Mass Effect Andromeda first impressions?

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

And I feel there's a bit less clarity in where you're being shot from or where the enemies are. Maybe it's their coloring mixed with the environments or I'm going blind, but it always seems like there's guys that appear in areas you just were seconds before. HP-ups I don't have as much of a problem with since it's clear when you need them.

I got that a lot until I turned the FoV slider all the way up to max. Up until then I felt that the FoV was way too narrow whenever Ryder pulled a gun and I had a really hard time navigating the battlefield and finding enemies not directly in my line of fire. It felt like starring down a pipe or something and made the combat much harder then it had to be on PC.

But yeah, I got that you were talking about damage boosters and as far as I can tell the player is given plenty of them if they just open a few containers. I might be wrong, of course, but when the game hands you some 5 or 6 ammo boosters per hour of play, I don't think scarcity will be too much of a problem. You can't pop them all the time, but it sure seems like I could pop them whenever there was a significant fight coming up. This might change in the full game though.

 

[putowtin]

Enjoyed what I played, some odd animations but not game breaking (and certainly not worth threatening to kill someone over!)
Many reviews bash it but I found the review at http://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effect-andromeda-review/ to be unbiased, it acknowledges the cons (poor writing and voice work in some of the side quests) and the pros (Massive open world [galaxy] and amazing looking)

Oh and I didn't get too many of the facial glitches but I did create my own femRyder and a lot of folks found the glitches were with the default character.

 

[SweetShark]

I never touched a Mass Effect games after I played the first one, but please tell me I am the only one I prefer the weird reactions than the standard neutral one?
I believe if the "twitch" some facial animations in the correct moments, I believe I would like it even more.
It is so abnormal to have weird reactions with your face? Last time I checked in real life the faces the people make are somehow like that.
Some fixes all is need.

 

[DeadProxy]

Well I am weak and stupid.

I bought the game, and god damn, I can't even make it past the character creator, it's so garbage. I thought that most of those "SJW" jokes about the game were just people blowing things out of proportion, but this CC is really changing my mind.

You're choices are so freaking limited to varying horrifying faces with features you can't swap, only warp. You get barely 10 hairstyles that look any different from each other, and this is the part where I guess I sound like one of those people spouting the "swj's are ruining this game" shit, but I want to be white in this game, and as a pale as fuck ginger person, "white" means practically blinding, and you do not get that option in this game. The closest is the default male Ryder, but you can't customize him at all, and the game does not let you become as white as him, which makes no sense at all.

I honestly don't even want to play it. If additions/fixes for the CC are announced soon, then I will actually play this game. Until then, I'll just regret making this purchase and being a fan. And to anyone telling me to just pick the defaults... no, they suck too. I want to be a ginger in any game that lets me, and this game isn't meeting that desire, so I would rather not settle for the bland male ryder, or the monster that is the female one.

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

Alas until EA decide to come back to steam I'm not playing anything

Yeh, I know Orgins better etc etc, but ultimately it's EA wanting to make more money - I don't want to split my game library over 2 systems so EA can make $2.50 more on DLC

So - as much as I'd kinda like to go through the original trilogy I'm kinda barred due to my own decision - nothing they've released has been enough to make me want to go ahead and change that decision, so my 1st impression, another lost sale from me

 

[Zhukov]

Just finished the prologue.

I enjoyed it.

God fucking damn it those facial animations though. Sheesh.

 

[Ravenbom]

I'm probably not going to hate the game... but it's not great so far.

It's so unpolished. No performance upgrades on PS4 Pro, and lack of consistent frame rates along with the sound bugs that all the versions seem to have.

Here's an example of the lack of polish:
I'm in the store right now.
Coolant Cells - Salvage - Value High
Intact Neuro-Coil - Salvage - Value Moderate

Wanna know how much 1 of those sell for? 100 credits. 1 unit is high value and 100 credits and the other is moderate for the same single unit.

Not only that, the controls are sloppy as ME1. Maybe worse. When you sprint you keep running for almost 2 whole seconds like Luigi in SMB2 or OctoDad. Aiming is awful.
And the map does not correlate to what you see in gameplay. It was not designed by someone who has ever seen a map.


Honestly... I could deal with the shitty facial animations, the so-so voice acting and writing so far. I'm getting used to sloppy controls and the ME1 level UI mess.

But the single thing that broke my heart was that there is no narrator for the Codex. It didn't need to be Neil Ross again... but when I saw that wall of text that 90% of people will ignore, I realized that nobody will get sucked into this universe the way that the first 3 games sucked us in.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I've put around 20 hours into it through the trial and since release. Time split between SP and MP.

Single Player...

1. Really fantastic terrain graphics and texture work. Some of the lighting/shading seems a bit dodgy.
2. Animations have been crucified and not without reason. Bioware has never handled emotional transitions well, and this is no exception, but the improved textures is hurling it into the uncanny valley. There also seems to have been a dearth of pre-launch polishing, so the shading is off in a lot of conversations and the eyes often look unfinished (like they were painted on a flat sphere).
3. The soggy MMO conventions of DA:I are back, although they've been slightly reigned in.
4. The writing is tepid. Characterization is a bit dull, and the dialogue often falls flat. It's not spectacularly bad or anything, it's just very...tepid. In this respect it's also very similar to DA:I, although without that game's weird tonal choices.
5. Music is pretty good, although not up to par with previous Mass Effects.
6. Combat is actually quite decent. It's not going to scare away any dedicated action combat games, but it's pretty smooth and fun. Miles better than DA:I's clodgy combat. The jump jet and dashing adds some verticality and momentum to the combat.
7. The new Mako >>> the old Mako. It's fun to drive. The expanses you get to drive through are open enough to allow for some fun wheeling about before having to stop and prod points of interest. So that balance was handled ok.
8. The Codex is poorly put together, buggy (often doesn't update correctly), and feels half-assed.
9. The UI in general is heavily consolized and awkward to use on PC.
10. Voice acting is largely decent to good with a few awfuls thrown in.
11. The Galaxy map is an inexplicable pain in the ass to use. Beautiful, but with worthless transitions that gobble time.
12. The crafting is opaque but deceptively simple, so really the worst of both worlds.

Multiplayer...

1. Was horribly broken in the preview but seems alright for launch, thank god.
2. Terrible front end UI and a complete lack of tools to measure ping, set regional preference, etc.
3. Oddly stiff, plastic looking characters (far worse than in SP).
4. Classic ME3 MP gameplay with improved mobility from jump jets and dash. It was fun then, it's fun now.
5. Needs more modes, and even more than that, more enemy types. The three factions provided feel less varied/interesting/fun than ME3's selection.
6. Microtransactions abound but you can earn credits reasonably quickly just by playing.

But the single thing that broke my heart was that there is no narrator for the Codex. It didn't need to be Neil Ross again... but when I saw that wall of text that 90% of people will ignore, I realized that nobody will get sucked into this universe the way that the first 3 games sucked us in.

I know right? It's such a little thing, but it betrays a lack of polish/love for the game. The fully voiced and richly appointed codex, while a "waste of resources", demonstrated that the game was a labor of love and they wanted everything to look and feel perfect. This feels rudely shoved out the door to make it onto the right set of quarterly financials.

 

[spartandude]

I'm going to say something that makes me sound like a complete asshole. I don't mean to but here it goes.

Thank you to those of you who brought this game day one/preordered. It has given me the warning to know to stay away from it. I am generally sorry if you regret spending your money on this. But I was able to save mine and in a twisted I am thankful.

Edit: Why do so many characters in this game have swollen faces? It looks like everyone is having an allergic reaction (which should be expected on a new world) and then got stung in the eyes with bees to make them swollen to scale. Women seem to have it worse (default fem Ryder especially) but it's just really weird.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I just watched Jim Fucking Sterling Son's Jimspressions video on the game, he heavily compares it to ME1. Which I love, despite all of it's technical problems. And all the animation glitches are nothing new, if you have been playing Bioware games for any amount of time that is. I think that after a few big patches have been released, that this may well indeed be a game I will buy.

 

[Redryhno]

I just watched Jim Fucking Sterling Son's Jimspressions video on the game, he heavily compares it to ME1. Which I love, despite all of it's technical problems. And all the animation glitches are nothing new, if you have been playing Bioware games for any amount of time that is. I think that after a few big patches have been released, that this may well indeed be a game I will buy.

How the hell could he compare it to ME1? There's less dialogue, less worldbuilding, less actual RPG...I know Jim's gone off the deepend the last few years in regards to his apparent lack of game knowledge, but this is like saying Diablo3 is very much the same as Diablo1 just because they share a publisher, franchise, and overarching genre...

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

How the hell could he compare it to ME1?

Driving around vaguely open world style maps, scanning and killing everything in sight.

 

[Redryhno]

How the hell could he compare it to ME1?

Driving around vaguely open world style maps, scanning and killing everything in sight.

Vaguely(obviously without the driving bits and) that sounds alot like ME2 and 3...which are very different games from ME1. Just don't buy it being like ME1 simply because of that.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Vaguely(obviously without the driving bits and) that sounds alot like ME2 and 3...which are very different games from ME1. Just don't buy it being like ME1 simply because of that.

In the video, he states that he never really played ME1 very much, and never touched 2 or 3. But from what he did play of 1 was remarkably similar to Andromeda.

 

[votemarvel]

I just watched Jim Fucking Sterling Son's Jimspressions video on the game, he heavily compares it to ME1. Which I love, despite all of it's technical problems. And all the animation glitches are nothing new, if you have been playing Bioware games for any amount of time that is. I think that after a few big patches have been released, that this may well indeed be a game I will buy.

For me it feels more like Mass Effect 3 has had it's multiplayer mode grafted onto a mediocre story. Not really a surprise since it is ME3's multiplayer team that created this game.

There seems little point to the new classless system when you can only have three active powers at once.

 

[prophecy2514]

Having a ball with it, although the transition sequences from landmark (spacemark?) To landmark on the galaxy screen and docking and taking off can go fuck itself. Just burns up valuable time.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

And I'm not saying that ME1 is a masterpiece or anything.

Perhaps he will go back to the original trilogy to gain some perspective on the series. Or maybe he will judge the game as is.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

For me it feels more like Mass Effect 3 has had it's multiplayer mode grafted onto a mediocre story. Not really a surprise since it is ME3's multiplayer team that created this game.

There seems little point to the new classless system when you can only have three active powers at once.

ME3 single player felt like sidequests on the multiplayer maps.

 

[Austin Manning]

Doesn't DAII feature a smaller scale story? Sure, it sets up something fairly boringly 'big' that DA:I [kinda] dealt with, but 'The Tragedy of Hawke' wasn't exactly a saviour narrative, more of a 'hold back the tide whilst everything goes to hell' narrative.

Tragedy requires choice to be meaningful though, otherwise it's just fatalism. Oedipus tries to outsmart fate and brings about his family's doom. Hamlet's inaction causes almost his entire court to die and leaves the Danish crown to a Norwegian prince. Willie Lowman chooses to have an affair and in doing so shatters Biff's faith in both himself and his American ideals. Willie later chooses to commit suicide, mistakenly believing his family will be happier with money than with him. Big Boss attempts to honour the memory of his mentor, but he fundamentally misunderstands (and later rejects) her beliefs, helping to plunge the world into a state of total war. He won't come to understand her and realize the horror of his own actions until the very end of his life.

Tragedy can actually be a fairly easy genre for games to tackle. Even if the player has no choice, if the player character makes an understandable choice for their situation then a powerful tragic narrative can be created. If the player themself has a choice, this can create even more powerful tragedies. Undertale is a good example of this if the player pursues the Genocide Route in that game.

Put simply: A tragedy examines the fallibility of humanity, while a fatalistic story would be "rocks fall, everyone dies and nothing you ever thought, attempted or achieved mattered." One is about humanity, while the other is about wallowing in pointlessness.

This is a problem I have with Bioware. They (or at least some of their writers) don't seem to understand the principles that make up a tragedy. So whenever they attempt to write tragedy (like in Dragon Age II or Mass Effect 3) they instead write a plot that may as well have booted the player to the end credits after their first death. Instead of leaving the player feeling sad and reflective as they consider the events that lead up to the game's final moments, they leave the player going "What was the point of any of that?"

 

[votemarvel]

ME3 single player felt like sidequests on the multiplayer maps.

That's because some of it was.

They reused multiplayer maps in some of the side missions, such as fixing the generator (Firebase Reactor) and rescuing a woman from an Alliance comm facility (Firebase Dagger).

Back onto Andromeda. I've finally gotten a decent looking Ryder for my game thanks to the https://www.reddit.com/r/ShareYourRyders/ sub-reddit. I am using this one https://www.reddit.com/r/ShareYourRyders/comments/60pbq9/preset_1_fox_ryder_my_custom_ryder/