Mass Effect Andromeda Cinematic Trailer Shows Off New Enemies, Including Giant Space Worm

[Lightspeaker]

So if the loyalty missions don't have anything to do with what happens in the end, isn't that kind of...gutting one of the main draws of Mass Effect? Choices matter and all that? I mean, I know they gutted that for the end of the original trilogy, but you'd think they'd learn, seeing how pissed off their fans were about all of that.

To put a rather cynical view on this...

Executive: "Our customers absolutely hated the fact that we just ignored most of their decisions for Mass Effect 3. So how are we going to avoid this becoming an issue with future games?"
Worker A: "We could make it so that we don't have any real decisions to be made?"
Executive: "Maybe...maybe..."
Worker B: "How about making it so that side quests have zero impact on the story? That way it doesn't matter what we put in."
Executive: "Now there's a good idea."
Worker C: "...why not just actually put the work in and keep it tight enough for everything to work properly?"
Everyone stares at Worker C.
Executive: "SECURITY!"
Worker C dragged off to worker reconditioning.


On topic: ME3 thoroughly, thoroughly poisoned that well for me now. No matter how much I always liked the Mass Effect universe I have zero confidence that Bioware has the competence to put together a decent game anymore after the poor performance of roughly a solid third of the ME3 narrative. Couple that with huge amounts of games I have yet to finish or even start and I find it very doubtful I'll be buying this on launch.

Which is a shame really. Because I really do like the ME setting.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Each Mass Effect game has stripped out a couple of gameplay elements from the previous one, I almost expect this to be a 20 hour series of quick time events.

How did ME3 represent a reductive follow-up from ME2? ME3's loadout customisation was superb, and cannily created all kinds of hybrid builds that neither of the two previous games could match.

I felt the turret sections and total lack of vehicle or exploration based segments was a big step backwards in ME3. Granted in ME2 these were added in the Firewalker and Overlord expansions but they were still present. ME3 only had infantry shooting or talking. Weapon customisation doesn't add anything unless it changes a weapon's behaviour drastically (as in Doom), the stat alterations present in ME3 weren't terribly meaningful beyond ability recharge, but that meant I just took one gun and went for power spam with every class. Didn't really do it for me.

I hope Andromeda moves to a closer mission structure to the first game though. I enjoyed dropping onto planets and then having to find your way to the mission in the Mako, then find out what's going once you get there. I know the Mako could be glitchy but I still enjoyed it enormously.

Well lets be fair: for Mass Effect 3 the galaxy was on fire, the Reapers were here and exploration was off the table unless it had a direct, provable outcome that would make shooting the Reapers easier. It baffles me that people wanted the exploration for the closing chapter where it would totally inappropriate.

However, Andromeda is the opposite of that: exploration of planets and other celestial bodies is arguably the point of the expedition. So really this game's primary mechanic should be it's player and vehicle movement to allow better exploration. In fact I would hope that this game has a 60/40, if not 70/30 split of exploration to direct combat - I don't count fighting wildlife as direct combat - with enemy NPCs.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

All I need to know is whether or not Bioware learned from Dragon Age: Inquisition and gave us interesting, entertaining characters.

Garrus, Liara and Tali are gonna be really hard to replace, and I'm not sure I like Liara's new counterpart.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

All I need to know is whether or not Bioware learned from Dragon Age: Inquisition and gave us interesting, entertaining characters.

Welll that's an eternal struggle for which there is no end because mileage varies. I personally rather liked all the companions you got in Inquisition other than Sera and Solas, which is the same hit miss ratio I had for DragonAge 2 so I had no complaints.

Garrus, Liara and Tali are gonna be really hard to replace, and I'm not sure I like Liara's new counterpart.

This much is true, although the Asari in the trailers and such is only Liara's replacement in that they're both Asari when character wise she could be more like Garrus or Tali. But I agree, replacing the Normandy's old faces is going to be a huge task.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

Well, at least it looks decent (visually), but that trailer didn't exactly leave me quivering in anticipation, and I'm getting a strong DAI vibe from it (could be the engine). At this point, my confidence in Bioware is pretty much zero, so I'll definitely be holding off for the reviews.

 

[The Enquirer]

Story wise I definitely preferred the second one, but gameplay wise, with a few things, the first one was really quite good. But as the series progressed it went less from "RPG game with shooting elements" to "shooting game with RPG elements" and what gameplay I have seen doesn't make me thing they've backtracked to more of an RPG formula. Hopefully I'm wrong because I would love to have another awesome Mass Effect game.

 

[Casper Andersen]

Bioware has spend every last bit of goodwill they built up over the years. They may be able to get it back, but if DA:I is anything to go by, I highly doubt it.

That being said, while my expectations are low, I will still get ME:A, eventually.

 

[Cartographer]

ME1 was a Space Opera RPG, pushing boundaries and trying new things
ME2, while sporting undeniable mechanical and gameplay improvements, scrapped the Space Opera in favour of generic 3rd person shooter. It pushed no bounds and it, along with ME3, are prime examples of how focus groups and committees can gut a good idea.

Focus groups cannot give you "new", "innovative", "genre defining" or even just "good" ideas, you need artists for that.
Focus groups and committees give you "middle of the road", "generic", "safe" and "tried and tested" ideas, which just become more and more stale as time passes.

Bioware and EA had no idea what a "Mass Effect" game was after the first game, so went "safe" and "generic" with a cast of memorable characters being the only defining feature.

To use a food analogy: ME1 was fresh new dish served by a young upcoming chef, with hints of interesting flavour combinations, refreshing but in need of refinement to be truly great. EA and Bioware decided that the part of most interest to the customer was the serving plate.

This looks to be more of the same.
I had hoped it might swing back, even just a little, to the big bombastic Space Opera roots of the original.
Nothing in the trailer reassures me.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

...You guys know the 'loyalty' missions from ME1 didn't have an effect on the ending either, right? And the 'effect' they had on the ending of ME2 was pretty minimal too - shit, all you got was a different end-credit scene for doing a perfect run without anyone dying, and you can achieve that with 3 loyalty missions (Mordin, Jack, someone who isn't Grunt) depending on how much DLC you had. All the Big Effects of doing the loyalty missions came from ME3, really.

So, uhhh... kinda a dumb reason to hate on this, all things considered. Then again, this is Bioware, they could start handing out gold bars and blowjob machines and gamers would probably scream 'WHAT ABOUT THE ENDING!' at them.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I'm going to throw my opinion into the smaller pile of "am interested in where this is going," however worthless that is here. Can't think of anything useful to say right now, stupid broken head. But at least the pile is one larger.

Oh, if I can't romance that giant space worm in any way, shape or form, then it's a deal-breaker for me. This is a damn space fantasy and it should be MY damn space fantasy. Damnit!

 

[Ralancian]

I don't remember the combat gameplay in ME1 being anything but awful and the last time I played it was last year. It also had a massive amount of time wastage in the exploration elements. ME2 & 3 were refinements but they were still massively problematic.

People get hemped up about the ending (something I've never taken umbridge with) but the real draw was the storytelling and unique IP universe. And that sustained people through 3 games as long Bioware take that through into this I'm sure most rational people will enjoy is.

 

[Diablo2000]

Edit: and my hype is dead http://ca.ign.com/articles/2016/11/08/first-mass-effect-andromeda-story-details-revealed?read
Pause and play gone
Class system is gone
Honestly sounds like they're turning it into a generic shooter. I liked ME3 because it married solid shooting with interesting class loadouts and the strategic pausing to assess your next move.

"-Powers are instead hotkeyed for quick use, no longer pausing to bring up a wheel and aim (you can still pause the combat but it's not how BioWare intends combat to function)"

Pausing combat is still in the game if you want to, though Bioware is probably design combat without it in mind so it's probably no longer the optimal way to engage in combat.

As for the removal of classes... I have mixed feelings about it. At one hand, it means you are no longer constrained into one or two ways of fighting for class, that means you can come up with more varied builds (like Cloaking+Shotgun or Tech Armor+Biotic Charge+Detonation of Tech Armor) but at the same it also means that you can break the game beyond any resemblance of balance completely trivializing any combat you might encounter even on higher dificulties.

OT: The trailer itself it's pretty underwhelming to be honest, but the game informer information ( http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1309671 ) was pretty good and reveal a lot of good information about the game. Hopefully The Game Awards (December) will have gameplay on it... However considering how many times I expected gameplay only to get blue balls instead I am not holding my breath however.

 

[hermes]

Because fuck haters.

I am ready for more Mass Effect...

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Alright; now I'm officially intrigued. I'd forgotten that Bioware can actually pull shit off. I loved KOTOR, Dragon Age and Mass Effect 1 & 2. Mass Effect 3 was good up until you realised none of the choices you made in 1 and 2 counted for anything.

The BioWare that made the games you loved contracted a terminal illness about 8 years ago and died in 2012 when the doctors left. If you are expecting KotOR, DA:O or ME, you'll be disappointed.

...You guys know the 'loyalty' missions from ME1 didn't have an effect on the ending either, right? And the 'effect' they had on the ending of ME2 was pretty minimal too - shit, all you got was a different end-credit scene for doing a perfect run without anyone dying, and you can achieve that with 3 loyalty missions (Mordin, Jack, someone who isn't Grunt) depending on how much DLC you had. All the Big Effects of doing the loyalty missions came from ME3, really.

There was no real tangible difference in ME3 whatever choices or loyalties were made in ME2. The biggest choice, that of Collector Base, was a number on a the war tally, as were any surviving NPCs (Zaeed, Grunt, etc). The rest that appeared in missions put paid to even the illusion of choice.

Whether Jack lived or died, rescuing the students in the biotic school was the same. Whether or not Miranda lived, the player did the same mission that resulted in the same consequence. Regardless of if the player ejected Grunt from the airlock AND killed the Rachni queen, that mission was identical. Regardless of whether the player never activated Legion and in fact, gave it to Tali, a Legion hologram appeared and filled the same role. And the biggest farce of all was that the player could kill Mordin, kill Maelon, destroy his research, kill Eve and STILL have the option of curing the genophage, and it didn't matter if Wrex was alive or dead either.

ME3 was when the bill came due to pay the IOUs to the fans expecting to see their Shepard's choices matter and it was the biggest joke of all when EA Canada came up so short.

 

[Imre Csete]

Just to remind you folks, BioWare Montreal (ME3 Mp, Omega DLC) =/= BioWare Edmonton (Everything else).

Also, most of the key people left the company.

Please board the hype train responsibly.

 

[hermes]

 

[Fdzzaigl]

The whole concept of loyalty missions having a massive effect on the ending(s) is fairly flawed anyhow.

It's fairly silly that character X can't keep up their bionic forcefield because you the hero didn't resolve some of their childhood issues for them when the entire weight of the universe depends on it.

I'm looking forward to ME:A, but I do want to see less grindy sidequests than in Inquisition and better writing overall. It helps that I never hated ME:3. In fact I believe that every new Mass Effect game impoved at least the gameplay aspect of the series massively. Let's hope that's the case again.

 

[4Aces]

We already had gameplay that was fully developed, but this has a new title so there are "compatability issues". Do not worry, we will have it ready to sell as a handful of $30 DLC. Why so much? Well to make up for the lackluster initial sales, of course!

TL;TSTR Wait for GotY edition.