- Joined
- April 12, 2009
- Messages
- 23,459
So far we have input from two watchers who did the 10 hours trial:
I'll ad a few things they didn't mention.
1. First mission is a lengthy one, while the game does autosaving, you can't save manually! Manual saves are available much later (when you arrive to so called Nexus).
Bioware does not know what F5 is used for on PC so instead of one key you'll be browsing menus to save your progress (this adds to horrible UI menus mentioned already by plenty of people).
2. Second sidequest available is about sabotage. You catch the culprit and have a choice what to do with him. Either arrest the saboteur or exile him. There is no third option ("keep enemies close" for example and use when fit). We know the game is not TW3 so it's still questionable if your choice matters at all, but cmon Bioware! The game doesn't have to be DA:I in space, but aside bears we could at least sit in the throne and sentence people with many different "punishments".
3. Striketeams rewards are symbollic (20-30 ingame credits per successful mission for example while items have hundreds or thousands price) but the design on mission choosing is horrible. At least earlygame. To set them on a mission you can't do it from a menu but need to walk to and use an appropriate console. Which is not possible if you're not near that console.
Instead of wasting your time in the game you should use Apex HQ phonegame (works with android emulator Nox so you don't have to buy any phone) that instantly allows strike teams management and is available even if you still didn't buy the game.
4. I was talking about Z, C and different keyboards because of no input from anywhere. Well, if you're using QWERTZ keyboard like me, the game will default sidekick order on Y! You don't have to remap it yourself. This is IMO awsome. On the other hand…
If you change sprint to toggle (default is running only if shift being held) the protagonist can't ever stop moving. Running to somewhere will continue all the time even if you're not pressing WASD at all. That's Bioware's QA department.
5. Writing in earlygame as everyone said is nothing to bragg about to your friends (family, random people in the train, etc) but at least hinting on things that should be kept secret could be better. Colony ship's AI is an enhanced one. You don't know why exactly nor how. But the first unlocked father's memory points on what it probably is - please do not read unless you want to get heavily spoiled or unless you played through the trial:
Here's hope it's not what AI actually is and that the hint was deliberate misleading.
6. Noone mentioed if there is motion blur effect in the game. Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. In any case, an option to enable/disable it does not exist.
Meanwhile, film grain is enabled by default (*sigh*).
.
That'd be it, I'll add more if I remember and if seems necessary.
Eh, I install something fishy all the time. Guess it's time for format the system.
Anyway: From start, music is fine, low key, slowly building, but feels like it lacks "iconic theme" previous ME games had ( tranquil fantasy/mistery, heroic, melancholy)
Character creator is very lacking, night and day compared to Inquisition. Presets are funny looking, for a moment thought you get to play as aliens.
Dialogue is…odd. Standard Bioware half the time, but there is larger amount of lines that just seem…pulled out of some movie and feels out of place/nonsensical. ( espec party chatter in combat)
Char personality seems more "set" than before, there are four options( per "personality" response) but a lot of times, only two.
Characters: so far they're not as gripping as previously( though this is more subjective)…Alec Ryder stands out ( in VA, dialogue, visual design).
Facial animations; what is said, this is sure to be funny.
Combat : improvement overall, though cover is clumsier this time, weapons feel lacking and AI ( on both sides) can be…really something.
Side quests definitely feel a bit more substantial than in Inquisition or other ME.
UI: real clusterfuck of menus. Scanning can easily wear out it's welcome.
(Positive) Highlight: Alec Ryder, sense of mystery ( like in ME I) and shuttle descent( love it).
I cannot believe UI got past internal QA, it's almost like no one played the game during development. And yet.
I did give the trial a go yesterday, and what I saw was mostly DA:I in space, just with some curious steps backwards. My impressions in order of appearance:
* The character customisation UI is really awkward and non-intuitive. You need too many clicks to achieve anything, and the behaviour is not consistent - sometimes you need to go back to approve change but sometimes you need to accept and going back resets things.
* It's hard to create a decent looking face in the character designer. Feels like a step back from previous games. All facial hair is spay-on, so forget about having a beard. What's wrong with beards.
* Story (at least initially) requires turning off brain and not thinking, otherwise the Andromeda Initiative seems comically inept. As soon as the ark arrives it seems no-one cares to scan, send probes or even look out of the window so the ship hits a clearly visible obstacle. The thing isn't even black and fading into background. During collision unsecured massive cryo-pods fly around medbay, because what is basic safety. Leadership seems unprepared for the world not being ready for instant colonisation, which is odd considering distance and time it took to get there. Lack of contingency plans? What if the place was already colonised, did they just plan to slaughter everyone - if so, with whose army?
Later on we meet more incompetent characters (but at least it's excused that we're quickly promoted over their ability level).
* Andromeda Initiative shuttles are made out of papier-mache and fall apart from lightning strike.
* The world is really beautiful. Sceneries are amazing. General graphics, top notch (faces in animations, not so).
* On the first mission instantly you run into hostile aliens. At one point, you can go left and see one of your men being shot by the aliens. If you go right, you will see the same scene. If you go one way and the double back the other one poor guy gets shot twice.
* Your dad interfaces with alien computers by holding hand out and using space magic (as provided by AI). OK.
* You become the new Pathfinder (apparently a mythic figure) because your wanted wanted so, ignoring seniority, experience or anything really. It is because you have better connection to said AI. Who would have though that is the main requirement.
* Movement animation can be really odd at times. I wonder if the character proportions are a bit odd… I feel like Cora's legs are too short for her body? In any case I haven't seen crab walk or anything so hilarious, but the animation quality is still lacking.
* We arrive at Nexus, the main hub-station where everyone is thankful because now our Ark is providing power to it. Okay? That seems like an odd design choice for space station… shouldn't it be the other way around?
* Face animation are a mixed bag. Some are all right, but not amazing, some are really, really bad. The 'my face is tired' lady is ridiculous, like a puppet where only jaw moves. I was wondering if the 'my face is tired' isn't some developer in-joke for 'can't be arsed to fix it, so let's hang a lampshade'. It doesn't work.
* Writing is a mixed bag as well, and mostly not amazing. To that, usually delivered woodenly. The voice actors are reading lines, not voice acting. It's cool that you have more lines than ever, BioWare, but in writing and voice, quality beats quantity every time. I didn't want to talk to people, which is bad for what should be story driven game.
* Your ship has a bit of Star Wars design, with a walkway without guardrail. At least the drops is small.
* You can fly around the galaxy, scanning for anomalies and mining. Only this time you cannot check what is in a system without flying there. And every flight to planet or between system takes forever, or about 10 seconds. Which compose of close-up of where you are not, camera pointing to destination, flight animation, destination pops in, zoom out. Pretty, but getting tiring very fast. One of the things where you imagine internal QA should have told 'cool idea, but tedious'.
* The UI is a hot mess. It really fights you when you try to do anything, set your skills, check inventory, research, build. And there's a lot of it.
* You can only change your loadout at specific points. Why can't I have shotgun for sniper rifle, I have them both in inventory. You need points in combat skill line to be able to carry more guns. Carrying things is advanced skills, after all.
* The DA:I style crafting seems to be back. I wasn't fond of it.
* There is a lot of combat. I can't say if the dropships with enemies are scripted and appear only once when you get to some point on the map, or if they 'respawn' if you leave and come back.
* Side quests can be not all that amazing. Example not amazing quest: 'They were doing something here, but not clear. what. Gather 3 components around the map and come back to see what it was.'.
* There seems to be less of DA:I icon explosion on the map (granted, it might yet happen), but the ME2 style mining is back, only this time it's on ground! When driving around you can use mining computer in some specific areas, you have the ME2 style charts or how much of a mineral is there around, deploy probe. Until mining area is depleted.
Add that together and for me it would be a acceptable 7/10 time waster with nice sceneries, if not for tepid story, poor UI, questionable animation, faces, voice-acting… One of those issues, I could deal with, but all together? I might play it, but not before the game hits bargain bins.
PS. There is multiplayer. No comments, as I don't care about multiplayer.
I'll ad a few things they didn't mention.
1. First mission is a lengthy one, while the game does autosaving, you can't save manually! Manual saves are available much later (when you arrive to so called Nexus).
Bioware does not know what F5 is used for on PC so instead of one key you'll be browsing menus to save your progress (this adds to horrible UI menus mentioned already by plenty of people).
2. Second sidequest available is about sabotage. You catch the culprit and have a choice what to do with him. Either arrest the saboteur or exile him. There is no third option ("keep enemies close" for example and use when fit). We know the game is not TW3 so it's still questionable if your choice matters at all, but cmon Bioware! The game doesn't have to be DA:I in space, but aside bears we could at least sit in the throne and sentence people with many different "punishments".
3. Striketeams rewards are symbollic (20-30 ingame credits per successful mission for example while items have hundreds or thousands price) but the design on mission choosing is horrible. At least earlygame. To set them on a mission you can't do it from a menu but need to walk to and use an appropriate console. Which is not possible if you're not near that console.
Instead of wasting your time in the game you should use Apex HQ phonegame (works with android emulator Nox so you don't have to buy any phone) that instantly allows strike teams management and is available even if you still didn't buy the game.
4. I was talking about Z, C and different keyboards because of no input from anywhere. Well, if you're using QWERTZ keyboard like me, the game will default sidekick order on Y! You don't have to remap it yourself. This is IMO awsome. On the other hand…
If you change sprint to toggle (default is running only if shift being held) the protagonist can't ever stop moving. Running to somewhere will continue all the time even if you're not pressing WASD at all. That's Bioware's QA department.
5. Writing in earlygame as everyone said is nothing to bragg about to your friends (family, random people in the train, etc) but at least hinting on things that should be kept secret could be better. Colony ship's AI is an enhanced one. You don't know why exactly nor how. But the first unlocked father's memory points on what it probably is - please do not read unless you want to get heavily spoiled or unless you played through the trial:
protagonist's dead mother's soul/conscience
6. Noone mentioed if there is motion blur effect in the game. Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. In any case, an option to enable/disable it does not exist.
Meanwhile, film grain is enabled by default (*sigh*).
.
That'd be it, I'll add more if I remember and if seems necessary.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 23,459