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[codemonkey]

While the cinematic trailer didn't do too much to make me look forward to the game even more, I have to say I like pretty much everything I've been reading here. Cannot wait for the gameplay trailer in December to find out whether it looks as good as it sounds.

Anyway, I'm very probably absolutely going to love this game. Might have to build my own Hyperion and sleep there until spring.

 

[Lanf]

The future
-Mass Effect: Andromeda leaves the door open for more games (obviously)
-New game+ mode allows you to change your gender if you choose
-BioWare is coy about multiple endings; "it's a suprise", "it's different than the trilogy"

The NG+ gender switch is really neat.

 

[Poodlestrike]

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.

Why can't they be successors to the FATE system and other, numbers-light P&P games?

 

[JimmyRustler]

Planet exploration is back? Man, I'm so in on this baby.

Infos sound great. Can't wait.

 

[shinobi602]

Like why the fuck even bring it back then? Most of the fun was dealing with those big or heavily armored enemies.

The reason was to be able to quickly traverse these big planets. They're fairly large in size, and to emphasize that the Nomad is an exploration/scout vehicle first and foremost, unlike the Mako.

shinobi602, thanks for writing all this out. It's much appreciated.

My pleasure.

 

[Boombloxer]

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.

All this.

And I'm quite happy that the multiplayer is back.

 

[cb1115]

Sounds like this game:

this game would've been great if it had an even somewhat decent narrative tho

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Thanks for the write-up, Shinobi

 

[RedSwirl]

Sounds about as good as I could have expected.

Seems like BioWare really is trying to bring together the sense of exploration and traversal from ME1, the side quests of ME2, and the combat of ME3.

I dont know, Im getting Fallout 4 vibes from this. Over simplification, no rpg elements, straight up arcady action game.

I don't think oversimplification was Fallout 4's problem. I don't even think the combat was its problem. Fallout 4's problem was that it focused way too much on clearing dungeons and not enough on role-playing.

I think the classless system will be fine as long as BioWare doesn't let you be and do everything in one build. It still needs to lay down some limits. The twitchy combat also isn't bad as long as that isn't practically the whole game like it was in ME3 and FO4. Basically, it'll be fine as long as I get an opportunity to really define my character by having to make combat-oriented choices as well a social and story-oriented choices. I think BioWare is still going to do that role-playing story stuff because that's its main strength, but then again, BioWare did make ME3.

 

[Frozenprince]

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.

No, they aren't. There are plenty of pen and paper RPG's that don't require a single number check to still be RPG's.

 

[mbpm1]

Cnematic trailer has me super hype to see them discover a new galaxy.

one of my fav premises from YA novels i read as a kid was Remnants and this is bring major feels similar to that

 

[KingSnake]

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.

Oh, FFS. I apologise that I destroyed everybody's positive vibes and hype. I will rephrase that and show myself out of this thread that can't take any doubt:

It sounds a bit less than the type of RPG system that I enjoy most. As of now. Maybe when they will finally show more gameplay and I will find out more details it will sound better for me.

 

[inky]

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.

No it's not. Saying "the controls aren't tight" or "weapons are flimsy" (whatever that means) is just a bad descriptive term. Sounds more like you are talking about presentation or flourishes. The mechanics are fine, but the shooting is not just "leave your finger in the trigger while running" kind of shooting, like said, it's volley based and power management is way more important. The weapons were not homogeneous unless you didn't bother customizing them with different mods and ammo types. When people talk about RPG elements lost is about those statistical and functional variances given by those items. Making a mini-nuke heavy weapon vs a grenade launcher with no modifications possible instead is the RPG vs Shooter design people usually complain about. You prefer one, that's fine, that doesn't make the other one "wrong".

Not really. I found that the most optimal strategy every single battle was to just spam every power you had steam roll over your enemies. Team composition was irrelevant, and leveling required little thought. 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.

I'm sure you played like that, but it isn't the most "optimal strategy" just because you did. Most of the times they were more open areas, so your "connected rooms" complaint sounds false anyway. Go play it again.

The game had atmosphere and plot, but it's mediocre in nearly every mechanical category.

Call it what you like, it was fine and any ME (including 2 and 3) was a better game for its atmosphere and plot than for whatever mechanical improvements they tried to do like scanning planets or buying fuel and running from tiny reapers in the galaxy map to make up for the lack of exploration.

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.

Like I said, Mass Effect 2 focused on character development almost exclusively, and had for more characters, many who benefited from already being introduced. I liked Legion and Thane and Mordin, etc. Saying Garrus wasn't Garrus until 2 is just ridiculous, tho. His whole personality, dislike for authority and loyalty was there from the very start. His mission wasn't as elaborate as the ones in 2, but you got to know him through it all the same. Wrex and Ash and Liara and Garrus were all themselves since 1. Of course they are going to grow with more development in subsequent games, that's just common sense. It doesn't make the particular character writing unoriginal in any cases, i.e. daddy issues for everyone.

 

[GasProblem]

Paragon/Renegade are gone huh. I like there being more grey choices, not just 'good' and 'evil'.

 

[diaspora]

y'all jabronis know that ME3's skilltrees took percentages and numbers for power strength, AOE radius, cooldowns, HP changes, shield/barrier changes, debuffs, and general attack strength into account right?

 

[valkyre]

Can I ask something maybe stupid? Are there... cities in the game? Like say the scope of Ilium for example?

A quick read of the bulletpoints makes it sound as if there arent enough civilised places in Andromeda.

 

[Tovarisc]

Choices
-No more Paragon/Renegade system
-They want more nuance and subtlety and giving the player more opportunity to express themselves
-You can agree or disagree with someone without being punished or cornered into a paragon or renegade choice
-Dialogue option tones: heart, head, professional and casual.
-These don't affect you or sway a meter one way or another, rather they allow you freedom without worrying about unintended consequences
-"Narrative actions" (previously "interrupts) return but rather than giving a "red"=bad or "blue"=good choice, it can say "shoot", leaving more ambiguity to your choice
-Decisions aren't necessarily obvious "right" or "wrong", there are pros and cons to each and you'll just have to play the game the way you want

All that sounds promising. Moving away from clear cut Good vs Evil design towards gray areas without obvious answers. Hopefully they pull it off well. I wish dialogue option tones weren't a thing, but instead used old good full dialogue choice or even how TW3 had it. Choosing tone as a reply is... weird.

What I didn't like was them ramming romances in with both hands. Quality over quantity and I have serious doubts about them being able to deliver good quality to all romances in MEA. Especially if they want those romances grow over time and feel like actual relationship, and not be right answer checks for cheesy sex cinematic.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Can I ask something maybe stupid? Are there... cities in the game? Like say the scope of Ilium for example?

A quick read of the bulletpoints makes it sound as if there arent enough civilised places in Andromeda.

We know there's cities, or at least civilized areas; the extent of them is unclear.

From the E3 2016 trailer, there's a shot of Daddy Ryder dangling a dude off of a ledge in what certainly looks like a city.

 

[Frozenprince]

No it's not. Saying "the controls" aren't tight is just a bad descriptive term. The mechanics are fine, but the shooting is not just "leave your finger in the trigger" kind of shooting, like said, it's volley based. the weapons were not homogenous unless you didn't bother customizing them with different mods and ammo types. when people talk about RPG elements lost is about those statistical and functional variances given by those items. Making a mini-nuke heavy weapon vs a grenade launcher is the RPG vs Shooter design people complain about. You prefer one, that's fine, that doesn't make the other one "wrong".

If I have to mash forward 10 different times to maybe hopefully get my character to hide behind a wall properly only for them to unglue the minute I try to aim or get hit isn't tight controls. It's missing that snap tightness that, yes, a shooter, which is what Mass Effect is, requires.

 

[TC McQueen]

Can I ask something maybe stupid? Are there... cities in the game? Like say the scope of Ilium for example?

A quick read of the bulletpoints makes it sound as if there arent enough civilised places in Andromeda.

Hyperion might be the closest there is, but who knows at this point.

 

[Novel Mike]

Hmm... interesting glad to see at least some details after that trailer was basically pointless.

I'm not a fan of losing the class system as I thought that inspired replayings and making every character you create something different. IT sounds like there are still elements involved in a sort of class progression but the problem I have is that it sounds like everyone starts out the same and branches out which I personally find really boring since the first few hours will likely always play the same outside of the choices you make.

Although there is a lot to like here such as them getting rid of the Paragon/Renegade system although what they say is nice I for one am not at all convinced this will actually lead to anything actually different happening in the story with conversations. One thing that was really awful about replaying the older ME games is it felt like even if you play a completely different character then the one you played before the game would always play out in almost the exact same way with very minor differences that never effected anything. Going from ME1 to ME2 there was so much build up and hype about all the crazy choices you made in ME1 having a huge impact on the story of 2... Which of course we all know now that they didn't and personally its been a point of contention for me for this entire series since the second game out (and personally why I think its overrated).

Bioware if you really want to impress me, show some gameplay with this new choice system in how it actively effects the story in real and meaningful ways, not the way you've done it in the past in all of your other games where the choice only changes things slightly and the end result is still the game. Until that happens losing the Paragon/Renegade system won't even matter.

There is other cool stuff as well though like crafting and new weapon types which is nice although I'll be curious to see how in depth or shallow it ends up being. ME2 and 3 were extremely stream lined to cater to a shooter demographic which was never going to be into these games like they are Halo or Call of Duty and if you are making this similar to ME1 or just other RPG's in general I'm on board, if its just shallow slight 5% upgrades and shit like that like ME3 had then no thank you at fucking all.

Also I don't want them to name all of the characters but they seriously need to detail exactly how many squad mates were getting in this game. ME2 had 12 with DLC and it was fantastic for that and I think is one reason it was so well received since it was easy to find several characters you could relate to or like. ME3 had 5, well 6 with DLC that was BS for being DLC since the character was so fucking important to the plot. Either way the squad of ME3 was always the worst part of the game for me (well, besides the ending at least) and I absolutely couldn't stand that several characters such as Grunt, Samara and a few other characters never joined you despite doing bonus missions involving them and in Grunts case HE EVEN LEAVES ON THE FREAKING SHIP WITH YOU!! Seriously this bothered the living shit out of me since ME3 had such a small roster of characters to begin with and it didn't help that the new squad was really fucking lacking in many aspects. James (I think his name was James the big muscle guy who called you Loco) was just not at all interesting, Ashley/Kaiden took way to long to actually join back up and even then these were the two least liked characters in the first game for good fucking reasons. Rest of the cast was... pretty good. Edy was just an odd inclusion but her subplot romance with Joker was at least entertaining. Garrus and Liara were always fan favorites (I still would rather have a spin off game post ME3 story where you play as Garrus then this new Ryder character), and Javik... Well he explained a lot I guess? It was really cool to see what the Prothean's were and learn their backstory and I loved the idea that the Asari and Liara had envisioned them as some great gods when they were just conquerors, seeing her romanticized visions of them fall apart was certainly one of the games better moments.

I'm glad to have more info at least but they really should have done some kind of gameplay video to show off this stuff instead of it being locked behind a fucking magazine article of all damn things.

 

[Lime]

Paragon/Renegade are gone huh. I like there being more grey choices, not just 'good' and 'evil'.

Paragon / Renegade was just lifted off from Star Wars' dumb binary morality meter that Bioware used in KOTOR, it reduced the complexity of morality into 2 (or 3 at best) approaches.

I'm glad to see such a system be gone or at the very least be reconceptualized.

 

[Djostikk]

Can't wait for this game. Glad they changed a lot of things.

 

[Darryl M R]

Space biddies.

 

[valkyre]

We know there's cities, or at least civilized areas; the extent of them is unclear.

From the E3 2016 trailer, there's a shot of Daddy Ryder dangling a dude off of a ledge in what certainly looks like a city.

Good , I hope thats true because I dont think its going to be a lot appealing to just go into planets and only explore outpost areas and such...

Also, kind of sad that you cant pilot the ship, in some form atleast. I remember back when the first leaks came about that it was mentioned you would be able to fly the ship. I can understand the technical difficulties of this thing, but nevertheless including some way to pilot it would have been a small dream coming true for me!

 

[Schlorgan]

This picture surely is a compelling argument.

Sorry. In Amalur, they did something similar where they gave you access to Warrior/Rogue/Mage abilities from the start and you would specialize as you went.

 

[Crossing Eden]

-No more Paragon/Renegade system
-They want more nuance and subtlety and giving the player more opportunity to express themselves

Fucking finally, your turn Infamous. >

 

[Yeul]

It's nice to know that there's a NG+ from the start, instead of it being patched in later (albeit in a different form) a la DA:I. I don't have to spend time recreating my character then, so that's nice.

 

[inky]

If I have to mash forward 10 different times to maybe hopefully get my character to hide behind a wall properly only for them to unglue the minute I try to aim or get hit isn't tight controls. It's missing that snap tightness that, yes, a shooter, which is what Mass Effect is, requires.

Never had a problem with getting behind cover personally. Maybe with other characters in they way and movement commands.

Besides, I'm not saying Mass Effect 1 was a great TPS and is up there with Gears of War in terms of mobility and weaponry. That's not my point. I'm also not saying that it wasn't improved in 2 or 3. I'm saying people vastly overstate its gameplay issues just because it's not run and shoot like a regular TPS, i.e. Gears of War. There was more cadence to it but it's obvious that a shooter is what they wanted and Bioware is happy to oblige.

 

[Nirolak]

Sounds like this game:

One of the lead designers of that is on Mass Effect: Andromeda.

 

[Holundrian]

Can we get rid of the conversation wheel? One of my most disliked design decision in Bioware games. Especially after Witcher 3 this has become very apparent to me and I definitely was at the point where I was just super confused about it as well with being fed all these points about how the wheel is great and not that different than the list. I almost believed it myself, but to be honest something about it just get in the way of me immersing myself in my character.

Probably because it's never just the wheel but it's the wheel + color coded alignment alert, mood icons or what not.

Every

Fucking

Game

Seriously, why is this in every god damn game?

Rich whales.

 

[Masterspeed]

-Card based economy where you earn XP and credits

Every

Fucking

Game

Seriously, why is this in every god damn game?

 

[Falchion]

I like how it sounds like they're handling choices in this one. No more getting boxed into a Renegade or Paragon playthrough and being too scared to do something you want just because of how it'll impact your stats.

 

[wildbite]

This all sounds fantastic. Thank you for the write-up. I am super pumped to hear that everything inside the ship is seamless to landing on planets. I only hope squadmates and other characters move around and have mini-schedules. In Inquisition, everyone felt static.

 

[Yeul]

Can we get rid of the conversation wheel? One of my most disliked design decision in Bioware games. Especially after Witcher 3 this has become very apparent to me and I definitely was at the point where I was just super confused about it as well with being fed all these points about how the wheel is great and not that different than the list. I almost believed it myself, but to be honest something about it just get in the way of me immersing myself in my character.

Probably because it's never just the wheel but it's the wheel + color coded alignment alert, mood icons or what not.

DA:I allowed you to hide the tone icons on the wheel, so I wouldn't be surprised if that reappears. At the very least it'll make it less obvious, for those that want it.

 

[mbpm1]

I like how it sounds like they're handling choices in this one. No more getting boxed into a Renegade or Paragon playthrough and being too scared to do something you want just because of how it'll impact your stats.

"Man, if only I hadn't taken that super tempting Renegade option and now I'm short on being able to make a persuasion check."

 

[shinobi602]

shinobi, thank you so much.

Thanks for the write-up, Shinobi

No problemo!

 

[Holundrian]

DA:I allowed you to hide the tone icons on the wheel, so I wouldn't be surprised if that reappears. At the very least it'll make it less obvious, for those that want it.

Goddammit I actually did not know that. Well guess can't judge it now.

 

[Nirolak]

Every

Fucking

Game

Seriously, why is this in every god damn game?

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ate-team-earning-around-usd650-million-a-year

 

[inky]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ate-team-earning-around-usd650-million-a-year

all the joy of real money gambling without having to call it that or giving people actual returns. What an industry.

 

[BigTnaples]

Sounds mostly good.


The biggest thing I worry about is narrative, if they can manage to make people accept that every NPC world/Hub in the game will be alien only. (And all brand new aliens to boot).


Asari, Krogan etc will be in the extreme minority in Andromeda, and the ONLY Humans in the entire Galaxy are the ones that arrived on the ship with you. Meaning there will be no Human NPC's with quest lines, or settlements, etc in the game.


That is exciting to me, but at the same time, seems hard to do well.


For everyone that is crying fail about "Humans are special/the center of the plot again!? sigh", I think they should be rejoicing. This game is likely to have very little human interaction aside from your squad and your crew. (Only way out of htis being if there were more than one human ark and yours arrived late by a hundred or so years)

 

[razgriz417]

Can we get rid of the conversation wheel? One of my most disliked design decision in Bioware games. Especially after Witcher 3 this has become very apparent to me and I definitely was at the point where I was just super confused about it as well with being fed all these points about how the wheel is great and not that different than the list. I almost believed it myself, but to be honest something about it just get in the way of me immersing myself in my character.

Probably because it's never just the wheel but it's the wheel + color coded alignment alert, mood icons or what not.



Rich whales.

Wasn't ME3 one of the first games with a mutliplayer mode with RNG boxes? I distinctly recall spending money on this....

 

[Masterspeed]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ate-team-earning-around-usd650-million-a-year

God damn... I wish this wasn't a thing. I mean, why don't most games do what Halo 5 does?

Ditch season passes for these. That's the only way I'd accept them.

 

[Nirolak]

Wasn't ME3 one of the first games with a mutliplayer mode with RNG boxes? I distinctly recall spending money on this....

It was one of the first *console* games with those, yes, though Ultimate Team still predates that.

However, this idea has existed in other types of gaming (and even real life) for ages.

Games like Magic: The Gathering or actual Gachapon machines are two examples.

God damn... I wish this wasn't a thing. I mean, why don't most games do what Halo 5 does?

Ditch season passes for these. That's the only way I'd accept them.

Mass Effect 3's multiplayer DLC was all free due to the crates, and there was a lot of it.

I suspect the post launch support on this one will be quite a bit more expansive as well given service games now rule the roost, it's much easier to do on modern consoles, and they won't be shipping another Mass Effect title for at least 3-4 years.

 

[Scrotum Phillips]

This honestly sounds great. Reading this has me much more excited than the past "reveals" and trailer from earlier today. While 95% of the trilogy was my favorite part of last gen, happy that this sounds basically like a fresh start free from whatever baggage the trilogy might have shoehorned in.

Thanks for summarizing this for us, much appreciated!

 

[brandonh83]

Yo atmosphere, long time no see!

 

[LurkerPrime]

You know, I'm more interested in the multiplayer of MEA than the singleplayer. I'll never understand how they knocked that out of the park so thoroughly the first time around (and then completely fumbled it when it came to DAI).

If they have playable Krogan I might just fall into the Bioware pit again.

 

[MANGOD]

Gonna bust ma nut all over dat ps4 pro version

 

[brandonh83]

Gonna bust ma nut all over dat ps4 pro version

PS4 Baller Edition

 

[ChemicalCutthroat]

Come on now. , Garrus, Tali, Wrex and Liara are all useful and interesting.

Mass effect 2 has obnoxious human space princess Miranda, Edgelord Jack, karth/Kaiden clone Jacob, Shitty Asari Monk lady, generic merc Zaeed.

Only Mordin and Thane really live up to the Alien companions frok the first. Grunt is ok. Probably in the Ashley/Kaiden tier

Mordin was excellent. But comeon', Zaeed was pretty great. He is a bit generic, sure, but he had a cool history, his humor was dry and funny, and his voice actor nailed it. He will be missed.