This game is a clear example of WTF is wrong with Gamers Today....

[Haravikk]

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@mcsupersport wrote:

The reason I see for people hating it is two fold.  First a group of people were still hurt over how ME3 turned out and thus had zero desire to give any break to MEA when it came out.  The second reason I see, is that people are comparing MEA to the ENTIRE 1-3 series and all the development that was in them.  By the second point, people don't compare MEA to ME1 and say look at the similar character development, but instead look at the entire series and say how shallow the new peeps are compared to Ashley, Liara, Tali, or Garrus of ME3.  I also happen to think that Bioware itself fell into the second category as well, forgetting that you don't need to bring EVERYTHING into the game including world building, all in one game.

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I think this sums it up pretty well; I was a big original trilogy fan, but felt burned by the ending (though mostly by how easily it could have been made better with a little more planning), so I was a little skeptical of Andromeda, but was cautiously optimistic about the concept, as exploration was something I always wanted more of from Mass Effect.

However, as I prefer to play on PC i wasn't an early adopter as I was in need of upgrades which got delayed, and delayed some more, to the point that I only finally completed the game for the first time this week, so I have the benefit of having missed all the early technical difficulties, which probably made those who preordered the game more critical of what else was wrong with it.

I on the other hand, really enjoyed it.

I kind of get some of the criticism of the characters, in that a few of them feel very derivative within the series itself, while others didn't grow on me right away; for example I found Liam a bit annoying, and Cora's backstory felt very gimmicky, but then I would actually say they had two of the best loyalty missions (and the loyalty missions were all good). Drack didn't really feel much different from Wrex, but but that's both a good and bad thing, as he was one of my favourites, alongside Vetra.

I do feel like the cast lacked any "normal" characters, as everyone has some kind of hook to them; in ME1 Garrus is basically just a frustrated space-cop (albeit an alien one) while Ash is pretty much just a soldier, which meant she grew as a character because of what happened to her, which is something Andromeda doesn't really have. I often feel like in big, high stakes stories it's good to have a character in a similar situation that you can compare yourself to.

Related to this is that there was also a slight issue with Andromeda opting for the "chosen one" trope; in the original trilogy Shepard is a solider, an N7 sure, but there's nothing otherwise special about them as such, they're just stubborn and refuses to die, whereas being a pathfinder you often feel like you're only special because of SAM. This is further compounded a bit by most of your achievements being based on Remnant tech, so a lot of what you do doesn't feel like you deserved it, because really it was all the work of mysteriously absent old yet advanced aliens whose stuff you could only use because of SAM.

None of these are reasons to hate the game though; when you look back honestly at Mass Effect 1, it's actually a pretty rough game. What it does, it does really well, but it was far from perfect, and it seems strange that some fans of the series couldn't give Andromeda a bit of leeway in order to recognise what it does do well, especially given the mammoth task it had to achieve in transplanting as much as possible of what we loved about Mass Effect into a setting free from the burden of the original trilogy's irreconcilable story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game; was there stuff I wished they'd done differently? Sure, but I could say that about the other games as well.

[Fred_vdp]

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@Haravikk wrote:

Related to this is that there was also a slight issue with Andromeda opting for the "chosen one" trope; in the original trilogy Shepard is a solider, an N7 sure, but there's nothing otherwise special about them as such, they're just stubborn and refuses to die, whereas being a pathfinder you often feel like you're only special because of SAM. This is further compounded a bit by most of your achievements being based on Remnant tech, so a lot of what you do doesn't feel like you deserved it, because really it was all the work of mysteriously absent old yet advanced aliens whose stuff you could only use because of SAM.

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That's exactly the issue I had with the narrative. Ryder's accomplishments were actually SAM's accomplishments. That's why my favorite part of the game is the final mission, where SAM is almost entirely absent.

[holger1405]

@Fred_vdp @Haravikk 

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Fred_vdp wrote:

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Haravikk wrote:

Related to this is that there was also a slight issue with Andromeda opting for the "chosen one" trope; in the original trilogy Shepard is a solider, an N7 sure, but there's nothing otherwise special about them as such, they're just stubborn and refuses to die, whereas being a pathfinder you often feel like you're only special because of SAM. This is further compounded a bit by most of your achievements being based on Remnant tech, so a lot of what you do doesn't feel like you deserved it, because really it was all the work of mysteriously absent old yet advanced aliens whose stuff you could only use because of SAM.

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That's exactly the issue I had with the narrative. Ryder's accomplishments were actually SAM's accomplishments. That's why my favorite part of the game is the final mission, where SAM is almost entirely absent.

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You could argue that this last mission proves that it is indeed Ryder that makes all the difference.

Besides that, there is a reason that this thread is named "This game is a clear example of WTF is wrong with Gamers Today....".  (And rightly so.)
Imho the hate train against Andromeda had little to do with fans don't giving it some leeway, there were many other reasons for it and some are more political than game related.

It starts with this ridicules claim that Bioware bowed to the Feminist movement because the Women don't look like supermodels but like normal human (or other   ) beings. 

There are some other reasons, but I listen them already more than one time.

So in my opinion, the title of the thread is spot on.

[Haravikk]

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@holger1405 wrote:

It starts with this ridicules claim that Bioware bowed to the Feminist movement because the Women don't look like supermodels but like normal human (or other   ) beings. 

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Yeah, I didn't understand those kinds of criticisms; I saw various complaints like that before playing, but man, did you see that outfit Vetra wears? That scarf, rawr!

Or more seriously, the armour Cora and Sarissa wear; someone did not want those curves to go unnoticed! Then there's the romance scene with PeeBee. I sometimes wonder if those complaints were solely down to director Adisson having too much rouge on her cheeks. Such a weird complaint to make though.

Other than the technical issues, I haven't really seen any criticisms that I wouldn't consider minor; sure, I hate the "chosen one" trope, but it's never actually spoiled my enjoyment of a game. They could have fully deus ex machina'd the ending like in ME3 and had actual bra burning sequences, but with the same basic gameplay and exploration I'd still have had a blast playing it.

It's easy to focus on the negatives, and I often do, but in the hopes of informing future improvements rather than just to vent. Plus ultimately negatives are only bad if they outweigh the positives.

Anyone legitimately willing to give the game a chance should be able to accept that they don't. It's a good game, it's more Mass Effect, and that's all I wanted (and want).

[Fred_vdp]

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@holger1405 wrote:

It starts with this ridicules claim that Bioware bowed to the Feminist movement because the Women don't look like supermodels but like normal human (or other   ) beings. 

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I see claims like that all the time, directed at many game devs. I read a comment on Steam recently (yeah, I know Steam forums are worse than YouTube comments), where someone said that the "SJWs" make women in games ugly on purpose. His two examples were Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn, and Kait Diaz from the Gears of War series. Tastes differ, I guess, but those characters were definitely not meant to be ugly.

And even if devs made characters unattractive on purpose, I don't see why that would be a problem. I also don't see the link with the feminist movement.

[JularicTeam]

ME: Andromeda is the game which brought me into gaming this year (january to be exact). I never thought i would buy me a console... I am massive Sci/Fi adorer if this is even a word? Youtube somehow recomended me Mass Effect Andromeda trailer and i instantly liked it. I even went so far to se reviews and boy they were harsh. So i thought to myself well heck i have to see what's the deal with this and instantly went to buy Xbox One S and ME:A. After nine months this is still one of my favorite games (and i am glad) i own 11 of them at this point in time.

As Lt Dan 1145 said this is everything i want in my game:

HOLY S*, i just created an atsmophere on a planet, and now humans are moving in to colonize it. I DID THAT!!!

I couldn't write/explain it better by myself

[AeromusPrime22]

Yeah, I think part of the problem is people wanted NE4 and Bioware made it clear that storyline was done and they just wouldnt accept it. It was a fantastic trilogy but it run its course and something new was needed, but that apparently wasnt acceptable. People wanted ME2/3 but numbered 4 instead. I dont think anything beyond a prequel could be done with the open ending of 3.

[001xiN]

Is there a game out, that everyone can agree is a top game.No i think not as there will always be some little thing or big that the public will be dissatisfied. To me ME3 was not finished properly,they gave you for endings that you could choose.All of them apart from total annihilation was aloud by BioWare. This is seen in MEA when finally get enough pieces to unlock SAM's memory where a audio from Dr Liara T'soni  saying that they have lost the war against the reapers.So BioWare just fooled with everyones mind.Lets face it if the reapers are that strong(which they are) the very short jump across space to Andromeda would be like a walk in the park for the reapers.Now with all that said MEA probably was rush by BioWare to get out to the market.But over all it's not that bad of a game. Sure it has issues, but  as i said what game doesn't.I will say i was one of those people that was pissed off with the way ME3 was handled and finished. It made all our choices useless but we move on. To date i have replayed MEA 5 times and on the last replay did get 100% completed.I am very interested in the sequel to which i believe at some point will be released..Here's to hoping  

[Haravikk]

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@001xiN wrote:

in MEA when finally get enough pieces to unlock SAM's memory where a audio from Dr Liara T'soni  saying that they have lost the war against the reapers

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There are audio logs of the onset of the Reaper invasion (Palaven and Earth), and then Liara's log is about how she's glad Ryder left, but there being a slim chance of victory (referring to the Crucible). It's left vague as to what the actual outcome was.

This is pretty much the whole reason that ME:A takes place in another galaxy; as it allows all four endings to be valid, since the Andromeda Initiative doesn't know what actually happened in the end. If Bioware wanted one ending to be canon then they'd have picked one of the three where humanity survives (probably destroy) and then stayed in the Milky Way.

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@001xiN wrote:

Lets face it if the reapers are that strong(which they are) the very short jump across space to Andromeda would be like a walk in the park for the reapers.

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But would they follow, even if they knew? There's no sign that the Reapers have any interest in other galaxies; as far as we know they were just instructed to wipe out the Milky Way every 50,000 years and that's it; they don't really have a reason to care about people leaving, just so long as none of them come back.

Also, the hop to Andromeda isn't necessarily easy for them; remember, the Reapers are essentially stuck in dark space without a mass relay configured for them. This is why they leave a vanguard (Sovereign, ME1), and why Harbinger was trying to have the Collectors build a new Reaper (ME2), and then to try and use a different relay instead (ME2, Arrival). I don't remember how they eventually show up in ME3, presumably some other relay is activated for them to use, but they're later than they were supposed to be, because they're essentially reliant on the relays to get around.

Sorry if that seems a bit pedantic, but these things are I believe consistent within the universe. Bioware definitely painted themselves into a corner with the ME3 ending, and while I would have liked to stay in the Milky Way with some familiar characters and places, and a less controversial ending, I think Andromeda did a good job of bypassing what we got instead, to setup a new series of games without the baggage. It'd be a shame not to continue it.

[holger1405]

@001xiN 

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001xiN  schrieb:

This is seen in MEA when finally get enough pieces to unlock SAM's memory where a audio from Dr Liara T'soni  saying that they have lost the war against the reapers.So BioWare just fooled with everyones mind.

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She is never saying that the war was lost, she is saying that she fears that it will be lost. Big difference.