As we have turned Maylander's post into an article on RPGWatch, I've linked this thread to that article (and moved it to the news section), so that all comments are combined into one thread.
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I played Mass Effect: Andromeda on my brothers computer last night all patched up.
My first impressions of the graphics:
-Space ships looked nice
-Some of the animations were interesting but mostly fine.
-Face textures were a little rough but my brother is running minimum specs
-Lots of clipping issues with the environment
Companions:
-They are okay. Not particularly interesting but tolerable.
Exploration:
-The planets have lots of side objectives and things to find
-Got annoyed with the 'return to the mission area' bullshit on the first world
-The jump jets were cool
Combat:
-Gameplay is good and reasonably intuitive
-You can order your squadmates into different positions but can't control them directly. I'm okay with that.
Questing:
-Just talking to people got tasks added sometimes. I don't necessarily want to do your quest, let me choose.
-Some areas were blocked off and I couldn't complete a side quest until I did a bit more of the main one but the game didn't communicate that. Seems a bit arbitrary.
NPCs
-Some of the characters feel off. There is this Krogan who sounds like a Californian hipster guy. Krogans have a sound or at least they used to. The voice actor was not even trying to alter his accent. The 'my face is tired' character almost single-handedly put me off the game by herself with her idiotic spiel. Just bad writing and characterisation.
UI:
-Menus within menus. I don't get the logic here of making such a poor journal.
-The combat interface (switching weapons) works fine but the mods section for weapons was confusing.
Overall its an okay game but it never hit any high points for me. I would give it a 6.5/10.
Fair enough, though I personally think the game gets better as it progresses.
Certainly, in terms of the companions and the overall narrative - I think it goes without saying that you can't expect to really know the quality until you've played for many hours.
Some of the best material in the game would be the companion quests - and they don't open up for a good long while.
Thats probably true. I'm not sure if I will play more but if I do I hope for much more than I have got so far. The early part of the game was probably done ages ago in the production cycle which may be the explanation here.
I'd say the beginning is a bit slow and not particularly impressive.
But it's not like the game suddenly turns around and becomes very different. If you're not engaged or intrigued after that first planet mission - then I don't think you should expect much in the way of big changes.
I'm not sure why this game is so divisive.
I'm a huge sci-fi freak, though, so maybe it's that. There's a distinct shortage of huge open world sci-fi RPGs - so maybe I'm more forgiving than I would be, if this had been yet another fantasy game.
That said, it does sound like some people actually expect to be "amazed" in the first few hours of a new big game. That could be the problem, because Andromeda doesn't really amaze like, say, The Witcher 3 did in its first hours.
It's more of a slow burn in that way.
I'm very keen on science fiction myself. I found Mars: War Logs quite entertaining because I enjoyed the setting so much despite the game spamming opponents at me willy nilly and other niggles. The game was an earnest effort and you can tell they were going for more than they could pull off convincingly sometimes.
ME:A just feels very safe creatively and some steps back from what came before, from my admittedly short playtime of 4 hours. The beginning of games usually do their best to convince you of their quality. ME:A felt indifferent to my reception, if I can characterize a game in that way, in all its unpolished elements and general rough around the edges narrative and writing etc
I guess it depends on what you mean by creatively.
In gameplay terms, I think it's bolder than the previous Mass Effects - especially in terms of progression and the freedom they give you to not only customize your character - but also his weapons. It doesn't shy away from rewarding players by being creative and inventive - which I think is all too rare.
The majority of these AAA games severely limit your ability to experiment and "break the rules" so to speak. So, I found it really refreshing to see this game allow things that aren't common.
I also think it's less safe in how it integrates humor and a less "gritty" storytelling approach.
To me, the safe choice would be to go all gritty and dark - because that's the norm rather than the exception.
But it's true that it doesn't revolutionize anything. Then again, how many AAA games do that?
By creatively I mean it feels like a formula game for open world games. Sort of like an Ubisoft game of the Far Cry and Assassins Creed ilk with some signature Bioware ME elements added to it. Thats fine and all. You shouldn't reinvent the wheel all the time but I do think it is safe.
You are meaning creatively in terms of tone, humour and presentation? It is certainly different but I'm not sure if it really worked. It wouldn't be fair for me to say really until I have played more. I will leave it at that NewDArt. I think I have missed these little exchanges of ours
I played Mass Effect: Andromeda on my brothers computer last night all patched up.
Overall its an okay game but it never hit any high points for me. I would give it a 6.5/10.
Fair enough, though I personally think the game gets better as it progresses.
Certainly, in terms of the companions and the overall narrative - I think it goes without saying that you can't expect to really know the quality until you've played for many hours.
Some of the best material in the game would be the companion quests - and they don't open up for a good long while.
The writing is somewhere between Mass Effect 1 and 2 in terms of focus and quality
lol are you for real?
Seems like we are, overall, in agreement.Just finished the game about an hour ago. Was great. Walked the dogs so I could mull it over out in the woods.
So my final rating bumps up fro 7 to 8/10.
Well put! This is exactly what I meant by the pace being a bit off. It doesn't happen often, but the problem pops up just as things are about to really get interesting. And then the exciting stuff just keeps getting postponed because of all the back-and-forth stuff.CONS:
..
- Too much back and forth on quests at times. Near the end I was like "If I have to return to planet X one more freaking time …" There was just a little too much … oh dang they just left … or no sign of them now … go somewhere else … nope just missed them again. (minus full point)
...
Wh?CONS:
- Predefined main character (minus 1/2 point)