Mass Effect: Andromeda

[Rino8]

So disappointed with this, played through the original trilogy almost three times and for the longest time this was a first day buy regardless of what the games criticisms were going to be but it's getting torn apart for the things that I used to love the series for.

Maybe pick it up a year from now but won't be in a rush. Will keep playing through The Witcher until other developers realise that's the standard they should be trying for.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Rino8

[briggaman]

I pre-ordered it and will judge the game for myself. Two hours in and I'm enjoying it. Far from being a masterpiece but I am liking it so far and couldn't care less about the negative reviews. I'm sure the issues will be sorted over time and so far (despite only being early on in the game) I haven't had any issues. I can already see the poor dialogue but it doesn't ruin the game for me. I may come into more issues as time progresses, yet I am sure I will still get plenty of enjoyment out of it to warrant purchasing it. Anyway, my early signs have been pretty good so far. Should be sorted for gaming over the next few months with this, HZD and Overwatch.

[hogso]

One of the devs the other day said on twitter they are considering a patch for aspects of the animation and the character creation tool, as well as 'supporting the game going forward' or, you know, making parts of it less rubbish.

[Risso]

I'm not going to risk it.  Sounds like they've been totally lazy.  They've had ages and a new, more powerful platform to launch it on, so no excuses for turning out half-arsed shit.

[hogso]

2 hours ago, Risso said:

Sounds like they've been totally lazy.  They've had ages and a new, more powerful platform to launch it on, so no excuses for turning out half-arsed shit.

Kinda, it's generally assumed EA forced them to rush it out the door so it could be in the books for the 16/17 financial year.

[Davkaus]

Rush it out the door? They had 5 **** years. That's considerably more than The Witcher 3, which is a larger game, with a smaller budget.

EA may well have put pressure on them to finally release the **** game, but if it was 'rushed', it's all on the studio, not on EA, they may have finally had enough and told them to release it, or else, but after 5 years, it's understandable.

[hogso]

Oh of course the studio should have done a better job given the length of time it was in development for - but it wasn't ready for release despite that length of time, EA needed them to get it out, so they did.

You absolutely can not exonerate EA of blame of their role in it. Should've been pushed back another, what, 3-6 months? It would've been an incredibly brave decision, and basically an admission of 'yeah the game isn't that great', but it worked pretty well for FFXV. 

[Davkaus]

It'd already been pushed back a few times. It's worth noting that EA publicly said they'd be willing to push it back again, if Bioware felt that the game wasn't ready. I'm not aware of any suggestion that Bioware actually asked for more time. Whether that's because they feared the consequences, or if this is just the best they can do...Who knows.

I'm not convinced at all that 3-6 months is anywhere near sufficient to fix the glaring issues with animations. At best they might put a patch out with a slightly better, less jarring algorithm, actually doing the job properly is out of the question at this point, I'd expect.

 

[Wainy316]

I've played about 5 hours (most of which spent walking round talking to people).  Ryder is no Shepard but it's Mass Effecty enough to hold my interest.

[hogso]

Having put a load of hours in today I can comfortably say it's nowhere near being a bad game. I can also comfortably say it's not nearly as good as the trilogy. 

On the facial animation and running animations, when it's bad/noticeable it's terrible, but the rest of the time it's fine. In fact Asari's in particular, I would go so far as to say they actuallylook good. 

A lot of the fears and/or assumptions (delete as appropriate based on preference/experience) that this would be very similar to DA:I are realised. I liked that game for what it was. There's an awful lot of comparisons to be drawn between the DA:I and ME:A and their preceeding games, but that's for another time perhaps. One I will make is that DA:I was always a Ps3 game on Ps4, that shouldn't have been the case with ME:A, as at times it seems that way. 

With all that taken in to account perhaps my suggestion that the game not being ready after 5 years and needing more time being OK was ill thought out - while this isn't a re-skinned DA:I it honestly isn't far off. As such, why it couldn't have been out the door in 3 years max is beyond me. 

Yet I am having fun with it, the story and characters aren't a complete write off after all, and the combat is very refined for a game of this nature. 

A plus and a minus I haven't really seen elsewhere; I read before release the Nomad is a big improvement on the Mako and good to use. This is false. It can be a right shit. The integration of the multiplayer in the single player campaign is really good, and an incredible improvement on that of ME3. 

Quite simply, if you didn't play the original trilogy, and aren't a Bioware mark, I think this is pushing an 8.

It's failings can't be overlooked if did or are though, so it's probably a 6.

So tl;dr, 7/10, maybe. 

Edited March 25, 2017 by hogso

[Wainy316]

I don't know what everyone's problem is, it's just a Mass Effect game.  Never going to reach the heights of 2 but perfectly enjoyable.

[hogso]

 

[Chindie]

That's a very snide way it teasing some DLC

[hogso]

One would hope the intention is similar to that of the free ME3 DLC that beefed up the ending somewhat. It won't be something that is going to fix all the quibbles, but should at least that makes an improvement.

Or on the other hand they might just release some more multiplayer maps and award everyone one of those loot box things as an apology

[jon_c]

5 hours ago, hogso said:

 

How about just play testing your games properly before releasing them.

[villa89]

3 hours ago, jon_c said:

How about just play testing your games properly before releasing them.

This. What are they going to announce? We're sorry we released a half arsed game so here's some free skins and a new ship that took us two days to knock together. They should be announcing a partial refund for releasing a partially finished product. 

Yet another example of why pre-ordering is madness. 

[hogso]

Hate to break it to you guys, but the game isn't broken. Some animation is utter shite, the dialogue and story are rubbish frequently, and the quality of side quests/mainline story quests varies wildly...but the way you're making out is that this was an unplayable mess upon release, which simply isn't true. 

[jon_c]

I didn't mean it was broken, but some companies play through their games before releasing (even delaying them), just to make sure they are actually good.

I think Persona 5 was originally meant to be out in 2014. Rockstar delay their games all the time. I'd rather it be late and good, than a standard EA or Ubisoft half ass. 

[Risso]

2 hours ago, hogso said:

Hate to break it to you guys, but the game isn't broken. Some animation is utter shite, the dialogue and story are rubbish frequently, and the quality of side quests/mainline story quests varies wildly...but the way you're making out is that this was an unplayable mess upon release, which simply isn't true. 

I don't think that's the problem most people have though.  For me, it's the fact that Mass Effect 2 is up there as one of THE best games ever, on any platform.  Everything about it was glorious.  I don't want to besmirch its memory by playing something that's only half as good.

[hogso]

I agree with you both and have said pretty much the same as what you both have earlier in this very thread. I suggested that it should have been given more time for myriad reasons, but it wasn't allowed to have had due to EA needing it in the books for financial year 16/17. The counter point to that is, they had enough time to make a game that was at least on par with ME1, whereas what we actually have is definitely the worst ME game.

I don't really care who takes the blame for the game not being as good as we all had hoped it would be. The fact is it isn't, if you don't want to play the game for that reason that's probably a smart choice given we're experiencing one of the best periods of gaming ever at the moment.

At least they're going to partly try and make it better - to what degree we'll find out next week, at which time we can berate or applaud the devs. If we use the change they made to ME3's ending following feedback from the player as an example though, I'm at the very least hopeful that what ever they patch / release as free DLC will improve the game as it currently stands. Lest we forget that they followed ME3's release with, well, yeah, my favourite DLC ever - Citadel. If you were to say to me 'well hang on, all of that good content and fixes should have been included straight away upon release', I would agree, but I also accept that that isn't how the gaming industry works anymore. Does that make it OK? No. Does it make a good case for buying a game you want to play 6+ months after release instead of pre-ordering? Sure it does. It's a decision I'm happy with making more often than not by buying a game on release, knowing what the consequences might be. I think it's way too late for the gamers really aggreived by this to do anything about it, sadly. Publishers know the masses will buy the game on day one regardless, especially one that is a sequel to a much loved franchise.

I'm going off way on a tangent here, and it's a discussion for elsewhere, but the mention above of Persona 5 is relevant. It's a bit of a freak game nowadays in that it's been out in Japan for months, so we should get the 100% polished, final, true edition of that game. Maybe minus a few translation issues. Then again, Atlus are bound to release a new version of the game in 1yr - 18 months time as they did do with P3 and P4, not as DLC, but as a whole new game. So no dev is perfect.