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

B1gbeard said:
I only finished it recently and really loved it overall and this was playing straight after ME1 and ME2 (just playing ME3 now). It loses that tight mission, story, mission story element of the originals but I enjoyed the openness of it. I didn't even miss the original cast at all really when using Drack, Peebee and Vetra for example (the humans are awful though).

It was enlightening playing them all at the same time as many of the criticisms leveled at MEA are also blatantly abundant in the original games. The awkward pauses in conversations that shouldn't be there, really bad facial issues, conversations where the camera throws a fit and you can't see anyone who is talking, the writing being really no better etc. MEA is a newer game using better tech but it's funny how these problems only seem to become a problem in Andromeda but didn't put people off of the originals.

I think we now almost seem programmed to hate something that is a new game/film etc rebooting an older much loved franchise because many of the issues in MEA are also obvious in the originals.
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I'm at around 22 hours now and I'm still really enjoying it. I've noticed a little more in the way of janky conversations (for example Ryder has ended the last few conversations with Peebee identically even though there were new dialogue options within those conversations) but as you say that kind of thing was in the original games too and those are still immensely enjoyable.

Andromeda also has some nice quality of life improvements compared with ME1-3. Planet scanning is quicker and smoother (galaxy map is beautiful too), movement and shooting in general feel better, frame rate has been rock solid at 1080p fully maxed whereas I could never fully cure stuttering on ME1 or ME2 on PC (I knew there was no point in trying 4K for MEA but it looks gorgeous on my VT65 in 1080p), saving is very quick, the mission lists are better laid out than the older games (ME3 was really bad for that), and it goes on.

As much as I loved Horizon Zero Dawn (10/10 for me, my current second-favourite game of the year after Zelda), that had some awkward conversations too and some awful lip-syncing at times. Human faces in Horizon are much better than Andromeda but the aliens look great and many of the environments in Andromeda are stunning.

People do seem more inclined to hate things lately, but all that matters to me is that I'm thoroughly enjoying my time with the game and I'm very happy they put out the trial to hook me in! I had it pre-ordered but cancelled when the first reviews/user feedback came in, so I've saved £15 and benefited from the months of patches while playing a bunch of other great games - win-win!
 
Gave it one last go a few days ago. Sat down with a beer for a 3 hour session, got 45 minutes in and just couldn't be bothered. Endlessly dull quests with poorly written characters. I don't understand how they thought the Kett could ever be seen as an intriguing antagonist.

Such a shame :(
 
The Kett were just like a poor mans reaper. Painted as technologically superior and above all life but without any of the mystery or grandiose that the reapers had.

The Archon was almost like a Disney villian too. Certainly no Harbinger.
 
MooMoo444 said:
The Kett were just like a poor mans reaper. Painted as technologically superior and above all life but without any of the mystery or grandiose that the reapers had.

The Archon was almost like a Disney villian too. Certainly no Harbinger.
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And Sovereign was a lot more interesting than Harbinger in terms of writing but that doesn't make ME2 a bad game. I think we all went into this initially expecting it to topple the original but it was never going to happen. It's rare that sequels or reboots top the stuff before.
 
Given its currently on free 10 hour play + half price offer heh says it all - not things EA would do if they could avoid it.
 
FredFlint said:
I like this game, might be because I never played the other Mass Effect games so did not expect it to be the best thing ever.
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You'll probably find that there are a lot of people, more than not, that played the originals and enjoyed this as well. I think it's just that there is a game played out in threads like these where people who hate it or want to hate it always have to leave the thread on a negative. Any positive comment must immediately be followed by a negative even if it's the 100th time they've said they hate the game. It's all about leaving the thread on a negative. Almost obsessive compulsive. :D
 
ME:A is not a terrible game, it's a slightly below average game that despite giving some enjoyment was quite clearly shipped half arsed by by a developer and publisher that people already have negative feelings towards.

I'm actually quite surprised at how little real vitriol it's actually received, let's not forget how rampantly frothing at the mouth many people where simply due to the ending of Mass Effect 3. It's also not helped that people are getting fed up with shoddy practices and failed promises within the games industry on the whole. Maybe if companies had spent more of the past 10 years listening to feedback rather then coming up with as many ways to milk fans out of their money for as little work as possible the backlash wouldn't be as bad.

And for the record I enjoyed the first play through overall, bar two bugged quests I completed everything and I don't feel my time was wasted. But that being said unlike the first three games I can't ever see myself playing through it again. The vastly improved combat and in many cases very pretty graphics can't hide the boring story, bad writing, paper thin exploration and bland characters, which are normally the pillars that keep most Bioware games standing strong.
 
Well I finished it last weekend, with 62 hours played and 95% completion - I only had a few of the more fetch-quest style tasks left unfinished. I didn't encounter any significant bugs. I still don't understand the hate as I really loved my time with the game and I genuinely feel that it has moved past Horizon Zero Dawn to become my second-favourite game of 2017 so far (with Breath of the Wild as my number 1.) Sure it had flaws, but I can't think of a game that doesn't. For a little more context for my tastes, these are the other games I've played for the first time this year that I also thought were particularly good but not in my top 3:

Bloodborne (50 hours played, beat the game once and started the DLC but struggling on NG+)
Titanfall 2 (campaign completed, a bit of MP)
RE7 (one play through of the campaign)
Final Fantasy VII (used the cheats to speed up progression, finished in a little over 20 hours)
Final Fantasy X (50 hours played, started using the cheats towards the end as I didn't want to grind)
Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 (KH2 was my favourite)
Dark Souls 1 (12 hours played, plan to go back to it soon)
Overwatch (only played a few hours so far but plan to go back to)
Dirt Rally (about 1/4 of the way through the career so far)
Hitman (2 episodes completed so far)

Clearly a lot of people didn't enjoy Andromeda, but it was a very pleasant surprise for me and I'm really happy I gave it a chance! If it really was effectively developed in just 18 months then I think that's very impressive, and I think if it had been given another 6 months for polish it would have been received very differently.
 
MooMoo444 said:
The Kett were just like a poor mans reaper. Painted as technologically superior and above all life but without any of the mystery or grandiose that the reapers had.

The Archon was almost like a Disney villian too. Certainly no Harbinger.
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I never finished MEA so I didn't get to see too much of the Archon - but damn, if he's even more pantomime than Harbinger, that's saying something... :eek: Especially as I consider Harbinger to be the most ridiculous pantomime villain in the entire franchise who helped to ruin ME2 with its unbelievably cheesy lines of dialogue and battlefield presence.
 
I'm always surprised at the negative comments ME2 sometimes gets. I thought that with all the DLC (especially Shadow Broker) it was the best overall experience of the series - just edging ahead of the first by a whisker. The only ridiculous part for me was the humanoid reaper.

Can't beat that sense of wonder ME1 creates, though.
 
Narj said:
I'm always surprised at the negative comments ME2 sometimes gets. I thought that with all the DLC (especially Shadow Broker) it was the best overall experience of the series - just edging ahead of the first by a whisker. The only ridiculous part for me was the humanoid reaper.

Can't beat that sense of wonder ME1 creates, though.
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ME2 is the best western RPG of all time. :truth:
 
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