Mass Effect: Andromeda | Review Thread (READ MOD POST)

Titanoboa said:
All signs point to the fact that they didn't even get to finish it, so I don't know if it counts as "something to show" in anything other than the most literal sense.
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Game development is hell. There are worse things than not getting to finish if that is the case

EventHorizon said:
Is this like giving out participation trophies instead of keeping score?
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It's more like hey, you released a AAA title, that didn't get canceled before hand, will still probably please some fans, and honestly isn't all that bad being a first effort.
 
The Dark Shape said:
If you think bugs and wonky animations are just as bad as repeating the same four or five maps for the entire game... I don't know what to tell you.

I like Dragon Age II. I'm 24 hours into Mass Effect: Andromeda. Andromeda is a better game than DA2 is.
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DA2 is a tough game to compare it to. Content wise it stretched what little it had out a long way to its detriment, but that meant the characters and writing had to be the focus and I think it delivered stronger than most bioware games on that front.
 
Shredderi said:
I'm not too keen on the game but fuck this "they shouldn't be proud" mentality. AAA-game developing is hard and grueling work and for all intents and purposes it does look like a solid game with some pretty solid environmental visuals etc.
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Here here.
 
As a fan of the series this is disheartening. I think I'll stick with Zelda, Nier and Horizon for now and see if they patch the game up a bit before I think of purchasing. For me it's a case of when not if I will get this game but it's definitely not now.
 
Titanoboa said:
Do you think they are proud with that metascore?
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Propably not and I'm not interested in getting the game as it is right now. I just can sympathize with the devs who propably gave it their all. Obviously it wasn't enough to produce a great new Mass Effect game, but it doesn't seem bad either. It seems like a solid game. The reason I'm not getting it at this time is because we are in a period of time where we are barraged by great games and those will take priority over "solid" ones right now.
 
Dusktildawn48 said:
Some harsh people in these ME threads today.
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I think people are shocked by this. The first three games are amazing.

Personally, I'm not being harsh but I am very disappointed with these impressions. I've been waiting for this game for a long time. Now I'm wondering if Bioware should have even bothered.
 
So I've read Forbes' review and they had plenty of critique and that 8.5 sounds a bit high. They said they really like Ryder and the new crew too. But they also the open world doesn't make for great questing. Lots of fetch quests that really aren't fun at all.

They also have plenty of critique about the UI, crafting and so on. Really..... that 8.5 seems odd.
 
The most egregious thing to me is thinking back to that first ever reveal trailer with actual gameplay. It was the trailer that gave us the infamous gif where Female Ryder grabs the gun out of the NPCs hand with the laughably bad animation. I remember someone from the dev team posted a tweet that basically implied that it was an isolated animation bug and would be fixed by release.

Now we have a whole thread dedicated to the impressively poor animation in the game. It's literally worse than ME1.

What a disappointing situation.
 
The Dark Shape said:
If you think bugs and wonky animations are just as bad as repeating the same four or five maps for the entire game... I don't know what to tell you.

I like Dragon Age II. I'm 24 hours into Mass Effect: Andromeda. Andromeda is a better game than DA2 is.
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I don't compare the two I just said it appears short cuts were on the table for both. You don't just have vehicles fly up, people stand on air, skate sideways, run all messed up, and then have bad animations on top of it as well as poor story due to luck. it's from cuts and rushing generally.

They are both looking like fairly average games.... whether I get to try MEA for myself I'm going to have to watch extensive footage first.
 
DR2K said:
I just don't understand how anyone thought it was ok to ship the game in this state. This is the kind of stuff that ends series. Is EA in such a dire position that it had release this game? A few more months could have gone a long way.
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There is nothing that more time could really fix. The overall story structure and voice acting are set in stone, and that makes up the majority of what makes a Mass Effect game a Mass effect game. The technical glitches could be ironed out but that wouldn't improve review scores or sales figures that much. Besides, if those get mostly fixed in a few months nobody is going to care anyway.
 
I know the game is not performing up to par review-wise, but are you guys really getting your jimmies rustled over that PR statement?


It's not even "play more DLC" tier like 5 years ago.
 
DR2K said:
I just don't understand how anyone thought it was ok to ship the game in this state. This is the kind of stuff that ends series. Is EA in such a dire position that it had release this game? A few more months could have gone a long way.
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Combat and shooting gameplay > Story and animations perhaps. EA might just think that they have the multiplayer and microtransactions ready to go, and any extra time in the oven is just to fix the story, which might not increase sales that much. I know I never played the ME games for the story (it was a bonus), but played them for the gameplay. The shooting got demonstratively better by the time ME2 came out. ME3 was then the best 3rd person shooter that year. It just happen to also be an RPG.

I can see them determine the actual game, the gameplay and combat, are done and redone, so just wrap up any story and concepts, and ship it. It might cause criticism from reviewers and fans expecting a great space soap opera, but it is what it is. Bad animations and weird writing won't matter once the bullets start flying, which is why I'm getting it at least. Just know what you are getting, and judge it for what it is.
 
Saw this on twitter

img_8088koulv.jpg


:(
 
Titanoboa said:
I'm just sayin, I'm cringing over here.

Basically an announcement that you wasted 5 years of your life.
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This post is an asshole post. If you don't feel like an asshole saying this, you should. Then be ashamed of yourself. Because you sound like an asshole.

Do you think you could say this to some of these devs face to face? Probably not. At least, I hope not. Because they would call you an asshole.

Really not sure why this game has this type of people springing out of nowhere...
 
Jarmel said:
It's marketing. It's not a big deal. Hell, it's not even a small deal.
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Honesty in marketing is a big deal. If you want to have a successful company that is. Look at NMS, think it's not a big deal after that?

I mean it doesn't matter to me but fans are just going to see it as a big F U, with no admission of either fault or ongoing support.

but I expect them to release much more PR in the future anyway which will prove my point.
 
Fuck. Waiting then on patches to fix up some of the jank and discount when they start happening. I'll still get this but not any time soon at full price.
 
Jarmel said:
It's not.
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Yes it is. It's a fine score, 75 is a fine score, who cares if the other games in the series got 90s? I'll bet you that there were tons of people who worked really hard and achieved a lot in making this game. Sure, it didn't turn out exactly as everyone hoped, but there's no magical cookbook for making a perfect multi-million dollar piece of software. I can see us being disappointed, I'm disappointed, but the people who worked on the game? I see no reason why they should feel bad.
 
FutureProtagonist said:
Yes it is. It's a fine score, 75 is a fine score, who cares if the other games in the series got 90s? I'll bet you that there were tons of people who worked really hard and achieved a lot in making this game. Sure, it didn't turn out exactly as everyone hoped, but there's no magical cookbook for making a perfect multi-million dollar piece of software. I can see us being disappointed, I'm disappointed, but the people who worked on the game? I see no reason why they should feel bad.
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To EA and Bioware it's not a fine score.
 
FutureProtagonist said:
Yes it is. It's a fine score, 75 is a fine score, who cares if the other games in the series got 90s? I'll bet you that there were tons of people who worked really hard and achieved a lot in making this game. Sure, it didn't turn out exactly as everyone hoped, but there's no magical cookbook for making a perfect multi-million dollar piece of software. I can see us being disappointed, I'm disappointed, but the people who worked on the game? I see no reason why they should feel bad.
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If you aced the first three exams in a class and then spent dozens of hours studying for the final only to make a C would you be dissapointed and feel bad?
 
Ascenion said:
It's more like hey, you released a AAA title, that didn't get canceled before hand, will still probably please some fans, and honestly isn't all that bad being a first effort.
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"YEAH!!!! We didn't get canceled.
We're not the worst!
We're not the worst!
We're not the worst!"

That's hardly the goal they had when they started, and it doesn't sound like something anyone would be proud of.
 
joecanada said:
Honesty in marketing is a big deal. If you want to have a successful company that is. Look at NMS, think it's not a big deal after that?

I mean it doesn't matter to me but fans are just going to see it as a big F U, with no admission of either fault or ongoing support.

but I expect them to release much more PR in the future anyway which will prove my point.
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Ummm, Hello Games made tons of cash off knowingly lying and working to decieve people regarding their product. It's one of the best sellers from the period it launched. They made so much money they're opening their own publishing arm. Lying definitely fucking pays. Long-term it might be a negative, maybe, but it's terrific in the short-term.

Not saying that's the case with Bioware, just pointing out that honest marketing isn't the game changer you'd hope it would be.
 
Pennywise said:
https://www.glassdoor.ca/Reviews/Employee-Review-BioWare-RVW11370424.htm
- Lost over 13 leads (game design, art, audio, prog, senior core leads, etc) in 5 years at Bioware Montreal on Mass Effect. Edmonton lost only 3. It is clear that Edmonton has the bigger part of the stick when it comes to purge Leads and Producers who are not aligned with their leadership style.
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How reliable is that site ? Most of the "cons" sounds likely given the state of the game. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be at Bioware Montreal right now, heads will roll (and probably the wrong as it often the case)
 
Whom_Gods_Annoy said:
If you aced the first three exams in a class and then spent dozens of hours studying for the final only to make a C would you be dissapointed?
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One person is not responsible for this game. The comparison is crazy. Studying for a test is straightforward. Getting hundreds of people to work together over the course of years of bad management and grueling work? Not so straightforward. The people who worked in an environment like that, put in the hours, and produced a game that millions of people are going to enjoy have every right to be proud, lowish Metascore or not.
 
reading the reviews make it sound like the game is DA:I... collectathon without much meat. I'm really not that interested in endless, meaningless side content.
 
FutureProtagonist said:
Yes it is. It's a fine score, 75 is a fine score, who cares if the other games in the series got 90s? I'll bet you that there were tons of people who worked really hard and achieved a lot in making this game. Sure, it didn't turn out exactly as everyone hoped, but there's no magical cookbook for making a perfect multi-million dollar piece of software. I can see us being disappointed, I'm disappointed, but the people who worked on the game? I see no reason why they should feel bad.
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A 75 is pretty much average with how the gaming industry reviews games. It's not like the movie industry where the average for reviews is closer to 50. The gaming industry largely uses the American education grading system and in there, 75 is a C. That's not a good score, especially after 5 years of freedom and a fairly large budget.

I'm not saying they need to be ashamed of releasing a product but they definitely shouldn't be proud of hitting average. Considering the studio's development record, I don't think anyone in Bioware is feeling particularly pleased today. Not to mention I sort of agree with John Walker that some of these scores are being inflated just due to the fact that it has the name Mass Effect in it.

joecanada said:
Honesty in marketing is a big deal. If you want to have a successful company that is. Look at NMS, think it's not a big deal after that?

I mean it doesn't matter to me but fans are just going to see it as a big F U, with no admission of either fault or ongoing support.

but I expect them to release much more PR in the future anyway which will prove my point.
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I'm sure there will be some level of introspection in the future and if there isn't then I feel fine on calling them out about that. However when chances are high that a large majority of the development team is depressed about getting publicly thrashed, I see no reason for the marketing and higher-ups to kick them even further down. They almost assuredly know they fucked up. That statement wasn't just for the public but internally as well.

It's a bullshit PR statement that even the person writing it probably doesn't agree with. Is this hurting or misleading anybody? No. They don't need to admit fault at this exact date. That's more concerning when they're working on future projects or updates and making sure they know what went wrong and how they could prevent future incidents.
 
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