Well, 'need' might be a bit strong. But still nice to have, to take a breather, get an overview of the battlefield and make a tactical sound decision on how to proceed^^
Besides, it differentiates itself from other TPS's with this.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Mass Effect: Andromeda - Game Informer Details (Combat, story, more) [Up: All Info]
- Thread starter shinobi602
- Start date
- Status
Well, 'need' might be a bit strong. But still nice to have, to take a breather, get an overview of the battlefield and make a tactical sound decision on how to proceed^^
Besides, it differentiates itself from other TPS's with this.
There's no tactics in any of the games though.
Darryl M R
Member
I'm glad they removed the class system. Hopefully respecing is easy.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Garrus, Tali, and Liara aren't even Garrus, Tali, and Liara until ME2. They totally change. Wrex I will give you. And Jack was great, if you spend any time talking to her. Also noticed you left out Kasumi.
FunkyDealer
Banned
This all sounds incredibly good! It sounds like what I've wanted from a "next-gen" Mass Effect.
But will it have controller support on PC, or will I have to get it on console? That's the question.
But will it have controller support on PC, or will I have to get it on console? That's the question.
The trick is to get rid of voiced protagonists : ^)
LumpOfCole
Member
I just want my dope curvable biotic abilities from ME2 and ME3. Adept4Life.
Poodlestrike
Banned
You're really not gonna be able to get that until you have VA-quality synthesized dialogue, honestly. Sou Da's right, it's just too expensive.
Or unvoiced characters, I guess
But I feel that ship has sailed for AAA.George Oscar Bluth II
Banned
ME2 crew was SSV Family Issues. I really only liked Mordin and Legion of the new additions. Garrus turned into a badass, though at the cost of losing whatever character progression he got from your influence in first game. Still like him, though.
Grunt was fine but really came to in ME3.
Thane was alright but a little boring.
Zaeed is cool enough.
Tali is much better than ME1.
Miranda is annoying.
Jack is obnoxious.
Samara is pretty bland because she's basically a prequel-era Jedi.
Kasumi is there.
Jacob is Jacob.
Sounds like this game:
Well, Andromeda's lead designer, Ian Frazier was also the lead designer for Amalur, so that makes sense.
Tali is my favorite Mass Effect character but she's boring as shit in the first game, basically just a talking Codex for the geth/quarian Morning War backstory to be fed to the player. Liara I didn't find to be particularly interesting other than her mother being one of the bad guys. Wrex is awesome. Garrus doesn't have any sense of humor in 1, so he's simply not Garrus.
I should clarify that I don't think ME1's character cast is bad, I just wouldn't put it on the same level as ME2/3.
As far as I'm concerned BioWare casts go like this:
Top Tier:
BG2
ME2
ME3
DAO
Good-Tier:
Dragon Age: Inquisition
KOTOR
ME1
Eh-Tier:
DA2
Jade Empire
Doesn't-Have-Characters-Tier:
BG1
NWN
RoboticWater
Banned
That's an awful defense for the game. Incidentally, the way in which Mass Effect 1 differs from other shooters is that its mechanics are just bad. The controls aren't tight, the levels barely deserve to be called designed, the weapons felt very homogenous and shared the same flimsy feel, and enemies lacked tactical variety.
Not really. I found that the most optimal strategy every single battle was to just spam every power you had and steam roll over your enemies. Team composition was irrelevant, and leveling them required little thought. It's not like any power choices you made lead to significantly different gameplay results. I'll grant you that levels weren't corridors, because they were worse: simply rooms connected by short hallways with rectangular bits strewn lazily about them. ME 2-3 benefitted from more linear design because then the levels actually had a good sense of pacing to them.
The game had atmosphere and plot, but it's mediocre in nearly every mechanical category.
Tali and Garrus were far more interesting in the second game. ME1 Tali was practically a glorified codex entry. But yeah, name the worst character in ME2 to make your point, I'll be over here with Legion, Mordin, and Jack.
Salz01
Member
I'm looking for more info on this question too.
Brawndo Addict
Banned
The non-Mass Relay based FTL travel in the series is exponentially slower and used primarily for intra-system travel or travel to close neighboring systems. I mistakenly thought the game took place throughout the entire Andromeda galaxy as opposed to an isolated star cluster. After all, going from the Solar System to Alpha Centauri (4.37 light years) is a little different than going from the Solar System to Omega Centauri (15,800 light years).
Deciding where to send your squad, or what power they should use. Whether you should pull back, what cover to go to next or what enemy to take out first. All sounds tactical to me, no?
Of course you don't NEED to do this, you can go in blazing guns, not caring what your squad does and still win. But it was fun to have the option.
Sounds different, which is good.
So I can build a relationship with my sibling eh? Hmmmmm?
So I can build a relationship with my sibling eh? Hmmmmm?
Yeah. That's a name alright.
Some Russian folks found some Gameinformer screens.
This mofo looks like the unholy child of a Hell Knight, a Pinkie and a Cyberdemon.
NathanDiego
Member
Hype it's over 9000
truestatic
Member
That's one way to run up a budget in a hurry. I think you'll be waiting for a massive leap forward in computer generated vocals for this.
Not when there's no need to actually do it because the first game at least has such badly designed gameplay. There's no strategy behind the powers mechanics.
MadLaughter
Member
I second the notion that Tali was dryyyyyyyy as hell in the first game. But she became my second favorite after Garrus by ME3.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Eh... playing on Insane, being able to pause, move people to better flanking spots, queue up powers, all very useful.
It does say that we'll still be able to do that, though if the power wheel is gone I've no idea how.
Oh man... My expectations are now so low.
truestatic
Member
Thank goodness we've advanced beyond the gameplay of the first game then, and we actually can take advantage of interactions for useful combos?
Well, now go back to the post that made you react like that and read it again. Maybe you'll notice the difference between "not an RPG anymore!!11!" and "I'm not sure about the class system being gone. Sounds less RPG focused.". Hopefully.
WhiskerFrisker
Member
It bears some resemblance to a Pride Demon from Dragon Age: Inquisition.Some Russian folks found some Gameinformer screens.
I like what I've read so far. I can't wait to see the gameplay reveal.
Frozenprince
Banned
I'm sorry but the fact that ME1 was a cover based shooter where the cover system barely ever worked is pretty damn telling. The "COD guns a bang bang club" or whatever rightfully wanted the combat, the vast majority of the actual game you will be playing, to not feel like a janky clunky mess where core mechanics to its proper implementation barely worked.
2 and 3 are not "less" of an RPG because they don't have 80 page long numerical stat sheets and inventories full of loot that 9/10 of the things you pick up you'll never ever use.
You play a role, that's what a role playing game is. You don't need number to make it more or less of an RPG and frankly that attitude and elitism is pretty tiring to constantly defend as someone who's a fan of 2 and 3.
2 and 3 are not "less" of an RPG because they don't have 80 page long numerical stat sheets and inventories full of loot that 9/10 of the things you pick up you'll never ever use.
You play a role, that's what a role playing game is. You don't need number to make it more or less of an RPG and frankly that attitude and elitism is pretty tiring to constantly defend as someone who's a fan of 2 and 3.
Thank goodness we've advanced beyond the gameplay of the first game then, and we actually can take advantage of interactions for useful combos?
I agree that the power mechanics of 2 and especially 3 were significantly better designed than 1, but I don't think the tactical options are really all that robust.
FusedAtoms
Member
Wow all of this sounds great, I'm excited to see what this game has to offer.
First game, sure. ME2 on insane though... Glad to have those options.
For some reason i thougt Kasumi started in 3. It all blends together after a while. As a ME2 DLC character she really doesnt get much to do, despite being one of the most useful squadmates.
Garrus and Liara are mostly the same in ME1 and ME3 and in 2 they arent really that different. Its just that you know them better so bioware can give them more deptb. In ME1 Garrus was still an elite cop who was prone to renegade tendancies. While Liara is the exposition dump character.
Tali gets a real arc from Runaway to team leader to Admiral who takes her people home. But shes really the only one.
Mass Effect 2 benefits from the increased number of side characters compared to ME1 but most arent as good.
I also for got Legion. He should go in the Ashley/Kaiden/Grunt tier
Frozenprince
Banned
It's really never been a tactical shooter though, especially since every combat situation took place in a hallway where you were on one side of a bunch of waist high walls and the bad guys were on another side of a bunch of waist high walls.
Plus 3 added zombies so that basically ended that lol.
Frozenprince
Banned
What qualifies as an rpg element?
truestatic
Member
You're not wrong. It's an action game at its heart. In the end you do generally use abilities in the same ways over and over and over. Set up a combo with X, detonate with Y. Switch to R and S for barrier enemies or etc. It worked extremely well and easily in the multiplayer, and so long as the binds are convenient on all platforms I think people will adjust to being able to do this. Still, the ability to pause and plan on insane was welcome.
Eh. We'll see how it goes. =]
Gameplay by numbers and mountains of loot or bust baby!
/s
Sounds like this game:
This picture surely is a compelling argument.
You didn't actually read the OP huh.
Frozenprince
Banned
I swear all people think when they see "RPG" is "Hey this isn't Wasteland!"
He also was lead designer on Lazarus which was a great U5 remake.
George Oscar Bluth II
Banned
In terms of being the best game, I'd say that goes to Mass Effect... 2. It had good combat and a better dialogue system than ME3. The best combat goes to ME3 but they really dumbed down the dialogue system that it soured me on the whole game. It's tough because ME3 has the best customisation and skill trees too.
Mass Effect 1 is my favourite not for gameplay reasons but for the art direction, atmosphere, soundtrack, tone and story (not a great story, but the best of the 3 IMO). I also like that it maintained a good balance of interacting with our squad and going on missions. We could even hear squad banter anywhere, which was great.
Mass Effect 1 is my favourite not for gameplay reasons but for the art direction, atmosphere, soundtrack, tone and story (not a great story, but the best of the 3 IMO). I also like that it maintained a good balance of interacting with our squad and going on missions. We could even hear squad banter anywhere, which was great.
I'm not against pause-and-play, I'm just commenting on the idea that the previous games were tactical.
The only way the entire arc projet would make sense is if cerberus or some other organization that was aware of the reaper threat was funding it. The expedition makes very little sense otherwise, since the vast majority of the milky way remains unexplored, so it kind of flies in the face of the "we want to explore" angle, especially since its a huge investment with zero return, with nobody coming back. It makes little sense to explore way over "there" when there is so much left over "here", where there are both direct benefits and much less financial investment. Even then it seems really unlikely that they could convince so many other races to join in, when there is no apparent incentive for anyone. We have to remember, the reapers arent known at this time, and any galaxy wide doomsday scenario would seem a ludicrous notion.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Hear, hear.
Not terribly robust, no, but still very useful at higher difficulties. You can still brute-force your way through if you're good enough, admittedly.
I was gonna let this slide but then you put Legion in Kaiden tier and that shit's not acceptable.
*scust*
You play a role in practically every video game ever. By this logic, most games are role-playing games - which they aren't.
Role playing video games are the successors to pen and paper RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons. Numbers are essential to the genre.
RoboticWater
Banned
I think response is still fairly justified. I don't really understand how a classless system would give you doubts about the game's status as an RPG. I can understand hesitation towards the system itself, but not how that extends to roleplaying. It just seems like a stretch you deliberately made to point out that you think Andromeda won't be very focused on being an RPG. That may not be the intent, but it kinda comes off that way.
- Status