Mass Effect Series
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Kuja9001
Ooooh Salty!
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- roxas9001, Krat0s9001, DarkSlayerZero
Lex
Administrator
Right then.
I'll try and tailor this to aspects of Mass Effect we all know and love so that people might glean the things they want to glean.
Gameplay->Movement
Character movement feels excellent - it's similar to Inquisition in that you can get a bit "caught" on the environment but it's a welcome update from the original trilogy. When you're not in combat gear you miss the ability to jump. Oh jumping, hovering, boosting with your jetpack. It feels excellent.
Gameplay->Combat
This is where the movement really shines. There's a shitload of detail I won't have time to go into but if people have specific questions on anything feel free to ask. The usual powers are there and you're free from the start to access most of them (some are locked off with "spend X in this category" thing). I play Vanguard leaning more towards biotics, so I'm really looking forward to playing with them all at once. I love the idea of having access to both tactical cloak and biotic charge too. Endless possibilities. Crafting is insanely detailed and really overwhelming, but it looks like there's a high degree of customisation on offer in terms of what you can craft and abilities you can give the weapons etc. As it stands I didn't dig into that too much (didn't want to spend the trial in menus), but I unlocked Charge, Shockwave and a shield ability that keeps up a biotic shield as long as you hold it. Jumping with the jetpack, hovering while aiming then finding a target and using biotic charge feels absolutely amazing. It blows the trilogy's combat out of the water.
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE
Gameplay->Conversations
The morality system is gone, which IMO is a good thing because you're not worrying about accruing X number of points in order to unlock conversation options, meaning you're more free to respond how you actually feel. The one negative most people seem to be drawing from conversations is the facial animations - I personally don't have a problem with them, but I can see how they're a bit behind the curve compared to other stuff that's out there at the minute. One character (Director Addison) has incredibly weird and stilted dialogue, I'm really not sure what that's about but the video of it has been doing the rounds. It's not representative of the overall experience by any means.
Gameplay->Exploration
Haven't done much of this obviously, but you can drop outposts on planets that become inhabited and give you quests etc. It's all interesting so far and I'm looking forward to digging into this. The Nomad controls beautifully (hooray!) - engaging 6-wheel drive to go up steep hills makes it move slower but it's all upgradeable - didn't get a chance to do that either.
The Galaxy Map
OK so prepare yourself - it's a lot "slower" in terms of moving around but my jeebus, it's the best. I'm completely in love with it. It's SO immersive. Travelling from planet to planet - they've brought back planet scanning in a sense (but not mining for minerals - you do that on actual planets that you can land on) - you choose a planet, it zooms into the ship and then the ship flies there. Through space. With all of the 3D beauty that Andromeda holds. It's gorgeous and I will probably spend hours just flying around reading all the planet descriptions.
The crew
Everyone has a fairly unique personality/ backstory/ motivations. I don't think I spent nearly enough time with everyone I met to say anything definitive about them, but so far I like Peebee, love Vetra, Gil and Lexi. Everyone else is pretty good with Liam and Cora being meh-ish but not unlikable. Haven't met the other characters yet (obviously). At this point I think I'll be romancing Gil but that's not 100% yet.
The ship
Gonna take some time getting used to moving around this one I think. It's all nice and open, no load screens between sections or anything like that. There are windows everywhere that show you where you are currently. I.e. if you've flown to a planet then exit the galaxy map, the planet is right there outside the ship, visible to you. Excellent stuff.
Side quests
Seem meaningful from my limited experience. One for example I picked up on the Nexus (which is a bit like this game's Citadel) involved investigating a murder. So you go question the person who supposedly did it and hear their story. Then you request access to the audio log of the murder supposedly happening, speak to witnesses etc. Piece together the story through conversations. The last step is investigating the site where it happened, so actually physically going there to collect evidence to resolve it. Thumbs up from me because it feels pretty engaging.
Music
I really like the soundtrack so far - it's less "epic" than the trilogy and more easy listening/ ambient. The galaxy map theme fits. Nothing standout yet but looking forward to hearing more.
Story
"Bioware Jank"
It exists in this game because it is a Bioware game. Every Bioware game I've ever played on any system has resulted in an average of 5 hard crashes (freezing so bad it locked the console/PC and the console/PC had to be unplugged). Additionally every Bioware game has awkward potentially game-breaking bugs (memory leak in Origins, consistent crash when trying to Progress in ME2 and ME3, etc). This is Origins, DAII, Inquisition, ME2 and ME3. ME1 was pretty fine on PS3, probably because it was ported by someone that isn't Bioware. Anyway the point is, Bioware make some janky as fuck games, and Andromeda isn't any different. I'm not excusing it and I'm glad they're being taken to task for it this time, I just think that if you're not prepared to deal with bugs you shouldn't touch Bioware games. Or Bethesda games. I haven't come across anything too egregious honestly. Carlie had a bug where she couldn't interact with something, and I couldn't boot the game originally but I was trying to do it before it had 100% downloaded. Other than that I've had no issues other than the Multi...
Multiplayer
Work required to get this up to scratch. My experience playing it today was much smoother than yesterday even though I was playing with Carlie - idk if they've upgraded shit internally or something. The game crashed three times when I tried to start a match today - just froze and I had to end task in task manager to get rid of it. Not what you want when your time with the game is limited! Having said that, the combat is so great and the matches are well paced, so I'll play it regardless.
Needless to say, absolutely buzzing for this to come out.
I'll try and tailor this to aspects of Mass Effect we all know and love so that people might glean the things they want to glean.
Gameplay->Movement
Character movement feels excellent - it's similar to Inquisition in that you can get a bit "caught" on the environment but it's a welcome update from the original trilogy. When you're not in combat gear you miss the ability to jump. Oh jumping, hovering, boosting with your jetpack. It feels excellent.
Gameplay->Combat
This is where the movement really shines. There's a shitload of detail I won't have time to go into but if people have specific questions on anything feel free to ask. The usual powers are there and you're free from the start to access most of them (some are locked off with "spend X in this category" thing). I play Vanguard leaning more towards biotics, so I'm really looking forward to playing with them all at once. I love the idea of having access to both tactical cloak and biotic charge too. Endless possibilities. Crafting is insanely detailed and really overwhelming, but it looks like there's a high degree of customisation on offer in terms of what you can craft and abilities you can give the weapons etc. As it stands I didn't dig into that too much (didn't want to spend the trial in menus), but I unlocked Charge, Shockwave and a shield ability that keeps up a biotic shield as long as you hold it. Jumping with the jetpack, hovering while aiming then finding a target and using biotic charge feels absolutely amazing. It blows the trilogy's combat out of the water.
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE
Gameplay->Conversations
The morality system is gone, which IMO is a good thing because you're not worrying about accruing X number of points in order to unlock conversation options, meaning you're more free to respond how you actually feel. The one negative most people seem to be drawing from conversations is the facial animations - I personally don't have a problem with them, but I can see how they're a bit behind the curve compared to other stuff that's out there at the minute. One character (Director Addison) has incredibly weird and stilted dialogue, I'm really not sure what that's about but the video of it has been doing the rounds. It's not representative of the overall experience by any means.
Gameplay->Exploration
Haven't done much of this obviously, but you can drop outposts on planets that become inhabited and give you quests etc. It's all interesting so far and I'm looking forward to digging into this. The Nomad controls beautifully (hooray!) - engaging 6-wheel drive to go up steep hills makes it move slower but it's all upgradeable - didn't get a chance to do that either.
The Galaxy Map
OK so prepare yourself - it's a lot "slower" in terms of moving around but my jeebus, it's the best. I'm completely in love with it. It's SO immersive. Travelling from planet to planet - they've brought back planet scanning in a sense (but not mining for minerals - you do that on actual planets that you can land on) - you choose a planet, it zooms into the ship and then the ship flies there. Through space. With all of the 3D beauty that Andromeda holds. It's gorgeous and I will probably spend hours just flying around reading all the planet descriptions.
The crew
Everyone has a fairly unique personality/ backstory/ motivations. I don't think I spent nearly enough time with everyone I met to say anything definitive about them, but so far I like Peebee, love Vetra, Gil and Lexi. Everyone else is pretty good with Liam and Cora being meh-ish but not unlikable. Haven't met the other characters yet (obviously). At this point I think I'll be romancing Gil but that's not 100% yet.
The ship
Gonna take some time getting used to moving around this one I think. It's all nice and open, no load screens between sections or anything like that. There are windows everywhere that show you where you are currently. I.e. if you've flown to a planet then exit the galaxy map, the planet is right there outside the ship, visible to you. Excellent stuff.
Side quests
Seem meaningful from my limited experience. One for example I picked up on the Nexus (which is a bit like this game's Citadel) involved investigating a murder. So you go question the person who supposedly did it and hear their story. Then you request access to the audio log of the murder supposedly happening, speak to witnesses etc. Piece together the story through conversations. The last step is investigating the site where it happened, so actually physically going there to collect evidence to resolve it. Thumbs up from me because it feels pretty engaging.
Music
I really like the soundtrack so far - it's less "epic" than the trilogy and more easy listening/ ambient. The galaxy map theme fits. Nothing standout yet but looking forward to hearing more.
Story
- They've definitely hooked me in already. The family dynamic is interesting and might necessitate two playthroughs - the dad treats the siblings differently for example. The premise is that the human ark was supposed to be the last to arrive, but it's actually the first to arrive. The Salarian, Turian and Asari arks are MIA and a big part of the story early on at least seems to be trying to find out where they are and getting them to the nexus, which is dependent on the arks for resources etc. The Nexus has four "directors" (i.e. the new council) - a salarian, a krogan, a human and a turian, two of whom (the salarian and the human) are pretty unlikable IMO. So the story so far seems to revolve around this and obviously investigating which planets are habitable - by the time you reach the nexus you've been to "habitat 7" which was supposed to be the best of the bunch, but after 600 years is a massive shitheap. There's also a running thread about an AI called SAM that is linked to you and the Kett, who are also not native but who don't communicate and like to shoot on site - they're the main reason all the attempted outposts are failing. It's interesting IMO and I want MOAR.
"Bioware Jank"
It exists in this game because it is a Bioware game. Every Bioware game I've ever played on any system has resulted in an average of 5 hard crashes (freezing so bad it locked the console/PC and the console/PC had to be unplugged). Additionally every Bioware game has awkward potentially game-breaking bugs (memory leak in Origins, consistent crash when trying to Progress in ME2 and ME3, etc). This is Origins, DAII, Inquisition, ME2 and ME3. ME1 was pretty fine on PS3, probably because it was ported by someone that isn't Bioware. Anyway the point is, Bioware make some janky as fuck games, and Andromeda isn't any different. I'm not excusing it and I'm glad they're being taken to task for it this time, I just think that if you're not prepared to deal with bugs you shouldn't touch Bioware games. Or Bethesda games. I haven't come across anything too egregious honestly. Carlie had a bug where she couldn't interact with something, and I couldn't boot the game originally but I was trying to do it before it had 100% downloaded. Other than that I've had no issues other than the Multi...
Multiplayer
Work required to get this up to scratch. My experience playing it today was much smoother than yesterday even though I was playing with Carlie - idk if they've upgraded shit internally or something. The game crashed three times when I tried to start a match today - just froze and I had to end task in task manager to get rid of it. Not what you want when your time with the game is limited! Having said that, the combat is so great and the matches are well paced, so I'll play it regardless.
Needless to say, absolutely buzzing for this to come out.
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Lex
Administrator
Also to anyone wondering if "other" Milky Way races will be in the game, there's info early on that a Quarian ark with Drell, Hanar, Volus etc. left the milky way but left later than everyone else because of the complexity of needs of the species' aboard, so if I had to guess that'll probably be DLC lol.
Strangelove
AI Researcher
- AKA
- hitoshura
did i hear this game has full nudity
is there visible dick in this game
is there visible dick in this game
Ami
Playing All The Stuff!
- AKA
- Amizon, Commander Shepard, Ellie, Rinoa Heartilly, Xena, Clara Oswald, Gamora, Lana Kane, Tifa Lockhart, Jodie Holmes, Chloe Price.
Oh, for the love of all that's heavenly, why?Lexi isn't a romance option, Natalie Dormer is in a game and we can't romance her. Y U DO DIS BIOWARE?
Seriously looking forward to this. I had a physical copy, but my post usually doesn't get here until like 1-2pm and I cancelled it because I'm off work from then until Monday. So instead, I've preordered (and paid) this on the PS Store and will be playing at midnight.
I'm ignoring the critics, I'd much rather base this on my own judgement like I do with mostly all my other games.
Claymore
3x3 Eyes
Lex
Administrator
It's sitting at a 75 metacritic/opencritic - it's being taken to task for the usual Bioware bugginess, and that's a good thing.
It's all about perception really. Inquisition was a buggy mess when it released but scored incredibly high in spite of its issues. We've just been hit with Horizon: Zero Dawn and open world Zelda.
I won't know until I actually play the game but I suspect that if it had released earlier in this generation we would be seeing higher scores. Having said that, given how panned the intro was it's reviewing pretty well.
It's all about perception really. Inquisition was a buggy mess when it released but scored incredibly high in spite of its issues. We've just been hit with Horizon: Zero Dawn and open world Zelda.
I won't know until I actually play the game but I suspect that if it had released earlier in this generation we would be seeing higher scores. Having said that, given how panned the intro was it's reviewing pretty well.
Hisako
消えないひさ&#
- AKA
- Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
You guys
I wish this game were better and I wish I liked this game better.
I bounced off the first 2 hours super hard and it put a serious damper on my outlook on the game. I felt it was an ugly, ugly level to play around in visually and structurally and it boggles my mind that they didn't choose to at least polish the opening sequences knowing this would be the part shown the most in early access.
For every element of the game I like, there's a tiny gremlin (or a handful of them) lurking alongside.
I like the way the game has a bunch of face-scanned presets but the number of sliders available is nothing short of dire and the lighting makes half of them look like potatoes. I think it's super cool that they try and match Dad Ryder to resemble you genetically but the preset I used and the sliders I had to manipulate made him look like squashed clay. I love the focus on exploration and the new jetpack but I had to use it all the time because there's knee-high rubble in the fucking way for half of the first level that I can't just climb over naturally, and Habitat 7 just isn't a fun place to explore because it's so shitty to navigate. There are a couple of weighty, emotional moments carried by the facial capture but they're occasionally ruined by asinine dialogue and when the writing/voice acting gets good it's occasionally ruined by pretty poor audio timing.
It's been like this for the entire time I've been playing it. I like (or even love, sometimes) a particular thing about Andromeda and something shitty alongside it has to detract from it in some way. I think the new equipment and crafting/research system is super cool, but then you can't even modify the equipment of anyone but your own (something you've been able to do for pretty much every single BioWare game prior), so what the fuck. The verticality of the new level design is inspired, but without pause-play or the ability to time the use of squadmate powers the tactical options are consistently limited. Always something.
As a total sum of its parts I think it's a good game, but this is coming from Mass Effect 3, a game of fucking stupendous quality and polish formed from 6 years of refinement in the franchise. People should expect better - perhaps not as much as people did overall (judging from the despicable harassment of devs going on) - but the whole experience I'm having feels like two steps forward, two steps back.
I wish this game were better and I wish I liked this game better.
I bounced off the first 2 hours super hard and it put a serious damper on my outlook on the game. I felt it was an ugly, ugly level to play around in visually and structurally and it boggles my mind that they didn't choose to at least polish the opening sequences knowing this would be the part shown the most in early access.
For every element of the game I like, there's a tiny gremlin (or a handful of them) lurking alongside.
I like the way the game has a bunch of face-scanned presets but the number of sliders available is nothing short of dire and the lighting makes half of them look like potatoes. I think it's super cool that they try and match Dad Ryder to resemble you genetically but the preset I used and the sliders I had to manipulate made him look like squashed clay. I love the focus on exploration and the new jetpack but I had to use it all the time because there's knee-high rubble in the fucking way for half of the first level that I can't just climb over naturally, and Habitat 7 just isn't a fun place to explore because it's so shitty to navigate. There are a couple of weighty, emotional moments carried by the facial capture but they're occasionally ruined by asinine dialogue and when the writing/voice acting gets good it's occasionally ruined by pretty poor audio timing.
It's been like this for the entire time I've been playing it. I like (or even love, sometimes) a particular thing about Andromeda and something shitty alongside it has to detract from it in some way. I think the new equipment and crafting/research system is super cool, but then you can't even modify the equipment of anyone but your own (something you've been able to do for pretty much every single BioWare game prior), so what the fuck. The verticality of the new level design is inspired, but without pause-play or the ability to time the use of squadmate powers the tactical options are consistently limited. Always something.
As a total sum of its parts I think it's a good game, but this is coming from Mass Effect 3, a game of fucking stupendous quality and polish formed from 6 years of refinement in the franchise. People should expect better - perhaps not as much as people did overall (judging from the despicable harassment of devs going on) - but the whole experience I'm having feels like two steps forward, two steps back.
Lex
Administrator
Give it a bit more time Satsu, every single review (and my own experiences with it) are clear on one thing: the opening bits are pretty shit compared to the rest of it.
That said, having played the first ten hours I agree with most of the things you're saying (and am not saying any of your criticisms are invalid) except this bit:
ME3 was a buggy mess just like every other Bioware game. I can agree on "stupendous quality" only because we were in a known universe with characters and the culmination of emotional moments that had been building for three games. There are very few quests in that game I don't love. They also took some nice cues from Naughty Dog with their cinematic action sequences, which was a nice touch. But it was choppy, buggy, and had various other issues. "Polished" is not a word I would use for any Bioware game. They don't do polish.
That said, having played the first ten hours I agree with most of the things you're saying (and am not saying any of your criticisms are invalid) except this bit:
ME3 was a buggy mess just like every other Bioware game. I can agree on "stupendous quality" only because we were in a known universe with characters and the culmination of emotional moments that had been building for three games. There are very few quests in that game I don't love. They also took some nice cues from Naughty Dog with their cinematic action sequences, which was a nice touch. But it was choppy, buggy, and had various other issues. "Polished" is not a word I would use for any Bioware game. They don't do polish.
Lex
Administrator
Just to bring this all to everyone's attention, because I'm not happy about it:
Can romance an actual squadmate:
Gay Sarah: Yup
Straight Sarah: Yup
Straight Scott: Yup
Gay Scott: Nope
Has Inquisition style romance scenes (boobage, butts etc):
Gay Sarah: Yup
Straight Sarah: Yup
Straight Scott: Yup
Gay Scott: Nope
Number of romances available:
Gay Sarah: 4
Straight Sarah: 3
Straight Scott: 5
Gay Scott: 2
Ah bottom of the rung, I haven't felt your thorny embrace since ME2.
And not to make this part an afterthought (I just know less about it at this stage), but there's a trans character that's very poorly handled according to those who have played the game. They introduce themselves by stating their name pre-transition and launching into an explanation.
By Bioware's standards, all of this is regressive as fuck.
what the fuck happened Bioware
EDIT: I should be clear that for the most part I've avoided spoilers and am reserving judgement until I've actually played the game, but I'm glad I know this going in. I didn't wait five years for a Cortez-style fade-to-black half-romance with character-creator faces after the sheer awesomeness that was Dorian in Inquisition and the massive progress made in this department in ME3. Well I did wait five years for that I suppose, but it wasn't the trajectory they were on
In short, the male pleasing scenes (male/female, female/ female) are apparently explicit and all have more than one option on the actual squad to romance. The male/male romances are a shadow in comparison.
Can romance an actual squadmate:
Gay Sarah: Yup
Straight Sarah: Yup
Straight Scott: Yup
Gay Scott: Nope
Has Inquisition style romance scenes (boobage, butts etc):
Gay Sarah: Yup
Straight Sarah: Yup
Straight Scott: Yup
Gay Scott: Nope
Number of romances available:
Gay Sarah: 4
Straight Sarah: 3
Straight Scott: 5
Gay Scott: 2
Ah bottom of the rung, I haven't felt your thorny embrace since ME2.
And not to make this part an afterthought (I just know less about it at this stage), but there's a trans character that's very poorly handled according to those who have played the game. They introduce themselves by stating their name pre-transition and launching into an explanation.
By Bioware's standards, all of this is regressive as fuck.
what the fuck happened Bioware
EDIT: I should be clear that for the most part I've avoided spoilers and am reserving judgement until I've actually played the game, but I'm glad I know this going in. I didn't wait five years for a Cortez-style fade-to-black half-romance with character-creator faces after the sheer awesomeness that was Dorian in Inquisition and the massive progress made in this department in ME3. Well I did wait five years for that I suppose, but it wasn't the trajectory they were on
In short, the male pleasing scenes (male/female, female/ female) are apparently explicit and all have more than one option on the actual squad to romance. The male/male romances are a shadow in comparison.
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Ite
Save your valediction (she/her)
- AKA
- Ite
Well-intentioned accidental transphobia is what I expect from BioWare in 2017, but not this "give a trophy to all non-gay-men" bullshit. It's too generous to say "I haven't played the game yet." If those are the facts, that's it. If there were a man in front of me saying what the numbers are saying about what is and isn't allowed in his worldview, I would call him a homophobe. It's unacceptable, and WE KNOW BETTER. I won't be playing until they amend this "oversight."
ForceStealer
Double Growth
A trophy for number of romantic conquests sounds kinda weird in general, to be honest.
Hisako
消えないひさ&#
- AKA
- Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
Well quality and polish from a relative perspective, compared to ME1 and ME2. There's a clear throughline of the evolution of the franchise, and rather than being a simple evolution of the series Andromeda cribs elements from Inquisition (I hate the blanket comparisons with that game though), borrows level design from Mass Effect 1 and ports specific quest elements from Mass Effect 2. It's just kind of all over the place and I don't like it in practice as much as I thought I would
Lex
Administrator
I love Mass Effect and while I'm incredibly disappointed, it won't stop me from going with the romance/s that are available to me at launch.
My main issue is that this isn't "fixable" in any sense. It's not about the trophy/ achievement, it's about the second class citizen nature of the romances which is pretty clear. To bring it up to the same level they'd need to introduce a new squadmate, integrate them entirely with the crew in the same way that already existing crew members are there, create all the new scenes etc. Like even if they did do that with a DLC character the damage is done, the game has launched and it's a step backwards for the franchise (and the company as a whole). It would still be "added in", not there in the first place. The most disappointing aspect of this is that to truly rectify it, they have to Right First Time it with the next Mass Effect title, which is a bare minimum of four years away if it ever comes at all given Andromeda's lukewarm reception.
Toss into the mix the fact that David Gaider (gay man, one of the lead writers on DA, wrote Dorian, Morrigan etc.) has now left and I'm truly worried for representation in that franchise aswell. Outside of the romances I do like both franchises but I can't deny that real, visceral representation is what made me fall in love with them as a developer. It's something few people understand and I don't fault them for it. But yeah, pissed as hell.
Strangelove
AI Researcher
- AKA
- hitoshura
this is like, a perfect hierarchy for what pandering to a stereotypical straight guy audience while throwing some bones to others would look like. you get the most for the straight guy because they're the Most Important and Your Real Audience, the next is the gay woman because that's hot (but not as many for the blokes who don't want to play as a girl, ew), then the straight woman gets some i guess and i suppose there can be some gay male ones but just sort of throw in some npcs or something, whatever doesn't take as much work
it's like it was made up, it's just so fitting. the only way they could make it better is if they did what fire emblem if... did and made the gay options pokemon-style exclusive to separate versions and also the characters you romance are either stalkers or sadists. or maybe alien sadists just to really go for the maximum amount of othering.