Mass Effect: Andromeda - Opening Hours Review

Silver · March 15, 2017

@RockPaperShotgun John Walker is not impressed by Mass Effect: Andromedas opening hours.

...
Yeah, about that. The first few hours of Andromeda are a gruesome trudge through the most trite bilge of the previous three games, smeared out in a setting that's horribly familiar, burdened with some outstandingly awful writing, buried beneath a UI that appears to have been designed to infuriate in every possible way.

I had gone in assuming this would be more BioWare pleasure. So far - and let's be clear, there's lots of room and time for it to pick up and turn things around - the first few hours have been just awful.

This time out you begin by choosing whether you're a lady or a man called Ryder, daughter or son of a leading figure in an expedition to leave the Milky Way and start new lives in Andromeda. Using magic telescopes the various familiar races of Mass Effect were able to spot "golden planets" in the new galaxy, and setting out in massive ships called arks, each race shipping about 20,000 passengers, they set off on a six hundred year trip in cryo-tanks to reach the new lands. I love this start! It says, "We can be anything, do anything!" If that's the plan, the game isn't showing its hand in this early section.

I'm at a loss. What I expect from BioWare is slightly dodgy combat, but splendid writing and characters. What I've seen so far is some decent enough combat (but nothing beyond what you'd expect in a third person shooter), and some of the most dreadful writing. I cannot emphasise enough how poor it's been.
[...]

More information.

luj1 · March 15, 2017

The first few hours of Mass Effect: Andromeda...

What I expect from BioWare is slightly dodgy combat, but splendid writing and characters.

… but splendid writing and characters.

… splendid writing and characters.

The first few paragraphs of this interview too...

Damian · March 15, 2017

luj1 said:
The first few paragraphs of this interview too…

... I dunno, seems appropriate somehow.

domein · March 15, 2017

Things i noticed from streams:
1) Lip-sync is wonky, character mouth would pop out from their skull from time to time
2) Combat animations and companion pathfinding missing crucial parts for transitions between movement states, so they either blink through or crouch awkwardly midair
3) Explorer vehicle would catch fire at low hp and burn forever, never extinguishing or burning down completely on it's own.

Overall fells like they are releasing it about a year early, game needs some serious polishing.

azarhal · March 15, 2017

I'm pretty sure luj1 means that BioWare never did splendid writing or characters so expecting it is wrong. The preview itself isn't that great writing (very juvenile).

Considering Walker thinks very lowly of the Witcher 3 characters and writing (he called it eating cardboard to be specific), I don't think he's a really good reference anyway. He is also known for writing contrarians click-baits articles in the last few years.

Not saying MEA doesn't have issue, just that this specific preview is probably making it look worst than it is because Walker wants his ads revenues (and its working).

joxer · March 15, 2017

I've already linked to this "preview" so won't repeat myself much.

The author did the job, instead of ignoring content like mainstream media that's already seeking another turd to praise for publisher's $, it's an obvious analysis of everything in detail here.

I don't read RPS articles as IMO usually those suck. This one is a must read. At least till a game is patched or a full review appears.

BoboTheMighty · March 15, 2017

Not too hyped about BW writing lately( too fast pacing from one scene to next, more focus on one liners than good dialogue flow), but this is silly and hyperbolic at best.
And you wouldn't read he's a critic from his responses in the comment section.

ChaosTheory · March 15, 2017

Hmm...

wolfgrimdark · March 15, 2017

I also saw the game has micro-transactions … something I have never liked. Granted its for the MP part but still … so far not overly impressed with what I have heard or seen except one trailer I thought was very cool and made me think about it … but at this point going to wait and see what I hear about it. Some games are a first day purchase for me but after DAI and ME3 I am no longer really a fan of Bioware … haven't really been since they got absorbed by EA.

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net...nfirmed-for-multiplayer-new-trailer-released/

It does say "Don’t forget that these Multiplayer packs can be obtained by the in-game currency as well, so unless there’s something here that severely breaks the mode’s balance, then it should be alright." But meh I just dislike MT's in general practice so tends to be a turn off for me. Probably my old age though - while I have adopted to patches and such I dislike nickel-and-dime selling.

Damian · March 15, 2017

Looks like they didnt even try with the female face presets.

EDIT: Considering how ugly they are, I could find myself playing a female in a Mass Effect game for the first time ever.

rjshae · March 15, 2017

"We can be anything, do anything!"

Well you can't nail water to a tree, so that's obviously wrong.

azarhal · March 15, 2017

wolfgrimdark said:
I also saw the game has micro-transactions … something I have never liked.

ME3 MP also had micro-transactions, nothing surprising here.

Giovanni1983 · March 15, 2017

Well i can't say i didn't expect this.

After ME3 and DA:I i really hoped that maybe this one will be better and actually worth playing. Obviously it's not a full review and just the impressions from the beginning, but still things do not look good.

joxer · March 15, 2017

PCG can't reach consensus on ME4 introduction and notes just like RPS that there are bad things in:
http://www.pcgamer.com/we-have-mixed-feelings-about-the-first-few-hours-of-mass-effect-andromeda/

Here's just an excerpt:

James: Guys, the planet scanning is awful. How did they make the planet scanning actively worse than Mass Effect 2? And even then, it was just spherical acupuncture, a pretty mindless minigame where you move a reticle around an orb until it vibrates. Now, moving between planets requires watching a slow first-person travel animation from the perspective of the Tempest. Getting between planets can take 10 to 15 seconds and most of the planets are completely devoid of resources. The ones that have anything just take a single click to suck up everything they’ve got, and just shows up as a tiny indication of the left side of the screen. +159 Iron or 50 Milky Way Research points or something. At least flash that stuff on the screen in big letters to tell me what a good space explorer I am. Even if it just gets me enough junk to buy one gun, I need to feel like all that time slowly crawling between empty planets was worth it.

Tim: Seriously, many of the systems feel like they don’t just fail to improve on the old games, but are actually worse. The highfalutin new planet scanning James called out is absolutely tedious the first time you do it, so I can’t imagine how it’s going to feel on your dozenth, still portentously slow flight from one planet which might have a satellite orbiting to it to another which might have an aluminium deposit on it. And don’t start me on the Nomad mining. It beggars belief that anyone thought plopping out probes in order to see ore occasionally tick up in a spreadsheet window was going to be fun. No one is going to leave Eos thinking “hoo boy, I mined the shit of that place and it was awesome.”

Chris: I like the planet scanning, for what it's worth. It looks lovely and each new world or object is fully-rendered, meaning you can disconnect from the galaxy map and look out of it out of the Tempest's bay windows. It's a small detail, but I appreciate it. And if you don't want to slowly drag a cursor over a load of made-up planets, I honestly don't know why you're playing Mass Effect.

We can expect a rough game start I guess. Full reviews will be up next week, maybe after a weak intro the game gets better?

Oh and… PCG, fire that Chris and send him to work for some MMO magazine pls.

And put this guy as CEO:

Jarred: Getting into the graphics settings, there are also some serious annoyances, starting with the consolized interface. Press space to select things, not enter. Ugh.
...
Jarred: I haven't had time to have fun. I'm running benchmarks. It's about as good as some of the sidequests though, right?

Stingray · March 16, 2017

Damian said:
EDIT: Considering how ugly they are, I could find myself playing a female in a Mass Effect game for the first time ever.

Did you mean playing a male for the first time?

But yeah, those are all pretty bad. Wow.

joxer · March 16, 2017

Okay guys, buying or not buying the game, seems we can rack up those damned pathfinder rewards already without paying for the stupid Origin access.

https://sameapk.com/mass-effect-andromeda-apex-hq/

You can't buy stuff with microtransactions thank god, but you can create two teams and send two missions right now.

You're on iPhone or WindowsPhone so you can't install it?
Fear not! Install Nox on your PC, it works. Here are some pics:

azarhal · March 16, 2017

Stingray said:
Did you mean playing a male for the first time?

But yeah, those are all pretty bad. Wow.

Previewers made pretty good looking faces out of these presets though and from the videos I watched, the preset looks much better in-game than in those screenshots too.

NFLed · March 16, 2017

I'm very surprised that RPGWatch members are saying so many negative things about a Mass Effect game. Shocked I say, shocked.

Not surprised at all.

I enjoyed ME 1-3, especially 2 and 3, a whole lot. I am avoiding Andromeda news and videos, though, because I would much rather experience the game myself than to watch someone else or read about others' views. That said, it is possible that it is horrendous (or fantastic, or somewhere in between), and I'll see for myself.

Stingray · March 16, 2017

NFLed said:
I'm very surprised that RPGWatch members are saying so many negative things about a Mass Effect game. Shocked I say, shocked.

Not surprised at all.

It should surprise you though that Rock, Paper, Shotgun is saying so many negative things about a Mass Effect game, which is the actual point of this thread (news item).

jpnole · March 16, 2017

Damian said:
Looks like they didnt even try with the female face presets.

EDIT: Considering how ugly they are, I could find myself playing a female in a Mass Effect game for the first time ever.

Hmmm.... Hellgate London female face presets are much better looking and that was launched Oct 31, 2007.

Mass Effect: Andromeda - Opening Hours Review

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