Re: Games Discussion Thread
Well, after packing 90 hours of gameplay into 7 days, I beat Andromeda last night. The game... needs time to grow on you. The first mission and areas you see are, while visually striking, a bit of a slog to get through. As soon as you get your ship and touch down on the first planet, though, things improve dramatically. The same goes for the characters. None of them immediately stick out as amazing, must-have-on-crew companions. It's not until you spent some time with them, maybe even until after you complete their loyalty missions that they come into their own. But then again, this was true for the first Mass Effect game as well. Without three games to develop their personality, much of the original crew seemed kinda flat (with Ashley being a negative exception).
Now that I've finished the game though, I can honestly say that I like THIS crew better than I liked the OT crew by the end of ME1. Liam is a solid bro, Vetra is a big, spiky sister, Jaal is actually ME2-Garrus good, Drack is a krogan grandpa with more depth than he lets on, Cora is... okay, I guess? Peebee can be a bit annoying and stand-off-ish, but I feel that's actually on purpose - she makes it clear that she doesn't want to settle down and that she's constantly one foot out the door already.
Buuuuuut... There's no two ways about this, the face animations are ROUGH. Glassy, mechanically moving eyes, lips not syncing up to words, mouths just doing... weird stuff in general. My tip? Turn on subtitles, they'll draw your eyes away from the faces. Also, shout-out to the voice actors for making these characters likeable in spite of their faces.
Traveling between planets also feels longer than it should and gets annoying fast. especially since most planets have ONE thing to scan AT MOST, so you spend a lot of time just waiting until you're finally able to do something again. It's a transparent - and misguided - attempt at making the game more cinematic. For a game that's supposedly about exploring, it turns you off exploring solar systems pretty thoroughly.
Not to end on a negative note, though, Combat feels great. By the end of it, I practically mowed through hordes of enemies with little trouble. In the beginning it can be challenging, but once you figure out things like combo detonations and which weapon augmentations not to bother with (In my personal opinion? Beams are complete toss, and you can take or leave ricochet) you can absolutely SHRED your opponents. Feels immensely satisfying.
Personally, I'd give the game a 7.5 or 8 out of 10. Its rough spots are by far not enough to turn me off the game. I'll definitely play through this another couple times.