http://www.gamesradar.com/you-can-now-play-the-first-ten-hours-of-mass-effect-andromeda-for-free/

maybe i'll give this game a chance

Might just do that. That's a whole mess o' ... ffect? Mess o' ffect. Yeah, I'll go with that.

Eh. Might as well. Maybe Ms. My Face Is Tired is a bit more awake by now.

It's a trap!

I paid 60$ for it at launch and have yet to play more than 10hrs...

I pre-ordered and then traded it in after about the first 6 hours. Bummer.

I gave it a shot. The eyes and facial animations still look weird. The dialogue is not great either from what I've seen. The combat and the graphics for the planet areas are great. I'll play it eventually but not at the price it is now.

Having bought the game recently for $20 new... maybe you shouldn't play the first 10 hours of Mass Effect Andromeda regardless of how much it costs.

Yep...

Ah yes the first 10 horrible hours.

How long does a speedrun take on easy?

http://www.speedrun.com/masseffectandromeda

I can't say I see much point in it. I played it after its first (or maybe second) major patch and the problems with that game weren't fixable.

It's not as though it's a game that has a particularly strong open past the very first mission. But I guess they figure they'll get more sales from people who've been scared off than they'll lose from people who were waiting for a discount and will get turned off by what they see.

Haha, I was thinking the same thing... only worse. I think this is just a repeat of the "10 hours of Mass Effect: Andromeda" offer they gave out on EA Access pre-launch that only let you get so far as the entry for the Eos Vault, which is about three to four hours in depending on how much dialogue you skip.

That is literally the worst part of the game, which is saying something. You're stuck with Cora and Liam for most of it, and they're god awful companions. The prologue is dialogue and exposition heavy, which is horrendous thank to excruciatingly poor writing, laughable lip-syncing, ghastly animations, and a rather insipid story. Oh, and you are missing most of the powers and passive bonuses that come later in the game (along with less squishy companions), so the combat is not anything to write home about either. It's a lamentable first impression that portends miseries yet to come while failing to hint at the few redeemable features lurking in the darkness.

Even my work pals who were diehard Mass Effect: Andromeda apologists said that doing their new game plus playthroughs was awkward and jarring. They had forgotten how horrible the first few hours were after hours of wandering around open worlds double jumping and shooting stuff.

Oh well. *shrug* This is kind of funny, I guess.

@fredchuckdave: That's probably the most humorous part of ME:A. You can actually complete it quite fast, and unlike ME2 the consequences for doing so are extremely minor. That's probably why people like me who clocked in ~40 hour >95% completion playthroughs felt so underwhelmed by the cliffhanger conclusion. Especially in light of how they canned the single player DLC, nevermind any sequel. Mass Effect: Andromeda may go down in gaming history as a case study in why you don't write games assuming you'll get a trilogy at the outset.

I liked this game, and I was a lucky one I guess where I didn't get the array of glitches some others did. The biggest issue for me is that the game does the open world sin of giving you filler content that doesn't have much impact and is simply not that interesting beyond fetch questing around a map. It's just going back and forth from one place to another without much satisfaction in the end. I did just about everything in the game side mission-wise so it took about 110 hours (ten of those after I finished the story). And everything around it wasn't as good as previous iterations of Bioware games like the Mass Effect trilogy or Dragon Age, which is why I think Dragon Age Inquisition is a better game despite its similarity to side content; in that game, it was somewhat of a negligible issue for me. The game is very cliche in terms of what Bioware does, so while I enjoyed even those aspects, it wasn't new and it was predictable. The way the story beats worked, the character archetypes. The soundtrack was good, but not memorable, so much so I don't even care to fully listen to it on YouTube which I like to do with game soundtracks I enjoy.

The mission that gets the most flack probably had my favorite track, which was Drack's companion mission (I had no glitches in it). The biggest glitches I remember getting was Peebee's door not loading and even once falling off into the dark abyss as I held forward waiting for her door to open; it opened one time, but nothing was there so I fell and died. I'm not sure if it was a glitch or just bad design, but there was also a point where there's a side mission that deals with a bounty hunter. His base is right next to a Kett base; I walked down near both and got the attention of the Kett, I ran into and talked to the bounty hunter and the Kett came behind me as I talked to him and as the conversation was going the Kett kept shooting me and in the end I died. That nearly happened again later in the game. There was also a few time where enemies would be floating in the mid air. In the end, I enjoyed it enough, but unfortunately not enough to even add it in my top ten, or the want to. Now that they aren't going to have DLC for it, and perhaps not even make a sequel it really ruins the motivation to ever download it again and play it.

It didn't live up to its predecessors and has some obvious problems, but I still think the MEA hate was overblown and silly. No game really deserves all that hate, but IMO - MGS5, Destiny, and a couple games are more "hate worthy" than MEA. I'm pretty sure this site gave Ghost Recon: Wildlands a higher score than MEA, which I'd also highly disagree with. Ghost Recon wasn't awful, but there was nothing all that good or memorable about it. MEA does have good gameplay, graphics (besides faces), and some of the best alien environments I've ever seen in a game. The story has some interesting beats, but nothing compared to ME2 or ME3. I'd put MEA over the last Dragon Age, which I also liked.

Smart move on EA's part. A ton of people saw this as a potential awesome game that turned into a trainwreck. Being able to spend a good chunk of time with the game for free might open people up to continue playing , because even if it's heavily flawed, it's still a Mass Effect game.

No thanks!

I have played about an hour, but I don't think I'll be going back. If anything, this actually cost EA a sale, because I would have bought it at the current 50% discount they're offering on Origin.

I own this game it is disgustingly bad.A waste of 10 hours for sure.

There was a lot of focus on the way the game looked, but for me the biggest issues were the dislikable characters and pretty uninspired plot. No amount of patching is going to fix that. I'm tempted to go mod crazy and play the first 3 on the PC again at some point, which seems like a way better use of my time!

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME ON THIS, LIKE I DID !

I'd humbly disagree. :-P

As for Mass Effect: Andromeda having a lower grade than Ghost Recon: Wildlands on this site, the latter actually launched in a functional state and didn't require half a dozen major patches to remove game breaking glitches. It was an average Ubisoft open world game that knew what it was trying to do and, by and large, did it. Hence the 3 out of 5 "average" score here.

By comparison, this video does not denote an "average" game:

Yeah, ME:A patched a bunch of stuff like this over the past six months... but those patches didn't exist during the review process, and those patches didn't exist for the million or so unlucky consumers who bought this on launch day. I think they earned that 2 out of 5.

Skip to 5:40 to bask in the AAA quality. There's a reason why Ghost Recon: Wildlands is the one of these two games that didn't have to cancel its single player DLC.

I was given a free, unopened copy... Its been sitting in the plastic wrap for about 3 weeks and
I haven't even tried it....

Nah I'm good, got enough unplayed good games from this year to go and waste 10 hours on a bad one.

@deathstriker: I guess what you're saying is that MGS5 and Destiny also commit the sin of failing to deliver story and trying to make up for it with open world gameplay that can last for hours. On its surface that claim has validity, but it really gives ME:A's combat too much credit and on the story side of things, it downplays just how much time you're spending putting up with that terrible story. Both of those games are best described as having an addictive gameplay loop with a lacking story built around them. There's nothing addictive about ME:A's gameplay. It's totally okay, but does not deserve to be put side by side with those other games.

Sure, a game like Destiny (the base package, mostly) is guilty of having a few incomprehensible cutscenes and an impenetrable storyline that attempts to disguise being totally lacking in direction as actually being "less is more" storytelling. But those cutscenes probably take about 20 minutes put together. ME:A forces you to endure the bad for so long. And outside of the reams of flat dialogue, you have to listen to your crew members converse, each pairing having an earnest conversation that results in compassionate understanding that evolves over the course of about 10 minutes. It made me want to play the open world sections with the sound off.

And lastly, there's the music. MGS5 and Destiny both have plenty going on music-wise. For a series known for some pretty well-remembered tracks, surprisingly little ink has been spilled about how little effort ME:A went to fill its vast, empty spaces. With anything at all going on in the background. Hell, I'm pretty sure the only ambient sound it even has is created by enemies dropping in at convenient times and taking shots at you.

Booted up Origin and dusted off ME:A ....

Heh.

They really dropped the ball that's for sure. Surprised it released like this.

Whatever, hyperbole aside try the game out and see if it's worth it to you. I played 10 hours of the game (mostly multiplayer) with the origina pass thing and ended up buying it, single player didn't seem to get much better (granted i didn't get far) but the multiplayer was still worth playing for a while. Besides maybe the ps4 version the game doesn't seem to perform that bad, and i didn't get much of any issues on the pc version. I think the game is a solid 30/20/15$ purchase respectively

Well I was going to, and then I saw it was 47 Gigs

I dunno if I want to delete games I actually like off my hard drive to be able to play one I probably won't (to see if I will).

I value 10 hours of my time more than that.

As a person who loves Mass Effect 2 at least as much as Vinny, I shock even myself with this attitude.

My issue is with how badly it did we have no guarantee we are ever gonna see reciprocation for the time spent on this game. I dont even think the game is that bad but I dont know if I want to invest in the first part of a trilogy that never has the other two parts.

In saying that, the game is far less awful than the internet as a whole has said with a lot of the issues patched so if you are interested maybe give it a try.

10 hours i couldn't even make it past 2....

The dumb thing about that is it says its 47GB's and you have to have 47GB's free but the download is only 13GB for this demo. Bit of a dick move on their part.

The first 10 hours of Andromeda are the worst hours of an already abysmal video game. All that is going to do is confirm any slight suspicions people have that this game is garbage.

I ended up really liking the combat, put the difficulty up and mostly enjoyed 100+ hours of it. The characters & story haven't been memorable at all, which is what I want from Bioware :(

The hate seems way exaggerated here though? It's worth trying for free, there are some good highs in the game - you can tell the sections where the most time & effort was spent - and the combat has quite a lot of variety and felt good.

Just started playing it. The facial animations are still garbage. Gameplay is pretty smooth, shooting is a little stiff though. I'll probably play a a few more hours when I feel like, characters are just so lame though. Not a single likeable one right off the bat, especially that chick with the lesbian haircut and huge shoulders, yuck.

Can the game be beat in 9 hrs and 55 minutes? If not, I don't think I'll play this train wreck.

Well, I won't try to bash into the wave here but I guess there is something to be said for covering all opinions: I really like Andromeda. It does some things better than any other game does. It really drew me in and I will keep playing it (until War of the Chosen comes out).

It does not. Pause screen does count though.

What are they? I seriously, genuinely want to know. My 72 hours (had to double-check, it's way more than I thought) with the game will tell you that I really badly wanted to like the new Mass Effect. Which aspects clicked for you?

If I had to pick something I enjoyed in Andromeda, I think it would be the the impact of the familial relationships. I liked actually getting to see Ryder, Drack, and Vetra's families as opposed to just hearing about them (like with Shepard, Garrus, or Ash). The visuals on the Scourge were neat; and some aspects of the companion missions were cool.

@bawbalewie1314: It's just the pre order shit where you can only do the first planet.

I totally was down for speedrunning the game; actually looks reasonably fun totally ignoring the plot/characters/world design and just boosting everywhere/clipping through doors. Too bad EA, lost one free customer.

@freedom4556: I have never felt so good when exploring a planet as in Andromeda. No Man's Sky is nothing compared to it. I think the game looks gorgeous during these times and I was frequently just walking/biotic dashing/driving past sections I had already cleared just to look at them again.

I was born a hundred years too early. I want to explore space. Actual space. Actual planets. Andromeda is the closest I have come to that yet.

(It also helps that it has the best gameplay out of any Mass Effect game so far).

EA must be really desperate.

No thank you.

$20 CDN at bestbuy.ca

They should put the multiplayer out for free. It's great. If they did that and kept supporting it with content that would make them money I think. I fell off of it because it really hardly got any additional maps after only launching with 4. If new maps and characters were coming out I'd still play.

I agree with you. Parts of the game are really good. I think the combat is really great (far better than any previous ME) and it can be beautiful and fun to run around in.

It's also free of charge to dunk your head in a toilet...

@artisanbreads: @zevvion: You reminded me, when EA sent out their post-launch Andromeda opinion survey, I said my favorite planet was H-047c (where you go for Vetra's loyalty mission). The low-G driving and awesome skybox made me actually feel like I was on a moon in a rover. I was disappointed there was no low-G foot combat, though; why was gravity normal in the domes? Still, one of those few moments I felt like I was actually on another world.