Mass Effect: Andromeda

You know what, i had 7$ to spend and bought the game lol. Watched this video from @lucidus last night and convinced me to give it another shot.
For 7$ i can hardly be disappointed lol.

Also i did remember the maps were looking nice so...

 

The world looks really beautiful, but it's just an empty sandbox. For 10€ it's probably worth it, for the combat alone, but the story is boring and predictable and characters are complete retards as they often behave irrationally. They have zero charisma and there are plenty of awkward dialogues with them, that lead to nothing. Dialogues in itself have a conversation wheel, but it only creates an illusion of choice as most of the answers are completely different than what you thought they would be and they also lead to similar conclusions. Ultimately none of your choices really matter even inside the quest itself, let alone in the game. As many have said, AC is probably a better game than this, but if you really have this sci-fi urge and don't mind supporting the terrible practices of EA, then you wouldn't regret spending 10€ they're asking.

 

Andromeda on trailers \ E3 before it came out looked good to me. was very happy
with what i saw before it came out. even the first 1-2 hours on my first run were ok..
until i realized its empty, no heart\soul, uninteresting, and idiotic written game.

looking back at it - i wouldn't pay 1$ to play it, as a Mass Effect game.

and since i payed a full price back than, every future BioWare\EA game is on my black list, sale list, "reading 50,000 reviews before
i touch it list" - you name it.

 

That`s my policy about all new games now. And do not touch new (purchased) game for 3-4 months.

 

Not to mention the fact that you will pay a fraction of the launch cost if you wait a bit.

 

Exactly.

 

I wish companies released demos like in years gone past. I was very happy to see a demo of Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

 

I finally played this. It's worse than I thought. The character models are amateurish, yes. But what's much worse is the voice acting and the lines. The vibe and atmosphere of this game has nothing to do with serious sci-fi. It's a combination of Power Rangers and The Smurfs. No one is taking anything seriously in this game. The dialogue is bland and uninteresting. No epic moments anywhere. Remember the most epic moments of previous ME games? Well, imagine them in Andromeda, but with the characters going "yeah, we'll show them what we can do, whoo hoo hooey, we're the best, yeah, rock on dude!" What in the shi... What? How. Why? WHAT?

What the hell were they thinking? They wanted to make this game complete trash, it didn't just happen. They really tried their best to ruin it. This can't be an accident.

 

It wasn't. This is what happens when you get a bunch of "average" fans (who were teenagers during ME2&3) to write a fanfiction with a budget, and make a game out of it. The end result is not a clever (or at least interesting) sci-fi, but a game where the characters primarily focus on the (clumsy) romance and "personal problems", act like teenagers (self inserts), or are just copies of existing characters. The main plot is shallow, mostly uninteresting and predictable, the antagonist is just some racist overlord that does overlord things, and at a few moments the game tries to hype the shallow events.

 

@emperorsfist

As I was playing this and listening to the dialogue, I couldn't help but constantly imagine what Shepard would have said instead. Your science officer for example goes on and on about religion, because the game seems to think its writers have the capacity to even remotely touch on "sensitive issues." So she says something like "my belief in Jesus is what keeps me strong" or similar. In this game, you aren't even remotely offered a good reply. You can say "your beliefs are welcome because diversity is a big asset to this crew." I just pictured Shepard going "I hope your stupid invisible unicorn friend in the sky won't be interfering with your duties on this ship. Dismissed, officer," followed by the renegade bar going up.

It seems like the writers were extremely careful to prevent players from having any fun whatsoever.

 

Yeah, it's "fun" to see inept people try to tackle these possibly incendiary topics (which would normally make sense in this sci-fi setting). It always ends well... I remember that ME3 had a similar failure, though. Didn't Ashley sorta come out of nowhere that she's a Christian (beside being possibly trans, iirc). All Shepard could do was ask (the obvious) "Why? All these aliens and the Reaper cycle kinda uproot most of the Bible", and then it was kinda brushed off. It's obvious that even then the writers pussied out (they just offered some generic apologism and that was that). I mean, if you're afraid of possibly offending someone with this, why even bring it up? It's not clever.

Also, the "because diversity is a big asset to this crew." reply is pretty common in this game (more or less telling of the authors). I mean, you can chastise an alien (native to Anromeda) for being distrustful / afraid of you (the real aliens in this game). I found that oddly hilarious, as it showed how the writers have no clue and/or interest to write a compelling sci-fi.

 

I'm pretty sure this has been posted in this thread before, I feel this pretty much sums up Mass Effect Andromeda.

 

@emperorsfist

I could be able to look past all this, even. Takes some effort, but I can do it. But the final nail in the coffin for this game is just how unlikable the main character is. And his voice actor is just... bad. Not funny bad. Just plain bad. His acting would be 100% spot-on if this was a Coca Cola commercial.

Shepard on the other hand is one of the best main characters I've ever seen in any video game. As bad-ass as you wanted to be, as funny as you wanted to be. I mean, try to compare Andromeda's main character to this:



Oh, that's right. This is probably "toxic masculinity," so that's why Ryder is so offensively bland instead. Sigh.

@KissSh0t

That is effing hilarious

 

@KissSh0t With that derpy face it's even better. Would have been perfect if she had shot herself, like the dumb twit she was...

@RealNC You mentioned something really cool about Shepard in the og ME games. (S)He was "badass" as much as YOU wanted. You could have played a stereotypical good guy, a complete petty jerk (that was what Renegade mostly ended up being XD), or a more down to Earth (hurr hurr) normal guy/gal. I think the male voice fitted this better (Femshep was more popular, and I guess emotional, but sometimes unnecessarily sarcastic), as he just felt "normal" (not a hyped up superhero). I enjoyed a normal, slightly confused, but capable and to the point dunce.

Ryder is just stupid, with the male one looking slightly less mentally challenged (male Ryder looks like a confused, slow-witted puppy simpleton, female Ryder looks like a retard).

 

There is this exactly bug in ME2 - when Shepard points his gun to Zaeed Massani`s head at the end of his loyalty mission

 

Maybe the scene in ME:A is a really weird homage.....

 

I finally finished the game.

Good gameplay but story is pretty procreating generic compared to ME1-3.

ME1-3 are like the Star Wars of video game when it comes to story. Andromeda's story is another generic video game story.

 

It's because the game developers subscribe to a certain ideology that promotes this nonsense.

Aside from animations, the game was pretty well done in technical sense. The combat was fun and offered variety, some scenery was absolutely beautiful. The problem is the story and dialogues. The choices in the story make no sense at all, as in why would you be put in charge as a random nobody, is it because you are kid of the cool guy who actually knew what he was doing ? Your followers also behave in an unnatural way and in dialogues, all your answers are virtually the same, there is no difference. You can't be mean to people, or behave like retard, lecture them, or anything. The only response you have is "I don't know what I'm doing, but I like diversity so lets be friends".

The overarching story is quite stupid as well, the antagonist is boring and definitely not frightening as their technology is quite comparable to yours. Definitely no ominous threat of overpowered reapers. In fact, it would have been much better if they put reapers as the big enemy who the arriving people know nothing about.

 

Well, that's what caused it to fail, in the end. As controversial and stupid as the ME3 ending was, it got people talking. Andromeda is just generic and boring. People made fun of the broken animations and bulging eyes, but when you take those out of the equation, you're left with a bland, boring and poorly written story and dialogues (the few "My face is tired from dealing with everything" moments were very few in reality - the rest was just bland crap). I'd say the ME series is more known for its story, characters and dialogues with said characters, so having an okay TPS combat doesn't do much. As clunky as it is in ME1, it wasn't a problem for me, because I simply loved the story and atmosphere in that game. Shame they had to water down the RPG elements in the sequels. Just transforming the combat to the ME2 level would have sufficed.