Poll: Mass Effect Andromeda Teaser Trailer

[BloatedGuppy]

Seems Bioware has released a new teaser trailer for their upcoming Mass Effect reboot:


I actually quite like it. It's clearly inspired by...and even a borderline rip-off of...Nolan's Interstellar teaser, but the tone they strike is nice. Bittersweet and melancholy, but infused with a sense of purpose and adventure. Having Shepard give a final farewell to the series was a clever touch.

Interesting choice to go with the (lesser played) Jennifer Hale version of Shepard as the narrator. Unsurprisingly, this touched off a torrent of butt-hurt among man-shep faithful, demanding that the "proper" Shepard give the send off.

So...

1. Are you willing to mend fences, assuming your fences were broken, and give this new Mass Effect a try? Or has Bioware's choo-choo-train of disappointments sullied them forever?

2. What kind of TONE would you want the new Mass Effect to have? The first series was a militaristic space opera before it tried to become 2001 at the 11th hour. What would you like for this followup? Something darker? Something lighter? Something zany? Something dour?

3. Are you furious that a penis bearing Shepard did not provide the narration for this trailer?

 

[DrownedAmmet]

No offense to Mark Meer but in my opinion Jennifer Hale was a much better voice actor, so I don't think it was a bad choice to go with her at all.

I was gonna get the new Mass Effect either way. I was disappointed in the ending of ME3 but there was enough good in that game to keep me excited for they will bring next.

But from the trailer it looks like their focusing on the right parts, space, exploration, and spaceships, so we will see if they can execute it well (If they re-introduce the ME2 planet scanner then I will wash my hands of Bioware forever.) Honestly I wasn't that excited for the game until that trailer, it really hit the mark in capturing what I loved about the series and what I want to see in the next one

 

[Frezzato]

1. Yeah, sure, I love ME 1 & 2.

2. Exploration, I want more of it.

3. There's a male Shepard?

 

[votemarvel]

No offense to Mark Meer but in my opinion Jennifer Hale was a much better voice actor, so I don't think it was a bad choice to go with her at all.

I'd say she was the better Shepard but Mark Meer is the better voice actor.

I can hear Jennifer Hale in every character she voices. It wasn't until just before the third game was released that I discovered that Mark Meer also voiced the Vorcha in the series.

Seems they are going to go for what I thought. An Ark sent away to a new Galaxy as a fall back option in case the Reapers won in the Milky Way.

As to the subject of the thread. I just can't get excited about Andromeda. It's not just Mass Effect 3 but everything Bioware have put out since ME2. The titles aren't bad but it is clear that they aren't making games for me any more, they want a different market.

That's fine and I wish the teams at Bioware great success in what they do. I just don't think I am going to be along for the ride.

 

[Asita]

Regarding the poll: My warped headcanon is that MaleShep and FemShep are fraternal twins with a running tally of how many times they "saved [the other's] ass".

Regarding Andromeda...not hyped. Ignoring for a minute that Bioware's lost a lot of good will since Dragon Age 2 released, Andromeda has given me nothing to really care about. For me the magic of Mass Effect was the worldbuilding. The technology, the cultures, the variant alien physiologies[footnote]Think a minute of the difference between the Turians, the Elcor, the Hanar, the Rachni, and the Thorian[/footnote], and the characters in general. What I've seen for Andromeda so far can only be described as vague, which leaves me decidedly uninvested at this point in time.

 

[Zhukov]

Meh.

I mean, it's alright. I like the tone too. But there's not much there, no matter how insanely hard Ms Hale's voice is yanking on my nostalgia chain.

1. Sure. It's a clean break from, well... you know. I'm aware that that will royally piss certain people off, but I think it's for the best. I refuse to get excited just because it bears the name of something I love. Although I suspect that once actual details start to emerge my credit card hard will start getting mighty twitchy.

2. Eh, I can enjoy many different tones. I just wish that, for fucking once, Bioware could break from formula. For all the shit they get, much of it deserved, I still believe they have something worth paying for. I mean, we all did play that Citadel DLC, right? Shit was solid gold. I would love to see what they could do if they could just have the balls to not rewrite the same damn game they've been making since goddamn KOTOR, or even BG2.

3...

...

You ever get the impression that a great deal of that particular flavour of bickering would just quietly fizzle out if more gamers were getting laid on a regular basis and/or having the occasional earnest conversation with someone of the opposite sex?

 

[Sniper Team 4]

If BioWare cheats and gives me a way to bring Shepard back/find Shepard, then I'm on board completely. Otherwise...look, the ending Mass Effect 3 just gutted all the joy I had for that series. I like to pretend that The Citadel DLC is the real ending, but part of my brain still knows that isn't the case. Going through all that work, getting to know all those characters, making all those decisions, and then to see it all amount to nothing is just disheartening. I honestly don't want to go through that again, and as such, the feelings I have toward Andromeda are nothing short of seeing an old ex-girlfriend, shaking your head, and walking away. Love is still there, you still hope it will work out, but the pain is too much of a wall to risk it again.

 

[StatusNil]

I don't celebrate "N7 Day", the real action was earlier in the week on N3rd Day. But anyway, it's amusing that after all the drawn-out killing off of Shepard they did, damn nearly the only thing that's Mass Effect and not Generic Space Nostalgia in this "trailer" is ol' Shep. BioWar plz!

1. Hell to the No. Not until they fix my ME3.

2. If I gave a damn, I think I'd be in a mood for something less grim and more adventurous than their misguided "all-out Galactic War" dramatics that distinguished 3 from its predecessors. But I can't make myself care.

3. Come to think of it, I am indeed. No offense to Ms. Hale, but I find the ubiquity of FemShep hype tiresome. People just don't appreciate the subtlety of Meer's performance because they're not as sophisticated as me, and that's the end of that argument. Also, MY Shepard was a dude. I'm aghast, AGHAST, that he doesn't get equal shilling time for Mass Effect: Plan 4 From Outer Space. I thought it was all about teh equality!

 

[Jute88]

1. I think I've stopped caring about the whole series.
2. A new galaxy would offer a new beginning, so I imagine something experimental would be in order.
3. The existence of Shepard's penis doesn't bother me one way or the other.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

God damn it.

This is still a sore spot after, what, 3-4 years? Man, did they ever fuck up.

Ahem.

1. This remains to be seen...they've really, reeeeally dropped the ball in recent years. ME3 was a rush job with a horrific excuse for an ending. Dragon Age Inquisition was pretty meh and they straight up lied to us about the PC version's (it was a port and a shitty one at that) quality. And SWTOR has one of the worst F2P models out there for any MMO.

So, like I said- it remains to be seen. They've got a hard sell in me and I absolutely fuckin' adored the first two games. I spent hundreds of hours playing Mass Effect 1 on the 360 back in college. I don't regret a moment of it either, since that title was glorious. Combat was a bit lackluster, but the world-building...the atmosphere...the sense of exploring the unknown...and a story that didn't shit the bed in its last 10 minutes make it a damned classic.

Mass Effect 2, giant terminator reaper boss aside, was probably the best balance between the three. Combat was overhauled and the story, the ESB facsimile that it was, served its purpose by being a bridge from one story arc to the next as well as a neat example of character-driven plot delivery.

Mass Effect 3 stripped more functionality out, reduced RPG elements even farther, cut out side quests almost entirely, and made the series retroactively worse with its ending. When the Multiplayer is the best part of your traditionally single player game, you've fucked up.

So...again...hard sell.

2. Exploration and combat need to make sweet love and give us a combination of ME 1's world-building and ME 2's combat. The Mako or something similar need to come back. And no fucking 11th hour subversion of two and a half game's worth of story beats. Dark? Fine. Maybe like a bit darker Star Trek with a decent chunk of levity to balance out the seriousness.

I was in it for the characters, the atmosphere, and the, well, neatness of it all. Bioware is capable of delivering on those things. We just have to see if they actually decide to bring their A game again or if those past accomplishments were the result of the labor of people who no longer work there.

3. I mainly played as FemShep, so it's not that big of a deal for me. I'm kind of surprised they didn't do two teasers, like they did for ME3's marketing material. One for each gender. Solves the "problem" pretty easily.

I'm mostly concerned with how this (what is essentially a cameo meant to exploit nostalgia for the good parts of the previous titles) has anything to do with the timeline. When and how would Shep even be delivering this speech?

Why are we only just now hearing about it? What wasn't it mentioned in 3 or any of its DLC?

Is Bioware just pulling this stuff out of its a-

Oh.

 

[freaper]

I'll wait and see. If they go for a slightly more contained, I guess militaristic space opera, without the Lovecraftian implications I might give it another shot.

I'm furious that FemShep doesn't have a penis. Won't somebody please think of the rule34?

 

[Elfgore]

1. Never had a fence to mend. I was more confused than anything else at the end of the third game. After replaying it a second time, I really had no problems with it.

2. Just focus on exploration and a general light-hearted tone and I'm good.

3. You know, you goading people into responding negatively to the fact Hale voiced the trailer than Meer is pretty much completely unneeded and just trying to cause trouble.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

There is only femshep, maleshep is a lie.

Very nice trailer, it did try very hard to rub the nostalgia thing on me; but it also succeeded with flying colors.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I can understand some people being annoyed, since I played only ME2 as Male Shep, but others play as Male Shep for three entire games, what with the carrying over and saves and all that. Lots of people are probably really attached to their male character. It certainly seems odd they wouldn't make a Male Shep version as they did for most trailers they had for the other ME games.

But in the end I dont give a fuck.

OT:

1. Yeah, why not. Didn't bother with ME3, loved ME2, so yeah, bring on some bigger and hopefully better Mass Effect games. Kinda weird that they bothered naming it 4, since they are doing their best to alienate it from the original trilogy.

2. Light. Sure, there has to be some dark, foreboding danger like in the previous games but I liked how colorful and humorous the old games were. I would like a bigger focus on the RPG aspect, the originals are great, amazing, games but in my opinion mediocre RGPs. I want some bigger world's to explore, and it looks like we might be getting just that.

3. As I said, I understand the "ferocity", but no, who gives a shit it was a very "meh" teaser anyway.

 

[Legion]

1 - Probably not. Not purely because I strongly disliked Mass Effect 3's writing, but also because after playing Inquisition I have very little faith in Bioware to make exciting games any more (yes I know they were different teams but they are still run by EA). I expect it to be a nice, safe and relatively dull game with a stereotypical plot and cast. And like the last three games it will probably be full of ham fisted dialogue that makes me embarrassed to listen to.

2 - If I were to change my mind after seeing it properly then I would want a similar tone to any of the previous games as the tone was never my issue.

3 - Most of my Shepards were female, so it doesn't bother me at all. Although I was never in love with Jennifer Hale's voice acting for FemShep.

 

[evilhippo]

1 - Probably not. Not purely because I strongly disliked Mass Effect 3's writing, but also because after playing Inquisition I have very little faith in Bioware to make exciting games any more (yes I know they were different teams but they are still run by EA). I expect it to be a nice, safe and relatively dull game with a stereotypical plot and cast. And like the last three games it will probably be full of ham fisted dialogue that makes me embarrassed to listen to.

2 - If I were to change my mind after seeing it properly then I would want a similar tone to any of the previous games as the tone was never my issue.

3 - Most of my Shepards were female, so it doesn't bother me at all. Although I was never in love with Jennifer Hale's voice acting for FemShep.

Amen, agree entirely. BioWare just isn't a very interesting outfit any more. They make by-the-numbers games for a stereotypical California audience. The only company that really gets me excited these days (and the *only* one I pre-order from) is CDProjektRed (Witcher, Cyberpunk2077)

Trailer left me cold and I am pretty much done with BioWare. I am very unlikely to buy any new ME games (and indeed I did not purchase any of the Inquisition DLCs as the game just didn't interest me enough).

 

[jklinders]

1- Definitely will give the game a whirl. The writing in 3 was...meh, and not just the ending but I still enjoyed myself and got my money's worth.

2- This is a whole new galaxy. If they do not have exploration as a strong theme, then they are doing it very very wrong. so that's what I am hoping for.

3- I never understood the whole maleshep vs femshep thing. I frankly felt that both VAs did a great job (though Meer clearly had to grow into the role, pretty sure he was hired as a placeholder for the first game and ended up getting the role for reals) so I am frankly appalled at the level of bile I see constantly directed about concerning this. As for being upset at who did the voice over for the trailer....no. If they wanted to hire Cthulu to be the voice over I still wouldn't be upset. It's promo material they can get whoever they want to do it.

 

[Terminal Blue]

1. My fences were never really broken, possibly because I never saw Mass Effect as some kind of pinnacle of story-driven gaming. The ending was a bit shit, but to me it's a pretty standard video game ending and, with the extended cut, was actually pretty above average for video game endings. Video games have never been good at closing a story, and anyone who expected Mass Effect to be the game that set the standard is probably deluding themselves about the overall quality of the product as a whole. It was good, it was an amusing passtime. It certainly wasn't the best thing ever.

2. See, everyone says exploration, but exploration is actually very boring as a gameplay mechanic. Exploration basically means walking around in a field looking at rocks and occasionally finding a slightly more interesting rock. It's a pretty poor substitute for a tight, constructed narrative story. Ultimately though, I'd like it to take a few more risks and perhaps make the protagonist (whoever they end up being) a little less powerful and decisive, as I think that's the biggest issue with Bioware's games right now. I mean, that's not going to happen because EA doesn't play dice, but it would be nice.

3. Nope.

 

[Darks63]

Sweet Now i really hope i can get a decent BF deal for a ps4 so i can get this when it comes out I love the ME games.


1. Yep i hope this ne has the ship esxploration like the 3 other games had with planetside exploration like in ME 1

2. Not sure about the tone really maybe be a bit like ME 1 where that stakes arent super high and you have a sense of adventure throughout.

3. Femshep is best shep

 

[Hawki]

Ugh.

The live action stuff, while neat by itself, feels completely out of place in a Mass Effect game. Also, I'd assumed up to this point that the idea of being in Andromeda was based on a survival plan in the event of the Reapers. Not that exploration is inherantly wrong (heck, the Mass Effect series is based heavily around it), but I'm left to ask why Andromeda needs to be explored when so much of the Milky Way is still unexplored in the context of the series itself.

And yes, I did notice that reference to Alien BioWare, thanks. But as for the game...well, to be honest, I'd actually feel this would be better being its own IP. Maybe not from a mercantile point of view, but under the premise that the game takes place in its own galaxy, with its own races, and is only tangentily connected to the previous games, I have to ask, what's distinguishing it from being its own setting?

But overall, net positive.