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Mass Effect Gameplay Impressions Game Informer Show First hour spoilers

He explained why he thought it was like DA:I, pointless collectibles on a map and fill up "progression bars"! wasn't part of that explanation.

Why compare to DA:I then? That's basically everything aside from Dragons on what Inquisition offers from it's open-world zones.
 
I hated dragon age inquisition mainly for its system where you had to get points to advance in the story line.

A result of that is that they put in so many repetitive things in the game to give you those points.

Also the combat was not that good.

The evironments and the ost was amazing though.

I really hope they didn't take inspiration from inquisition in too many places.
 
Open worlds were a mistake. Either they're boring and lifeless, or they filled with tedious busywork, taking forever to get to points of interest. Ya'll already knew from the survey leak last year this was gonna be Mass Effect Inquisition with all the talk about Fog of war towers, Far Cry style outposts, Strike Teams...

"As you explore planets throughout the Helius Cluster, you will encounter Khet Outposts. These outposts are optional combat experiences where you enter the outpost and fight off waves of enemies. Destroy Khet outposts to earn XP, rewards and thwart their growing power in the region. Your allies will reward you with praise and increased narrative options as you fight to remove the Khet presence from the region."

"Optional Elite Remnant Vault Raids are scattered around the Helius Cluster located in special orbital facilities that are unlocked by Star Keys. Similar to the standard Remnant Vaults, you enter them to retrieve a special artifact which will trigger the vault defenses that arm traps, activate defense robots and change the architecture of the vault itself to stop you from escaping. However, Elite vaults ratchet up the difficulty of the encounter with increasingly powerful defense robots and traps, as well as roaming outlaws and deadly Khet patrols that are also in search of the elite artifacts. Elite Remnant vaults will test the limits of your combat and puzzle solving acumen, but with greater difficulty comes greater rewards. Gain rare loot, narrative acclaim and huge rewards for completing these daunting challenges."

"When you encounter a Strike Team mission in the Single-Player mode, you can leave your Strike Team at their base and decide to tackle the mission yourself with your Multiplayer roster of characters. You also have the option of tackling the mission by yourself, or recruiting up to three friends to play with you. The more friends you bring, the greater the challenge and the greater the reward. These missions will play out using the Next Mass EffectÂ’s multiplayer Horde mode (more details on this later). These missions will include a variety of thematically appropriate objectives, like defending a Settlement against Khet attacks, or recovering a Remnant artifact off of a planet before an outlaw gang gets there first. By taking an active role in strike team missions, you can earn special Single-player rewards in addition to the usual multiplayer specific characters, weapons, weapon mods, and pieces of equipment which can be customized between missions. Additionally, players who join another personÂ’s Strike Team mission will receive bonus in-game currency and multiplayer XP for helping others with their missions."


looooooot of busy work and checklists to fill out a lot of space. Gotta get that 100+ hour of gameplay back of the box bullet point.

Yeah, people are clinging to the hope that "similar to DA:I " doesn't have to mean pointless busywork! Just a great expansive world!

Get real. This game has the DA:I / Ubisoft gamedesign stank all fucking over it.
 
Yeah, people are clinging to the hope that "similar to DA:I " doesn't have to mean pointless busywork! Just a great expansive world!

Get real. This game has the DA:I / Ubisoft gamedesign stank all fucking over it.

I mean, the problem with DA:I's map/level design is twofold.

One, the much-too-high prevalence of mmo-esque fetch/kill/light sconce/etc... that had no significant narrative payoff in a large number of instances.

Two, how absolutely mind-numbing it was to do the actual 'fetching' via the slow-ass mounts, or just running. (and how slow/cumbersome/inelegant having to return to the mission table for the 3 agents was, but that's just poor design)

If the Nomad's fast enough to compensate for some of speed concerns, and Bioware at least makes some kind of bigger effort to tie them into the Pathfinder story narrative*...we'll be much better in business.

*Now, admittedly, fixing the story-tie-in aspect is going to be not particularly easy, given that it's a brand new universe, and any 'side missions' are going to have to be about exploration on some level....but we'll have to wait and see.
 
If this is even remotely like DA:I...

Fuck.

And I finished DA II. DA:I I couldn't get through. And then I played TW3 and there was no going back. I can handle Skyrim SE just fine.

Pls no DA:I in my ME. I love ME so much =/
 
"Yes guys we are proud to announce that ME:A will feature meaningless MMO-style fetch quests that everyone hated in DA:I. Please look forward to them!"

Come on, man.

It wasn't an announcement, it was a dude that has played it commenting on it's open world-ness.


Why compare to DA:I then? That's basically everything aside from Dragons on what Inquisition offers from it's open-world zones.

He explained why he compared it to Dragon Age Inquisition.

Having MMO fetch quests wasn't part of that explanation.
 
I feel like a large part of the reason why the uncharted worlds in ME1 were so flawed have a lot to do with the driving physics of the Mako.

If they can make that thing actually fun to drive it can go a long way to improve the experience, rather than controlling like a gravity defying mountain climbing tank, even if narrative is lacking when exploring.
 
fukkk, everybody complainin!?

Wasnt no mans sky hyped for the sole reason you could explore anywhere in a giant universe?

Wasn't it's complaint that it was boring to do?

If mass effect andromeda evolves it's kick ass gameplay from the series, and they give me the ability to explore planets, get awesome loot AND get into kick -ass battles, I am down as shit bro.

By the way, it's optional. But I even liked probing planets in Mass Effect, hoping for things to explore, but not finding many. If there is more exploitability, I'm happy with that.

People be complainin.

( I did not play DA:I)
 
I feel like a large part of the reason why the uncharted worlds in ME1 were so flawed have a lot to do with the driving physics of the Mako.

I think it was because they were empty and all the enemy bases were the same.
 
It wasn't an announcement, it was a dude that has played it commenting on it's open world-ness.




He explained why he compared it to Dragon Age Inquisition.

Having MMO fetch quests wasn't part of that explanation.
He said the design philosophy was similar. MMO quests are an integral part of the design philosophy. It also fits with the other leaks. I'm hopeful the inane grindy bits will be more fun because the gameplay is more fun. They will, I fear, still be inane grindy bits though.
 
Hey, guys, what's going o--

"oh this is dragon inquisition" comment after walking out of the bioware office

giphy.gif
 
I really enjoyed Dragon Age Inquistion and I've got no problems if they're making a game like that but with the new Mako to explore the open worlds and the ME3 shooting system. I can never understand the people that don't like Inquisition but enjoyed exploring planets on ME1. You're doing basically the exact same thing but all the minerals/collectables you need to pick up are spaced out even further across the map and the missions were less interesting because all the bases you entered were exactly the same as each other.
 
-Nomad seems to beat the Mako and Mounts
-More Romance options
-Seems to have better combat

Bioware already got me. I'm not worried at all. Loved DA:I and ALL the Mass Effect games.
 
This is a totally different team from ME 1-3 right?

Is this the same main team that did DA:I?

Not hyped by the trailer and I don't really like what I've read so far. Really early to judge ofc. but this is ME, I'm supposed to be all giddy at the slightest drop of info.
 
UNC: Prothean Data Discs → UNC: Collection Complete
UNC: Turian Insignias → UNC: Collection Complete
UNC: Valuable Minerals → UNC: Survey is Complete
UNC: Locate Signs of Battle → UNC: Entire Collection is Found
UNC: Asari Writings → UNC: Collection Complete
Not comparable. DA:I not only has way more of those quests, but it kind of forced you to do them do gain points that moved main plot.
 
Dragon Age Inquistion zones, nice. Loved DA:I. They meant just the open zones not the quests you kneejerkers, such dummies here.

Also for me no games can compare; like even come close to the Bioware for character immersion and interactions. They can improve of course, but never change that core focus. Day 1 forever.
 
Not comparable. DA:I not only has way more of those quests, but it kind of forced you to do them do gain points that moved main plot.

DA:I didn't force you to do the collection quests. They were 100% optional. By sticking with the main story, area story, and character story quests, you'd get the vast majority of necessarily points to unlock later missions. Sealing a very few rifts (mini-boss encounters) would make up the difference. (Of course, playing organically you'd be able to complete some of the item requisition side quests anyway.)

That said, I agree that the mundane collectibles and repetitive side quests, even entirely optional ones, detracted from the game.
 
He said the design philosophy was similar. MMO quests are an integral part of the design philosophy. It also fits with the other leaks. I'm hopeful the inane grindy bits will be more fun because the gameplay is more fun. They will, I fear, still be inane grindy bits though.

The design philosophy is that every thing is bigger and more open with more stuff to do (which was also Witcher 3 philosophy). That doesn't necessarily mean it will have less (or more) quality content than any other open world game.

I understand people begin sceptical but there's more to Inquisiton than fetch quest even if that's what people remember the most.

This is a totally different team from ME 1-3 right?

Is this the same main team that did DA:I?

Not hyped by the trailer and I don't really like what I've read so far. Really early to judge ofc. but this is ME, I'm supposed to be all giddy at the slightest drop of info.


It's lead by the team that made ME3 multiplayer and the Omega dlc, with the help of the rest of bioware
 
I am fine with Bioware creating planets with big sized hubs you can wander around in. This does not specifically mean that it will be like Inquisition with meaningless fetch quests, but not one RPG can be without them.

It is not like the very first Mass Effect had any meaningful planets. People just love the exploration and seeing what lies on the horizon.

Mass Effect is one of those titles where exploration should be key without feeling constrained, something that Mass Effect 2 and 3 suffered in order to have a more cohesive storyline and progression.

The exploration in the first game was fun the first few planets you landed on because the vista's were beautiful, but the planets that actually had anything interesting were only a handful and it got boring fast.

I just do not get some people. No Man's Sky got destroyed by having planets with nothing to do, and now you want Andromeda to add the same mechanic outside of the wonderful storytelling and quests?

You either get 5-10 planets filled to the brim with life and things to do, or you get 200 planets filled with the same old 'do this, do that' routine. There's not one studio big enough to accomplish the feat to have all the planets filled with content. The sooner you accept that, the better this game will be.

PS: It is not my intention to fuel this thread towards another NMS debate. I just needed to find a topic in order to get my message across.
 
Unpopular opinion on GAF: I actually like Inquisition so that doesn't bother me. Side stuff is exactly that - side stuff.

It's a shame Mass Effect is still stuck to having the player's only avatar option be a human.

Inquistion forced you to do side stuff to get to the end of the game with those inquisitor points. That's probably the biggest complaint most had with it.

DA:I didn't force you to do the collection quests. They were 100% optional. By sticking with the main story, area story, and character story quests, you'd get the vast majority of necessarily points to unlock later missions. Sealing a very few rifts (mini-boss encounters) would make up the difference. (Of course, playing organically you'd be able to complete some of the item requisition side quests anyway.)

That said, I agree that the mundane collectibles and repetitive side quests, even entirely optional ones, detracted from the game.

I disagree. I beat the game quicker than most and still had to do side quests I didn't want to do so I could progress the story.
 
Well, I like reviews and I'm not seeing so much negative points in this superficial review atm (which is good) but I'll judge when I play it.
 
His point was being
a red herring.
otherwise I'm on mobile so I'll just say that he was really important to the lore of the DA games, and the DA games are all about lore in a way ME never was. So you can rest assured, Corypheus won't show up in Andromeda.

And he was a much better villain than the Reapers.

Then he was awfully told.

He only shows up in DA:I 2 times in total. Once in the beginning to do his speech about destroying the world or whatever it was. Then once in the end where you kill him. That is it. Throughout the game you deal with stuff he may have had something to do with.

´While I agree the Reapers where overall not much better, they at least had a presence throughout the series, starting in ME1 right at the beginning and ending in ME3. Shitty plot twists aside, they where there and had a buildup. Corycoryphesussus-whatever showed up at the end of a DA2 DLC apparently, then was injected as
"Okay, this is the big bad guy now, have fun."
"Why?"
"Cause we said so!"
"But we still have the blight and the super demon-risen-gods and stuff."
"Nope, this guy now!"

Unless you played the DLCs you would have no absolute fucking clue who he was or what he was doing there. If you can't tell a interesting plot that is self-contained to the main material, that is just awful storytelling.

The Witcher 3 at least made each DLC self-contained with their own stories, and fucking magnificent ones to boot as well, Heart of Stones has still one of my all-time favourite villains in an RPG. Olgierd von Everec is how you do a memorable villain.
431

Fucking A class.

People calling DAI boring

You guys are done with Open World games. They bore you now.

If it's more like DAI, BRING IT ON. I blew the fuck out of that game, have over 300 hours on it.

Once I was done with Dragon Age: Inquisition, I played The Witcher 3 and had a blast. I am still occasionally playing Fallout: New Vegas as it is one of the best RPGs ever made. No, I am not done with open world RPG games, I just ask for better than what Dragon Age: Inquisition was with better storytelling, better characters and non-MMO-like quests. That last one wasn't even new, The Witcher 1 did that and people complained, you would think Bioware would open up a window and take a peek once in a while to see what others did and what did or didn't work, but nope. They had to. Not to mention they did a awful implementation on PC with a completely fucked up "Tactical Mode" that controlled like having 2 bottles of Jägermeister shoved down your throat and then told to unicycle through a china shop. It was just better to go "Hold RT to do damage" and not bother playing with PC controls.
 
The "things to do" in DAI's huge levels essentially involved pressing A and reading a text box. It was the same kind of dreck as some of ME3s side missions where you "overhear" quests and get to read emails as a reward. If quest can be started and finished within a menu, it's not a quest.

Can't get fooled again.
 
Sounds good.

Unlike the majority of GAF, I did enjoy DA:I.
It had a problem with many of the side quest designs (too many MMO style filler quests) and I hope that's something they fix in future games (make 3-4 good side quest per area instead of 30 filler ones). But there was nothing wrong with the core design.
I will allways prefer smaller areas but as far as big open worlds go I think having various different environments is better than just one big world.
 
Sounds good.

Unlike the majority of GAF, I did enjoy DA:I.
It had a problem with many of the side quest designs (too many MMO style filler quests) and I hope that's something they fix in future games (make 3-4 good side quest per area instead of 30 filler ones). But there was nothing wrong with the core design.
I will allways prefer smaller areas but as far as big open worlds go I think having various different environments is better than just one big world.

I think a lot of people miss how the side quests were kinda forced on players who maybe didn't even want to play them. That was by far my biggest complaint with DAI. I was essentially forced to do side quests so I could progress the story. That's a big no-no in my book. Didn't help that the reason for forcing was due to how short the actual campaign is. If you were able to do just the story missions with no worry of level, the game is rather short compared to DA1 & DA2.

The problem doesn't really show if you did a lot of the side content because you wanted to. But the issue is there.
 
Soon everyone will look back on mass effect 3 with fondness

I think that game is actually great in some things it does (like the interactions with your teamates and the teamates interactions with each other depending of your decissions), apart from the shitty ending and some of the characters (coughJessicaChobotcough).
If they shit this one Im going to look back on mass effect 3 with fondness for sure.
 
I...i liked dragon age inquisition....but seriously to me, a game that is part good parts of dai and me1(my favorite game of all time) sounds fucking amazing. Im trying not to overload myself with info before release, but fuck a new mass effect game is coming out!!
 
Played HoS two months ago, couldn't tell you his name or a single memorable line. Different strokes I guess.

Thats seems to be your problem then, its a memorable villain that does a LOT of stuff during the expansion.
You can like his character or not, but its impossible to deny he was well written, was flawed in a good way, had motivations, and he flowed amazingly well with the whole story.
 
Seriously tho, whats the consensus on DAI? Is it a good game and worth getting now? I'm looking for something to play while dishonored 2 (hopefully) gets fixed

and something about Mass effect has always appealed to me. I liked the setting, the cities and the stupid alien races, all of it. Mass effect 1 and 2 were S tier imo.
 
I just do not get some people. No Man's Sky got destroyed by having planets with nothing to do, and now you want Andromeda to add the same mechanic outside of the wonderful storytelling and quests?
No I think that's precisely not what people want. But it is what DAI added to Dragon Age. So when people hear ME:A will add open world, there's some rising trepidation, and then when they hear it's like DAIs philosophy, there's full on alarm bells. But it probably depends on whether you are an ME1 or ME2/3 kind of guy. I much prefer the focus of the latter. Grinding for loot is not what I want out of Mass Effect. I want a big corny space opera, with FTL technobabble, a diverse cast of aliens you can talk to endlessly and shag, and a few shooty bits. Not generic bar filling F2P game with RNGs and space theme. Fuck that, there's tonnes of those, there's only one Mass Effect.
 
I think a lot of people miss how the side quests were kinda forced on players who maybe didn't even want to play them. That was by far my biggest complaint with DAI. I was essentially forced to do side quests so I could progress the story. That's a big no-no in my book. Didn't help that the reason for forcing was due to how short the actual campaign is. If you were able to do just the story missions with no worry of level, the game is rather short compared to DA1 & DA2.

The problem doesn't really show if you did a lot of the side content because you wanted to. But the issue is there.
Devs should get over their worry of length. Skyrim was ideal for me. No real level gating, you could finish the main quest in 8 hours. But you could also spend 300 hours in the game, it's up to you. That's perfect for me. How long is ME2 if you don't do the loyalty missions, twelve hours? Brilliant. Forced side quests indeed should die in a fire.

Witcher 3 takes sixty hours and the main plot is not much better than DAI, disgusting.
 
Played HoS two months ago, couldn't tell you his name or a single memorable line. Different strokes I guess.

Like SpacePirate Ridley said, it is about that he DID things in the story. He was there, he antagonized you. He was a constant presence throughout the plot in Hearts of Stone. I ended up saving him because of how much I liked him.

No, I don't remember any one liners or zingers he says either, but I don't remember anything Ozymandias of Watchmen says either and I still consider him an absolute greatness of villainy. However, I do remember his name, his character, his story, his background, his actions. I put those to memory because they were fascinating and wonderfully told, a flawed person pushed into a corner in life and desperate enough to make a deal with the devil that curses him forever and have great ramifications on those around him, that is interesting!

Corypheeeerrnnus-ish is just evil for the sake of being evil, he never goes into detail about it while I was playing DA:I, he didn't evolve as a character, he never presented a background of him, I just knew him as "big ugly dude with mean plan to destroy world" cause he seriously was never there! He did say that thing about "I have seen the throne of the gods and it was empty!" but they just dropped that sudden fucking incredible plot line like it was nothing and never goes into it again. Like, just out of nowhere that shit was spouted and they never investigate, all characters just forget about it. It should have been huge considering the state of world. You know why I remember that line specifically? Cause it was just damn awful in the end, I thought it was gonna evolve into something great and plot twisty but it just stopped, I have hanged myself onto that piece because it was evidence of how BAD DA:I was.
 
Like SpacePirate Ridley said, it is about that he DID things in the story. He was there, he antagonized you. He was a constant presence throughout the plot in Hearts of Stone. I ended up saving him because of how much I liked him.

No, I don't remember any one liners or zingers he says either, but I don't remember anything Ozymandias of Watchmen says either and I still consider him an absolute greatness of villainy. However, I do remember his name, his character, his story, his background, his actions. I put those to memory because they were fascinating and wonderfully told, a flawed person pushed into a corner in life and desperate enough to make a deal with the devil that curses him forever and have great ramifications on those around him, that is interesting!

Corypheeeerrnnus-ish is just evil for the sake of being evil, he never goes into detail about it while I was playing DA:I, he didn't evolve as a character, he never presented a background of him, I just knew him as "big ugly dude with mean plan to destroy world" cause he seriously was never there! He did say that thing about "I have seen the throne of the gods and it was empty!" but they just dropped that sudden fucking incredible plot line like it was nothing and never goes into it again. Like, just out of nowhere that shit was spouted and they never investigate, all characters just forget about it. It should have been huge considering the state of world. You know why I remember that line specifically? Cause it was just damn awful in the end, I thought it was gonna evolve into something great and plot twisty but it just stopped, I have hanged myself onto that piece because it was evidence of how BAD DA:I was.

The real villain of the overarching plot isn't even Corypheus, he's quite intended to be that chaotic evil murder all kinda guy.

They just failed at making him as menacing as he should have been for that role. He came across as a joke because the inquisitor & co continually disrupt all his plans with no setbacks at all after Haven, and the fact you're dealing mostly with his incompetent underlings rather than a intelligent villain in the second half of it.
 
Soon everyone will look back on mass effect 3 with fondness
I definitely do. The missteps made in the ending didn't ruin the rest of the experience for me. I still love the characters and that universe. Plus the multiplayer was the secret best multiplayer of the last generation (even with the sorta janky progression system).

All I want from another Mass Effect game is the feeling of entering into a whole crafted universe, with unique and endearing personalities. If they can pull that off in an open-world, I'll be happy. And I say that as someone who is normally super bored with open worlds in games.
 
Yes! Dragon Age Inquisition is a great game.

Let's agree to disagree.

I really tried to like Dragon Age Inquisition. But after coming back to it for the third time I just can't seem to play past a certain point. It just seems so tedious and boring to play. All the little decisions you make don't seem to matter much. The ending (afaik) is pre-set so not muching influence on that either. The same goes for your squadmates.

I might like MEA more since I always liked the gameplay more and of course the science fiction setting, but all I read and heard until now points to the same problems DAI has. You have loyality missions that don't influence much. A lot of exploring and tedious work to get outposts and whatnot. Also, they are taking the Dragon Age approach now, no trilogy but self contained games. This means the game will most likely have a pretty defined ending without much variation (Spoiler!!!
afaik Squadmates are not able to die in this game so they can be reused in sequels
) for the chances of sequels (that are not yet set in stone). Thus the story has to wrap up pretty samey for all and has to be self contained for each game. This in turn won't allow for big stories aka the Reapers (for good or worth).

All in all, I am a bit disappointed. But it is my fault after all. I shouln't have let myself believe again.
Hopefully, I will be proven wrong. You have no idea how much I want to be wrong...
 
No I think that's precisely not what people want. But it is what DAI added to Dragon Age. So when people hear ME:A will add open world, there's some rising trepidation, and then when they hear it's like DAIs philosophy, there's full on alarm bells. But it probably depends on whether you are an ME1 or ME2/3 kind of guy. I much prefer the focus of the latter. Grinding for loot is not what I want out of Mass Effect. I want a big corny space opera, with FTL technobabble, a diverse cast of aliens you can talk to endlessly and shag, and a few shooty bits. Not generic bar filling F2P game with RNGs and space theme. Fuck that, there's tonnes of those, there's only one Mass Effect.

please tell me where in the fuck any of that GI segment says that this is what the game will be like

this thread is full of people who can't read and/or didn't actually listen to the video
 
*Now, admittedly, fixing the story-tie-in aspect is going to be not particularly easy, given that it's a brand new universe, and any 'side missions' are going to have to be about exploration on some level....but we'll have to wait and see.

I think they'll have a better time of managing this in Andromeda than in the trilogy or DAI, actually. Joe Juba mentioned somewhere that most of the Pathfinder's M.O. is to just get out and explore. All the marketing stuff says to find a new home for humanity after all, so exploration is emphasized from jump. I think it'll be easier for most side quests you come across to be tied into the pacing and general goal of the narrative this time around.
 
Build discussions should be pretty interesting. As a Vanguard player I'm definitely building around charge or the equivalent ability. Sword + pistol assuming weight still matters. FemRyder of course. Can't fucking wait!
 
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