No wonder Casey Hudson left. This game is missing them sc-fi feels.

AnDromedary Avatar
Apr 26, 2017 11:47:22 GMT -4 AnDromedary said:


Pretty much this.
It's something I really miss in ME:A (well, next to the writing and the oldschool SciFi atmosphere).

I just played through ME1 again after ME:A, and dispite the fact that switching from the Nomad to the MAKO is a real pain, I still find myself doing all the side missions. Sure, the planets lack vegetation and are basically just fairly random terrain maps with differen lighting color and sky boxes but with that simple setup, they really managed to make it feel like space exploration, whereas in Andromeda, despite the gorgeous graphics and sophisticated design, somehow everything feel much more the same, like you land on the same planet all over (even Voeld is basically just a white desert). To me, that's a major reason why the side content feels so repetitive.

Now, I don't dislike ME:A, I think it's a good game (not great like ME1 was but it's fun) and the gameplay is obviously miles ahead of what ME1 offers. But just having gone through ME1 again, I feel much more in awe of the dev team that made ME1 than for the one that made ME:A.

Because next to everything else, ME1 also needed to set up the universe, which in itself is a pretty monumental task (whereas ME:A could take a lot of things for granted and it feels a little like the devs ticked off checkboxes on what they wanted to try an replicate).

The writing is a whole different level. Every alien has it's unique way of expressing themselves according to their biological and cultural backgrouund. Talking to the rachni queen who describes everything in terms of colors and music (since that seems to be their perception of telepathic communication) or to the Thorian who refers to humans just as flesh (because it is a plant, so that would be it's main point of distinction), you realize how much effort was put into the background of these characters and races to make them feel real and bigger then just characters for a 5 minute dialogue. I am not even going to start on the Sovereign encounter on Virmire. Compare that to the Angara, who are basically the most generic rubber forehead aliens possible that even a bad Star Trek episode should be ashamed of.

So yea, I agree with you, ME1 wins on every level but gameplay and the pure technical side of graphics (and the latter is mainly due to age).