Mass Effect Andromeda Skepticism thread

Even the very praise-worthy previews that came in are somewhat with a forced smile I found. Giant Bomb were not really impressed but also not completely informed either. News about how certain things work also lowered my expectations a little bit. I mean, here's the skinny:

- In hubs, side-quests are ME3-esque except when you're not using your scanner for "gameplay" or pew-pew to combat.
- Even IGN with that fangirl journalist said the facial animations were notably jarring (still!)
- PC performance in a week-old build for a game that's basically finished was not at all like in those combat-trailers, in fact it was "choppy".
- Giant Bomb's guy noted the writing "wasn't that impressive". He talked about how they literally say stuff like "Yeah, this isn't Milky Way anymore"
- Story concept is almost literally "bring the Mass Effect universe to another galaxy and forcibly override the context". There's Mass Effect tech that isn't Mass Effect. We're now 600 years into La-la Land where the sci-fi context is almost completely gone and replaced with fantasy.
- The crew is like this token-ME1 cast where you have an Asari, two humans, a Krogan, a Turian and then a new alien. Then you have the Not-Normandy and the Not-Citadel and... is this really all their creativity could muster or are they just shamelessly pandering to us because ME:A is an apology to ME3? Will the writing show just how much talent BioWare lost now that they can't just reuse established features that were well thought-out? (Like the setting, lore)
- There's a "camera you can pan around during conversations". So, what? They just imported and tweaked the one from DA:I? Is the pivot and FOV still not as it should be? What was wrong with cinematics?

Even the positive impression leave me with the sense that unless the writing turns out to be really impressive when everything is said and done, I don't think this game is more than a 7-8/10 kinda thing. It's basically DA:I in space but with some bad features improved or removed but also some good features gone (You can call me bob if the writing and isn't worse in this game)

This seems like an incredibly petty complaint, and not just as far as Mass Effect is considered. Are we going to pretend that literally every movie and game in history isn't riddled with some cliche lines like this? People actually, really, truly say things like this in the real world. So there's a generic line in a game that probably comes close to 100 hours. That shouldn't be surprising, and it really shouldn't be all that concerning either, in my honest opinion.


I don't really understand what he means by this. Or you. I'm unclear as to who is talking here. Anyway, how does one "forcibly override the context"? Also, how is the sci-fi gone? It was my understanding that they had the full Codex from the previous series, implying that technology still being around, including a lot of new stuff being added in.

This statement just straight up bothers me because the developers have been marketing this game as a return to the roots of Mass Effect since the very beginning. I was under the impression that it would be very similar to the first game since it was first teased. They've been extremely transparent on where they're taking their inspiration from, and after ME2 got some minor complaints, and ME3 had a huge backlash, taking ideas from ME1 is the most logical thing to do.

Besides, every story has been done before. Including Mass Effect's. Having two humans and a weird alien thrown in doesn't make it a rehashed story. That's like saying every story two white people and a black person is the same story. It's completely moronic logic. There's a difference between returning to form and reusing the same script. 






I still have my share of worries for Andromeda, but I think all the blatant cynicism and pessimism has been getting to me lately. Hope this doesn't seem like I'm picking on you specifically. It just seems like there are a lot of very small details being blown way out of proportion. 

Especially Bioware RPGs, now that you mention it. Normandy (three times), party camp, Haven, Skyhold, Hawke's estate, Tempest... 

I didn't wanna say it before because I didn't want to be Captain Defensive again, but yea, my first thought about the writing complaint was that did seem kinda petty. I don't know what people consider good dialogue these days, because that didn't seem bad to me at all. Do people just want these characters to talk like The Architect from the Matrix?

The dialogue I've seen so far sounds really....human to me. As in relatable. I like it so far.

It also bothers me because we have no idea the context the line is used in. It might be an ironic or sarcastic reply to something. Being cliche could literally be the point. We have no way of knowing. 

But I think my point still stands in the sense that western society, especially Americans, are heavily influenced by pop culture. Movie lines are some of the most iconic things we can go to when defining who we are as a culture. We say dumb cliche shit like that every single day. It's a very natural thing to us. I've noticed a few moments like this from the cinematic trailers for Andromeda, but it never really bothered me, because I can't think of any reason as to why people coming from our universe wouldn't say things like that. Especially young people, which Scott and Sara are.

Having a central base on a specific planet, I guess. Or on the Nexus itself. 

But that last one would still technically be a ship. 

I dunno. A ship just seems logical, and fun. I like owning a ship. 

They also noted it was an older build and the game isn't finished yet. 

And then you look at the calendar and scratch your head they can even say that when the game is supposed to be going through cert as we speak. Microsoft in particular have up to one month of certification, but I guess that's only for new developers maybe? All ME3 DLCs had to be finished a month ahead of release for MS Cert. so chances are, they've made improvements since the Press build and then there's the day-1, and further patches coming.

Also, I think they've made those Gameplay series videos using incomprehensible expensive machines. I bet the game will end up having less than decent optimization.

*shrugs* I don't know the game industry enough to comment but maybe things are changing.  I mean the one month window for release has already passed so something is different whether MS is just relaxing their policy or making an exception, who knows.  They did say, I think more then once, that they aren't going to 'finish' the game until they take it from their cold, dead, hands so we could still be talking about them going Gold...well as close as they can get to release as they possibly get and then you have that day 1 patch...stuff. 

I'm listening to the ME soundtracks on Spotify. I actually own ME2's OST on iTunes. Bought it when the game came out.

Is anyone else super bummed out by the fact that "EA Games Soundtrack" is written under the author along with the composers for all three games? Like, fuck off, EA. We get it. You own Bioware. You don't have to take credit for the music you had no part in writing. It honestly breaks my heart to see a company logo crammed in there alongside an artist's name. It feels really sleazy, and legitimately a bit demeaning.

It's such a Konami thing to do. #FucKonami

Or the big stupid jellyfish lines. 

For Science!