Andromeda Preview - Kotaku: 'Behemoth of a sci-fi action RPG'

I'm downloadnig the trial version as we speak. I won't be doing actual gameplay much though, as I won't be playing the full version on my PC, but on my PS4 Pro.

So I'll mostly be messing with the CC.

Heh, this is both a great relief and a great concern. It's nice to see a very positive preview, on the other hand Patricia Hernandez is one of those reviewers where my tastes just rarely matches hers. At least we both love Horizon Zero Dawn, so here's hoping.

I have to wait till at least Tuesday before I can play. Glad you're enjoying it though.

2nd that

Meh, Patricia Hernandez... well, since she does neither go to much into the writing nor the character animations, or any of the other points others have criticized, it's an apt first look.

/s
/?

you mean like the captain of the Nexus who corrects us on whom/who but misuses lesser/fewer?

Off topic but...



With credit and apologies to Peter Steiner. 

Hahaha.... that's awesome: so true mate 


I've played through many conversations, and the best way to describe them would be they flow very well, and it all feels very natural: choices maybe don't matter as much as in the renegade/paragon system, but this is honestly feeling like a 100 hour RPG from the amount I've played: with 20 of those hours being in conversations (I kid you not), so I havent made too many major choices within dialogue let's just say... I'll say this too, there is some really, really good humor at use here: much more deliberate than in the previous ME games, and it's welcome to lighten the (sometimes) foreboding mood of Andromeda.


I'm pretty sure that's not what she's meaning, and I say this from experience: it feels massive in scope, like there are layers to the mystery that are deep, maybe as deep as the deep roads. Without going into spoilers, it's got many layers of things going on, and it has far deeper sublayers than I ever expected.



Apart from the odd line (like "my face is tired" - Director Addison), the writing has been great: very natural if I had to pick a word, the conversations flow very naturally. They might not have the harsh good/bad of paragon/renegade, but they flow very much like a real conversation - which is very refreshing.

Now, in terms of animations, the lip syncing is great: the mouth animations are fine in the most part (memes have kind of made me look for things which annoys me), and walking/running and general character movement is great: there is the odd weird thing: but the main ones have all been gif'ed up the wazoo, so you've probably seen them: and trust me, you wouldn't notice these so called 'abominations' when you're playing, it all feels smooth.

Interesting if any of it will have any real consequences other than some response variety. The way I remember DAI, from where this tone system is lifted off, most of the dialogues were very railroaded regardless of tone picks. Immediate visible choices were very few, off the top of my head - Cole becomes human or stays spirit, sacrifice Bull's Chargers or Qunari dreadnaught, Cullen's addiction, Divine elections, Orlais emperor.

Emotional distance is one thing, but...