Impressions after 7 days

xpsync

WORTH... EVERY... PENNY!

That's the only "outside the game world" thought which comes to mind when I'm playing ME:A. I'm so drawn into the world, it's so immersive, i can't stop playing.

The game is massive and i couldn't be happier about that. It's that feeling you get when you don't want something to end because you're having such an amazing time. Hearing how long it is in hours (story/side stuff) 120 hours, if that's the case, ME1 is 12hrs, ME2 is (I'll be generous) 22hrs, ME3 only ran through it fully 2 times,so... 20hrs?, ball park the whole thing 50 to 60 hours tops.

So yea, looks like  ME Andromeda is 2 Times larger than the entire trilogy combined, and that's perfectly fine because i literally can't get enough of this universe.

Wizardry

Just watched Dan's gaming FINISH the game but watched him 2 days ago and his reaction?

WHAT.... that's it,that's the ending?Then the credits role.I thought it looked dumb,typical of most CS's i watched,close ups of faces and the guy gives some gay wink.
Then he is like oh wait,this must be it...then he says  and i QUOTE "Oh dear fkn god".
More facial close ups with boring dialogue.Then EPILOGUE...no thanks already bored.

Watch a bit more of Cohn's and more of the same crappy CS's,they are way too close making for some pretty boring scenes or i mean facials,

Cohn's words "That's a ship?".

It really seems to me every streamer i watch seems to be not overly impressed by anything in this game.Although Cohn did say his current mission is great because of what he calls "memorable dialogue"but didn't do anything for me.Pretty much EMPTY of action,he fights one mob here and there,nothing tough,nothing exciting.
The mapping/lighting is VERY amateur,example every wall and all lighting in a map i am watching looks blue,so they had to do VERY little,if any optimization that way,very lazy effort.As well the quality drops off extremely fast ,literally 2 feet behind the player the graphics are dropping off,really sad work here.

So watching all that i have,i wouldn't play it for free let alone buy the game.It does not look fun and the graphics are typical low end fog lighting and fast drop off in quality,all Indie type stuff.Usually if i see a game that looks promising,i am immediately into Steam looking for it,this game has done nothing to get me motivated.

Azoth

I just finished my first playthrough, 97% completion. Clocked something like 85 hours. I liked it a lot, I think it's a good introduction to the next trilogy. The worlds are big enough that you have a real sense of exploration. The main plot is good while the storytelling and scripts could of been a bit better. The combat is also greatly improved.

Overall it is now my preferred game of the franchise. 

Kyleran

Curious, people who actually play this game generally have a more favorable view than those who watch others play it.

Weird.

deniter

Kyleran said:

Curious, people who actually play this game generally have a more favorable view than those who watch others play it.

Weird.

But isn't 'watching' and 'playing' about the same things in this context?

Octagon7711

xpsync said:

WORTH... EVERY... PENNY!

That's the only "outside the game world" thought which comes to mind when I'm playing ME:A. I'm so drawn into the world, it's so immersive, i can't stop playing.

The game is massive and i couldn't be happier about that. It's that feeling you get when you don't want something to end because you're having such an amazing time. Hearing how long it is in hours (story/side stuff) 120 hours, if that's the case, ME1 is 12hrs, ME2 is (I'll be generous) 22hrs, ME3 only ran through it fully 2 times,so... 20hrs?, ball park the whole thing 50 to 60 hours tops.

So yea, looks like  ME Andromeda is 2 Times larger than the entire trilogy combined, and that's perfectly fine because i literally can't get enough of this universe.

Good for you. Enjoy!

Iselin

Azoth said:

I just finished my first playthrough, 97% completion. Clocked something like 85 hours. I liked it a lot, I think it's a good introduction to the next trilogy. The worlds are big enough that you have a real sense of exploration. The main plot is good while the storytelling and scripts could of been a bit better. The combat is also greatly improved.

Overall it is now my preferred game of the franchise. 

Curious... what level did you end up at the end? I'm level 33 already and am just working on Voeld and I still have a couple of planets to go through.

Ikeda

Hell I'm just getting to Voeld because I chose the other planet first.  I'm finding it hard to suck myself back into it.  Everyone says it gets better but that planet had so many damned climbs that I just don't care anymore.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Iselin

blueturtle13 said:

Iselin said:

Azoth said:

I just finished my first playthrough, 97% completion. Clocked something like 85 hours. I liked it a lot, I think it's a good introduction to the next trilogy. The worlds are big enough that you have a real sense of exploration. The main plot is good while the storytelling and scripts could of been a bit better. The combat is also greatly improved.

Overall it is now my preferred game of the franchise. 

Curious... what level did you end up at the end? I'm level 33 already and am just working on Voeld and I still have a couple of planets to go through.

Level 115 for me

Holy crap! I guess you must have had all the skills in all 3 spec lines by then

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Relampago

Kyleran said:

Curious, people who actually play this game generally have a more favorable view than those who watch others play it.

Weird.

Baseball.

MarlonB

First game in 35 years of gaming that I returned to the store.

Bioware must have been under immense pressure to release, i've never seen such a poor job from them. 

xyzercrime

Kyleran said:

Curious, people who actually play this game generally have a more favorable view than those who watch others play it.

Weird.

Ahhh, what a fine sarcasm you made there.. :chuffed:

Incomparable

interesting that some people have a different impression compared to others, its as if what others are saying is exaggerated.

It would help to know the platform they played in.

Since this is MMORPG, im assuming a PC which might explain the more positive review compared to consoles experiencing all the glitches.

If the glitching is mostly from consoles then I could care less. its still bad for business, but I dont beleive in cross platform and not as a single release. They could have released the game remastered for consoles after it was made for PCs exclusively. Then they dont have to down scale the PC version for the console and the consle version runs badly beuase it was the most they could do to downscale it from the PC version without making it look bad.

A large world that has many objects and detail would not work well on a console.

Xasapis

It would have been a great game if the actual story delivery was working. Unfortunately, broken facial animation and uglified characters kill the immersion.

Kyleran

Xasapis said:

It would have been a great game if the actual story delivery was working. Unfortunately, broken facial animation and uglified characters kill the immersion.

So you've played it then?

Kyleran

MarlonB said:

First game in 35 years of gaming that I returned to the store.

Bioware must have been under immense pressure to release, i've never seen such a poor job from them. 

What store still accepts returns these days?

YashaX

Incomparable said:

interesting that some people have a different impression compared to others, its as if what others are saying is exaggerated.

It would help to know the platform they played in.

Since this is MMORPG, im assuming a PC which might explain the more positive review compared to consoles experiencing all the glitches.

If the glitching is mostly from consoles then I could care less. its still bad for business, but I dont beleive in cross platform and not as a single release. They could have released the game remastered for consoles after it was made for PCs exclusively. Then they dont have to down scale the PC version for the console and the consle version runs badly beuase it was the most they could do to downscale it from the PC version without making it look bad.

A large world that has many objects and detail would not work well on a console.

The glitches and bad animations/character art are common to all platforms. People praising the game usually admit there are some very bad animations etc, but that the rest of the game is so good that it more than makes up for any of the problems.

Also I don't think the negatives are "exaggerated", there are some truly hideous animations and character models, more like possibly "overblown". This is obviously a massive and epic rpg/journey, the more I read / watch about it the more I'm itching to play it. Total Biscuit's review was really good if you're interested, although its over an hour long.

MarlonB

Kyleran said:

Xasapis said:

It would have been a great game if the actual story delivery was working. Unfortunately, broken facial animation and uglified characters kill the immersion.

So you've played it then?

Can't speak for him, but I did and fullheartedly agree with his conclusion. The poor characters, faces and animations are so annoyingly present and distracting from the story, it kills all immersion.

Add to that the lipsync that is always off, and i'm forced to play in windowed mode because they don't support 1600x1200.

There is a few more, but this was already more than enough to stop me from playing and return it. I'll pick it up on Steam sales for 10 bucks after a year or 2 and 20 patches.

Xasapis

Kyleran said:

Xasapis said:

It would have been a great game if the actual story delivery was working. Unfortunately, broken facial animation and uglified characters kill the immersion.

So you've played it then?

I'm still playing it. I merely went to the options and adjusted the characters to have their helmets on everywhere possible. Hopefully, until they patch the broken facial animations. I doubt they'll do anything to fix the ugly (female) characters, since that was intentional.

Keep in mind the comparison shot that surfaced compared the pre and post first day patch looks of the female Ryder:



I won't comment on which side is easier in the eyes. I am annoyed that what we play looks like a mannequin, and is animated as such.

Rosenborg

Haven't played the game but been following and I think the problem is, well. The pre Ryder looks like she could be a NPC in a ME game. The post Ryder just looks and feels so out of place when it comes to the predefined art direction of ME universe.

If she was in some other game, I don't think there'd be this kind of drama surrounding her

Jonnyp2

Xasapis said:

I'm still playing it. I merely went to the options and adjusted the characters to have their helmets on everywhere possible. Hopefully, until they patch the broken facial animations. I doubt they'll do anything to fix the ugly (female) characters, since that was intentional.

Keep in mind the comparison shot that surfaced compared the pre and post first day patch looks of the female Ryder:



I won't comment on which side is easier in the eyes. I am annoyed that what we play looks like a mannequin, and is animated as such.

From what I've read the animations for the original face, while still mediocre, are much less comical than the current default Sara Ryder.  There's something off about the updated face that really screws with the animations.  I use a custom female Ryder and every one of those panned scenes looks significantly better with my character.  

Buccaneer

Rosenborg said:

Haven't played the game but been following and I think the problem is, well. The pre Ryder looks like she could be a NPC in a ME game. The post Ryder just looks and feels so out of place when it comes to the predefined art direction of ME universe.

If she was in some other game, I don't think there'd be this kind of drama surrounding her

The left one is the post Ryder, whilst the right one is pre patch.

I agree with @YashaX regarding the Total Biscuit's review.  I found the review balanced and very formative in its content.  Dodgy animations I can live with, I was more concerned with the unskippable cut scenes and the crap menu system and UI.  Thankfully they can be easily patched and at some point I'm looking forward to exploring what the game has to offer when the game goes on sale. 

Disclaimer: I only buy games when they're on sale due to a big backlog of games in my steam account.  I've still got FO4 and W3 and many other great games to play yet. 

Kyleran

Xasapis said:

Kyleran said:

Xasapis said:

It would have been a great game if the actual story delivery was working. Unfortunately, broken facial animation and uglified characters kill the immersion.

So you've played it then?

I'm still playing it. I merely went to the options and adjusted the characters to have their helmets on everywhere possible. Hopefully, until they patch the broken facial animations. I doubt they'll do anything to fix the ugly (female) characters, since that was intentional.

Keep in mind the comparison shot that surfaced compared the pre and post first day patch looks of the female Ryder:



I won't comment on which side is easier in the eyes. I am annoyed that what we play looks like a mannequin, and is animated as such.

Well, I think the shots on the right are better, and while the ones on the left are a bit weird looking I wouldn't return a game because of it.

I'm there to kill stuff, not admire the character models.

But then I am currently playing a DAOC freeshard with 2002 graphics and loving it so you can see graphics don't rate very high on my list.

But I can understand, you paid good money for a quality experience and this is ruining it for you.

I like your helmet idea, in DAOC there's a few races with goofy looking hair and I always turn on helmets for them. (normally I leave them off)

Kyleran

MarlonB said:

Kyleran said:

Xasapis said:

It would have been a great game if the actual story delivery was working. Unfortunately, broken facial animation and uglified characters kill the immersion.

So you've played it then?

Can't speak for him, but I did and fullheartedly agree with his conclusion. The poor characters, faces and animations are so annoyingly present and distracting from the story, it kills all immersion.

Add to that the lipsync that is always off, and i'm forced to play in windowed mode because they don't support 1600x1200.

There is a few more, but this was already more than enough to stop me from playing and return it. I'll pick it up on Steam sales for 10 bucks after a year or 2 and 20 patches.

Makes sense, still want to know where you bought it that accepts returns, didn't think any stores did that these days.