cinematic trailer that Michael Bay seemed to have directed. Finally we get some extended gameplay the next month at the Game Awards, that imo wasn't particularly impressive.

- Isn't it from a team that hasn't made a Mass Effect game before?

- The enemy designs revealed by Game Informer look very boring and just like the Collectors

- The world from the footage we've got gives me Inquisition vibes

- Crafting

- The feeling that a lot of side-missions will be pointless busywork

- A character is called PeeBee and seems pretty cringeworthy

- Dodgy animation

- On a more general level, I don't know if BioWare have the chops for the type of game I want anymore, it all looks so safe
 
Mass Effect is about the characters and the universe built around them first. It's why ME2 was so great; even if the Collectors narrative was weak, it didn't matter because the storylines and archs of Shepard's crew were damn strong and completing their optional missions had both significant narrative and gameplay rewards. Even ME3 further built on the characters and relationships earned in ME2 (which had to be earned or they'd be dead and not even in your run of ME3). Mordin's arch in particular got me good.

ME:A needs to show me it cares about characters as much as it does about the open world and exploring elements it keeps touting, especially since DA:I had such forgettable characters and story to the point where I didn't even care to finish the game.
 
It's ok for people to not feel a game, doesn't mean that "the overall perception changed" or whatev (I see the same people asking this about Horizon, people have different tastes and that's it, there's no "overall hivemind change" everytime someone makes a thread one way or another)

Personally I dropped out of ME after the first 1. The beginning of 2 insta-bored me, and the focus on making it more action shooter didn't interest me.
Then I played the demo for ME3 and saw they were trying to make it an uncharted like, although with shitty anims and prod values because that's no what Bioware knows how to make (very different skillset to Naughty Dog), I found it ridiculous and stayed away from it.

Now I see something that is more akin to a reboot (or at least new direction), so I know I could be interested in it again, + I like the environments + it has the mako (I love it, it's so silly I love it) + it has a jetpack, the gameplay footage of fight looks potentially fun enough, so assuming it has the powers from the first one and then some, I'll very likely enjoy it.

So, I'm pretty much "good vibes" about ME Andromeda. The jury's still out, but I'm cautiously optimistic and like what I see.
 
I'm quite hopeful for Andromeda, even thought with reservations. I think that the open-ish world mechanics, the "Mako", the new setting, the characters and the gameplay will all be on point.

It's the narrative and the possible repeat of DA:I's mistakes that scare me, the premise sounds cool in principle but I feel that the plot itself might be diffuse, like they don't really have a solid story to tell and refuse to give any details about it. The focus on exploration sounds great, but the forward camps and resource gathering stuff already makes me think of menial stuff and the fact that there's an Arkham/Witcher-like scan mechanic worries me as well, since both of the aforementioned series' games prove it can be boring and repetitive if not properly balanced.

I'm hoping for the best and I'm buying it, in part because I love sci-fi and want more big budget sci-fi games and in part because I'm sure I'll enjoy it but I'm not pre-ordering blindly or buying any collector's edition/season pass like I did with the original trilogy. We'll see how it goes.
 
TM94 said:
Alright my reasons below:

- The entire way this game has been revealed has seemed like a total mess, we had a couple dev diaries at E3. A bizarre short segment at the PS4 Pro briefing. Then N7 day was supposed to be a blow-out, and we just got a hokey cinematic trailer that Michael Bay seemed to have directed. Finally we get some extended gameplay the next month at the Game Awards, that imo wasn't particularly impressive.

- Isn't it from a team that hasn't made a Mass Effect game before?

- The enemy designs revealed by Game Informer look very boring and just like the Collectors

- The world from the footage we've got gives me Inquisition vibes

- Crafting

- The feeling that a lot of side-missions will be pointless busywork

- A character is called PeeBee and seems pretty cringeworthy

- Dodgy animation

- On a more general level, I don't know if BioWare have the chops for the type of game I want anymore, it all looks so safe
Click to expand...

I love the way that fans determine when a company is supposed to release information. Bioware never said they were going to release a ton of information on N7 day. The fans decided that's the day they should release everything and when it didn't happen, got angry and pretended like Bioware somehow tricked them.
 
Exploratory said:
DrCoxWrong.gif

Metacritic has Mass Effect 2 as the 21st best game of all time based on reviews. It's the best Mass Effect game, my personal favorite game all time, and many fans share that sentiment. To be fair it came out in Jan 2010 but my point still stands.

Mass Effect 3 if it had a brilliant ending would probably take that spot. It's just crippled by that terrible ending. It makes up for it with the multiplayer though so there's your great game.
Click to expand...

I thought ME2 was a good game, just not great. I know many people feel much more strongly than I do and that's fine, I don't try to argue them down. If ME:A is as good as ME2 I'll be happy.
 
Diancecht said:
D4qQXLc.gif
Click to expand...

It's not the derpy facial animation that bothers me about this, but the disarm animation. The first thing anyone should do while disarming is point the gun away from you, and grab the person's arm in a way so that they don't have much control over their hands. This does neither, instead the gun ends up pointing towards her abdomen and she grabs the gun holder's wrist. Not to mention how slow it is.
 
The biggest problem Bioware games have is that they build up this big epic idea of creating our own story via the choices that you make throughout most of their games but the problem is that they aren't really giving you choices, they are giving you the illusion of choice.

No matter what you do the villains and the final battles are all the same, you can change who lives/dies (somewhat) but the story is will going to play out exactly the same way no matter what you do. You can be as big of an asshole as you want to be and the story will ultimately play out in the same way only minor things are changed the narrative as a whole continues to go through a linear cycle despite what choices you make and the game is geared much more towards the 'good' or paragon setup and because of that when you play the game trying to be a 'renegade' all the game will let you do is be a jackass you still end up having to go through the story in the exact same way as if you were doing a paragon character its just that the choices you make will effect certain things that SEEM important but actually aren't.

Go back to ME1 and right at the end of the game you make two choices that SEEM huge. To save the council or let them die, then depending on that choice you either get to pick the first representative to join the council or if you let the council die pick who you want to to usher in dominate human council. Before ME2 came out these seemed like HUGE things that would be massively important to the story going forward and how the second game would play out. Is Shepard hated by most of the galaxy for letting the council die and now humanity is in control? What does a human dominated council look like? Those are just a few questions I had thinking about the end of the first game when I played it, I went back and made multiple characters and save files with various different choices among them to see how things would eventually play out in ME2...

It's to bad that NONE OF IT FUCKING MATTERED! Those choices are meaningless they only amount of small dialog changes and effect NOTHING of importance through ME2 or ME3, at best they set up certain flags for events later on but regardless of that in the end the storyline doesn't change. ME2 still plays out exactly the same way regardless of who you pick to be on the council (and its retconned by Me3 with Anderson being back on Earth even if you choose him to be on the council) or if the original council lives or dies.

I wanted to see these choices have a real lasting impact and the ones I mentioned here are just a small part of all of the choices you make throughout these games and many of them should have a HUGE impact on the rest of the series but they amount of virtually nothing besides minor changes that end up making the previous games choices and stories feel completely lack luster. It makes you think that one of the biggest features of these games just doesn't matter and its the main reason I can't go back and replay Bioware games because they are ALL like this. It's a damn shame because if they actually took the time to create a game that actually did these things it would be an epic unlike any other but its not and I'm tired of them talking up the choices you make and how they'll have lasting impacts when they don't.

Granted Bioware isn't the only company that does this and pretty much all of the games with choice in them amount to the same things. I love Witcher 3 and it at least tries to change how the side stories play out but the main game plays out the same way every time no matter what kind of character you're playing but it doesn't bother me as much because Geralt is already a well defined character, Shepard isn't. He's who you want him to be but it doesn't matter who you make your Shepard be, the story is going to play out exactly the same way.

Which is why I can't be excited for Andromeda, because this is going to happen all over again. It doesn't matter if the Paragon/Renegade system is removed the story itself is going to play out exactly the same way every time. It would be one thing if Bioware was at least clear and honest about that but even now they are still hyping up the changes they are making to the choice system when we all know by now that they aren't going to make a game where choice matters because lets be honest, it would cost a ton of money and take a really long fucking time. I get that, I really do but then stop advertising these games again and again like the choices you make impact and change things, because they don't and the ending of ME3 is the perfect representation of this 'illusion' of choice in action.

TLDR: The choices you make in Bioware games don't mean a damn thing and ME:A will be the same and its why I can't get excited for it.

SoRuffShoNuff said:
I love the way that fans determine when a company is supposed to release information. Bioware never said they were going to release a ton of information on N7 day. The fans decided that's the day they should release everything and when it didn't happen, got angry and pretended like Bioware somehow tricked them.
Click to expand...
Dude come the heck on, they hyped up N7 day for MONTHS ahead of time. You hype something up like that then it makes your fans think you have a lot to deliver and they really freaking didn't.
 
DA:I was a terrible game so I'm worried about Andromeda's single player. However, I put like 500+ hours into the ME3 multiplayer so even if the single player sucks I will have the multiplayer.
 
SoRuffShoNuff said:
I love the way that fans determine when a company is supposed to release information. Bioware never said they were going to release a ton of information on N7 day. The fans decided that's the day they should release everything and when it didn't happen, got angry and pretended like Bioware somehow tricked them.
Click to expand...

The thread is asking why people aren't hyped on the game. The post explained why the hype cycle has been underwhelming. It's EA's job to create and capitalize on hype. If they failed to do that and make their fans happy, it's on them.
 
Nostremitus said:
Is the Turian training her? She looks surprised and proud that she disarmed him. Like she'd tried and failed a couple of times before...
Click to expand...

No. She also has two guards right behind her who could shoot her in the back in an instant, so I'm unsure what kind of leverage she gains by disarming that guy.
 
Actually I rewatched this just now and it seems like she does point it away immediately and rather fast, it's just that her body is very stiff while she does it. The gif plays that animation slower than it actually happens in the video btw.

6EJQYrl.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Henkka said:
No. She also has two guards right behind her who could shoot her in the back in an instant, so I'm unsure what kind of leverage she gains by disarming that guy.
Click to expand...

Well it's just a trope for shock value.
Just like how it was unnecessary for that Turian to point the gun at her in the first place because there were already two guards behind her and she was clearly there to talk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Mass Effect Andromeda Actor Says "It Was Done Dirty" By EA And Fans
Opinion Game Dev  2 3
147
452
DonkeyPunchJr replied
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
RTTP  2
92
1K
Ellis replied
Mass Effect modding introduces M3TO - Texture overrides without package edits
20
1K
Teslerum replied
  • Poll
Years later, what is the best Mass Effect game? (With full content/DLCs !)
Opinion Community Poll  2 3
110
933
ZehDon replied
Mass Effect TV show ordered to rewrite scripts and make them "more appealing to non-gamers"
2
62
441
StereoVsn replied
Top Bottom