Rock, Paper, Shotgun posted a first-5-hour impression. They hated it.
Complaints are basically as follows:
The old "Chosen One" fighting mysteriously hostile alien baddies story is getting tired.
NPC voice acting is horrible. They particularly singled out Liam and Addison. They did like Sara Ryder's voice acting, though.
Characters are spectacularly dull.
Writing is horrible.
Squadmate AI is horrible.
Planet scanning mechanic is horrible.
UI is horrible.
Side quests feel like, quote, "something from a 2004 Korean MMO."
Ouch.
And this is from Kotaku, They loved it!
Some quickfire thoughts, in bullet-point form:
As many of you know, the story involves a journey into the Andromeda Galaxy, where humanity must find a new home. The task of finding habitable planets falls on you, the ‘Pathfinder.’ Wouldn’t you know it, once you actually arrive at Andromeda, the ‘golden planets’ you scouted ahead of time aren’t what you expect them to be. Actually, little of the colonization scheme goes according to plan, with some ships getting lost, some people stuck in cryo, others staging a rebellion, and in general, supplies are dwindling fast. The tension is immediate: you’re in a completely new territory of space and nobody can help you. Everything is going to shit. Can you untangle the mess?
Character creation seems like an improvement - I made someone who appeared human on the first go around, without feeling too much regret once I saw them in action.
The new dialogue system is MUCH better. Now there are a many different types of responses, none of which are the obvious right/wrong/paragon/renegade choices. I’ve found myself picking liberally, depending on what felt right.
The voice acting feels more natural now, because you’re not a gruff Spectre.
Combat is more intense and kinetic, largely because of the added mobility. I can run, I can dash, I can get in the enemy’s face. On normal, the game seems harder, too - I’ve died in the tutorial mission / first real mission, which I’ve never experienced in a Mass Effect game before.
I love that I can mix and match abilities, regarding of what specialization I pick.
Then again, the number of SYSTEMS and CHOICES are kinda overwhelming, and Andromeda throws you right into the thick of it. Where older games felt as if Bioware were making a compromise between an RPG and an action game, it feels like they’ve gone full throttle in both directions this time around. Combat is thrilling, but you’re also going to spend a lot of time managing resources and equipping different things.
I was surprised to find that the tutorial mission had several optional side-quests I could pursue, and that the map was so big, I had multiple path options too. In the mission you can watch above, there’s an obvious critical path, but you can also stop and investigate more of the planet, if you’d like. So many choices! The game feels more on the scale of Dragon Age Inquisition, though I haven’t seen any filler yet.
To wit, all the side-quests I’ve seen thus far were really interesting, including figuring out what to do with the first potential murder of Andromeda, to investigating who the hell keeps sabotaging some ship tech.
Gun customization is back, and you can add all sorts of modifications and tweaks. I accidentally gave my pistol a big scope, which made using it unwieldy.
There are so many small environmental details that pop out even in the middle of combat, whether it’s floating debris, or cool little lights lining the fancy new technology you encounter. Andromeda is a looker, and Bioware uses that power to great effect—planets look alien.
There’s a whole lotta scanning in this game. You’re going to scan everything from containers to corpses, Batman-style.
I haven’t gotten to know all of the characters very well, but what I’ve seen thus far has me intrigued. The female Turian I’ve met seemed more kickass than Garrus (!). I’ve met a racist Salarian. I’ve met a very...forward Asari. I’ve met a lot of people who are just trying to get by under trying circumstances. Nobody is boring. Even the most annoying characters have a reason as to why they’re being so dickish.
This game has some of the fanciest haircuts I’ve ever seen.
The new Mako (aka the Nomad in this game) handles better, but still has some funny physics to it, depending on what you’re trying to traverse.
We’ll have more on Mass Effect: Andromeda in the coming weeks. For now, if you have questions, I’m happy to chime in the comments.
Hmmm, not liking the sound of these highlighted points... sounds like they've done what I hoped they wouldn't and made it too "open-worldy" & putting huge emphasis on stuff like resource/equipment management & customisation etc. That's not Mass Effect to me. But I'll reserve judgement.
@hrt_rulz01: the issue of dai was not scale. It was the a good deal of side quest were mundane. It's better to see what is said about the side quest before going on the hate train.
@hrt_rulz01: the issue of dai was not scale. It was the a good deal of side quest were mundane. It's better to see what is said about the side quest before going on the hate train.
I'm definitely not jumping to conclusions... I'm too big of a Mass Effect fan to jump on the hate train.
But I just hope that it's more linear than DA. Hope it hasn't gone too far in the other direction of ME3 and become to RPG-ish.
This game has some of the fanciest haircuts I’ve ever seen.
Character creation seems like an improvement - I made someone who appeared human on the first go around, without feeling too much regret once I saw them in action.
People on reddit seem to love it as well looks like a solid mass effect game and RPG
Can you gimme a link for that?
@ConanTheStoner said:
Not sure if I voted yet, but I'm guessing AAA.
Nah you hadn't, good!
@silversix_ said:
From Kotaku
This game has some of the fanciest haircuts I’ve ever seen.
Character creation seems like an improvement - I made someone who appeared human on the first go around, without feeling too much regret once I saw them in action.
???
Loading Video...
It's ugly, no way around it lol
But i guess they meant that if you spend some time with it, you can create sth decent.
I don't get why ppl insist on changing the default, especially in the trilogy where Shepard was this bad-ass looking guy!
@hrt_rulz01: I get what you're saying, and I'm more inclined towards that, the thing is they wanna be appealing to all the fans, so they've tried to stay true to Mass Effect 1.
@mjorh: Back then, i never got the chance to create my own Shepard character, I always play the default one cause it just looks badass the way it is but I even doubt I'll create my own Pathfinder but that creation tool from the video above seems to be somewhat of an improvements but the hair color looks cool, just nothing groundbreaking.
@mjorh said:
@worknow222 said:
People on reddit seem to love it as well looks like a solid mass effect game and RPG
Can you gimme a link for that?
I been to Reddit and I'll just give you this link to ME: Andromeda Reddit forum that you can pick on the topics and click the one's you want to read.
Edit: I also read from Reddit that controller support has been confirm and I was getting to worry about that cause I had a hard time playing ME trilogy on PC without the used of my Elite Controller or even my old 360 so I can finally use my Elite for Andromeda on PC without using KB/M.
Yeah, i'm gonna go with the default for two reasons: 1. I suck at character creation and it's nerve-wracking for me. 2. I know I can't make it as good as the default lol
Sorry @AdobeArtist there is no way how this new Mass Effect will dethrone Zelda after Gamespot's preview :P I'm hyping this a 7/10 at best. It's not great, but it's good to enjoy and that's not bad.
@hrt_rulz01: I get what you're saying, and I'm more inclined towards that, the thing is they wanna be appealing to all the fans, so they've tried to stay true to Mass Effect 1.
If it's ME 1 level of RPG-ness, I'm fine with that. But no more than that...
For those of you who are interested in looking at this first gameplay by my favorite youtuber: MKIceAndFire is playing part 1 gameplay on PC max settings 1080p/60fps. @mjorh
I am less than enthused presently but the EA Access deal is pretty interesting. $5 to play it for 10 hours starting tomorrow, basically it's a rental. So if it sucks I am only out $5 and if it is good I get a 10% discount on the purchase which nets out at the normal price.
Seems like that would be worthwhile for me because I am seriously doubting it will turn out good and 10 hours should be enough to confirm that.
I am less than enthused presently but the EA Access deal is pretty interesting. $5 to play it for 10 hours starting tomorrow, basically it's a rental. So if it sucks I am only out $5 and if it is good I get a 10% discount on the purchase which nets out at the normal price.
Seems like that would be worthwhile for me because I am seriously doubting it will turn out good and 10 hours should be enough to confirm that.
i'll try the trial if it's available to night at midnight
Don't think you'll see ratings this low on large sites like these. Would be funny, tho. If the game gets something like 68 on meta, you know they f*ckup big time.
I shall rephrase. 10 hours should be enough to confirm to me that it isn't as bad as it looks. If it does turn out to be as bad as it looks (my opinion) I am only out $5 instead of $60.
As an EA all access subscriber I will be playing it tomorrow. Mass Effect is my favorite game series so I am beyond excited.
@cainetao11 said:
@sts106mat said:
@mjorh said:
@sts106mat said:
EA Access trial in just a few days....
Let us know of your impressions.
I will do, i think it goes live on the 16th. I am not intending to play the MP (during the trial).
I didn't know!! Awesome news dude. I will definitely be on it.
@SerOlmy said:
@mjorh:
I shall rephrase. 10 hours should be enough to confirm to me that it isn't as bad as it looks. If it does turn out to be as bad as it looks (my opinion) I am only out $5 instead of $60.
@davillain-: Im not gonna look at the Vid but did he reveal his pc specs?
No and only just mention 1080p/60fps but I really didn't bother to watch all of it, I just skim some of it to what I need to know. But I can say it looks totally good on PC and I have a 1440p monitor so I can already tell the specs shouldn't be an issue for anyone.
I was abit worried when the recommended requirements stated 1080p 30 fps with GTX 970. I was prepared to drop $500 on a GTX 1080, Im trying to hold out on upgrading my gpu until VEGA releases to pick the best option to upgrade my GTX 970.
@mjorh: I'm on my way to downloading the trail starting now and will comeback later to talk about my impression. Though I am curious about the Customize History so I'll go with that if it's something like the Pathfinder is the decedent of Shepard.
@mjorh: I'm on my way to downloading the trail starting now and will comeback later to talk about my impression. Though I am curious about the Customize History so I'll go with that if it's something like the Pathfinder is the decedent of Shepard.
Can't wait! hope you love it!
@with_teeth26 said:
Pete Brown seems to hate it so that means I'll probably love it
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