Really glad I found this channel. The reviews are non-biased and grant lots of useful information. Appears that a lot of thought goes into these vids, he definitely deserves a lot more subscribers. Cheers!
There is no such thing as a non-biased review. It's a subjective opinion after all. I not only pre-ordered the game, but I've bought a new gaming rig for it as well so I'm hoping the warranted negative criticism of ME: Andromeda is contrasted with just as well deserved praise when reviewers get more hands-on time with the game.
It's a huge issue that a game so focused on characters and narrative presents those in such a bad way. Animations are bad, face animations are bad, voice acting is bad, dialogue is bad, lip sync is bad, the awkward pauses between lines and responses feel like a school play... Seriously, did anyone at Bioware looked at this and did not see a monumental problem with a core mechanic of the game? I'm still excited and will probably play it... but I'm not sure if this will be a good experience or a refund
Most of the guys that made The older Bioware games have left the company. Which is why their newer titles made less of an impression on us players who have been playing their games back in the early 90s.
Just a side note I believe this dev team, Bioware Montreal, didn't make the other ME games. Just some of the DLC for 2 or 3, so it pretty much explains why things aren't up to par. Kinda like how KoToR 2 wasn't as praised as KoToR 1, since they were done by totally different dev teams.
The problem with Kotor 2 was actually (surprisingly /s) the higher ups rushing it. Obsidian had planned for a year of extra development before new management decided it's got to be out this christmas, instead of the next one. Kotor 2 would have been probably praised as much, if not more so than 1, due to its more nuanced look into the force and the Star wars world, but alas, it got released as a buggy mess with a rushed latter half.
It's the Frostbite engine. It does some things great and other things terrible. Even with mocap, characters in Battlefront, Battlefield, Need for Speed, and Mirrors Edge are expressionless zombies. If they do make facial expressions, it often comes out weird. It must interpret the facial rigs and flexes weird, or something. A lot of characters either do not express enough or have blank faces to begin with. A good example is Hardline's characters. Most of them look blank. In Battlefield 3, when they get angry and yell, their faces do not reflect it well. If you shoot an enemy, instead of looking in pain, they appear to be laughing. In Battlefield 4, same thing. A lot of characters look like they are 420 blazed up while the rest have their faces covered. Need for Speed? Blank faces. Mirrors Edge? Covered faces or under reacting. Then again, Bioware has always been weird when it comes to facial animations. We all know Shepherd's rape face. So there's also that.
The facial customisation in the previous trilogy was pretty abysmal too, in my opinion. Since there was really only a single default face that was used (Male Shepard until ME3), I just stuck to the default face because the ones for customisation were sub par by comparison. The funny thing is, the Dragon Age games had a far better range facial customisation options, and with Inquisition and Andromeda both being Frostbyte 3, the difference seems incredibly confusing, so it's either a consistent design choice from the devs, or the different teams between the Dragon Age games and Mass Effect games have different priorities when it comes to personalising customisable characters.
Facial animations and character designs will NOT be fixed with a day 1 patch. The day one patch is already released. twitter.com/tibermoon/status/842497096607563776
ouch, hope they fix it soon then. But then again the animations hardly affected me. Replayed ME2 and 3 before starting Andromeda and I can tell you, it's the same animation quality. The only difference is that it's now 2k17 and the overall animation quality in other games is just better.
And that's fucking bad. If your animations is the same quality from a game that came out 10 years ago then my god you need to get a new animator. Also the engine isn't at fault because dragon age and the countless other EA games don't have this issue.
Actually, Dragon Age Inquisition (Bioware's only other Frostbyte engine game) had more than its fair share of animation issues at release, and even after a couple of patches. That's the other reason why I'd mentioned it - Same engine, and the same (though undoubtedly fewer) issues present in Andromeda with facial and character animations. Hell, there's still problems with some animations in Inquisition because they were initially designed for a human only protagonist, i.e. closing rifts with any race shorter than human and Qunari leads to some broken elbows on the right arms of player models. Battlefield 1 is still having animation issues, and that's DICE studios, the creators of the engine, but none that look like somebody's walking like they've forgotten to take their butt plug out before getting dressed.
I've looked a lot into this game and it seems that the major complains are bad/mediocre dialogue writing and bad/mediocre animations (specifically facials animations). Otherwise people seem to like the exploration, combat, and I've heard good things about the overarching story too. So good gameplay, but bad presentation seems to be the general consensus. Kind of a flip of the Mass Effect past paradigm. At this point I'm very conflicted. I loved the gameplay in MGSV enough to overlook the sparse story, and apparently I'm the only person that thought DA:I was a fun game, so I might be satisfied with ME:A. I hope anyways. Assuming I buy it of course.
This man right here. He deserves a medal. He understand what reviewing means. To be vocal about the pros and cons of the product and give insight whether it's worth a buy or not based on the viewers opinions. Not being ignorant and only focusing on the cons of the game because clearly, the pros outweigh the cons in this game. Kudos to you, good sir.
Honestly I played the 10 hour trial period and one thing I really want to say is that I like the scanner. It is pretty much optional unless you really want to craft some armor or weapons, but I enjoy it because it really makes you take your time with all these beautiful worlds BioWare has created. Slowing down and examining everything let's you appreciate how amazing it all is, and it all tells its own story. Other than that, pretty much all the controversial/bad stuff in this video isn't that bad. I say pretty much all because obviously there are some things that really, REALLY, could have benefited from some more effort on BW's part... cough cough animations cough.... But the auto-cover is very smooth and works wonderfully, no crouch really isn't a big deal because the only reason you would actually need that is to take cover behind lower objects, and you do that automatically. Overall, like he said, the game has it's issues, but it is VERY fun from what I've played so far, and I can definitely see myself playing for a very very long time once it's released.
When I'm always talking to people almost all the time in this game, you bet facial animations are important. This is a triple A game developed by a triple A developer. Most of you are satisfied with half finished games but I have a higher standard for these types of games. Well, can't expect much when the lead animator is busy creating cosplaying pieces and cosplaying instead of doing her actual job that she was hired for.
I remember mass effect as being a mostly story/narrative driven RPG immersion was kind of an important aspect of the game so i think the way people react strongly to changes in Andromeda reflects the past iterations focus.I haven't played Andromeda so my opinion should be taken with a pile of salt
Honestly I'm more concerned about the lack of character creation options than I am the lipsync and facial animatons. It's probably because I've been a bioware fan since Dragon Age Origins so I'm fairly used to their cutscenes by now.
I've seen every single gameplay footage that was released (3-5 hours of gameplay, playing both the loyalty mission of the black guy and the recruit mission of the asari) and what surprised me the most, in a bad way, were dialogues. Are there sitcom level conversations trough the whole game?
"Why does it seem a lot of people want to hate Mass Effect Andromeda?" One word: Baggage. All of the baggage that was carried over from Mass Effect 3. The fact that development teams act like they can drop the ball on a new title when they did their user base rotten in the past is mind blowing. The facial animation is a big thing and it's prominent so that anyone can see it. The game can have great gameplay, deep customization and all of that. However, that's stuff I have to spend money and buy their game to find out. I can SEE immediately that their character creator is horrid. It's like a finely tuned car, but when its on display it's covered in bird droppings and dented. It may run great, but no one is going to immediately buy it. Especially when you know the dealer has cheated you in the past. Bioware should have probably postponed this one a few months to tighten up their game, they shouldn't have a presentation that immediately brings up old wounds about how they behaved in the past.
That's also completely ignoring the sterilization of Dragon Age. Racism? Too dark. Sexism? Too dark. Rape? Too dark. Now take this crap tactical system and buy the real ending in DLC
***** Would you argue Metro Last Light's use was pointless? You're playing a game where you're generally sneaking around, when you hear a rape about to occur. For me, that kicked me into gear because I wanted to make it stop. Not only did it elicit an emotional response from me, it also made me play differently. I pulled out my shotgun and started sprinting through corridors trying to get there in time. To some, that'd be pointless rape. For me, it genuinely added to the immersion of the game. Rape happens, and it's ridiculous to expect it not to in some of the extreme situations games get into. If you want to play a game without it, more power to you. However, I think it's highly subjective how you interpret it in most cases.
this, people want to be heard and this is the only way to leverage your position. It's downright unfucking forgivable for a developer to put out this quality of dialogue animation. Whether or not you get the game, that criticism needs to cut deep.
who said they liked casual rape and found it titillating? But to play devil's advocate, trauma gives gravitas, which is the corner of any compelling story. As long as it isn't despicably tasteless, almost nothing should be off limits. Butchery or torture is definitively worse and slides by easily enough.
What annoys me the most about the change in combat is no pausing. This really sucks not only for the benefit of pausing to chain up commands but hurts some classes like the Vanguard's multiple chargers.
A few months ago I couldn't imagine not playing Andromeda. After all the issues that have come to light after the early access, I think I'll just withhold my pre-order to send a message and buy after release. Inquisition was disappointing, but I still enjoyed my time with it. Just sad that Bioware isn't what it used to be.
Thank you Downward for posting this video. To see you talk about the game in a non-bias fashion made me feel way more comfortable to purchase this game. As you mention, the Pros will outweigh the cons, as its feels like its going to be any other Bioware game i've played. Please create more videos where we can share and discuss. I would love to see more discussion videos but hey, do what you can!
I've always found it interesting how people are like "Paragon/Renegade made you just choose the same option every time" - I personally never did that. I just picked whatever option appealed to me more. I never did a Full Paragon or Full Renegade playthrough. But either way, I definitely do agree the new dialogue system is an improvement regardless - it's more nuanced generally. There is no "Asshole/Hero" option really.
Lovely video! Though personally I actually liked the way you are introduced to the game. ME2's instant drop into combat was warranted- you were Commander Shepard, a peerless soldier and the trilogy was centered around warfare and combating the invasion of your galaxy. The Ryders, whilst former Alliance recruits, are anything but. They start out as part of the Pathfinder Team- scientists and explorers. Whilst they're prepared for, they are certainly not looking for combat. In my opinion, the relatively laid-back introduction sets up the tone of the game's explorative nature very well.
i do not think its about hating mass effect. its 2017 and gamers expect high quality animations from a AAA rpg. giving mass effect a pass on bad animations would not be a good thing.
Hopefully someone can clarify this to me but, it looks like Rider did biotic charges at certain points rather than a jetpack charge. It would be so cool if Rider's charges were determined by their class.
It's 3AM and I've watched about 18 video reviews highlighting the horrid animations of Andromeda. This however.... this review was the only genuine, unbiased and candid one I came across. You, my good man, have my subscription.
Thank you so much for this. Mass Effect has been my favorite series of all time since it came out, and all the negative feedback I've been seeing has been worrisome. Personally I can deal with some bad facial animations. It's just good to see a non biased viewpoint so i can determine whether these things are something I can deal with or not, and with this review I think ill happily buy the game now
Pros + Combat + New but familiar Story + Exploration + Conversations more intricate + Great new cast + Interchangeable abilities + No Season Pass Cons - Facial Animations - Lacking Character Customization - Weaker Soundtrack Yep, it's a buy. GOTY contender for sure next to Zelda, Horizon Zero Dawn and Shadow of War. (And Red Dead Redemption 2 if it doesn't get delayed.)
Few things. There is customization in the CC. That is what the other tabs are for. That said its not that much overall compared to some other recent games. Hell, they forgot about eye brows entirely. The other thing is that you compared this to ME2 a lot. This is not ME2 and it was never going to be. Compare it to ME1. This is a new series made by a different studio. There is practically no linkage to the old ME universe in terms of story other than the races as far as I can tell right now from my 4 hours of game play. I also do not think the audio is bad. It's perfect for what this game is. It's not a linear, self-contained story like ME2/3 and very cinematic music would not lend itself well. That said I do get that the music should be a bit more polished than it is. I get a huge "this is ME1 in 2017" feel from this game right down to the hokey opening stuff which was also present in ME1. I got into this one much faster though (about 25 minutes as opposed to 45 for ME1).
Have to say I'm glad I came across this video. Just about every other video out there is going on and on about the animation issue, and not discussing any other factor's / aspects of the game.
So we are going to just ignore the poor animation quality, Fan-fic levels of writing quality, unlikeable characters, and the fact that you can't create a WHITE character when Using the customize option (the white skin tone does not exist outside of the default models, which can not be customized)? I could get over the shitty character quality, but the lack of customization and poorly written story are the nails in the coffin for me. I suppose that's what happens when EA puts a team full of SJW's pushing an agenda in charge rather than worrying about if they are actually qualified to make a game.
Bioware's Excuse was that the skin tone slider was tied to the preset character face. Meaning you can only adjust contrast to a lighter or darker tone. This would be fine if not for two reasons: 1. Game engines don't work that way by default. the skin tone is applied as a separate color by the game artist and then coded onto the skin. The only way it would be tied to the facial preset would be to purposely design it that way 2. there are no white preset characters... Source: I have a Bachelors in computer science and have fiddled with game engines in the past. This is simply Bioware lying to cover their tracks.
Drago5899 have you even played the trial? I spent 20 minutes in that shit tier CC and I think you've been fooled. There are white presets and you can make your character white.
Animations are abysmal Writing is basically glorified fanfiction The faces all have a blank stare No white skin in the CC Characters are boring What's worse is the fanboys defending this and saying ugh it not big deal and your just a hater.
what people forget is that the game went through many devs, I preorderd and i dont hate myself for it. with the 10 hours sure there are lack luster animation, but i had alot of fun in the time i spent with it. I think a main point that people arent hating on is the peer to peer multiplayer. When for honor did it the game got shit for it, but bioware does it and its ok? But out of all these problems the game is beautiful, fun, and sometimes adrenaline pumping.
That is not a "little issue". For some people like me the facial expressions will ruin the overall experience of the game, especially since it's 70% cutscenes.
@Exile Studios Quite the contrary. His audience grew and so did support for him. Most saw through the lies portrayed by the media. Anyone that bothered to spend even five minutes checking out any of the things discussed in context would see that Felix was actually making fun of Hitler.
We all knew that the animations were terrible, but it nice to hear that there are more redeeming qualities to make up for the oversight on Bioware's part. You got yourself a sub for the non-spoiler, but detailed and non-biased preview of the game.
I wish people would stop comparing Witcher 3 with Andromeda. CD Projekt Red only had the Witcher series as their sole IP for years and it gave them more time and people to focus on making a great game (not to mention they already had many of the characters and backstories thanks to the books). Bioware has both Mass Effect and Dragon Age as well as another IP they're working on. I mean it's no excuse for the terrible animations but Bioware games have always had derpy animations (this is just like on the extreme end). Also I believe CDPR uses motion capture and Bioware doesn't but I'm not sure. As a side note it's a little unfair comparing Andromeda to one of the best looking games I've ever personally played.
Alyssa Well, people compare because they're games of a similar genre. And Witcher 3, having come out a couple of years before Andromeda looks so much better. Not to mention it's a much better game. I think a big part of why Witcher 3 turned out better than any BioWare game( Only ME 2 comes close) is EA, particularly their pressure on BioWare. Andromeda feels very raw and unfinished.
Андрей Руденко Yeah that was another point i was going to make. EA is money hungry and rushes games as we saw with dragon age 2. Sims 4 was another game that i feel got rushed and was released unfinished. EA has ruined so many games because they want money quick and easy using big titles that people love. Its sad. That said i still played and enjoyed dragon age 2 and sims 4 because the people who made them worked hard even with EA breathing down their backs.
Witcher was hand animated through and through. And atop of that, only prior writing they could rely on was characters and setting - The rest had to be built from the ground up. Not to mention that ME1 has better looking characters _and_ better animation overall. You could at least tell what the animation was supposed to convey.
the witcher 3 is the best game of this century. I know therell be better games than the witcher 3 sometime in the future but those games wont take the place of witcher 3 as the first game ever to be close to perfection. it is the alpha and the omega. lol ill stop right here.
Why are so many of y'all defending AAA companies releasing buggy games. We let it happen by pre-ordering and buying at release. Stop letting them release games without fixing problems. These are Bethesda levels of buggyness. How do you release a game in 2017 with a huge budget and have a gun model be backwards, have animations look so poor, and have just an overall lower quality than previous games.
I find your analytics videos fascinating and looked to see if you had a review on this game - especially as your other videos have a different, but evidence-based angle... I wan't disappointed. Been playing ME:A for the last month and seen review after review only focus on raging about animation quality and nothing about the feeling of inhabiting a rich such-fi world. Great review which makes comparisons to other games where they're relevant and doesn't sensationalise. Great video to demonstrate the consistency of your take on things too - the hating reviews trended hard on YT and I wouldn't be surprised if some reviewers took that route for the buzz and channel-growing opportunities. Subbed.
I'm not sure about this new dialogue wheel. The thing I loved about it is that it told me when an action would be "bad" or "good". It's incredibly annoying to hit an option and then have the character act in a way I didn't anticipate. When it says passionate, or logical, I don't know what that means. Does logical mean doing the right thing? Or does it mean doing the most efficient thing? How do I know what actions will lead too? Also, Mass Effect didn't do a great job with making your player into a paragon or renegade. In theory, having more personality type options mean that you get a more tailored experience, but what it will probably do is make it even harder to have real changes based on your actions. Personally, I felt that the _background_ choices in ME1 had the biggest impact. Far more so than choosing Paragon or Renegade. I noticed a number of changes that were based on it, including a special mission for your choice. This was amazing to me and is the reason that I liked ME1 the most, as the sequels pretty much ignored it, as they did for all the "meaningful" choices you made. This game has ZERO background choices. This makes me feel that player choice is not going to be all that noticeable in terms of story. Given that my main draw to ME is choice and consequences, I'm on the fence for this game.
Let´s face it. This is another one of those "good while you play it but totally forgettable in the long run" kind of games that developers have been pushing out in the last couple of years. I don´t have the money or the time anymore to waste them on mediocrity.
As someone who was skeptical about release, I decided to buy the game after the single player trial. Yes, it is slow in the beginning, but things are just starting to get interesting by the time one hits the content limit. When bioware says things get better, I believe them. Also, I am very bad at interpreting facial expressions, so the animations don't bother me.
thanks for the review, appreciate knowing about the pros, because most reviewers are only bantering about the cons like the facial expressions and sub par voice overs. regardless of the cons I'm still buying, cause it's Mass effect and naturally I'm a fan. so pumped lol
My only reservation in buying the game is not knowing if the writers that thought the ME3 ending was a suitable conclusion to the original trilogy have been involved in this game. If they have then I'm not touching it.
What Mass Effect Andromeda does best is make me want to play the trilogy again. I've just finished the first game and I'm building my team again for the 3rd time in Mass Effect 2.
I've played roughly 10 hours of this on early access and I honestly didn't think the facial animations were such an issue until I started watching these reviews. The combat system is the best thing about the gamefor me so far, the exploration side of it though is a bit of a let down but only because I much prefer the normandy and ME2 2's style - even the music that played when flying the small model ship. I completely agree with the soundtrack issue. That's what made ME 2 so eipc and I fear that much of the immersion in MEA will be lost as a result
oddly from all the reviews if heard no one has every bashed the storyline overall. maybe a few scenes yes but no overall hate for the whole story which is really important to when buyin a game. that in itself makes want to get the game.
EA and bioware will probably make a patch for fixing the face animations a month or so after the initial release date so not a entire deal breaker for me, I would like to see more emotion in the dialogue especially key moments and in firefight settings to make it have that realness to it. Already pre-ordered it anyway so just going to make the most of it
Pretty fair and unbiased video. I feel like people are hating on Andromeda because its the cool thing to do right now. To me, the facial animations basically remind me of ME1 but ME1 being very slightly more animated but not by much. The ME trilogy had some pretty funny and poor facial animations throughout and that never stopped me or a lot of other people from enjoying and loving the hell out of it. I'd say the a lot of the people hating on the game for facial animations and very minor things are jumping on the bandwagon as sheep who can't form their own opinions. The original trilogy is not without its flaws. A minor issue though. You shouldn't really compare ME2's opening to Andromeda. ME2 was a sequel and of course had to improve and get the point across rather quickly. It should be compared to ME1's opening since Andromeda is the first of a possible(???) new trilogy(Don't know if it is) and are the respective starts to their own trilogies. ME1's opening was pretty slow to start but once it got going it was interesting and then evolved into good. In my opinion that seems to be the case with Andromeda as well. This game is great. The story is interesting once it gets going. The gameplay, from what I've played, is the best of the series. The facial animations don't bother me. I've played games with worse animations then Andromeda and still loved the hell out of them. I do understand why people can get turned off of a game because of bad animations but in my opinion they'd be missing out. I'm not a fan of automatic cover though. I hated it in ME1 and I hate it now despite the fact they improved it and made it more fluid. I want to be able to control when and where I get into cover and not just getting into cover every single time I go near stuff.
I actually remember playing dragon age 2 demo before the game came out (not saying the game was good) and the lip sync was just awful, but they fixed it for the final game... not sure if Bioware will fix this, but from watching streams it does not bother me that much. I guess it's a question of taste and opinion, but people who think this looks bad have not played RPG games 15+ years ago, haha. Being an older gamer makes you appreciate how far we've come more... or regret the good ol'days when we didn't care so much about voice acting because... you know... the characters had little to no facial animation and often no voices. :p
Thank you for this. Bioware have been crap with vocal synch since ME2. I like the story and feeling like I can make important decisions and own diplomacy. I can't wait to play it. With game play, every single mass effect has different controls and drive me nuts haha
I started playing the game probably at the best place at this point. I started at 3 so I won't be fixated on previous story-lines that technically already happened.
I was hoping for a video like this, most videos of been a bit one sided, but this one helps me make a bit more of an informed decision. I think I'll wait until around Christmas before I play/stream/record ;) 👍
Spot on with everything *except* the character creator. You can solve a lot of the facial animation issues with a good custom Ryder. Put the time in and make your Ryder look good, and it will pan out in the end. The animations are the worst on the default Ryders.
Enjoyed this critique. Looking forward to playing it. Also do hope Bioware look to expand character creator and fix the animation bugs. My big disappointment is that they didn't try to address and fix it before release. Throughout marketing ppl have criticized the facial animations on footage they saw. So its not a real surprise. I also do not get why they thought limiting the CC would be acceptable, do they not understand their fanbase. Most ppl would assumed that they transplant the DA:I CC to MEA. DA:I had a great CC.
You can't compare Mass Effect 2's opening to Andromeda. ME2 was a sequel with an established enemy and main character. Compare it to ME1 which took awhile to get going.
By completely restarting the franchise they finally could have given us the option to play as alien races as well, I'm very sad they didn't. But never the less, it looks far more enjoyable now then it did in the horrible trailers.
I hope they'll land on their feet with this one. These problems might not be dealbreakers if 2017 didn't have one of the strongest video game lineups in recent history for the first quarter of the year. Mediocrity might be a killer.
It won't dissuade me, but I do wish the gun animations were better. I like that they added some recoil bounce but the rounds still follow a perfect straight line to target and aren't sync'd with the bounce. So at time the rounds are coming out of the barrel at funny angles. For some reason this breaks immersion a bit for me.. but it is the kind of thing you stop noticing after a while. And it is only for some weapons. that being said, I am loving the exploration and the overall feel of the combat engine.
Don't care about customisable character I prefer default. And I got this with all new patches up to 1.10. So just the soundtrack and scanning. Plus I don't really mind if it's trying to be more open that just fits with the story of this mass effect. I only just met peebee I think I'm gonna like this game. Thanks to all the bad controversy and bad reception I got this on psn for only £6😎
I grew up used to playing games where the animations were limited to the models simply shaking their heads and hands with a static face, so facial animations means nothing to my enjoyment of a game.
Considering how heavy the mass effect games focus on talking with people and building relationships, it's so strange how they would fuck up the facial animations. That's what you'll be looking at most of the time while not in combat. I'd be less surprised if they fucked up the combat. It doesn't bother me as much as some people though.
While I know an ugly character or bad animation will bug me, I can live with it. Some of my favorite games to play, even today is KOTOR games, and Oblivion. Their characters don't look nearly as good as these even with these flaws. Granted those games at 10+ years old. But if I can look past those because of game play and story. I can do the same here. If game play and story or good I am fine. The bigger issue for me is the voice on the Krogan. That voice does not match.
Wish you could play as a non human. Quarian would be my top choice. But no, copy paste human. A con for ME:2 unskipable opening cut scene, for future play throughs
Wow. The eyes and facial animations from Mass Effect 1 might actually... no, they *_are actually_* better looking than Mass Effect: Andromeda. Which is saying something, because sometimes I got the feeling that whoever did the facial animations for Mass Effect was a robot looking to study humans or something.
i think we gamers should just accept there will never be an epic game like Mass effect 2. If we stop the comparison, we should be ok. ME2 was one in a million. Only CD projekt so far has pulled off their witcher series successfully.
Hey Guys, Don't listen to people and sites who are trying to Bash the game, most sites, the only complaint they have is the facial animations are a little janky, True. But, they are really not game breaking, and most sites are loving the game, and really looking forward to continuing, trashing the game for one thing, is not fair to a game on its whole. Also, those who love Mass Effect know, this is a franchise for the long haul, and the first few hours do not define a franchise or a single game.
I created custom a character and Alec ended up being a black guy who looked older than the default with long grey hair. And Scott Shepard turned out to be an Asian guy with a goatee LOL. And no, I didn't make them that way! So yeah, I'm a white gal and my dad is a black dude and my brother is an Asian guy. Dafuq! I can live with it since Alec was killed and Scott is on ice. That is until the end when he's thawed out. This is my second play through btw.
You didn't mention the game breaking bugs? The constant disconnections during multiplayer. The galaxy map glitch that freezes the game. There's so many problems (even after the patch) it's become unplayable, I was enjoying my time with it but after the map bug surfaced it's game over.
"Sir! Our new game designer team has just arrived." "Ah that is wonderful news! When do they need to go back to school?" "Tomorrow, sir." "Good good. Then we have plenty of time to create this game. Now what should we call it.." "What about.. Time space universe blackhole lasergun alien the game?" "No no.. That is too creative. People need something short and meaningful. Do you know any space names?" "No sir. I was dropped on my head when I was a kid. I have trouble remembering things." "Ah I see... Then we must consult the world's smartest black man... Mike Tyson!"
$60 is a lot of money to bet on a 'meh'. Edit: Nudity? From those character models? I somehow find that this would put off many. They're using the Frostbite engine and there is absolutely no excuse for the lack of effort they have put into the characters. When comparing previous ME games, ME:A is not an improvement when it comes to human elements (i.e. not aliens).
Can you say more about the worlds ? Like, do they feel alien, with unique vegetation and animals or are they just beautiful recreations of enviroments we already explored a million times ?
I don't know, but "feeling of discovery" is just not enough. I mean, we are talking about AAA game from Bioware /EA not some indie or small development team. I just cannot get over that we again got cake that is half-baked. Especially when there are games like Horizon, Witcher 3 or Uncharted 4. I mean come on, they had enough time and money. This game should have been awesome, not like this. Guess I will wait for price drop.
i really have no problems with the facial animations. I think Bioware just has not improved in this point since mass effect 1. Maybe they should go to motion caputure faces like some other developers are doing it .
You say that the good points outweigh the bad points and make it as if the negative points are almost like a personal opinion... I think it is really bad that they have done nothing new but simply taken existing story structure, gameplay elements from Battlefield and Arkham, 1990 animation quality and 0 originality to their processes even messed up teh character creator ... I pity the fools that buy this game in pre-order as it looks like this is going to be worse than ME:3 ...but maybe that is what Bioware needs
Really glad I found this channel. The reviews are non-biased and grant lots of useful information. Appears that a lot of thought goes into these vids, he definitely deserves a lot more subscribers. Cheers!
Spencer K. Agreed!
Thanks for your compliments. I work very hard on my videos, and try to organize them concisely so we can avoid all the rambling and fluff.
There is no such thing as a non-biased review. It's a subjective opinion after all. I not only pre-ordered the game, but I've bought a new gaming rig for it as well so I'm hoping the warranted negative criticism of ME: Andromeda is contrasted with just as well deserved praise when reviewers get more hands-on time with the game.
Spencer K. I agree 100% . He needs more recognition!
Excactly this. It's impossible to review something without bias. We humans aren't machines, our own tastes and thoughts are always present
"No spoilers." Next minute "Alec is dead"
It's a huge issue that a game so focused on characters and narrative presents those in such a bad way. Animations are bad, face animations are bad, voice acting is bad, dialogue is bad, lip sync is bad, the awkward pauses between lines and responses feel like a school play... Seriously, did anyone at Bioware looked at this and did not see a monumental problem with a core mechanic of the game?
I'm still excited and will probably play it... but I'm not sure if this will be a good experience or a refund
Most of the guys that made The older Bioware games have left the company. Which is why their newer titles made less of an impression on us players who have been playing their games back in the early 90s.
Just a side note I believe this dev team, Bioware Montreal, didn't make the other ME games. Just some of the DLC for 2 or 3, so it pretty much explains why things aren't up to par. Kinda like how KoToR 2 wasn't as praised as KoToR 1, since they were done by totally different dev teams.
The problem with Kotor 2 was actually (surprisingly /s) the higher ups rushing it. Obsidian had planned for a year of extra development before new management decided it's got to be out this christmas, instead of the next one. Kotor 2 would have been probably praised as much, if not more so than 1, due to its more nuanced look into the force and the Star wars world, but alas, it got released as a buggy mess with a rushed latter half.
It's the Frostbite engine. It does some things great and other things terrible.
Even with mocap, characters in Battlefront, Battlefield, Need for Speed, and Mirrors Edge are expressionless zombies. If they do make facial expressions, it often comes out weird. It must interpret the facial rigs and flexes weird, or something.
A lot of characters either do not express enough or have blank faces to begin with. A good example is Hardline's characters. Most of them look blank. In Battlefield 3, when they get angry and yell, their faces do not reflect it well. If you shoot an enemy, instead of looking in pain, they appear to be laughing. In Battlefield 4, same thing. A lot of characters look like they are 420 blazed up while the rest have their faces covered. Need for Speed? Blank faces. Mirrors Edge? Covered faces or under reacting.
Then again, Bioware has always been weird when it comes to facial animations. We all know Shepherd's rape face.
So there's also that.
then don't buy it simple
"Dodge, dip, duck, dive and dodge" wow two dodges. That's some legit shit.
Matt Damon
It's from a comedy movie called Dodgeball
The facial customisation in the previous trilogy was pretty abysmal too, in my opinion.
Since there was really only a single default face that was used (Male Shepard until ME3), I just stuck to the default face because the ones for customisation were sub par by comparison.
The funny thing is, the Dragon Age games had a far better range facial customisation options, and with Inquisition and Andromeda both being Frostbyte 3, the difference seems incredibly confusing, so it's either a consistent design choice from the devs, or the different teams between the Dragon Age games and Mass Effect games have different priorities when it comes to personalising customisable characters.
Facial animations and character designs will be fixed with a day 1 patch.
Facial animations and character designs will NOT be fixed with a day 1 patch. The day one patch is already released. twitter.com/tibermoon/status/842497096607563776
ouch, hope they fix it soon then. But then again the animations hardly affected me. Replayed ME2 and 3 before starting Andromeda and I can tell you, it's the same animation quality. The only difference is that it's now 2k17 and the overall animation quality in other games is just better.
And that's fucking bad. If your animations is the same quality from a game that came out 10 years ago then my god you need to get a new animator. Also the engine isn't at fault because dragon age and the countless other EA games don't have this issue.
Actually, Dragon Age Inquisition (Bioware's only other Frostbyte engine game) had more than its fair share of animation issues at release, and even after a couple of patches. That's the other reason why I'd mentioned it - Same engine, and the same (though undoubtedly fewer) issues present in Andromeda with facial and character animations.
Hell, there's still problems with some animations in Inquisition because they were initially designed for a human only protagonist, i.e. closing rifts with any race shorter than human and Qunari leads to some broken elbows on the right arms of player models.
Battlefield 1 is still having animation issues, and that's DICE studios, the creators of the engine, but none that look like somebody's walking like they've forgotten to take their butt plug out before getting dressed.
I've looked a lot into this game and it seems that the major complains are bad/mediocre dialogue writing and bad/mediocre animations (specifically facials animations). Otherwise people seem to like the exploration, combat, and I've heard good things about the overarching story too. So good gameplay, but bad presentation seems to be the general consensus. Kind of a flip of the Mass Effect past paradigm. At this point I'm very conflicted.
I loved the gameplay in MGSV enough to overlook the sparse story, and apparently I'm the only person that thought DA:I was a fun game, so I might be satisfied with ME:A. I hope anyways. Assuming I buy it of course.
This man right here. He deserves a medal. He understand what reviewing means. To be vocal about the pros and cons of the product and give insight whether it's worth a buy or not based on the viewers opinions. Not being ignorant and only focusing on the cons of the game because clearly, the pros outweigh the cons in this game. Kudos to you, good sir.
Honestly I played the 10 hour trial period and one thing I really want to say is that I like the scanner. It is pretty much optional unless you really want to craft some armor or weapons, but I enjoy it because it really makes you take your time with all these beautiful worlds BioWare has created. Slowing down and examining everything let's you appreciate how amazing it all is, and it all tells its own story.
Other than that, pretty much all the controversial/bad stuff in this video isn't that bad. I say pretty much all because obviously there are some things that really, REALLY, could have benefited from some more effort on BW's part... cough cough animations cough.... But the auto-cover is very smooth and works wonderfully, no crouch really isn't a big deal because the only reason you would actually need that is to take cover behind lower objects, and you do that automatically.
Overall, like he said, the game has it's issues, but it is VERY fun from what I've played so far, and I can definitely see myself playing for a very very long time once it's released.
When I'm always talking to people almost all the time in this game, you bet facial animations are important. This is a triple A game developed by a triple A developer. Most of you are satisfied with half finished games but I have a higher standard for these types of games. Well, can't expect much when the lead animator is busy creating cosplaying pieces and cosplaying instead of doing her actual job that she was hired for.
I remember mass effect as being a mostly story/narrative driven RPG immersion was kind of an important aspect of the game so i think the way people react strongly to changes in Andromeda reflects the past iterations focus.I haven't played Andromeda so my opinion should be taken with a pile of salt
Honestly I'm more concerned about the lack of character creation options than I am the lipsync and facial animatons. It's probably because I've been a bioware fan since Dragon Age Origins so I'm fairly used to their cutscenes by now.
I've seen every single gameplay footage that was released (3-5 hours of gameplay, playing both the loyalty mission of the black guy and the recruit mission of the asari) and what surprised me the most, in a bad way, were dialogues. Are there sitcom level conversations trough the whole game?
nice video dude its nice to see someone talk about andromeda like it has other elements good and bad that arent just the facial animations
"Why does it seem a lot of people want to hate Mass Effect Andromeda?" One word: Baggage. All of the baggage that was carried over from Mass Effect 3. The fact that development teams act like they can drop the ball on a new title when they did their user base rotten in the past is mind blowing.
The facial animation is a big thing and it's prominent so that anyone can see it. The game can have great gameplay, deep customization and all of that. However, that's stuff I have to spend money and buy their game to find out. I can SEE immediately that their character creator is horrid. It's like a finely tuned car, but when its on display it's covered in bird droppings and dented. It may run great, but no one is going to immediately buy it. Especially when you know the dealer has cheated you in the past.
Bioware should have probably postponed this one a few months to tighten up their game, they shouldn't have a presentation that immediately brings up old wounds about how they behaved in the past.
That's also completely ignoring the sterilization of Dragon Age. Racism? Too dark. Sexism? Too dark. Rape? Too dark. Now take this crap tactical system and buy the real ending in DLC
***** Would you argue Metro Last Light's use was pointless? You're playing a game where you're generally sneaking around, when you hear a rape about to occur. For me, that kicked me into gear because I wanted to make it stop. Not only did it elicit an emotional response from me, it also made me play differently. I pulled out my shotgun and started sprinting through corridors trying to get there in time.
To some, that'd be pointless rape. For me, it genuinely added to the immersion of the game. Rape happens, and it's ridiculous to expect it not to in some of the extreme situations games get into. If you want to play a game without it, more power to you. However, I think it's highly subjective how you interpret it in most cases.
this, people want to be heard and this is the only way to leverage your position. It's downright unfucking forgivable for a developer to put out this quality of dialogue animation. Whether or not you get the game, that criticism needs to cut deep.
who said they liked casual rape and found it titillating? But to play devil's advocate, trauma gives gravitas, which is the corner of any compelling story. As long as it isn't despicably tasteless, almost nothing should be off limits. Butchery or torture is definitively worse and slides by easily enough.
well, this isn't even the same team that made ME3, they all left BioWare a while ago.
What annoys me the most about the change in combat is no pausing. This really sucks not only for the benefit of pausing to chain up commands but hurts some classes like the Vanguard's multiple chargers.
A few months ago I couldn't imagine not playing Andromeda. After all the issues that have come to light after the early access, I think I'll just withhold my pre-order to send a message and buy after release. Inquisition was disappointing, but I still enjoyed my time with it. Just sad that Bioware isn't what it used to be.
Thank you Downward for posting this video. To see you talk about the game in a non-bias fashion made me feel way more comfortable to purchase this game. As you mention, the Pros will outweigh the cons, as its feels like its going to be any other Bioware game i've played.
Please create more videos where we can share and discuss. I would love to see more discussion videos but hey, do what you can!
I've always found it interesting how people are like "Paragon/Renegade made you just choose the same option every time" - I personally never did that. I just picked whatever option appealed to me more. I never did a Full Paragon or Full Renegade playthrough. But either way, I definitely do agree the new dialogue system is an improvement regardless - it's more nuanced generally. There is no "Asshole/Hero" option really.
Lovely video! Though personally I actually liked the way you are introduced to the game.
ME2's instant drop into combat was warranted- you were Commander Shepard, a peerless soldier and the trilogy was centered around warfare and combating the invasion of your galaxy.
The Ryders, whilst former Alliance recruits, are anything but. They start out as part of the Pathfinder Team- scientists and explorers. Whilst they're prepared for, they are certainly not looking for combat. In my opinion, the relatively laid-back introduction sets up the tone of the game's explorative nature very well.
Thank you :)
Excellent unbiased video on the game. This channel is pretty underrated in my opinion. :)
Thanks.
I dig the scanner honestly. Seems like pulling out your tricorder while on an away team.
4:09 -
"- I think that the krogan is gay.
- Oh, you dont know that...."
The soundtrack is a deal breaker. ME2 had some of the most blood pumping orchestra drum stuff possible and it was great.
i do not think its about hating mass effect. its 2017 and gamers expect high quality animations from a AAA rpg. giving mass effect a pass on bad animations would not be a good thing.
Hopefully someone can clarify this to me but, it looks like Rider did biotic charges at certain points rather than a jetpack charge. It would be so cool if Rider's charges were determined by their class.
It's 3AM and I've watched about 18 video reviews highlighting the horrid animations of Andromeda. This however.... this review was the only genuine, unbiased and candid one I came across. You, my good man, have my subscription.
Thank you so much for this. Mass Effect has been my favorite series of all time since it came out, and all the negative feedback I've been seeing has been worrisome. Personally I can deal with some bad facial animations. It's just good to see a non biased viewpoint so i can determine whether these things are something I can deal with or not, and with this review I think ill happily buy the game now
If you'll recall, the first 10 minutes or so of Mass Effect 1 weren't exactly heart pounding. "1500 is good, your captain will be pleased."
I was worried at first, but now I feel Confident to explore the Stars again.
Pros
+ Combat
+ New but familiar Story
+ Exploration
+ Conversations more intricate
+ Great new cast
+ Interchangeable abilities
+ No Season Pass
Cons
- Facial Animations
- Lacking Character Customization
- Weaker Soundtrack
Yep, it's a buy. GOTY contender for sure next to Zelda, Horizon Zero Dawn and Shadow of War. (And Red Dead Redemption 2 if it doesn't get delayed.)
No mention of the broken auto save? I guess you people like replaying the same hour long parts if you happen to die or lose power.
It's nice to have a review that ACTUALLY talks about what's in the game than just bashing.
I bought this game after playing the 10 hour trial. Damn good game regardless of quirks.
Few things. There is customization in the CC. That is what the other tabs are for. That said its not that much overall compared to some other recent games. Hell, they forgot about eye brows entirely. The other thing is that you compared this to ME2 a lot. This is not ME2 and it was never going to be. Compare it to ME1. This is a new series made by a different studio. There is practically no linkage to the old ME universe in terms of story other than the races as far as I can tell right now from my 4 hours of game play.
I also do not think the audio is bad. It's perfect for what this game is. It's not a linear, self-contained story like ME2/3 and very cinematic music would not lend itself well. That said I do get that the music should be a bit more polished than it is. I get a huge "this is ME1 in 2017" feel from this game right down to the hokey opening stuff which was also present in ME1. I got into this one much faster though (about 25 minutes as opposed to 45 for ME1).
Have to say I'm glad I came across this video. Just about every other video out there is going on and on about the animation issue, and not discussing any other factor's / aspects of the game.
So we are going to just ignore the poor animation quality, Fan-fic levels of writing quality, unlikeable characters, and the fact that you can't create a WHITE character when Using the customize option (the white skin tone does not exist outside of the default models, which can not be customized)?
I could get over the shitty character quality, but the lack of customization and poorly written story are the nails in the coffin for me. I suppose that's what happens when EA puts a team full of SJW's pushing an agenda in charge rather than worrying about if they are actually qualified to make a game.
It's definitely nothing you can ignore, it's more of a question of what can you tolerate?
Agree completely, nowt else i can say to enforce your comment.
That is what it seems like. Btw I forgot to say, very well put together video. Alas, Andromeda is a pass for me personally.
Bioware's Excuse was that the skin tone slider was tied to the preset character face. Meaning you can only adjust contrast to a lighter or darker tone. This would be fine if not for two reasons:
1. Game engines don't work that way by default. the skin tone is applied as a separate color by the game artist and then coded onto the skin. The only way it would be tied to the facial preset would be to purposely design it that way
2. there are no white preset characters...
Source: I have a Bachelors in computer science and have fiddled with game engines in the past. This is simply Bioware lying to cover their tracks.
Drago5899 have you even played the trial? I spent 20 minutes in that shit tier CC and I think you've been fooled. There are white presets and you can make your character white.
nice to see a honest views of the game who stats legit pros & cons instead of somebody who either is all positive or all negative i just subbed
that jetpack ability is the best that ever happened in mass effect series..
Animations are abysmal
Writing is basically glorified fanfiction
The faces all have a blank stare
No white skin in the CC
Characters are boring
What's worse is the fanboys defending this and saying ugh it not big deal and your just a hater.
what people forget is that the game went through many devs, I preorderd and i dont hate myself for it. with the 10 hours sure there are lack luster animation, but i had alot of fun in the time i spent with it. I think a main point that people arent hating on is the peer to peer multiplayer. When for honor did it the game got shit for it, but bioware does it and its ok? But out of all these problems the game is beautiful, fun, and sometimes adrenaline pumping.
great thanks to pewdiepie the game might sell bad over a little issue
Iqbalx1 to be honest if you release a product that someone like PewDiePie is able to make or break, that's 100% on you.
what's pewdipie?
That is not a "little issue". For some people like me the facial expressions will ruin the overall experience of the game, especially since it's 70% cutscenes.
pewdiepie killed his carrier with his racist stunts no one takes him seriously anymore
@Exile Studios Quite the contrary. His audience grew and so did support for him. Most saw through the lies portrayed by the media. Anyone that bothered to spend even five minutes checking out any of the things discussed in context would see that Felix was actually making fun of Hitler.
We all knew that the animations were terrible, but it nice to hear that there are more redeeming qualities to make up for the oversight on Bioware's part. You got yourself a sub for the non-spoiler, but detailed and non-biased preview of the game.
I wish people would stop comparing Witcher 3 with Andromeda. CD Projekt Red only had the Witcher series as their sole IP for years and it gave them more time and people to focus on making a great game (not to mention they already had many of the characters and backstories thanks to the books). Bioware has both Mass Effect and Dragon Age as well as another IP they're working on. I mean it's no excuse for the terrible animations but Bioware games have always had derpy animations (this is just like on the extreme end). Also I believe CDPR uses motion capture and Bioware doesn't but I'm not sure.
As a side note it's a little unfair comparing Andromeda to one of the best looking games I've ever personally played.
Alyssa Well, people compare because they're games of a similar genre. And Witcher 3, having come out a couple of years before Andromeda looks so much better. Not to mention it's a much better game.
I think a big part of why Witcher 3 turned out better than any BioWare game( Only ME 2 comes close) is EA, particularly their pressure on BioWare. Andromeda feels very raw and unfinished.
Андрей Руденко Yeah that was another point i was going to make. EA is money hungry and rushes games as we saw with dragon age 2. Sims 4 was another game that i feel got rushed and was released unfinished. EA has ruined so many games because they want money quick and easy using big titles that people love. Its sad. That said i still played and enjoyed dragon age 2 and sims 4 because the people who made them worked hard even with EA breathing down their backs.
Witcher was hand animated through and through.
And atop of that, only prior writing they could rely on was characters and setting - The rest had to be built from the ground up.
Not to mention that ME1 has better looking characters _and_ better animation overall. You could at least tell what the animation was supposed to convey.
the witcher 3 is the best game of this century. I know therell be better games than the witcher 3 sometime in the future but those games wont take the place of witcher 3 as the first game ever to be close to perfection. it is the alpha and the omega. lol ill stop right here.
jemuel8889 the witcher has an amazing story and is a pretty game but the combat is wonky you gotta admit that
Why are so many of y'all defending AAA companies releasing buggy games. We let it happen by pre-ordering and buying at release.
Stop letting them release games without fixing problems. These are Bethesda levels of buggyness. How do you release a game in 2017 with a huge budget and have a gun model be backwards, have animations look so poor, and have just an overall lower quality than previous games.
I find your analytics videos fascinating and looked to see if you had a review on this game - especially as your other videos have a different, but evidence-based angle...
I wan't disappointed. Been playing ME:A for the last month and seen review after review only focus on raging about animation quality and nothing about the feeling of inhabiting a rich such-fi world. Great review which makes comparisons to other games where they're relevant and doesn't sensationalise.
Great video to demonstrate the consistency of your take on things too - the hating reviews trended hard on YT and I wouldn't be surprised if some reviewers took that route for the buzz and channel-growing opportunities.
Subbed.
"No spoilers"
4:05
God fucking damnit
I'm not sure about this new dialogue wheel. The thing I loved about it is that it told me when an action would be "bad" or "good". It's incredibly annoying to hit an option and then have the character act in a way I didn't anticipate. When it says passionate, or logical, I don't know what that means. Does logical mean doing the right thing? Or does it mean doing the most efficient thing? How do I know what actions will lead too?
Also, Mass Effect didn't do a great job with making your player into a paragon or renegade. In theory, having more personality type options mean that you get a more tailored experience, but what it will probably do is make it even harder to have real changes based on your actions.
Personally, I felt that the _background_ choices in ME1 had the biggest impact. Far more so than choosing Paragon or Renegade. I noticed a number of changes that were based on it, including a special mission for your choice. This was amazing to me and is the reason that I liked ME1 the most, as the sequels pretty much ignored it, as they did for all the "meaningful" choices you made. This game has ZERO background choices.
This makes me feel that player choice is not going to be all that noticeable in terms of story. Given that my main draw to ME is choice and consequences, I'm on the fence for this game.
Let´s face it. This is another one of those "good while you play it but totally forgettable in the long run" kind of games that developers have been pushing out in the last couple of years.
I don´t have the money or the time anymore to waste them on mediocrity.
I'm glad most reviews out there are bringing up Andromeda's flaws, but in the end conclude that they are minor and that the game is still good.
As someone who was skeptical about release, I decided to buy the game after the single player trial. Yes, it is slow in the beginning, but things are just starting to get interesting by the time one hits the content limit. When bioware says things get better, I believe them.
Also, I am very bad at interpreting facial expressions, so the animations don't bother me.
thanks for the review, appreciate knowing about the pros, because most reviewers are only bantering about the cons like the facial expressions and sub par voice overs. regardless of the cons I'm still buying, cause it's Mass effect and naturally I'm a fan. so pumped lol
My only reservation in buying the game is not knowing if the writers that thought the ME3 ending was a suitable conclusion to the original trilogy have been involved in this game. If they have then I'm not touching it.
What Mass Effect Andromeda does best is make me want to play the trilogy again. I've just finished the first game and I'm building my team again for the 3rd time in Mass Effect 2.
Good review. Probably the first honest non biased review I've seen. Subscribed!
I've played roughly 10 hours of this on early access and I honestly didn't think the facial animations were such an issue until I started watching these reviews. The combat system is the best thing about the gamefor me so far, the exploration side of it though is a bit of a let down but only because I much prefer the normandy and ME2 2's style - even the music that played when flying the small model ship. I completely agree with the soundtrack issue. That's what made ME 2 so eipc and I fear that much of the immersion in MEA will be lost as a result
oddly from all the reviews if heard no one has every bashed the storyline overall. maybe a few scenes yes but no overall hate for the whole story which is really important to when buyin a game. that in itself makes want to get the game.
I don't agree with the sountrack thing. The Moment the Tempest arrives at the dock the first time, the soundtrack ist outstanding. I love it!
EA and bioware will probably make a patch for fixing the face animations a month or so after the initial release date so not a entire deal breaker for me, I would like to see more emotion in the dialogue especially key moments and in firefight settings to make it have that realness to it. Already pre-ordered it anyway so just going to make the most of it
Pretty fair and unbiased video.
I feel like people are hating on Andromeda because its the cool thing to do right now. To me, the facial animations basically remind me of ME1 but ME1 being very slightly more animated but not by much. The ME trilogy had some pretty funny and poor facial animations throughout and that never stopped me or a lot of other people from enjoying and loving the hell out of it. I'd say the a lot of the people hating on the game for facial animations and very minor things are jumping on the bandwagon as sheep who can't form their own opinions. The original trilogy is not without its flaws.
A minor issue though. You shouldn't really compare ME2's opening to Andromeda. ME2 was a sequel and of course had to improve and get the point across rather quickly. It should be compared to ME1's opening since Andromeda is the first of a possible(???) new trilogy(Don't know if it is) and are the respective starts to their own trilogies. ME1's opening was pretty slow to start but once it got going it was interesting and then evolved into good. In my opinion that seems to be the case with Andromeda as well.
This game is great. The story is interesting once it gets going. The gameplay, from what I've played, is the best of the series. The facial animations don't bother me. I've played games with worse animations then Andromeda and still loved the hell out of them. I do understand why people can get turned off of a game because of bad animations but in my opinion they'd be missing out. I'm not a fan of automatic cover though. I hated it in ME1 and I hate it now despite the fact they improved it and made it more fluid. I want to be able to control when and where I get into cover and not just getting into cover every single time I go near stuff.
I actually remember playing dragon age 2 demo before the game came out (not saying the game was good) and the lip sync was just awful, but they fixed it for the final game... not sure if Bioware will fix this, but from watching streams it does not bother me that much. I guess it's a question of taste and opinion, but people who think this looks bad have not played RPG games 15+ years ago, haha. Being an older gamer makes you appreciate how far we've come more... or regret the good ol'days when we didn't care so much about voice acting because... you know... the characters had little to no facial animation and often no voices. :p
Thank you for this. Bioware have been crap with vocal synch since ME2. I like the story and feeling like I can make important decisions and own diplomacy. I can't wait to play it. With game play, every single mass effect has different controls and drive me nuts haha
Why did it take me so long to find this channel. This is great!! Aaand...subscribed
I started playing the game probably at the best place at this point. I started at 3 so I won't be fixated on previous story-lines that technically already happened.
I was hoping for a video like this, most videos of been a bit one sided, but this one helps me make a bit more of an informed decision. I think I'll wait until around Christmas before I play/stream/record ;) 👍
Spot on with everything *except* the character creator. You can solve a lot of the facial animation issues with a good custom Ryder. Put the time in and make your Ryder look good, and it will pan out in the end. The animations are the worst on the default Ryders.
Enjoyed this critique. Looking forward to playing it. Also do hope Bioware look to expand character creator and fix the animation bugs. My big disappointment is that they didn't try to address and fix it before release. Throughout marketing ppl have criticized the facial animations on footage they saw. So its not a real surprise. I also do not get why they thought limiting the CC would be acceptable, do they not understand their fanbase. Most ppl would assumed that they transplant the DA:I CC to MEA. DA:I had a great CC.
Thank you.
>''and no, there will not be any spoilers''
>ALEC IS DEAD
THANK YOU, THIS IS HOW YOU QUICKLY REVIEW A GAME... pros and cons people...
You can't compare Mass Effect 2's opening to Andromeda. ME2 was a sequel with an established enemy and main character. Compare it to ME1 which took awhile to get going.
By completely restarting the franchise they finally could have given us the option to play as alien races as well, I'm very sad they didn't. But never the less, it looks far more enjoyable now then it did in the horrible trailers.
I hope they'll land on their feet with this one. These problems might not be dealbreakers if 2017 didn't have one of the strongest video game lineups in recent history for the first quarter of the year. Mediocrity might be a killer.
It won't dissuade me, but I do wish the gun animations were better. I like that they added some recoil bounce but the rounds still follow a perfect straight line to target and aren't sync'd with the bounce. So at time the rounds are coming out of the barrel at funny angles. For some reason this breaks immersion a bit for me.. but it is the kind of thing you stop noticing after a while. And it is only for some weapons. that being said, I am loving the exploration and the overall feel of the combat engine.
Don't care about customisable character I prefer default. And I got this with all new patches up to 1.10. So just the soundtrack and scanning. Plus I don't really mind if it's trying to be more open that just fits with the story of this mass effect. I only just met peebee I think I'm gonna like this game. Thanks to all the bad controversy and bad reception I got this on psn for only £6😎
the only con that bothers me is the musical score, after all, you don't need facial animations for multiplayer
Great analysis! (Also that Dodgeball reference was amazing xD)
yay...someone caught it!
I grew up used to playing games where the animations were limited to the models simply shaking their heads and hands with a static face, so facial animations means nothing to my enjoyment of a game.
Considering how heavy the mass effect games focus on talking with people and building relationships, it's so strange how they would fuck up the facial animations. That's what you'll be looking at most of the time while not in combat. I'd be less surprised if they fucked up the combat. It doesn't bother me as much as some people though.
While I know an ugly character or bad animation will bug me, I can live with it. Some of my favorite games to play, even today is KOTOR games, and Oblivion. Their characters don't look nearly as good as these even with these flaws. Granted those games at 10+ years old. But if I can look past those because of game play and story. I can do the same here. If game play and story or good I am fine.
The bigger issue for me is the voice on the Krogan. That voice does not match.
Wish you could play as a non human. Quarian would be my top choice. But no, copy paste human.
A con for ME:2 unskipable opening cut scene, for future play throughs
that dodge ball reference, I did not miss it my friend
This is one of those games you wait a while before you buy it
Wow. The eyes and facial animations from Mass Effect 1 might actually... no, they *_are actually_* better looking than Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Which is saying something, because sometimes I got the feeling that whoever did the facial animations for Mass Effect was a robot looking to study humans or something.
Seems the facial animations are only weird on the Humans
i think we gamers should just accept there will never be an epic game like Mass effect 2. If we stop the comparison, we should be ok. ME2 was one in a million. Only CD projekt so far has pulled off their witcher series successfully.
Hey Guys, Don't listen to people and sites who are trying to Bash the
game, most sites, the only complaint they have is the facial animations
are a little janky, True. But, they are really not game breaking, and
most sites are loving the game, and really looking forward to
continuing, trashing the game for one thing, is not fair to a game on
its whole. Also, those who love Mass Effect know, this is a franchise
for the long haul, and the first few hours do not define a franchise or
a single game.
Wow, your videos are so structured it makes me feel like I'm reading an English essay...
It's sad that the great gameplay points are currently overshadowed by a cosmetic error.
Well then, this is the first and only video of yours that I will be watching. You say this is a spoiler free video and then you drop one on us.
I created custom a character and Alec ended up being a black guy who looked older than the default with long grey hair. And Scott Shepard turned out to be an Asian guy with a goatee LOL. And no, I didn't make them that way!
So yeah, I'm a white gal and my dad is a black dude and my brother is an Asian guy. Dafuq! I can live with it since Alec was killed and Scott is on ice. That is until the end when he's thawed out. This is my second play through btw.
You didn't mention the game breaking bugs? The constant disconnections during multiplayer. The galaxy map glitch that freezes the game. There's so many problems (even after the patch) it's become unplayable, I was enjoying my time with it but after the map bug surfaced it's game over.
"Sir! Our new game designer team has just arrived."
"Ah that is wonderful news! When do they need to go back to school?"
"Tomorrow, sir."
"Good good. Then we have plenty of time to create this game. Now what should we call it.."
"What about.. Time space universe blackhole lasergun alien the game?"
"No no.. That is too creative. People need something short and meaningful. Do you know any space names?"
"No sir. I was dropped on my head when I was a kid. I have trouble remembering things."
"Ah I see... Then we must consult the world's smartest black man... Mike Tyson!"
Lol, wow. I would never have thought to think a Krogan would sound like that on 4:08
I honestly think they specced this game for the multiplayer,
$60 is a lot of money to bet on a 'meh'.
Edit: Nudity? From those character models? I somehow find that this would put off many.
They're using the Frostbite engine and there is absolutely no excuse for the lack of effort they have put into the characters. When comparing previous ME games, ME:A is not an improvement when it comes to human elements (i.e. not aliens).
I assume that interstellar travel is impossible since the mass relays got destroyed last time around.
Can you say more about the worlds ? Like, do they feel alien, with unique vegetation and animals or are they just beautiful recreations of enviroments we already explored a million times ?
Thiago Maluf No one's allowed to get into specifics until Monday
How many 500 mile sections of perfectly flat horizon does it take to make a sphere?
Worst is the Krogan had better face animation then the humans ;)
I don't know, but "feeling of discovery" is just not enough. I mean, we are talking about AAA game from Bioware /EA not some indie or small development team. I just cannot get over that we again got cake that is half-baked. Especially when there are games like Horizon, Witcher 3 or Uncharted 4. I mean come on, they had enough time and money. This game should have been awesome, not like this.
Guess I will wait for price drop.
i really have no problems with the facial animations. I think Bioware just has not improved in this point since mass effect 1. Maybe they should go to motion caputure faces like some other developers are doing it .
You say that the good points outweigh the bad points and make it as if the negative points are almost like a personal opinion... I think it is really bad that they have done nothing new but simply taken existing story structure, gameplay elements from Battlefield and Arkham, 1990 animation quality and 0 originality to their processes even messed up teh character creator ... I pity the fools that buy this game in pre-order as it looks like this is going to be worse than ME:3 ...but maybe that is what Bioware needs