It's surprising that people who are so hyped for the game that they are willing to pay extra to play it early even if for a few hours are more willing to accept its faults?
Well, reached the end of the trial. I've still got half of the allotted time left to check out the side stuff, but I'm not exactly in a hurry for "Pathfinder, go solve every problem we have". Bioware still seems unable to decide between "go save the world" and "deliver mail for my neighbour" type of content.
And the NPCs...
Why would they put all their worst writing in the beginning?
I really think people calling the beginning poorly written are stretching it. It's fine, really.
"I think I really pissed that one off! Maybe because I shot him in the face!"I really think people calling the beginning poorly written are stretching it. It's fine, really.
I mean I've heard from a few people that the story takes a while to find it's groove but it does get better, so there's always that possibility.
"I think I really pissed that one off! Maybe because I shot him in the face!"
ME1 & 2 are two of my favorite games, had MEA on pre order and was pretty jazzed about jumping in after just finishing Horizon Zero Dawn last night.
So boot up the 44 gig EA Access trial today morning and play for 3 hours. Usual fun in character creation, I create nightmare fuel clown faced killer and off we go. Story starts a bit wonky, like some really, really, really basic science facts seem to be ignored (Andromeda is 2m light years away... which means stuff you observe is 2m years old...) but thats fine, exploring a planet is pretty cool and fun. A bit weird that my dad is an N7 and kicks serious ass and I just feel like a red shirt NPC who literally does nothing while everyone else kills stuff.
The writing is wretched. Beyond wretched. Just horrible cliches, cringe dialogue, and inane dopey comments. Every new NPC I meet is more annoying than the last. Combined with terrible voice acting, insanely bad face animations and models, and a real lack of emotion so far in the story and I just don't even want to finish playing out the remaining 6 hours on my trial, let alone buy the game.
Pre order cancelled. I don't know what went wrong with this game but I hope Bioware does a strong post mortem and figure out what this massive gap is between the studio that made classics like KOTOR, Baldurs Gate, and Mass Effect and this game.
Liam combat line at 1:32:00 in this video. The timestamp doesn't wanna work, sorry.Wait, is that an actual line? Because that's actually kind of funny. Got a chuckle out of me.
Well, reached the end of the trial. I've still got half of the allotted time left to check out the side stuff, but I'm not exactly in a hurry for "Pathfinder, go solve every problem we have". Bioware still seems unable to decide between "go save the world" and "deliver mail for my neighbour" type of content.
And the NPCs...
Why would they put all their worst writing in the beginning?
It's not like they intentionally put in bad writing.Why would they put all their worst writing in the beginning?
Called it. Loved the first three, nothing about Andromeda has seemed exciting to me.
If I wanted to spend my trial time on something besides the multiplayer I'd go take a screenshot of one particular red head NPC that was looking horrific. Not the lady with the accent but an NPC that just had one line of dialogue before she magically vanished.
I'm not saying this excuses quality issues but I think something people need to remember going into this is that it is made by the multiplayer Team from Mass Effect 3. It really shows in how good the Combat gameplay and animations are and yet how janky they are in conversations.
These guys don't have any experience doing conversations or facial animation while they have a lot doing combat. Again this doesn't excuse and it doesn't invalidate people's issues but I was not surprised going into it because I saw this happening
Had to cancel my pre-order for Persona 5 anyway, looks like I won't be missing too much.
Lol, sure, it's tonally the perfect thing to say when the success of an incredibly important 600-year initiative riding on the ground efforts of the best team of human explorers we have, irreplaceable people who have no doubt been through rigorous physical and mental training for all sorts of worst case scenarios, is being complicated by first contact with a brand new race of intelligent spacefaring beings.Gotta disagree with you on that one. That was pretty funny. ��
Yeah, haha. Oh well.I can see where you're coming from. I just see it as a funny quip meant to be fun.
Lol, sure, it's tonally the perfect thing to say when the success of an incredibly important 600-year initiative riding on the ground efforts of the best team of human explorers we have, irreplaceable people who have no doubt been through rigorous physical and mental training for all sorts of worst case scenarios, is being complicated by first contact with a brand new race of intelligent spacefaring beings.
Screw diplomacy or any and all chances of sharing technology and boosting our survival rate in this new galaxy because they killed one practically nameless crew member during what literally might've been an isolated misunderstanding. I'm fired up and gonna kick their faces in!
The opposite is also true, people rejecting criticism and concerns because the game they've been hyping for months can't afford to be shite.
After playing the trial it's not hard to see where Walker is coming from.
The presentation of the game is downright terrible. It's going to need a good few patches to bring it up to standard. If they even will.
The combat is fun, no faults there.
The game can look beautiful at times (landscapes) and downright ugly as fuck (every scene containing humans with their helmets off).
Also weird is the game can't properly render the afro hairstyle, why even offer it if it's going to flicker and look like buggy shit?
It's a game I'll pick up near the end of the year when some much needed patches have been released.
After playing the trial it's not hard to see where Walker is coming from.
The presentation of the game is downright terrible. It's going to need a good few patches to bring it up to standard. If they even will.
The combat is fun, no faults there.
The game can look beautiful at times (landscapes) and downright ugly as fuck (every scene containing humans with their helmets off).
Also weird is the game can't properly render the afro hairstyle, why even offer it if it's going to flicker and look like buggy shit?
It's a game I'll pick up near the end of the year when some much needed patches have been released.
I really think people calling the beginning poorly written are stretching it. It's fine, really.
Well, reached the end of the trial. I've still got half of the allotted time left to check out the side stuff, but I'm not exactly in a hurry for "Pathfinder, go solve every problem we have". Bioware still seems unable to decide between "go save the world" and "deliver mail for my neighbour" type of content.
And the NPCs...
Combat seems to be the good part about this game
The narrative...well, impressions are lukewarm and underwhelming from Giant Bomb, Gamespot, PC Gamer, and RPS. Still haven't encountered people who praise the first 10 hours of the game's narrative. And then you have this nugget of course: https://webmshare.com/Dm0Nz
Exposition is hard.I don't think poor writing improves, especially as a lot of developers leave the beginning of the game for last.
However, there is a possibility that the story itself improves. Maybe they rushed the beginning of the game?
RPS posted a follow-up article with more initial observations. It's not entirely negative, but man does it turn me off from playing the game.
The problem is certain quotes that feel like unintentionally damning with faint praise:
"I certainly don't think what I've played of MEA is a disaster..."
"...there are only a handful of writing/acting disasters (so far)..."
"...I have struggled to care about anyone"
And others. Most of the praise is for moments of technical brilliance. Everything else is uneven or just okay.
But have a read yourself for a complete breakdown and context:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/16/mass-effect-andromeda-problems/#more-435451
8. It continues Dragon Age: Inquisition's singleplayer MMO structure
Whole lotta collecting and crafting, whole lotta random skirmishing as you roam, whole lotta relentlessly scanning arbitrary items on a planet's surface for nebulous research points that you can then spend on making/buying new stuff. It's very game-y here. On the one hand, this gives you far more to do moment to moment, which is handy if you've burned out on quests, but on the other the hamster wheel structure is at odds with the central conceit – finding a new home and keeping an alien threat at bay.
It's different in many ways – particularly because it's a shooter rather than a stabber – but if you didn't get on with DAI's random encounters and loot-fountains, you'll likely have similar issues here. I should say that I personally got on alright with DAI, but that was primarily down to enjoying the characterisation – and this is the area in which MAE has thus far most been lacking.
Exposition is hard.
but if you didn't get on with DAI's random encounters and loot-fountains, you'll likely have similar issues here. I should say that I personally got on alright with DAI, but that was primarily down to enjoying the characterisation – and this is the area in which MAE has thus far most been lacking.
RPS posted a follow-up article with more initial observations. It's not entirely negative, but man does it turn me off from playing the game.
But have a read yourself for a complete breakdown and context:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/16/mass-effect-andromeda-problems/#more-435451
Hoary old RPG fans are less of a goldmine than are people who like to shoot men/monsters and collect loot, and though theres all sorts of story and side-questing going on here, at heart it would seem to be continuing the series rapid shift into a weapons-centric game. So intellectual curiosity is either brushed aside or concentrated into between-mission conversations that you can easily skip through if you just want the next task.
Played it for an hour or so. The companion AI is definitely... special. One of them decided that instead of taking cover, he would stand ON the chest high rock formation instead and got himself killed in short order.
8. It continues Dragon Age: Inquisitions singleplayer MMO structure
Well, good thing they took the power wheel away too that actually made AI squaddies useful, sigh.
Playing through Binary Domain right now makes me appreciate being able to give orders (which particularly in the case of the Charge command has a big impact too), having solid squad AI and squadmates that can efficiently kill at least standard enemies.
I hope a lot of posters in this thread wrote sincere, heartfelt apologies to John Walker and promised to keep an open mind in the future.
In which Mass Effect intellectual curiosity is not solved with shooting your weapons?
The writer seems to miss that the problem with DAI's MMO structure is not the loot system, nor crafting. It's the massive amount of fetch quest which make you feel more like an errant boy than a hero.
Overall, this article is actually more brutal than Walker's, which could be dismissed as hyperbolic.
This part bums me out because it's what I disliked most about DAI.
Totally agree, and none of the ME games have been great at it. Though Bioware showed some aptitude for it in Dragon Age Origins, doing it well not just once, but multiple times.