Matt Rorie's Alpha Protocol II.

Mass Effect 3 is my favorite installment in the series (not having played Andromeda) and I disagree with this. Arrival is ME2 DLC and both Leviathan and From Ashes (Javik) are both significant parts what make the single player in ME3 so great to me. I would sooner play ME2 without Overlord and Lair of the Shadowbroker, which are both fantastic DLC's, than I would ME3 without even From Ashes or Leviathan alone.

That said, I feel like that only says something about the shitty business practice behind ME3, not the actual game itself. It is my favorite for a reason. But to suggest that Andromeda deserves disproportionate criticism because of past decisions seems like a very poor argument to me.

I went in thinking I would hate Andromeda because all the characters I loved were gone but once I started playing I was super hooked. So far there is only one squadmate I don't care about because he's just kind of generic but the other two I'm interested to know more about.

It would be one thing if it was just the faces that were done poorly, but it's not. The animations are like everyone is Zoidberg. The delivery on a shocking amount of the dialogue is completely flat and sounds like they are reading off a script, I can almost hear the pages turning. The writing itself is incredibly suspect. The direction of a lot of these scenes in the opening act is laughably aimless, characters are just sliding into frame like everyone is doing their best Kramer impression. The combat seems completely fine, but it is certainly not going to carry all the other faults on its back and make up for them. There are simply too many amazing games that have came out and are coming out in 2017 for this shit to get a pass. The bar is set too high for something like this to not get noticed and just slide by.

It is painfully obvious that a lot of the talent that made Mass Effect what it was is simply gone from the company. This is a very different Bioware.

The point was that Bioware was on top of the world around Mass Effect 2 but everything they've done since then was fucked up in some way. Dragon Age 2 was a rushed mess, Mass Effect 3 was also rushed and the ending was a big mistake. Dragon Age Inquisition is the first game of theirs I haven't finished because the main plot was so bland and boring. It isn't stretching saying ME:A is following this tragectory and reaching new lows. I hope that's not true but I'm preparing for the worst.

Yeah, the business aspect does matter since it's easily possible that Javik, the Leviathan story, etc wouldn't exist if they weren't paid DLC. There's only so much time and money on a project. They do expand the mythology and are fun, but I don't think they're a requirement to the story. Even if they were, I'd probably take them as paid DLC if the alternative was they never existed.

So after having just about run out my trial time I'm still pretty excited for the full game. I've not had too much issue with the story set up or writing with the exception of that one super weird 'My Face is Tired' lady. Talking to her was the weirdest most out of place conversation and I cannot understand what happened there at all.

Okay so I've mostly stayed quiet on Andromeda because I was holding out a lot of cautious hope that Mass Effect was back and would be that next great sci-if adventure. I'm one of those people who usually only plays through a story heavy game once and moves on, yet I've put in over 100 hours of ME1, just under 100 hours in ME2, and yet only played ME3 once. I absolutely love the series and want to have that same excitement for a new entry that I had when ME2 and 3 were coming out.

The problem is, as much as I loved almost every aspect of ME3, the ending was such a let down that it easily tainted the rest of the experience. In Mass Effect, story is paramount; if the story or characters faulter, then the primary reason that most people play it has failed and the experience feels hollow. Mass Effect 1 was a game with pretty sub standard combat; it had the best RPG mechanics of the series, but Shepard walked around like a tank without any of the power and the AI constantly took advantage of that by just running behind you and shooting you in the back.

What made it great was that it's story was top notch. It had decent twists and it fully captured the imagination, and made you care about the choices you made. The characters were memorable and the voice acting was stellar, and it was easy to get lost in all of it and think for just a tiny second that these were living breathing beings that needed to be helped. And despite it's age, I can still go back to that game and have conversations with people and see the glint of real emotions and expressions.

So far, Andromeda appears to be the exact opposite of ME1. The combat is fast and exciting, but everything else seems to have been an after thought. Voice acting is stilted, story and characters seem beyond uninteresting, and the animation (which the camera zooms in upon for every conversation, mind you) feels like it came out of a budget title. Combat is important, don't get me wrong, but presentation is way more important to games like Mass Effect. We are supposed to be lost in this sci-fi epic with lovable characters, not rolling our eyes and waiting for the next time we can shoot something in the face.

Much like Brad, Jeff, and Rorie, I will still play this game when it arrives, but it looks rough, and I certainly do not have the excitement for it that I had for the originals. But that's the point of previews, to help consumers decide if what they see is worth paying $60 dollars for. Their job is to present the highs and lows, offer an opinion, and leave the evidence to the consumer for final judgement. It's pointless to be bothered by such things, as all that really matters is how you feel playing it.

PS: In my opinion, Batman V Superman was a terrible film with terrible writing that completely misrepresented nearly every character on screen and tried to tell a deep, philosophical story but got bored with itself halfway through and decided to dump it all for nonsensical action. It's editing of the incoherent plot was so bad they had to release a 3 hour cut just to fill plot holes and attempt to tell a full story, but also just made an already bloated film feel like a slog. But again, that's my opinion, meaning that nobody has to agree with me and can absolutely love the film if they so choose.

@anonymous_jesse: Or perhaps a game from a studio that has good competencies in some areas, but tremendous lack in others?

PS: Giant Bomb as a whole gushed about Mass Effect 2 for years. It is one of very few games where I heard their opinions get increasingly positive as time wore on.

Like you I agree that ME3 is the best game in the franchise. I'm not going to argue that the above DLC's don't enhance the experience significantly but I have known a handful of players who have never bought any of Mass Effect's DLC and still consider them great games. You still can experience the full story experience of Mass Effect without any of the DLC's but I do feel that you get a much fuller experience by having experienced them. I also wouldn't play through any of the games without any of the DLC.

@pyrodactyl: There's a difference between preparing for the worst and judging the game 10x more harshly than you would any other. I get your stance and that's fine. But the notion I was commenting on is 'the animations are bad, the entire game is bad'. That's not what you're doing.

Read that in Tommy Wiseau's voice...and no, that movie is solid garbage. And the defense I've heard that if you know the comics, it's better is the opposite: it's SO much worse.

To each their own. I can play through ME without Bring Down The Sky and especially Pinnacle Station. I can play through ME2 without any of the DLC's, though I would prefer Overlord, Shadowbroker and Arrival on. I would not ever play ME3 without Leviathan or From Ashes. And would be disappointed if I didn't play Citadel.

Fuck, I suddenly realize how badly I want to play Andromeda. I'll probably record my entire playthrough for some nonexistent reason.

@zevvion: It's a double-edged sword in this case. ME2 stood on its own feet perfectly well, with the DLCs as added spice to the dish. But the day 1 From Ashes and its impact on the story -- Leviathan and its enormous revelatory exposition dump too -- made them tremendously impactful on ME3s overall narrative.

I'm with you on loving ME3 as a whole, but the whole business with the DLC and its importance to the game was unfortunate.

I was slightly disappointed with the game when all the facial shit hit the fan, but whatever. I am a fan of this series so I bought the game and I looked forward to seeing the whole game through and what makes me laugh.

I don't have anything to add to the conversation here other than unless someone is actively forcing you to dislike (or like) a product, there's no invalid criticism of a product. You can be annoyed by it, but it shouldn't really bother you. There are many other things worth getting in arms about than people making fun of a video game.

Me too and that is mainly cause I just don't understand it I guess. Faces aren't great but they are far from horrible, and feel like faces were always an issue in the ME games so to bitch now seems weird. I used up most of my early trial and look forward to when the game unlocks next week to jump back in. After the first actual mission (which was....yeah), I loved just about every moment of it. Just to be able to walk around a citadel-like station and talk to people and learn about the situation and intuit what I will get to be doing within the game, got be super excited.

Feel like people are still really bitter at ME3, which was 5 years ago now and all I can tell someone to do is replay it again with the DLC that should've been in the game and it is on par with ME2 quality.

I didn't really "get up in arms" about anything. I saw an online trend happening and I gave my opinion about it being over the top... I'm pretty sure saying your opinion is the point of forums. I didn't say "guys, I can't sleep at night" lol.

I mean if you enjoy the game, then why act so thinly skinned when it is made fun out of or criticized?

To be fair, there have been other games that have pretty impressive animation and to see a big AAA title like this from a publisher like EA and a studio that has been around as long as Bioware, it should be a given that the animation should at least be competitive with the standard. It just comes across as lazy or like no effort was put into it and I think that's why people are picking so much fun at that aspect of the game.

At this point, I think joking about the animation is heading towards meme territory or already achieved it. There's not really anything we can do about that except just wait for the game to come out and look for a good critical review of the whole game and all it has to offer.

Mass Effect: Andromeda is the Batman vs. Superman of Marvel films.

Well, people have been shitting on this game literally since Bioware announced they were making a fourth Mass Effect, with everyone screaming that they should just let the series die and it didn't need another game. And every time any sort of footage or information came out the threads on here were full of people endlessly talking about how much they aren't interested in a new Mass Effect.

This game is basically the anti No Man's Sky.

I think Miranda's vague, constantly smiling face has the exact same problem as Cora.

Well I just spend a long time running around the Nexus, soaking in the atmosphere and talking with everyone about everything I need to know. Reminds me a lot of the beginning of the first Mass Effect where you spend a good hour or two just killing around the Citidel. I then popped the codex open, started to read and realized I currently have a limited time to play which bummed me out. I re made a custom Ryder too and it was little effort to make her look better than the default one, although it seems to have an input on what your dad looks like which didn't turn out so hot.... nitpicks aside, so far this seems Mass Effect as hell, except with much better gameplay. For anyone who is a fan of the series and is considered about the game, don't worry.

As someone that didn't hate ME3's ending (I mean, I was initially disappointed to some degree, sure), and love Inquisition, the trailers that I've been seeing, I wasn't feeling the hate/dislike. I was excited. That said, and I'm not necessarily hating it, but from what the video showed off when Brad was playing it, it really is worrisome (visual bugs/bad animations here and there/not-so-great dialogue in places). I just hope other aspects make up for it. Lastly, I recommend those that disliked ME3's ending play through it all again because, in hindsight, it's not as bad as initially thought. At least to me it wasn't.

When I first went through ME3, the end had a certain 'everything you know and love is ending kind of feel', so that was unique to me, just the scope of the situation, but I didn't like that everyone had the same three choices even though I know it would be hard to make it unique for everyone. When EA said they weren't going to remaster the trilogy, I decided to finally buy all the DLC I didn't play before and went through them all once again; what I discovered is that the ending gave me exactly what I needed. The series has been about the characters the entire time, and they concluded that; I didn't need a unique end that fit my Shepard.

I understand that point but it's a hard criticism to push past given their focus on social interaction between characters and their push for realistic graphics. It's kind of a uncanny valley thing, where things look more real but not real enough where they fell really uncomfortable. I'm not saying it feels uncomfortable, but something about it just feels so off that's it's really jarring. It feels like there was lack of art direction to push past system/engine limitations. I know it's never looked great in past games but given how well other games have done facial animation it's crazy to me that this game has missed the mark so bad.

That being said there's still a lot that I feel I don't like about the game from what I've seen so far:

• The story isn't doing it for me from what I've seen so far.
• Also, that whole "Your the pathfinder so your special" was kind of annoying, to me at least.
• I was hoping that a new galaxy would mean a large focus on new species.

Looking past facial animation it feels like another game set in the Mass Effect universe which is great but nothing about it feels interesting. Mass Effect's combat always felt behind the times, even the first one at the time didn't feel great compared to games like Gears of War. So the thing that separated it was it's universe and it's great story/characters. But it feels like they've been so focused on gameplay that they've forgotten why people loved those first games so much.

Haven't seen anything else nearly as bad as Addison and Suvi in terms of faces. But after seeing some PC footage, man this game looks great, including most of the other characters. Peebee's expressions were also great. I dunno what people found confusing about her smirks or that whole interaction. Maybe Ryder being so accepting of a stranger was odd, but then again Ryder ain't military and she's an Asari (i.e. a fellow Milky Way-er... Milky Wayian... Milky Way Refugee. Except they're not even refugees are they? Just explorers. That's a bit less interesting, but I guess it justifies why they're all so goddamn chipper).

Ryder's reaction to pada Ryder's death was bizarre though. Definitely seeing some rough writing. Makes me wanna play the game like an asshole (at first anyway) to cut through all that unbelievable optimism and gung-ho murdering. But yeah, I think unless you're on a PC running this on high or ultra it's gonna look kinda bleh. Except the environments, which seem fine. Those haven't really blown me away.

Genuinely curious about where the story goes. The trial content all feels like the beginning of the beginning, which gives you nothing to actually be excited about. Like it end before the story really kicks off. I'm still lookin for a game for me to make dialogue choices in and charge>shotgun dudes though, so I think I'm good.

As for the internet losing their minds, well you know. You can't stop people from obsessing over things. Who gives a shit? PS3 has no games.

I just think it's supremely silly. Most of the people shitting on the game haven't even played it, and even the critics aren't supposed to be talking about anything after 10 hours in so it seems pretty absurd that they have definitive opinions on it already. When it comes out, I'll play through the entire thing and then share my opnion. It's a story driven game, so I don't see how anyone could have a fulsome opinion (beyond "I'm liking/disliking it so far")until they've played through the story....

@nevergameover: It would be "silly" if they were commenting on the story being trash, or something they haven't had the time to really grasp yet, but that's not what is being talked about. People are making fun of the animations because they're bad, or at the very least what we've been able to see/play has been bad. You don't need hours invested, or experience with the combat/narrative to be able to criticize the character who looks like a department store mannequin come to life.

I can't wait for Mass Effect series to fall off from mainstream game franchises. All the noises since ME3 had been extremely annoying.

Like later Halo perhaps, it came out, die-hard fans (like me) were playing it and not the whole wild world has to talk about it.

The animations and faces suck, and people are making fun of it.

It's something that's going to happen, dude.

Andromeda will sell well. It's not an underdog. People will buy it. It's fine.

@shig: I've seen quite a bit of criticism that goes far beyond the facial animations. Listen to today's waypoint radio, for example.

Some of the criticism can be too much, but I roll my eyes any time someone tries to marginalize all the criticism as a bandwagon or "circlejerk". Like, if the game looks good to you, fine. But people have legitimate gripes against this thing. In honesty it seems to be a mess. But maybe it will be a good mess. Deadly Premonition is one of my favorite games. Who am I to judge?

Okay played a bit more. I don't care about the faces as much. There's only two that really blew me away in how ugly they were.

But what is really bothering me now is the writing. Some of it is bad. Real bad.

There was one involving an audio log that made me want to stop playing completely.

Also the audio direction is awful. Like the wrong cadence and emotion. Some characters have some weird visual effects over it.

Everything seems unpolished. Sometimes you come out of a conversation and then two or three simultaneous conversations happen around you. Which is real annoying.

Oh and planet scanning is beyond stupid. Who designed that or thought it was a good idea?

Plot wise they never really set up why you are going to the first planet even though half the people in the nexus are giving me side quests to go there.

It just stinks. But there is some good stuff. Sort of.

Here's what i think; If I were watching an animated movie and the facial animations were this bad, I'd be negative about it. How's feeling negative about the facial animations and general clunkiness that is obviously on display in this game unwarranted? I play the ME and DA games(and even SW:ToR)because of the story. Because of the conversations. Because of the character relationships. The funny part is the combat looks to be the really good part of this game and that's saying something as that's never been the strongest part of a BioWare game traditionally.

Yeah man IDK. I'm sure the game plays fine but... lordy. Its a fucking role playing game right?

I will say... the faces are not great across the board but she was by far the worst I saw....of anything in that trial.

Animation, writing, she was a maelstrom.

Man, this game seems bland to me. Granted I'm only 3 hours in, but there's really nothing compelling about your squadmates to me. Especially Scott Ryder, g'lord he seems way too wet behind the ears to even be on this expedition. Then suddenly, BAM! you're the Pathfinder? Ok, what does that mean? Everyone you interact with acts like it's the most important roll ever, but again, why?

The reason I gripe about them suddenly throwing you into that role, because it has zero impact as far as importance. In the original trilogy, when you became a Spectre, you had to work for it, you knew what it meant, and you held the title with respect because of it.

I don't know, Bioware seems to have lost their flair for compelling story telling.

@m16mojo2: Man you become a spectre after a mission and you go into the game with the assumption that it was basically gonna happen anyway, I think perhaps you are inflating the prestige of that title a bit.

@efesell: to be fair shepard was a decorated soldier so becoming a specter was more than plausible, it being an important thing also made more sense.

I'm tired of people blindly defending this game from fair criticisms, and saying the animation/art is no better than a 10 year old game. But that's just me.

But it's no more of an informed ability than Ryder being trained to be a explorer of unknown fucked up planets. You are basically promoted to lead explorer not fleet Admiral here.

To me Pathfinder on a mission like this is more important than black ops space man too.

That wouldn't be an issue if they didn't treat "Lead explorer" like he was the most elite person in existence. To be honest the whole set up for it is just bad, i kind of wish you were just the pathfinder to begin. Honestly the whole opening sequence adds nothing to the story and just kinda makes your character into a spoiled brat who didn't earn anything.

I dunno, I think I do like the rookie thrown into super important position more than just starting the game that way. There's more to build on there. Maybe they never fully make good on it, remains to be seen, but that aspect of the story seems totally fine.

The transition could have been better maybe but it's also just standard phase 1 of any Bioware plot so I at least don't wanna pretend like it's been done so much better before.

I don't know, that footage of them playing on the site looked terrible. The audio was bad, the animations were either janky or bad, and the game seemed to just sorta vomit you out into the game while expecting them to follow a script.

As someone who has liked each new Mass Effect less than the last and a lot less than the first, I'm not surprised. People haven't played the game and it hasn't shown well so far. Maybe it is better later but EA/Bioware have done a poor job communicating the positives of the game, outside of (maybe) the multiplayer.

@zevvion: I don't entirely agree with you that past games failed more so on the places this game seems to fail at least early on. Animations were never great, but they were mostly fine at least in the first two games. This is especially true given the technology of the time. Comparing them in a vacuum isn't fair but arguing that what we've seen of stuff like the animations and dialogue is absolutely better than earlier games isn't even true. There's some real rough writing and downright ridiculous looking animations on a regular basis. And not on generated player characters, on specific NPCs. It's one thing to point at my ugly ass Shep animating a little weird in the first game because of his Tommy Lee Jones likeness, but other characters looked fine, if a bit stiff at times.

And I won't get into the gameplay stuff I dislike about how the game seems to play. I know I'm in the minority about the first game being more enjoyable/interesting to play. I haven't played this so who knows. It could be a lot of fun even if it is different from what I want to see out of Mass Effect.

I think Ryder being thrust into a leadership role he/she is not ready for and learning to lead is way more interesting than famous war hero becoming more of a famous war hero. Also, Liam and Cora are already way more interesting than Ashley and Kaiden were at the start. Liam seems like a throwaway character like Kaiden was but unlike Kaiden he doesn't suck in every way imaginable. Cora seems super interesting. Ashley was a boring ass soldier/space racist while Cora was a human Asari Commando

I think people have their nostalgia goggles on way too tight when thinking back on past mass effect games.

It can definitely be done well, I'm just not 100% that it is yet. I'm honestly split on the game, still have 5 hours on my trial and haven't decided to buy it yet. I like the multiplayer and the single player seems alright but not confident there will be a good pay off in the story.

@m16mojo2: So if you actually look at the beginning of Mass Effect and Andromeda the skeletons match up. Arrive on a troubled planet and meet weird alien creatures. Given a gift that makes them special. Get bestowed a fancy title. Go to a galactic meeting/cultural point. Head to a desert planet (assuming you go to Liara first because that is just what you do so you can complete that damn achievement). This is the Hero's Journey 101.

The problems exist in the details. We know Spectres are cool, we're told they're the 00 agents essentially. The Pathfinder (your dad) was a really good soldier, was trained in terraforming, and other useful things in locating and developing habitable planets. But Andromeda doesn't tell you this (unless you look in the codex) and worst of all doesn't explain why the main character is suited to do that job. The gift/power is bluntly shown in the original (the Prothean vision) but in Andromeda its glossed over (SAM being integrated into you allowing you to use an incredible assortment of powers).

However there are some really good ideas here. The juxtaposition between a working and lively Citadel and a virtually DOA Nexus. The bureaucratic mess of the Council and the startup attitude of do whatever the fuck you want Andromeda Initiative. The Nexus being run by middle office managers.

My point is I don't think they lost their flair for storytelling but the story telling because I do see some good ideas but Andromeda's prologue and chapter 1 look to be first or second drafts in which the writers weren't given a chance to go back and fix it up.

@mems1224: Cora I like but Liams first impression is rough.