Mass Effect New Mass Effect confirmed

[Atlantico]

No, the line between Spectre and Commander Shepard with a gun is really thin.

The line between 007 and a crazy lunatic is really thin. But it is meaningful. They fucked it up from ME2 and ME3 which is why those games ruined the franchise.

 

[Atlantico]

I would probably also cut out planetary "exploration" in their place after ME1, unless I would get some super great idea on how to make it better and not just "drive clockwise around the map" busywork interrupted by some very annoying steep mountains. It was plain shit, I fully replayed ME1 I think at least 5 times and endured the "exploration" somehow, and I loathe the "exploration" utterly. There's no navigational challenge, you can't find hidden shit accidentally, it's just busywork to mark off minerals/insignia/writings on a checklist.

Disagree because it was totally optional. It was just there if you wanted to do it and you didn't even have to commit to all of it. It is a chore if you don't like it and are a completionist I suppose, but I found the exploration real fun and interesting. Loved to see it back in MEA.

A teaser:

They made the character look like Daft Punk and they still won’t go back to the synth score of the first game.

They did in MEA

 

[Atlantico]

Yeah, stakes were lower, but I would say not everything needs to be the "save the universe" type of deal and I thought that the initial mystery of whole colonies getting kidnapped for unknown reasons was p. well done and contributed to the atmosphere nicely.

I agree, but i think the Reaper threat should have ended with ME1. ME2's storyline is fine as it is, but instead of the Collectors doing the kidnapping they could have made it the Batarians, Cerberus, or one of the Terminus Systems factions. ME3 could have focused on preventing a galactic war from breaking out the the Terminus Systems.

I agree, the Reaper threat should have been put on ice. There's a whole galaxy to explore. Hundreds of inactive gates. So many opportunities and perhaps the Reaper plot could have been subtly woven into the background for a re-introduction some five or six sequels down the road. If ever. But the ME series shouldn't be about the Reapers. That's so much wasted potential.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

ME2 was juvenile from the go. To kill and resurrect Shepard just for the sake of a metaphor about how the sequel's made by different people than the original, and as a weird ritual to assert ownership of the series going forward, set the tone for the retarded shit to come.

It's to make Shepard/the player feel indebted to Cerberus. Also provides a good excuse for splitting the party.

 

[J1M]

It's time to wake up Commander Shepherd, a new crew of diverse and inclusive newbies are ready to scold you and piss on everything you sacrificed for previously.

Even Bioware's idiot management knows they are very close to losing their jobs. Of course there will be a lot of woke stuff, but even they are not stupid enough to deliberately shit on previous games. If they overdo it, they can be sure that EA will kill the studio, unless it does so after the failure of Dreadwolf.

After the success of Baldur's Gate 3 I'm sure no effort will be spared to top its depravity. I also recall nobody in mainstream media dared complain about wokeness in Andromeda, just about its bugs and poor writing.

That aside I'm sure they want to make a good game, but that doesn't mean they'll be able to. Those that once were good may have left the company, or lost their inspiration, and those that are idiots certainly won't fire themselves.

Being woke was the least of Andromeda's problems.

Andromeda's biggest problem was that the party members were so forgettable. The companions are a core part of a Mass Effect experience, and they just weren't particularly memorable.

I have attempted 2 Andromeda playthroughs (one I was probably about 90% complete and burned out, and the other I burned out around 50-60% of the way through) over the years and even now I am having trouble even providing a critique about what specifically was wrong with the companions because they made so little of an impression on me I barely remember them.

I agree with that observation, however it is not *only* because they're bland and uninteresting, thought that's a contributing factor to many of them. The devs are trying to give these characters a long character arc and introduction. Contrast that to the original ME characters/sidekicks.

So in the original ME the characters had surprisingly little depth, they had archetypes. You didn't have to get to know them to know them, after their introduction you knew them. In MEA it is not like that, but that doesn't mean that their attempt at depth is interesting or successful. It's a mixed bag.

Characters like Peebee are actually quite deep and well thought out. The Krogan is a really nice character, he's an old veteran who has seen some shit that would turn you white. I like him. Granted the Angara character is just not good and the Turian is so smart and cool but she is never shown to be smart and cool. They just keep telling us she is. A mixed bag indeed.

It needed to hit it out of the park, instead it was a mixed bag. The writing in MEA is mostly serviceable with rather dramatic peaks and valleys, but the gameplay and game design is excellent. I still cannot explain the hatred it got, because everything it was criticized for and I mean everything should have been said about DAI — a singularity of shit. MEA was fine. Best sequel the original ever got.

When your characters are just subversions of other characters, the outcome is guaranteed.

 

[Jaesun]

I liked the premise they were going with Andromeda (lets go back when humanity is populating the stars). And then well.... that was that. I still have a teeny tiny bit of interest in where they are going with this.

 

[Caim]

I liked the premise they were going with Andromeda (lets go back when humanity is populating the stars). And then well.... that was that. I still have a teeny tiny bit of interest in where they are going with this.

I too want to see where they're going with this, but I'm fairly certain they won't be catering to Bioware's strengths.

 

[Iucounu]

So in the original ME the characters had surprisingly little depth, they had archetypes. You didn't have to get to know them to know them, after their introduction you knew them. In MEA it is not like that, but that doesn't mean that their attempt at depth is interesting or successful. It's a mixed bag.

Characters like Peebee are actually quite deep and well thought out.

Some MEA characters seem like archetypes as well. PeeBee seems like a good example of an archetypical "modern woman" in American entertainment (and as such completely unlikeable).

The Krogan is a really nice character, he's an old veteran who has seen some shit that would turn you white. I like him.

I though he was boring and just looked silly with those bone trophies. At least he didn't speak with an effeminate voice like some of the other male(?) Krogans in MEA.

the Turian is so smart and cool but she is never shown to be smart and cool.

That too sounds like an archetypical "strong woman" in modern American entertainment.

They just keep telling us she is.

The same could be said about the Krogan's history (or maybe I just forgot all about it). I recall he mostly discussed his grandchildren during the endless car rides.

The writing in MEA is mostly serviceable with rather dramatic peaks and valleys, but the gameplay and game design is excellent.

Shooting mechanics were OK. Weapon upgrades allowed for some real experimentation in rare cases, like starting with a pistol design and modding it into a decent submachine gun (some untapped potential there, perhaps).

But space travel required too many boring loading screens (with associated cutscenes), which was not a good combination with boring trips across the galaxy just so the female merc could show her new rose garden, and similar silly quests.

Exploration was awful/nonexistent. Boring driving on mostly empty planets to the next quest marker, with little to see or do (as usual when driving ground vehicles in games) except listening to the boring NPC conversations.

 

[Rhobar121]

Removing boring planet exploration in ME2 was the best possible decision.
They knew they couldn't make it enjoyable and worth their time, so instead of wasting time and resources on something that would be crap, they decided to focus on other elements.
If not, they would probably have to cut out some of the missions, companions or other elements and the chance that the game would be better is small.

As ME:A and DA:I and in some ways even Starfield show that exploration for exploration's sake adds nothing to the game unless the game provides a lot of interesting content that you can actually explore.
Exploration in ME:A is almost identical to ME1 (boring as hell), except that you cannot fight from a vehicle.

 

[Silverfish]

The writing in MEA is mostly serviceable with rather dramatic peaks and valleys, but the gameplay and game design is excellent.

Andromeda is underrated in that regard, especially with how freeform and versatile character building was. There was a video series (sadly taken down due to copyright nonsense) where this guy went through the entire game, blind, without ever firing a shot.

 

[Atlantico]

Some MEA characters seem like archetypes as well. PeeBee seems like a good example of an archetypical "modern woman" in American entertainment (and as such completely unlikeable).

Modern woman sure, but not the archetype. I don't think modern writers are capable of writing something they don't know, but Beebee is not an archetype. That's just a meme. The Turian is an archetype modern stronk wimmen. That's a great example of one. Once again, the haters latched on Beebee as if she was going to be another Sera from DAI.

I though he was boring and just looked silly with those bone trophies.

They all do look boring and that's a problem, I agree. It doesn't mean they are boring if you give them time to present their character. While the original ME characters were all archetypes and you knew exactly what they were from the moment they were introduced. That just is not the case with all MEA characters.

But space travel required too many boring loading screens (with associated cutscenes), which was not a good combination with boring trips across the galaxy just so the female merc could show her new rose garden, and similar silly quests.

That's how the game makes the world seem larger than it is. It's a trope you either accept and lean into or you hate it and there's no cure except whatever ADD drug you need. Mass Effect is a slow-paced game. You walk to your spaceship. You need to cross a hall to do it. Enter an elevator. Wait until elevator arrives. Go through another hall and into your ship.

And so on. That's Mass Effect. I totally understand you don't like it, but then Mass Effect is not the game for you. It just isn't.

Exploration was awful/nonexistent. Boring driving on mostly empty planets to the next quest marker, with little to see or do (as usual when driving ground vehicles in games) except listening to the boring NPC conversations.

It's better than the original ME, but I'm not going to defend it. It's just a straight upgrade from what we had before in the Original ME.

 

[HammyTheFat]

Andromeda's biggest problem was that the party members were so forgettable.

Did you mean to say insufferable?

I made it 30 minutes into andromeda before I uninstalled it. The dialogue is so terrible I couldnt justify continuing.

Ironically, closer to the end, the dialogue, characters, and plot get a little better. But they weren't worth playing through the entire game.

How long would have to play to get a companion that doesnt want to make me blow my brains out with their quips.

 

[Caim]

Ironically, closer to the end, the dialogue, characters, and plot get a little better. But they weren't worth playing through the entire game.

The ol' reliable "it gets good 50 hours in".

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Ironically, closer to the end, the dialogue, characters, and plot get a little better. But they weren't worth playing through the entire game.

The ol' reliable "it gets good 50 hours in".

I didn't write that the game was getting good. I only wrote that the end is better than the beginning.

 

[Ryzer]

Ironically, closer to the end, the dialogue, characters, and plot get a little better. But they weren't worth playing through the entire game.

The ol' reliable "it gets good 50 hours in".

I didn't write that the game was getting good. I only wrote that the end is better than the beginning.

Here is a hot take : Mass Effect is shit from beginning to end.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Ironically, closer to the end, the dialogue, characters, and plot get a little better. But they weren't worth playing through the entire game.

The ol' reliable "it gets good 50 hours in".

I didn't write that the game was getting good. I only wrote that the end is better than the beginning.

Here is a hot take : Mass Effect is shit from beginning to end.

There are different quality of shits, never forget that.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Lots of edgy shit posting about the ME trilogy... But it's still the only space opera we have in gaming, there's nothing like it.

I would have thought the sub genre would be a gold mine for RPGs and action adventure games, but sadly scifi is has long taken a back seat to fantasy.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Mass Effect is the best space opera of gaming because it is the only one. There is simply no comparison. Therefore, Dragon Age is easier to evaluate because there are many other fantasy RPGs.

 

[ChildInTime]

Andromeda's biggest problem was that the party members were so forgettable.

Did you mean to say insufferable?

I made it 30 minutes into andromeda before I uninstalled it. The dialogue is so terrible I couldnt justify continuing.

Ironically, closer to the end, the dialogue, characters, and plot get a little better. But they weren't worth playing through the entire game.

Yeah, I remember reading they brought in some director guy who looked at that shitshow, said fuck it, pulled all the available resources and made them finish the game, culminating in the final mission and ending (which is a pretty good final mission and ending btw, certainly better than ME3s) where all your choices during the game get at least a mention, and some even change it slightly.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Andromeda's biggest problem was that the party members were so forgettable.

Did you mean to say insufferable?

I made it 30 minutes into andromeda before I uninstalled it. The dialogue is so terrible I couldnt justify continuing.

Ironically, closer to the end, the dialogue, characters, and plot get a little better. But they weren't worth playing through the entire game.

Yeah, I remember reading they brought in some director guy who looked at that shitshow, said fuck it, pulled all the available resources and made them finish the game, culminating in the final mission and ending (which is a pretty good final mission and ending btw, certainly better than ME3s) where all your choices during the game get at least a mention, and some even change it slightly.

When I was playing through the ending, I kept thinking "if the rest of this game was of this quality, it would be rated much higher." Unfortunately, the rest are just some pieces glued together, which is most visible on the acid planet (I don't remember the name), where some NPCs have videos instead of a frozen camera - it was the most refined, so it was most visible how unfinished it was. And this unfortunate romance that I heterosexually missed.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Lots of edgy shit posting about the ME trilogy... But it's still the only space opera we have in gaming, there's nothing like it.

I would have thought the sub genre would be a gold mine for RPGs and action adventure games, but sadly scifi is has long taken a back seat to fantasy.

I never thought I'd see the day someone on the Codex would unironically claim that Mass Effect is the only space opera in gaming. It's shameful that someone whose been around this long hasn't heard of Wing Commander or Star Control.

Granted, we're still getting a shit deal considering that most of the serious efforts at space opera were either 20+ years ago or are hard to find indie titles. Considering that for most of the past 20 years, some sort of space opera was popular on TV or in the movies, you'd expect more people would line up to do it.

 

[Elttharion]

I liked the premise they were going with Andromeda (lets go back when humanity is populating the stars). And then well.... that was that. I still have a teeny tiny bit of interest in where they are going with this.

One of the biggest problems I had with Andromeda was that it looked like the most interesting events had already happened and you are just cleaning the mess. Or that you were exploring a new world but it was already settled by natives or filled with colonists from the milky way (you usually ended up shooting them anyway). I didnt feel like a 'pathfinder', I felt like a glorified janitor. Not to mention only two new species, both humanoid, and half of the ones from the old games were absent.

Of course, there are a lot of other problems with the game but the overall vision is so insanely mediocre its infuriating. And I say that as someone who only really likes the first game so I dont really care about the franchise.

 

[tritosine2k]

the overall vision is so insanely mediocre its infuriating.

Exactly, gamers were so deluded with the andromeda hate train itch, they forgot how
EA greenlighted a SW battlefront 2 single player campaign by cpt sweden with stronkwummun lead that ages into a stronklady by the end of the game ( apparently, I skimmed on yt for the lighting tech)

Game Team: Engineering​
Game Team: Art​
Game Team: Design​
Leads​
Directors Team​
Executive Producers	John Wasilczyk Matthew Webster
Directors of Product Development	Alan McDairmant Robert Wasser
Art Director	Andrew Hamilton
Technical Art Director	Mikael Linderholm
Animation Director	Henrik Fegraeus
Audio Director	Ben Minto
Creative Director	Bernd Diemer
Design Director	Niklas Fegraeus
Technical Design Director	Gustav Halling
Technical Director	Jonas Kjellström
Producers	Paul Keslin Craig McLeod James Salt
Development Directors	Ciprian Laza Jonas Lundqvist
Senior Development Director Live Entertainment	Annie Chenn
Associate Design Director	Dennis Brännvall
Additional Senior Producers	Sigurlína V. Ingvarsdóttir Sara Jansson Bach
Additional Art Directors	Jens Oras Gustav Tilleby
Producers	Rasmus Hallberg Elin Holmberg Ali Alexander Hassoon
Development Directors	William Cooper Joel Fagerlund Henrik Fernlund Nils Hallberg Per Kjellström Martin Svenblad Göran Wall Robin Wikström Daniel Willför
Lead Core Gameplay Designer	Linus Josephson
Lead Vehicle Designer	Manuel Saua Llanes
Lead Special Units Designer	Carola Berens
Lead Character Designer	Ross Darvill
Lead World and Game Mode Designer	Björn Sundell
Lead Engagement Designer	Ryan Bednar
Lead UI/UX Game Designer	Nicholas Shewchuk
2D Lead	Viktor Blanke
Lead 3D Artists	Fabian Östedt Jessica Helgesson
Lead Character Artist	Madina Chionidi
Lead Lighting Artist	Oscar Carlén
Lead VFX Artist	Anders Egléus
Lead Concept Artist	Anton Grandert
Lead Sound Designer	David Jegutidse
Associate Technical Director	Carl-Johan Ljungstedt
Lead Gameplay Engineers	Per-Jonny Käck Martin Wester
Lead Rendering Engineers	Daniel Johansson Robert Kihl
Lead Online Engineers	Erman Döser Göran Syberg Falguera
Online Service Lead	Antonio Frongillo Anders Hallberg Gustav Joelsson
Lead UI Engineers	Moritz Hammer Anders Wikström Anders Andersson
Lead Build Engineer	Víðir Orri Reynisson
Additional Animation Director	Mikael Högström
Lead Animators	David Dixon Sean Diehl
Lead Technical Animator	Arvid Burström
Localization Director	Thomas Rönnberg
Quality Assurance Director	Simon Crawford
Quality Assurance Project manager	Steven Wemyss
QE Technical Director	David King
Project Assistant	Anton Wittberg Letoff
Additional Narrative Direction	Christofer Emgård
Additional Partnership Management	Anders Gyllenberg
Technical Designers	Viktor A. Lundberg Fredrik Westlund
World and Game Mode Designer	Peter Forsman
Level Designers	Lukas Van Daele Vest Peter Vesti Frendrup Terrence Cronin Dave Lee Anders Jansson Fredrik Englund Magnus Olin Patrick Murphy Christian Plogfors Edvin Eriksson Oliver Granlund
Character Designers	Guillaume Mroz Jim Fagerlund Andreas Persson Tobias Ekholm
Vehicle Designer	Svante Lindholm
Core Gameplay Designers	Christian Johannesén Daniel Wiksten Cristian Pavel Tommy Rydling Julian Schimek
Engagement Designers	Erik Christersson Nickole Li Anders Adlén
UI Designers	Sarah Bernelind Anna Wikström
UI Scripters	Kalle Nyström Erik Nahkala Laura Kantti Jonas Holgersson Aveline Estié
Senior Technical Artist	Danial Rashidi
Technical Artists	Michael Trainor Daniel Wallsin Björn Henriksson Simon Barsky
Technical UI Artist	Tobias Hogstrand
Environment Artists	Vilhelm Flohr Tim McLeod Anton Ek Darko Pracic Pontus Ryman Petter Sköld Michael Anderson John Troive Pierre Autissier Patrick Gladys David Holland Emelie Elisabeth Nilsson Pontus Petridis Johan Jeansson Billy Halldén Daniel Sundberg Lionel Cregut Andre Wahlgren
3D Artists	Mikael Andersson Joel Dabrosin Andreas Fougner Ezelius Marcus Fritze Nina Valinger Anton Kavousi Daniel Henefalk Joan Hägg Helena Olkiewicz Per Smedjeback André Boström Sebastian Kim David Ljungstedt Daniel Rocque-Bengtsson Rick Underhill Daniel Ax Joel Zakrisson
Character Artists	Björn Arvidsson Linus Hamilton Sanna Nivhede Sebastian Andersson Rui Mu
VFX Artists	Jonas Andersson Daniel Kopp Tobias Ahlgren Cederlöf Gustav Hagerling Nadab Göksu
Lighting Artists	Ulf Lundgren Tilmann Milde Karl Stjernberg
2D Artists	Dongjoo Artursson Björn Åkerstedt Andreas Lanjerud Desmond Arsan
Level Artist	Magnus Olin
Concept Artists	Sigurd Fernström Frej Appel Esbjörn Nord Nicholas Shardlow Joseph McLamb
Software Environment Engineer	Strati Zerbinis
Software Tools Engineer	Liza Shulyayeva
Software AI Engineer	Robert Träffe
Software Hero Engieners	Johan Allanson Johan Tunkrans
Software Core Gameplay Engineers	David Hansson Jesper Larsson Mikael Hasslund Johann Gerell
Software Vehicle Engineers	Jimmy Nilsson Jonas Göransson Peter Österblom
Software Online Engineers	Daniel Dahlkvist Petter Lundgren Niklas Henriks Mattias Unger Mikael Lagré Karl-Johan Karlsson Jakob Pogulis
Software Rendering Engineers	Yasin Uludag Martin Johansson Michal Ziulek Carlos Macarrón Pericacho Mikael Uddholm Christopher Birger Jan Schmid Martin Ridgers Johannes Deligiannis Andreas Tarandi
Software Core System Engineers	Staffan Gustafsson Petter Edblom Michael Lidgren Mark Scheurwater Carl-Magnus Nordin
Software Audio Engineers	Clément Visseq Alex Perez San Elias
Software UI Engineers	Nick Leppänen Larsson Teodor Chishiki Jakobsson Ivan Milles Oscar Westberg Tobias Lundqvist Markus Silberstein Hont Jakob Rydén Fredrik Westlund Dan Nilsson Jimmy Hådén Marcus Hoverby

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Andromeda failed at its premise, there really was nothing exciting coming from it even if you ignore the game that actually released.

Granted, the biggest problem with the premise was the fact that it is a Mass Effect game, but my point stands.

Half-assed explanation as to how you could even get to Andromeda in the given time frame, bringing Krogans, going to Andromeda in the first place, etc.

Despite all the limitations of Mass Effect, it still captured the feeling of exploring barren space much better than Andromeda ever did. 99% of the Milky Way was unexplored at the time of ME so restarting civilization in the same galaxy would have worked much better.

 

[Caim]

Mass Effect is the best space opera of gaming because it is the only one. There is simply no comparison.

True. If you take the best parts from each ME game you have enough to make a single great game.