Post by JRavens on Mar 22, 2017 18:58:30 GMT
OK so I've played a few hours of MEA and gotten through the intro areas and into the very first steps of the main game proper. Here's what I think:
It's FUCKING AMAZING.
I'm sorry you will hear a LOT of bitching in reviews and online about the bad animations (especially the facial animations). It's clear to me that this is the new horse to beat. I dunno why but internet gaming culture has gotten to where it needs a bandwagon to board every time a new game comes out. No game is perfect. We know that. We know game companies push games out wayyy too early and they use us (the consumers) to find a ton of bugs and gameplay issues.
This game has a few issues. They are minor from what I've seen so far. I would say (based on a very short time in playing it so far mind you) that this is one of the more stable releases I've seen so far this year. At least it's not "early access".
Yes the faces are kind of dreadful. Bioware is not known for good faces and bodies. The modding community ALWAYS creates new faces and bodies for Bioware games. I will say that some of the presets are downright ugly and even the main premade characters are... well they're not models so lets just leave it at that. But you know what in real life people aren't all pretty. In fact there's only a small percentage of people who are "studs" or "gorgeous". A starship is unlikely to actually be filled with Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies
But I get it Bioware and EA really should not have allowed this to drop with some truly horrid faces. Some of these guys and girls are kind of scary LOL
Past that there are some graphical issues here and there. Weird twitches and odd pieces missing or flickering. It's minor, but it hurts because you see it in the cinematic moments and that's what will piss people off. One really laughable thing is while on a planet your guys are all wearing helmets with glass visors, but the rain runs all over their faces instead of the helmet. And this planets atmosphere is supposed to be toxic so that would be... bad. There's an epic moment where the character is delivering a rousing speech and he has a small chunk of hair missing. In another shot a light far away behind the ladies head (as in hundreds of meters away) is casting a lens flare right across her face to the point that it's covering her mouth at times. Just weird annoying crap like that.
The graphics otherwise are fantastic. Places look very cool and are quite large and detailed.
Voice acting in the first section is very, very good. Clancy Brown plays your dad and his voice is great. Love that guy. Some have said later in the game a lot of the writing and voice acting is bad. I haven't hit that yet. Dunno. There were some eye rolling lines here or there ("I don't consider someone a pathfinder until they've path found something!" LOL wut? OK lady), but supposedly though this game employed over 2000 voice actors and has more vocal recordings than all 3 previous Mass Effect games combined. So frankly that's a shit ton of work. I would imagine that's pretty hard to coordinate and get perfect while making a game.
The start sections of the game are really epic with a lot of action and exploration. I really like that this game is set in a whole new universe with new aliens, new places to explore, and new adventures. Basically the game got rebooted and I think that's a really positive thing. It has kind of a Star Trek Voyager type vibe (or Star Trek Deep Space Nine if you prefer ) in that it's you, your ship/base and crew against a huge unexplored galaxy. There looks like there will be quite a bit of building, decision making and exploring. Exciting stuff.
Combat is exactly what we saw in the videos. It's fast paced (sadly only third person though I've gotten used to third person now as it's the prevalent thing in games these days) with lots of options, places to take cover, etc. So many different ways you can fight - as a cover shooter with guns and grenades or use your jet pack to jank and dodge while hipfiring or use powers and run right up in their face and melee them in their stupid evil alien heads
EDIT - I just discovered a scope and attached it thinking according to the description it would give a 20% accuracy bonus, but in fact it allows you to fire the gun first person. Not sure if this is only with the sniper scope or if there are other scopes in the game...
All in all I think this might set a new bar for RPGs in the way Fallout 4 did last year. Is it better? Not sure, but I definately think it's as good as FO4 or Skyrim, but in it's own very unique way.
I would say either get it now OR wait a bit for some patches and the inevitable grumble to pass over and then pick it up on a bit of a discount. I wouldn't say listen to all the whining, bitching and moaning that is about to come about graphical glitches. It has issues, but it's not Assassin Creed Unity level of bad for the bugs and glitches. (Modders will fix it anyways - you know they will LOL
)
It's FUCKING AMAZING.
I'm sorry you will hear a LOT of bitching in reviews and online about the bad animations (especially the facial animations). It's clear to me that this is the new horse to beat. I dunno why but internet gaming culture has gotten to where it needs a bandwagon to board every time a new game comes out. No game is perfect. We know that. We know game companies push games out wayyy too early and they use us (the consumers) to find a ton of bugs and gameplay issues.
This game has a few issues. They are minor from what I've seen so far. I would say (based on a very short time in playing it so far mind you) that this is one of the more stable releases I've seen so far this year. At least it's not "early access".
Yes the faces are kind of dreadful. Bioware is not known for good faces and bodies. The modding community ALWAYS creates new faces and bodies for Bioware games. I will say that some of the presets are downright ugly and even the main premade characters are... well they're not models so lets just leave it at that. But you know what in real life people aren't all pretty. In fact there's only a small percentage of people who are "studs" or "gorgeous". A starship is unlikely to actually be filled with Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies
But I get it Bioware and EA really should not have allowed this to drop with some truly horrid faces. Some of these guys and girls are kind of scary LOL
Past that there are some graphical issues here and there. Weird twitches and odd pieces missing or flickering. It's minor, but it hurts because you see it in the cinematic moments and that's what will piss people off. One really laughable thing is while on a planet your guys are all wearing helmets with glass visors, but the rain runs all over their faces instead of the helmet. And this planets atmosphere is supposed to be toxic so that would be... bad. There's an epic moment where the character is delivering a rousing speech and he has a small chunk of hair missing. In another shot a light far away behind the ladies head (as in hundreds of meters away) is casting a lens flare right across her face to the point that it's covering her mouth at times. Just weird annoying crap like that.
The graphics otherwise are fantastic. Places look very cool and are quite large and detailed.
Voice acting in the first section is very, very good. Clancy Brown plays your dad and his voice is great. Love that guy. Some have said later in the game a lot of the writing and voice acting is bad. I haven't hit that yet. Dunno. There were some eye rolling lines here or there ("I don't consider someone a pathfinder until they've path found something!" LOL wut? OK lady), but supposedly though this game employed over 2000 voice actors and has more vocal recordings than all 3 previous Mass Effect games combined. So frankly that's a shit ton of work. I would imagine that's pretty hard to coordinate and get perfect while making a game.
The start sections of the game are really epic with a lot of action and exploration. I really like that this game is set in a whole new universe with new aliens, new places to explore, and new adventures. Basically the game got rebooted and I think that's a really positive thing. It has kind of a Star Trek Voyager type vibe (or Star Trek Deep Space Nine if you prefer
) in that it's you, your ship/base and crew against a huge unexplored galaxy. There looks like there will be quite a bit of building, decision making and exploring. Exciting stuff.Combat is exactly what we saw in the videos. It's fast paced (sadly only third person though I've gotten used to third person now as it's the prevalent thing in games these days) with lots of options, places to take cover, etc. So many different ways you can fight - as a cover shooter with guns and grenades or use your jet pack to jank and dodge while hipfiring or use powers and run right up in their face and melee them in their stupid evil alien heads
EDIT - I just discovered a scope and attached it thinking according to the description it would give a 20% accuracy bonus, but in fact it allows you to fire the gun first person. Not sure if this is only with the sniper scope or if there are other scopes in the game...
All in all I think this might set a new bar for RPGs in the way Fallout 4 did last year. Is it better? Not sure, but I definately think it's as good as FO4 or Skyrim, but in it's own very unique way.
I would say either get it now OR wait a bit for some patches and the inevitable grumble to pass over and then pick it up on a bit of a discount. I wouldn't say listen to all the whining, bitching and moaning that is about to come about graphical glitches. It has issues, but it's not Assassin Creed Unity level of bad for the bugs and glitches. (Modders will fix it anyways - you know they will LOL
)
The dialogue? If they'd hired a bunch of drunken 13 year olds to write it...............they probably would have been better off. Bland, banal, devoid of emotion, cliched, and just not what will get me to emotionally invest in any of the characters. 