Mass Effect: Andromeda

There was a lot of unfair criticism of this game but ****ty facial animations were the least of it's problems and the least of Biowares problems since ME:1 and DA:1

They made games for casual players that casual players were never buying.

Skerries

Sad that it's going to be left essentially half finished, but at least I can play through it now, knowing that some patch or DLC is going to come along and fix it like the Citadel DLC for ME3.

afaik they are not going to release any DLC for it

The_Valeyard

Skerries wrote: »

afaik they are not going to release any DLC for it

Which is really a piss poor response from them.


I'm definitely going to hold off on buying Anthem because if Bioware are going to have tantrums when the reviews arent what they expected, I'm not going to purchase a game only to have it abandoned.

wyrn

I actually really enjoyed the game. Yes there was some issues but it was still an enjoyable game and I wanted to play more. Now we will never learn of what happened to the Quarian ark.

Zero-Cool

They said they will continue the story in multiplayer missions, a small team is staying dedicated to the multiplayer side. I guess microtransactions are an easier way to make money than pumping money and resources into a DLC.

K.O.Kiki

Time to post this again!

Sephiroth_dude

^^^^^^^ That is hilarious and sad at the same time and so true also.

EoinHef

What gets me is how they insisted the game was going to be fine before launch when all the rumours were pointing to a troubled development,lying basically. Abandoning it now just seems like the final kick in the teeth for fans of the series.

The_Valeyard

The_Valeyard wrote: »

I'm definitely going to hold off on buying Anthem because if Bioware are going to have tantrums when the reviews arent what they expected, I'm not going to purchase a game only to have it abandoned.

While I can see your point of view, different teams in Bioware developed ME: Andromeda (BioWare Montreal) and Anthem (BioWare Edmonton).

Good article on Kotaku: The Story Behind Mass Effect: Andromeda's Troubled Five-Year Development

And abandoning it was probably EA's choice, not BioWare's.

However....

EoinHef wrote: »

What gets me is how they insisted the game was going to be fine before launch when all the rumours were pointing to a troubled development,lying basically. Abandoning it now just seems like the final kick in the teeth for fans of the series.

....this definitely leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Noxin

I can see this hitting the Origin Access store quite soon with that update. Glad I didn't buy it now. Had messed about in the 10 hour free trial and it seemed quite fun to me.
I held off buying it then as I had a backlog.

I'm probably the only one not surprised that they're doing this. I was incredibly excited about the new release. Now I've sank in maybe 10 hours into it and I can't picture myself ever really going back.

Perhaps the most telling sign is popping into any CEX or GameStop and seeing just how many ME:A's have been traded in. Usually with this kind of game, it's incredibly rare to see any second-hand copies floating around a few months after launch.

ERG89

Deleted User wrote:

Perhaps the most telling sign is popping into any CEX or GameStop and seeing just how many ME:A's have been traded in. Usually with this kind of game, it's incredibly rare to see any second-hand copies floating around a few months after launch.

Cex had so many copies of No Man's Sky & Star Wars Battlefront post launch you could tile a kitchen with them.
I'm so disappointed with the way this game went, probably played the first 2 more than any other games last gen.
I saw a video saying they outsourced the animation to a studio in eastern europe which honestly was the deathnail of the game(not discriminating but it's not something I imagine happened before all the gifs & clips killed this game fast).
Casey Hudson is back at Bioware now but they will likely fart out another Dragon Age but focus on Anthem almost entirely.

Skerries

I enjoyed it for what it was and I got around 80 hours gameplay out of it but it wasn't as good as the original trilogy

neirbloom

J. Marston wrote: »

Was there a season pass or anything sold to people? I imagine that DLC was in the pipeline before release.

I seen a guy on reddit bought his copy in Gamestop with the promise of future DLC if he bought the Deluxe edition :rolleyes:.

The_Valeyard wrote: »

I'm definitely going to hold off on buying Anthem because if Bioware are going to have tantrums when the reviews arent what they expected, I'm not going to purchase a game only to have it abandoned.

I don't think Bioware should hold all the blame. EA are just looking for another easy cash grab with Anthem with the success of Density and other shooters on the market at the minute.

I wont be buying FIFA this year as it seems to be the same old recycled mechanics year after year although the frostbite engine does add some need polish to the gameplay there's still noting all together new.

Mitch Connor

Based on the reception of the game, and the game itself (I have completed the main story and most of the quests) I am entirely unsurprised there will be no DLC. It was critically panned and flopped, why would you throw more money at it in terms of dev costs for DLC at this point? You might appease some of the fans that bought it - but even they (a good number, imo) would be wanting it for free given how bad the ME;A game was at launch anyway.

They didn't announced DLC prior to release, they never promised, they never sold anything based on it - so it would be insane to go and actually do it now.

The next addition to the ME game universe has to be well thought out and very well executed, or the series will die on it. More DLC in a broken game isn't the way to fix the problems they have - though I think it will be 2021 before we see another ME title, if we see one at all.

The Specialist

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Based on the reception of the game, and the game itself (I have completed the main story and most of the quests) I am entirely unsurprised there will be no DLC. It was critically panned and flopped, why would you throw more money at it in terms of dev costs for DLC at this point? You might appease some of the fans that bought it - but even they (a good number, imo) would be wanting it for free given how bad the ME;A game was at launch anyway.

This is a bit hysterical to be honest and its the kind of comment that destroyed the game online. Aside from a few wonky animations, there was nothing at all wrong with the game, a solid title to play. The way you make it out sounds like it was fundamentally broken in gameplay/control which just isn't true.

Potential-Monke

Ok, so EA basically dropping this is a nail in the coffin imo. I fecking loved the first trilogy, even it's crappy endings. It was an immersive world, with excellent characters and story. So i was well up for Andromeda. And i waited for a while before purchasing as i heard about the animation issues. And i took the plunge a few months ago. Totally disappointed.

The world is meh. It has nothing on even the world we got in the first ME, which had it a bit easier as there was nothing to compare it to technically. But Andromeda, even after meeting the big bads, just didn't have the same hold as the original one. I'm not even too bothered by the college-grade facial animations, i can get passed them. Just like i got passed the majority of issues with the original ME trilogy, as everything else had me hooked.

In Andromeda, i couldn't care less who i am, who my sister is, what's going on, and the majority of people/creatures i met are about as interesting as wet paint.

Anyway, i gave up after about 10 hours (seems to be the cut off!) or so, and no interest in going back to it. The announcement of EA giving up on it means i probably won't ever go back to it either. It's a shame, they have a fantastic world to build upon, but they ruined it imo. Also, no interest in the MP side of things, so no comment on that.

I had to Google Anthem to see what it was. Checked out the 'Gameplay' trailer... Hahahahahahaha! EA telling me the game will look like that and play like that? Not a feckin hope! And, i'd no interest in Destiny, as it got way too samey, so i can only imagine this will be similar, especially if you need to play co-op to get the 'full' experience. Nah thanks!

The picture above of the EA guying killing the studios, ne'er a truer picture!

ItsHoggie

It didn't flop tho did it? I thought I read somewhere a few weeks ago that said it sold rather well.

Maximus Alexander

Such a shame. The game was much better than the backlash it got, and even if it fell short in some ways, the overreaction has likely killed the franchise. I'd have liked to see this built upon in a sequel.

Gbear

A good RPG with poor combat works a lot better than a poor RPG with good combat.

Mechanics-focused games like FPS' tend to be short and that's fine because even good gameplay can't sustain a game indefinitely - certainly not for the 40-60 hours of an RPG.

On the other hand, if you're drawn into the story the characters or the world you want to get through it to see what happens next, even if the journey can be tedious at times.

I'm not sure was it a misapplication of priorities or simply bungled development, but ME:A largely nailed the action mechanics. There were foibles around the UI, the balance, how your arsenal felt and how they neutered your squadmates, but the core actions of what you yourself were doing were a great basis for a game.

Eventually you get bored of that though and there was nothing pulling you through the game, encouraging you to progress.
In fact, not only was it completely uninteresting from a character, world, mission and overarching plot perspective, but they throw in barriers that actively make it more difficult to get around, like the ****ty UI, badly managed hubs, random doors that take a million years to open...

A Renault might be an incredible feat of engineering when taken on it's own but it's still a **** car.

That's what Andromeda is. There's no way to comprehensively **** up a technical project with the budget of Andromeda to the point where it's completely broken, but as an artistic endeavour it's near enough a total failure.

This hasn't been something that's happened all of a sudden though.
Handing it over to the B-team and half-arsing the management has made it a more spectacular failure but the series has been steadily drained of it's charm and soul.
Mass Effect got off to a great start as an IP but it's been steadily weakened since then.

That doesn't mean that 2 and 3 were bad games, but they had failings and those kinds of failings have worsened as the series has gone on, towards more low-effort, low risk, generic action guff designed to blandly reach as large an audience as possible.

Dave_The_Sheep

So I see 1.10 is the last patch to be released - have the patches since launch improved it much / at all?
I gave it an hour or two, then put it on the back burner on the basis that patches might make it better. It wasn't bad as such, just wasn't good either.

I can't imagine the patch would fix much, realistically. If EA/Bioware are supposedly dropping the title, would they invest resources into fixing much?

Skerries

Patrick Söderlund "sees no reason" not to return to Mass Effect

"Well I think, my personal opinion is, I think that the game... I usually don't do this, but this is one of those places where I feel like the game got criticised a little bit more than it deserved," Söderlund said. "I think the game is actually a great game. Yes, we have to acknowledge the fact that there were some things that maybe we could have done better, absolutely, but as a whole, if you go in and you buy the game today with everything that's in it today, I believe that that's a game worth buying, personally."

degrassinoel

Deleted User wrote: »

Patrick Söderlund "sees no reason" not to return to Mass Effect

EA's vice president ^^

Not very impartial tbh

Mitch Connor

degrassinoel wrote: »

EA's vice president ^^

Not very impartial tbh

Don't care how impartial he is or isn't. He's one of the people that can ensure the franchise gets another chance - all the good vibes from him are welcomed, imo.

degrassinoel

do you really want another andromeda?

FutureGuy

Deleted User wrote: »

Patrick Söderlund "sees no reason" not to return to Mass Effect

If you go in and buy the game today, it's a great game?

It's was released in fcuking March. That's when the game is supposed to be great - or at least finished.

ItsHoggie

degrassinoel wrote: »

do you really want another andromeda?

If it makes the same step up 2 did from the first game, then yeah!

degrassinoel

ItsHoggie wrote: »

If it makes the same step up 2 did from the first game, then yeah!

the first mass effect game is a step up compared to andromeda. My opinion of course but yeah, it's not a bad game - it's just not the same calibre of game that any of the trilogy were and are. The fact that it was shipped the way it was, delays and all and as flawed as it was and is still - that's what made ****e of the franchise, not the **** like me giving out about it.