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Mass Effect: Andromeda | Review Thread

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What a disappointment. There's no shortage of great games to play right now and I have yet to buy Horizon, Nier and Zelda, let alone Persona that releases soon. But I've always loved Mass Effect (even 3, ending at all) so was going to bench all those games for this. Alas, after watching and reading impressions and now reviews I'm going to pass on this. So, so disappointing... :(
 

aravuus

Member
And this is the worst case scenario, my worst nightmare, when it came to how they would handle removing paragon/renegade. >_<

Sounds like Fallout 4 and it's idiotic "sarcastic" replies. Christ, I hated it so much in that game.

I think I'll take a more relaxed approach to Nier and Y0 in light of the writing and quest complaints. Was planning on doing both of them and MEA before Persona 5 is out, but if Mass Effect ends up having to wait until I'm done with Persona, so be it. Should be fairly cheap around June, too.
 

Ellite25

Member
Many of the writers and lead devs for Andromeda are new; it's pretty much a new staff (Montreal) taking up source code that they weren't familiar with, and trying to make a Mass Effect game from that.
Sounds like they should have just let this team make something of their own while letting the ME franchise die. I get that companies think familiar names will sell more copies but a great, new IP from Bioware would have done well too. Maybe if this team was able to create their own vision we'd be seeing a better overall result.
 
70 metacritic is decent in my book however being the franchise it is I am disappointed in the scores.

Indeed this is the thing.

A 70 Meta isn't that bad really by itself. However for franchise norms it's a horrendous drop in quality for the franchise and I can't imagine EA is remotely happy with this.
 

TheRatedD

Member
Will this pass AC Unity in regards to criticism? I played Unity at launch on PS4 and the only major issue I had was the single digit framerate issues near stained glass windows. This game seems to have worse issues.
 

Sizzel

Member
Wow.. .. I felt like I was pretty conservative in my guessing where this would fall, but a current 73 on metacritic. I am shocked. Wew that is terribad for a major AAA IP. Press F.
 

TI82

Banned
Wow. You don't even see shit like that in a game by Reality Pump. I honestly just don't think it is finished, and since it took 5 years, I see EA probably axing this part of BioWare.

Wait, THIS game was made over 5 years?

giphy.gif


no freakin way
 
Bugs is worth noting, but reviewers cannot mark down performance and look in the mirror can they ?

Anyway, will wait for Digital foundry, I dont trust critics they are just fanboys.
Okay I'm lost. It sounds like you're bitter about this. Performance is not good when it comes to technical issues that take you away from the immersion.
 

jonjonaug

Member
Drakengard is mediocre musou from a gameplay perspective, the story elevates it.

With Drakengard 3 it's not really a musou, more of a bog-standard beat-em-up game with massive performance issues that I'm fairly certain very few reviewers actually finished.

With Nier I think the sub-70 score is just because a lot of reviewers didn't play past the A route. Which may have been true for Drakengard 3 too. I got a good chuckle out of the message from "Square Enix PR" that comes up after clearing ending A in Automata that says that you aren't done with the game yet.

With Mass Effect though I don't think there can really be any justifications for a 70-ish score other than "the game is just 'pretty good' at best".
 
Is this going to kill the IP? This is a staggering drop in critical reception from previous entries and I cannot imagine it's going to sell all that well outside of the first week or two. And beyond that, this game's reputation will likely cripple any follow-up's chances of success.
 
Too many outlets saying the story's shit. Can't take full price risk on a 50+ hours RPG.

Guess I'll go with Nier instead. Shame, I wanted it to be good. I mean praised enough to warrant a day one purchase.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Oh god, everything, EVERYTHING, I hate about Bioware's writing (when it's bad) is here.

This criticism doesn't make much sense to me. The reviewer realizes that those choices aren't actually what Ryder says, right? I mean, they act as her thoughts but then the actual dialogue is rarely as harsh.

And full disclosure: I've played about five hours and would give it like a 6 or 7 so far.
 

pswii60

Member
What a disappointment. There's no shortage of great games to play right now and I have yet to buy Horizon, Nier and Zelda, let alone Persona that releases soon. But I've always loved Mass Effect (even 3, ending at all) so was going to bench all those games for this. Alas, after watching and reading impressions and now reviews I'm going to pass on this. So, so disappointing... :(
This.

It's really sad. Such an incredible franchise and then just farmed out to a C team.
 

Heshinsi

"playing" dumb? unpossible
No, it's not. On a proper 10 scale, a 7 out of 10 is always good in my book. And many times games that score in that range end up being fantastic for me, so go figure.

But this is more like having an honour roll student who got straight A's in the 9th year, straight A's in the 10th year, straight A's in the 11th year, and now in the 12th year is bringing home D's, C's, and B's. Sure a 73% percent is a still a good score. But for a high achiever, it's a massive down swing. To the point where if you were the head mistress at the school, you'd be requesting a sit down with the parents to figure out what changed at home.

"Why is our star pupil underachieving?"
 
73 isn't a bad score. Nier and Drakengard are in the 60s and I love them, but the problem is Andromeda is a mass audience, high budget game from a very reputable series. That score is a failure by legacy standards.

Yeah, if it were a niche franchise there won't be a problem. But this is a f*cking Mass Effect.
 
Okay ME : A is probably bad on a lot of things, and i never planned to buy it!

But there's people here arguing that 7/10 is not a good score? Really?


EDIT : Okay people answered while i posted... I understand but it's sad really

Yeah, if it were a niche franchise there won't be a problem. But this is a f*cking Mass Effect.


70+ is fine but for a AAA game it's almost suicide. Especially from EA and especially considering this game was meant to be damage control for 3's endingz
 

Pixieking

Banned
"Rushed" out five years after the previous game. Another delay wouldn't fix the bad writing or quest design.

This is true - "My face is tired" or the flirty dialogue with the pilot would not only have to be rewritten, but the animation would have to be redone to sync it to the new script, and it would have to be re-read by the VO artists.

That's not something that is done in the final months - the costs would be so huge that it's better to just take the hit on reviews criticising the script/voiceacting than throw good money after bad.
 

oti

Banned
Is this going to kill the IP? This is a staggering drop in critical reception and I cannot imagine it's going to sell all that well outside of the first week or two.

It depends. This game should sell regardless. Question is if the used market will be flooded with returns, if retailers will try to get rid of stock and ultimately how "normal" consumers will react. ME:A should do fine, ME:A 2 is the real question mark here.
 

Katbot

Member
I was surprised how quickly the main quest went by. It was also the weakest part of the game by far.

Suggestion: If you play this game, take your time. Do the sidequests. Meet the Tempest's crew. You will enjoy yourself a lot more.
 

Eusis

Member
Indeed this is the thing.

A 70 Meta isn't that bad really by itself. However for franchise norms it's a horrendous drop in quality for the franchise and I can't imagine EA is remotely happy with this.
It does create a sense of morbid fascination to play the game, but it's definitely wait-for-a-sale now. As if the crowded period weren't enough reason already.

EDIT: And Kat's post helps. Good side content is what ME3 was missing if anything, so having that be strong here with an... ok main story is acceptable.
 

Rozart

Member
The thing that I'm most worried about is the writing. Even with the worst of Bioware's games (e.g. DA2), I've always managed to sink hours into the game because of Bioware's intrinsic ability to create an ensemble of engaging characters. I've kinda come to associate Bioware with quick, snappy dialogue and humorous party banter that honestly elevates something tedious (like the collectathon quests in DA:I) or deliberately lazy/rushed (like the endlessly copy-paste reused maps in DA2) to something that's honestly enjoyable and fun to me.

And the main thing that struck me while watching people stream Andromeda was how the dialogue just felt 'off' and almost unBioware-like. A lot of the characters just came across as bland and devoid of the distinct larger-than-life personalties that a lot of Bioware's characters tend to have.

Oh well. I'm still getting the game anyway. But I'm hoping that what I saw was just some early game stumbles and I'd grow to eventually enjoy spending time with the new crew.

Personally, I'm hoping it shows that they have a lot of confidence that their new IP can become a new tentpole for the studio.

As much as I love the Mass Effect franchise, I think I'm at peace with it becoming a B-tier BioWare series if that'll allow them to get creative with new ideas.

I'm excited to see what the main team is working on too but I wasn't expecting a new current gen Mass Effect to stumble this bad.
 

geordiemp

Member
Thanks for spicing up the thread even more.

Just an observation after reading years of supposed critics and reviewers.

Kinda knew they had it in for mass effect and they pile in for clicks, yet some games get a pass.

I always wondered if they all meet in some private lobby and agree their crap lol.

Anyway, I trust DF as they give numbers to performance issues and dont spout rubbish.

If Framerate holds 30 on pro I will buy, if it dips below 25 for anytime then I am out - cant play that in 2017
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Anyway, this is all really sad because supposedly Bioware's new IP is a multiplayer-centered experience so this might be the last gasp of big single player RPGs from them.
 
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