I'm enjoying this game, I swear! But this has to be the jankiest performing game i've played in years. i'm playing this on the Pro, which makes the sheer amount of "jank" completely absurd. The bottom line though, is nothing is game breaking so far and i've been able to laugh off most of if.
With that said, here's some negatives:
- the journal and menu system is not intuitive and absurd they copy/pasted this for for ME:A.
- animations are just poor. lip syncing is basically non existent. it's really bad when you're having a lengthy convo and the character just repeats the same 7 second animation over and over again.
- I feel they do a poor job of explaining things? new skill changes, research/development/journal and other stuff is glossed over.
- felt i got like 20 side missions vomited on me at once early in the game and i'm not sure when/if any are worth it? Also, maybe try explaining things a little more in depth, one sentence summaries aren't enough/acceptable. And, are all the rewards basically just a boost to xp and nothing else? Going forward, quality over quantity, please.
-driving around in the Nomad feels like i'm attempting to play a Playstation 7 game on my Pro. So much pop in, framerate hits and multiple just outright pauses in the game where I thought the game was broken.
- the completely absurd decision to add mandatory animations when scanning planets in every system. Just why?! no one wants to watch/wait through this after the 3rd time they see it.
-loading screens in general. the planet scanning is the worst i've seen so far, but getting on the tram in the Nexus a hundred or so times is old as well. I just finished Horizon where I can run from one end of the map to the other without a loading screen so it's exponentially worse.
positives:
- facial animation is bad, but not gamebreaking. turn on the subtitles and you won't be as distracted by the lackluster animation. While funny, the issue is overblown and nothing new to us that know Mass Effect.
-writing isn't nearly as bad as some have made it out to be. So far in my game it seems like typical "mass effect" stuff. Which I wish it were a major improvement, but i'm entertained enough. hopefully i'll be getting through the "so, why did you come to Andromeda" question to every person soon.
- combat seems decent so far.
- i'm still early in, but interested to see where the story goes.
Like I said, I'm enjoying this. But man, this is one of the most nakedly "we need this out this fiscal year" games i've ever seen which makes it more frustrating because this has been in development 5ish years and they still
apparently needed way more time. The Mass Effect Trilogy is among my favorite things in gaming, so it's a bummer it's out in the state it's in. With all that said, excited for work to be over tomorrow so i can play this some more.
