17-minute-long IGN look at Mass Effect Andromeda (Peebee Loyalty Mission SPOILERS)

That's a really pretty planet I must say. I think I'll just put it on easy so nothing stands in my way when I admire the scenery and power through the story.
 
I'm looking forward to this game a lot but this seems like a bad mission to show as your first uninterrupted demo of gameplay. Nothing in there unsold me on the game or anything but they really should have shown something more in the open world. That mission seems obnoxiously hand-holdy and linear.
 
Ehh... As a massive Babylon 5 fan and someone who really enjoyed BG1&2, KOTOR and DA:O, the Mass Effect series has always felt troubling. I liked the first game and it's novelty, but 2 & 3 never quite got me onboard (never finished 3). What I'm seeing here just seems to say that this series isn't for me, which is a shame as it so well could be.

Also, what is it with the art direction? Seems overtly generic and I guess the main characters animation has been discussed to the death already from the older trailer. But the facial animation doesn't seem much improved here. The way she "braces for impact" for example.
 
Seriously, what happened to Bioware ? I'm a huge fan of ME but this, it feels like ME for sure but without the writing, the script, the gameplay, the characters, the visuals, the animations etc...

I won't buy it on day one anymore, I'm gonna wait for reviews + Gaf consensus.
 
Angel_DvA said:
Seriously, what happened to Bioware ? I'm a huge fan of ME but this, it feels like ME for sure but without the writing, the script, the gameplay, the characters, the visuals, the animations etc...

I won't buy it on day one anymore, I'm gonna wait for reviews + Gaf consensus.
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The visuals looked pretty decent to me.
 
Gameplay and environments look good, and the game is going to look great on PC.

However the characters and writing are what is more important to me, and hoo boy haven't had any good examples yet - bizarre facial animation aside. Not a fan of of the problem solving being devoted to metroid prime scanning the correct rock in the room either.

I'm really hoping to see something more optimistic soon. As it is i'm expecting an entertaining but shallow experience (I usually set the bar low for anything though).
 
Man this thread is depressing. Comparing this to some other places everyone is super critical here. While I am not saying this wasnt a mediocre demo, the things I saw made me still excited to play the game. The interaction between peebee and calinda built on a relationship that I want to learn more about.
 
MisterShine said:
This is one of the things I'm most excited about with Andromeda. Without the Reaper threat constantly looming like in the original trilogy, I'll feel a lot better about just exploring and getting to know people in this new galaxy. It's also why I really like the Ryder twins: they've little military experience or formal training so they don't have to be so stiff. Shepard was pretty much a fixed quantity in many areas, whereas in Andromeda we can play our main character a bit more loose.

I'm just worried about the moment-to-moment actually coming together to be enjoyable. Combat looks great to me, I just want similarly great characters, like I got in every other mass effect game.
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yeah but then that brings about my other concern which is that there doesn't seem to be a clear cut antagonist or driving force that's pushing the narrative. I haven't been following the promotional material super closely but the whole thing feels like a space romp of just exploring this new universe just because. If that is the case then im fine with the more fun looser tone of the characters but i feel like i don't know what's at stake for the team.
 
Aside from cutscene animation still being standard bioware stuff, game looks pretty great visually.

The guy who's playing certainly isn't doing them any favours in showing off the gameplay though.
 
A-V-B said:
The visuals looked pretty decent to me.
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Yup they are and that's the problem, they're just decent...

callsignkrogan said:
Man this thread is depressing. Comparing this to some other places everyone is super critical here. While I am not saying this wasnt a mediocre demo, the things I saw made me still excited to play the game. The interaction between peebee and calinda built on a relationship that I want to learn more about.
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But the demo was mediocre, not saying the entire game will be mediocre but they haven't released something I could be exited for yet.
 
paragonpro said:
Whats the point of finding terminals to open doors? Its like they wanted to do real puzzles but couldnt commit to it
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To be fair, this is absolutely standard for Mass Effect. "Finding ___ to open a door" has been all over every game in the trilogy. If you're looking for puzzles that aren't the Tower of Hanoi, this is not the franchise for you.
 
ironcreed said:
Yeah, that is what I am seeing as well. Cannot wait.
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This mission doesn't look like the most exciting one, but I think extrapolating it and its mechanics across the entire experience is really silly. You could do the same thing with any of the missions in ME2 and 3. But what makes Mass Effect, well, Mass Effect is the WHOLE game - the story, diplomacy, exploration, Normandy, atmosphere - not solely the combat missions.

Now, I haven't seen enough to know that those elements are here but I also haven't seen enough to know for sure that they are not. I will say that the previews suggest that they are. So I'm willing to give Bioware the benefit of the doubt. Their marketing has been pretty woeful, though.
 
paragonpro said:
Whats the point of finding terminals to open doors? Its like they wanted to do real puzzles but couldnt commit to it
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"Puzzles" like these exist to break up the action in AAA games. Something quiet to do in between shooting stuff. They aren't really made to give you that eureka feeling of solving them.
 
Jarmel said:
Ok let's take the large assumption, which contradicts the previous two games, and assume this is early. The problem with how this mission is structured if the gameplay mechanics are unique is that they're still handholding a good amount of the ways into the mission itself. Instead of establishing the mechanics early and just assuming the player has figured it out after the first time, SAM repeatedly tells you how to do it or what to look for when you've already done it. Even if the mechanics inside the mission are new, it's still repetitious in how it's handled.

There's also the notion that why are they even putting unique mechanics like that into an optional mission and not introducing them earlier in a more organic fashion. That seems like a general failure of the director to create a cohesive progression. There shouldn't be a need in the first place.
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Most game don't assume you got it the fist time though. It almost always twice. If anything the overlap in information that make it to much (marker, objective box plus companion dialogue pushing the player triggering a bit fast). If the whole mission is like that then I agree it's bit too much

I don't see why they would need to make it more organic either, it works fine the way it is if you ask me. Why would they even need to introduce it earlier if it exclusive to this mission/missions string ?

I get me wrong I don't find it great but it's hardly an heresy in game design either
 
Never been super interested in Mass Effect despite playing number one and enjoying it, is this one open world like Dragon Age? Everything looks so...Stale in the world is my biggest take from this video, nothing is interacting with the world to create an interesting and diverse environment.
 
dat face...

datx.gif
 
HowZatOZ said:
Never been super interested in Mass Effect despite playing number one and enjoying it, is this one open world like Dragon Age? Everything looks so...Stale in the world is my biggest take from this video, nothing is interacting with the world to create an interesting and diverse environment.
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Its not technically open world. There are many large open zones and also more focused zones for specific missions.
 
Its hard to assess the combat when the guy playing seems to kind of suck. And I don't know if its his fault or Bioware's, but his cooldowns are presumably screwed by carrying all those guns
 
J_Viper said:
Just remember folks, I'm pretty sure one of the lead writers on this was the Halo 4 dude. So....yeah.



Poor facial animation is not a nitpick, especially when games like TW3 and Horizon (well, Aloy at least) are knocking it out of the park. These guys need to step it up already.

And what, do you work for Bioware? Why are you so adamant in defending them?
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It's not about BioWare it's about this ridiculous internet mentality where people take something we see for a literal second and put it on loop a thousand times then complain about it. In reality, most of this is barely noticed during gameplay.
 
The team mate and AI buddy chatter is a bit on the nose. Hope it's just an early mission, that would wear thin. Looks nice at least, game play ain't all that but I haven't seen anything but this and action.
 
rs_1024x759-140522102557-1024.Celebrity-Mean-Tweets-3-JR4-52214.jpg
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But default Fem Ryder.

I feel like I'm going to wait a few days until some people have put good character slider templates online, because that is a derpy face if I've ever seen one. How do you stare at that for months or even years and go "ship it!"
 
Exploratory said:
It's not about BioWare it's about this ridiculous internet mentality where people take something we see for a literal second and put it on loop a thousand times then complain about it. In reality, most of this is barely noticed during gameplay.
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Yeah, this. I saw the looped GIF and was prepared to watch a cutscene in which the character looks inexplicably constipated for several seconds, but the cut in the actual video is so fast that the weird facial expression is barely noticeable, even if you're looking for it.

I'm not saying that the facial animations in this game are great, from what I've seen, but this gleeful highlighting of a cinematically irrelevant moment seems cheap.

Edit - I also would argue that comparisons to games with fixed protagonists like Horizon or TW3 are a bit unfair. Maybe you could argue that Bioware should have put in the effort to perfect the cutscenes for the default Ryders, but it can't be as easy to animate when your animations have to work with every conceivable character face.
 
I'm totally getting a lot of the criticism I'm seeing of this video but I sorta can't believe people are still harping on Fem Ryder's base face model. It's arguably the least important thing being shown right now since it's completely editable.

Also she looks fine. It's feels like the equivalent of "sharp knees 3/10 wouldn't bang"
 
Exploratory said:
It's not about BioWare it's about this ridiculous internet mentality where people take something we see for a literal second and put it on loop a thousand times then complain about it. In reality, most of this is barely noticed during gameplay.
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sorry i dont see it like that...that face will bother me a lot during cutscenes. they need to step it up, dai was also bad in terms of facial expressions. the whole animation thing is just janky.
 
AWizardDidIt said:
I'm totally getting a lot of the criticism I'm seeing of this video but I sorta can't believe people are still harping on Fem Ryder's base face model. It's arguably the least important thing being shown right now since it's completely editable.

Also she looks fine. It's feels like the equivalent of "sharp knees 3/10 wouldn't bang"
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Shepard would bang
 
The combat looks better each time I see it. Not sure I see the value in switching between jobs yet though. I feel like Bioware should just be releasing their own videos because this IGN demo has me thinking of the infamous Polygon DOOM gameplay.

Don't really like the other parts. Lots of weird artificial gates that require mundane/basic player interaction. These blockades to progression that always need to be scanned or interacted with are obviously going to feel tedious. Dialogue was pretty bad...from Peebee's unnatural excitement that doesn't fit the scene to the passive way characters seem to not react to one another. From a production standpoint there are lots of corners being cut that hurts the storytelling. Characters are talking offscreen for almost the entirety of the intro cutscene...like come on. Didn't really hear any dialogue from the tag along Krogan either...like he really has nothing to say about the crash landing?
 
The "puzzles" are probably made to look more trivial by the fact that the guy has played through the mission 2 times before, so he knows where to look.
 
Do they ever stop talking? If that robo-companion is explaining every single thing that is happening on your screen then the PC is just saying what they're going to do right before you do it. Pretty condescending to the player's intelligence.
 
Less "puzzle" and more just environmental exploration. It's like a less natural version of 3/4 of the quests in the Witcher 3.

It makes for a bad demo. I really hope we get some better videos of more 'typical' missions soon.
 
AWizardDidIt said:
Less "puzzle" and more just environmental exploration. It's like a less natural version of 3/4 of the quests in the Witcher 3.

It makes for a bad demo. I really hope we get some better videos of more 'typical' missions soon.
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Unfortunately we'll probably get a whole bunch of other publications running this mission instead.
 
Angel_DvA said:
Seriously, what happened to Bioware ? I'm a huge fan of ME but this, it feels like ME for sure but without the writing, the script, the gameplay, the characters, the visuals, the animations etc...

I won't buy it on day one anymore, I'm gonna wait for reviews + Gaf consensus.
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Oh god. Never listen to this place for an opinion on a game. Especially this one.
 
Wulfram said:
Unfortunately we'll probably get a whole bunch of other publications running this mission instead.
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This is the mission from the preview build that they all played already and wrote about. IGN seems to have an exclusive on showing the whole thing.

EDIT: Actually I'm wrong. Previewers played two main missions. I want to see those!
 
Auctopus said:
Do they ever stop talking? If that robo-companion is explaining every single thing that is happening on your screen then the PC is just saying what they're going to do right before you do it. Pretty condescending to the player's intelligence.
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I absolutely loathe games that overdo this and this demo seems to do this in spades. I don't need a running commentary on every single little thing.
 
Wulfram said:
Unfortunately we'll probably get a whole bunch of other publications running this mission instead.
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Well the game is 3 weeks from release with what I would assume is a 1 week pre-release review embargo (what DA:I got) so I would assume we'll get more gameplay footage of different things soon.

I found this video kind of a bummer for someone excited to see more of the game though.
 
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