****MASS EFFECT : ANDROMEDA****

JGBR said:
I will admit that I am a huge loyal fan of the ME franchise.

About 40 hours in to MEA:

There's something just not right about this game, depth of story, polish, and all of it feeds into a subtle feeling that for all the hype it's not that great. The ME story line has always been about story over visuals, even in max settings graphics are a mixed bag. Immersiveness of an RPG has been abandoned here more due to issues & focus on being a shooter than keeping to the successful mix of the previous triology.The writing in this feels more fan story, but that would be an insult to some awesome fan fiction. The writing is very forced, with huge disparity between characters, all of it lacking the subtle world building of the previous trilogy. In MEA visuals range from pre-ME1 to beautiful [a great shame that one moment at ultra settings its gorgeous and within seconds you have sub par graphics, efforts show on planets and the tempest but elsewhere its shockinkly distracting, including the animations], voice acting is clunky [on the verge of cringeworthy] and you'll be compelled to skip some conversations, the open world doesn't work a as invisioned at implentation and plenty of bugs. The menu systems and lack of quick save add to to the lack of polish and feel of a game console import, quicksave and lack of mini map becomes mind numbling annoying. MEA just feels awkward or forced. It almost seems ambition and reality of timeline in dev didn't work out. Also you can rush through this game and I think they should have stopped that or discourage it more as was found in ME2. In its simplist form you can get a real difference by listening to the ME1 Soundtrack against the MEA one. You kind of just get a 'meh' feeling. I think over time and progression, even if the main antagonist storyline improves, much of the detractors start to really grind, wear you down and get bored. There are hints of issues in the 'real world' appearing at times.

I've tired to keep an open mind that this is a new storyline and to give it a chance but in real terms this doesn't feel like 5 years of dev or classic bioware. If this is a start of new trilogy they have no option but to follow up quickly with a MEA2 and sort it out as many will feel that lack of wanting more as was found with ME1. Many wanted it to be more similar to ME1, but the genuius of ME one was polish, critical storyline and a moderated open world, this had not been achived in MEA. Some may even call it DAI in space. Its hard to bond with characters or even be that fussed with the storyline and sometimes events, plots and quests seem a drag or no real placement in the context they are set. You get quickly overloaded with fruitless side quests of no meaning or little relevancy. Loyalty missions reguarly have little to do with the team mate and youve hardly got to the stage of feeling any loyalty to them. As we can see from reviews, it's not bad, it's not great but 'neutral', a mixed bag which I think is the worst kind. Many of the old team left bioware and the ME franchise and random people bought in, and it shows. It lacks the maturity of ME1 and worst out of the 4, it certainty will be amongst biowares lesser titles. We all accept some bugs and issues but MEA sits on the dangerous grey area which has split the gaming community. A remaster of ME1-3 would have made some happier. Do I feel gripped to play this or rushing back to play it again or continue it from day to day life and work, no. This is a signficant difference to ME1-3.

In all it's a mixed bag and for many it will be the overall feeling of the game. My gut feeling so far is disappointment but most of all it lacks 'soul'.

Give it it ago, but be prepared. Many will feel they would have wanted to face the reapers than run away to andromeda. What a shame we had to wait 5 years to find out.
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From what you just said, not only is this not worth the money, but even given free it is not worth the time. I went from potentially pick it up in sale to not bothering at all.

I don't understand how they can spend all that time and money and end up coming up with what they have. Why not just look at what made the original ME great and improve up on that? :(
 
TNA said:
From what you just said, not only is this not worth the money, but even given free it is not worth the time. I went from potentially pick it up in sale to not bothering at all.

I don't understand how they can spend all that time and money and end up coming up with what they have. Why not just look at what made the original ME great and improve up on that? :(
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I can, if the budget of $40m is correct, does this include marketing? In the last month or two they would have spent millions on advertising for it.

For me i wont be buying it at the moment as story is high on my priority list with games like this. I might pick it up in 6 months time after its been patched up and dropped in price. From what i haven seen over the last week it will probably sell reasonably well and only needs to sell 800,000 units at full retail price to make back its $40m budget which for a game like this should be possible. I just hope Bioware / EA take on board all this criticism and try to do it right next time
 
Cold Fusion said:
I can, if the budget of $40m is correct, does this include marketing? In the last month or two they would have spent millions on advertising for it.

For me i wont be buying it at the moment as story is high on my priority list with games like this. I might pick it up in 6 months time after its been patched up and dropped in price. From what i haven seen over the last week it will probably sell reasonably well and only needs to sell 800,000 units at full retail price to make back its $40m budget which for a game like this should be possible. I just hope Bioware / EA take on board all this criticism and try to do it right next time
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I'm not convinced patching and DLC will solve it. Although I heard there wont be any DLC at such [yeah right!]. The game mechanics and core animation issues are so deep in the system/engine I do not see how patching will solve it.
 
If you're of a gentle disposition, then don't watch this clip.

It contains graphic violence like you've never seen before.

Bioware had their most skilled graphic artists, designers and writers work on this.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

 
Well ive finished the main storyline with a few loyalty missions and side missions.

Conclusion: its a weak offering, on normal its very easy to beat, lacks orginality, lines up MEA2. Rather large plot/narrative holes. Mixed bag of good and bad, some of it you could sleep through, end cut scenes didnt give the ME goosebumps [soundtrack is weak]. Just felt very generic. Cant decide if it was worth 5 years of dev or wait.

MEA2 maybe the only way to save it...how convienent!

What will save this game will be 'oh it's new galaxy so allow them to set it up and wait MEA2....really? No it's far weaker than ME1 which had a far bigger task and seriously did anyone QA this?'

Just 'meh' or an attitude in bioware of 'that will do, or thats good enough'.

Long may the legacy of ME1-3 last. Miss you Shepard.
 
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JGBR said:
Well ive finished the main storyline with a few loyalty missions and side missions.

Conclusion: its a weak offering, on normal its very easy to beat, lacks orginality, lines up MEA2. Rather large plot/narrative holes. Mixed bag of good and bad, some of it you could sleep through, end cut scenes didnt give the ME goosebumps. Just felt very generic. Cant decide if it was wroth 5 years of dev or wait.

Just 'meh' or an attitude in bioware of 'that will do, or thats good enough'.

Long may the legacy of ME1-3 last. Miss you Shepard.
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I get most of your criticism but saying the game is too easy on normal difficulty is pretty much the same for every game and the reason there is extra difficulty options.
 
Heisenberg said:
I get most of your criticism but saying the game is too easy on normal difficulty is pretty much the same for every game and the reason there is extra difficulty options.
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They call normal 'classic expereince' then there is easy and narrative. Whatever that means! lol
 
A workmate of mine has got about 10 hours in to this and told me it's a 6/10 game in his opinion. Combat is the best of the franchise apparently.

He wasn't aware about all the fuss being kicked up regarding animations or unsavoury staff members and is a huge ME fan so I'm inclined to take that at face value.
 
Loving full biotics build with crafted n7 armour shields never drop and pull charge combo is crazy fun fully auged ultra rare smg and crafted sword is mega fun for being a tank with vanguard build too... about 30 hours in and only on 2nd planet :)

Playing on hard core difficulty
 
Kelt said:
If you're of a gentle disposition, then don't watch this clip.

It contains graphic violence like you've never seen before.

Bioware had their most skilled graphic artists, designers and writers work on this.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Click to expand...

While watching this, I had the feeling watching a cut scene from SWTOR!!!!!
Par the graphics the atmosphere felt exactly the same. :/

Shame SWTOR doesn't have such great gfx, I would still playing it.
 
Just watched the above clip and a few others on YT. The VO is horrific. Laughably so. I'd love to know what criteria they use when deciding who to employ, because honestly, I could do better.
 
"Overlord Morda" sounds like he's about to say "Oh you brute!" and run off sobbing. What the actual?! What a fabulous Krogan.

I'll stick with playing through ME2 and hope that was temporary voice over for animation that they forgot to replace.
 
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