For many, Mass Effect: Andromeda was and still is a bitter disappointment. The title launched back near the end of March, and it was met with largely lukewarm reviews and an absolute thrashing from gamers across the internet. Almost three months later and it's barely being talked about anymore. To put it bluntly, Andromeda has been nothing short of a disaster - but how did it actually end up like this? In a revealing report on the game's development, Kotaku sheds light on what went wrong - and boy, did a lot go wrong.
Speaking to members of BioWare's development team who wish to remain anonymous, the publication breaks down Andromeda's seriously troubled production cycle. One of the key points here is that the project went through numerous drastic overhauls before it was shaped into the game that we know today. Initially, the release had a lot in common with No Man's Sky - before No Man's Sky had even been announced. Procedurally generated planets and full space exploration were in the works, but according to the report, BioWare just couldn't find a way to make its gameplay systems "fun". It sounds like the studio couldn't quite squeeze an engaging narrative into the procedurally generated galaxy, either.
Supposedly, it took way too long for the developer to get a grip on the project. What's more, it really struggled with the Frostbite engine at times - an issue that was compounded by a lack of resources and understaffed teams. Basically, just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and the Andromeda that eventually shipped was slapped together within a relatively short space of time.
The report makes it seem like the project was never able to find stable ground, and we can certainly believe that based on our experiences with the finished release. It feels awkwardly glued together in places, and it definitely doesn't boast the kind of polish that you'd expect of a AAA title. We imagine that going through all of this must have been an absolute nightmare for many at BioWare Montreal.
Does any of this come as a surprise to you? What are your thoughts on Andromeda after reading the report? Ponder the future of Mass Effect in the comments section below.
[source kotaku.co.uk]
Comments 28
Christ had it been 3 months already?!.
C'mon though it wasn't a "disaster", it didn't live up to expectations yeah but in no way was it a disaster. I enjoyed it, not as much as I expected or as 2 or 3 but a lot more than I did the first game.
And, why do people keep comparing it to NMS?, Hello Games basically sold people lies with their info and promo vids, Andromeda done what was said of it just not to everyone's expectations.
Too focused on stupid sh*t like identity politics and creating in-game relationships and not on simply making a good freaking video game. Hopefully Bioware learns from this and is better for it. But the Bioware under EA's umbrella is not the awesome studio it was when it mostly collaborating with Microsoft.
Rest in peace, Mass Effect (the trilogy, not Andromeda, hang that out for everyone to see and make an example out of.)
@itshoggie I think Jesus had little to do with it.
Apparently bioware edmonton shut down a lot of bioware montreal ideas and anyone who didnt fall in line was placed on a "performance improvement program" I don't know the details but it was a system designed to get people to quit. Apparently turn over was exceedingly high at montreal but both studios bleed talent.
Despite what anyone says it is and always will be a proverbial train wreck and a grave disappointment in my opinion. A final nail in the coffin for me ever picking up another game from a developer that I had loved since KOTOR can't be called anything but.
I hope they still continue to make things for their fans, but as far as I'm concerned, and a lot of people it seems, Bioware isn't held in the same esteem and I will be approaching any of their games with indifference and nothing but morbid curiosity.
Also I read the article. It was a really good read!
The game is just so incredibly boring.
Its not ME Trilogy........but I'm still loving it. Im glad I eventually shrugged off the haters' opinions of it last weekend and grabbed it. Having a great time playing
The trust is gone now.
What stinks is that even though this isn't 100% Montreal's fault--they were just following marching orders--they take the blame within the company.
And the lesson is, don't make a crap game.
Surprise - I think we could all see that coming...
Throughout ME:A development, we kept hearing that 'significant' people had left the studio and EA kept 'reassuring' fans that 'development' was on track, not affected - the usual PR BS.
I am sure I said weeks ago that it looks like they had issues with Frostbite. It looked like they ported characters etc in from their old engine. The Worlds though looked great and showed off what Frostbite can bring but it looks like characters were a lot more difficult for them.
Things they got right were the Nomad and Combat. I know some may prefer the more corridor based combat of previous games as opposed to the more open and freeform nature of this but it still delivers on what they set out to deliver. The Nomad feels a lot better than the Mako.
Built on a 'low' budget (for a game like this), in a short time, by a team that was changing and adapting to a new engine - its almost a wonder how it turned out as well as it did... It could have been a lot worse...
My god, Bioware used to be such an amazing studio, just look at their work on Neverwinter Nights and KOTOR. Heck, even the Dragon Age series were pretty awesome but then came EA and turned this studio into a mess. Can we say that it's all EA's fault? Of course not. But they clearly had a hand in it.
And yet, they still released it.
Speaking as someone who often works on large projects, they really should have shut down and restarted but clearly, because of the money invested, a deadline had to be met and I suspect that EA and the powers that be knew they had an issue with the game.
Personally I think it was released deliberately in a poor state and they hoped that brand loyalty would get enough revenue to cover some of the dev cost and they could then restructure. The swiftness that they reorganised after release suggests to me that the poor reception was not a surprise.
@Gamer83 Identity politics is in no way related to the failing of this game. BioWare and EA took arisk by being overly ambitious. That didn't work out and they decided that, instead of rebooting the project, just publish a game as fast as possible.
If they hadn't announced the game so early, things might have gone totally different. That seems to be the lesson to take from all this.
Procedural planets?
It's mass effect not galaxZ, Bio ware really need to look back at what made them a class act rather than the laughing stock of today. Tight stories, neat writing, great systems and complex chatacters.
After reading the articles, I think making all your game on one single engine is a bad idea, no wonder I found bioware game is so stiff animation-wise in this generation, frostbite engine is not made for animation, it's made for sprawling online map filled with a lot of player. It's really really good for what it is (battlefield 1 running 60 fps on old ps4 is amazing), but it is not made for rpg genre.
@Gamer83 I think kotaku mean company politics rather than in-game politics, like who's getting the most budget, staff, time, etc.
@itshoggie No, the actual game isn't that bad, but BioWare Montreal got scaled down and the series is now on indefinite hold. I think that qualifies as a disaster no matter how you look at it.
@itshoggie Yeah it was just a mess with a lot of bugs nothing to see here.If Horizon would have done the same you would probably be all over it though..... It was a mediocre game made me not buy it.
@Flaming_Kaiser I played through the whole game and only came across like 2-3 bugs. The same amount I would in any game tbh.
The game was just OK. Coming off of the trilogy though, I expected more than just OK. It seems like a clear lack of focus and direction early on just snowballed into cuts, changes, and an entirely new direction. It seems like the majority of the 5 years was experimenting with ideas that didn't work out, and the game felt rushed when they finally settled on what sort of game they wanted to make. The unfortunate thing now is that the series is shelved.
Gah! That article just makes we more distraught about what could've been! I mean, I FREAKIN' LOVE the premise of the game and how it ties into the original trilogy, but otherwise I'm just CONSTANTLY distracted the short time I've played so far about all the things they should've done differently.
@itshoggie you need to read again, the comparison with no man sky's is because the game was intended to be like no man sky's with procedural generated planets.
And we can like everything as long as we make an effort to like something or don't have standards.
@Gamer83 EA destroy everything they touch.
Now put EA + SJWs and you have the recipe for a catastrophe.
I'm never going to play Andromeda. From everything I've heard it's not exactly essential to the series. I see it as being like the original star wars trilogy, with ME:A being a sort of "Eewoks Caravan of Courage". It's a shame, but not something I'll lose sleep over.
Still, I can't say that the SJWs had a hand in ruining it. I dislike SJWs as Much as the next attack helicopter, but the shoehorned "diversity" was just a very small peanut in a very large turd.
@VRDart I know it says that in the article but, it's been compared to NMS a lot on this site.
I haven't got around to play Andromeda yet because of Persona 5 - I am sure it will end sooner or later - but from what I've seen at friend's it didn't seem that terrible... The report is very interesting though!
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