Mass Effect Andromeda early impressions and facts

[Pladio]

I say skip Witcher 1 & 2 and go straight to 3 so we can make progress together I know this game is worth the time.

I couldn't get past chapter 2 in witcher 1.

Combat gets on my nerves and there's a lot of it.




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[Maylander]

Yeah right.

And about 20x ME2 and 15x ME3. I even keep my saves in my dropbox, so it's easy to count.

Besides, the overall amount of hours is much lower than, say, 50+ times through BG2 or Gothic 2, and I know I'm not alone in having done that around here.

A few replays per year adds up once a game has been out for 10+ years..

 

[purpleblob]

I couldn't get past chapter 2 in witcher 1.

I had exact same issue, couldn't even get past tutorial lol. Didn't care much for The Witcher 2 cause of that.

And about 20x ME2 and 15x ME3. I even keep my saves in my dropbox, so it's easy to count.

Besides, the overall amount of hours is much lower than, say, 50+ times through BG2 or Gothic 2, and I know I'm not alone in having done that around here.

A few replays per year adds up once a game has been out for 10+ years..

Gees, you are dedicated The only game I spent a lot of time is BG2 (also 50+ replays like you!)

 

[Maylander]

Gees, you are dedicated The only game I spent a lot of time is BG2 (also 50+ replays like you!)

Yep, I know you did, and I thought of you (and a few others) when I wrote that comment.

 

[azarhal]

50+ times through BG2......I love the game but that's a lot, especially if we are talking completionist playthrough.

 

[Maylander]

50+ times through BG2……I love the game but that's a lot, especially if we are talking completionist playthrough.

It's not as bad as it seems. A few things to take into consideration:
- It was released in 2000. All it takes is 3/year.
- We've had a couple of fairly bad RPG droughts during this time, where replaying was almost mandatory for anyone who didn't want to branch out and start playing FPS games or something.
- I was a student back then, and despite what students seem to think, they have a LOT more time to play games than people with jobs.

As a result, I don't replay games anywhere near as much anymore as I used to. The numbers are a bit inflated for games that came out 10+ years ago due to the stuff mentioned above.

 

[joxer]

What's with the witcher hijack?
No, ME4 is not better than TW3 if that's someone's asking about. CDpr learned from Bioware then surpassed them.
Why is it good? Because Bioware now has to compete with someone, I don't think we'll see attempts to earn billions for lazywork DA2 ever again.

 

[wolfgrimdark]

I think I played BG like 10 times and had thought that was a lot. But then I think how many hours I have in Skyrim and FO4 and realize if you really enjoy a game it can be like a comfy pair of shoes you want to wear.

Back on topic … I said I was going to wait but I have never been a patient person Something new and shiny had to be investigated in person and since I had enjoyed ME1-3 I decided last night (since I have today off from work) to check it out.

I only played till I got the Nexus and explored it a little (mainly so I could save as I was getting tired and heading to bed). I am playing on casual for now since combat is fun but not a main focus for me in most any game (except FO4 for some reason where I always play on survival mode - the hardest - now and do enjoy the combat a lot). Maybe once I get more comfortable with the controls and nuances will bump up the difficulty. Playing a pure biotic (that is my plan at least as I loved being a biotic in all the previous ME games).

So first impressions, and something I had to see for myself, is that the animations for body movements are very odd to me personally. I noticed it right off. Preferred, by far, body animations from other games (even games like DAI, FO4, and Skyrim were better). To me the movements were over-exaggerated when walking at times. Also the legs seem to be a bit too short for the body. I also consider myself pretty non-critical of games in general and just enjoy playing … and the animations jumped right out at me as being awkward. I prefer watching the aliens to some degree as it is not as jarring. Perhaps something with uncanny valley. I had no real issues with the eyes or facial movements though.

I thought the presets for looks were horrible, beyond horrible actually after having the custom options I get in Skyrim and FO4 for making characters (pretty spoiled there though). I am one who can spend hours at the customer creation screen but after 15 minutes I gave up. Not only is it confusing and poorly designed but fugly as well. Luckily I was happy with how the default twins looked so went with that. Worked out fine anyhow as I played with the default Shepherd as well. For MEA I just changed his name from Scott Ryder to Wolf Ryder and was done.

Writing. Again I tend to be rather non-critical of games and writing. I noticed a few times where the dialogue was a bit disconnected, lacking in emotion or real context … but at other times it had plenty of emotion and worked well. A mixed bag. I prefer the writing in FO4 which probably says a lot since this is Bioware game … but then again I am only about 2 hours in and this is early impressions.

Graphics - wonderful. Great looking game. Companions - also nice and probably the only reason I play the ME games since its normally not my style. I only played the ME1-3 games once. Played them all back to back as I got them all at the same time. Not the kind of game I would ever replay. So suspect MEA will be the same. DAO I played like 5-6 times and DA2 4-5 times. DAI played 1.5 times and purchased the DLC and never finished it. Guess that says something about what I think about their newer games.

Still its something to do that is still fun even if not something I get all excited about like a Beth game. I suspect I will enjoy playing it and then will tuck it away and go back to my favorites till another shiny comes out. May post some other impressions after I play a bit more and get more into the main content.

 

[azarhal]

Back to MEA.

Last night I restarted and made a Biotic "Sara". Throw, Singularity and Lance. Biotic combo everywhere. Lance pack a punch also more damage on headshot. Singularity is good old Singularity, seems to last longer than previous game at "level 1" but the cooldown is longer too. Throw seems to pack more punch than I remember in previous games this early. I took pull too, but I haven't had the chance to try it yet. This character felt a bit more like previous ME games gameplay wise: hide behind cover, throw abilities, watch explosions. The CC almost make it easier.

Now I'm wondering between restarting again to try more abilities and Scott Ryder or continuing that character. That's a normal thing for me, always take a few tries until I'm happy with a character.

I read someone (on another forum) say that in an early cutscenes his Ryder is always clip with the coffee cup, but in 3 restart my Ryders are always holding it properly. I should probably try a "Scott" Ryder to see if this is a dude thing, but I'm starting to think that the PC version is just more stable.

edit:
A Character Creation tip: don't make the mouth too wide. Also, for Sara, preset #1 is the best to not have weird results in cutscenes (some of the presets can't seems to smile at all, they grimace instead).

It's not as bad as it seems. A few things to take into consideration:
- It was released in 2000. All it takes is 3/year.

I limited myself at 1/year, but I haven't replayed it in a few years (it's currently installed though).

 

[ChaosTheory]

Having a... hard time holding off on this game. *twitches* Is it... worthy?

 

[joxer]

I am one who can spend hours at the customer creation screen but after 15 minutes I gave up.

You need Sims 4. Honestly. You do.

took pull too, but I haven't had the chance to try it yet. This character felt a bit more like previous ME games gameplay wise: hide behind cover, throw abilities, watch explosions.
...
I'm starting to think that the PC version is just more stable.

Pull is fantastic, you can destroy shields with it and drag trashmobs out of their cover - IIRC you noticed that pull->throw combo also does some ridiculous damage.
Cover and spam skills, against trashmob waves, sure. Against minibosses and bosses, don't even try that, you get eaten. Fly away, cover, spam skills, shoot some, move, rince repeat.
That's "space wizard" says PCgamer and I cannot say they're wrong. Their suggestion how to build it and be efficient:
http://www.pcgamer.com/our-favorite-mass-effect-andromeda-character-builds/

Profile: Adept
Abilities: Pull, Throw, Singularity
Also invest points in: Barrier, Offensive Biotics, Containment, Rifles, Combat Fitness

And yes, seems that PC has less problems than consoles. Not sure why would people play this game on consoles anyway.

Having a… hard time holding off on this game. *twitches* Is it… worthy?

It is. Don't expect a masterpiece, it's just a very good game and definelty not mediocre as some pro reviewers say yet they previously gave 10/10 to DA2.

 

[azarhal]

Having a… hard time holding off on this game. *twitches* Is it… worthy?

Depends. Do you like BioWare games in general and action combat?

I'm not that far into it, but I'm having more fun than in DAI so far and I'm not even past the part where it apparently "gets better".

edit:
Reading a bit more about people's issues on PC, I think Nvidia cards have issue with the rendering. I see people talking about their 1070 making the graphics looks like an xbox 360 games, that's not what my games looks like on my RX 480 on Ultra.

 

[joxer]

Sorry but no. I'm using GTX 1070 and consoles can't have this kind of graphics.
There is no rendering problem on my side.

 

[lostforever]

Sorry but no. I'm using GTX 1070 and consoles can't have this kind of graphics.
There is no rendering problem on my side.

Are you sure? A badly ported console game on PC will have inferior graphics

Also After playing HZD, I think a highly optimised game for console can look pretty good. Actually I think HZD looks lot better than mnay PC games these days! I bet it looks better than MEA on PC at full setting

PS I am a HZD fanboy

 

[Damian]

Are you sure? A badly ported console game on PC will have inferior graphics

Also After playing HZD, I think a highly optimised game for console can look pretty good. Actually I think HZD looks lot better than mnay PC games these days! I bet it looks better than MEA on PC at full setting

PS I am a HZD fanboy

It's true, PC games and especially ports are never optimized. Heck games made specifically for the PC are never optimized as they should be.

 

[JDR13]

Console games always look great when a new generation comes out. The PS4 is still fairly new especially the PS4 Pro. Those graphics will eventually get left behind by PC games though as hardware continues to improve.

 

[purpleblob]

What's with the witcher hijack?
No, ME4 is not better than TW3 if that's someone's asking about. CDpr learned from Bioware then surpassed them.
Why is it good? Because Bioware now has to compete with someone, I don't think we'll see attempts to earn billions for lazywork DA2 ever again.

Sorry, joxer, for the Withcer hijack. Didn't mean it!

Back to ME:A. So from reading the impression, it sounds like it plays like standard ME games (esp the latter 2). Despite the fact I don't consider ME series one of the "classic" or "masterpiece" I did enjoy ME1 and 2 so I will definitely pick ME:A up when it hits the bargain bin. Like Maylander pointed out, there aren't many sci-fi RPGs out there (not that I know of) and since I don't like SW universe, this is probably the only sci-fi RPG I am familiar with. No point picking it up early cause I am still busy with TW3, The Aielund Saga and

Spoiler

I recently went back to WoW…

Btw can someone please post screenshot of this pre-set since everyone is mentioning how abyssal it looks. This may sound shallow but I would like my toon to look decent enough if I am going to play this.

 

[lostforever]

Console games always look great when a new generation comes out. The PS4 is still fairly new especially the PS4 Pro. Those graphics will eventually get left behind by PC games though as hardware continues to improve.

Yes I agree but I was trying to annoy Joxer with that comment :lol:

 

[lostforever]

Here is some excellent explanation from former ME1 dev who now works for Naughty Dog...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1354847

 

[wolfgrimdark]

Here is some excellent explanation from former ME1 dev who now works for Naughty Dog…

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1354847

That was a good read and provides a different perspective for sure.