OFFICIAL Mass Effect: Andromeda (Discussion)

[rtwjunkie]

If you want cinematic experience, play Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. It was somewhat shorter game, but its cinematic factor tops everything I've ever played. It's literally like a sci-fi jailbreak action movie blockbuster in a playable form. And it still looks amazing with its realtime lighting and shadowing engine.

Oh I agree. I just played it again last year.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I've read a few solid reviews for this game and at this point I think it may be worth a play through. I'll pick it up when I can.

 

[rtwjunkie]

I've read a few solid reviews for this game and at this point I think it may be worth a play through. I'll pick it up when I can.

PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effect-andromeda-review/ did a very balanced review, rightfully pointing out the negatives, but balancing the positives. And I was struck by a couple points made in the last two paragraphs which sum things up nicely:
"Here's the thing, though: in the end, Andromeda still manages to be more than the sum of its parts."
and writes of being "aware that when I'm in Mass Effect's zone a lot of these dry pros and cons don't seem to matter as much. This has always been a series about getting under your skin"..."where all those disparate elements, good and bad, cohere to an adventure that feels like it is happening to you. Andromeda can still do that."

This is what I pointed out earlier. Can the game make you feel as if you are in a grand adventure like the previous ones? After 15 hours, I can say yes it does.

 

[Devil-Walker]

i got about 25 hrs in game so far and i gotta tell ya the more i play the more i'm liking it.
they have plenty of side stuff to do and the areas are decent sizes and i haven't been to all the golden worlds yet.
i like the crafting system, it allows you to make some neat stuff like my black widow sniper with a heat sink mod so you never need bullets just 1 sec recharge.
you can really get crazy with the class customization, wana be a soldier with crazy tech powers and biotics...sure why not lol.
few key things i find annoying. cant customize ur companions weapons or armor and you carry all your weps and armors on you but cant equip it unless you go to a forward station or do it on the ship there for you should not carry em and inventory should be unlimited since you getting the gear straight from the ship.
in all honestly the game isn't bad they just rushed it out but i'm still enjoying a lot.

 

[jormungand]

If you want cinematic experience, play Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. It was somewhat shorter game, but its cinematic factor tops everything I've ever played. It's literally like a sci-fi jailbreak action movie blockbuster in a playable form. And it still looks amazing with its realtime lighting and shadowing engine.

I loved how the story fits exactly before Pitch Black

 

[rtwjunkie]

With 29 hours in, I have to say the feature(s) I like best are the colonization-related ones. Once you get to the point a world can be colonized, you decide if the first outpost will be military, scientific, or commercial in nature. Each has advantages and trade offs to the overall effort throughout the system.

Outposts get established with a viability rating based on what you did prior. You can then come back later and improve the colony chances of survival/flourishing by marking locations on the planet for mining, for forward posts, eliminating or reducing hostile threat, and by some side quests on that world and on The Nexus.

Additionally, based on points your actions earn, you decide the type and order of colonists thawing out from cryosleep. It's a gamble, because whatever groups you leave in sleep mode slows efforts in appropriate areas in Andromeda.

Overall, it has grabbed me and I'm having fun!

 

[WhiteNoise]

I picked up the game yesterday. Played a solid 3 hours before hitting the sack. The game itself is quite good and fun. The animations like others have said is admittedly cringe worthy. Facial animations are fine most of the time but then some odd animation surfaces that really makes me go ewww.

Then when I watch how the characters run, walk, jump down from objects, run down stairs (looks like the character becomes a crab) it just kills me a little inside.

Then we have the voice acting. For the most part the human voice acting is good enough. But most of the aliens sound pretty bad. When I met the first Krogan I was like...OMG that is not what a Krogan should sound like at all.

Game looks beautiful in 4k though and is still fun. I'm running the game in 4k and not having any slow down issues. I do run 32gb of ram though. I'll have to check and see how much ram the game is using.

 

[rtwjunkie]

I do run 32gb of ram though. I'll have to check and see how much ram the game is using

For me, it is using 3.9GB VRAM, and it drives my total RAM usage to 9.7GB. So that's approximately 8GB of game files being loaded up for me.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Anyone think it's possible the 2nd game in the Andromeda series will have more refined animations, or do you think EA will cheap out and just have them copied and pasted?

 

[WhiteNoise]

After all the negative write ups on this issue I would think they will make it a priority for the next game. They will most likely even point out how life like character animation has become with their new changes. lol

 

[Slizzo]

Horrific animations. Ugly characters. Voice acting it hit and (very) miss. Mediocre game-play. Cringe-worthy dialog writing.
And you travel 2.5 Million light years and only have two new races to interact with? SMH.

You realize that the amount of the Andromeda galaxy you're seeing is a VERY small section of the entire galaxy right? You're only experiencing the Heleus Cluster, which when you think about scale makes sense.

Anyone think it's possible the 2nd game in the Andromeda series will have more refined animations, or do you think EA will cheap out and just have them copied and pasted?

Speculation here is that the studio making the game used a simple pass through of a translation program (one that animates on a baseline according to certain markers) and they didn't have time to go do a passthrough for touch up of the facial animations used in conversations. Now that all assets are in the engine, they should have time to do this if they make another game in the series.

As it is, I hope they DO get the go ahead for another game; already feel like I'll not have enough time in Andromeda to close anything out. I want to see the REST of their galaxy!

 

[Devil-Walker]

if they don't get rushed on the second game. i think they will do better. im still really enjoying the game but its so funny seeing that 99% of asaris have the same face

 

[Slizzo]

if they don't get rushed on the second game. i think they will do better. im still really enjoying the game but its so funny seeing that 99% of asaris have the same face

Yeah, that's the one immersion breaking thing that gets me. The main issue with it is that they all share the same face as Lexi; she's a main NPC in your ship that you see and talk to very often! If they shared the same face but it WASN'T hers it would be a little better.

 

[Devil-Walker]

So far all the worlds i have explored are beatiful and repeat asari faces and flugy human faces aside the game has really good graphics.

 

[natr0n]

http://i.imgur.com/qD7bu2I.gifv

 

[Devil-Walker]

http://i.imgur.com/qD7bu2I.gifv

.....................wtf lol thats shit is funny as hell

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Speculation here is that the studio making the game used a simple pass through of a translation program (one that animates on a baseline according to certain markers) and they didn't have time to go do a passthrough for touch up of the facial animations used in conversations. Now that all assets are in the engine, they should have time to do this if they make another game in the series.

Maybe so, but from what I've seen and heard via feedback from those playing it, there's more than just facial animations that need work. Some of the walking/running animations are pretty horrible too.

 

[BiggieShady]

http://i.imgur.com/qD7bu2I.gifv

That moment when he turned his head towards me, I totally felt the emotion artists were trying to convey

 

[Frag_Maniac]

That moment when he turned his head towards me, I totally felt the emotion artists were trying to convey

Animators shouldn't experiment with LSD while at work.

 

[rtwjunkie]

http://i.imgur.com/qD7bu2I.gifv

Since none of us that I know with the game have seen that happen, do we know it's not someone who is always negative about games when they release and is using some kind of imaging program to make it look really bad, because it gets them attention and because dogpiling on new releases is somehow "cool"?

 

[FordGT90Concept]

My guess is they played a lot with the face editor in Mass Effect 3, giving it big eyes and a bad under bite. If the game settings don't let you go to that extreme then my guess is they tampered with the save.

 

[BiggieShady]

My guess is they played a lot with the face editor in Mass Effect 3, giving it big eyes and a bad under bite. If the game settings don't let you go to that extreme then my guess is they tampered with the save.

I agree, glitches are never this "structured"

 

[erocker]

Soo... Combat in this game is pretty good. The rest? LOL! Seriously, how did this get released?!

 

[rtwjunkie]

Soo... Combat in this game is pretty good. The rest? LOL! Seriously, how did this get released?!

I'm 45 hours in and other then facial animations and occasionally crew members falling from the sky when we disembark the Nomad, this feels in every respect a Mass Effect game.

They've made the largest areas they have ever done, and the story, the struggle, the pioneering aspect feels legit.

 

[nem..]