Kotaku - Five Hours In, Mass Effect: Andromeda Is Overwhelming

Kotaku - I’m about five hours into Mass Effect: Andromeda, and so far, it seems like Bioware has created a behemoth of a sci-fi action RPG.

[OB1Biker]

You can say what you want about Kotaku, and I dont usually visit that site, but its refreshing to see a balanced, professional article and responsible, adult comments on the internet.

[bnaked]

Ignoring all weaknesses is balanced and professional?

[OB1Biker]

She did mention a few flaws like hit or miss animation.
as in balanced I meant more a logical approach in trying to depict the games point by point rather than a sort of essay focusing on the writer emotional state of mind instead of the game per se

An interesting piece from Forbes here:
https://www.forbes.com/site...

[LordoftheCritics]

People are making a mountain out of a mole hill really.

[JackBNimble]

This is why I will wait and see what gamers say about the game before I even consider it.
I'll give it a couple of weeks before I make up my mind.

[Aloren]

Out of curiosity, is ignoring all qualities more balanced and professional ?

[_-EDMIX-_]

They are simply focusing on what was done correctly.

If someone didn't know any better, they would think this game was just a CG movie.

The bad animations are just 1 part of the game, its still actually a game folks.

Not saying ignore the animations, but seriously, how many articles can they really write about that feature?

I get it sucks, but let the them focus on other aspects of the game.

Your basically asking them to BASH the game based on a feature and ignore all else.

[Vantol]

@_-EDMIX-_ Because Mass Effect IS about story, animations and graphics. If it had broken or no gameplay - noone would bat an eye. But telling ppl that "bad story and animations is ok, because there is something else" is like telling "who cares if your car can't move, it has good audio system!". Smh

[CorndogBurglar]

@ Vantol

"Because Mass Effect IS about story, animations and graphics. If it had broken or no gameplay - noone would bat an eye."

This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You spend way more time dealing with gameplay than you must realize. If the shooting or game mechanics were broken, nonone would play it because it would be a horrible experience. If there was NO gameplay then you would just be watching a movie. And by that point it would be a very bad movie compared to other animated features out there.

[freshslicepizza]

some people just want the world to burn. i will find out this weekend after trying it out if my preorder will stay or not.

[morganfell]

Whether or not a game is good is not awarding a plus or minus one to each feature and then if it comes out 51 to 49 in the plus column the game is good. It doesn't work in that manner.

There are some features in games, even if they are few in number, that have the ability to overwhelm the other more numerous qualities in a title. It is like a great meal that is expertly prepared, appealing to the eye, the aroma excites the appetite...and then too much salt just ruins the experience. All the other factors, perfectly cooked, the visual preparation, all of it is for naught.

Or more simply, someone put two ounces of bird crap in a 10 ounce bowl of soup. Are you going to try and eat around it? Even if you did you would be focused on that crap as you try to finish the bowl.

This game is a case where well over 90% of the players game for an experience where they are immersed in the universe and care or hate the individuals and actions as if they are real entities. They develop a connection to the characters.

Just look at how people felt about Shepard.

These broken animations, the idiotic dialogue remind you often enough that these are mannequins. Not characters about whom you can care. All movies involving androids or robots where you learn to care about that character as a sentient creature do so because of out ability to connect with their humanity. Here is a case where we disconnect, sometimes in derision, because of their inhuman qualities.

[bluefox755]

You really can't trust games journalists anymore. I'm more inclined to listen to certain youtubers than anyone from Kotaku or IGN.

[-Foxtrot]

Exactly

They know EA will be furious if they make more people cancel their ore order

[Unspoken]

Game looks fantastic! I've seen the game play and I've seen the graphics. Running on PC 4K HDR 60 fps the world looks beyond amazing. Any Mass Effect and Bioware fans should pick this up. Remember, this is a Sony biased site not wanting to take away from Horizon, which had it's own issues in facial animations, weak voice acting, poor directional audio, running at poor resolutions and laughable 30 fps.

[morganfell]

"Game looks fantastic! I've seen the game play and I've seen the graphics. Running on PC 4K HDR 60 fps the world looks beyond amazing."

What a laughable remark. You speak as if only graphics matter. One thing MEA is not is a graphical powerhouse. Yes in this day and age we should have both graphical fidelity AND gameplay. Apparently you only care about one side. With that being said attacking Horizon Zero Dawn for its renders makes anything else you have to say null and void.

You seem to be missing the point that while no one is raving about how MEA looks, it also isn't the issue that is causing the uproar. A matter you believe (wrongly) that by ignoring will disappear.

The irony is it is YOU that is praying for some sort of counter, in this case to Horizon Zero Dawn. BREAKING NEWS!!!!! Mess Defect AnDrama isn't it.

Had you put a /s at the end of your post it would not have seemed out of place.

[Ashlen]

I have played about 3 1/2 hours of the trial and while I did actually see one of the weird animation I have also played though scenes that have been the focus of comical videos and those animations looked fine. But I would say the animations are such a small part of the overall game. The story is interesting the gameplay has been pretty solid though I prefer a class system. It seems like a mistake to focus on the animations when there are so many more important features to the game.

[IamTylerDurden1]

@Unspoken

Horizon ran at poor resolutions? What? It runs at cb 2160p on PS4 Pro and looks 4K. It runs at native 1080p on the regular PS4. For a console game Horizon is almost as good as it gets. regarding resolution.

It runs at 30fps, but it is not a Bethesda 30fps. Horizon runs at one of the smoothest locked 30's i've seen and when combined with the exceptional motion blur it is a truly fluid experience.

Facial animations were very good in spots and mediocre in others but overall it was very impressive to have every NPC fully voiced and lip synced in such a grand open world game. Zelda BotW and it's 97 Metacritic didn't do this, and MEA isn't an open world game. The more important the character, the better the facial animations and voice work was in Horizon. You picked the wrong game to take a shot at, Horizon is very technically impressive.

[freshslicepizza]

morganfell,

you are making a mountain out of a molehill. play it for at least 4 hours and then tell us what you think. dont go by what other impressions say. the facial animations are in no way the most important part of the game.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@Van-but unless you know something we don't you don't actually know the story and I believe the game is more than just its graphics and animation.

Mind you graphically this Mass Effect looks absolutely amazing the only thing it has trouble with its it's a animations

But BioWare has actually always done animations poorly in this game looks like it's worse than the previous in this department but that's never really stopped me from playing the previous Mass Effect for god sakes Graphics never stopped me from putting over 170 hours in Fallout 4 Graphics never stop me from playing Fallout 3 and New Vegas last generation actually despite those games graphically being even more inferior to their Triple-A counterparts then Fallout 4 was

The gist of it is I just don't care about such things enough to say I won't buy the game.

I'm not telling people that body animations is okay I'm simply saying I don't care enough about it to not pick up the game simply because I've played so many games that had strange animations or even or Graphics simply because I actually liked the game

Look up something like breath of the wild the game literally looks like a game ripped straight out of 2006, people have no problem playing that game that game is getting lots of perfect scores and clearly the fans of it enjoy what they're playing

Let me remind you again that you don't know the story to this game to say that it is bad

Mind you that is completely subjective I personally like the concept of humanity trying to find a new home.

I'm sorry it's not filled with your stupid Citadel political jargon bud, I like the simple concept over them trying to find a new home while also trying to stay diplomatic with the species that already exist.

That's completely up for me to decide whether or not I care for the story.

What I like about this article is that it's focusing on what the game does well. We already know the game has questionable animations that are pretty bad

Some users would actually like to hear about the rest of the components that make up this game because that might not be that important to users.

I'm playing Horizon zero Dawn right now and it's easily one of my favorite games this generation and I could tell you right now that the facial animations are not that great in the lip syncing is definitely off but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the rest of the components of the game yes the performances are not Uncharted or the last of us or anything like that.

But for god sakes who on Earth stated that was the minimum standard threshold for animations?

I played the last three Mass Effect and did not care about its bad animations then I won't care now.

I'm sorry but I'm at Mass Effect fan that actually only cares about the core concept I'm not emotionally tied to those three games.

[Artemidorus]

Maybe it's balancing because you finally agree with something they did.

[OB1Biker]

Haha maybe
I also meant balanced, professional as opposed to angry, emotional if you wish ;)

[ShadowKnight]

I know Mass Effect Adromeda has bad animation but Horizon Zero Dawn had distractingly bad lip sync where the characters didn’t always make believable expressions something was off about it and it's hilarious that people didn't notice that ...but most people overlooked that, because it had no bearing on the overall quality of the game. It feels like people want Mass Effect to fail. I still think Witcher 3 had the best animation and lip sync for a RPG this gen imo

[Dark_Knightmare2]

I agreed with everything you said till you said witcher 3 had the best animations. I love witcher 3 been a fan ever since I played the first on a potatoe pc that could barely run it and was constantly dropping frames but the animations in witcher 3 weren't very good they were almost robotic. Now the lip sync I agree with it was really well done but the animations not so much

[UCForce]

Here the thing, I faced these issues for a long time, but it doesn't bother me that much.

[CP_Company]

What nonsense are you writing here.i am about 60h into the game and apart few conversations,lip sync is working flawless.

[Inzo]

Nothing wrong with the lipsync in HZD, the problem is the lips dont round out the words properly but it is a very very minor issue compared to the rest of the game and with a game as good as HZD, its easy to overlook.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I noticed it and its still one of my favorite games this year if not this whole gen.

I think many are over reaching the facial animation thing. it sucks big time, but I didn't care that the first 3 Mass Effect games had bad animations.

I took what I could from the game and moved on.

@CP_Comp- no bud. Don't lie. You'd have to be BLIND to not notice the lip sync issue with HZD.

I own it day 1 too buddy. I don't get the reason behind lying. I like it too, but don't lie about this feature. I don't see what your getting from it, it can be EASILY looked up.

[Critic4l_Strik3]

Agree but, MEA animations are worse than HZD...not only the facial ones, but even the walking ones...

[HansSoloBerger11]

Yep..it's trendy to hate on Andromeda at the moment.I'm sure people will do this with Red Dead 2 as well

[MorpheusX]

@ShadowKnight

" It feels like people want Mass Effect to fail. "

EA's Karma has been brought on of there own doing. It is what it is.

When you have a History of being a bully, a swindler, and choosing to actively involve yourself in taking a socially controversial political stance, a history in anti-consumer practices, its only natural that consumers are going to want to see you fail.

That's life.

[GNCFLYER]

I noticed it. I'm not a reviewer though.

[MRMagoo123]

Kotaku were probably paid , I have seen people play this game streamed and it has way way way more cons than pros

[starchild]

Funny. I've watched hours of gameplay too and I have not seen these huge cons you're alluding to. I think some people want this game to fail and are blowing relatively minor issues out of proportion (most of which are present in other similar games).

I'm not saying the game is perfect by any means. I just haven't seen anything to justify the extreme negativity from some people.

[OB1Biker]

You know what, I don't even believe in reviews and I said it many time on N4G. They usually give away too many spoilers anyway. Those are only previews though. Don't take what they say too seriously. I just like when I can get some factual information I may personally like or dislike rather than a completely biased, emotional point of view
People should just wait for reviews if reviewers point of view are important to them. No need to be over dramatic over previews.

[MRMagoo123]

@star and co

😂 you guys are a riot , we now have about 15 articles talking about how sh!t the game is now , So I guess you guys aren't seeing what everyone else is seeing huh ? There are more articles coming too ......either you guys are legally blind or everyone else is wrong 😂🖒

[obidanshinobi]

The words "Kotaku" and "balanced, professional article" do not belong in the same sentence.
Unless the words "are seemingly unable to provide a" are sandwiched inbetween. :D

[meka2611]

Played the EA access trial of this game last night. It's hard to know how I feel. I will say that the animations are just god awful and really jarring, especially on the main character. It's like they didn't know how to program animations when you can customize. Eyes and mouth are the worst offenders. They fixed the characters smiling during certain scenes, but the voice acting doesn't match the situation. And my god is the dialogue cringe worthy; and yes the characters continually point out the obvious for you.

[OB1Biker]

Fair enough. I v'e never been bothered with animation oddities tbh. Only few rare games manage to render believable animation, thats not really what Im looking for the most in games. I feel people pay attention to these flaws too much because they are pointed out by the media.

[CP_Company]

_-EDMIX-_--i am writing like legit player.i had over 100 conversations and maybe most,in 5 of them was bad lip sync,in rest of them,there was 0 problem.so,yeah,in my experience,it is pretty flawless and i even did not finished game yet.what was more,and i saw,that actually some of facial animation were awkward and weird,like Nils,and some other,but it is small fraction of all animations.

[Nivekki]

It looks awful. The devs and EA should be ashamed of themselves, I love the first ME trilogy, but what I've seen of this looks like a joke. The script and animation is so amateurish it's laughable. After what's been released this year so far this looks like an abomination.

[AnubisG]

Dude, Kotaku loves this because it's a SJW crap. That is why they are loving this.

[Gwiz]

The focus on animations is really weird lol,,

[BlacKJesu5]

The lames can't rp now

[l3w1s]

So why not make MEA text-based? So the kewls could show off their rp skillzzzzzz.

[aaronaton]

strangest comment ive read today. Animation is the foundation of any game. You could have uncharted level 3D assets and engine, but if its poorly animated the immersion is instantly broken. On the other side of the coin, you can have a low budget game with great animation, that will truly bring it to life!

Animation is Key.

[Emme]

No its not. Great animation is nice to have, but servicable animation is sufficient, and I doubt the average gamer really notices it.

[Gwiz]

Foundation?yeah to have ANY at all..
XD

[Chumdiddy]

I think it's valid given that half the game experience is delivered via dialogue tree conversation and cutscene. Animation is huge in that arena when trying to make it believable.

It's hard for me to not get a bit creeped out by the videos I've seen. Everyone looks like they're facially frozen except in the lips where they are over exaggerated.

It's nightmare fuel for me (ha).

[OMGitzThatGuy]

When you are looking at animations 100% of the time in games something as wonky as what I am seeing in ME:A is enough to take anybody out of any immersion and can disconnect players from characters. They done goofed.

[PhoenixUp]

It better be if it wants to live up to the series' expectations

[bolimekurac]

other then the obvious stability issues that looked pretty dam good and the action seemed exciting and fun

[Vantol]

What "action"? I puked on my monitor before I could see any "action".

[Unoriginalplayer]

Might want to see a doctor....

[ShadowKnight]

Gonna check this out on original access

[MRMagoo123]

I have been watching videos of it being played it looks like sh!t

[MRMagoo123]

@thunderbird

I wouldn't know about call of duty I haven't played one since black ops 2. Maybe that's better for people of low intelligence such as you.

[MRMagoo123]

@thunder

https://www.youtube.com/wat... everyone agrees with me so go eat sh!t

[DJustinUNCHAIND]

Playing it now and it definitely feels like Mass Effect.

I think the issues may be overblown.

[Unoriginalplayer]

Finally someone else that says that. It is Mass Effect. Everything about it screams Mass Effect!

[Inzo]

Very contradictory to most other previews and to some of the gameplay footage I have seen.

[starchild]

Not really. I've read/seen lots of positive previews or impressions other than this one from Kotaku. Industry insider Shinobi was quite positive about the game. http://m.neogaf.com/showthr...
And youtuber Minius GC said the game would get a 9.5 from them based on what they played so far. https://youtu.be/OK4DyxyPeF...

[Yohshida]

Played it yesterday for about 2h and its not just the Bad animations. The game ran horrible on x1 and had a lot of bugs. One scene I was talking to 2 soldiers and my character decided to stay right between them to talk. The mouth of the guy in front of me was moving while the guy behind me talked. Its a mess

[Emme]

Bioware games never were free of these bugs, I wonder why really,as these are 100% scripted...

[Anzil]

Thank you kotaku for not just bashing the game for the sake of it. Animations are bad though......

[gammaray13]

how much did you get paid to say this

[Raiden]

@gammaray13

I hope that question was not directed at me, as it would just show many things of the mentality of this generation gaming expectations, that any said that either supports or has a different viewpoint you must be getting paid for it, well i could say the same of others comments but i wont as that is not how i feel when reading someone else comments.
my list of haters.
1. Those who are paid to review a game and instead of the mentioning the pros and cons they remain deep rooted in the negatives.
2. We all make comparisons everyday, but logic needs to be applied when making any when it comes to gaming, could the dev's have spent more time did publisher feel the total game was good enough.
3. Fanboyisum, no matter how good something really is they will blindly find fault with it and ruthlessly defend if it's crap. Famous have no clue on how to be impartial and that is sad.
4. Websites that go out of there way to belittle a title just for click bate hit, no website is honest anymore they are all bias because fanboys do need a job too, you maybe gamers but you work in the media of news and as such you must be like the outsider looking, unbias approach but that's not what we have is.

Anyway game on, I'm so happy I don't make my gaming choice from these website reviewers or ill be missing out on some great gaming.

[Seafort]

It seems everyone likes to jump on the hate bandwagon without trying out the game themselves. It's the in thing now hating a game without rhyme or reason.

Facial animations is one aspect of the game. I agree they are poor but Mass Effect is much more than the animations.

If you want to be a sheep and agree with all the haters who has a beef with the game that's on you. At least form your own opinion and test the game out. You can try it out on EA/Origin Access for 10 hrs for $5/£4 per month and have the added benefits of access to all the other games for the Access sub.(PC and Xbox only).

I personally tried the game out myself and I can't wait for release next week. It's going to be a fantastic game but I'm not a hater of the latest games like most people are these days.

Have fun hating on games just because someone else said they hate it.

[Raiden]

@Seafort
Hey, people will hate for no reason, people are constantly making comparisons' with this game, the game series has always been balanced and self expressive, I judge a game on my experience not on haters, I'm so looking forward to this game, so to HELL with the haters I'm going to enjoy my adventure in single player and invite my friends in multiplayer mode, what more would I want from a game, Instead just sitting there playing a one direction game.

[AntsPai]

KOTAKU HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I'll bet Polygon really enjoyed it too 🤣🤣🤣
29315;

[annoyedgamer]

Oh look a confirmed feminist says Mass Effect is amazing...meanwhile Bioware confirms that the early players are playing with the day 1 patch...hmmm

[ABeastNamedTariq]

why are you so upset, my guy? I know you're "annoyed" but no one said anything about being salty

[OC_MurphysLaw]

My time with the game so far has me excited to play more but I won't downplay some of the visual stuff. When you think about this game being a Frostbite game you hope for BF1 type visuals but sadly you won't get that. I think the visuals are more comparable to what you see from a Madden game. Sadly they don't use motion capture so many of the movements can and do look awkward. That said the story and actual gameplay so far about 3hrs in really do shine. The jump jet mechanic is fantastic and I find the contextual cover system works well enough to be effective. Enemy AI is decent so far and your squad mates also are competent and will actually inflict damage which is refreshing.

[OB1Biker]

Don't say too much good about this game or I fear for you on this site. Haha jk
Thanks for info. I cant wait for the game and will have to be on 23 for me in the UK.

From eurogamer:
'Andromeda isn't a mess - I posted my thoughts on the EA Access trial content already, and it was mostly positive stuff - though the game looks that way from these reactions.

There's no doubting the bugs are present - the one I encountered on my playthrough saw an alien suspended, static in midair, and it was truly immersion-breaking.

But, for character animation, we've not seen anything much different to other games of the same genre - your Skyrims or Fallouts, huge, dialogue-stuffed experiences where you can customise your character.'

[Seafort]

It's released on 22nd March at 11pm GMT in UK.

I can't wait. It's going to be one hell of a journey. I feel sorry for all the haters of this game and many others. They'll be missing out on some great games over the next year.

[Findingcrybabies]

Who fucked them (this time) for that review?

[dyret2000]

A SJW gaming site likes a game from a SJW racist producer...

[IamTylerDurden1]

I am keeping my preorder, it's Mass Effect. I predicted for a while now the MEA would be flawed and that it would probably be the weakest game in the series. However, it's still running at 1800p on PS4 Pro with the beautiful Frostbite 3 and the combat looks to be improved. The protagonist has always looked weak and there will be some hit or miss features, but even a bad Mass Effect can still be a game worth playing. It won't sit in the 90's (Meracritic) like previous games, it'll probably fall in the 78-83 range. I personally predict an 81 Metacritic and that's plenty good enough for me. I can't wait to play this vast space opera in 1800p on PS4 Pro, flaws and all. I predict that the combat will be the best in the series and the worlds should be beautiful. March 20th at 9pm, my PS4 Pro's body is ready.

[EyeAmTJ]

1800p on PS4 Pro? wtf

[Surt]

Somehow I see polygon agreeing with kotaku. lol It was no mistake that the women look like hydras, it was done on purpose. Evidence?

You have three ME behind this one. THREE. And you may have some cougars in the previous ones but they are still easy on the eyes then the fall out ghouls that they modeled the females after in this game.

[Vantol]

Can we somehow spread this image, so it gets to Bioware? It's too late for Andromeda, but at least they won't make the same mistake in their next game. http://imgur.com/a/wkPvS

[Miss_Weeboo]

Good?

[Nintendo-or-Nothing]

I'm starting to wonder if no game is good enough? Reminds me of my cousin who watches son many movies that none are entertaining to him.

[gigoran]

oh hey yeah
you dont need to post kotaku links here

nobody needs them

[TC731]

A series that caters to alternative lifestyles and far-left politics? YOU BEST BET KOTAKU WILL BE ALL ABOUT IT.