A week of playtime is nowhere near enough to fully review sprawling galactic epic.
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Early review: Mass Effect: Andromeda is Dragon Age: Inquisition in space
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Probably not. I remember in ME3 ammo was rare enough that I had to carefully switch between weapons so that I could maximize the ammo pick up at the end of fights. It also makes me think that the switch back to ammo magazines was to more easily tune fights. In ME1, there was no way you could lose a fight if you had a well-protected position. On the flip-side, in ME3 it meant that the various powers became super-critical as they were the only thing that was infinite supply.
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Yeah, nobody even knows how to build a mass relay and I'm not sure how big the Ark ships are, but you probably couldn't fit one on one anyway.
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For me, I always wanted ME4 to combine the giant-universe atmosphere of ME1, the character development of ME2, and the fluid combat mechanics of ME3. As disappointed as I am with the classic-for-EA day-one issues, I'm tentatively excited that ME:A at least attempts to deliver on that formula.
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I don't like forced gender, I prefer choice. For me it's a matter of immersion. I strongly identify with my gender and I can't get into a game being
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Now that's a detail that would depend on the ending of ME3, eh?
Shoot the starchild in the face and the answer is "no, because there's no alliance". Fully save the Geth and the answer is probably "yes, because the folks who actually built it are fully on our team now"... but possibly "no, because red/green/blue space whammy from firing the crucible messed it all up". And there's answers in between.
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You can get over the fact that you're playing as a space adventurer in the far future who has skills and personality totally unlike you in real life, who comes back from the dead, who has his own spaceship, and has cybernetic implants that let you levitate and throw objects and create black holes with your mind...but a character that pees out of different parts than you (in a game where nobody pees regardless) is a bridge too far?
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I don't know, I'm with Flit here. Yes, there's a certain amount of "well, if this didn't happen, there wouldn't be a story to tell" plot-driving inherent in the setup of any story like this, but flawed characters aren't automatically lazy writing.
You know what I liked best about Stargate: Atlantis? Even moreso than the other shows in the franchise, the characters on Atlantis made some spectacularly bad decisions throughout the course of the series, and every single one of them came back to bite them on the ass in a major way. A good number of the problems faced on the show were completely self-created. And it worked, (a) because, as I said, there were consequences to those bad decisons, and (b) because people are human and do make bad, short-sighted, this-will-all-end-in-ruin decisions. As much as it obviously served to create conflict and drive the plot, that still didn't make it any less realistic and believable all the same.
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Yeah. But those kinds of oversights seem less Stargate Atlantis-y and more Prometheus-y.
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To be fair, there are people that try to customize their characters to look as much like them as possible and act as they do.
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Yes, however it is bizarre to see some of the same issues of ME1 being brought to this game, like the interface. And it is bizarre to see them completely take away party control.
In a more broad sense, though, ME1 was NOT some sort of proto-Dragon Age Inquisition. Yes, it had the Mako, but the game was not built around driving in huge planets scanning trees or whatever. That ended up being barely tolerable filler, although I suppose it gave the game a larger scope. So even if one prefers ME1, I'm not sure Andromeda will be satisfying.
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Oh thank you, I couldn't think of a good comparison to use for the type of narrative shenanigans that I've experienced through the first 10 hours of the game. This is spot on.
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Might have something to do with the game not being out? How can people critique an unreleased game? So the gossip focused on other things, and people saw some pretty ugly attitudes from the developers and raised concerns.
Yeah, I read a review of the first few hours. Brand new alien galaxy. Aaaaand you;re shooting humanoid aliens again. You can forgive something like Star Trek where they have budget constraints, but video games have had plenty to truly alien looking and acting creatures for many year.
Everything that moves does not have to have romantic potential, Bioware. Besides, I'm still with Garrus.
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As someone who really wanted to enjoy the Mass Effect series, but couldn't (I love the sci fi setting/world, but the mechanics of the game bugged me); and as someone who is loving DA:I very much ... I think this new Andromeda game might just be PERFECT.
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Thanks for the honest review! As a huge, longtime Mass Effect fan (N7 coffee mug & t-shirt included), I was really on the fence about this one. Especially so after reading some of the iffy first impressions. Now I feel more confident about (maybe) pre-ordering. I very much enjoyed DA:I despite some of the more...questionable design decisions.
Honestly, I didn't need ME:A to be amazing. I just needed it to not be terrible. Some of the prerelease reviews/impressions have been so dire that I was afraid it might be. You've set my mind at rest. Thanks Ars!
Honestly, I didn't need ME:A to be amazing. I just needed it to not be terrible. Some of the prerelease reviews/impressions have been so dire that I was afraid it might be. You've set my mind at rest. Thanks Ars!
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Loved ME trilogy. Maxed out all achievements, quests, storylines, etc.
Couldn't stand Dragon Age: Inquisition. Horrible game.
Thusly, based on the intro to this review...I am worried.
Couldn't stand Dragon Age: Inquisition. Horrible game.
Thusly, based on the intro to this review...I am worried.
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The shenanigans that lead up the trouble in Atlantis happened all because of the worse case scenario. They were familiar with the Ancients, their biology, and environmental conditions. So they confirmed everything was good on the other side. They saw the facility had power. And saw there was no immediate danger so they went though. Only after a couple hours after did they realize the power was almost out. As for things that happened later, Stargate personal are a mix of military and researchers. Usually when things went wrong, either the research personal were saying not to do something, or the military personal were saying not to do something (or Ronon just did something).
Prometheus was suppose to be a scientific expedition that was funded. You'd think every part of the trip, they landing, and the study would have carefully laid out plans and tons of contingencies. But there were none, just push every button and stick your face in every alien looking pod.
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A lot of the negative prerelease reviews have focused on poorly-done facial animations and movement animations. While there unquestionably was some seriously botched work on this front, those aren't make-or-break issues for me in an action RPG.
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Based only on "it's DA:I in space", that would be fair. My comparison to ME1 is not based on the "strike team" thing, which I regard as the main way in which Andromeda matches Inquisition. It's instead...
Let me give you an example.
You've got an inventory, and are constantly picking up items. More than you can use. Sometimes, so many that you have trouble managing them. So, what do you do? You can either save them until you find a vendor to sell them for currency, or you can break them down for components to use for other things.
Now, in ME1, you could only break them down into omni-gel, which let you bypass hacking. In ME:A, you break them down into things like aluminum and eezo, which you can then use in crafting. But, do you at least see what I mean when I say it feels like a return to the original's roots?
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This is entirely off-topic, but... I'm talking about later, course-of-the-story things, like creating "Michael" (Trip Tucker). That's the one that sticks out most in my mind. Not split-second decision-making, but planned, deliberate actions that were just terrible, terrible ideas. Because people sometimes really do have bad ideas that turn out badly.
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And the problem with that is..?[/quote]
I thought you'd never ask! I don't like playing as a girl in games that are made for males, which to me are action games with lots of killing. There's a reason you don't see Barbies with ak47's or G.I. Joe's with a hairbrush. Boys and girls play differently, something a lot of video game developers have forgotten[/quote]
Oh get over yourself and your forced gender roles. My seven-year-old likes stuffed animals as well as his Halo toys, and pink is one of this top three favorite colors. So fucking what?
And one of his Halo action figures is Spartan Olympia Vale, and he has zero problem/confusion with the fact that she has lady parts under her armor instead of man parts. Because, after all, when we're playing with Halo action figures, we're not talking about genitals, we're talking about defeating the Covenant.[/quote]
I don't like forced gender, I prefer choice. For me it's a matter of immersion. I strongly identify with my gender and I can't get into a game being[/quote]
You can get over the fact that you're playing as a space adventurer in the far future who has skills and personality totally unlike you in real life, who comes back from the dead, who has his own spaceship, and has cybernetic implants that let you levitate and throw objects and create black holes with your mind...but a character that pees out of different parts than you (in a game where nobody pees regardless) is a bridge too far?[/quote]
To be fair, there are people that try to customize their characters to look as much like them as possible and act as they do.[/quote] to be honest I like making characters as ugly as possible because A) it makes me feel better about myself and B) there are too many square jawed studs in games and not enough no chinned ones
I thought you'd never ask! I don't like playing as a girl in games that are made for males, which to me are action games with lots of killing. There's a reason you don't see Barbies with ak47's or G.I. Joe's with a hairbrush. Boys and girls play differently, something a lot of video game developers have forgotten[/quote]
Oh get over yourself and your forced gender roles. My seven-year-old likes stuffed animals as well as his Halo toys, and pink is one of this top three favorite colors. So fucking what?
And one of his Halo action figures is Spartan Olympia Vale, and he has zero problem/confusion with the fact that she has lady parts under her armor instead of man parts. Because, after all, when we're playing with Halo action figures, we're not talking about genitals, we're talking about defeating the Covenant.[/quote]
I don't like forced gender, I prefer choice. For me it's a matter of immersion. I strongly identify with my gender and I can't get into a game being[/quote]
You can get over the fact that you're playing as a space adventurer in the far future who has skills and personality totally unlike you in real life, who comes back from the dead, who has his own spaceship, and has cybernetic implants that let you levitate and throw objects and create black holes with your mind...but a character that pees out of different parts than you (in a game where nobody pees regardless) is a bridge too far?[/quote]
To be fair, there are people that try to customize their characters to look as much like them as possible and act as they do.[/quote] to be honest I like making characters as ugly as possible because A) it makes me feel better about myself and B) there are too many square jawed studs in games and not enough no chinned ones
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"DA:I, but Mass Effect" sounds good to me. I really enjoyed Inquisition, and thought it was a return to form for the series, after the intensely disappointing DA2. I didn't find the "MMO style" quests annoying at all, and thought that criticism was a bit over-played.
I also wasn't terribly worried about the facial animations, as long as they were fine most of the time. I'd obviously prefer they be good across the board, but the faces in the previous games were all stiff and goofy from time to time. Picking out the egregious moments and making GIFs out of them, does not move me one way or another. For some of them, it just seems like they need to tweak the animations to "close" their eyes slightly more (Addison in particular seems to have a permanent look of shock on her face), and tone down the "glassy" reflective-ness of the eyeballs themselves.
I was more concerned about the persistent mentions of the writing quality during the first few hours being pretty atrocious. I can deal with some sophomoric writing, but don't want to be rolling my eyes or actively hating characters I'm not supposed to hate.
Animations for planet scanning just sound like a design oversight, and should be easily patch-able post-release to be able to skip them.
This game seems very divisive. I've seen reviews in major publications, ranging anywhere from an 85% to a 60%. I haven't been spooked into ditching my pre-order, but I will be heartbroken if the game is just a dull slog, as I absolutely love the Mass Effect universe.
I also wasn't terribly worried about the facial animations, as long as they were fine most of the time. I'd obviously prefer they be good across the board, but the faces in the previous games were all stiff and goofy from time to time. Picking out the egregious moments and making GIFs out of them, does not move me one way or another. For some of them, it just seems like they need to tweak the animations to "close" their eyes slightly more (Addison in particular seems to have a permanent look of shock on her face), and tone down the "glassy" reflective-ness of the eyeballs themselves.
I was more concerned about the persistent mentions of the writing quality during the first few hours being pretty atrocious. I can deal with some sophomoric writing, but don't want to be rolling my eyes or actively hating characters I'm not supposed to hate.
Animations for planet scanning just sound like a design oversight, and should be easily patch-able post-release to be able to skip them.
This game seems very divisive. I've seen reviews in major publications, ranging anywhere from an 85% to a 60%. I haven't been spooked into ditching my pre-order, but I will be heartbroken if the game is just a dull slog, as I absolutely love the Mass Effect universe.
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As a big fan of the ME trilogy, I have become increasingly nervous about ME:A (which I've preordered) in recent days. After reading this review and the comments here, I've almost talked myself off the ledge. I haven't played it yet, but at this point I'm looking forward to jumping in.
I can accept some rough edges (which should be obvious if I was prepared to love all of the previous games). Some of the issues I've seen online with character models / animations / facial presets, etc. are pretty horrifying, and could point to some combination of poor resourcing and/or politicized design choices on the part of Bioware Montreal. Maybe some of that will be fixed, but I'm hopeful that it doesn't get in the way of enjoying the game itself.
Perhaps the two most concerning things I've read about are: 1) the inability to spec out / load out your squadmates, and 2) the lack of the ability to "pause time" during firefights.
I'll reserve judgement on how these factors ultimately shape the combat gameplay, but it's hard to see how they'll be an improvement. I can't imagine how I would have been able to get through the ME2 insanity run (for instance) with out those two features (and it was frustrating enough as it stood).
I can accept some rough edges (which should be obvious if I was prepared to love all of the previous games). Some of the issues I've seen online with character models / animations / facial presets, etc. are pretty horrifying, and could point to some combination of poor resourcing and/or politicized design choices on the part of Bioware Montreal. Maybe some of that will be fixed, but I'm hopeful that it doesn't get in the way of enjoying the game itself.
Perhaps the two most concerning things I've read about are: 1) the inability to spec out / load out your squadmates, and 2) the lack of the ability to "pause time" during firefights.
I'll reserve judgement on how these factors ultimately shape the combat gameplay, but it's hard to see how they'll be an improvement. I can't imagine how I would have been able to get through the ME2 insanity run (for instance) with out those two features (and it was frustrating enough as it stood).
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You're right about this, but I suggest resisting the temptation to quote the troll any further. Just downvote them into oblivion. They can't even quote a post properly without butchering it FFS.
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To be totally clear, the GamerGate/"Men's Right Advocate" argument that the person in charge of the facial animations on Mass Effect: Andromeda was a woefully-unqualified woman chosen solely for the role solely due to political correctness reasons, and that's why the animations suck so bad...it just isn't true. It's "alternative facts." It's Pizzagate. It's a completely false narrative being pushed for culture-war reasons.
EA doesn't need a reason to have a broken product on day one. It's just how they roll. And I'm saying this as someone who actually really likes several EA franchises.
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Am I the only one who remembers the Salarian commandos assaulting the Krogan cloning facility in Mass Effect 1?
Captain Kirrahe
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Their ark was delayed (ME:A2? DLC?) and includes other species as well - Drell, Hanar, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuywJ_EISTE
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Thanks, Pre-Order cancelled.
I don't need to play another game that has a bunch of boring fetch and kill quests, lame characters, lame plot, bad character models, and heavy progressive propaganda sprinkled on top.
I will remember Mass Effect from when it was great, when Shepard was a total dick and Miranda had the best ass in the galaxy, and that galaxy was the one we were in and that made it actually matter!
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Hanar didn't need an entire Ark. Just Blasto, plenty of thermal clips, and a couple female Hanar of his choosing in a small pod. He'd colonize and populate an entire world.
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I actually started to dislike Tali, after Legion showed up. The Quarians went from being unfortunate victims of their own technology in ME1, to arrogant jerks who wanted to extinguish an emerging intelligence, and basically caused their own downfall with ignorance born of fear.
It obviously ends in a hopeful place by the end of the trilogy, but I thought having Legion around showed an uglier side of Tali and the Quarians. Made her more well-rounded of a character too, but less uniformly likable.
"Does this unit have a soul?"
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This is an actual thing going around? God I'm glad I'm too old to be bothered reading whatever detritus is circulating around reddit.
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It's become so prevalent on the seedy underbelly of the internet that Bioware had to issue an official response.
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I don't know of any BioWare game (Ever? Maybe Planescape Torment?) that didn't give players this binary choice. There was, as everyone already knew, zero chance that players would not get to choose a male or female protagonist in this game. At this point they should probably be adding more than two options, but that is a totally unrelated conversation so I'll just put a pin in that for now.
Anyway: It's almost like you brought it up totally out of nowhere to pretend like you had a point. Get off the cross.
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I sexually identify as a Boeing AH-64 Apache and I demand the option to play as one.I don't know of any BioWare game (Ever? Maybe Planescape Torment?) that didn't give players this binary choice. There was, as everyone already knew, zero chance that players would not get to choose a male or female protagonist in this game. At this point they should probably be adding more than two options, but that is a totally unrelated conversation so I'll just put a pin in that for now.
Anyway: It's almost like you brought it up totally out of nowhere to pretend like you had a point. Get off the cross.
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Incoming lawsuit from Hanar Anti-Defamation League in 3 ... 2 ... 1...
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And brilliantly-written throwaway lines like that are why I keep coming back to these games.
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Bioware games have always been bad, clunky messes full of technical issues, but were redeemed by having some decent writers on the staff who made you overlook the games flaws. They were the one and only game dev studio who could write worth a damn, not great but better than the high school level writing employed by other game companies. Now folks have moved on and they don't even have that.
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