Was Mass Effect: Andromeda really that bad?

[Paragon Fury]

So I'm working through my backlog of old/missed games that I promised myself I would do before buying any new games (and there are plenty I want coming this Fall/Winter/Winter 2018). My next game was Andromeda and I gotta say...I'm not seeing why it was considered such an awful game.

It certainly doesn't live up to old Mass Effects, it has some animation issues and delivers a few clunkers in lines for sure. But the game still looks good, the gameplay is actually fairly enjoyable and a somewhat interesting take on the old ME class system and the story itself while generic still manages to be somewhat enjoyable and thus far has delivered a few good scenes that wouldn't have been out of place in the original trilogy.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

So I'm working through my backlog of old/missed games that I promised myself I would do before buying any new games (and there are plenty I want coming this Fall/Winter/Winter 2018). My next game was Andromeda and I gotta say...I'm not seeing why it was considered such an awful game.

It certainly doesn't live up to old Mass Effects, it has some animation issues and delivers a few clunkers in lines for sure. But the game still looks good, the gameplay is actually fairly enjoyable and a somewhat interesting take on the old ME class system and the story itself while generic still manages to be somewhat enjoyable and thus far has delivered a few good scenes that wouldn't have been out of place in the original trilogy.

If I'm reading you correct, you're recently playing this game now? Or in the past few weeks?

The game was panned by how horribly broken it shipped as a full price game. If they implemented a plethora of patches from then until now (it seems every patch note had time dedicated to improving Facial Animations [http://blog.bioware.com/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-notes/], from first to last), we can't judge their 'finished' project now and say that the reviews and uproar that was based on how it launched are unfounded.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It was one of those final straw situations. Bioware was already in the doghouse after Dragon Age 2, the ME3 ending, and DA: Inquisition, so ME:A was do-or-die. They really, really, REALLY had to prove they still had what it took, and they just face-planted into the asfalt.

And yes, it really was that bad. It's like they took Mass Effect and sucked all the character and intrigue out of it. And that's not even taking into account the dismal state that it was released in.

 

[Paragon Fury]

So I'm working through my backlog of old/missed games that I promised myself I would do before buying any new games (and there are plenty I want coming this Fall/Winter/Winter 2018). My next game was Andromeda and I gotta say...I'm not seeing why it was considered such an awful game.

It certainly doesn't live up to old Mass Effects, it has some animation issues and delivers a few clunkers in lines for sure. But the game still looks good, the gameplay is actually fairly enjoyable and a somewhat interesting take on the old ME class system and the story itself while generic still manages to be somewhat enjoyable and thus far has delivered a few good scenes that wouldn't have been out of place in the original trilogy.

If I'm reading you correct, you're recently playing this game now? Or in the past few weeks?

The game was panned by how horribly broken it shipped as a full price game. If they implemented a plethora of patches from then until now (it seems every patch note had time dedicated to improving Facial Animations [http://blog.bioware.com/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-notes/], from first to last), we can't judge their 'finished' project now and say that the reviews and uproar that was based on how it launched are unfounded.

Playing it right now.

 

[CaitSeith]

Playing it right now.

Are you playing it patched? Because EA/Bioware already had one year to fix the major issues, you'll probably won't experience the same flaws than the release version.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

It was released in an unforgivable state. Buggy, glitchy and broken. With all the extra patches and fixes its now just a badly written, boring cover-based 3rd person shooter.

 

[Trunkage]

Guess what I just started playing too...

It was released in an unforgivable state. Buggy, glitchy and broken. With all the extra patches and fixes its now just a badly written, boring cover-based 3rd person shooter.

okay, i dont know how bad the facial animations were, but right now they look like DA:I. Which isn't a compliment. I'd prefer Fallout 4, stationary view over this "cinematic" experience.

Wasn't the studio shut down a couple of months after release? Was there many bugs other than faces?

I gather I'm going to like the game for the same reason I liked Watchdogs - I didnt pay full price.

Badly written? I'm only on the first planet so it might get worse but the overall story seems fine. Do you mean conversations? Becuase I'd agree but I also think the Witcher 3 was bad in that department.

Also, what's a good 3rd person cover shooter? I found myself actually trying to flank more here due to my jumpjets, where most other games doesn't allow for any tactical response

 

[DeadProxy]

I just got done posting a huge rant about my gripes with the game on another site, so I'll just spoiler all that. It's a big wall.

To sum up my thoughts as best as I can without sounding unreasonably unfair, it's just so damn mediocre compared to the rest of the series. My biggest gripe is the writing though with a splash of the delivery, it's trying very hard to seem like an action movie to me, and it's really bad at it. And all the females are butt ugly. And they fucked up Vex's voice modulator so that you can hear her voice and the distortion. And the whole story is[PLOT SPOILERS]

Spoiler

just a condensed version of the Reaper plot.

I just have so many problems with the game, but I experienced everything before the patches hit, and hated pretty much the entire experience, but I had to finish it because I love everything else Mass Effect.

And now the wall of text.

Spoiler

TLDR: Fuck this game, it's a piece of garbage.

I hated my entire experience with it. The ONLY positives I'll give it were the landscapes of the planets and the actual gameplay. All the characters, plot and dialogue was just so terribly bad in my eyes. And then there were the glitches and just dreadful face animations, and also making every single female a 6/10.

I played the entire game, took nearly 70 or 80 hours to do everything you can in a single playthrough and didn't come away with happy memories.

The plot is just all the mass effect key points minus Saren, evil alien race shows up and kidnaps the closest race to convert them into mindless soldiers, the galaxy/quadrant is just a super old experiment by unknowable overlords, and there isn't a single character as important as Saren OR Shepard.

The dialogue was probably the worst part of the whole game, because all of it was just cliche'd, predictable crap trying to be big and important with its choices, but none of your choices have any lasting impact, and generally just get forgotten by all the characters. Ryder's dialogue options are also crap ? of the time. It may have been my fault partly because most of the things I chose him to say just ended up sounding like he was in a comedy movie with bad writing, or have sudden mood swings because this line of dialogue requires him to be angry or exasperated or whatever. but it was all poorly written and delivered.

I don't even remember much about the characters other than just not caring at all about them. The black guy is just moronic, PB is fucking terrible, Wrex V3 was pretty okay at least. There was some bad audio mixing for Vex, so after a couple hours of gameplay, I could not stop hearing her voice AND the distortion effect they used to make her sound Turien and it nearly ruined her character and what little enjoyment I had in the game because she was who I chose to romance, so I took her everywhere. I can't even remember who else was on the team, so thats how much of an impression they left.

And then there was the part of the game that actually made me quit and uninstall the game, and that was the character creator. It was so limited and restrictive, I can't believe that it actually came AFTER Inquisition, which actually gave you freedom in creating your face. As a ginger in real life, I like to play as them when I can make them, and this Character Creator was dead set against giving people the ability to actually create.

Because of 1 specific mechanic that doesn't matter at all, you could barely touch your character. That mechanic was making your dad somewhat resemble the character you make, which is fucking pointless because he dies in the first hour of the game and only shows up 2 or 3 more times in the game. And because of that, I couldn't make the character I wanted to make. I couldn't even make my character AS PALE AS DEFAULT RYDER!! If you compared Default Ryder to any custom one, you couldn't even come CLOSE to how pale he was, and instead the closest you could get was some farmers tan of someone from the midwest. Not to mention limitations on how you can actually sculp your characters face.

So to tidy that up a bit, I actually uninstalled the game and said "Fuck this game, I regret spending money on this shit," within the first 10 minutes because of how atrocious their Character Creator was compared to Inquisition. It wasn't until I had an argument online that I reinstalled it just to confirm I truly hate this game and played the entire thing, and all sidequests, and at the end of it, I still hated it.

All my experiences with the game was before they decided to "fix" some of the animations, but I remember reading that ALL of the fixes only really applied to the first 10 or so hours of story, and everything after that would be untouched.

I wish I never spent money on this game, I wish I never played it, I hate everything about it and it honestly made me love Mass Effect 1-3 less because of it's existence. I've played Inquisition 3 times to completion, and even though I find the gameplay kinda boring, I would play that 1000 times before I ever touch Andromeda again, and I'm glad that failure of a game practically killed the studio that made it.

 

[Trunkage]

It does have a sense of exploration we havent seen since ME1 and makes the world feel dangerous, not just the enemies on it

 

[Majestic_Manatee]

Gameplay = high point

Character speak and plot = low point

Production = troubled/messy/rushed

Series fanbase = we no speak of the fanbase

 

[Abomination]

It was a very shallow lake of content. There was a lot to do but it was always the same thing to do.

The fact you only fought 3 different things (new aliens, colonists, remnants) did not help.

The game also had big shoes to fill, Mass Effect 3, for its ending failure was a great game up until that point. On the flip side Andromeda has a very satisfactory ending but the game to get there is a right slog.

The combat mechanics are great for a ME game. There is a great feel of infantry mobility and you feel like you're wearing very futuristic power armour.

There are a lot of "go nowhere" concepts introduced like the AI you can save. It has this massive buildup as to how important it is and it was driven insane or something, only for it to just sit around in a server room somewhere and make the occasional rude comment.

There is a great game under there, but it's covered in filler, rushed production, and I imagine the editing room floor is covered in what would have been satisfactory conclusions to storylines in game.

Then there was the whole brownie points trans character thrown in your face. Could not have been more blatant, felt like a corporate social awareness moment.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

There's no patching mediocrity, I can tell you that.

okay, i dont know how bad the facial animations were

Was there many bugs other than faces?

Also, what's a good 3rd person cover shooter?

 

[Kerg3927]

I paid $60 for it in pre-order, despite my apprehension. The ME trilogy is three of my favorite games of all time. But then the horrible reviews came out... so I thought I'd wait a month for the patches. I did play through prologue part. But then all I ever read is about how bad the story is, how boring the characters are, how bland the open world is, how repetitive the quests are, how ugly all the women are, how there are cliffhanger storylines that will never be finished, etc. Plus, I just don't like massive open world games, at all. I hated DAI.

So here we are a year later, and I still haven't played it, and I may never play it. As much as I loved the original trilogy, I'm worried that this game will taint the entire series for me, so I just pretend that it doesn't exist.

 

[Bobular]

I got it when it came out and really enjoyed it, especially the start where you are alone in a new galaxy having to explore round and find out what's going on.

Then again I also liked Inquisition and apparently that wasn't well received either?

DA2 I thought was alright but not good. It had a good idea and I liked the focus on one family doing their best to survive and thrive over a longer period of time but it was poorly executed. Especially the overly repeated dungeon areas and caves.

 

[Abomination]

I got it when it came out and really enjoyed it, especially the start where you are alone in a new galaxy having to explore round and find out what's going on.

That aspect of the game appealed to me the most.

But then it shows people came LONG before you and set up functioning colonies. So you wonder what's the point of being a "Pathfinder" when the paths have already been found. I was hoping on leading a colonization effort, not acting as a local constable.

 

[sXeth]

I got it when it came out and really enjoyed it, especially the start where you are alone in a new galaxy having to explore round and find out what's going on.

That aspect of the game appealed to me the most.

But then it shows people came LONG before you and set up functioning colonies. So you wonder what's the point of being a "Pathfinder" when the paths have already been found. I was hoping on leading a colonization effort, not acting as a local constable.

The Pathfinder thing is probably one of Bioware's weakest versions of their stereotypical chosen one narrative too.

Ryder's credentials for anything is literally just nepotism. He's not unique because there's multiple pathfinders, he's blatantly inexperienced. Even with the token adveristy that is presented to the fact, it makes no sense unless his dad was literally running a cult that they just accept his apparent infallible last second choice to appoint his son/daughter that wasn't even supposed to be next in line the new Pathfinder.

Also, they literally start copy pasting whole cloth stuff when you get farther in the game, even including identical puzzles. For all the flak clear-the-map sandboxes get, I can't think of any that got that outright lazy or obviously rushed (other then No Mans Sky procedural stuff which was a bad idea to throw the puzzles in to begin with)

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

It's a product of the C-Team being delegated to the AAA franchise.
Go figure.

It's like giving the 2nd assistant director steer to direct the next entry in a billion dollar budget blockbuster series.

I got it when it came out and really enjoyed it, especially the start where you are alone in a new galaxy having to explore round and find out what's going on.

That aspect of the game appealed to me the most.

But then it shows people came LONG before you and set up functioning colonies. So you wonder what's the point of being a "Pathfinder" when the paths have already been found. I was hoping on leading a colonization effort, not acting as a local constable.

Add to that a lost opportunity for making ANY RACE OTHER THAN HUMAN a playable character.

 

[Erttheking]

I've only heard other people complain about it for the most part, though from what I've seen with my own two eyes, it was bugged up the ass, the facial expressions were creepy, despite having a more advanced engine some of the textures looked worse, a lot of the animations were PAINFULLY bad, and a lot of the characters seemed to have a smarmy smart ass thing going on, which is ok for one character but it gets real annoying real fast when A. too many characters do it and B. the smarmy smart ass doesn't have a fucking off switch.

Also there was this one lady Krogan with a male voice actor whose attempt to do a female voice came off as stereotypically camp instead. I have seriously heard better female impressions from men out of Monty fucking Python.

But I think the biggest sin of the game is that it's effectively trying to replace the first three games, the games we all grew attached to and never got a real proper conclusion to. Andromeda basically said "forget all of it, brand new galaxy with the same thing we more or less did last time except nowhere near as interesting and a lot more watered down. What's that? Quarians and Geth? Never heard of them, we've got a brand new alien race that hates lying no matter the circumstance because we watched Galaxy Quest once."

...Holy shit, I was writing that last line as a JOKE, but it makes a bit more sense than I originally realized.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

Then there was the whole brownie points trans character thrown in your face. Could not have been more blatant, felt like a corporate social awareness moment.

That's so weird, I just finished playing the game a third time, and I never met this character, or if I have, I didn't know because they didn't throw any life story in my face. I think I heard that they patched the person's conversation tree to not be so forthcoming, but I was actually looking for them and still missed it.

On topic, no it wasn't that bad. I made a similar thread dissecting Andromeda almost a year ago right after I played it, and I defended it very strongly. I played Andromeda 2 months after release, after they had almost finished all the patches and updates, so I understand it was probably a very rough and frustrating experience for those who played it day 1, but man, I really like it. As someone who has played the trilogy 9 or 10 times and loves ME2 more than most people, I think Andromeda is a great game.

In some ways it's a better game than ME1. The combat is leagues better, I mean a vast improvement over all the games except 3, which was much closer in quality. The relocation to a new galaxy is dumb and kind of lore-breaking, but it's also the only thing they could possibly do after the reaper war and the ME3 ending choices. The open worlds are, well, kind of up-and-down, but I never really mind a big space to get lost in, and it definitely helped sell the feeling of exploring an unknown galaxy, which is like, my one true wish in life that will never be fulfilled.

The dialogue is often bad, but rarely awful. The characters are not all great, there's no one to rival Garrus or Tali, or Mordin, or even Jack... But still, I quite like Jaal and Drack, and for once the human crewmates you're forced to start with are not the least interesting people in the cast. And there is a lot of interaction between your crew, they really put in the effort to show that these people spend time together even when you're not around.

Really, for as "shallow" as a lot of people call it, it's standard action RPG-type depth, typical for games these days. And as much as people say it's just a rehash of the original story, it's simply not. There are a lot of similar elements, but, well, it's a Mass Effect game isn't it? It seems like a good way to make sure it feels familiar enough to the old games when they had to move us away from everything else we knew in the Milky Way.

It's just my opinion, but like I said, I've played it 3 times now and I had a blast each time.