Post by atalante on Apr 5, 2017 15:23:30 GMT
Hi guys,
EARLY WARNING, VERY MINOR SPOILERS, so if you you don’t want to know ANYTHING about the game before playing it, don’t read. That said I won’t make any disturbing spoiler
So, this review comes from a bioware fan (that said I am also a bethesda fan, and love western RPG overall). I have played and replayed the ME franchise many times (last time the three games in the row was 6 months ago, with all DLCs). Importantly, I am playing the PC version on a rather beasty machine, from what I have heard there are more bugs on the PS4 version, and settings are lower on console. I am now on my second playthough of MEA, trying to grab every pieces of content I can find, and am around 110 hours total by now.
With the release of the game the reviews out there have been very confusing, and clearly the gamer community has been for a good part split between lovers and haters. Here is a review I am making, trying to be as honest and spoiler free as possible.
Feel free to debate and disagree with my points, this is a forum after all !! (and sorry for my english, it isn’t my first language)
Previous ME games :
Before starting, I would like to talk a little bit about previous mass effect games.
But even before that, we need to look at their source, namely Knights of the Old Republic (the old SP game, not the MMORPG which came later).
KOTOR indeed put the first stones to nearly everything we like about the ME franchise.
- Science fiction / space Opera involving flying aboard a ship from planet to planet
- Focus on dialogues and crew members
- The general structure of the scenario : : One introductory subplot, then you can travel into a handful of planets in the order you choose, once your ¾ completion, one cliffhanger (usually your ship is boarded, some big reveal or drama), so you complete the remaining planets and go after the bad guys in a final mission, focusing around some ancient all powerful technology/ennemy.
- They also had the light side / dark side (latter in ME paragon/renegade).
I remember clearly my first playthrough of ME1. It was a good game, but clearly a rip off of KOTOR. While many praise ME1 as the best bioware has made, I found that while it was interesting (particularly the universe developed) it did have a lot of flaws. Mako / planet explorations / side quests weren’t too great for example. Dialogues were neither too good at times. I replayed recently the game, the dialogues with Liara are weird for example, she only starts shining in my opinion, like most other characters, by ME2 (and the fact that it is 10 years old doesn’t count here, good dialogue writing isn’t something new at all, some very old RPG titles have great dialogues/scripts).
The ME franchise really turned big with the arrival of ME2. Sure, it was very linear compared to ME1, but it gained tremendously in character development and cinematic experience. Here Bioware took the good old trope from action movies where the hero assembles the biggest badas team ever.
The battle phase of the game was much better, but the RPG side of the character sheet took a hit. The structure of the game was once more the same as KOTOR (KOTOR2 beginning actually) and ME1, they even went further in copying KOTOR by making the differences between light and dark side visible on your face. The final boss was a letdown to me, as it felt very arcady/JRPG. Overall, what made ME2 great was the intense focus around the crew members and loyalty missions. On the overall trilogy plot however, ME2 was mostly useless, bioware could have jumped from ME1 to 3 directly.
And finally, ME3, improving again combat, more linear, and very cinematic and characters oriented. It was released too early and lacked polish, and the ending was a big letdown. I heard they changed the ending in the late development, didn’t turn too good, and more importantly, they didn’t use the choices we had made previously. I was expecting the same kind of result ME2 had, for example if you had rachnis on your side, in the final battle, you would have seen Garus saved by them while surrounded, this kind of things, basically the result of your companions last stand would have depended on your previous choices. But ending appart, the closure of the subplots you were involved in since ME1 (krogans/salarians, geths/quarians) were excellent. As a sidenote, the citadel DLC is a must have in my opinion for anyone who has played the whole serie, and overall, ME3 big DLCs are I found better than ME2 DLCs.
MEA review :
Now, let’s look at MEA. I’ll cut it in parts, looking at the grips people have reported, and my look at the game.
MEA release : Negativity confirmation bias?
I have followed the news before game release. Soon some people on the internet sphere were making the buzz around some scenes in the in game trailers then early access, mainly around some weird animations, and while nearly no one had actually played the game, those aspects went viral.
We all remember ME3 launch. Reviewers were ecstatic, then when it launched, the community backlashed on ME3 ending and some lack of polish. I am pretty sure the reviewers weren’t ready to make the same mistake twice and went with the wind this time. Hence you have plenty of reviews, around 75-80% score, but very negative and focusing mainly on what they don’t like. Just look at game sites, a good part of them have twice a week an article about one thing of another they bash about MEA, some of those articles being a bit ridiculous (“MEA first major side quest is a letdown”, speaking actually about a clearly minor side quest, for example). I am certainly not saying the game is perfect (see later), but frankly, when was the last time you read about a “good” game (according to its score) with nearly only negative critics in its reviews, or a game supposedly bad which obnubilates the redaction of a journal to the point they write articles after articles about its flaws?
Sure, part of it is due to the level of hype around the game, but there is also a responsibility of the press in it. Anybody who played this game knows it has its issues (some majors) but is NOT a trainwreck, nor even a bad game, but it is really not what you would gather by reading the reviews. Of course, it doesn’t help for someone who hasn’t played the game to read the fanboys denying or minimizing everything wrong about the game.
First, the bugs : Let’s get that out of the way right now… there are plenty of minor bugs. Clearly the game has been released too soon, as it does happen way too often in the gaming industry on day one these days. I am not too much frustrated by them however, as they do not prevent me to play, nor break my immersion. But sure, they spoil a little bit the view one has of the game and justify complaining, this tendency developers have to released unpolished games being franckly tiring.
The animations : The internet community has gone completely over board with this one. Yep there are bad facial animations here and there, and your ryder is sometimes making a weird face. Yes, I notice it when it happens, but that does not break my immersion overall, and it doesn't happen too often.
That said, there is a clear lack of polish. Addison has for example been completely forgotten ……
I guess the trouble here lies with the amount of dialogue the game has (does anyone knows how many hours of dialogue the game has? That is a real question btw, not a rhetorical one). As a sidenote, looking at how gorgeous the game is, I keep thinking that technology needs to improve on facial animation to keep up with the rest (yes developers can and do hand craft animations, but if they go wide like in this game, his turns out to be a resource devouring task).
The character designer: Not good, mostly because you have to stay around presets (which mostly are not pretty). I did only make one custom Ryder, and was happy with the result (after a lot of tweaking). The standard ryder are ok to me, I know the fem ryder is taking a lot of flak, but I am actually quite fond of her, as she looks very human to me, not some kind of unreal standard model, just a girl looking cute and funny (and importantly a very unique face), this does add up very well with all her smartas lines of dialogue. Which leads me to the next point…
Voice acting and dialogues : One this one, I really don’t get the flak. I have found the voice acting good, as for the dialogue, the characters make me smile quite often. There are so many one-liners I still have in mind.
The dialogues themselves are quite good, and there is a lot of focus on your companions. Once more, I recommend people to visit back the previous games, and make a fair comparison, because I find that the dialogue quality is really here both by itself and relative to previous games. Sure, not all of these countless dialogues are great, but once more, comparing the worst of MEA to the best of the previous franchise is biased.
Companions : I think that many people forget that the companions of the ME trilogy had 3 games to grow. I only really started to have a crush on them by the second game. If you make a comparison between ME1 and MEA, the two human characters are much better (Ashley and Kaidan were terrible, a Ken doll always sad and whining and a pink armor religious xenophobe bigot), and the only character I do not like too much are the members of the crew which you can not take on mission (mostly Gils, but I must admit I didn’t give him much chance). But the companions themselves are very well developed overall, and if sequels are added I have no doubt they will be on par with the old ME crew.
The only problem I have is that I feel there are not enough companions, but let’s face it, it is very possible that other companions have already been made and are waiting to be added as DLC, bioware having decided that a day one companion DLC was not a good idea after all (irony here). Or alternatively, bioware had in mind that the game would have a sequel and that too many companions right now would make the work very hard for game 2/3.
I’d add that I really like the Ryder themselves more than shepard. Shepard shined through his companions and the dramatic situations he/she was in, while ryder is relatable and funny by himself/herself. In the scope of a trilogy, there is much more room to see ryder evolve as a character, from rookie to hero.
I do agree however that the game is lacking in the bad/good choices and interrupt department. That wasn’t too bad but a bit more scenes where you could craft your morality wouldn’t have hurt.
The combat : As pointed before, combat has improved once more, it is more nervous than ever, my only problem here is that I feel there is not enough diversity in the enemies you face. Otherwise, we have witnessed a return to the ME1 style with more skills, more equipments etc…
I have focused on biotic on my first playthrough, and the powers really give you the feeling you are the “biotic god”, powers like pull/trow, annihilate (with everything around you starting to levitate) are great. The biotic charge combine with jumpjet “levitation” really is fun too, giving the feeling you are some raptor looking for preys. And of course the singularity maximized in size gives the feeling you are tearing appart reality.
Right now on my second completionist playthrough, I am doing more of a combat/tech ryder, which is very fun too.
Sure we have lost the active pause and use of companions powers, I guess it was the price to make the game more nervous. I would like some options to quickly change profile/weapons also. The fact that you cannot customize your companions equipment at all is a minor letdown too (but in line with what has been made in the past).
The equipment itself : There is very good and some bad here. Many weapons/armors are very cool with so many customizations. Return to the inventory is good, management of it is bad. R&D was a very good idea, but is a pain due to the bad UI and too much requirements (fusing research and development would have made things easier).
Just think about it, you want a new armor. First you have to research it. Then build it (you probably haven’t verified if you had enough material to make both the chest, helmet, arms and boots, but let’s say you aren’t short on resources for the last piece of equipment), then you have to go to another part of the ship to equip your armor, then you have once more to go to another place to choose the colors of your armor……..
But the real problem here is mostly the UI, and that is one of my two major grips with the game. Bugs can be understood by lack of time/funding or some management issues, but bad UI is a design problem from the start. What I mean is that while bugs are “accidents” during the development of the game, the UI was a choice, and a terrible one. Still wondering what the developers were thinking.
Scenario/Quests/Plots : Main quest and major side quests are pure bioware quality to me, they flow well, are interesting, and fun. Bioware has created a new universe which would perfectly fit for a sequel. I do hope however that if the game turns into a trilogy, the developers will give the ketts a secondary role (ala Cerberus or collectors) keeping the role of main villains to the mysterious ones the game is hinting during the game. One small grip I have (not really a grip yet actually) is that the game is much less dramatic than the ME franchise. It is for now ok as this title was focused on settling in a new place, but I would like the sequels to turn darker.
Some people complain that we don’t make big choices overall, but franckly that is at least the proof that Bioware is now aware of what big choices means. The game is already tentacular, a sequel would probably be too, if there were drastic choices to include in the sequel, said sequel would turn into a trainwreck. The gaming industry is not ready for this kind of things yet, even in interactive stories like telltales games. The basic problem is that if you have a drastic choice to do, next game, you basically have to do two games for the price/resources of one.
Minors side quests, as usually, are low quality by comparison. It has always been the case, but the second major grip I have with the game is the ratio between quality quests and minors side quests. Adding minor content is good yes, but too much of it, and you are diluting the good quests so much in it that people will have a bad feeling about the game overall. Clearly, 5 years ago, bioware has thought “the future is open world and veeerrry long games!!” the problem is that while open world can be fun, if it means 90s MMORPG style quests, it is terrible.
Of course bioware could not have made hundreds of high quality quests, but in this case, they should have downgraded their ambitions. If you look at a reference of well made open world (in my opnion), you have skyrim (morrowind etc…) where every part of the map has been hand crafted with care. Missions themselves are maybe not ground breaking, but the atmosphere is unique. In MEA, the map are huge and beautiful but most of the time every content added on the map look like the same with standardized kett camps and monoliths. And that is where the grip comes from. I would have dug the exploration part with minor quests if the setting around them was handcrafted each time, but it is not the case.
Even worse, and I think that is the deep reason of the mixed reception of the game, MEA throw quests at us in such number at the same time that we feel overwhelmed, lack focus, and I guess (in my case at least), make us go from nearest to nearest waypoint without caring much about which quest we are going to.
The big problem here is that as a result, we don’t feel involved with the minor quests, many times arriving at a waypoint, we don’t even remember why we had to go here, we just shoot things and let Ryder say his things then go to the closest waypoint (whatever the mission it is linked to).
It even some times make me wonder if the developers haven’t done that on purpose (of course not, but you have to wonder), as so many minors quests make you go from waypoints to waypoints.
On example of terrible quest in my mind is “contagion”… you go all over the nexus from on waypoint to another, then you redo that, but this time on the galactic map, then you finally arrive at a planet, and once more, you have to visit waypoint after waypoint (the end of this quest was ok, but what a pain to arrive there…..).
At the opposite, I strumbled across a small refugee outpost by accident, discussed with a few npc, one explaining me how they ended up here, another how they did tech their way to survive on this hostile planet, and a last one giving me a “quest”, involving one jump, pressing G, left click, then E. Yep, not much of a mission, I won’t spoil you the exact content, but it was both insignificant and very immersive. I loved finding that place by accident, and that this little story was spatially self contained.
And in my opinion, if Bioware wanted to go open world, they should have only done things like that for minor quests, as while following waypoint is terrible, this kind of accidental find really brings the feeling of exploration.
For major quests of course, running right and left, with some small cinematics at each points, is good. However once more, Bioware often managed to break the immersion, by putting your ongoing quest “on hold”, sometimes multiple times during the course of the chain quest, forcing you to come back to it later (sometime 10 hours later!!). Hence, while I have heard some people say that the major quests were not that interesting, I do disagree, the major quests are fine in my opinion, it is simply that we have a hard time getting involved in them as we follow them in a fragmented manner.
Another grip here, the lack of variety with new species, particularly intelligent ones. I was expecting a lot of rehearsal of the questions we have faced in the past during the colonization era (invading other land and resource sharing/stealing, disrupting cultures, initial shock of cultures etc…), but this does not happen, which is terrible considering the exploration/colonization focus of the game. The fact that the andromeda initiative faces such difficulties at the start would have been perfect to force the player into moral choices concerning the respect of other species over the immediate needs of the initiative. Maybe they were afraid the colonization question would be politically sensitive?
Graphics : Playing with a GTX1080 on PC, in 2K ultra, so obviously it is really, really beautiful. Traveling the worlds in the nomad feels great, looking at the planets from the ship too. The optimization is on part with other games looking at my framerates. Only dark mark, human faces indeed are of variable quality, nothing surprising, it has always been the case, simply because aliens always look like the same (with minors skin colors/tatoos tweaks, so it is easy to make one good handcrafted model per race), while humans in their expected visual diversity demand a much much bigger work. Really the problem comes from their character creator, had they focused more on it, they would have had a much easier time to fill the game with better looking humans.
Space travel/ mining : Another content filler. ME games have always had them, and they were never interesting. So no surprise here, it is boring… of course it is a valid reason to complain, as we have been telling it to bioware for a decade by now.
What is actually infuriating me here is that they have already made the work to do something much more interesting. The graphics are here, and possibility of landing into random spots could have been done by using the MP maps (something which had already been done in ME3). All they needed was to reduce the number of spots to visit, trigger missions with the interesting ones, and on the visual part, keeping the view of the bridge during travel (sure the planets are pretty, but it feels very disconnected from the ship the way we see the travel), with the option to have the travel going in real time (pausing in reality) so you would go see your companions during the voyage (as it realistically is when Ryder has time to spare for chating).
MP : MP is ok, probably better than ME3, thanks to better combat mechanics and options. I like how they have included MP into SP, totally optional but somewhat linked, that is a very good design.
Conclusion :
Overall, MEA is a mass effect game. The main quest and major side quests, allied with companion dialogues are really in the line of previous mass effect games, and that is great. The game is very light hearted, which is ok but if the game receives sequel it will need to change. Think about it, take any epic stories you have in mind, they are all built around drama, that is the fuel of emotions.
Combat has been improved, equipment/character sheet have been boosted, but in a so looong game, I feel we lack variety in enemies.
The exploration part is problematic due to lack of diversity in the open world maps and boring minor side quests. Funnily, I think that if bioware had removed most side quests, the game would have had a better score in most reviews, as they create a problem of pacing (of course you don’t have to play them, but still most people have had their experience of the game influenced by them, which is normal).
One other option, which would have had the excellent side effect to personalize each playthrough, would have been to randomize when a minor quest is issued. For example, the game could keep in check the number of quests you already are involved in, limit it at 5 for example, and the closest quest to your position only appearing when one has been achieved. Hence, depending on where you go/ what you do/ in which order, you would have different quests from one game to another (unless you play completionist of course). Limiting the number of quests, and randomizing which ones are given to you would I think been a boon. Furthermore, creating mostly minors quests you stumble across by accident and self contained spatially would have made a great deal for the feel of exploration.
The UI is a puzzling nightmare, once more, I don’t know what the developers had in mind.
To conclude I would add that whatever the way you inspect the game, what is important is the fun factor. In my opinion, there is a very simple way to evaluate it, it is the time you spend in a game before going elsewhere. I was playing nier automata before MEA release, and I have around 110 hours of MEA play time by now, and will return to MEA after finishing this review, so clearly bioware has done something right…
Hence I would give the game 80% once the bugs will be corrected, 75% with the bugs. The game mostly loose 10-15 points relative to other ME games due to the lack of polish and the plethora of (optional) MMO style side quests which while making the game feeling “endless” dilute its quality, one major problem being that you rarely know when a side quest is a good one or a filler, and another that you are overwelmed by minors quests to the point you don’t even remember/care why you are going to the next waypoint on the map. Sure on some points it does improve over previous games (combat/graphics/size), but that is no reason to give it points relative to previous games as score has to evolve with years passing.
I strongly disagree with a score of 60%, simply because usually, when a game is less than 70%, I get bored after 2-3 hours and regret buying the game.
Finally, despite its issues, bioware has made here a perfect setting for starting a new trilogy, as the universe is interesting, and the crew promising. Hence…
Andromeda future :
I am a bit sad, not much because the game has its problems (I still very much enjoy the game), but because of the launch troubles which might deter the idea of a sequel. By now, the team has learned a lot (they had to learn to master the engine for example, and have by now developed many tools), and has the potential to make a great second game. The setting itself offers so much for starting a new trilogy. One this note I would be very happy to continue to play Ryder and his crew.
Right now (and after patching/improvements), there are a few DLC which could be very interesting to investigate. For example, a DLC focusing on a new planet with a new specie (for example intelligne tbut not very advanced technologically) to play the colonization/first contact thematic, or a DLC focusing on the late ark (people screaming for quarians and other races would be happy).
As for the next games, focusing on dark energy (why not focusing on the mass effect itself, as was intended initially in the original ME franchise?), the remnants, whatever, there are plenty of possibilities, as long as Bioware keep the keths as secondary villains, as I don’t feel they have what it takes to be a trilogy major threat. I really think that if Bioware do their part in MEA improvement through patches and content, and follow with good sequels (which should be easier now that they have made the first game and can improve both from what they learned during development and through feedback), in a few years we will look back at MEA as the start of an epic adventure.
EARLY WARNING, VERY MINOR SPOILERS, so if you you don’t want to know ANYTHING about the game before playing it, don’t read. That said I won’t make any disturbing spoiler
So, this review comes from a bioware fan (that said I am also a bethesda fan, and love western RPG overall). I have played and replayed the ME franchise many times (last time the three games in the row was 6 months ago, with all DLCs). Importantly, I am playing the PC version on a rather beasty machine, from what I have heard there are more bugs on the PS4 version, and settings are lower on console. I am now on my second playthough of MEA, trying to grab every pieces of content I can find, and am around 110 hours total by now.
With the release of the game the reviews out there have been very confusing, and clearly the gamer community has been for a good part split between lovers and haters. Here is a review I am making, trying to be as honest and spoiler free as possible.
Feel free to debate and disagree with my points, this is a forum after all !! (and sorry for my english, it isn’t my first language)
Previous ME games :
Before starting, I would like to talk a little bit about previous mass effect games.
But even before that, we need to look at their source, namely Knights of the Old Republic (the old SP game, not the MMORPG which came later).
KOTOR indeed put the first stones to nearly everything we like about the ME franchise.
- Science fiction / space Opera involving flying aboard a ship from planet to planet
- Focus on dialogues and crew members
- The general structure of the scenario : : One introductory subplot, then you can travel into a handful of planets in the order you choose, once your ¾ completion, one cliffhanger (usually your ship is boarded, some big reveal or drama), so you complete the remaining planets and go after the bad guys in a final mission, focusing around some ancient all powerful technology/ennemy.
- They also had the light side / dark side (latter in ME paragon/renegade).
I remember clearly my first playthrough of ME1. It was a good game, but clearly a rip off of KOTOR. While many praise ME1 as the best bioware has made, I found that while it was interesting (particularly the universe developed) it did have a lot of flaws. Mako / planet explorations / side quests weren’t too great for example. Dialogues were neither too good at times. I replayed recently the game, the dialogues with Liara are weird for example, she only starts shining in my opinion, like most other characters, by ME2 (and the fact that it is 10 years old doesn’t count here, good dialogue writing isn’t something new at all, some very old RPG titles have great dialogues/scripts).
The ME franchise really turned big with the arrival of ME2. Sure, it was very linear compared to ME1, but it gained tremendously in character development and cinematic experience. Here Bioware took the good old trope from action movies where the hero assembles the biggest badas team ever.
The battle phase of the game was much better, but the RPG side of the character sheet took a hit. The structure of the game was once more the same as KOTOR (KOTOR2 beginning actually) and ME1, they even went further in copying KOTOR by making the differences between light and dark side visible on your face. The final boss was a letdown to me, as it felt very arcady/JRPG. Overall, what made ME2 great was the intense focus around the crew members and loyalty missions. On the overall trilogy plot however, ME2 was mostly useless, bioware could have jumped from ME1 to 3 directly.
And finally, ME3, improving again combat, more linear, and very cinematic and characters oriented. It was released too early and lacked polish, and the ending was a big letdown. I heard they changed the ending in the late development, didn’t turn too good, and more importantly, they didn’t use the choices we had made previously. I was expecting the same kind of result ME2 had, for example if you had rachnis on your side, in the final battle, you would have seen Garus saved by them while surrounded, this kind of things, basically the result of your companions last stand would have depended on your previous choices. But ending appart, the closure of the subplots you were involved in since ME1 (krogans/salarians, geths/quarians) were excellent. As a sidenote, the citadel DLC is a must have in my opinion for anyone who has played the whole serie, and overall, ME3 big DLCs are I found better than ME2 DLCs.
MEA review :
Now, let’s look at MEA. I’ll cut it in parts, looking at the grips people have reported, and my look at the game.
MEA release : Negativity confirmation bias?
I have followed the news before game release. Soon some people on the internet sphere were making the buzz around some scenes in the in game trailers then early access, mainly around some weird animations, and while nearly no one had actually played the game, those aspects went viral.
We all remember ME3 launch. Reviewers were ecstatic, then when it launched, the community backlashed on ME3 ending and some lack of polish. I am pretty sure the reviewers weren’t ready to make the same mistake twice and went with the wind this time. Hence you have plenty of reviews, around 75-80% score, but very negative and focusing mainly on what they don’t like. Just look at game sites, a good part of them have twice a week an article about one thing of another they bash about MEA, some of those articles being a bit ridiculous (“MEA first major side quest is a letdown”, speaking actually about a clearly minor side quest, for example). I am certainly not saying the game is perfect (see later), but frankly, when was the last time you read about a “good” game (according to its score) with nearly only negative critics in its reviews, or a game supposedly bad which obnubilates the redaction of a journal to the point they write articles after articles about its flaws?
Sure, part of it is due to the level of hype around the game, but there is also a responsibility of the press in it. Anybody who played this game knows it has its issues (some majors) but is NOT a trainwreck, nor even a bad game, but it is really not what you would gather by reading the reviews. Of course, it doesn’t help for someone who hasn’t played the game to read the fanboys denying or minimizing everything wrong about the game.
First, the bugs : Let’s get that out of the way right now… there are plenty of minor bugs. Clearly the game has been released too soon, as it does happen way too often in the gaming industry on day one these days. I am not too much frustrated by them however, as they do not prevent me to play, nor break my immersion. But sure, they spoil a little bit the view one has of the game and justify complaining, this tendency developers have to released unpolished games being franckly tiring.
The animations : The internet community has gone completely over board with this one. Yep there are bad facial animations here and there, and your ryder is sometimes making a weird face. Yes, I notice it when it happens, but that does not break my immersion overall, and it doesn't happen too often.
That said, there is a clear lack of polish. Addison has for example been completely forgotten ……
I guess the trouble here lies with the amount of dialogue the game has (does anyone knows how many hours of dialogue the game has? That is a real question btw, not a rhetorical one). As a sidenote, looking at how gorgeous the game is, I keep thinking that technology needs to improve on facial animation to keep up with the rest (yes developers can and do hand craft animations, but if they go wide like in this game, his turns out to be a resource devouring task).
The character designer: Not good, mostly because you have to stay around presets (which mostly are not pretty). I did only make one custom Ryder, and was happy with the result (after a lot of tweaking). The standard ryder are ok to me, I know the fem ryder is taking a lot of flak, but I am actually quite fond of her, as she looks very human to me, not some kind of unreal standard model, just a girl looking cute and funny (and importantly a very unique face), this does add up very well with all her smartas lines of dialogue. Which leads me to the next point…
Voice acting and dialogues : One this one, I really don’t get the flak. I have found the voice acting good, as for the dialogue, the characters make me smile quite often. There are so many one-liners I still have in mind.
The dialogues themselves are quite good, and there is a lot of focus on your companions. Once more, I recommend people to visit back the previous games, and make a fair comparison, because I find that the dialogue quality is really here both by itself and relative to previous games. Sure, not all of these countless dialogues are great, but once more, comparing the worst of MEA to the best of the previous franchise is biased.
Companions : I think that many people forget that the companions of the ME trilogy had 3 games to grow. I only really started to have a crush on them by the second game. If you make a comparison between ME1 and MEA, the two human characters are much better (Ashley and Kaidan were terrible, a Ken doll always sad and whining and a pink armor religious xenophobe bigot), and the only character I do not like too much are the members of the crew which you can not take on mission (mostly Gils, but I must admit I didn’t give him much chance). But the companions themselves are very well developed overall, and if sequels are added I have no doubt they will be on par with the old ME crew.
The only problem I have is that I feel there are not enough companions, but let’s face it, it is very possible that other companions have already been made and are waiting to be added as DLC, bioware having decided that a day one companion DLC was not a good idea after all (irony here). Or alternatively, bioware had in mind that the game would have a sequel and that too many companions right now would make the work very hard for game 2/3.
I’d add that I really like the Ryder themselves more than shepard. Shepard shined through his companions and the dramatic situations he/she was in, while ryder is relatable and funny by himself/herself. In the scope of a trilogy, there is much more room to see ryder evolve as a character, from rookie to hero.
I do agree however that the game is lacking in the bad/good choices and interrupt department. That wasn’t too bad but a bit more scenes where you could craft your morality wouldn’t have hurt.
The combat : As pointed before, combat has improved once more, it is more nervous than ever, my only problem here is that I feel there is not enough diversity in the enemies you face. Otherwise, we have witnessed a return to the ME1 style with more skills, more equipments etc…
I have focused on biotic on my first playthrough, and the powers really give you the feeling you are the “biotic god”, powers like pull/trow, annihilate (with everything around you starting to levitate) are great. The biotic charge combine with jumpjet “levitation” really is fun too, giving the feeling you are some raptor looking for preys. And of course the singularity maximized in size gives the feeling you are tearing appart reality.
Right now on my second completionist playthrough, I am doing more of a combat/tech ryder, which is very fun too.
Sure we have lost the active pause and use of companions powers, I guess it was the price to make the game more nervous. I would like some options to quickly change profile/weapons also. The fact that you cannot customize your companions equipment at all is a minor letdown too (but in line with what has been made in the past).
The equipment itself : There is very good and some bad here. Many weapons/armors are very cool with so many customizations. Return to the inventory is good, management of it is bad. R&D was a very good idea, but is a pain due to the bad UI and too much requirements (fusing research and development would have made things easier).
Just think about it, you want a new armor. First you have to research it. Then build it (you probably haven’t verified if you had enough material to make both the chest, helmet, arms and boots, but let’s say you aren’t short on resources for the last piece of equipment), then you have to go to another part of the ship to equip your armor, then you have once more to go to another place to choose the colors of your armor……..
But the real problem here is mostly the UI, and that is one of my two major grips with the game. Bugs can be understood by lack of time/funding or some management issues, but bad UI is a design problem from the start. What I mean is that while bugs are “accidents” during the development of the game, the UI was a choice, and a terrible one. Still wondering what the developers were thinking.
Scenario/Quests/Plots : Main quest and major side quests are pure bioware quality to me, they flow well, are interesting, and fun. Bioware has created a new universe which would perfectly fit for a sequel. I do hope however that if the game turns into a trilogy, the developers will give the ketts a secondary role (ala Cerberus or collectors) keeping the role of main villains to the mysterious ones the game is hinting during the game. One small grip I have (not really a grip yet actually) is that the game is much less dramatic than the ME franchise. It is for now ok as this title was focused on settling in a new place, but I would like the sequels to turn darker.
Some people complain that we don’t make big choices overall, but franckly that is at least the proof that Bioware is now aware of what big choices means. The game is already tentacular, a sequel would probably be too, if there were drastic choices to include in the sequel, said sequel would turn into a trainwreck. The gaming industry is not ready for this kind of things yet, even in interactive stories like telltales games. The basic problem is that if you have a drastic choice to do, next game, you basically have to do two games for the price/resources of one.
Minors side quests, as usually, are low quality by comparison. It has always been the case, but the second major grip I have with the game is the ratio between quality quests and minors side quests. Adding minor content is good yes, but too much of it, and you are diluting the good quests so much in it that people will have a bad feeling about the game overall. Clearly, 5 years ago, bioware has thought “the future is open world and veeerrry long games!!” the problem is that while open world can be fun, if it means 90s MMORPG style quests, it is terrible.
Of course bioware could not have made hundreds of high quality quests, but in this case, they should have downgraded their ambitions. If you look at a reference of well made open world (in my opnion), you have skyrim (morrowind etc…) where every part of the map has been hand crafted with care. Missions themselves are maybe not ground breaking, but the atmosphere is unique. In MEA, the map are huge and beautiful but most of the time every content added on the map look like the same with standardized kett camps and monoliths. And that is where the grip comes from. I would have dug the exploration part with minor quests if the setting around them was handcrafted each time, but it is not the case.
Even worse, and I think that is the deep reason of the mixed reception of the game, MEA throw quests at us in such number at the same time that we feel overwhelmed, lack focus, and I guess (in my case at least), make us go from nearest to nearest waypoint without caring much about which quest we are going to.
The big problem here is that as a result, we don’t feel involved with the minor quests, many times arriving at a waypoint, we don’t even remember why we had to go here, we just shoot things and let Ryder say his things then go to the closest waypoint (whatever the mission it is linked to).
It even some times make me wonder if the developers haven’t done that on purpose (of course not, but you have to wonder), as so many minors quests make you go from waypoints to waypoints.
On example of terrible quest in my mind is “contagion”… you go all over the nexus from on waypoint to another, then you redo that, but this time on the galactic map, then you finally arrive at a planet, and once more, you have to visit waypoint after waypoint (the end of this quest was ok, but what a pain to arrive there…..).
At the opposite, I strumbled across a small refugee outpost by accident, discussed with a few npc, one explaining me how they ended up here, another how they did tech their way to survive on this hostile planet, and a last one giving me a “quest”, involving one jump, pressing G, left click, then E. Yep, not much of a mission, I won’t spoil you the exact content, but it was both insignificant and very immersive. I loved finding that place by accident, and that this little story was spatially self contained.
And in my opinion, if Bioware wanted to go open world, they should have only done things like that for minor quests, as while following waypoint is terrible, this kind of accidental find really brings the feeling of exploration.
For major quests of course, running right and left, with some small cinematics at each points, is good. However once more, Bioware often managed to break the immersion, by putting your ongoing quest “on hold”, sometimes multiple times during the course of the chain quest, forcing you to come back to it later (sometime 10 hours later!!). Hence, while I have heard some people say that the major quests were not that interesting, I do disagree, the major quests are fine in my opinion, it is simply that we have a hard time getting involved in them as we follow them in a fragmented manner.
Another grip here, the lack of variety with new species, particularly intelligent ones. I was expecting a lot of rehearsal of the questions we have faced in the past during the colonization era (invading other land and resource sharing/stealing, disrupting cultures, initial shock of cultures etc…), but this does not happen, which is terrible considering the exploration/colonization focus of the game. The fact that the andromeda initiative faces such difficulties at the start would have been perfect to force the player into moral choices concerning the respect of other species over the immediate needs of the initiative. Maybe they were afraid the colonization question would be politically sensitive?
Graphics : Playing with a GTX1080 on PC, in 2K ultra, so obviously it is really, really beautiful. Traveling the worlds in the nomad feels great, looking at the planets from the ship too. The optimization is on part with other games looking at my framerates. Only dark mark, human faces indeed are of variable quality, nothing surprising, it has always been the case, simply because aliens always look like the same (with minors skin colors/tatoos tweaks, so it is easy to make one good handcrafted model per race), while humans in their expected visual diversity demand a much much bigger work. Really the problem comes from their character creator, had they focused more on it, they would have had a much easier time to fill the game with better looking humans.
Space travel/ mining : Another content filler. ME games have always had them, and they were never interesting. So no surprise here, it is boring… of course it is a valid reason to complain, as we have been telling it to bioware for a decade by now.
What is actually infuriating me here is that they have already made the work to do something much more interesting. The graphics are here, and possibility of landing into random spots could have been done by using the MP maps (something which had already been done in ME3). All they needed was to reduce the number of spots to visit, trigger missions with the interesting ones, and on the visual part, keeping the view of the bridge during travel (sure the planets are pretty, but it feels very disconnected from the ship the way we see the travel), with the option to have the travel going in real time (pausing in reality) so you would go see your companions during the voyage (as it realistically is when Ryder has time to spare for chating).
MP : MP is ok, probably better than ME3, thanks to better combat mechanics and options. I like how they have included MP into SP, totally optional but somewhat linked, that is a very good design.
Conclusion :
Overall, MEA is a mass effect game. The main quest and major side quests, allied with companion dialogues are really in the line of previous mass effect games, and that is great. The game is very light hearted, which is ok but if the game receives sequel it will need to change. Think about it, take any epic stories you have in mind, they are all built around drama, that is the fuel of emotions.
Combat has been improved, equipment/character sheet have been boosted, but in a so looong game, I feel we lack variety in enemies.
The exploration part is problematic due to lack of diversity in the open world maps and boring minor side quests. Funnily, I think that if bioware had removed most side quests, the game would have had a better score in most reviews, as they create a problem of pacing (of course you don’t have to play them, but still most people have had their experience of the game influenced by them, which is normal).
One other option, which would have had the excellent side effect to personalize each playthrough, would have been to randomize when a minor quest is issued. For example, the game could keep in check the number of quests you already are involved in, limit it at 5 for example, and the closest quest to your position only appearing when one has been achieved. Hence, depending on where you go/ what you do/ in which order, you would have different quests from one game to another (unless you play completionist of course). Limiting the number of quests, and randomizing which ones are given to you would I think been a boon. Furthermore, creating mostly minors quests you stumble across by accident and self contained spatially would have made a great deal for the feel of exploration.
The UI is a puzzling nightmare, once more, I don’t know what the developers had in mind.
To conclude I would add that whatever the way you inspect the game, what is important is the fun factor. In my opinion, there is a very simple way to evaluate it, it is the time you spend in a game before going elsewhere. I was playing nier automata before MEA release, and I have around 110 hours of MEA play time by now, and will return to MEA after finishing this review, so clearly bioware has done something right…
Hence I would give the game 80% once the bugs will be corrected, 75% with the bugs. The game mostly loose 10-15 points relative to other ME games due to the lack of polish and the plethora of (optional) MMO style side quests which while making the game feeling “endless” dilute its quality, one major problem being that you rarely know when a side quest is a good one or a filler, and another that you are overwelmed by minors quests to the point you don’t even remember/care why you are going to the next waypoint on the map. Sure on some points it does improve over previous games (combat/graphics/size), but that is no reason to give it points relative to previous games as score has to evolve with years passing.
I strongly disagree with a score of 60%, simply because usually, when a game is less than 70%, I get bored after 2-3 hours and regret buying the game.
Finally, despite its issues, bioware has made here a perfect setting for starting a new trilogy, as the universe is interesting, and the crew promising. Hence…
Andromeda future :
I am a bit sad, not much because the game has its problems (I still very much enjoy the game), but because of the launch troubles which might deter the idea of a sequel. By now, the team has learned a lot (they had to learn to master the engine for example, and have by now developed many tools), and has the potential to make a great second game. The setting itself offers so much for starting a new trilogy. One this note I would be very happy to continue to play Ryder and his crew.
Right now (and after patching/improvements), there are a few DLC which could be very interesting to investigate. For example, a DLC focusing on a new planet with a new specie (for example intelligne tbut not very advanced technologically) to play the colonization/first contact thematic, or a DLC focusing on the late ark (people screaming for quarians and other races would be happy).
As for the next games, focusing on dark energy (why not focusing on the mass effect itself, as was intended initially in the original ME franchise?), the remnants, whatever, there are plenty of possibilities, as long as Bioware keep the keths as secondary villains, as I don’t feel they have what it takes to be a trilogy major threat. I really think that if Bioware do their part in MEA improvement through patches and content, and follow with good sequels (which should be easier now that they have made the first game and can improve both from what they learned during development and through feedback), in a few years we will look back at MEA as the start of an epic adventure.
