I Wanted Mass Effect 4 But Got Something Better - Mass Effect: Andromeda Review - MMORPG.com

SBFord

I Wanted Mass Effect 4 But Got Something Better - Mass Effect: Andromeda Review - MMORPG.com

Before I press on to an actual review, I want to ask this. Do you love Mass Effect series as much as I do? Have you re-played the trilogy in preparation to the latest addition to Mass Effect family and fought the urges to get all the spoilers? If so, this review is tailor-made for you. If it cannot be said about you, the review you will find below comes from someone who is somewhat biased towards the series.

Read the full story here

xelrah

Now comes the point I’m surprised to having to address. The Internet’s biggest gripe with the game and the reason for petty witch-hunts: animation. Despite what you might have heard up to now, it is not that bad. Really. Occasionally, there might be a slightly weird facial expression or a stiff look another character gives you, but mostly it is people making a mountain out of molehill. In addition, let me be frank here: if you play(ed) Mass Effect and / or Dragon Age for graphics, you’re doing it wrong.

Except that things like this completely ruin any immersion. Just check that facial expression in dialogue at 38 second +

josko9

I don't even like sci-fi, yet Mass Effect is probably my favourite RPG series of all time. Nobody does story as well as Bioware, not even CDPR (and they are exceptional!).

I have no idea why is there so much hate for Bioware, is it just because they are with EA now? Because honestly all of their games were great, no exceptions. Even the latest DA:Inqusition, which was heavily hated on the internet won quite a lot of GOTY awards.

My biggest gripe with ME:Andromeda are the facial animations, they aren't bad, but neither are they great. When the rest of the game is AMAZING, it's hard to understand why didn't they bother to improve them. Hell they are way better than those in Fallout 4 (which are really bad), yet somehow FO4 is still better than 99% of the games released in this decade.

This is definitively a GOTY material. If 2016 was a pretty disappointing year for gaming (in terms of GOTY contenders, and in general game quality), then 2017 is definitively shaping up to be way better.

rensta

xelrah said:

Now comes the point I’m surprised to having to address. The Internet’s biggest gripe with the game and the reason for petty witch-hunts: animation. Despite what you might have heard up to now, it is not that bad. Really. Occasionally, there might be a slightly weird facial expression or a stiff look another character gives you, but mostly it is people making a mountain out of molehill. In addition, let me be frank here: if you play(ed) Mass Effect and / or Dragon Age for graphics, you’re doing it wrong.

Except that things like this completely ruin any immersion. Just check that facial expression in dialogue at 38 second +

I actually had a ton of laughs watching it, yeah, they did a very bad job, the comparison with the witcher shows that well.

Iselin

"Do you love Mass Effect series as much as I do? Have you re-played the trilogy in preparation to the latest addition to Mass Effect family and fought the urges to get all the spoilers so you can see it all play out in the game itself?"

Yup. That was me. Not only have I spent the past couple of months replaying all the ME games I went on to replay the DA games when I was done with that

Good review. You touched on a lot of the same things I did with my mini preview from the 7 hour mark. The story is very enjoyable as is the combat but the interface and folder nesting is annoying.

"Additionally, due to new “compass” (hello, Elder Scrolls) type navigation and multi-layered locations, it can be frustratingly hard to find exactly what you need to scan."

Yeah I noticed the Elder Scrolls type compass also. I could get used to that since I've played a lot of ES games as well as ESO but their implementation of that system with near identical icons for different things and just 2 colors, white or gold, make it annoying. I often couldn't even tell which were mission objectives and which was my waypoint.

And yes, the facial animations and especially the eyes are occasionally off but it isn't the huge deal some are making it out to be.

Grunty

http://i.imgur.com/qD7bu2I.mp4

http://i.imgur.com/tCYBGVR.gif

BillMurphy

The animation thing is understandable - but why are we OK with Fallout 4 and Dragon Age's same issue and suddenly it's a problem with MEA?

Shelassa

josko9 said:

I have no idea why is there so much hate for Bioware, is it just because they are with EA now? Because honestly all of their games were great, no exceptions. Even the latest DA:Inqusition, which was heavily hated on the internet won quite a lot of GOTY awards.

It seems to be quite fashionable to be hating on BioWare and Blizzard, among others. Any time the companies in question release a new update / DLC / expansion / game the cycle of hate starts anew. Sadly, unlike Reapers, it takes far less than 50,000 years to re-occur. 

Iselin said:

And yes, the facial animations and especially the eyes are occasionally off but it isn't the huge deal some are making it out to be.

I agree with every word. I suppose I would have understood the huge hype people have over animations if previous BioWare games were known to have an amazing quality of them, and Andromeda was a huge let down in that department. But that obviously is not the case. 

klash2def

BillMurphy said:

The animation thing is understandable - but why are we OK with Fallout 4 and Dragon Age's same issue and suddenly it's a problem with MEA?

this. i think people just really love to play witch hunter. I don't let it bother me, its the nature of the INNERNET and i wont lose an inch of sleep or game time because of it. 

SpottyGekko

BillMurphy said:

The animation thing is understandable - but why are we OK with Fallout 4 and Dragon Age's same issue and suddenly it's a problem with MEA?

That's a rhetorical question, surely ?

Lobotomist

Another not sponsored review

Shelassa

Lobotomist said:

Another not sponsored review

If it were sponsored, it would say so.
In the meantime, God forbid a well-known company actually releases a good game with some existing, but not game-breaking flaws, right? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

SBFord

Lobotomist said:

Another not sponsored review

Prove it or stop posting. It's a ridiculous claim.

SpottyGekko

Lobotomist said:

Another not sponsored review

Somebody liked a game that you think is terrible.

They must have been paid to like it, amirite ?

Reizla

BillMurphy said:

The animation thing is understandable - but why are we OK with Fallout 4 and Dragon Age's same issue and suddenly it's a problem with MEA?

I think bad (facial)animations are a huge no-no in this age. But why you're mentioning games that are already 3 years old compared to a brand new one? You'd batter have compared it with Horizon and then see the difference and WHY ME:A's (facial)animations are a no-no

Dragnelus

Mann those facial expressions and animations!!





 

Iselin

klash2def said:

BillMurphy said:

The animation thing is understandable - but why are we OK with Fallout 4 and Dragon Age's same issue and suddenly it's a problem with MEA?

this. i think people just really love to play witch hunter. I don't let it bother me, its the nature of the INNERNET and i wont lose an inch of sleep or game time because of it. 

Not just that. It's also about the newsworthiness of a new release. Attention seekers want to get in on the action in the social networks whether it's a game that interests them or not.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

klash2def

Early reviews this morning:

Gamespot: 6/10
GamesRadar: 3.5 out of 5
IGN: 7.7 /10

I played the EA like SB a super bioware fan.. it wasn't OMG this is amazing but it def not omg this is HORRIBLE. So far what iv'e played is GOOD game. Unlike others I actually like the depth of the crafting system but to be fair, I enjoy crafting in all games that offer it. The crafting in MEA is deeper than a lot of other games but It can be a bit of a treasure hunt trying to find the right resources. The animation does not bother me enough to act like the game is ruined because of it.

The game for me lacks in the story department which is what I enjoy the most about Bioware Games. I think so far the characters i've met seem to be not as "thick" as previous crew members. The way they did conversation is a neat touch but it doesn't really seem to hold any true meaning other than just small talk.. for me at least, like I said i only played the 10 hour thing nothing more. Hopefully it gets better there. Maybe its not fair to compare this crew to Shepards crew but one cant help but draw comparisons. I noticed a lot of the Bioware archetypes as far as companions go, which was welcome but they just don't give me the initial excitement that others like Garus, Jack and Tali gave me.

A lot of the reviews are putting much weight on animations and graphics when really the writing/story is why Bioware fans really play their games. Hell even the SWTOR companions gave me a better initial impression than these guys.. again this is my opinion after 10 hrs so maybe it gets better? For me so far 7.5/10 with weight going to characters/writing Maybe because the overall tone is optimistic (diff for ME) so it just makes everything feel less serious or epic than it actually is.

SBFord

For those bitching about graphics, let's take a look at the Universal Game for Comparison, or UGC, The Witcher 3



The irony runs deeps wouldn't you say?

kitarad

Ciri weirded me out a few times I must say.

PottedPlant22

I thought the animation stuff was pretty bad, but I found myself still enjoying the game. At first I did not like the combat, but started getting into it. Really like the Multiplayer in it, which surprised me. I think the truth is the game is unfinished. My big question is if there's enough actual content to make the game feel like it's worth the investment.

From what I've gotten from other reviews is that the answer is no. Could you shed some light on these points that I've seen?

Side quests are dull, long and unfulfilling, there's no real exploration of the human condition when discussing things with NPCs, the conclusion of the main storyline is not satisfying, not enough to do on the other worlds. One review I think specifically mentioned the bottle thing and said that there wasn't anything like that in Andromeda. Now reading your writeup, I'm wondering if there's some chain dialogue or actions that they missed that you experienced?

On the BSN forums this guy did a review, is a diehard ME fan, he touched on the topics you discussed; but he had an entirely different take on it.
http://bsn.boards.net/thread/5579/vgs-reviewer-answered

Shelassa

PottedPlant22 said:

One review I think specifically mentioned the bottle thing and said that there wasn't anything like that in Andromeda. Now reading your writeup, I'm wondering if there's some chain dialogue or actions that they missed that you experienced?

There are multiple personal quests for each party-member and some for Tempest crew staff that unlock as you progress through the plot points in the story and get to know your companions better. Some of them are touching, some are goofy, but they're worth it. 

Additionally, those quests trigger when you actually speak to your party-members while aboard the Tempest so, perhaps, someone not as keen on chatting things up as I am could have missed them. 

Tofke

8.7...with those cons. No wonder developers put less and less effort in their games when numbers like these are always thrown around.

Just for people who can't work with a scale of 10... 5 is what is called the middle, start using it properly instead of having everything in the high range even with some glaring flaws.

Iselin

Shelassa said:

PottedPlant22 said:

One review I think specifically mentioned the bottle thing and said that there wasn't anything like that in Andromeda. Now reading your writeup, I'm wondering if there's some chain dialogue or actions that they missed that you experienced?

There are multiple personal quests for each party-member and some for Tempest crew staff that unlock as you progress through the plot points in the story and get to know your companions better. Some of them are touching, some are goofy, but they're worth it. 

Additionally, those quests trigger when you actually speak to your party-members while aboard the Tempest so, perhaps, someone not as keen on chatting things up as I am could have missed them. 

I already had a couple of beers with Liam and I'm not even 7 hours in. Suvi also already told me she wants to keep things professional... maybe I should have waited till at least the second time I talked to her?

All those little conversations and interactions are what ME games are all about for me. Those side stories are often better than the main quests.

Maurgrim

Grunty said:

http://i.imgur.com/qD7bu2I.mp4

http://i.imgur.com/tCYBGVR.gif

The first one was epic