Review of Mass Effect: Andromeda

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.

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.

Originally Posted by Silver
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.

Originally Posted by NewDArt
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.

Great review. Glad you looked at it with your own view and not going with the masses..
You made me reconsider this game !

Originally Posted by Silver
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.

The writing is somewhere between Mass Effect 1 and 2 in terms of focus and quality

lol are you for real?

Originally Posted by NewDArt
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

Originally Posted by Silver
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.

I thought it was pretty bad, myself. Well, it had some potential and I liked it initially - but the approach to sidequests was awful - with an obscene amount of reuse of assets.

They had the chance to take it further with that semi-sequel (forget its name) - but they opted to handle content in that same lazy way.

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?

Originally Posted by NewDArt
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, abilities. 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

Originally Posted by Silver
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.

I guess it does in some ways, though I think it's far more interesting than most Ubisoft games. It's obviously inspired by similar games (TW3 being the most obvious, to me) - but it feels less like a Ubisoft game to me, and more like a typical Bioware game using a few (by now) familiar open world tricks.

If that makes sense

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

It works for me - but then again, I'm not a huge Mass Effect fan like so many seem to be.

Also, I'm not big on "loyalty" to tone and style. I like it when developers experiment and change things a little - just as long as they do it well, of course.

I mean, I thought the original Mass Effect was a great beginning - but a step down from KotOR - and I think ME2 was a big step down from that, and ME3 was just bland.

So, from that point of view - maybe it was easier to please me

Yes, I've missed our exchanges too.

Closing 50H and did but not finished 3 planets. The 3rd is a walking planet and could have been my second with a different choice. My first two planets had too much similarities and had differences not enough marking. Moreover both suffer of similar weaknesses with a lack of wow effect past the first time. Both are based on a vehicle gameplay which has strength but also weaknesses. All of that setup for me, an ok gameplay during 40H but lacking of intensity and relying a lot on combats for the thrill. The main story parts could have fill this role too but widely failed for me because of the no save system.

Then followed the third planet i could have start a long while ago, and get a walking planet was a breeze of fresh air. The gameplay is just better, horse/vehicle just can't match a good walking gameplay. Everything is much more fluent with a walking gameplay, combats are much better merged, ambushes can work and be well merged to exploration, areas don't need be break in outside world and walking dungeons, exploration is much better merged with spotting stuff and finding stuff and NPC interaction. But for desert like as was designed the first two planets a walking gameplay wouldn't work. Not that it's impossible, but the vehicle allows manage huge areas and desert approach allows manage lower budget, it's a design choice with positive and negative.

50H of slow playing and not yet bored, the game lacks of intensity beside through combats, but there's nothing I would tag obviously bad (I don't care of the glitches).

I would have more comment on story management and evolution, quests, and manage better yourself your own playing, but I'll delay. I'd say that for a RPG veteran players, not have big thrill during long parts isn't a problem, the game is certainly too huge, so just have seen a part of it is too incomplete. So myself I need play it more to comment more.

Thanks Maylander & others. I haven't read the thread as part-way through ME:A.

I look forward to doing so later.

Admittedly I didn't read much in an effort to avoid spoilers, but I did jump down to the verdict:

"I really enjoyed it, and I actually consider it the best BioWare game since Dragon Age: Origins. At least once they fix a few more bugs and issues, as it's still a bit rough around the edges, even after the first patch."

This is what I was hoping to hear, and serves as another reminder to continue to waaait for another patch or two. Considering ME has been my favorite RPG game universe experience ever, this has been exceptionally difficult. But I want a finished, polished game to play.

Thanks for the review! (I'll read the rest later)

Originally Posted by Silver
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.

+

Originally Posted by NewDArt
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.

Another push for me to play the game. thnx !

Good review.

I´ll play it later down the lane, fighting the urge to buy it right now…

Waiting to upgrade from 970 to 1080 first.

/C

I appreciate the feedback, folks. Thanks!

Originally Posted by porcozaur
The writing is somewhere between Mass Effect 1 and 2 in terms of focus and quality

lol are you for real?

Yes, I am. ME1 is more traditional hard sci-fi. The setting is built to make sense, things are thought through and there's an emphasis on building the actual setting and main story. The rest is secondary. ME2 completely shifted that focus into a drama, where characters and their struggles matter more than anything else. They tossed the whole setting and main story out the window.

MEA is somewhere in the middle. It's still trying to focus a bit on characters and such, but it's closer to ME1 than ME2.

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.

PROS:
- Enjoyable characters and companions
- Fun, easy going writing and interaction
- Great story
- Fantastic visuals and effects (water droplets on outfits, dirt shaders in sandy areas, etc)
- Good exploration
- Fun combat. Even though I played on easy (was more interested in the story) I still enjoyed the combat a lot, especially biotics
- Nice depth, i.e. lots to see and do
- Cool quests (minus some of the tasks)

CONS:
- Predefined main character (minus 1/2 point)
- 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)
- A little too much twitch work. Not a big fan of games that require you to jump from place to place and have good reflexes. I got a bit frustrated at times. It was somewhat mitigated, at least, by the game not having to reload if you fell. (minus 1/2 point)

Don't think I will play again. Maybe if they add some more content later I might want to try it on hard combat. But these types of games, for me, tend to be a one time thing. But who knows. Might get bored or develop an itch to return later.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
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.

Seems like we are, overall, in agreement.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
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)
…

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.

It reminds me of the Dandelion thing in Novigrad. It's just too long, too much back and forth and too many "nope, not here" situations.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
CONS:
- Predefined main character (minus 1/2 point)

Wh?

Man, why did you play predefined character? Because some people here said whatever you do in creator, the result is always something ugly?

This is my second custom character (Jaal is on the left), sorry I deleted my first character with savegames because of the naming bug so can't show that one also:



Tell me, is this ugly? Except that hair, well, you won't see me arguing with anyone who says the hair sucks, I'm even prepared to claim I was the first person who ever posted it sucks.


To everyone on internet who sucks in character creator so their Ryder looks like Vagita Dict from Sims 4, here's an ingame message:



6/10 to ME4 after 10/10 to DA2? I'd be ashamed and would start looking for another job.