MEA Official Reviews Thread (Polarized 9.5-5.0 7.6av)

da2 took risks apart from having a unfair 18 month development cycle. At least it had a different general narrative in contrast to most bioware games. MEA is a retreading of ME1 and DAI is a retreading of Origins. 

Well to be fair none of them have actually been downright negative.   I guess we can't expect a 96 like ME 2 got every single time.

Yeah, I should have clarified that. It took creative risks. But in the way of production, I thought it was universally accepted it got rushed out the door. So the same thing: a lack of commitment from the bean counters. 

I remember when DA 2 was announced it took me by surprise since DAO was still pretty fresh at the time.

That review, along with every other negative review, have solid arguments, but in the end, it's still subjective. No matter what they say, there will be people who enjoy this game, even fan of the OT. I cannot stress that enough. Hypothetically speaking, the absolute worst thing you can do is call the people who like it "stupid." That is an unfair, and unwarranted accusation. If you are respectful with your own opinion, please, have the decency as a rational/civil human being, and respect their opinion. You don't gain anything if you treat them poorly. The same goes the other way around. If you have a more positive outlook on the game, the same thing applies.

What do you mean?

Did you reach or got over the part that was locked behind early access?

do you plan on doing a more in depth story spoilers video discussing what does and does not work in Andromeda?

Although you could also classify a lowball budget as a risk. Can you play in this league at that budget without blowing up the brand? Looks like the answer was "no" in DA2's case. (I liked the short dev cycle, myself --I'd rather have three DA2s than two DAIs.)

This came up earlier today, come to think of it. By some estimates ME:A had only half of the TW3 budget. Assuming that's true -- don't ask me, I have no idea where those numbers came from -- then maybe EA's trying the experiment again.

Never mind, I'm just exhausted right now.

I think the TW3 may have raised all bars for me, esp re: facial expressions and side quests. I usually prefer games where I can customize a character -- or at least play as a female character -- but that game really got me and ME:A sounds like it pales, unfortunately. Preliminary thoughts before it launches for me in 45 min:

I wonder if the game is suffering from sequel syndrome. ME2 and 3 aren't really sequels but continuations in a trilogy, one long story. This is a true sequel to a long series and that is very difficult to execute because you have to balance nostalgic features with newness, and if you aren't careful you get a hybrid mess. It's even a sequel in the sense that the original people didn't work on it, which only very rarely works out (like, with Alien and Aliens, two very different movies by very different directors set in the same universe that actually are both extremely good in their own ways and also make sense paired together). But ALSO: people do get nostalgic and that puts you immediately at a disadvantage no matter how well you execute...so it sounds as if they missed the mark in some areas, but people also need to check their biases and expectations.

And as some have pointed out, nostalgia comes with rose-colored glasses. The original games had some really strong storytelling and world-building, but the dialogue itself was not actually very good. It was often cheesy and cliched, as in many action movies, with of course some exceptions (especially when it came to chatting with characters one-on-one). But so many extemporaneous speeches! My expectations are low for this so I doubt it will bother me.

And I get that reviewers need to take bugs into account for the scores, but...to me, it just matters less than most. It's a big game and bound to have glitches and many will be fixed. Yes, it should be ready -- or at least more polished than it seems -- but I get it. It's kind of like when people Yelp review a restaurant that makes amazing food 1-2 stars for bad service, in that it matters and I get why it does but what really matters most to me is how the food tastes. If it tastes amazing, I can overlook a lot.

That said, I am pretty bummed about the GotG/Star Trek tone being suggested. Part of what gave the trilogy dimension despite some of its issues with writing and genre cliches was its darkness/dark themes. Fallout 4 also went lighter in tone and surroundings and I enjoyed it far less than Fallout 3 and NV for that reason. I've seen some people say that it was refreshing after all that darkness, but I worry it's going to feel like a PG movie about togetherness, or something, instead of about the threat of total annihilation, issues of mortality, or about how we define the human being, etc. Like, this game doesn't look as if it has a Jack or even a Cerberus. It doesn't look like characters have serious baggage, for ex. It just looks so bright. I sincerely hope there is some dark depth beneath that service, becuase I get that there are bugs in a game this huge and yes the facial animation is wonky, but I just hope that there is more dimension here to these characters and their stories than it seems.