Support NeoGAF

[Matt_Fox]

Mass Effect 2 scored an incredible 96/100 Metacritic rating, and for myself and many who played it was one of the games of the PS3/X360 generation.

Then we had Mass Effect 3 which I thought was a decent game albeit didn't stick the landing, with a muddled unsatisfying ending.

And then came Mass Effect: Andromeda, and 'how the mighty have fallen' comes to mind. How on earth did we go from Mass Effect 2 to this...

What do you think - do you still care about Mass Effect? Is the remaster a day one buy? Do you think a sequel can take this franchise back to its former glory?

 

[BusierDonkey]

"Diversity".

 

[888]

No I don’t care about mass effect anymore. I loved the originals but they squandered their good will.

Let’s just say they hired the wrong people.

 

[tichamac]

Compare and contrast the credits of the games. Something tells me there aren't a lot of people who worked on both.

 

[Punished Miku]

It's not the same people.

It's not the same game engine.

They were purchased by EA

 

[Tickle My Tendies]

ME and ME2 are two of my favorite games of all time.

I played Andromeda for like 2 hours before never touching it again.

Seemed like the main issue was Andromeda was made by a different team.

I don't think BioWare has the same talent they used to, so I don't expect much from ME going forward. That "A Team" that gave us ME and ME2 is long gone.

 

[Blond]

"Diversity".

No I don’t care about mass effect anymore. I loved the originals but they squandered their good will.

Let’s just say they hired the wrong people.

Of course this shit is the first post vs the actual guiding hands having retired and the veterans long gone it’s definitely all “diversities” fault that the equivalent of the Rare exodus happened at the studio.

 

[dottme]

It's not the same people.

It's not the same game engine.

They were purchased by EA

Basically, same level when a studio buy a license and create a poor game with it. But this time it is a video game license.

 

[GreyHorace]

Bioware being absorbed by the soul sucking entity that is Electronic Arts is why. They completely changed Bioware's company culture and forced them to rush out games to fulfill a corporate bottom line.

Not saying Bioware is completely blameless on this. They let their past successes get to their head and thought their so-called magic would see them through. It didn't.

 

[Hendrick's]

Mass Effect 2 didn't deserve that score to be honest. It was good, but not great. The diluted RPG elements, cheese romance simulation, and okay at best 3rd person cover shooting elements really hurt it.

As hated as Andromeda is, I actually think the combat is much better than the rest of the series. The rest of the game isn't great, but at least they improved on that important element.

 

[Calverz]

Frostbite engine.

 

[Halo is Back]

1-3 were amazing. Andromeda was handed to a C-tier studio that never even worked on a full game before.

 

[drganon]

EA happened.

 

[888]

Of course this shit is the first post vs the actual guiding hands having retired and the veterans long gone it’s definitely all “diversities” fault that the equivalent of the Rare exodus happened at the studio.

I didn’t say diversity did I? Look back at the drama surrounding Andromeda. I forgot the guys name but I believe he was a lead on the game, he was attacking the community vs making a good game and having the right creative team to follow up such a hit as mass effect. EA and BioWare put together a C grade Team to follow up after the A team

I don’t care what color of people they hire but hire some actual talent and people who care about the material.

Now if saying they didn’t hire the right people makes you go to diversity, that’s a you problem.

Now go away, my face is tired.

 

[StylishMGTOW]

"Diversity".

Yup.

BioWare Edmonton was the pride of our province up until... whatever this is.

 

[Blond]

I didn’t say diversity did I? Look back at the drama surrounding Andromeda. I forgot the guys name but I believe he was a lead on the game, he was attacking the community vs making a good game and having the right creative team to follow up such a hit as mass effect. EA and BioWare put together a C grade Team to follow up after the A team

I don’t care what color of people they hire but hire some actual talent and people who care about the material.

Now if saying they didn’t hire the right people makes you go to diversity, that’s a you problem.

Now go away, my face is tired.

That makes sense and you low key made me laugh at the last sentence.

 

[Hitchyhero]

I don't think andromeda was anywhere as bad as people made out but it certainly wasn't great. Just average and generic.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Never played any of them. Waiting for the remaster.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

This game was so, so, soooooooooooooo incredibly disappointing. This and Anthem. It was like getting a text from an ex you hadn't seen in years wanting a booty call, but when she arrives at your door you see she's gained 200lbs, has pink hair, hasn't shaved her pits or legs, is missing her front teeth, and walks with a pronounced limp.

 

[kyussman]

Didn't they waste years trying to get a huge procedural system in place only to throw it out and then make the game in like 18 months?....that would explain a lot,lol.

 

[balls of snow]

Shit writers. Look at cyberpunk, how they approach characters and dialogue. Every single person you meet in that game is interesting even the fixers who have minor roles.

But Im all in on the remasters. Even ME 3 with all the dlc is better than most AAA rpg out there.

 

[LordOfChaos]

It wasn't the good Bioware, except the good Bioware also had another misadventure with Anthem.

I think it'll be able to recover. Get the remaster out there to generate some goodwill and good memories, then carry on the story we actually care about. Though, my biggest disappointment with Andromeda was that it would never actually be finished. The missing Ark, the future of that galaxy, I was more let down that its reception killed its future than that the game was just meh.

I don't think andromeda was anywhere as bad as people made out but it certainly wasn't great. Just average and generic.

I finished it, and there's many games I don't finish if I don't like them. It was just...Fine. A bit bland and generic, but after all the patches, it wasn't godawful, like I said my biggest letdown was that it killed its own future with its reception.

 

[Ascend]

Progressiveness. Leftness. SJW. Inclusiveness. Whatever you want to call it, it's the same thing.

I still hate that ME2 is regarded as the pinnacle of the series. That is still the original Mass Effect in terms of everything except polish, combat and graphics.

 

[Captain Toad]

"Diversity".

Explain.

 

[Captain Toad]

Progressiveness. Leftness. SJW. Inclusiveness. Whatever you want to call it, it's the same thing.

I still hate that ME2 is regarded as the pinnacle of the series. That is still the original Mass Effect in terms of everything except polish, combat and graphics.

You too. Explain. How is this political?

It looks like a lower-budget, lower talent cash-in.

People making completely unrelated things political is annoying. It's the same thing as Era, just the other side of the aisle.

 

[DESTROYA]

You too. Explain. How is this political?

It looks like a lower-budget, lower talent cash-in.

People making completely unrelated things political is annoying. It's the same thing as Era, just the other side of the aisle.

You seem pretty smart, figure it out yourself.

 

[nani17]

Also frostbite engine is an issue

 

[CatLady]

I didn’t say diversity did I? Look back at the drama surrounding Andromeda. I forgot the guys name but I believe he was a lead on the game, he was attacking the community vs making a good game and having the right creative team to follow up such a hit as mass effect. EA and BioWare put together a C grade Team to follow up after the A team

I don’t care what color of people they hire but hire some actual talent and people who care about the material.

Now if saying they didn’t hire the right people makes you go to diversity, that’s a you problem.

Now go away, my face is tired.

I'm going to guess you are referring to hateful racist and obnoxious SJW, Manveer Heir.

 

[Grinchy]

Almost every time a game developer pats themselves on the back for their checklist hires, they put out a turd.

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

The guy that made Andromeda is a fucking racist. Red Dragon on YouTube has long time ago pointed that out. So i guess, that's the reason why everything in this game sucks. You can't expect love and care from a hater.

 

[888]

I'm going to guess you are referring to hateful racist and obnoxious SJW, Manveer Heir.

Yup. That’s the guy.

 

[Kagey K]

For all the shit it gets Andromeda is still a better game than a lot of the trash that’s out there. Sure it was buggy at first, but anyone picking it up and playing it today is going to have a solid experience with it.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Mass Effect was the closest thing (to me) to a 3D Star Control II. I loved that game to death and also played other sci-fi space sims / exploration games, no matter how crappy. Elite series, Battlecruiser 3000AD/ Universal Combat, X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, vaious Star Trek games, etc. I longed for an action RPG that allowed exploration, scanning, and resource-gathering but also included RPG-like interactions with various alien races. I wanted to be a ship captain.

ME was a wonderful promise of what could be possible. I played the heck out of it, multiple playthroughs with multiple characters. I bought a 360 specifically to play it. Sure, there were issues (especially the Unreal engine performance) but I was willing to overlook it. Not everything meshed together but a sequel could iron that out.

ME2 was a great game, but a poor sequel to what I describe above. It was narrower, focused more on NPC interactions and plot arcs. It's an excellent action-RPG, but it didn't expand on any of the Star Control II sort of mechanics like I wanted. I didn't feel like a space captain. I felt like I was playing through a movie about a space captain (if that distinction makes sense). The simplification of the RPG mechanics and the emphasis on cinematic story felt right in line with the Gears of War / Uncharted 2 / Dead Space / Dragon Age II sort of games coming out at the time.

ME3 brought some of that original ME freedom back, but the story focus was shot. The promised payoffs for all your choices was of course not fulfilled, which was the major controversy surrounding the game's "choose your color" ending. Dunno if the DLC fixed that because I never went back to the game after finishing it.

Andromeda is just... whatever. Haven't bothered looking much into it because the first ME is really the only game in the series that fully clicked with me. If Andromeda isn't that, then the series is already dead for me anyway.

 

[Ascend]

You too. Explain. How is this political?

It looks like a lower-budget, lower talent cash-in.

People making completely unrelated things political is annoying. It's the same thing as Era, just the other side of the aisle.

I'll give you a hint. The bolded part of your own post.

 

[LordCBH]

Easy. You hire people who are obviously unqualified to write and direct. You get shitty lines like “my face is tired from everything.” When you hire an absolute talentless hack to write your dialogue, and you get a story riddled with plot holes when you hire an absolute talentless hack to pen your story. Biowares modern magic is garbage.

 

[magaman]

Of course this shit is the first post vs the actual guiding hands having retired and the veterans long gone it’s definitely all “diversities” fault that the equivalent of the Rare exodus happened at the studio.

Hide behind your SJW shield if you want, but diversity has killed more than one major studio. Equal opportunity / diversity is the devil for software dev. Having to bring on unqualified talent to meet quotas is pathetic.

 

[LordCBH]

As hated as Andromeda is, I actually think the combat is much better than the rest of the series. The rest of the game isn't great, but at least they improved on that important element.

I actually agree with this. Gameplay wise I had fun with andromeda. The story was absolute dogshit though and made me hate it.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Well, according to what some guy wrote in a book the game originally should have been more like No Mans Sky and after it didn‘t work out they just took the mess they had and kinda taped it into a game.

I dunno if and to what extend this is true but I played and finished the game and it sure feels like it is true.

But oh well, I will forever be grateful to BioWare for making the first. Such an incredible feat and to this day one of the best games ever made. I pray they do not fuck up the remaster because I desperately what a clean port on consoles that runs with 60 fps.

 

[PhillyPhreak11]

Yup.

BioWare Edmonton was the pride of our province up until... whatever this is.

I don't get why game companies consult with her. SJWs are cancer.

 

[ReBurn]

I liked Andromeda.

 

[LordCBH]

I don't get why game companies consult with her. SJWs are cancer.

they do it because a lot of people in charge at game companies are SJW pieces of trash too.

 

[CatLady]

OP. I have to say I love your title for this thread, cracked me up

I haven't played Andromeda because I got into it with Manveer Heir on Twitter before it came out. He was attacking Andre Vu - marketing Deus Ex: MD (an Asian man), claiming Deus Ex marketing and game were "racist" in one of his typical, obnoxious IdPol rants. I vowed to never support a game that asshole was involved in. Turned out he saved me $60 since the game flopped so badly. Now that it's on GP with the addition of EA I will finally give it a try.

I would be inclined to say people like Heir that value virtue-signaling over producing a good game probably contributed to the downfall of a once great IP.

 

[GamesAreFun]

Frostbite engine.

I never understood their argument that Frostbite wasn't capable of RPGs. Dragon Age Inquisition used Frostbite 3 years before Andromeda, so (in theory) some of the adaptation for the RPG genre had already occurred, unless the EA teams don't collaborate in that fashion.

Andromeda had a lot of good things, suspect many people haven't actually played it. The graphics (outside of character models & animation) can be stunning. The combat is solid and the best in any Mass Effect game in my opinion, particularly with the improved movement of the jet pack and increased verticality of the levels. The open-world is decent, although a few too many repetitive missions, and they ran out of time/budget for more unique planets than the few on offer.

Unfortunately all this good work is undone by the lacklustre story & characters. But it's unfair to say the developers working on Andromeda weren't talented, some of them were, just not the writers or animators.

 

[Stilton Disco]

Being bought out by EA led to corporate interference, which drove away the core talent, which led to hiring people more interested in spreading their ideology than making a good product to run the studio, which led to bigoted hiring policies based on superficial characteristics like appearance and political beliefs above talent and creativity, which led to ever poorer technical capabilities and worse writing, resulting in bad products that are only Greenlit due to promoting the 'correct' values and worldview.

 

[aries_71]

Probably the true talent left the company, and only their management persisted. It's a classic, happens everywhere.

 

[HE1NZ]

I'm playing Andromeda right now. It's alright. At least as good as Inquisition.

Addison doesn't look like that in the current version by the way.

 

[MarlboroRed]

God I loved Mass Effect 2.

The hype prior to release is something I still remember, and then somehow not only did the game meet it but surpassed it.

Featuring the best cast of minor and major characters in any game, period. A truly memorable opening leading into a captivating story in a well fleshed out sci-fi setting, the darker overall atmosphere compared to ME1. And the notion that, whatever threat the collectors might pose, the real threat is still on the horizon in the form of the reapers.

And the DLC.. My god, the DLC! Short but so so sweet, and pretty much all of them worth playing.
Lair of the Shadow Broker in particular.

 

[AJUMP23]

There are multiple reasons. Talent is a major one. The talent they hired wasn’t up to the task. The engine they had wasn’t capable of doing what they needed it to do. The creators, doctors and main writer, had moved on, and people with agendas more than telling a compelling story were in charge.

I think losing the lead writer before the release of 3 was one of the biggest issues. And separating the studio owners the docs affected it greatly too. One was put to do the KOTOR mmo, and I think the other was left to run day to day stuff.

I hope they turn it around, but I doubt they will as the 2 creative directors for mass effect and dragon age left the studio.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I'll the new ME remaster when it comes to EA Play on GP (which is usually around 9-10 months after release).

Given the trend of EA/Bioware lately of wokeness or technical disasters like Andromeda, the new remaster game will like be crap.

Where's that GIF of female Sheppard doing that dumb smile/yawn? That character looked like it was designed in 2004.

 

[Captain Toad]

I'll give you a hint. The bolded part of your own post.

If you're talking about 343 or something, where everyone is a woman, man who identifies as a woman, or an outspoken social justice person with pink hair, I'd understand.

I haven't seen that with EA and BioWare. I've seen lowe talent to save a buck from them, but that's not at all related to SJW movements you see with other studios.

Don't give me a "hint". Back it up. Show me links where you see how this is related to politics.